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Mrs. Spangler in the Middle | Language Arts For Grades 6-8

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Supporting IEP and ESL Students in the English Language Arts Classroom

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Mar 14, 2018 - During one of our weekly #2ndaryELA Twitter chats, we focused on strategies for teaching students who are English Language Learners as well as students who are on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Teachers shared their

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5 Strategies for Teaching Sight Words to ELLs

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Nov 10, 2020 - Ideas for teaching sight words to English Language Learners. Help your ELLs master these difficult to spell and read words in context.

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Teaching students to speak, read and write English has always been challenging. But the challenges are worthwhile when it is clear that students are learning and succeeding. Toward this goal, authors Katharine Davies Samway and Dorothy Taylor offer several strategies at grades 6 to 12 and grades K to 5 that will help you tackle the day-to-day job of bringing comprehension to students who are struggling to master a second language.
Here are four suggestions based on teacher questions for grades K to 5 ELL students. My ELL student doesn't pay attention when I'm giving directions.
ELL students often become accustomed to tuning out of classroom
conversations, especially when they are not actively engaged in learning.
The best way to get them to tune back in is to actively involve them.
Most of the strategies for understanding directions require some kind
of action on the part of the student. In the following strategies, students are actively involved.

Targeted Strategy 1: Assess background knowledge.
Elicit from students what they already know about the activity before
beginning to give directions. If the ELL student has a general idea of what
he or she is supposed to be doing, it will be easier to follow directions or
instructions. For example, if students are expected to read information or
watch a video about Martin Luther King, Jr., and make a timeline about his
life, hold up a picture of him, and ask students if they know who he is. Write
his name and other facts contributed by the students on the board.

Targeted Strategy 2: Model steps and the final product.
Show students what you expect them to do and what a finished product, or
similar finished product, should look like. In the example of the Martin
Luther King, Jr., timeline mentioned above, after eliciting information about
him, add dates to some of the facts. Draw a timeline on the board, and
demonstrate how dates and facts can be added to it. Then ask a couple of
students to come to the board and add more dates and facts.

Targeted Strategy 3: Introduce jigsaw listening.
Jigsaw listening is an activity in which each student has only one part of a
set of directions and must work with a group to construct the complete set
(Gibbons, 2002). The directions can be provided through pictures, in writing,
by the teacher, or on audiotape. For example, if students are conducting an
experiment with Queen Anne's lace to investigate how flowers store water,
each student can be given one of the following directions on a slip of paper:

Take a flower from the vase on the table.
Take a container from the table and fill it with water
Take a bottle of food coloring from the table.
Put four drops of food coloring in the container.
Put the flower in the container.
Write your group's name on the container with a marker.

Each student then reads his or her direction as the others listen.
Then students discuss the best way to put the directions in order. The activity
can only be completed through a combination of listening and following each
student's directions
.
Targeted Strategy 4: Craft activities.
Craft activities, such as making corn husk dolls when studying colonial life,
or tissue paper fish for Chinese New Year, provide a here-and-now focus for
listening, and the finished product provides a strong motivation for listening
carefully to instructions.

Here are five suggestion based on a question from an ELL teacher with students at grades 6 and above:
My ELL students understand me when I talk about things that they are familiar with, but they look totally lost when I teach abstract ideas or unfamiliar content.
Targeted Strategy 1: Preteach or provide background information.
Bring in pictures or objects to help students understand key vocabulary and
concepts prior to beginning a unit. For example, an ESL teacher we know
did the following with her ELL students prior to beginning a unit on the
Jamestown colony:

Showed the students a map of the world.
Helped students locate England and Virginia, and wrote these place
names on chart paper.
On the map of the world, moved pictures of ships from England to
Jamestown, while talking about events surrounding this movement.
Showed pictures of the English settlers-again, writing important words
on the chart paper (John Smith, John Rolfe, James River, settlement, settlers)
Had a conversation with students about how they had come to
North America.
Asked students to compare their arrival to the arrival of the English settlers.

Targeted Strategy 2: Use pictorial input charts.
The teacher introduces a topic (for example, volcanoes, photosynthesis,
westward movement) through talking while drawing a picture in front of the
students (a pictorial input chart). In this way, students have access to both
auditory and visual input.

Targeted Strategy 3: Introduce hands-on activities.
Hands-on activities help ELL students acquire knowledge and vocabulary,
and can help enormously in the development of reading and writing skills.
Hands-on learning can also be used for assessment purposes by enabling
teachers to measure both factual knowledge and comprehension. See Figure
2.3 for hands-on subject-area projects and activities that have proven to be
particularly helpful in supporting ELLs.

Targeted Strategy 4: Allow time for pair shares and table talks.
It is very important to provide time for students to talk with a partner or in
small groups about what they have just learned. For a lesson on the Amazon,
for example, the teacher might begin by holding up a picture of the Amazon
jungle and asking, What do you see here? Subsequent pair-share questions or
table discussions could focus on Which animals are you familiar with? What
kind of place is this? Where might we see a jungle like this? Why are there so many
plants in the jungle?

Targeted Strategy 5: Use charts and graphic organizers.
Charts and graphic organizers, such as KWLH (What I Know, What I Want
to Learn, What I Learned, and How I Learned What I Learned), Venn diagrams,
and timelines help students focus their listening. For example, students
watching a video about the Amazon jungle can complete a KWLH chart
prior to watching the video, and then complete a Venn diagram after they have watched it.

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Teaching English Language Learners: Strategies that Work | Scholastic

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Teaching students to speak, read and write English has always been challenging. But the challenges are worthwhile when it is clear that students are learning and succeeding. Toward this goal, authors Katharine Davies Samway and Dorothy Taylor offer several strategies at grades 6 to 12 and grades K to 5 that will help you tackle the day-to-day job of bringing comprehension to students who are struggling to master a second language.

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Mathematics is sometimes regarded as a "universal language," as it is grounded in abstract concepts such as numbers and shapes. And there is some truth to that! After all, two people who speak different languages may still be able to solve the same math problem and get the same solution. However, language is nevertheless essential for teaching math, as mathematics is inextricably linked to the language in which it is taught.

Proficiency in any language relies on two factors: language comprehension and language production. When it comes to teaching math to ELL students, we can look closely across lessons and consider, "What is the language load at this moment? Comprehension or production?" Then we can leverage targeted strategies to promote academic language development while also deepening mathematical understanding.

Students learning English carry a different cognitive load when they are also learning mathematics. What follows are ELL strategies for math that lighten the students' cognitive load so that they can show mathematical understanding while you maintain rigor in the lesson.

A note on language: we employ the common phrase English language learner, along with the acronym ELL, but we also recognize that this is imperfect nomenclature. Students who are learning English do not fit neatly into a single label.

ELL Strategies for Math: Language Comprehension

1: Use Routines That Break Down Word Problems

Word problems present an especially tough problem to students learning English. They're hard enough for students who are further along in their English language development! Word problems demand that the reader parse plenty of non-mathematical vocabulary such as names, objects, jobs, and places.

Mathematics instruction will always include word problems, as that is how to articulate complex mathematical situations. Strategies like Three Reads, Stronger and Clearer Each Time, and Compare and Connect help break down the context of a problem and guide students in focusing on one aspect of the language at a time.

2: Focus on Mathematical Vocabulary

Learning mathematics is so much more than learning mathematical vocabulary. Spend time on the words.

For multilingual learners, vocabulary can sometimes be an entryway into the math. Students may have existing notions about words such as product, times, and one, for example, and by discussing them, you are connecting about ideas on both language and mathematics. Your students will help you learn other languages as you help them learn math, a symbiotic relationship.

Provide vocabulary instruction upfront both for mathematical vocabulary and non-mathematical vocabulary that appears in word problems students will confront in the lesson. Vocabulary instruction involves more than just reviewing definitions. It can include playing vocabulary games, reading math readers, and using tools such as word banks.

What would engage your students, regardless of language? Think about what sports they play, music they listen to, TV shows they watch, food they eat, or holidays they celebrate (to name a few). If you can draw on your students' cultural knowledge, you can open paths to engage them even when language serves as a temporary barrier.

Look for ways to modify contexts of word problems and possible bridges between math that they understand and the content you're trying to teach. Position your students as mathematically competent regardless of how well they can articulate their reasoning in English. If you can, let them make up their own word problems! Then you learn more about what is familiar to them.

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7 Strategies for Teaching Math to Students Who Are Learning English

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These ELL strategies for math instruction will help you with teaching math to English language learners and supporting math learning for multilingual students.

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Over 10 percent of students in the United States-more than 4.8 million kids-are English language learners (ELLs), and the number is on the rise. Though these students do not learn differently than their native-English-speaking peers, they do have particular educational needs.

To learn about these needs-and best practices for addressing them-I interviewed a range of educators and observers, including Larry Ferlazzo, an educator and author of The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide; longtime teachers of English as a second language (ESL) Emily Francis and Tan Huynh; and the journalist Helen Thorpe, who spent a year observing a teacher who works with ELLs.

The group emphasized that the strategies listed here, which include both big-picture mindsets and nitty-gritty teaching tactics, can be incorporated into all classrooms, benefiting both native English speakers and ELLs.

1. Cultivate Relationships and Be Culturally Responsive

No surprise here. A successful classroom, our educators agreed, is one in which students feel known, appreciated, and comfortable taking emotional and intellectual risks. That requires intentional planning and consistent messaging by the teacher.

Emily Francis, an ESL teacher in Concord, North Carolina, makes clear that she wants her students to "embrace their culture and their language as a foundation of who they are" and to consider their acquisition of a new culture and language "not as subtractive, but as additive." To help support students who may never have attended school before or may be coping with migration-based trauma, Francis emphasizes that little things make a big difference. "The first thing that I need to think about is, how is my student feeling in my classroom?" she says. "Are they sitting next to a buddy they can ask a question in their home language? Do they feel comfortable tapping me on the shoulder if they have to go to the bathroom?"

But creating a supportive environment is also about cultivating an appreciation of diversity-it's critical that both the curriculum and the classroom environment honor and reflect the lives of the students. For instance, Francis makes certain that her classroom library is reflective of her students' diverse backgrounds and identities.

ESL teacher Katie Toppel, who teaches near Portland, Oregon, champions the value of home visits to get to know students' families and takes care to incorporate the particulars of students' lives, such as pets' names and favorite sports, into lessons. Students are most engaged when they feel a personal connection to a lesson or unit, a connection that's created in part by a teacher's investment in culturally competent relationships.

2. Teach Language Skills Across the Curriculum

English language learners should not be learning the fundamentals of English in isolation; they should be applying their developing language skills to rich academic content in all subjects.

"It is key that in mainstream classrooms, teachers understand their role as language teachers," says Valentina Gonzalez, a district leader in Katy, Texas, suggesting that all teachers should be aware of the specialized idiom they work within. "If we teach math, then we teach the language of mathematics. If we teach science, then we teach the language of science." Math teachers, in other words, should take the time to teach the unfamiliar vocabulary of mathematics- add, subtract, calculator, solve -concurrently with the teaching of math skills.

3. Emphasize Productive Language

The educators I interviewed agreed that productive language skills-hard-to-master dimensions of language fluency like speaking and writing-should be front and center from day one, even if students feel hesitant about them.

Beginning ELLs often develop receptive language skills like listening and reading first. Educators who are unaware of the typical path to fluency may believe that students who can follow verbal or written directions will be able to produce oral or written language, but that's usually not the case.

To support reluctant speakers, Tan Huynh, an educator who blogs at Empowering ELLs, suggests using sentence frames. "For example, when a science teacher wants ELLs to produce a hypothesis, they might offer the sentence, 'If _____ was added, then _____ because _____.' This sentence frame provides clues that empower ELLs to sound and think like scientists," Huynh says.

Andrea Honigsfeld, a professor of education at Molloy College in Rockville, New York, suggests that all lessons touch on every letter of the acronym SWIRL, which stands for Speak, Write, Interact, Read, Listen. The approach intentionally privileges productive language skills "from the beginning," she says.

4. Speak Slowly-and Increase Your Wait Time

Easier said than done. Still, many of the teachers I spoke to said this simple change is vital. You can record yourself speaking in class to measure your cadence, and adjust.

"Adding in an extra three to five seconds after we pose a question offers all students time to think," explains Gonzalez. "However, for English learners, it also gives time to translate, process their thinking, translate back into English, and develop the courage to answer. If we call on students too quickly, many of our students will stop thinking about the answers-or trying to answer at all."

That means undoing some of our own habits, according to Larry Ferlazzo, a high school ESL teacher in Sacramento, California. "Researchers have found that typically most teachers give one to two seconds between asking a question and expecting a student response," he says. "The same researchers have shown that if you wait three to five seconds, the quality of responses is astronomically greater."

5. Differentiate-and Use Multiple Modalities

All kids learn better when they engage with material in multiple ways: Lessons that involve writing, speaking, drawing, and listening, for example, give students four opportunities to deepen their understanding of the work. For ELLs, those additional engagements also provide a little breathing room so they can work through the language barrier.

Helen Thorpe, a journalist who spent a year observing Eddie Williams's classroom in Denver in order to write a book about immigrants called The Newcomers, marveled at Williams's method of differentiation. "Eddie would enunciate very clearly in English multiple times, he would write it on the board, and he would go to the projector to give a visual. And, finally, he'd be asking the kids to verbalize aspects of the lesson themselves," she says, tracing Williams's efforts to move his students from receptive to productive language fluency.

Toppel uses a strategy called QSSSA to scaffold classroom discussions with ELLs. The letters stand for Question (the teacher poses a question, then gives ample think time); Signal (a designated motion like a thumbs-up, a finger on the nose-something that lets students indicate that they're ready to answer); Stem (the teacher provides a sentence starter for the question-for example, for "What is your favorite place to read a book?" the stem might be, "My favorite place to read a book is _____"); Share; and Assess.

6. Incorporate Students' Native Languages-and Don't Be Afraid of Technology

Bilingualism is the goal, of course, not replacement.

Ferlazzo uses a strategy called "preview, view, review," which leverages a student's native language skills as a foundation for learning the new language. He introduces a topic and encourages students to preview it in materials in their home language (often using multilingual videos and other online resources); he then teaches the topic in English, and then has students review the information in their home language.

Ferlazzo also encourages teachers to embrace technologies that students find helpful, like Google Translate. He stresses that the app can be a useful way for students to translate words quickly-but warns that it can quickly "become a dependency" if it's used as more than a handy dictionary.

Thorpe agrees that Translate can take pressure off teachers, who sometimes find that they "just stand at the front of the room and say things over and over. And if the kids didn't know what those words are, they're out of luck." Translation technology means you can say it once (or twice) and let the students use the technology to translate key words and phrases.

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6 Essential Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners

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We interviewed educators with decades of experience in teaching ELLs and tapped a network of experts and observers to find the strategies that work.

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Working Together to Close the Gap

Creating true equity and delivering it to every student: that's the objective of educational reform across the country. But such an enormous and complex task must be accomplished one classroom at a time, and one student a time.

School and district leaders are currently faced with the difficult task of reforming practices that have contributed to "the learning gap," in which underserved students, students of color, English language learners, students with disabilities, students in foster care, transient students, and many other disadvantaged groups, are less likely to succeed in reading, among other skills crucial to success later in life.

To close the gap, the focus on equality (treating every student the same) must be replaced with work to promote equity (ensuring every student has the resources and attention they need).

What Is the Achievement Gap?

This gap takes many forms, but basically it's the variation in performance between what students are expected to have learned and what they actually have learned and mastered to date. When students are grouped together by race, gender, or socioeconomic status, and compared in terms of academic achievement, persistent gaps and disparities can be observed and measured.

How Can We Close the Gap?

Because the achievement gap is reflected differently in each setting and each relationship, the only real way to close the gap is by attending directly to the individual needs of each and every student. To work toward fixing the widespread inequities and disparities that are manifested across our schools and classrooms, each student needs the attention and encouragement required to help them perform at the level they're uniquely capable of reaching.

The tips we describe below are starting points. A single teacher can't close the achievement gap alone. But any teacher can accomplish growth and improvement within the bounds of each relationship they build with a student. Each teacher, each school, each leader, each district can begin the work of counteracting and transforming the performance disparity, each day.

Try These Tips to Help Close the Gap

Here are a few tried-and-true methods for effectively closing the achievement gap:

1. Spend Time: The more a student is struggling, the more time they may need with their instructor. Instruction offered to struggling students should be explicit, scaffolded, and targeted to each student's needs, which can require more time, increased intensity, more repetition, greater detail, and more frequency of instruction. Allow students to also take time to reflect upon what they've learned or upon the process of learning it.

2. Track Progress: What are students doing well? Where do teachers need to focus attention? Formative assessments help teachers monitor and analyze student progress, so they can observe student performance and address gaps appropriately. See data as a gift: set benchmarks, track progress, set reasonable yet challenging goals, stay transparent with students about their performance, and utilize technology to help them improve.

3. Connect Home and School: One of the most crucial elements in closing the achievement gap is active, in-depth cooperation between schools, teachers, caregivers, and communities. Innumerable studies have demonstrated that strong involvement from caregivers in their children's education results in a direct positive impact on student achievement. Include caregivers in the conversation, helping them become involved as reliable, invested partners in their children's success.

4. Keep Instruction Evidence-Based: Help everyone consistently progress, support struggling students, and encourage realistic success for students at every level by implementing evidence-based learning programs. These programs are often supplemental and should include ongoing support from performance data, enabling teachers to observe student responses and use assessments to inform instruction.

5. Maintain Rigor: Most students can achieve at high levels when they're taught at high levels. A strong curriculum that features balanced instruction, while emphasizing the importance of building comprehension skills, empowers all students to succeed within their own capacity. Avoid the trap of making assumptions; help counteract implicit bias by keeping an open mind, learning more about who students really are and about their strengths and interests, and using that information to tailor instruction.

6. Engage Everybody: When teachers employ differentiated instruction, students at every level demonstrate increased engagement and motivation. Teachers can utilize anything from technology to topic choice as tools for enhancing engagement, along with effectively matching tasks to students' skills. One of the best ways to engage students is by focusing on topics they love. Finding out what interests each student is a powerful way to get started on this path. Which materials do they most enjoy? What are their favorite subjects? Take the first step by asking questions like these. When a student's interest is piqued, learning happens more effectively. We talk more about personalized learning in this article!

7. Develop Teaching Skills: Promote professional growth for teachers, along with measurable learning gains for students, by building a carefully designed, well-communicated process for teacher development. Schools and districts can support teachers by encouraging them to participate and by rewarding achievements.

By actively building deeper relationships with students, teachers can effectively start closing the achievement gap in their own classrooms.

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7 Ways to Help Close the Achievement Gap | Learning A-Z

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Working Together to Close the Gap Creating true equity and delivering it to every student: that's the objective of educational reform across the country. But such an enormous and complex task must be accomplished one classroom at a time, and one student a time.

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There's much to consider as education leaders plan now for the 2021-22 school year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently revised its social distancing guidelines for schools from six to three feet. Vaccine trials for children and youth are underway now. These are just a few examples on a long list of social, academic, public health, and financial variables impacting instruction in the next school year. Through it all, educators have demonstrated their dedication to students and working within a continuous improvement framework to provide a path forward.

Students are now attending school in a variety of in-person, hybrid, and remote formats. Drawing on the evidence from the past year, educators have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't.

Strategies to Close the COVID Learning Gap

These six strategies for administrators will support efforts to improve student outcomes-academically and socially- accelerate learning, and help address the issue of interrupted schooling.

1. Prioritize Social-Emotional Learning and Mental Health

The pandemic has been an event that everyone, everywhere, experienced. For many, it was a time of loss and tragedy. All that's happened in the past year will influence today's youth throughout their lives.

Educators had already expressed an elevated sense of urgency about social-emotional learning (SEL) issues. For the last two years, HMH's Educator Confidence Report-published in collaboration with YouGov-has identified SEL as the top concern among educators. Recent events have only heightened this concern, raising concerns about the mental health of children and adolescents.

Most districts now have robust plans in place but feel constrained by not having the counseling and other resources needed to support students and families. Research makes clear that students perform better academically when their social-emotional needs are met, and this happens when we integrate SEL into all aspects of schooling- culturally responsive teaching, for instance, is particularly important as we strive for social justice. SEL and mental health must be a priority.

This is not just critical to student success and happiness but also to the well-being of families and adults in the education system. In a recently updated survey by HMH and Kelton International, a top concern among educators is the use of time, and juggling new initiatives in a new environment has been challenging. Student behavior and difficult conversations were replaced on the list by issues such as isolation and loneliness. Teachers also reported showing themselves and their colleagues more patience and empathy.

Credit: CASEL, 2017

2. Focus on Equity

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, when writing about the urgency of racial justice, identifies education as the "essential place to focus [our] work." Schools have responded by bolstering their culturally responsive teaching and ensuring that children are not only physically safe but also socially safe. This means schools are places where racism isn't tolerated and where youth experience a sense of belongingness. This means children and youth feel seen, respected, and valued.

Equity is most often defined as each student getting what they need to succeed in school and life. For educators, equity is the lens for making all decisions about professional development and instructional resources (including assessments) and setting up the physical environment for both in-person and remote instruction. The latter is an area where disparities have been well-documented and a major focus during COVID.

Our commitment to equity is demonstrated by using language to better focus on student strengths as well as what they need. This asset-based approach is also more semantically precise. During these perilous times, our renewed commitment to equity is a cause for optimism. Working together, we will improve schooling so that it's fairer and safer.

3. Make Personalization Possible

One major change coming out of the pandemic-and a positive one, at that-is that most schools across the nation have attained a one-to-one student-to-device ratio. We shouldn't overlook the fact that there are still districts where students are underserved when it comes to devices or connectivity. But we're closer to being able to personalize education for all students more than ever before.

Personalized or tailored learning is an approach that adapts learning experiences to a student's strengths and areas of improvement. A student's interests are also taken into consideration. This leads to the delivery of learning experiences that provide tailored content, pacing, and preferences.

Learning technology can help you pursue a high degree of personalization. Easy-to-administer formative assessments help teachers understand where a student is academically. A teacher gets the information they need to group students for both direct instruction and tutoring. Teachers can then maximize the effectiveness of individual practice, and digital tools can provide support. This approach will address interrupted schooling for students who now need accelerated intervention as well as students who are ready to take on more advanced work.

I intentionally mentioned how personalized learning informs grouping because sometimes the term evokes a mental model of all students working on their own. But there are ways to personalize learning with students in small groups and even with the whole class.

4. Leverage Digital Tools

Technology can enable teachers to do what they do best, starting with building trusting relationships with their students. An impediment to this-as reported in the HMH/Kelton study-is time. Technology can help you get more done.

What would teachers do if they had more time? They would offer more support to the students who need it most. When the potential of educational technology is fully realized, teachers will have more time to provide targeted instruction, elaborate when needed, and conduct collaborative conversations. They would also focus more on academic and equity issues, including how learning disruptions are handled, and lessen the potential for burnout while maximizing their time with students.

Overall, tools can support teachers in four main areas, as identified in the HMH/Kelton study:

1. Workflow

2. Social Interaction

3. Data Usage

4. Instruction

5. Deepen the Family Connection

It's widely agreed upon that the experiences of the past year have permanently altered educators' relationships with families. Generally, families came to school for special events like Back-to-School Night, sports, arts showcases, and parent-teacher conferences. Even before COVID, there were disparities when it came to which parents or caregivers could attend due to work, childcare, and other commitments. At the beginning of the pandemic, school took place in their homes every day, and many students continue to participate in schooling, at least some of the time, away from school.

Family members are more aware of what their children are doing, including when it comes to learning. New protocols are being established for proctoring tests remotely and involving families in learning activities. There will continue to be interruptions in learning beyond the pandemic-and it's already being proclaimed that there will be no more snow days. No longer do parents or caregivers have to wait for twice-a-year conferences to check on progress. We're at a time when deepening your relationships with families is key.

"Drawing on the evidence from the past year, educators have learned a lot about what works and what doesn't."

I spoke with one teacher about her Back-to-School Night last year versus this fall. It was a virtual event in 2020, and for those families who couldn't attend live, there was a recording they could view when they had the time. She's looking forward to having families back in her classroom but will record the event for those who can't make it. This is one way she is applying what she has learned in the pandemic about working with families, which will benefit all students.

6. Lead by Mentoring

The world of work has changed for everyone. Our heroic frontline workers keep us all safe. Educators have demonstrated resilience and flexibility. From kitchens to classrooms, we're all working in new ways, and we have different expectations for where we work and how we work.

For educators, empathy seems to be a starting place for all interactions. Right now, teachers are less concerned about performance on tests and more concerned about the emotional well-being of their students and the communities they serve. Leaders and experienced teachers, like the rest of the world, are seeing the results of more automation. This gives teachers space to focus on more challenging tasks and personal relationships.

Those who research the future of work predict that leadership skills will be expressed more through mentoring than managing-that is, focusing more on development and less on performance or completion of tasks. Research shows collaborative learning produces positive student outcomes, and positive results are achieved when everyone in the system works together.

After one year of school interruptions, there continues to be a long list of unknowns against a backdrop of a worldwide pandemic. However, educators have demonstrated the will and skill to keep what's working and create new ways of learning, doing, and being for our children and youth.

***
Learning didn't stop during the pandemic. It just took new forms. This article is part of a series of resources focused on COVID learning recovery and designed to help you plan now for summer school and next year.

Be the first to read the latest from Shaped.

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6 Research-Backed Ways to Close the COVID Learning Gap

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There's much to consider as education leaders plan now for the 2021-22 school year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently revised its social distancing guidelines for schools from six to three feet. Vaccine trials for children and youth are underway now.

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Posted in Pro Tips | July 22, 2020
The Achievement Gap
Beyond standardized test scores, the achievement gap, or "the disparity in academic performance between groups of students," manifests itself in many other ways: overall grades, participation in upper level coursework, and other college and career readiness metrics. There are very real concerns that the coronavirus crisis has exacerbated the achievement gap; because it may have amplified existing challenges for the most at-risk learners, leading to the potential loss of a full year's worth of growth. As many schools and districts turn to blended learning models as a replacement for full distance learning, how will we rise to meet this challenge? Here are five ways to address student achievement gaps after distance learning.
Meet students where they are.
As we transition from full-time distance learning to blended learning environments, getting the lay of the land in terms of the curriculum is a good place to start. Are all of your curriculum maps stored and readily accessible via your district's learning management system (LMS)? A good first step might be to analyze (a) what standards were met prior to distance learning, (b) what standards were covered during distance learning, and (c) what standards were not covered.

This process of identifying instructional gaps leads to a good K-12 conversation about which of the learning standards should be addressed and which can be jettisoned as blended learning takes place in the fall. One of the best ways to address achievement gaps in general is to provide access to challenging curriculum across the board. The curriculum won't be aligned or challenging if curriculum gaps caused by school closures aren't addressed. For example, if your students didn't cover certain foundational concepts in Algebra 1, moving on to Geometry (an already notoriously difficult subject area for students) without addressing any relevant gaps will almost certainly come back to haunt schools in the form of poor achievement results, particularly for vulnerable subgroups.
Build relationships and incorporate social-emotional learning (SEL) into the curriculum.
Edutopia featured a story about one high school in Nashville, Tennessee that sought to meet its significant challenges by first focusing on relationships, whether between adults and students or between students and adults themselves. The school focused on five core values in its SEL program: Answer the Call, More Grit, Others First, Own It, and No Limits. These values were posted everywhere in the building and referred to by both students and staff members daily. At first, it may seem harder to create systems like this in a blended learning environment, but it just takes some creativity. Blended learning provides a great opportunity to build in "soft starts" and other relationship-building checkpoints to complement the curriculum.

Another strategy to remember to incorporate when building relationships with a view toward closing achievement gaps is that of making the blended learning environment culturally responsive. The NEA suggests valuing diversity, properly training teachers, and being sensitive to, understanding, and using student cultural backgrounds in the classroom. In blended learning, that means that both the online and in-person components of a district's program should view diversity as a strength and be built to speak to different student populations.
Support online instruction with targeted face-to-face engagement.
As one California principal put it, "...it's teachers who build relationships with students, not software." Blended learning can leverage technology to meet students at their level and on their time, but the tech tools themselves can't build the relationships necessary to close the achievement gap. Online instruction in the blended learning environment needs to continue to be married with the expertise of empowered, passionate educators to have the desired impact.

One of the best ways to close achievement gaps in general is to increase instructional time for those students who need it the most. Some have advocated doubling or tripling the amount of targeted, high-quality instructional time. Some districts have found success by rigorously supporting online instruction with small group, face-to-face intervention based on the information generated via the online system. No matter how you structure it, you can devise a system that maximizes the benefits of educational technology while ensuring that in-person teacher expertise continues to help students thrive.
Collect and collectively use the data.
With the end of distance learning comes an opportunity to re-engage in face-to-face teacher teams, which in turn creates a better environment to actively collect and break down student data in meaningful ways. Whether you have a fully-developed teacher-based team (TBT) structure already in place or use some other framework for the discussion, blended learning allows teachers to gather data in the online environment, break down that data in small groups of dedicated professionals, and then to have substantive conversations with students on a weekly basis during the in-person instructional setting.

Training and professional development is key in pulling this off. Districts that have found success in using internal and external assessment data to address their achievement gaps and move all students toward mastery of the learning standards have worked hard to train their staff in assessment practices, a framework for collaborative conversation around the data, and continuous accountability and support from building and district leadership.
Optimize the use of your learning management system.
To make your blended learning environment work well, your online platform must be able to do the things you need it to do and be able to be customized to your district's vision, mission, values, and overall strategic goals. To address the achievement gap your learning management system must also be flexible enough to allow you to teach the majority of a class, provide supplemental instruction, create credit recovery systems, and more depending on where your school and/or district is on the blended learning spectrum.

For example, many schools have recently found success in closing the achievement gap and raising graduation rates via everything from blended credit recovery programs to blended in-class rotations. There is no single "holy grail" blended learning model, so your LMS needs to be powerful and responsive enough to cater to your needs and the needs of your students.

When your students are working online, with teacher guidance but minimal interpersonal interaction, do they have access to materials that have been curated and personalized specifically for them and their learning goals? Are students able to effectively self-pace through content? Does your LMS provide substantive, targeted, meaningful data for use by the student, their family, and your teacher teams? Good learning management systems will help you build just that - a blended learning system, not just provide a software platform.
Blended Learning and the Achievement Gap
Ultimately, closing the achievement gap is not just an economic and social issue, it is a moral imperative. We have an obligation to not only lift up all learners, but to do as much as we can to ensure equity. In the blended learning environment, a unique opportunity exists to personalize and support each student's learning. Identifying gaps after distance learning and building a blended learning system to address those gaps is one of the great challenges of our time, and you will no doubt rise to meet that challenge.
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Read the full article at: https://www.schoology.com/blog/5-tips-addressing-achievement-gaps-after-distance-learning

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5 Tips for Addressing Achievement Gaps After Distance Learning

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Posted in Pro Tips | July 22, 2020 The Achievement Gap Beyond standardized test scores, the achievement gap, or "the disparity in academic performance between groups of students," manifests itself in many other ways: overall grades, participation in upper level coursework, and other college and career readiness metrics.

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Getting parents more engaged in school is a necessary variable in the equation of student success. In fact, parent engagement can have a direct impact on student engagement itself. Multiple studies prove that students whose parents are actively engaged in their schooling typically show the following:

Higher grades

Higher test scores

Greater social skills

Better reported behavior

Easier adaptation to school

Greater likelihood of continuing into post-graduate education

It's only logical that involved parents positively impact student achievement. According to an NEA 2008 report, when schools, parents, and families work in partnership to support students, then those students succeed at a higher level. It's also important to note that when a school engages more parents, all children benefit, according to a 1995 study called A Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Achievement.

That's great, Heather. You might be saying to yourself. But how? How do we engage parents in our schools when they themselves are busy and stressed and many are just struggling to get their students to school on time?

So I've developed what I'm calling The Eight Ps of Parent Engagement. These are meant to help guide a teacher or school or district in making outreach decisions to increase parent engagement.

Of course, it's easy to know how to increase parent engagement, but it's not as easy to actualize the steps to make it happen. Don't worry, however, you don't have to do it alone. Partner with parents to create a think tank devoted to outreach and dedicated to increasing the numbers of engaged parents. And don't limit those you partner with to those who are already engaged. Call directly to invite others. Create a shared vision where school is seen as a positive place for all stakeholders, and get ready to launch a campaign to engage more parents than ever.

Your students will thank you for it and they, too, will be more engaged.
Heather Wolpert-Gawron is a teacher at Jefferson Middle School in San Gabriel, Calif., and the author of Just Ask Us: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement.

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Getting parents more engaged in school is a necessary variable in the equation of student success. In fact, parent engagement can have a direct impact on student engagement itself.

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Great information.

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Apr 13, 2021 - Trauma has a significant impact on learning and behavior. Follow these tips to create a trauma-informed classroom that helps students thrive.

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10 Awesome Diversity Activities For Kids To Teach Awareness

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Aug 2, 2021 - Try These Diversity Activities For Kids To Help Start A Conversation About Multi-cultural Awareness with you Toddlers, Preschoolers, And Older Kids. These Anti Racism Activities For Kids Are A Must

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Excellent information included on the website.

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May 8, 2021 - Positive behavior management and teaching strategies to create a healthy, supportive, safe trauma-informed classroom.

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May 19, 2021 - “The Stress Response in Kids.🧠 Fight . Flight . Freeze.”

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Aug 9, 2017 - Happy MTSS Monday!   This is my last MTSS Monday post before spring break!  In an effort to keep your expectations low when it comes to me p...

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MTSS vs RTI vs PBIS – What’s the difference?

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Apr 5, 2020 - PBIS, RTI, and MTSS can be confusing, especially since those terms are sometimes used interchangeably. There’s a lot of overlap, but they are different. UPDATED NOTE: As educators work to support students in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, these frameworks stand to provide practical, data-driven frameworks to make decision-making more targeted and more efficient.…

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More in the comments.

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Jun 20, 2020 - This Pin was discovered by Debbie Guertin Carver. Discover (and save!) your own Pins on Pinterest

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7 Things Every Teacher Should Do To Build Family Engagement

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Aug 30, 2019 - Practical tips and ideas for how to get parents involved in school to build a successful partnership between school and home.

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Regular family-teacher communication is a meaningful step to long-term family engagement. As Candra Morris, VP of Professional Learning at Waterford.org, notes in a recent article, "Academic success for students requires a partnership between educators and families."

Read on to learn how to communicate more effectively with the families in your school. Included are classroom strategies you can share with your teachers as well as administrator-focused tips.

Prioritize Two-Way Communication with Families

One-way communication is information that only goes from the sender to the receiver. Two-way communication, however, is correspondence that goes back and forth between the sender and receiver.

One-way communication is:

And two-way communication is:

While one-way communication can have a time and place, too much of it can make families feel left out of classroom decision-making. When you can, choose meaningful connection by prioritizing two-way communication with families. A few examples of two-way communication between families and teachers in schools include emailing, in-person or video calls, and teacher apps that include a messaging system.

Effective, Personalized Engagement Strategies for Teachers

Use the following suggestions as possible techniques to encourage parental collaboration and communication. Remember: connecting with families isn't a cookie cutter process, and what works for some might not work for others.

Tailor Communication Based on Family Preferences

Encourage your teachers to get to know each family's engagement preferences early in the school year. That way, they can tailor their connection methods to be most effective for each family.

Celebrate Student Wins

In all communication methods with families, teachers should remember to celebrate a student's wins. Often, educators communicate a student's negative behaviors without sharing their successes. Families work hard to help their students succeed, and they want to celebrate improvement with you just as much as they want to stay informed on areas of growth.

In-Person Communication

Volunteer opportunities, parent-teacher conferences, and after-school events are all ways your teachers can apply in-person communication. But this form of interaction doesn't have to stay confined to the classroom. If a family cannot make it to the classroom for any reason, including transportation issues or a demanding work schedule, home visits can be another option.

As you plan in-person meetings and events, consider the accessibility needs a family may have to participate and communicate comfortably in the classroom. "When hosting parent conferences, family engagement activities, or concerts," Candra Morris notes as an example, "consider requesting an interpreter to meet the language needs of your school." [1]

Technology-Based Communication

Whether teachers are calling home or updating a classroom app, tech-based communication offers more flexibility to families. Of all the engagement strategies, families often prefer tech-based communication-especially texts.[1] Because every family is operating under their own schedule, virtual or asynchronous interaction options allow them to connect with teachers and support their child's education in ways that fit within their daily routines.

Written Communication

A take-home newsletter or note for families can help them feel in-the-know. It adds a personal touch for times when one-way communication messages are necessary and provides families with a physical reminder for upcoming events.

The key with written and tech-based communication is to personalize it. Families are more likely to respond and reach out to teachers when they receive personal notes instead of generic announcements.[2] That personal touch shows them that teachers truly care about them and want to keep in regular communication.

If you can, encourage teachers to add a few sentences to each written or tech-based message for a specific family. They could, for example, add how much they've enjoyed getting to know a family or invite questions about how to best practice the skills children are learning in class at home.

Family Communication Strategies for Administrators

As an administrator, the way you communicate with families in your school or district will, by necessity, differ from the ways teachers interact. Your opportunities for open or one-on-one communication with families, for example, may be more limited. But that makes it all the more important for you to approach the engagement opportunities you do have mindfully.

Get to know families in person during back-to-school nights, parent-teacher conferences, talent shows, or other school events. Introduce yourself and explain your role at your school. Ask families their names and what classroom their student is in, get to know what strengths and areas of improvement their student is working on, and offer your contact information so they know how to reach you.

When families come to you with questions or concerns, prioritize listening first rather than jumping in from the start with a solution (though of course offer assistance and resources when you can).[3] Families can give you first-person insights into how your school can improve-ideas that you may not have considered. Their perspectives are valuable and, as you make it clear that you are listening and want to understand, they will be more likely to feel welcome and continue communicating with you.

On a broader scale, continue to seek input from families through surveys and in-person parent-teacher group meetings. Anonymous surveys in particular can offer families an opportunity to be frank with what they appreciate about your school and what they feel needs improvement. As you develop ways to address these issues, continue seeking feedback from families to make sure you are meeting their needs.
Sources:
1. ​​ Morris, C. Why Every Child Needs a Village For Academic Success. 2020. Every Child Deserves a Village.

2. Benson, G.M. Parent-Teacher Communication, Student Engagement, and Math. AMLE Magazine. https://www.amle.org/parent-teacher-communication-student-engagement-and-math/

3. Lynch, M. 2020. 5 Tips for Improving Educational Leadership Communication. The Edvocate. (August).https://www.theedadvocate.org/5-tips-for-improving-educational-leadership-communication/

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How Two-Way Communication Boosts Family Engagement | Waterford.org

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Communication acts as a bridge to family partnerships. Learn what two-way communication is and how to improve family-educator relationships.

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Find Expert-Led Strategies That Work for Your School

Visit the Waterford webinars page to learn from educational experts like Candra Morris, Dr. Jenni Torres, Julie Christensen, and others on topics that include:

Fostering Family Engagement

Teaching with the Science of Reading

Understanding the Six Literacy Strands

And more!

On both the classroom and schoolwide level, family involvement in education can make a profound difference in early learning outcomes. When educators build strong relationships, families can reinforce what their students are learning in the classroom as they set their own routines and expectations at home.

As an educator, it's important to remember that all families are different. While they may face barriers to their involvement, such as scheduling or transportation needs, always assume that families are eager to support their children however they can.

Focus on getting to know families so you have a solid understanding of their needs and what is going on in their lives. Use that knowledge and work with families to find ways to support their students at home and, if desired, in your school. Read on to learn what family engagement includes and how you can build a community where families are valued at your school.

What Is Family Engagement?

Family engagement is when families and educators, including teachers and administrators, partner together to share the responsibility of supporting a student's learning.

Educators can connect families with opportunities to actively contribute to the school community, set student goals, and create strong home learning environments. Families understand their child's needs, strengths, and areas of growth and use that understanding to inform the strategies educators use.

Engagement can involve a variety of opportunities depending on the individual family. Some families may want to take an active role in the classroom by volunteering or joining parent-teacher organizations. Others may prefer at-home options in which they stay connected with teachers through digital communication and help students build the skills they're learning in class from home.

Family Engagement Leads to Mutual Respect and Student Success

The importance of family involvement in education is clear, and the benefits profound. In a retrospective looking at 50 different studies, researchers found strong connections between family involvement and academic achievement.[1] Support and involvement from educators and families are crucial to a student's academic performance. This is one reason administrators must value families as a crucial part of their school environment.

By engaging families, educators can create partnerships founded on respect. Educators recognize the valuable understanding families have of their child's learning needs. As they build trust over time, families likewise come to recognize the expertise and training educators have to help students learn.

Remember that there is no way to know a student's full history and needs without connecting with their family. Likewise, educators can't effectively involve a child's caregivers without understanding events and communication options that interest the family most. In the most effective partnerships, educators work with families to determine the individual and school-wide strategies that will best involve caregivers and meet each student's needs.. .

As Candra Morris, Waterford's Director of Family Partnerships, notes in a recent article, "We must include opportunities to elevate family voices and to involve them in the process to ensure they get what they need."

Recognizing and Addressing Barriers to Engagement

Teachers and administrators must be aware of significant barriers as they determine how to involve families in the classroom. Many families face structural barriers like a busy work schedule or a lack of transportation that make in-person options challenging. Other families may encounter societal barriers that discourage them from working with educators, especially if schools do not actively make sure families feel respected.

As you address structural barriers, get to know the families in your school and find ways they can get involved in their child's education that work with their needs. If a family is facing transportation issues or a busy work schedule, for example, advise teachers to consider virtual calls or provide flexible meeting times if they can.

To address societal barriers that alienate families, create a school-wide culture that values diversity and embraces every family's voice. Offer professional development opportunities to your teachers that include strategies for creating inclusive classrooms and recognizing implicit biases. Additionally, seek anonymous family feedback (e.g.,through surveys) to learn specific areas where your school can improve and determine ways to reach those goals.

The more you connect with families in your school, the better you will understand the barriers they face. No matter how you respond to these issues, the key is this: by definition, your strategies cannot follow a universal template. Instead, adjust them to meet the circumstances of the families you serve.

How Administrators Can Support and Engage Families

Because family engagement is so essential to a learning environment, it's never too early in the school year to start building connections. "[Back to school events] are great opportunities to meet families and let them know right off the bat that they can speak on behalf of their child," says Candra Morris, "and that you're eager to listen."

As teachers open their classroom doors for back to school nights, consider leaving your office door open or spending time in the front lobby. Start conversations with families and learn the names of people you haven't met before. Give them your contact information so they know how to reach you if any questions or concerns arise.

Through the school year, administrators play a crucial role in assisting and advising teachers as they build relationships with families. Establish yourself as a trusted leader for teachers to voice the barriers to engagement they come up against and ask for insight. As you model open communication and a willingness to listen with your teachers, you also encourage them to do the same with families.

To promote classroom engagement plans on a larger scale, consider offering professional development opportunities to teachers. Independent options like online courses, webinars, or in-person training sessions can give teachers fresh ideas to connect with families through the school year.
Sources:
1. Hill, N. E., & Tyson, D. F. "Parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement." Developmental psychology, 2009, 45(3), 740-63.

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How Parent Involvement Leads to Student Success | Waterford.org

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Learn how you can improve family involvement in your schools, and the significant impact it can have on academic achievement and student success.