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Personal Connection to the Legal and Ethical Standards:

Programs like ESOL and ELL have made me realize that there is a true need for us educator to get involved with.

Becoming an ESOL and or ELL can be very rewarding while very challenging at the same time.

Some educator are always up for a challenge and can make a huge difference when helping someone whos only barrier is the English language.

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Local Administrative Law/Policy/Rule:

In Jacksonville Florida, the Florida State College has a mission to provide excellent quality language instruction to their students. The current ESOL program at the school. They provide help to students whos first language is not English as they focus on reading, writing, speaking, listening and tools to carry a day to day life.

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English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

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FSCJ's program that teaches English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

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U.S Supreme Court, 1974, Lau vs. Nichols

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US Department of Education

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Resource Materials for Planning and Self-Assessments

Legal Background

School districts in many parts of the country are experiencing a substantial increase in the enrollment of national-origin-minority students who cannot speak, read, or write English well enough to participate meaningfully in educational programs without appropriate support services. In the absence of specific steps to address the language-related limitations experienced by such students, these students are at risk of losing the educational opportunities provided to students generally.

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. In Lau v. Nichols, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Department of Education's May 25, 1970, Memorandum, that directed school districts to take steps to help ELL students overcome language barriers and to ensure that they can participate meaningfully in the districts' educational programs.

Department of Education policies regarding ELL children are reflected in three OCR policy documents. The May 1970 memorandum to school districts entitled "Identification of Discrimination and Denial of Services on the Basis of National Origin" clarifies OCR policy under Title VI on the responsibility of school districts to provide equal educational opportunity to language minority students. The December 3, 1985, guidance document entitled "The Office for Civil Rights' Title VI Language Minority Compliance Procedures" outlines the procedures OCR follows in applying the May 1970 memorandum and the Lau legal standard on a case-by-case basis. The September 27, 1991, memorandum entitled "Policy Update on Schools' Obligations Toward National Origin Minority Students with Limited-English Proficiency (LEP)" is a policy update to be read in conjunction with the May 1970 and December 1985 memoranda. It provides additional guidance for applying the May 1970 and December 1985 memoranda in the context of staffing, transition and/or exit criteria, and program evaluation, as well as to special education programs, gifted and talented, and other special programs.

OCR does not require or advocate a particular program of instruction for ELL students and nothing in federal law requires one form of instruction over another. Under federal law, programs to educate children with limited proficiency in English must be: (1) based on a sound educational theory; (2) adequately supported so that the program has a realistic chance of success; and (3) periodically evaluated and revised, if necessary. These three fundamental principles of federal law are discussed below.

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civil rights; english (second language);

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Developing ELL Programs: Legal Background

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Legal background regarding OCR's role in the development and implementation of a program of services for ELL students.

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Florida Department of Education

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League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) et al. v. State Board of Education Consent Decree, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, August 14, 1990 (PDF)

The Consent Decree is the state of Florida's framework for compliance with the following federal and state laws and jurisprudence regarding the education of English Language Learner (ELL) students:

Title VI and VII Civil Rights Act of 1964

Office of Civil Rights Memorandum (Standards for Title VI Compliance) of May 25, 1970

Requirements based on the Supreme Court decision in Lau v. Nichols, 1974

Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974

Requirements of the Vocational Education Guidelines, 1979

Requirements based on the Fifth Circuit Court decision in Castañeda v. Pickard, 1981

Requirements based on the Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, 1982

Americans with Disabilities Act (PL 94-142)

Florida Education Equity Act, 1984

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Florida's authority for the implementation of the Consent Decree is found in Section 1003.56, F.S., English Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient Students and Rules 6A-6.0900 to 6A-6.0909, F.A.C., Programs for Limited English Proficient Students.

The Consent Decree addresses the civil rights of ELL students, foremost among those their right to equal access to all education programs. In addressing these rights, the Consent Decree provides a structure that ensures the delivery of the comprehensible instruction to which ELL students are entitled.

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League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) et al. v.

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Federal/State Laws for ESOL Education

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News Article

Schools Lean on Staff Who Speak Students' Language to Keep English-Learners Connected.

This articles says that programs like ESOL are not only helping students, but also the parents who are also struggling with the new language.

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For weeks, Alicia Araje-Van Dyk, a multilingual liaison in the Burlington, Vt., schools, has juggled late-night check-ins and predawn wakeup calls.

There are the 1 a.m. calls with Swahili-speaking parents-many of them fresh off 4 p.m. to midnight shifts as essential workers-struggling to use internet hot spots and access online classes for their children in English, a language they barely understand.

Hours later, Van Dyk is often back at it again, stirring pre-teens and teenagers out of bed for their morning classes with early morning texts and phone calls.

During the day, she fields calls from teachers concerned about students who are not logging into class, tracks down tutors for those who are, and counsels her caseload of 43 African refugee families on how they can curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

"This has been a difficult time," said Van Dyk, a Burundian refugee who has worked for the school system since 2013. "I cannot imagine the adjustment for families who are new to this country."

Distance learning has posed a significant challenge for families who are not fluent in English and the teachers who educate them and will continue to be in the months ahead.

Nearly 5 million U.S. schoolchildren are classified as English-language learners and millions more come from homes where their parents speak a different language: About 1 in 4 children, roughly 18 million, in the nation's K-12 schools live with immigrant parents.

As they struggle to keep instruction going for this vulnerable group of students, school districts around the country are leaning heavily on multilingual staff-employees that have become more of a necessity than a luxury during the nation's widespread school closures-to connect with these English-learner and immigrant families.

The stakes are high: Among advocates and researchers, there is concern that the extended school closures happening across the nation could exacerbate the struggles of a student population that already faces a high risk of experiencing homelessness, hunger, and academic struggle.

"As [schools] pivoted to virtual or online education, it really [showed] in very concrete ways the impact of language barriers and what their consequences are," said Gabriela Uro, the director for English-language-learner policy and a researcher for the Council of the Great City Schools, an organization of the nation's largest urban school systems.

Valuing Connections

Van Dyk is among 11 members of the Burlington school system's multilingual team who have abandoned their 9-to-5 schedules to work round-the-clock to help non-English-speaking families navigate everything from computers to American culture.

Before online instruction began, the liaisons reached out to determine if families had access to technology, food, and support from social service agencies. They're also dispatched to soccer fields to break up pick-up games that violate social distancing guidelines.

For some staff, especially those who are immigrants or refugees themselves, helping parents understand the nuances of the U.S. education system can be difficult, because they did not attend schools here either. They're serving as navigators and cultural connectors in places they do not fully understand themselves.

"The [families] need someone to guide them through all this stuff because of the language, because of the culture," said Ahmed Jasim, an Iraqi immigrant who works for the Portland, Maine, schools as a parent community specialist for Arabic-speaking students and families. "But sometimes we get lost honestly."

Schools had trouble connecting with English-learner families long before the coronavirus shut schools.

Federal studies have shown that English-learner families are far less likely to serve on school committees, attend parent-teacher conferences, or go to school or class events, all important opportunities to communicate about students' academic progress.

"Parents are feeling overwhelmed," said Celina Moreno, the president and CEO of the Intercultural Development Research Association, a nonprofit focused on ensuring equal educational opportunity. "Without family engagement, all the educational gaps are widening."

The association is among 40 education and civil rights groups that have asked Congress for a $1 billion infusion to states and school districts to support English-learner students and bolster family engagement.

When schools shut in Vermont in mid-March, Burlington parent Dhan Tamang needed help getting Chromebooks for her three children, one each in elementary, middle, and high school, and technical support for their transition to online learning. Schools there are now closed for the academic year.

Schools liaison Krishna Bhandari, who worked as a teacher for 10 years in India before coming to the United States, did not have all the answers, but knew people who did.

Using their shared language of Nepali, he helped Tamang communicate with her children's teachers and found staff who could help her find her youngest child's homework assignments online. Tamang speaks with liaisons at least once per week.

"I do not know much about the U.S. school system," Tamang said through her translator, her 8th grade daughter Shusanti. "But me and my community are valued here."

'It's a Struggle'

In states such as Vermont and Maine, refugee resettlement has enjoyed widespread support. State and local political leaders view immigrants as a welcome answer to their struggles to lure younger people to live and work there. But the infusion of new immigrants can pose challenges for schools that need to connect with families in their home languages.

Thirty-one percent of English-learners in Maine speak Somali. Roughly 24 percent of English-learners in Vermont speak Nepali.

In Portland, the parent community specialists serve crucial roles: interpreting for parents of students with disabilities during individualized education program meetings and explaining to parents that they must now serve as co-teachers for their children during distance learning.

"There's a difference now because they have to work with the teachers," said Monique Mutumwinka, a parent community special with the Portland schools who works with families in five languages. "The computer, it's an issue for them, the language is an issue. It's a struggle, especially in this crisis of remote learning, to just learn to use the devices."

To foster communication with families, some districts use software that can send text messages and place phone calls in multiple languages. In Burlington, all recorded phone calls are sent out in nine languages.

"We still struggle with basic ways to connect with families," said Miriam Ehtesham-Cating, the director of English-learner programs for the Burlington schools. "Then all of a sudden, we were not together."

Given just a two-day notice that schools were shutting down and faced with the reality that many families, especially those new to the country, did not have email accounts, the liaisons launched a phone campaign to connect with at least one parent in every household.

The task was daunting: The Burlington schools have about 550 students who are eligible for English-learner support services. At least double that amount have parents who do not speak English at home.

Those learning challenges were already significant for English-learners because of challenges inside and outside of school.

A December 2019 report from the U.S. Department of Education found that few teachers reported assigning English-learners to use digital learning resources outside of class, in part because of concerns about students' lack of access to technology at home.

Now that those same students have been thrust into online learning the odds are stacked against them. Nearly a quarter of immigrants and their U.S.-born children live in poverty. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Education found that while English-learners are only 10 percent of the student population, they represent 16 percent of the homeless student population. In urban districts, English-learners account for nearly 20 percent of student homelessness.

The challenges that English-learners face are why Van Dyk does not mind the middle-of-the-night phone calls from concerned parents or the early morning pep talks for students.

"I understand their struggles," said Van Dyk, who worked as a paralegal and studied law before fleeing her native Burundi. She worked in school cafeterias before taking her current district job.

"Education is the one ticket that everybody is given in life," she said. "I don't want them to fail because they're at home."

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Correction:

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Schools Lean on Staff Who Speak Students' Language to Keep English-Learners Connected

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For weeks, Alicia Araje-Van Dyk, a multilingual liaison in the Burlington, Vt., schools, has juggled late-night check-ins and predawn wakeup calls. There are the 1 a.m. calls with Swahili-speaking parents-many of them fresh off 4 p.m. to midnight shifts as essential workers-struggling to use internet hot spots and access online classes for their children in English, a language they barely understand.

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Professional Perspective/Audience/Topic:

My perspective for this assignment will be as a teacher as a English Language Learners.

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Bulleted list of Recommendations / Best Practices for Compliance:

-Foreign students who now live in America deserve the same treatment as any US born student.

- ESOL/ELL can be and will rewarding for the Student and it will  all thanks to the instructor

-  ESOL/ELL  can be and will be rewarding for the instructor as he or she would have made an impact in the student's life as well as his or her family.

- There is a huge need for ESOL Teachers as well as ELL teachers, because there is a large amount of students who do not speak English

- Everyone deserves a change at education, specially students who are bilingual, trilingual and now want to get better in English.

- Our jobs is to educate, regardless of their skin color, race, religion, we must educate and teach everyone, because their foundation starts with us.

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Slide #2 Interview

For my interview, I interviewed Mrs. Nelson Janett. She is an ESOL teacher in Buena Vista GA.

Mrs. is a great believer in the ESOL program as it once helped her while she was attending school when she  and her and her family migrated to the US from Brazil.

"This program if managed well, can make a huge different for students who want to attend school, but either do not speak English or are still learning English".

although it can be very challenging at times she said, at the end of a semester she  felt very rewarded by the amount of information her students were able to learn which she said " It made it all worthy"

Mrs. Nelson told me that you get to meet students from all over the world, many of them love the US and many of them have suffered in their country and now feel like they don't belong anywhere and feel like an outcast. Students like Manuel Zepada she said, made it all worthy. She told me that Manuel came from Cuba and although Cuba gives free education to everyone, they all felt like slaves.

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Ethical Principle:
in the Florida Department of Education  Rule 6A-10.081 #6 says:

7. Shall not  discriminate against any student on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, political beliefs, marital status, handicapping condition, sexual orientation, or social and family background and shall make reasonable effort to assure that each student is protected from harassment or discrimination.

I find this to be very true as many of us at one point have felt different about students who are struggling with speaking English.

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News Article
this article talks about the challenges and tools to be better prepared as a ESOL Instructor.

https://busyteacher.org/4964-how-to-teach-current-events-to-esl-students.html

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by Claudia Pesce 72,131 views

Natural disasters, catastrophes, and current events, in general, are great sources for speaking or reading tasks, and connect students with situations that are real, that may be affecting thousands of lives somewhere in the globe. Current events lessons also raise awareness of environmental issues, for example, or inform and educate students in a broader sense.

Needless to say, unless you're teaching highly-advanced students, you will not be able to simply cut out a newspaper article and read it to the class. News stories must be adjusted and adapted to your group's English reading or comprehension level. Still, taking the time to summarize a news article in fewer, easier words won't take you too long, plus you'll have the added benefit of using the vocabulary and structures you yourself have taught your students.

So, let's get started, and let's see how you should proceed once you have achieved a news piece that is suitable for your students' level.

How to Teach Current Events

1. Start with a warm up
You must set the mood for the topic - you can't just dive into the news piece, right? For example, if the news piece is about a natural disaster, such as a tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, or mud slide, introduce the topic and asks students to tell you what it is, where it takes place, what the consequences are, what causes it, etc...

You may also ask for predictions. Give them the headline and ask them to predict what the article is about. If the headline mentions the " Benefits of a Healthy Diet ", ask them what they think these benefits are.

2. Pre-Reading/Listening Tasks
Some great pre-reading or listening tasks are:

True or False - Students may not know what is true and what is false - ask them to guess!

Synonym matching - Students guess and try to match the synonyms in two columns.

Sentence matching - Provide sentences that have been cut in half. Students try to match the beginning to the end of the sentence.

3. Reading/Listening Tasks
You may choose to either read the news piece out loud, or print copies for everyone to read. No matter what you choose, be sure to give them a task to complete. Some examples may be:

Gap-filling (with options)

Gap-filling (without options)

Multiple-choice questions

Sentence matching

And many others, but make sure tasks are more targeted towards reading/listening comprehension and not entirely open-ended.

4. Post-Reading/Listening Tasks
Some great activities or tasks for post-reading or listening are:

Whereas during the reading students were tested on their reading comprehension skills, in the post-reading they must somehow put everything they learned together, and hopefully produce something out of what they learned.

Use these steps and create engaging lessons out of any current event you think your students might find interesting. But, if you're short on time, we've got great news for you! There are websites that provide news stories that have been tailored specifically to the needs of English learners.

BreakingNewsEnglish.com provides news stories based on themes, in HTML format or PDF, which means they are ready to download and print. The website also provides MP3 audio for listening tasks, which you may easily download to your computer. Talk about taking the guesswork out of teaching current events!

BBC.co.uk also has great news stories that have been adapted for adult learners, but most are a bit outdated. Still, there are plenty that may still be of use in the ESL classroom. They also come with audio and a file for download.

The New York Times' Learning Network offers up-to-date news stories targeted towards children in grades 3 to 12, which means that most can be used for ESL students as well.

CBS Broadcasting offers LiteracyNet with full, abridged, or outlined news stories.

So, now you have no more excuses. We've provided you with everything you need to keep your students in the loop and informed on what's going on in the world they're living in.

And to remain informed on what's going on in the ESL world, be sure to check out BusyTeacher.org on a daily basis for your dose of teaching resources, tips, and advice.

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How to Teach Current Events to ESL Students

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by Claudia Pesce 72,131 views Natural disasters, catastrophes, and current events, in general, are great sources for speaking or reading tasks, and connect students with situations that are real, that may be affecting thousands of lives somewhere in the globe. Current events lessons also raise awareness of environmental issues, for example, or inform and educate students in a broader sense.

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Slide #3 Professional Association:

The TESOL International Association  has prided themselves in helping teachers become betters teachers and showing them how rewarding is to teach English as a second language.

this program is not only base in the US as they help teachers find employments in other countries where the population wants to learn English.

https://www.tesol.org/