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EL Considerations, pg. 14

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EL Considerations, pg. 15

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EL Considerations, pg. 19

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Note: This article complements one written by one recently posted at Colorin Colorado and written by Diane Staehr Fenner, Jill Kester, and Sydney Snyder. That piece is titled The Five Pillars of Equitably Grading ELLs. Larry will be joining Diane for a free Webinar on Equitably Grading ELs that will take place on March 19th. You can register for it here.
Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski are teachers in the Sacramento City Unified School District and authors of several books on teaching English Language Learners.
Grading English Language Learners - A Perspective From Two Teachers By Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski Our Overall perspective on grading
We must begin by saying that grades have seldom been an issue in our classes - whether they were ELD/ESL, mainstream, intervention, or advanced courses.

Because of that experience, we are often bewildered by the amount of energy, pressure and angst about them that we see among many teachers and administrators.

We view grades as information. They are one of many forms of communication we use with students and their parents, and definitely not the most important kind. As Rick Wormeli says, they are not rewards or punishments.

We view grades as, in many ways, the lowest level of communication between students, parents and ourselves. As its Latin word root suggests, they are "steps toward something." Assessments, however, are an entirely different kettle of fish. Its Latin roots mean to "sit beside" and to assist. Whereas a grade is just a letter, continuous assessments (both teacher and student-initiated) and reflections on their meanings provide directions for a student's journey- assisting them to adjust both their routes and their destinations.

We emphasize building upon our students' assets instead of their deficits. That doesn't mean we ignore or minimize challenges they are facing. It does mean, however, that we focus on leveraging both their academic and non-academic strengths, like perseverance, critical thinking ability, appetite for learning, and success in outside-of-school venues, towards targeting needed areas of academic improvement. As most teachers know, highlighting past examples of student success and the steps that made it happen can go a long way in helping them find the appetite/desire to applying those qualities again and again - especially to further a high-interest goal.

Just to be clear, even though some might consider us "easy" graders because of our perspective, we also feel confident - and proud - of our students' results on "high-stakes" assessments, such as state tests and International Baccalaureate - supervised Oral Presentations and Essays.
Grading For English Language Learners
This portion of our article is divided into two sections:

How we handle grading in our English Language Development classes

How we handle grading ELLs in our mainstream classes

ELD CLASSES:
We base our grading structure in ELD classes (where students are all Beginner or Intermediate ELL students) on a Course Of Study that we helped our district develop a number of years ago.

Our slightly modified version (taken from the work of Thomas Guskey and others) looks like this:
Grading Guidelines 35%- Product Criteria (quality of student work) 35%- Process Criteria (how students do their work)

Collaboration/working with other students and teacher

Daily participation and effort

Daily attendance

30%-Progress Criteria (evidence that students are progressing)

Academic language development

Demonstrated growth in speaking and listening

Demonstrated growth in reading fluency and comprehension

Demonstrated growth in writing proficiency

ELLs IN MAINSTREAM CLASSES
First, we must say that at this time, our own District does not offer grading guidance to mainstream teachers who have ELLs in their classes. We hope that will change in the near future. To our best knowledge, our state of California also does not provide guidance in that area.

In addition, our experience is in middle and secondary schools, and we will focus most of this section in those areas.

However, based on guidance from other states and districts - as well as the federal government - and based on our own experiences, we offer the following thoughts and advice:

Federal guidelines make it clear that it is the responsibility of high schools to create a pathway for a student who enters high school as a Beginner to be able to graduate in four years (which is a particularly challenging timeline since it takes four-to-seven years to gain proficiency in academic English). They must graduate with the prerequisites to enter college. They must be able to attain success in the school's "standard instructional program." We can't see how that is possible without a system of differentiated instruction and differentiated grading for ELLs in our schools.

The federal government also provides clear instructions that accommodations on assessments must be made by states' Departments of Education on any assessments administered to ELLs. Though those guidelines only specify state assessments, it doesn't appear to us much of a stretch to believe that teachers should follow them in their own classes, too. We're not experts, but we wouldn't be surprised if a Civil Rights complaint to the Department of Education would result in the same opinion.

The districts and states that we have found to have specific grading policies for ELLs in mainstream classes appear - in various degrees - to have some key points in common:

It is the responsibility of the teacher to make content and assessments comprehensible to ELLs.

No student should be retained because of English language challenges.

These policies point out the difference between being "equal" and being "fair" and make it clear that treating ELLs "equally" by treating them the same as English-proficient students is not "fair" and could even be unlawful.

Guidance from the state of Indiana offers an example of a "fair" assessment for ELLs:
If a student is struggling with sequential vocabulary, they may not be able to write an essay on the water cycle. However, if given the opportunity to do a hands-on type of assessment through experimentation or pictures, the same student may be able to demonstrate knowledge of that content, confirming for the teacher their knowledge of science, not their limitations in English.
Accommodations during class could include differentiation strategies such as providing more time, allowing access to cellphone translation, providing needed background knowledge though home language materials, offering similar texts at different lexile levels, giving students writing frames and sentence starters, pre-teaching key vocabulary, speaking at a slower rate, and recruiting peer tutors or in-class language "buddies" - just to name a few.

Larry spent nineteen years as a community organizer prior to becoming a teacher. As an organizer, he recognized that "we live in the world as it is, not as we would like it to be." That doesn't mean we have to be cynical, but it does mean that as we continually strive towards how we should treat all ELLs, we also have to recognize that because of time pressures, lack of professional development, and just plain overwork, some mainstream teachers might not be able to provide the differentiated instruction needed by ELLs.

In those situations, we believe that it's critical for teachers to at least recognize that ELLs are faced with the sometimes overwhelming task of learning academic content and the English language simultaneously, and show compassion and support when it comes to giving them a letter grade.

We should always strive towards creating the world as we would like it to be. However, that doesn't mean we should act oblivious to how the world is at the present time.

Another option some districts use is to apply Pass/Fail grades to ELLs in content classes or to provide letter grades indicating accommodations were made (though those notations can appear on report cards, they may not be able to be added to formal transcripts).

The lives of many of our English Language Learners, who have been uprooted from their home, culture, and native language through no choice of their own, can be very difficult.

Let's not make it harder. Instead, let's demonstrate good sense, compassion and respect good educational practice. Let's treat them as we would like our own children to be treated if we had been uprooted to a new country, a new culture and a new language.

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Grading English Language Learners - A Perspective From Two Teachers

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Note: This article complements one written by one recently posted at Colorin Colorado and written by Diane Staehr Fenner, Jill Kester, and Sydney Snyder. That piece is titled The Five Pillars of Equitably Grading ELLs. Larry will be joining Diane for a free Webinar on Equitably Grading ELs that will take place on March 19th.

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Video: Our Webinar On Equitable Grading For ELLs

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Diane Staehr Fenner has just published this video of the Webinar she and I did yesterday on Equitable Grading For ELLs. You might also be interested in The Best Resources On "Differentiated Grading...

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Click here to explore the 8 Key Practices further!

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8 Key Practices to Support English Learners in All Classrooms v.1

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8 Key Practices Infographic

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Translation/Interpreter Requests:

1. Once on the JCPS Language Services page, scroll down the page to “Request In-Person Interpreting”

2. Click “First Time User”

3. Click on and complete the Requester Enrollment Form

4. Your account information will be emailed to you and you will then be able to submit requests.

https://www.jefferson.kyschools.us/department/academic-services-division/teaching-learning/english-second-language/language-services-0

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Over-the-Phone Interpreation - Quick Reference Guide (002)

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Three Quick Hacks To Improve Comprehensible Input Irina McGrath, Ph.D, MS ESL Michelle Shory, Ed.S, HS ESL

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Listen to an Extended Version of this Post in a Podcast:
Samira Fejz ic was used to people saying her name wrong, especially in school. "Through the years, as roll would be called, I would wait for that awkward pause-this is how I knew I was next. I accepted this ritual."

Fejzic (FAY-zich), whose family left Bosnia in the early nineties and moved to the U.S. in 1999, experienced this ritual for ten years, and she understood that people in her new town weren't used to names like hers, despite the fact that the area's Bosnian population had grown massive in recent years.

"It never hurt me until high school graduation," she recalls. "This was a big day for me. My grandparents from Bosnia came just to watch me get my diploma and of course, my name was butchered."

If you're in a position to say lots of student names-in your classroom, over the P.A. system, or especially at awards ceremonies and graduations-no one will be surprised if you mess up a couple of them. But this year, maybe you can do better. If you make the commitment now to get them all right, if you resolve this time to honor your students with clear, beautiful pronunciation of their full, given names, that, my friend, will be the loveliest surprise of all.

Three Kinds of Name-Sayin'

I grew up with a hard-to-pronounce name. Actually, it wasn't that hard; it just looked different from what people were used to: Yurkosky. (Kind of rhymes with "Her pots ski," minus the "t" in pots.) Year after year, i t threw everyone off. And the way they approached the name put them into one of three camps: fumble-bumblers, arrogant manglers, and calibrators.

The fumble-bumblers I didn't mind so much. They'd mispronounce the name, slowing down and making their voice all wobbly, not trusting themselves. They'd grimace, laugh, ask me how to say it, then try again. But then they sort of gave up. Over the next few attempts, they'd settle into something that was a kind of approximation, and that would be that. What made me not mind these people was that they put the mispronunciation on themselves- their demeanor suggested the fault was with them, not me or my name.

The arrogant manglers were another story. They assumed their pronunciation was correct and just plowed ahead, never bothering to check. In many cases, an arrogant mangler will persist with their own pronunciation even after they've been corrected. Adan (uh-DON) Deeb, whose family hails from Israel with Palestinian roots, experienced this as a middle school student in the U.S. "Every time I was called up to the office, EVERY SINGLE TIME, they would mispronounce my name, no matter how many times I corrected them. It made me angry. To me that shows that they just don't care enough to get my name right."

This group has a couple of sub-categories: One is the nicknamers-people who come across a name like Rajendrani and announce, "We'll just call you Amy." The other is the worst kind, the people who start with the first syllable, then wave the rest of the name away like so much cigarette smoke, adding "Whatever your name is," or just "whatever." I don't have a creative name for this group. Let's just call them assholes.

Finally, there was a small group I think of as the calibrators, people who recognized that my name required a little more effort. They asked me to pronounce it, tried to replicate it, then fine-tuned it a few more times against my own pronunciation. Some of them would even check back later to make sure they still had it.

My cousin Laura, who has the same last name I grew up with, remembers a professor who was a true calibrator. "It did take him a bit of time to learn to pronounce my name, but he was always apologetic when he said it wrong, and always insisted on the importance of getting such things right. He was easily the most inspirational and challenging teacher I've had...he just insisted that every student feel important."

If you're already a calibrator, keep up the good work. If you're not-if you've let yourself off the hook with some idea like "I'm terrible with names"-know that it's not too late to turn things around, and it does matter. Though it may seem inconsequential to you, the way you handle names has deeper implications than you might realize.

Kind of a Big Deal

People's reaction to this issue varies depending on their personality. If your student has a strong desire to please, wants desperately to fit in, or is generally conflict-avoidant, they may never tell you you're saying their name wrong. For those students, it might matter a lot, but they'd never say so. And other kids are just more laid-back in general. But for many students, the way you say their name conveys a more significant message.

Name mispronunciation - especially the kind committed by the arrogant manglers-actually falls into a larger category of behaviors called microaggressions, defined by researchers at Columbia University's Teachers College as "brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color" (Sue et al., 2007).

In other words, Although most of your students may not know the word mutilating someone's name is a tiny act of bigotry. Whether you intend to or not, what you're communicating is this: Your name is different. Foreign. Weird. It's not worth my time to get it right. microaggression, they're probably familiar with that vague feeling of marginalization, the message that everyone else is "normal," and they are not.

In her piece What's in a Name? Kind of a Lot, writer Tracy Clayton (under the name Brokey McPoverty) rails against Ryan Seacrest's move to shorten the name of actress Quvenzhané Wallis to "Little Q." She points out that Seacrest and other media figures treat the names of some actors-who happen to be white-differently: "The problem is that white Hollywood...doesn't deem her as important as, say, Renee Zellweger, or Zach Galifianakis, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, all of whom have names that are difficult to pronounce- but they manage. The message sent is this: You, young, black, female child, are not worth the time and energy it will take me to learn to spell and pronounce your name."

This, by the way, is how you say Quvenzhané:

This issue goes beyond names rooted in cultures unfamiliar to the speaker. Whatever it is your student prefers to be called, it's worth the effort to get it right. I'm sure I've not only mispronounced my own students' names, but I've probably also called them something that was not their preference-realizing in April that the kid I've been calling Stephan all year actually prefers to be called Jude.

And before you get all defensive about the bigotry thing, let's be clear: Discovering that something you do might be construed as bigotry doesn't mean anyone is calling you a bigot. It's just an opportunity to grow. An opportunity to understand that doing something a little differently shows others that you respect them. At some point in your life, someone probably taught you to hold the door open for the person coming in behind you. Before then, maybe you didn't know. Opportunity to grow. It's that simple.

How to Get it Right

The best way to get students' names right is to just ask them. Pull the kid aside and say, You know what? I think I've been messing up your name all year, and I'm sorry. Now that graduation is coming, I want to say it perfectly. Can you teach me?

By humbling yourself in this way, you let them see that you're human. You're modeling what it looks like to be a lifelong learner, a flexible, confident person who is not afraid to admit a mistake. Regardless of the outcome, a genuine effort on your part will mean so much, and when the big day comes, they might even root for you to get it right.

If you have hundreds of names to learn, get systematic: Starting now, carry around a clipboard with all the names you'll need to say - even those you think you already know, and start checking in with kids in the cafeteria, in the halls, in the stands at a basketball game. And for God's sake, write down what they tell you. When the big day comes, the page of names you read from should look something like this:

Do whatever it takes, using whatever kind of symbols or notes you need to get the right syllables out in the right order. (The apple is there to remind the speaker to say that "a" like they would in the word apple.)

If you've run out of time to ask students themselves, or if doing that is too uncomfortable for you, you can get some help online. On Pronounce Names, you can find a huge collection of names and their pronunciations.

Whatever you do, do something. For some students, you may be the first person who ever bothered. If the only time you say their name is in the classroom, your correct pronunciation will help the whole class learn it, too. Eventually that will ripple through the school, making that student feel known in a place where before they felt unknown.

And if you have the honor of announcing them on the day they receive their award, their diploma, the day that marks some big achievement, you have a unique opportunity to make it even more special, but you only have two seconds: Make it count. It's a gift they'll remember for a long time. ♥
Reference:
Sue, D.W., Capodilupo, C.M., Torino, G.C., Bucceri, J.M., Holder, A.M.B., Nadal, K.L., & Esquilin, M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62 (4), 271-286.

There's more where this came from.
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How We Pronounce Student Names, and Why it Matters

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Listen to an Extended Version of this Post in a Podcast: Samira Fejz ic was used to people saying her name wrong, especially in school. "Through the years, as roll would be called, I would wait for that awkward pause-this is how I knew I was next. I accepted this ritual."

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Welcome to the English as a Second Language (ESL) Program. With more than 8,000 English Language Learners (ELLs), JCPS is truly a diverse district. Here you can find our program enrollment procedures as well as descriptions of our instructional programs. In addition, we have provided valuable resources and links for instructional resources by level.

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bit.ly/jcpsmsesl

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bit.ly/JCPSHSESL

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I love Grape Nuts cereal (with Chobani vanilla yogurt) for breakfast. I'm a high school ESL Resource Teacher at the ESL Instructional Office.  I'm fascinated by literacy, student choice, and ed tech.

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Hi, this is Irina, ESL Middle School Resource Teacher. Happy to be here today. I love coffee with crepes. I also love literacy and technology and try to learn something new each day.

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Good Morning! I don't have a favorite breakfast cereal, but I love Fage yogurt! I work with English Learners K-12 across the district and I am always amazed by the dedication of our teachers of ELs and our EL students.

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Good Morning! I don't have a favorite breakfast cereal, but I love Fage yogurt! I work with English Learners K-12 across the district and I am always amazed by the dedication of our teachers of ELs and our EL students.

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Hello, my name is Elizabeth Lockhart and I teach kindergarten at Field Elementary. I currently have 2 ESL students in my class. Right now my favorite cereal is Lucky Charms.

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Hello, my name is Elizabeth Lockhart and I teach kindergarten at Field Elementary. I currently have 2 ESL students in my class. Right now my favorite cereal is Lucky Charms.

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I work at Minors Lane Elementary. I am a permanent sub there. We have a large ELL population, and I want to know if there are any resources I can use to help our ELL students. My favorite breakfast cereal would be Power O's (they're like cheerio's but they're made from beans but they don't taste like beans).

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Hello my name is Gladys Martinez, I work in Smyrna Elementary as kindergarten assistant. I speak spanish and english. I have 18 years in the united states, I know the important to work with ESL students. I don't have favorite cereal.

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I work at JCPSeSchool. I teach the recovery courses for 6-8 ELA and Social Studies and the Junior English courses. I have a wide variety of students from ECE to AP. Some are ELLs. Some are trying to recover credits so they can graduate even though it might be a few years late, and others are trying to graduate early. We have students of all ability levels.

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I work at Goldsmtih Elementarey as an Instructional Assistant. I do reading groups. Our school is a Multi Culture school. I would like to learn how to help them understand what they are reading and know more words. My favorite cereal is Frosted Flakes.
I

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I am an ECE Instructional Assistant at Goldsmith Elementary. I work in an LBD room. I work in a multicultural schools. My favorite cereal is coco pebbles.

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I work at Kammerer Middle School which is behind Ballard High School off Brownsboro.  I assist teachers who serve visually impaired students. Sometimes I go to classes with the students to make sure they have everything they need to participate in instruction. I also work in have been learning Braille which is challenging. I also work in our vision office producing materials that the students will use. I am from Washington state originally and miss the mountains. My favorite breakfast is blueberry pancakes at Wild Eggs. I

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I work at Norton Commons Elementary School in a self contained early childhood room as an assistant. I don't eat breakfast cereal so no favorites. I'm here to learn how to better serve els /children who have special needs.

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Larry Lenhart: I teach English 3 at Louisville Male High School. I am here to finish up my 24 hours! I have a class this afternoon too. My favorite breakfast is a banana and English muffin. I usually eat that 365 days a year.

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Larry Lenhart: I teach English 3 at Louisville Male High School. I am here to finish up my 24 hours! I have a class this afternoon too. My favorite breakfast is a banana and English muffin. I usually eat that 365 days a year.

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I am an ECE teacher at Southern High School. I teach resource classes in Biology and Chemistry. I also co-teach one biology class.

I was a ESL student in elementary school.

I often support many ELL/ESL students at my school, especially in my co-teaching class.

I don't like cereal but I do like oatmeal for breakfast.

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I have been w/ the district for a long time but am in my first year as an ESL BAI  at Chancey Elementary.
My favorite cereal is chocolate peanut butter Cheerios.

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I have been a Pre-K teacher with the district for 8 years, and this year is my third year teaching at Chenoweth Elementary. I have had many diverse students over the years and enjoy getting to know students and families from other countries. I don't really like cereal, but I do like oatmeal if that counts!

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Good Morning,
I work at Chenoweth Elementary as an Instructional Assistant/ Floater in the Early Childhood Program.
I don't eat cereal but do love coffee!
I am taking this class because I want to learn different ways to communicate with different children of different cultures.

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Morning!!  I'm a kindergarten assistant at Smyrna Elementary for over 30 years. My favorite breakfast is cinnamon toast crunch. I'm a mom of 2 and grandma of 5. Retirement is getting closer every field trip!

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Instructional Assistant for Vision department. Love blueberry pancakes at wild eggs. Originally from Washington State. Love Writing.

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Instructional Assistant for Vision department. Love blueberry pancakes at wild eggs. Originally from Washington State. Love Writing.

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I am a Spanish teacher at Fairdale elementary.

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My name is Brittany Wise, I am new to JCPS. I am an ECE Instructional Assistant Itinerant. I love all cereal- it is my favorite food!

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My name is Jamie. I am an instructional assistant in an MSD classroom at Westport Middle School.

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I just started teaching 7th and 8th grade ESL at Western Middle School for the Arts. I like waffles!

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ESL Instructional assistant at Young Elementary. My favorite fruit is mango.

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Hi! I am Annie Quiros. I am new to JCPS. I work at Indian Trail Elementary as Bilingual Instructor. 

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Hi! I am Annie Quiros. I am new to JCPS. I work at Indian Trail Elementary as Bilingual Instructor. 