-Reviewed the ESSA data as a cabinet and shared the data out to all teachers

-Data review with the ENL teacher and tracker form developed 

-ENL teacher attends weekly planning sessions with grades 4 and 5.    Planning incudes ways to strengthen our core instruction through writing, specifically short and constructed responses.  

-Materials were ordered for all grade levels to support our ENL population 

-ENL teacher attends PD through the District 

-ENL teacher works closely with our Reading AIS teacher to develop her pedagogy around guided reading.  Inter-visitations were scheduled 

-CFA analysis as teacher teams  

-       Most students were being referred for reading below grade level and struggling in writing.

-       The majority of students being referred had been ELLS for 3 years or less (not enough time to attain proficiency)

-       The referrals were coming mostly from monolingual classroom as opposed to Dual Language  classrooms

 

We noted that an area of need for our staff was a lack of understanding of second language acquisition and ENL pedagogy.  Last year’s action research project was the springboard for this year’s case study.

 

In order to support teachers in this area, it was important that I focus on a target population through the Case Study Protocol. The case study aligns with Priority Focus Area #2: Know Every Student Well.

 

I decided to ground my case study in Mary Capellini’s Balancing Reading and Language Learning. I selected 3 students, English Language Learners, from a second grade ICT class who did not have IEPs. I administered the Language Assessment to get a more accurate picture of their language needs and how this related to their current reading level, the books they were being given and their writing. 

 

As part of the case study, the following action steps were taken:

-       Met with ENL teachers to discuss the case study and findings.

-       Planned language lessons to embed during Shared Reading and Guided Reading that were specific to students’ language needs.

-       Began a Big Book collection of books that address specific language structures (prepositions, verb tense, plurals, etc)

-       Discussed a plan to pair up the students with a more proficient peer so that they have access to language models

-       Reviewed books to ensure that they are culturally appropriate for our students.

-       Continue to progress monitor to assess growth (in language as well as literacy).

 

~The Instructional Leadership Framework: 

Hallmarks of Advanced Literacy (Daily use of engaging texts, student led discussion, writing within lessons with student and teacher use of target vocabulary throughout), structured workshop model lessons to include a mini lesson with explicit modeling and think aloud (I do), active student engagement (we do), independent student practice/guided reading/small strategy groups (you do)-“Teaching for Transfer” The Instructional Leadership team conducts cycles of visits classrooms to with a lens on the Hallmarks and EAA classroom implementation assessment with debrief follow-ups.

 

- EAA protocol data analysis and teacher EAA formative self-assessment of their practices

Differentiation and Assessment is ongoing and flexible- teachers meet with grade level and vertical instructional teams to create learning progressions including exemplars and success criteria at grade level as well as the former and latter grade levels to meet students where they are and provide extension opportunities to excel in reading and writing based on the Next Generation standards; students are taught how to use the progressions to articulate their learning and determine successes and next steps.  Teachers use the EAA protocol to analyze unit assessment data and determine strengths, next steps and action plans for SWD, ENL and general education students; grade trends are also analyzed and recorded.

 

-Special Education/ENL: 

Reducing related service pull outs by determining the success and necessity of the service, IEP and data reviews are frequently conducted to ensure students are being instructed in the least restrictive environment, flexibly programming students in LRE based on success in ELA or Math, declassifying students with IEPs when they are independently and successfully meeting/exceeding the standards, grouping or removing paraprofessionals as appropriate-over the past few years our para population has decreased from 24 to currently 11.  Of our 29 ENL students, which equates to 7% of our population 8 have achieved ‘commanding’ status.  25% of our students have an IEP, one student has mainstreamed from 12:1 to ICT, 10 are currently flexibly programmed and three students have been declassified so far this school year, in preparation for next school year three students will mainstream from a 12:1 class to an ICT.

 

~Setting High Expectations in the Mathematics Classroom: 

Our teachers are utilizing various strategies to modify EnVisions workbook math problems to create more high quality, rich, engaging tasks with multiple representations and lessons which include questioning and student led discourse and self/peer assessment.

 

-Ongoing Professional Learning to support these initiatives is provided by our Instructional Coach, Universal Literacy Coach, UFT TC, SIBOD31 Instructional Leads and Professional Learning Opportunities, Book Study Groups, NtN, A4A, Weekly ILT and grade team meetings.