2023 TNA Teachers Summer Workdays

Tennessee Nature Academy

supporting Multilingual Learners

Check It Out

Start

Introduction

Goals/Objectives

Information - WIDA and ILPs

index

Goals and Objectives

Introduction

This information will be written as if the target audience is a teacher that is new to teaching. The Learning Sessions 1 and 2 will cover the basics and some details of WIDA and ILPs. You know your experience and strengths better than I do. If you would prefer to skim this and use it more as a review at the beginning of the year, feel free to do so. I would encourage you to be sure to slow down for Learning Session 3 as I will outline in more details how I plan to support TNA specifically.

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Goals and Objectives

A little bit about me....

I graduated from University with a B.S. of Elementary Education. After I graduated, I moved to South Korea where I lived and worked for 6 years as a teacher that mostly taught English as a Foreign Language by focusing largely on project based learning. I taught in public schools, private schools, and even a university there. I learned a lot there about learning languages, incorporating the 4 domains of language learning into lessons, and a little tiny bit of what it is like to live in a different country and the difficulties and benefits that come with that. In 2020 I moved here to Nashville where I have taught the past 3 years for MNPS as a 4th grade teacher in a school with a large population of English learners. In those 3 years, I learned a lot about incorporating the different abilities of language learners with general education students and the state standards. I am excited to be at TNA to focus more on the English learners again and hope to be a strong support for you in your classrooms. I highly value communication and teamwork, so please never hesitate to reach out to me~

Support

Favorites

Environment

Communication and Feedback

Goals and Objectives

What this presentation covers:

Basics of WIDA I can explain what WIDA is and the core values of it's beliefs.

WIDA in more depth~ I can identify how Can-Do Descriptors, Key Learning Uses, Profiency Level Descriptors, etc. help in language learning.

WIDA in your day to day I can utiilize all the WIDA resources effectively in my individual and collaborative planning to create an environment helpful to multi lingual learners.

ILPs I can identify, use, and update information on individual learners to help support their growth.

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learning session / 02

Question

In order to help MLL/EL students, you have to speak to them in their language. Even if that means using a translator?

True

False

learning session / 02

Question

The chances of us having EL/MLL students is very low.

True

False

learning session / 02

Question

We have to make totally seperate lessons for our MLL/EL students.

True

False

Learning sessions

Session 01 WIDA

Session 02 ILPS

Session 03 Putting it All Together

learning session / 01

Session

01

ALL ABOUT WIDA In tennessee

WIDA is a consortium of states that uses research-based tools, resources, and tests dedicated to improving multi-lingual learner education.

TN State WIDA Site

ALL ABOUT WIDA

WIDA Standards and Can-Do Statements

WIDA Screener

WIDA Access

This is the yearly assessment all of our Multilingual Learners will have to take.

These are the guidelines for helping multilingual learners in the classroom.

This is the assessment for students new to country or not from a WIDA Consortium State.

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All about wida

Nested Components of 2020 WIDA

The 4 Big Ideas are interwoven throughout these components and are: 1. Equity of opportunity and access 2. Integration of content and language 3.Collaboration among stakeholders 4. Functional approach to language learning If you would like to read about these in more detail, they can be found on pages 17-20 here.

These components along with the 4 Big Ideas make up the main WIDA resource that is used to help educators with making grade level content material more accessible and helping MLL students improve their academic English.

key language uses

proficiency level descriptors

ELD standards statements

language expectations

ALL ABOUT WIDA

If you are interested in looking more in depth into the details, click the links below for the grade level cluster documents.

5th Grade

6th grade

ILPs - Individual Learning plans

Session

02

a look at ilps

Student information and test scores

All MLL learners have an individual learning plan (ILP) that is updated about every 5 weeks by teachers to update/reflect on language goals. I plan to take care of the ILPs for our MLL learners, with input from teachers~ (look for more in the future from me). ILPs contain a lot of information from previous test scores (including their most recent ACCESS), background information about the student, previous course grades, and the monitoring questions and goals. (Note: The pictures listed to the right are from ELLevation and are from a real ILP downloaded from there. We are not using ELLevation and they may look a little different.)

Course Scores and Monitoring form

Levels 1-6

ILPs and Classroom Supports - click the pictures to explore the information

Putting it all together

Session

03

Putting it all together

What does all of this look like in our day to day practices? Let's have a look!

Putting it all together

Putting it all together

learning session / 02

Question

In order to help MLL/EL students, you have to speak to them in their language. Even if that means using a translator?

True

False

correct answer

You do NOT need to know a student's home language to help them. The exception is if they are brand new to the country (Level 1), and occasionally if you really really need to make sure they understand something and they really really aren't getting it with supports for Level 2 students.

learning session / 02

Question

The chances of us having EL/MLL students is very low.

True

False

correct answer

In this part of Nashville, there is a high population of MLL/EL students. The question that remains for now is what are the levels of OUR students. (side eye to TN Pulse still loading...)

learning session / 02

Question

We have to make totally seperate lessons for our MLL/EL students.

True

False

correct answer

I am here to help you add to your existing curriculum so that students are able to access the grade level content material. We are never "dumbing down" anything, just scaffolding. My goal this year is to help you feel empowered in the day to day while creating reuseable supports for the MAJOR assessments for each subject and grade level.

For more information

Resource Links

Rules of the State Board of Education 7 pages of all the official information for our state.

WIDA ELD Standards Wida Information

5 Ways Teachers Can Collaborate to Support English Learners Ed Week Article

Language Acquisition: An Overview Colorin Colorado: A bilingual site for educators and families of English language learners article

Links to resources of interest

• WIDA Scaffolding Learning Math

• WIDA Article on Science Language

Thank You!

If you have any questions, please reach out to me!

mglidewell@tennesseenatureacademy.org In addition, during our flex days August 3-4, I plan to be at the school for office hours if you would like to work together, share ideas, ask questions, etc.

Home

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This answer is not correct...

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TN State WIDA Site

This site gives specifics regarding the state of TN when it comes to WIDA. Including the timeline and testing dates for the yearly WIDA Access Test. Most importantly for day to day is that, "Tennessee uses WIDA language development standards and provide instructional support through professional development and guidance documents."

Proficiency Level Descriptors PLDS

The PLDs are similar to the Can-Do statements in that they give a guidance as to what type of expectations you can expect from an MLL student at different stages of growth. These are usually split into discourse, sentence, and word/phrase. Discourse can be thought of as the overall organization and use of language. Sentences level is more about the grammar. Word/Phrase is more about the precision of language.

Can-dos and Standards

WIDA is usually known for their Can-Do statements. The can do statements are an idea of what students can do at each English Proficiency Levels (1-6). However, they are shifting more towards the standards that were released in 2020. We will look more at the new standards and focus on those~

Generally speaking, level 1 is more limited in English and level 6 is more fluent in conversational and academic English. In student reports, you'll see a comprehensive score as well as a score for each of the individual domains. Click on each picture below to see more details of generally what to expect of K-12 students in each domain and level.

WIDA Screener

Assessment

This is something you will not have to be responsible for, it is only necessary in certain circumstances. Most of our students will already have their screener done before coming to us at TNA.

• Assessment for all 4 domains (reading, listening, speaking, writing) of academic English.

Language Expectations

These are the goals for content driven instruction, very similar to subject/grade level standards. There are 2 modes in WIDA, the intrepretive which covers the listening and reading type information and the expressive which covers the speaking and writing type of information. The expectations apply for all levels and are based around common patterns of language (language functions).

This information could be several pages long if they have information all the way from Kindergarten. The most important information would be their most recen ACCESS scores to get a feel for their academic English level.

Support

I am a quality time and words of affirmation love language person, but I'm still working on giving those words of affirmation and quality time to myself just as much as I do others. I'm working on changing my inner dialogue from one of feeling like I'm bothering and burdening people. So, if you are wanting to help, please ask. I'm working on reaching out if I feel overwhelmed, but I'm not perfect. If you appreciate something I've done or worked on, please say so.

To left you can see their previous course grades to get a little bit of information of their in class work. To the right is the monitoring form. This is the part that gets updated every 5 weeks. I will discuss with you how they are doing on their goals (which are set from their WIDA ACCESS scores) to determine if they are on track, off track, or met. If they are met, we will determine their next goal, if they are off track we will discuss what we can do to help the student get back on track.

ELD Standards

The overall idea behind these standards is that students need language for all purposes, with standard 1 reaching throughout all the other standards.

Key Languge Uses

The idea of the KLUs are that it helps educators focus on a language goal for a lesson/unit. From WIDA: Narrate highlights language to convey real or imaginary experiences through stories and histories. Narratives serve many purposes, including to instruct, entertain, teach, or support argumentation. Inform highlights language to provide factual information. As students convey information,they define, describe, compare, contrast, organize, categorize, or classify concepts, ideas, or phenomena. Explain highlights language to give an account for how things work or why things happen. As students explain, they substantiate the inner workings of natural, man-made, and social phenomena. Argue highlights language to justify claims using evidence and reasoning. Argue can be used to advance or defend an idea or solution, change the audience’s point of view, bring about action, or accept a position or evaluation of an issue

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WIDA Access

Yearly Assessment

This is a yearly assessment that all multilingual learners have to take until they test out showing they are fluent in all 4 domains of academic English. In Tennesse, the window for this test usually opens beginning around the end of February. Students will take one test each morning during the course of 4 days. If you want to be able to administer this assessment, you will need an EL endorsement and have to take a WIDA course. Please see me about getting a WIDA account if that is you~

• We will likely do the computer version.
• Students start with listening and reading.
• The results of those two domains determine what their writing and speaking test will be.
• Results are typically available around May.

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Wida

Can-Dos and Standards Framework

Often WIDA is linked to their Can Do Philosophy that says all students have assets that are valuable to the classroom. They have lists of Can Do Statements that provide things students of the various proficiency levels can do. Those have been updated and incorporated into the Standards Framework of 2020 which we will be using.

• If you want to read about it in more detail, feel free to read through the article linked here.

• Concerts and Music
• Animals (especially mine)
• Books, Anime, and True Crime Documentaries
• Adventures/Travel
• Friends
• Learning new things (especially language)
• Being Silly

Communication and Feedback

I am your girl if you want to chat. I love learning about what other people are passionate about~ If you had a great weekend tell me about it! Something that you are excited about and want to share? Info dump it on me please! Feeling stressed and just need a pair of ears to listen? I have two ears that mostly work. With work related items, if you need me to remember it, please send it to me in an email as a reminder, or don't take offense if we are talking and I quickly whip out my phone to make a calendar event reminder. I have the classic goldfish brain, I WILL forget something without reminders. Almost as soon as you remind me, I might exclaim "Oh! I remember now, I'm so sorry, you've told me that before!" Please be understanding that I'm trying my best.

• I am way harsher on myself than my personality comes across as, so I often seek feedback.
• Vague wording in emails gives me anxiety, so if you want a meeting, please tell me what it is about.
• I am a words of affirmation person~

Environment

A little of everything...

My mother always told me I could make friends with a brick wall. I like to chat and drop in just to say hi! If I pop in and it is not a good moment for you, please feel free to say so~ I love pop ins as well! I often have trouble focusing on work that I find tedious and repetitive. Some of my ways that I get over that is by either working in a room where someone else is working. The other is I put in headphones and hide away in a dark corner.