English Language Learners Paper

Demographics Arlington is a district which includes students from more than 114 countries, and 99 different languages are spoken in homes. English Language Learners [ELLs] comprise 19% of Arlington Public School [APS] students (APS, ELL Students, 2014). These students enter APS with ranges of knowledge. Their language proficiency levels range from WIDA Level 1 “Entering” to Level 6 “Reaching" (Fig. 1). About one-fourth of the students are at WIDA Level 1, and about three-fourths of the ESOL/HILT/HILTEX students are at WIDA Levels 2 to 5 “Beginning, Developing, Expanding & Bridging” (APS, English Language Proficiency Levels, 2010). This paper will focus on the instruction of ELLs and struggling readers and current practices at Francis Scott
This is the first step to being considered and registered as an ELL student. The LSRC serves as the initial evaluation center for students who speak a different language at home. The evaluation begins with an interview with the student and the parent. Initially, the questions are in the student’s primary language, followed by a number of questions in English. The staff at the LSRC have several translators available for parents, with the goal of guiding them to become active participants in their child’s learning. Immediately following the interview, a list of school choice according to grade-level and neighborhood of residence. At the school level, ELLs are assessed every year using the “ACCESS for ELLs 2.0”, which is an English language proficiency assessment administered to K-12 students. This assessment includes the four domains of language: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. During the 2015-2016 school year, ELLs at Key School took their assessments online for the first time. Perhaps, as a result, many students performed well enough to test out of the ESOL/HILT [English for Speakers of other Language/High Intensity Language Training] programs. According to data from WIDA those
This grouping allows for grade-level collaboration in order to determine how to best meet the needs of the students. “within a classroom, students are often grouped by their English proficiency so that lessons can be tailored for different levels” (Sparks, 2016). In most cases, at Key School, ESOL/HILT teachers instruct the lowest performing students, including those students not designated an ELL student. Differentiation is delivered using several modes of instructional models (APS, ESOL-HILT Delivery Model, 2012). Depending on the mode of instruction used, lessons are as short as 20 minutes daily or as long as 40 minutes during push-in instruction. Daily lessons include oral language, literacy, word knowledge, vocabulary, and writing development in order for students to acquire knowledge of English reading and writing, and reading comprehension. (National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, 2008). When the instructional model is a small-group model, this type of intervention is intentionally designed for students who may be struggling with specific problems in literacy or language development (Sparks, 2016). The small-group lessons are approximately 30 minutes,