Importance of English Language Learners

Supporting English Language Learners North Boone School District is located in rural Boone County, Illinois. The district serves approximately 1,700 students. North Boone is a medium district with six schools in the district. There are three K-4 schools, one 5-6 school, one 7-8 school, and one high school. I teach eighth grade mathematics at North Boone Middle School where 6.1% of students are English Language Learners (ELLs) (Illinois Interactive Report Card, n.d.). Our district has one certified bilingual teacher that travels between buildings, and one native language speaking aide at each building. North Boone Middle School has an enrollment of 19 or fewer English Language Learners of a single language classification other than English. Our school provides a transitional program of instruction (TPI) for those students (Illinois State Board of Education, 2011). The program provides support to help students succeed in academic subjects and learn English. We offer ELLs pull-out and push-in instruction. In the pull-out process, the bilingual certified teacher or the native language speaking aide pulls ELLs out of the mainstream classroom to provide content instruction. In the push-in process, the bilingual certified teacher or the native language speaking aide goes into the mainstream classroom to provide instruction to ELLs. Our school also offers after-school assistance. This assistance is tutorial instruction for ELLs offered by our bilingual certified teacher twice a week. Our bilingual certified teacher meets with classroom teachers to review educational strengths and needs of ELLs in order to meet their academic achievement. Dr. Stritikus (Laureate, Inc., 2010) describes characteristics of effective schools for culturally linguistic diverse students. These characteristics include school-wide commitment, connection to the community, high quality learning environments, and connection with student lives. How does North Boone Middle School’s efforts to support ELLs compare to these characteristics? North Boone Middle School has a school-wide commitment. The bilingual certified teacher and the native language speaking aide are not the only two responsible for our ELLs. All teachers and staff in the building share the responsibility for these students. We work together to improve instruction and services for ELLs. Our school has a connection to the community, by welcoming members of immigrant communities. We have a translator in our building. He translates school newsletters from English to Spanish for our families. During parent teacher conferences, he translates between teachers and the non English speaking parents. If a teacher needs to make a phone call home or send a note home to a parent that does not speak English, he does this for us. We want to know any concerns our immigrant parents may have. To collect this information, the school sends a survey to all families in English and Spanish at the beginning, middle, and end of the school year. One area that can be improved would be providing a high-quality learning environment. We do provide a safe and challenging environment for ELLs, but this can be improved. Teachers need more training in strategies and methods to make content accessible for ELLs, to use the content to develop English language learning and to connect the content to the language and culture of students (Laureate, Inc., 2010). This was the first year our school had professional development for teachers pertaining to ELLs. This occurred because of an audit of our ELL program. Our district should offer in-service activities to staff at least twice yearly. Another area that can be improved is connecting directly with students lives. We need to bring the rich cultural and linguistic resources from ELLs homes into the classroom (Laureate, Inc., 2010). There are some connections made to student’s cultural and linguistic background, but not enough. The role of a classroom teacher in ensuring support for ELLs at my school is to ensure success of these students through our commitment to students. Teachers understand the program used for ELLs. Teachers present information a variety of ways, emphasize key vocabulary words, and repeat and review information frequently (Reed & Railsback, 2003). Teachers can also ensure support of ELLs by becoming familiar with the English Language Proficiency Standards for English Language Learners (Lisboa, 2004). The teacher should meet the needs of ELLs, but must also make sure they thrive in school and beyond (Laureate, Inc., 2010). Schools need to take a role in supporting the education of ELLs. North Boone Middle School has programs, strategies, and practices in place to help our ELLs succeed in school and beyond. We know there are areas which need to be improved and will work towards making our program the best possible for our ELLs.

References
Illinois Interactive Report Card. (n.d.). North Boone CUSD 200. Retrieved from iirc.niu.edu?District.aspx?source=Profile&districtID=04004200026&level=D
Illinois State Board of Eductaion. (2011). Transitional bilingual education. Retrieved from www.isbe.net/rules/archive/pdfs/228ark.pdf
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Characteristics of Effective Schools. [Video webcast]. In Walden University: Enhancing Learning through Linguistic and Cultural Diversity. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1959782_1%26url%3D
Lisboa, R. (2004). Illinois English language proficiency standards for English language learners (K-12). Retrieved from www.isbe.net/bilingual/pdfs/elps_framework.pdf
Reed, B., & Railsback, J. (2003). Strategies and resources for mainstream teachers of
English language learners. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. Copyright by Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon