Elevating ELL Success: Strategies for Academic and Language Support

Welcome to your Morning Boost, your daily shot of educational leadership wisdom from AWB Education. We'll explore the latest trends, share practical strategies, and inspire you to reach new heights. Stay to the end of the show for more information on our services. Now Here is your Morning Boost. Welcome to your Morning Boost. Happy Wednesday. This week, we're going to focus on supporting our English Language learners and their families. We've been talking all week about a few strategies, and we're going to talk today about some ways to help strengthen that academic connection with the school. Yesterday we were discussing some of the differences between instructional programs, descriptors, philosophies. Today, let's get to some actual ways to support our students. One thing to keep in mind, our goal is to work with our teachers to provide appropriate accommodations without drastically reducing the rigor. Now, ideally we wouldn't be reducing the rigor at all, because our EL students deserve to have the same access to education as all other peers. But to help this conversation, some times we have to dig in a little bit to how we can make sure we're liminitating some barriers. So for today's topic, let's divide this concept up into two areas. We're going to talk about language support and also talk about academic support. So in language support, I'm referring to the acquisition of English language. The job are el or esaul or depending on your state you live in, your teachers teaching English acquisition. This is the job they are doing. Now. Some districts will try to hire some bilingual teachers. This is great if you can do so, but it's also not always feasible. As I stated earlier this week, my current school district, we have our verse sixty languages spoken and they are at all levels. It would be impossible for us to be able to find that many teachers in all of those different languages in the content areas that we need, and that's probably why it's not required, because it's just not possible. But that's not really what we're talking about. What we're talking about is bridging that gap. Our goal is not to provide the instruction of the native language, but to be able to provide as much instruction in English as we can and keep working so students understand enough of it to access that language. Now that's a hard partnership for us to be able to make between our general education teachers and our English language instruction teachers, but that's our ultimate goal. We want to try to get our students to the point where they understand enough to be able to access that instruction. So how do we do that? A couple things to think about. We probably can't have enough visual aids. I'm not sure it'd be possible to have too many. Try to use as many pictures, objects, gestures to support language learning. Fact, there's the total Physical response protocols where we use physical actions to teach vocabulary and simple phrases. Going to have to get those acting skills out to be able to help with the nonverbals that are going to help students be able to develop and understand that language skill. Also, think about using simple language. Okay, I'm not saying reducing rigor, but using simple language, clear instructions to try to help get to the academic language. We're going to offer praise, offer encouragement. We want to build confidence so that our students continue to try to learn and try not to get frustrated. But on our standpoint, the frustration comes with we have to be patient and we have to be understanding as students develop language skills. Some students it'll click faster than it will with others. Other students it might take a long time. We just want to keep creating those opportunities for students to practice that language. And if we can do this in meaningful context, that's only just going to help down the road our students will be able to be able to tie those learning connections together. Think about tasks and activities that are relevant to students' lives and interests. Again, those meaningful contexts, what students are going to be able to pull from previous experiences to help with that learning. Storytelling, role play. These help engage students and they can practice language skills while also feeling more connected to that learning environment. So this is all in the language support piece, but at the same time we are trying to provide that academic learning as well. Thinking about academic support, think about some ways that you can offer some tutoring services. In fact, there's federal funding out there that's designed for EL instruction only, and you can access some of that to be able to provide some different services for just your English language learners help them succeed academically through these different ways, try to help provide that they're not going to have enough time during the day. Most of us don't have enough time during the day to teach everything we want to teach, let alone, try to learn another language. On top of that, finding ways to be able to provide access for kids outside of the school day, to be able to provide access at home with electronic means or apps or things. That's just going to help provide some of that additional services that students are going to need to be able to tie back to those academics also think about your counselors. Do your counselors know about the cultures at home? Do they understand what our students are going through and some of the unique needs of students and their families. It'll help you able to provide some services for those kids that our counselors better understand how they can in their supports as well. And then really think about that access to core we want to accommodate, we want to support, but we still need the core instruction. The last thing we want to do is pull all of our el kids out of core instruction. They may not get it right away, it may take a while to get it, but we need to continue to provide that access. They need, that exposure to core instruction. We can layer in the academic language as part of our English language acquisition. We can do all of that together so that they work hand in hand. But that EEL instruction should partner with the classroom instruction. Neither should replace the other. That collaboration between the teachers, collaboration between that level of support, that's going to be really key. So as educational leaders, we need to figure out ways to be able to allow that collaboration to happen. The goal is still going to be have access to core instruction along with that great support in English language acquisition. It's not easy. It is a challenge, but it's a challenge that we need to try to try to accommodate. It's going to take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. I promise you. You just need to be intentional about how we, as a leader, help support our programming so that everyone has the opportunities they need to develop. Working with all subgroups of students. We know it can be frustrating at times, and especially when our staff feels like they just can't communicate as easily with their students and families. But by developing a better understanding as a leader, we are going to help provide a better foundation for our programming for a building and our district, and we're going to be able to provide a better foundation for our teachers to build off of as well. Thanks for joining me today. More on this topic again tomorrow and the rest of this week. In the meantime, have a great day you have. Been listening to your morning boost from AWB Education. You can learn more about our services and find resources by visiting AWB education dot org. Please leave a rating and review to help us spread our message. Otherwise, go have a positive impact on our futures as you do the job on a few can do. We got this