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00:00:00 --> 00:00:05 Welcome to Your Morning Boost, your daily leadership advice to help you lead your school community.
00:00:05 --> 00:00:09 Brought to you by AWB Education and sponsored by Grundmeyer Leader Services,
00:00:10 --> 00:00:14 where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time.
00:00:14 --> 00:00:16 Good morning and welcome to Your Morning Boost.
00:00:16 --> 00:00:21 I am your host today, Melissa Grinstead, and I am a lead ESOL contributor to
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 the work of AWB Education.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:28 As always, reach out for more information and to get connected with me to serve your ESOL needs.
00:00:28 --> 00:00:32 So today's topic is supporting SLIFE students.
00:00:32 --> 00:00:37 And I want to share my experience with working with SLIFE students.
00:00:37 --> 00:00:41 I currently am an ESOL instructional coach for my school district,
00:00:41 --> 00:00:43 which is one of the largest school districts within the state of Iowa.
00:00:43 --> 00:00:48 And I've had the pleasure of both teaching middle school ESOL and now working
00:00:48 --> 00:00:52 with those students in my current role as an instructional coach.
00:00:52 --> 00:00:56 And I have had the pleasure of working with many SLIFE students and their families
00:00:56 --> 00:01:01 as they transition to school in the United States and enroll in my district.
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 Many of you may be wondering what the heck is a SLIFE student?
00:01:05 --> 00:01:11 So SLIFE is an acronym that stands for Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education,
00:01:11 --> 00:01:15 and they are students who are English learners, so they're learning English
00:01:15 --> 00:01:20 as a new language, but they've also experienced significant gaps in their formal education.
00:01:20 --> 00:01:24 So this could be due to a variety of factors like displacement,
00:01:24 --> 00:01:28 conflict in the home country, or simply limited access to schooling in the home
00:01:28 --> 00:01:33 country, it's really important to understand that these students may not just
00:01:33 --> 00:01:38 have gaps or be behind academically, but they also likely are navigating trauma.
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 Cultural adjustment, and just
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 the complexities of learning a new language all simultaneously.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 So they've got a lot going on.
00:01:45 --> 00:01:49 And our SLIFE students do face some unique challenges that may be a little bit
00:01:49 --> 00:01:53 different or out of the ordinary for a typical English learner.
00:01:53 --> 00:01:57 In my experience, one of the biggest challenges that these SLIFE students sometimes
00:01:57 --> 00:02:02 face is that they sometimes have a lack of foundational literacy skills.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:06 They may not have had consistent opportunities to develop their reading and
00:02:06 --> 00:02:12 writing skills in their native language, and that makes learning English literacy even more difficult.
00:02:12 --> 00:02:16 We know that when students have established those foundational literacy skills
00:02:16 --> 00:02:21 in their native language, we have the opportunity to leverage that for transfer into English.
00:02:21 --> 00:02:25 But when those are missing altogether, particularly when we think of our students
00:02:25 --> 00:02:31 who come to us at the secondary level, that can be a really challenging barrier for us to overcome.
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 Kind of beyond that academic piece, additionally, many of our SLIFE students
00:02:34 --> 00:02:37 experience some significant social emotional challenges.
00:02:37 --> 00:02:42 Due to the circumstances of their history in their home country and their path
00:02:42 --> 00:02:47 to the United States, some of them report feeling isolated or struggle to have
00:02:47 --> 00:02:51 a connection with peers and just carry a lot of weight from their past experiences.
00:02:51 --> 00:02:56 And so it's really important that we create and be intentional about creating
00:02:56 --> 00:03:00 a safe and supportive learning environment for them to support them through
00:03:00 --> 00:03:01 some of those unique challenges.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:05 Like I mentioned, our SLIFE students are, of course, all English learners.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:10 But they experience some challenges and gaps in their foundational literacy
00:03:10 --> 00:03:14 skills that some of our typical English learners may not experience.
00:03:14 --> 00:03:19 The other piece that might be something that's a little unique to them is that they're not.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:23 Some of our SIFE students have a steeper learning curve when it comes to simply
00:03:23 --> 00:03:28 understanding the structure and expectations of a traditional American school.
00:03:28 --> 00:03:32 What they may have experienced in their home country may have looked markedly
00:03:32 --> 00:03:36 different from the structure of the typical American school system.
00:03:36 --> 00:03:40 And there may be a lot of different nuances within that that they need some
00:03:40 --> 00:03:45 explicit instruction around or that they just need some time to absorb and reflect
00:03:45 --> 00:03:50 upon so that they can integrate into potentially a very different structure and system.
00:03:50 --> 00:03:54 So when I think about that, I always like to share sort of my own experience
00:03:54 --> 00:03:55 when working with life students.
00:03:55 --> 00:03:59 So I remember the very first life student that I had the opportunity to welcome
00:03:59 --> 00:04:02 into my classroom when I was teaching ESOL at a middle school.
00:04:02 --> 00:04:06 And this particular student was a newcomer refugee from Africa.
00:04:07 --> 00:04:11 And she arrived as a sixth grader midway through the school year and on her
00:04:11 --> 00:04:15 first day of school I quickly learned that it wasn't just language that I was
00:04:15 --> 00:04:20 going to need to support her in I really had to help her learn how to do school.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:25 So for example when I handed her a pencil she attempted to she gripped it kind
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 of like a fist grip and she attempted to write with the eraser.
00:04:28 --> 00:04:33 So she had never held a pencil and she needed some guidance on which end of a pencil you write with.
00:04:33 --> 00:04:38 She would walk into my classroom or any classroom and she would go to a desk
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 and she would drag it across the room to where she wanted to sit.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:45 And that was what she thought you did. You didn't sit where the desk was located.
00:04:45 --> 00:04:46 You moved the desk to where you wanted to sit.
00:04:47 --> 00:04:50 So we had to do some learning and some teaching expectations around that.
00:04:50 --> 00:04:56 She would blurt out in class sort of mid-speech when someone else was speaking,
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 whether that was a peer or a teacher, or she would just get up and run out of
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 the room and run into a different classroom.
00:05:01 --> 00:05:06 And so So many of just the what we would consider maybe common sense or typical
00:05:06 --> 00:05:11 structures of the school system and school day, she needed a lot of modeling
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 with and patience to help her understand that.
00:05:13 --> 00:05:18 And so I always think back to that first experience and just remind myself how
00:05:18 --> 00:05:22 much bigger the picture is with SLIFE students than just helping to support
00:05:22 --> 00:05:23 that language acquisition.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:27 And I just keep in mind that we've got to take some time to get to see where
00:05:27 --> 00:05:30 those students are at and meet them where they're at and help them along their
00:05:30 --> 00:05:32 journey to be successful in an American school.
00:05:33 --> 00:05:37 So when I think about what's been most helpful for me and when I'm thinking
00:05:37 --> 00:05:41 about how to differentiate instruction for these life students who have maybe
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 these more significant gaps and foundational skills,
00:05:44 --> 00:05:49 what it really comes down to and what I've seen the most success with is starting with those basics.
00:05:49 --> 00:05:54 So really being intentional and explicit about that phonics and phonemic awareness
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 instruction, as well as vocabulary development.
00:05:57 --> 00:06:01 And another huge thing for these SLIFE students is to provide them opportunities
00:06:01 --> 00:06:06 to build that oral language through conversation and meaningful interactions
00:06:06 --> 00:06:07 with peers and their teachers,
00:06:07 --> 00:06:11 as well as collaborative activities so that they can see their peers modeling
00:06:11 --> 00:06:15 appropriate English and structure and grammar. Those are going to be huge.
00:06:15 --> 00:06:18 And then additionally, just building those relationships, right?
00:06:19 --> 00:06:24 So we know that for a student to feel confident and to be vulnerable and to
00:06:24 --> 00:06:28 take risks when they're learning, they need to sort of have that effective filter lowered.
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 They need to feel calm and safe and supported and welcomed.
00:06:31 --> 00:06:36 And so really working to create those relationships out of the gates and being
00:06:36 --> 00:06:39 intentional about how that classroom environment is structured so that students
00:06:39 --> 00:06:44 feel safe is really going to go a long way in building trust and helping students
00:06:44 --> 00:06:45 to feel safe in their learning journey.
00:06:45 --> 00:06:51 I think the other piece that is huge with our SLIFE students is to really tap
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 into the visual piece of learning, right?
00:06:53 --> 00:06:58 So more than ever, with our SLIFE students who may lack that academic language,
00:06:58 --> 00:07:02 but also some of those foundational experiences due to their interrupted schooling.
00:07:03 --> 00:07:08 Any time that we can get a picture or a real object or a hands-on activity in
00:07:08 --> 00:07:11 front of them is really going to be powerful because it's going to eliminate
00:07:11 --> 00:07:15 that linguistic barrier and help them really connect with the concept in front of them.
00:07:15 --> 00:07:18 I think connecting to their prior knowledge and experiences is key.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 So getting to know the student and really figuring out what is their background,
00:07:22 --> 00:07:25 what have they experienced, and any time that we can make those connections.
00:07:25 --> 00:07:30 So if a student has a background in agriculture, perhaps we can tie in some
00:07:30 --> 00:07:34 math lessons with that, like with farming practices or whatever it is that they
00:07:34 --> 00:07:38 might connect to and be able to anchor those learning experiences,
00:07:38 --> 00:07:39 it's going to be super powerful.
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 Additionally, when we're talking about, of course, all of our students,
00:07:42 --> 00:07:48 but particularly our SLIFE students, that family engagement piece is going to be so crucial.
00:07:48 --> 00:07:53 Schools really need to find whatever way that they can to connect with the families,
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 even when we are presented with a language barrier.
00:07:56 --> 00:08:01 So we know that we need to make use of interpreters and cultural liaisons and
00:08:01 --> 00:08:05 whatever we can to connect with the family, learn how we can best support them
00:08:05 --> 00:08:09 and their students. That is your Morning Boost for today.
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 Thank you for hanging out with me this morning, and we will talk again tomorrow.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:17 You have been listening to your Morning Boost by AWB Education in partnership
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 with Grundmeyer Leader Services.
00:08:19 --> 00:08:23 You can find out more about our services by clicking on the links in the description.
00:08:24 --> 00:08:28 Remember, you are doing this vital job that only a few can do.
00:08:29 --> 00:08:33 So until next time, thank you for your service to your community.