ELLs & Special Education

One of the most challenging and pressing issues we face as bilingual educators committed to helping every ELL be as successful as they possible can is that of how to best serve English Language Learners with learning disabilities.  Whenever I reflect on this topic I think about my sweet third grade student Miguel (name changed) who was learning English as a second language, was a year older than his peers and yet grade levels behind, was placed in Special Ed due to a severe learning disability that evidenced itself most fully in reading and writing, and came from an incredibly impoverished single parent home.  This little boy faced a number of challenges, and though I worked very hard to understand his learning disability and to understand how his language needs, learning needs, and social-emotional needs were alike, different, etc, I still reflect on my two years teaching Miguel and feel like there was so much more I could have done.

I also think of Kaylee, Jose, and several other students I've taught who were English Language Learners and learning disabled.   Some I taught while in a 50/50 or 90/10 dual immersion setting, others in an English immersion environment.  All struggled tremendously--mostly because I wasn't very well equipped to meet their unique needs.  As committed bilingual educators, the more we can learn about serving our special needs ELLs, the higher the chances they'll be able to reach their full academic potential.

Check out this video webcast with Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan who discusses effective assessment and instructional strategies for English Language Learners with disabilities.  Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan developed the Esperanza Spanish reading and writing program and runs a bilingual speech pathology center down here in Brownsville.



The resources about ELLs and Special Ed are few and far between.  I have reached out to Francisco Najera with a question or two before--he is the faculty director of the Bank Street College of Education's program in Dual Language/Bilingual Special Education.  George Washington University's website reports that there are only eight graduate programs in the country "that prepare educators to meet the cultural, language, social and learning needs of a growing number of culturally and linguistically diverse, and/or exceptional students." 

Here are a few more resources I've stumbled upon:

• Bilingual Special Ed, ERIC digest
• Blog: Effective Practices in Bilingualism & Special Ed
• Bilingual Students with Disabilities get Special Help: How a school in NV does it
• Book:  The Bilingual Special Education Interface
• MA's SIG for Bilingual Special Education (also scroll down for links to add'l resources)
• Bilingual Special Education resources for purchase
• ELLs with Special Needs: Effective Instructional Strategies (CAL Digest)
• Empowering Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Students with Learning Problems (by Jim Cummins; ERIC Digest)  This digest is based on A Theoretical Framework for Bilingual Special Education by Jim Cummins (Exceptional Children, October 9, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 111-119. EJ 399079). 

CORE Phonics Survey in English and Spanish

Looking for some additional phonemic awareness and phonics assessment tools in English and/or Spanish?  Check out the CORE Phonics Survey.

Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful way to help immerse students in their first or second language.  It's also a great way to assess their progress in language proficiency.  Last year many of our teachers experimented with an approach that used the 5 point narrative retelling rubric from the Pre-LAS/LAS-Links exams throughout the year.  Several times a year the teachers chose a well known story (one they'd previously read several times in their classroom) and color copied several pictures that represent key plot events.  They then asked the students to use the pictures to tell them the book's story.  They then transcribed the story (as you do in the official test administration) and assigned them a rubric score based on their retelling.

This also reminded teachers that oral storytelling was something children needed lots of opportunities to engage in and receive support and feedback around throughout the year.  One great idea from a Spanish immersion preschool I visited a year or so ago: the teacher had a large train posted on the wall with 4 or 5 carriages.  This "story train" had a picture posted in each carriage from a favorite story they'd read together the week before.  Children had multiple opportunities to retell the story using these pictures as a guide (again, color copies of key plot points).  This provided opportunities for instruction and informal assessment around each student's use of a number of language structures, such as: verb tense & agreement (especially in the preterite), using adverbs & adjectives to describe and elaborate, using sequential "markers" (first, next, later, then, finally, etc), vocabulary depth & complexity--particularly with verbs & nouns, sense of story beginning, middle, end...etc.

By creating some sort of checklist or rubric, you can very easily track small degrees of progress in your students' oral language proficiency.  You could also use it when they tell oral stories from their own life--basically any time they're retelling anything!  You can, of course, use other language interactions beyond storytelling; this just seemed like good place to at least begin and experiment with the idea.  I recommend you use the oral retelling rubric from your end of year language proficiency exam (like the LAS, Woodcock-Muñoz, etck) as a place to start and then break language objectives down from there.

Here are a few resources I found online that could give you some things to think about as you engage students in lots of storytelling for language acquisition.  Be aware, however, that most storytelling/retelling rubrics focus only on the content, delivery, and story structure; they don't typically focus on the actual language structures second language learners should be using to tell the stories.  That's why I liked using our LAS rubric so much--it centers on using retelling as a way to develop and assess second language acquisition and really helps focus on specific language structures.  Regardless, here are some resources that might help you identify key language objectives to teach and assess in the context of storytelling:


Rubrics from StoryArts.com
Julie's Rubrics for Retelling
          Fiction Retelling Rubric
          Nonfiction Retelling Rubric
          Sequencing Rubric
          Summarizing Rubric
Oral Language Rubric
Fairfax County PALS Rubrics
Rubric Ideas & Rubric Generator
Oral Language Checklist for ELLs

Spanish Phonics (K-2)

Over the past month, I've been working on a few Spanish Language Arts projects for IDEA from home.  The majority of my time has been spent working on the following leveled Spanish phonics "continuum" that provides a sequence in which to introduce letters, sounds, and spelling patterns during Word Study in Spanish.  Each level includes a number of phonics principles and combinations that would each be taught according to the order found in the district's textbook adoption (Tesoros de lectura), but this leveling system can help track pretty specifically what students have and haven't mastered and can help students track their own progress from level to level.  I also created level-specific teaching and practice activities--it's a very basic beginning that can help novice Spanish Language Arts teachers get their phonics instruction up and moving.  The following phonics skills are typically taught and mastered by native Spanish speakers learning to read in L1 during Kinder, 1st Grade, and the first half of 2nd Grade.  It can certainly be used to the meet the needs of older children who need intervention or who are learning Spanish as a second language in later grades.  Once these levels are mastered, children should be expected to dive into deeper structural analysis and morphology of words.  (Please excuse any errors--after submitting them to the central office point person they were then to be reviewed and proofread, so I apologize for any and all errors you might find!)

Overview of Levels & Word Lists

Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Level 6
Level 7
Level 8
Level 9
Level 10
Level 11
Level 12
Level 13
Level 14
Level 15
Level 16
Level 17
Level 18
Level 19
Level 20

Tesoros de Lectura: Scope & Sequence

Determining Students' Dominant Language

There's a lot of terminology flying around when talking about second language learning...native language, primary language, home language, mother tongue, L1, etc.  We decided that we would call a child's strongest and (usually) native language their dominant language.   This can be different from what's in our student information system as the home language or primary language, since those terms refer to what parents designate on the state required home language survey completed during initial registration.  Since some Spanish-speaking parents come in with negative perceptions of bilingual education, a few occasionally mark English as the home language even though their child is more proficient in Spanish.  We also have English-dominant parents who have marked Spanish as the home language (often because some Spanish is spoken in the home even though it's not spoken as often as English) because this can sometimes help qualify children for PK programs--while, in fact, it sometimes turns out that the child is stronger in English.  So, as you can see, if we went simply with the parent-reported home language, then we'd be doing some children a disservice and providing them with initial guided reading instruction in the wrong language.

So, at IDEA Mission we have a more thorough way of identifying childrens' dominant language.  When the child first enrolls, we administer the Pre-LAS (Kinder) or LAS Links (Grades 1 up) in both English and Spanish.  This is a standardized language assessment that gives both a raw (varies) and scale (1 - 5) score in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and overall proficiency (the Pre-LAS assesses listening and speaking only).  Some other districts use different state-approved language assessments such as the Woodcock-Muñoz.  Here's a list of all TEA approved tests.

We also ask each parent to complete a more extensive Family & Language Background Survey (English or Spanish).  If a child has transferred from another district, we also have information included in their previous records to help us make a decision.

During each student's initial LPAC (Language Proficiency Assessment Committee) meeting, we review their LAS scores in both languages, the parent responses on the Family & Language Background Survey, previous school records (if applicable), and any additional teacher observations.  About 90% of the time, this data alone makes it very clear which language is the child's dominant language.  We then assign their dominant language accordingly.  This helps us balance classrooms to have an equal (or as close as possible) number of English and Spanish dominant students, to provide initial small group guided reading instruction in their dominant language (Kinder & 1st Grades), to know which language they will take their district and state required K/1 benchmark literacy assessments in, etc.  If, after reviewing this data, it's unclear which language is the student's strongest, we'll gather more data--we'll call parents on the phone to ask additional questions, look at more student work, compare reading levels and other student achievement data in both languages.  We want to make sure we make the right dominant language assignment for every child, so we leave no stone unturned and we make no guesses.  It definitely takes some time initially, but it is well worth making the correct identification.  This does mean that we occasionally have a non-LEP student whose dominant language is actually Spanish and LEP students whose dominant language is actually English--not often, but it has happened in our unique bilingual community.

Now, the LPAC process is required by the state for every English Language Learner (LEP--Limited English Proficient student), but at IDEA Mission we go through the LPAC process for every single child since every student on our campus is a second language learner--either in English or in Spanish.  Every parent must sign a program acknowledgement form, verifying that they are aware that their child is in a two-way immersion bilingual program.  This also serves as the permission form required by the state for bilingual program placement, but notice that there is no parent denial option.  Every student who chooses to come to IDEA Mission chooses to be a part of our two-way program.

Just a side note...we sometimes hear people refer to a child's dominant language as his/her "language of instruction."  The language of instruction is actually whatever language they're being instructed in at a given time.  For example, one week the math language of instruction might be in English while the next week it could be in Spanish.  The language of instruction changes.  A child's dominant language does not, though the goal is for every student to eventually be fully proficient in both his/her dominant language as well as in their second language--this is true bilingualism and biliteracy!

Literacy Curriculum Work

For the next week or so, I'm working on some Spanish curriculum for the district--exciting that there will be Spanish materials developed at the district level!  I'm posting the K - 1 HFW lists--organized into levels that children will progress through, some by the end of 1st grade, others by mid-2nd grade.

HFW English Level 1
HFW English Level 2
HFW English Level 3
HFW English Level 4
HFW English Level 5
HFW English Level 6
HFW English Level 7
HFW English Level 8
HFW English Level 9
HFW English Level 10

HFW Spanish Level 1 
HFW Spanish Level 2
HFW Spanish Level 3
HFW Spanish Level 4
HFW Spanish Level 5
HFW Spanish Level 6
HFW Spanish Level 7
HFW Spanish Level 8
HFW Spanish Level 9
HFW Spanish Level 10

We found that our new text adoption's phonics scope and sequence in Kinder could do with some "accelerating" and needed a few additional skills/objectives, so I developed these simple revisions:
Kinder Phonics Accelerated (English & Spanish)

I also found these Bloom's Taxonomy resources in both Spanish & English--super helpful for unit and lesson planning!
Bloom's Taxonomy English
Bloom's Taxonomy Spanish

Finalized Master Schedule for 2010 - 11

Even though I'm no longer the principal of IDEA Mission (decided this summer to leave the school in the capable hands of my former assistant principal), I'm still plan to keep adding to this blog as I continue my work in another position (more on this later!).  Here's the update schedule for this coming school year:

Revised Master Schedule 2010-11  (with 2nd grade change:  to prepare for the 3rd - 5th grade model, this year's 2nd graders will receive Math in English and Our World in Spanish--this may or may not be the case for the following year's 2nd graders.  Part of me thinks our new K/1 model should extend into 2nd grade the following year, including Teaching Fellows and the weekly language switch for all content areas, Math/Our World included.  This year needed to be different, however, as this year's 2nd graders have been our "guinea pigs" and haven't had full DL since Kindergarten the way the class below them has had)


Thoughts I've had for 3rd - 5th grade:  This would be intense on the budget, but a "wishlist" setup for 3rd - 5th grade would be 5 teacher teams.  The responsibilities would be as follows:

English Team Teacher (2 per grade level--teaches 2 homerooms)

   * ELA

   * Science

Spanish Team Teacher (2 per grade level--teaches 2 homerooms)

   * SLA

   * Social Studies

Math Teacher (1 per grade level--teaches 90 min math blocks to all 4 homerooms)

   * Math (in English)

I know it doesn't maintain a perfect 50/50 language division but it's critical, for testing purposes, that the students have math and science instruction in English in the upper grades.  Now, if this wouldn't work budgetarily (and, unfortunately, it likely won't) then we'd have to get really really creative and think about how we can get the above content areas with their assigned language of instruction into a two-teacher only teaming situation.  More thinking...nothing has proved impossible yet!

Language Standards

I've been working on clear second-language development expectations that could be attached to our quarterly report card to show measurable progress toward second language acquisition. Right now we use the Pre-LAS (Kinder) and LAS-Links assessments (Grades 1 and up) to measure language acquisition, but those are only administered at the beginning and end of the year--we need to teach, assess, and track more "bite-sized" language objectives throughout the year.  Here's what we've got so far for English Language Development (have yet to tackle Spanish Language Development!)...

 Download: Language Development Report Card Standards

Spanish Reading Assessment

One of the trickiest aspects of figuring out a two-way immersion model is the assessment piece.  Who will be assessed on what, when, and in which language?  We've determined thus far that the schoolwide/districtwide benchmark literacy assessments (TPRI/Tejas Lee, Guided Reading level assessments, High Frequency Words) would be administered to children in their dominant language...at least during K - 2.  Haven't yet figured out grades 3 - 5.  (**Exciting note:  the district found a way to add Dominant Language as a demographic category in PowerSchool, our main student information system.  They were also able to sync this info with Data Director, our student achievement data management system, so that we can disaggregate data by language dominance and also keep a permanent "living" record on file of the LPAC committee's initial decision concerning language dominance.  Previously we'd been working from our own excel spreadsheets but there was way too much room for error as we added new students, removed withdrawn students and sent out the lists to teachers).  In-class formative and summative assessment is given to all students in the language of instruction.  With our math assessments, we administer the assessment in the current language of instruction for math and provide retesting opportunities in the dominant language for any students that didn't reach the expected level of mastery.

Our English teachers use the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment kit--a solid system for assessment students' reading levels using benchmark books, running records, and clear guidelines for considering accuracy, fluency, and comprehension to determine a child's instructional reading level.  It does not exist in Spanish, however, so my assistant principal spent a great deal of time over the summer creating a similar kit in Spanish.  She chose benchmark books from www.readinga-z.com and created running record note pages for a fiction text and nonfiction text at each level.  It was a tremendous task and she did a wonderful job!  However it doesn't have the kinds of rubrics and tables and calculation charts for identifying accuracy, fluency, and comprehension scores that the F&P kits have so the Spanish teachers are having to put in a lot more work for the same assessment.

One of my kinder Spanish teachers sent me a link for the Spanish version of DRA:  Click here to go to the Pearson website.

It looks very promising, especially since there are established conversion charts that correlate the DRA numerical levels to F&P's letter levels (what we report to the district).  Extra exciting is the fact that DRA is now available to administer via handheld devices.  Tango software (the company we use for TPRI/Tejas Lee testing on Palms) has the software for DRA, making testing much faster and automatic.  IDEA Quest uses DRA so I've emailed Sharon a few questions about it and a request to borrow any extra kits she might have.  But what I've seen on the website looks very very exciting!  I hope to purchase kits for our campus and be trained and ready to go before our EOY testing later in May 2010.

Added Aug 16, 2010:  Bilingual Means Two:  Assessment Issues, Early Literacy & Spanish-Speaking Children, by Kathy Escamilla

Mid-Year Reflection

Our first semester of two-way immersion is almost over. Since my last post we've had two more visits from Dr. Mercuri. She spent a half day with each grade level. Some big "illuminations" resulting from the meeting with each grade level:

1st grade: We really began to think long and hard about language objectives and how to craft them. We came to realize that it doesn't necessarily have to be a separate "self-contained" language objective for every daily class period. Instead, we learned that language objectives within a given content area can be longer-term (ie: weekly), but from this objective we should "unpack" daily, scaffolded, "bite-sized" daily objectives. For example, in a science unit on rocks, we might craft the sequence of language objectives something like this:

• Monday: Students will identify rocks with specific characteristics (ex: individual or groups of students have a few rocks and hold up rock(s) as teacher calls out characteristics, such as "smooth," "rough," "black," "shiny," etc) This is a LISTENING language objective--students don't yet have to produce language but they are listening and comprehending.
• Tuesday: Students will orally describe a rock. (ex: student has a particular rock and must orally describe it, perhaps using a sentence frame to support language use at the sentence level; "My rock is _______.") Students are producing language orally--this is a SPEAKING language objective. For beginning language learners we might only expect the use of one particular adjective.
• Wednesday: Students will write a sentence describing a rock. (ex: student does what he/she did yesterday, but this time in writing) This is a WRITING language objective--we might even use a more complex sentence frame today to encourage children to use more than one adjective in describing their rock: "My rock is _____ and _____.")
• Thursday: Students will compare 2 rocks. (ex: students work in bilingual pairs and orally complete the following sentence frames: Our rocks are similar because they both _________. Our rocks are different because one is ______ but the other is ________. Perhaps they could use a Venn Diagram to prepare for this more complex level of thinking and language production.)

So on and so forth...

I had a huge light go on for me--I realized that language objectives were tightly connected to different modes of thinking and different ways of visually organizing information. I began seeing how the same graphic organizers and sentence frames could be used across all content areas to promote high level thinking and explanations of such thinking. I immediately went to the Thinking Maps website (www.thinkingmaps.com), pulled out release TAKS tests from grades 3 - 6, etc. and began drafting a set of graphic organizers/thinking maps, accompanied by general sentence frames, that we could use to much more systematically and powerfully build comprehension, high-level thinking, and academic language production. For example, a simple Venn Diagram for comparing and contrasting has 2 sentence frames connected to it: ______ and _____ are similar because __________. ______ and ______ are different because ____________. This could be used in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, anywhere!

Here are some quick examples...





We now just need to translate into Spanish.


Kinder: The Kinder team had been experimenting with Preview-View-Review quite a bit and decided that instead of adding Preview-View-Review in their regular lesson plans, they'd create a document that just contained their P-V-R plans. It was obvious they were a little further along in this area than the other grade levels. Some great things kinder is doing to make P-V-R more powerful:

• posting same vocabulary words (in different languages) with the same visual in both the Spanish and English classrooms
• when content areas transfer to the partner teacher (every three weeks), teachers exchange anchor charts (ex: a reading workshop chart outlining what readers do and don't do during independent reading) so that the partner teachers can recreate them with the same visuals in the other language.
• every classroom has the same unit anchor chart (for example, during a unit on the 5 senses, each teacher posted the outline of a child on the inside of their classroom door with the title: How did I use my 5 senses today? or ¿Cómo usé mis 5 sentidos hoy? Teachers would give students a chance to review their learning each day (from either English or Spanish classes) and record its connection to the 5 senses using this ongoing anchor chart)
• Whole grade level team planning of P-V-R for the upcoming week

I'm going to stop and explain a little bit about the evolution of structured collaboration on our campus (as I think I've neglected to explain it here)--we've understood more and more clearly the importance of team planning in our model. Every grade level has 60 min of common conference time per day (in addition to about 110 min of personal planning time scattered throughout the week). The common conference times have some very specific objectives:

• Monday: Grade Level Team Meetings (facilitated by the grade level leader--agenda items can cover anything and everything. It's often about logistical things--field lessons, homework, upcoming events, etc--though 2 grade levels have often started spending about 15 min each week discussing a book they're all reading). Once every three weeks team leaders are expected to dedicate 15 - 20 min of this meeting to discussing students teachers are considering referring to the SAC (Student Assistance Committee--part of RTI). This is called Pre-SAC.
• Tuesday: Personal Planning (we try to leave Tuesday open as this is when we schedule SAC meetings, LPAC meetings for ELLs, etc. Lesson plans are always due Tuesday nights, so this, hopefully, gives teachers the chance to sometimes work on them during Tuesday conference.
• Wednesday: Same Language Partner Planning -- every grade level has 2 English teachers and 2 Spanish teachers. They divide the planning together. Let's say that for a given 3 week period Spanish teachers are teaching Reading Workshop and Math (instead of Writing Workshop & Our World--taught in English for those same 3 weeks). Every teacher also teaches Language and Word Study every day, so that children get this in both languages every day. Spanish Teacher A would create the lesson plans for Reading Workshop & Math while Spanish Teacher B would create the plans for Language and Word Study and Centers. During Wednesday's conference period, they review all plans together so that both teachers are on the same page and fully understand the lesson plans created by the other, have the resources they need, etc.
• Thursday: Bilingual Team Planning -- After both English teachers and both Spanish teachers get on the same page within their respective languages of instruction on Wednesdays, they are ready to come together to collaborate across languages on Thursdays. My teachers have tried several different things for this meeting--first it was just in pairs (the Spanish teacher and English teacher that teach the same 2 homerooms), then it was as an entire grade level (both English teachers and both Spanish teachers), but both my Kinder and 1st grade teams have decided upon a balance of the two. For the first 30 minutes of this meeting, they meet as an entire grade level and identify key areas they need the partner language teachers to preview or review for. This helps every teacher of the team better understand how their instruction contributes to the overarching unit of inquiry and also how their teaching helps reinforce instruction in the other lanuage. It also helps them identify how everyone can help children make critical connections across languages and transfer knowledge and skills from one to the other. The 2nd 30 minutes of the meeting is spent in separate bilingual pairs (just 2 teachers)--here they discuss individual students they teach together, share data, agree on key procedures or approaches that need to be kept consistent across both classrooms, etc. Last week (week of Dec 14 - 18) I observed both Kinder and 1st conduct this bilingual team/pair meeting and saw we've come a loooong way compared to the beginning of the year!)
• Friday: Problem of Practice (or) Personal Planning -- I reserve Fridays for grade level "problem of practice" meetings. Or, if this doesn't happen, teachers have additional personal planning time. Problem of Practice meetings can be really powerful. This is where I can address common needs across the grade level--as I observe and debrief with all first grade teachers, I might find that there are certain areas of instruction in which all of first grade could benefit from support in. So, I facilitate "problem of practice" meetings where I'll help develop grade levels around a particular aspect of instruction. We might watch video, observe in other classrooms, hold discussions, etc. Some example of "problem of practice" meetings are: Writing strong objectives, Posting and communicating objectives to students, Increasing student engagement to 100%, etc.. Often a by-product of these meetings are observation templates that teachers use to conduct peer observations...10 min "peeks" into a colleague's classroom, focused on our current problem of practice. It makes sure teachers step outside of their own isolated classrooms every once in a while. I expect each teacher to conduct a minimum of one 10-min peer observation every 2 weeks. My assistant tracks completion of this expectation.

That sums up how we've structured collaborative planning. Teams are learning to be better about assigning a time-keeper and note-taker each meeting. They're also reporting that without these meetings (Wednesday and Thursday meetings in particular) their following week of instruction can sometimes really suffer. As a school lead team, we're working to make sure we never interfere with Wed and Thurs meetings if at all possible. We're working to really safeguard this time and treat it as something of very high-priority.

I also dedicated an entire Faculty Wednesday afternoon professional development session (students have early release so we can hold PD on Wednesdays) to "fine-tuning" collaboration. I gave grade level teams substantial time to discuss and plan together. They had to identify clear objectives for each collaboration session, articulate standing agenda items (and time allocation for each), and identify common obstacles to meeting efficiency & efficacy and brainstorm solutions. They had to discuss meeting facilitation and roles/responsibilities of each team member. They reviewed team norms and re-committed themselves to this. Each grade level turned in a written synopsis of their decisions to me (I, in turn, reviewed these with Dr. Mercuri for feedback--she was highly complimentary of the strides teachers were making in this area).

I also talked to her about another challenge that teachers keep bringing up--the tri-weekly transfer of content areas (all except Language and Word Study). Teachers have expressed that they feel "out of it" when it comes back around to them to teach each content area every 3 weeks. They feel unsure about what objectives have been taught and how individual students are progressing toward mastery of these objectives. I discussed several solutions with Dr. Mercuri:

• Changing subjects bi-weekly or weekly: This would shorten the time during which teachers don't teach a particular content area, leaving them less "in the dark" about what's being taught. Dr. Mercuri recommended we consider this--either piloting this year or considering for next year. Melissa (grade 1 team leader) posed the idea to her team but they preferred to keep it tri-weekly.
• Improving communication between bilingual partner teachers: If we don't change the timeframe of content area transfers, then we need to improve flow of information between the teachers sharing students. I proposed one idea to teachers and they seemed to like it--I suggested that once every 3 weeks that their co-teacher cover class for the morning or afternoon, giving them the chance to spend a whole AM or PM session in their team teacher's classroom--watching carefully how and what is being taught in each content area to facilitate a more seamless transfer of subjects from one language to the other. I was very honest about my only worry--that it would taken them from their own instruction too often, but my teachers' feedback was that, at least in these beginning stages, the longterm benefits would outweigh that drawback. They felt this would really help transfer of subjects.
• Finally, I need to figure out how to better use Faculty Wednesday (periodically) to facilitate transfer of student achievement data across team teachers. We've done a couple of exercises, but nothing that really has become an ingrained and regular practice for us. One data analysis activity we did do a month (or so) ago seemed to be very powerful in getting bilingual teaching pairs to look at data together. I printed out the most current student achievment data in reading levels, high frequency word mastery, math objective mastery, etc. Teachers worked together to "color-code" results according to the following categories (I gave them clear quantitative guidelines around this too): CRITICAL (far below expected standard--red); BORDERLINE (below expected standard--yellow); MASTERY (meeting expected standard--green); EXCEEDING (well above expected standard--blue). Using this color-coded spreadsheets, teaching pairs then created student priority lists for each homeroom, with the highest-need students at the top. We divided the list into English-dominant and Spanish-dominant students, so we could prioritize within language dominance. I also added a column for "behavior-priority" children. Sometimes a child might not be struggling academically, but might be a top-priority child (for interventions and support) due to behavior. I'm trying to use these priority lists to help me better focus my observations and debriefs of teachers. That particular activity is one I plan to replicate periodically as we get more data.

VACATION PRIORITIES

During this Christmas vacation, I want to take some time to do the following:

1. Think through a pilot of changing our tri-weekly subject transfers to weekly or bi-weekly. Perhaps Kinder would be willing to pilot this? I'll consider presenting the idea to them but will not force anything at this point. They are already trying so many new things--any other changes/tweaks will require 100% investment on their part in order to be succesful.
   
2. Analyze progress monitoring reading data for our 1st grade Spanish dominant students reading at a critically low level. Figure out some short-term and long-term solutions.
3. Start planning what kind of curriculum work must be done in preparation for the 2010 - 11 school year and when/how it will be done. What materials need to be purchased? What professional development needs to take place?
4. Other reflections on the past semester... Dr. Mercuri and I had a conference call just over a week ago. She was very kind and complimentary as she praised the work that has gone on at our campus thus far. She encouraged me to record as much as I could concerning the process we've gone through. She mentioned that she's considering writing/editing a book about curriculum planning for dual immersion programs, and asked me to write down as much as possible in preparation for potentially contributing our school's experience to this collection of articles/essays. What an opportunity that would be. For that reason I'm trying to get as much as possible down in this blog. I know some things make sense only to me, but hopefully it will be reminder enough for me to come back to and really get down on paper so that other schools can benefit from our successes and victories.