1. A Team Effort To Develop A Successful Program For English Language Learners Irene Jiménez Director of Bilingual/ESL Programs Hays CISD jimenezi@hayscisd.net

2. District Profile Hays CISD is in North Central Hays County/South of Austin 2007-2008: 13,000 students 17 campuses/2 High Schools, 2 Alternative Programs, 4 Middle Schools, 9 Elementary Schools

3. District Profile ELL Population: 1600 (2000-2001 364 ELLs) Dual Language Programs: One Way Program K – 4 Two Way Program K – 4 Content Based ESL Instruction

4. District Profile SIOP Trained Secondary Teachers Content Area Intervention Teachers SIOP Trained Instructional Strategists Newcomer Center

5. Challenges We Faced Improve Attendance–ELL students were not showing up for school Provide Support for Teachers-Our teachers could not communicate with their students Help, they don’t speak English!

6. Challenges We Faced To improve TAKS scores To show growth in English reading proficiency as measured by the Reading Proficiency Test in English Motivate students to attend school and graduate

7. What We Had Tried Content Mastery ESL Strategies/Content Area Teachers Translations Mexican textbooks

8. Looking For Solutions and Exploring Our Options Leadership Team: Director of Secondary Curriculum, Principals, Assistant Principals, Counselors, Communities in School, Bilingual/ESL Director, ESL Teachers, Math and Science teachers

9. Findings Increasing number of recent immigrants Students and teachers could not communicate with each other Students were not mastering the curriculum Students were not participating in class

10. Findings Secondary teachers were unprepared to instruct English Language Learners Lack of appropriate resources or materials for ELLS for content area subjects Unable to provide support for students with gaps in their education No available assessment instrument in L1

11. Goals To Assist ELL Students To acquire social and academic English To develop speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in English To integrate with native English speakers

12. Goals To improve attendance To acquire credits toward graduation To master TAKS To increase their confidence to participate in class

13. New Arrival Center Created To Serve ELL Students who were enrolled in grades 9-11 who are Non-English Speakers who had been in the country for less than 1 year

14. Steps Taken Superintendent approval Visited New Arrival Center in Galena Park ISD Generated parent and student interest/Bilingual Advisory Council

15. Steps Taken Board Approval Attended the Accelerated Learning Training for New Arrival Centers- Phase I and Phase II Bought the curriculum Decided to house program at Lehman High School

16. Program Design/ First Year Half day program for 1 semester Class size was limited to 20 students Credits earned:.5 ESL,.5 U.S. History,.5 Public Speaking,.5 Reading (as a local credit)

17. Program Design/ First Year Afternoon classes: Students with gaps in education: Fine Arts, Physical Education, Computer Students strong in L1: Math, World Geography, Fine Arts or Computer

18. Program Design Bilingual paraprofessional trailed students in content area classes to provide support Newcomer teacher provided intervention to students who had gaps in education in L1 The second semester students stayed at Lehman and were supported by the bilingual paraprofessional

19. Program Design New Arrival Teacher met weekly with content area teachers. Student grades were monitored every six weeks Students invited to attend ESL summer school program

20. Program Evaluation Provided: Orientation to school system and community Individualized attention Support services: CIS counselors, Health Clinic, Tutoring

21. Program Evaluation Discovered: Second semester students were not handling content area class well. Not enough time in that supportive environment Needed more teacher training Additional resources were needed for content area support

22. Program Evaluation There was a need for new methods to help accelerate the second language acquisition process. Educating second language learners at the secondary level required providing content area intervention. Became aware that learning a second language is emotionally and psychologically draining

23. Making Changes Awarded LEP SSI Grant Partnered with ISLA- Institute for Second Language Acquisition/ Texas A & M Corpus Christi July 2005: Bilingual Advisory Council met to create an improvement plan to be funded by the LEP SSI Grant.

24. ISLA Support Conducted a Needs Assessment which was created by ISLA http://ell.tamucc.edu/shelteredinstruction. html ISLA reviewed our Needs Assessment and gave us feedback Provided technical support as we designed an implementation plan

25. Findings Programs needed to be on all campuses not just the New Arrival Center Administrators and faculty needed an awareness of the process of second language acquisition Faculty needed to be trained in sheltered instruction Instructional Strategists were needed for new to profession teacher support

26. Findings Teacher support was needed for content area teachers working with ELL students Content area intervention was needed for ELL students Supplemental content area resources appropriate for ELL students were needed

27. Plan Goes Into Action ISLA provided an ESL Academy which was attended by elementary and secondary content area teachers and a few administrators (Second Language Acquisition) Training was provided to campuses This training is very important and must be provided before any other training such as sheltered instruction

28. Plan Goes Into Action ISLA provided SIOP and CALLA training. We sent selected teachers and academic deans Provided training on Best Practices Resource manual on ISLA website District provided Instructional Strategists for every campus with local funding Grant funds provided Content Area Intervention Teachers on every secondary campus

29. SIOP Trained Teachers Principals required teachers to attend SIOP training. Why ?? Scheduling!! Required does not work Next year principals identified teachers who wanted to take on this role Students were hand scheduled into these classrooms

30. Implementation Plan The teachers who attended SIOP and CALLA training became our content intervention teachers and instructional strategists. The instructional strategists took on the role of SIOP coaches, providing monthly training by content area, modeling lessons and helping with lesson plans Our academic deans were better informed of what to look for in the classrooms

31. New Arrival Center Changes From a semester program to a full year Changed credits/ dropped US History credit; 1 ESOL, 1 Reading, 1/2 Public Speaking, 1/2 Communications Modified curriculum/ Access Math, Access Science, Access History - Great Source

32. Second Year Changes Content Area Intervention Hand scheduled into classrooms with SIOP trained teachers After school tutoring Summer School ESL Program

33. Where We Are Now Secondary campuses have SIOP trained teachers – not SIOP classrooms Content Area Intervention Teachers are providing intervention, not tutoring Have bought appropriate content area resources Instructional Strategists provide monthly follow up training for sheltered instruction

34. Training Summer ESL Academies Summer SIOP Training/ 2 days CALLA Strategies/ 1 day Monthly Day for SIOP and planning

35. District Sustainability Commitment to continue Content Intervention Teachers. SIOP Instructional Strategists and Bilingual Instructional Strategist Title III funds will be used to continue the tutoring that was being provided by grant funds. SIOP training will continue to be provided by the instructional strategist