About The Program
In the summer of 2004, the Sudbury Public Schools developed a strategic plan for addressing the needs of its English Language Learners (ELL). Who are our ELL students? According to General Law c. 71A, an English Language Learner "is a child who does not speak English or whose native language is not English, and who is not currently able to perform, ordinary classroom work in English." There are about 50 such students currently in our school system now and the number seems to gradually increase each year. In the past, these students have been called "ESL" students or, even now, "LEP" (Limited English Proficiency) students. These terms are more or less interchangeable.
School districts, especially larger ones, used to work hard at setting up programs to teach and various disciplines to ELL students in their native tongue, assuming that the mastery of English would grow accordingly with time. Statewide Question 2 legislation changes all of that. Now, schools generally cannot teach students in any language but English. This is a source of ongoing challenge to classroom teachers and schools who strive to service these children. A district steering committee worked closely with the State Department of Education to become familiar with the various regulations and to put together a plan that will make a difference for these children.
Starting in the fall of 2004, a Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) Learning Center was established at the Haynes Elementary School so that students could be brought to where the resources are instead of trying fruitlessly to deliver resources to each student as they were scattered throughout the district. Haynes was selected at that time because this school had space that other schools did not and also already had a number of ELL students within its school population. The SEI Learning Center is a separate resource room that is attended for part of the day by ELL students, clustered by age and level of English proficiency. An ELL Specialist provides direct language acquisition support in the Center. However, these students spend most of their day in regular classrooms. Not all parents of elementary-age ELL students were willing to participate in the program at Haynes. Therefore, there are a number of classroom teachers in all other schools who will still need to Limited English Proficient (LEP). Accordingly, there is an ELL Specialist assigned to the other elementary schools as well, for those students whose needs are not extreme and/or whose families did not wish their child to be transferred to Haynes. Although the ELL Specialists may, from time to time, be in a classroom to work with an ELL student for a specific purpose, their function is to work with directly and intensively with these students at English Language Acquisition in a well-equipped separate environment.
And so, students in Sudbury's ELL program attend daily sessions at the Learning Center at Haynes, or at designated locations in other elementary schools, to implement a language acquisition program. They participate fully in activities with English speaking peers and are provided support in non-core subjects.
The SEI Learning Center and other ELL support locations are designed to:
- Link academic concepts to students' prior knowledge and experience
- Use speech appropriate for students' proficiency levels, with clear explanations of tasks
- Address reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills
- Provide opportunities for students to practice and apply new language and content knowledge in English.
- Encourage active participation throughout each session
- Promote frequent interaction and discussion among teacher and students
- Use a variety of resources that support content objectives, such as
- manipulatives, pictures, visuals, adapted texts, graphic organizers, etc.
Students' progress is tracked using testing that the state requires such as the K-12 Massachusetts English Language Assessment - Oral (MELA-O) and the Massachusetts English Proficiency Assessment (MEPA) in reading and writing, grades 3 and up. Other internal assessments are also used. Know that after one year, these students are required to participate in all MCAS testing along with their peers. The district has developed policies and procedures for initial intake testing as ELL students first come into our district. Other policy issues for such ongoing assessments, program entrance and exit, and parent communications have also been developed.
What is important to know is that all teachers and support staff who work directly with ELL students are required by the State Department of Education to at least have Category One training, which entails at least 10 hours of targeted training on how to establish effective SEI environments in their teaching. Category Three Training (thirty hours) is recommended for all classroom teachers who regularly serve such students. Category Four Training is required of middle school English/ Language Arts teachers of ELL students. One thing that training makes quite obvious is that teaching literacy to an English Language Learner is very different from teaching reading skills to a student who understands English.
The district will be a supportive as possible in providing the training and resources to help all of our ELL student placements succeed. Through improved communications regarding effective practice, some well-targeted instructional materials, and consistent sharing of ideas, we feel that the districts' ELL students continue to be well served. It takes time and perseverance on behalf of all staff and administrators to continually improve our program and approach to make this happen. If you have specific questions or issues regarding the ELL program, the needs of ELL students, or the SEI Learning Center at Haynes, please don't hesitate to contact the Asst. Superintendent, Bob Milley, by phone, email, or in person. Meanwhile, we will try to keep the district staff and school community aware of what is going on with our planning and implementation efforts as well as with shifting regulations and circumstances.