Factors That Have a Positive Influence on English Language Acquisition:

Listen to teacher, Amber Prentice, as she describes several strategies she uses to welcome English language learners!     http://bcove.me/jm5g8fsu

Facilitate Morning Meetings - daily gatherings where adults and students join together.  There are 4 components:  

Greeting Students and teachers greet one other by name.
Sharing Students share information about important events in their lives. Listeners offer empathetic comments or ask clarifying questions.
Group Activity Everyone participates in a brief, lively activity that fosters group cohesion (for example, reciting a poem, dancing, singing, or playing a game that reinforces social or academic skills).
Morning Message Students read a short message written by their teacher. The message is crafted to help students focus on the work they'll do in school that day.

Create a WELCOMING school community:

• All staff is aware of and understands the process for receiving English language learners and their families.
• There is a school reception team (e.g., administrator, office administrative assistant, ESL/ELD teacher, interpreter, and settlement worker, where available).
• Families are informed about the necessary documentation for school registration. 
•  There is a designated, comfortable place for the family and reception team to meet and share information.
• Ample time is dedicated for the intake interview and for orientation information about school and basic routines. 
•  There is access to competent adult interpreters who can assist parents and help them fill out forms.
• Multilingual signs, in the languages of the community, are visible in the school.
• There are efforts to build cross-cultural understandings. 
•  Information is available in a variety of languages about community resources (e.g., libraries, community centres, adult ESL classes, places of worship, cultural organizations).
• Parents are regularly invited into the classrooms and the school to celebrate student work.
• Space is provided for families to gather if possible (e.g., a room to sit, drink coffee or tea, and read announcements in home languages or meet fellow parents).
• Create a student ambassador program to orient the new students to the school.

Supporting English Language Learners in Grades 1 to 8

English Language Learners in Ontario Schools

 

Who are English language learners (ELLs)?

• Students enrolled in provincially funded English language schools whose first language is a language other than English.
• Typically, English language learners require focused attention and additional supports to assist them in attaining proficiency in English.
• English language learners can be born in Canada or they may be students who have recently arrived from other countries.  
• Students in Ontario schools speak more than 200 different languages
• About 20% of Ontario's students in English-language elementary schools are English language students (EQAO, 2005-6)
• 58 % of this group were born in Canada (EQAO, 2005-6)
• It takes more than 5 years for English language learners, both immigrant and Canadian-born, to catch up to their English speaking peers (EQAO, 2005-6)

Key Differences Between Everyday Language and Academic Language

Everyday language proficiency includes:	Academic language proficiency includes:
The ability to maintain a face-to-face conversation with peers and with a variety of school personnel in various settings, inside and outside of the classroom	The ability to understand when there is less opportunity for interaction (e.g. when listening to a presentation or reading a textbook)
The ability to talk, read, or write about familiar content or about what is happening here and now	The ability to talk, read, and write about content that has fewer connections to prior learning or personal experience, is more abstract and is more distant in time or space (e.g. learning about Canadian provinces)
Knowledge about basic vocabulary/high frequency words such as old, food, tired, cares	Knowledge of more sophisticated, low frequency words such as ancient, nutrition, fatigued, vehicles
The ability to use simple sentences and the active voice such as 'We heated the water until it boiled.'	The ability to use more complex sentences and grammatical structures such as ‘When the water was heated to the boiling point, a thermometer was used to measure the temperature.’

Supporting English Language Learners in Grades 1 – 8 (Ontario, 2008)

Stages of Cultural Accommodation

In the same way that ELLs go through stages of English language learning, they may also pass through stages of cultural accommodation. These stages, however, may be less defined and more difficult to notice. Being aware of these stages may help you to better understand "unusual" actions and reactions that may just be part of adjusting to a new culture.

• Euphoria: ELLs may experience an initial period of excitement about their new surroundings.
• Culture shock: ELLs may then experience anger, hostility, frustration, homesickness, or resentment towards the new culture.
• Acceptance: ELLs may gradually accept their different surroundings.
• Assimilation/adaptation: ELLs may embrace and adapt to their surroundings and their "new" culture.   http://www.colorincolorado.org

 

Here we meet again!

Greetings everyone! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This semester you will have an opportunity to blog about three new areas of exceptionality:

• Special Health Care Needs  
• Neurological Disorders
• Severe & Multiple Disabilities· 

In addition, I will be blogging about English Language Learners and Students identified as gifted, creative and/or talented. 

 

The expectations for each entry are the same as before.  You will however be forming new teams!  As a reminder, the blog entries are listed below:

 

One – Definitions, Prevalence, Categories, Etiology  

Two – Assessment

Three – Intervention (medical, therapy, educational)

Important Notes

1. The first hour of several classes will be spent in the computer lab.  Students are expected to work collaboratively on their blog entries during this time.
2. Information is to be gathered first from the two course textbooks and supplemented with other reliable, Canadian sources.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing - Differentiated Curriculum

Deaf and Hard of Hearing - Differentiated Curriculum

Deafness and hearing impairments are defined by the Ministry of Education as follows:

            *an impairment characterized by deficits in language and speech development because of a diminished or non-existent auditory response to sound.

Many students who are deaf or hard of hearing will make use of some form of amplification as recommended by an audiologist, and may require the use of specialized equipment.

Personal FM Systems:

            -Personal  FM systems are designated to compensate for noise, distance, and reverberation in classroom settings

            -Personal FM systems have two main components: a transmitter worn by the speaker (e.g., the teacher) and a receiver worn by the student. A wireless link between the two  components is essential so that the speaker's voice can always be heard by the student through his or her personal hearing aid.

            -Personal FM systems and portable sound field systems can be used virtually anywhere – in the classroom, auditorium, or outdoors.

            -A free-field sound system is similar to a personal FM system, except that the students are not required to wear a receiver. The teacher wears a transmitter, but the signal is sent to speakers strategically placed in the classroom. 

Teachers and educational assistants working with students who require amplification devices may wish to consider the following suggestions:

            -Check the amplification device daily to ensure that it works properly

            -Consult resource personnel to determine the proper procedures for daily listening checks.

            -Arrange for students to carry the transmitter/microphone from class to class for the use of the next teacher.

            -Make use of FM systems during assemblies by guest speakers and on field trips.

The following video will help to better explain the multiple advantages of a personal FM system:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l37lzLIgQU

Resources:

The Ontario Curriculum Unit Planner: Special Education Companion Queen’s Printer for Ontario, 2002

 

Blind and Low Vision - Differential Skills Based Curriculum

Sensory Impairments

Differential Skills Based Curriculum-Primary, Junior, Secondary

Blind and Low Vision

“Blindness and low vision are defined by the Ministry of Education follows:

            *a condition of partial or total impairment of sight or vision that even with affects educational performance adversely.

Orientation and Mobility

O&M is taught by an individual specifically trained to access and teach independent travel. This type of training is designed to teach students with visual impairments about using their other senses. It should be a part of the student's IEP.

Examples of what students will learn through O&M training are different. Preschoolers are taught about space at home and at school. Elementary school students may learn how to cross the street safely.   Secondary students may learn to locate stores in large areas.

O&M training provides students with visual impairments with tools to make transitions from different places and settings simpler.

Depending on the degree of impairment there are many different types of alternatives for teachers and educational assistants to use.

Suggested Tools:

-Braille-writers, Braille display computer systems or portable electronic Braille note takers such as Braille Mate, Type’n’Speak, or Braille Lite 40

-Enlarge and print graphic materials.

-Magnifying devices, used to enhance the size of print on a page or blackboard.

-Audiotapes, used to provide students with an alternative learning mode when Braille is not available.

-Closed-circuit TV (CCTV), which electronically enlarges print material on a TV screen Magnification, contrast, and illumination can be adjusted as needed to view various sizes of print and handwriting.

-Screen-reader/speech-synthesis software (ASAP for DOS, JAWS for Windows), which provides auditory feedback to students with limited or no reading vision when they are using the keyboard, as well as auditory access to information displayed on the monitor when using such hardware as Doubletalk, Dectalk or Accent Speech

-Screen-enlarging software, such as Zoomtext, MAGic, and Mac inLARGE1, which display information on a computer screen in a variety of magnifications.

-Electronic reading systems, which allow printed material to be scanned and, with the use of a voice synthesizer, the scanned text to be spoken aloud.

-Braille translation and printing software, such as Duxbury or Mega Dots, which allow for the production of Braille documents from print or electronic data

-Alternative devices for note taking, such as Braille Lite Refreshable Braille display

-Tilt-top desks and book stands, which brings work closer to the eyes for optimum reading angles and lighting

-Enhanced lighting, set up on the student's desk.

Learning Disabilities: Differential Skills Based Curriculum

Learning Disabilities:

Differential Skills Based Curriculum

 

Differentiated Instruction:  An approach requiring teachers to “begin where students are, not the front of the curriculum guide. It is a teaching strategy that accepts and builds upon the premise that learners differ in important ways”.  (Carol Ann Tomlinson, 1999)

Learning Disability: A learning disorder is evident in both academic and social situations.

General teaching Strategies for some of the areas a child with a learning disabilities may struggle with!:

v Trouble Sustaining Attention: Provide “body breaks”, Try to avoid long periods of sitting. Also appoint classroom jobs to individual students. This will help students to feel needed and will help with their attention spans.

v Anxiety Management: Discuss strategies on how to manage anxiety. Provide an area for unwinding. Provide stress balls or special chairs.

v Time Management Skills: Use a visual timer, Break tasks down into different parts, Use checklists, Reduce quantity of work.

 

       Primary Strategies:

•    Use visual aids such as calendars
•    Use cue cards with pictures
•    Provide hands on materials
•    Allow power breaks
•    Assign the students important jobs within the classroom: example feeding the fish in the tank, watering classroom plants, erasing white boards.

         Junior Strategies:

•    Involve the child in setting his/her own goals
•    Make sure to be checking in with the student frequently
•    Allow opportunities for role playing on how to read and respond to appropriate body language
•    Encourage the student to make lists
•    Allow additional time to complete assignments

      Secondary Strategies:

•    Allow additional time for work
•    Come up with signals regarding when the student will be called upon
•    Have frequent meetings to talk about progress and any concerns
•    Less quantity of work
•    Provide notebook for planning
•    Set goals and have rewards
•    Give options to choose formats for assignments

Intellectual Disabilities: Check out these resources!

Great sites to get your students learning right!

http://www.kerpoof.com (K-Gr.8)

This website provides ways for students to create stories on the computer, including

novel ways to work on brainstorming and sequencing.

http://www.edu.glogster.com/ (all ages)

‘Glog’ is an interactive visual platform in which users create a ‘poster’ or ‘web page’ containing multimedia elements including text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings and data. It fulfils UDL principles by providing multiple means of representation, action, expression and engagement.

Learn with excitement http://www.uncw.edu/ertzbergerj/ppt_games.html  (all ages)

For example: ‘Space Decoder’ game 

A simple space based drill and practice game. Put in your questions, and then blast  off. Contains five mini games that students progress through. Each game gets progressively harder as the student successfully completes each level (Single Student Game).
            

Clicker 5 by Crick software (all ages)

This program provides built in word lists, easy insertion of photos and images from the Crick library, an easy to use interface which is visually appealing and teacher led activities based around a grid system

http://www.ontariovirtualschool.ca/?gclid=CLGbmLOCkLECFQ8CQAodLjKrew (Secondary level)

Another way to earn high school credits at your own pace. There is a fee per course.

Learning and Fun...

A good combination!

http://www.dttrainer.com/ (all ages) 

Evidence-based, direct instructional software program.