Summer Learning Loss and Parent Outreach

Working with English Language Learners has its challenges and like any student, the summer months can be a set back.  English Learners spend most of their summer recess speaking their first langauge at home and many times travel home to their native country to visit family and friends.  While I encourage students to keep their first langauge and continue practicing, it is also important to continue practicing Englsih too.

While working with some parents, it dawned on me.  One way to help prevent major summer learning loss is to help the parents by providing them with the tools and resources necessary to continue practicing Englsih in the home.  Recently my district purchased a handful of Rosetta Stone subscriptions for our immigrant students to use and over the summer they would just sit and not be used.  Why not give these subscriptions to the parents and allow them the opportunity to learn Englsih at home!  

That was it...I would call this parent outreach...Summer Learning Loss.  But it gets even better than that....I had a large amount of money to spend from our federal immigrant grant funds.  How can I spend the money effectively and make sure it is being put to good use?  After brainstorming, I logged onto Lakeshore Learning and puchased English Language Learner games and resources to share with our newcomer students learning Englsih. I created backpacks that students were given to take home and practice learning English over the summer.  These were assigned to families and will be collected in the fall.  

To make this all happen, I set up an evening to host the event.  Parents and students attended for an hour.  We enjoyed some Jimmy John Subs and learned how to log into Rosetta Stone and use the program at home.  Towards the end, I shared the backpacks with the parents and had them sign out the materials.  

My hope is this promotes learning English at home during the summer and students will return in the fall well practiced and better equipped to start school.  

Use of Grant Funds: Project #1: Providing support to Families

I can't imagine moving to a new country.  I'm a pretty outgoing individual so I think I would yearn to find a community that accepted me and full-filled my social needs.  But I am sure I wouldn't know where to start, especially if I struggled with the language or social norms of the new country in which I moved to. 

With our grant funds we hope to create a fun and supportive program to help newer immigrant families to the US feel more comfortable and address any needs or concerns they may have.  To do this, we have hired two social workers that are perfect for working with immigrant families.  One of the social workers was an immigrant to the US and moved here when she was in high school.  Having this experience will help her make connections with our families. The other social worker comes from a family that migrated to the United States from the Middle East. Her family culture and customs will allow for our families to feel more connected and comfortable knowing she can relate to their situations.  Having these two positions filled is a big load off my project "to do" list. It is a relief to have found two individuals that fit the job description perfectly!

Next, I secured a location for families to meet. I was able to use our community Nature Center to host these programs.  We plan to have two separate groups running at the same time.  Each group will consist of a small group of families and their children.  I'm thinking no more than 8-10 families. While the parents meet with the social workers, a teacher from the nature center will provide an educational program for the students.  During the last 30 minutes or so, the students will switch with the parents and the parents will then receive a nature tour by the teachers and the students will do a team building activity with the social workers.  Each group will meet a total of 4 times for 2 hours.  And of course refreshments will be provided at each session. 

I can breathe knowing I have the social worker positions filled, dates solidified and location determined.  The next big step in this process will be selecting and contacting the families to participate and determining if we will need translators, and if so, post these positions and hire these individuals.  

I am also in the process of working on another project which will consist of family outreach.  

This project is also in the beginning stages and will need to be completed quickly.  I have a few ideas in mind.  I contacted our public library and I'm waiting to hear back from the coordinator there.  I would like to set up an evening where I can invite new immigrant families to the US to visit the library and learn about the resources available to them.  At the same time they can sign up to receive a library card and learn about the summer programs available for children and adults.  And of course refreshments will be served!  As soon as I here back from someone at the library, I can set a date and send out invitations.  

I need to set up one more parent outreach event for our ELL Families and I am still not certain on what to do. Do you have any suggestions?  I thought about an Icecream Social where we have a guest speaker come and share their success stories about coming to America.  This could be inspiring.  

Tomorrow I hope to complete the following tasks.

1. Connect with public library/ set date

2. Determine families to invite for Nature Center

3.  Work on invitation rough draft

4. Come up with a plan for the mystery parent outreach event.

5. Post translator positions for Nature Center/library

The American Name

When we name our children we put a lot of thought into it. For this will be their name forever....or not. Some names are biblical and others are given after ancestors. They are special because it means you. 

 What happens when your family picks up and moves all across the world to America?  Do you keep your birth given name or change it to the American version? I would believe that's a tough decision to make because either way it's hard. If you keep your name as it was given to you, you get to still be you. Not to mention, it's probably a nice name, and fits you perfectly because that is the perfectly chosen name for you. But, the truth be told, many people, including your teachers will mispronounce your perfect name on a regular basis, and that is frustrating. 

My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits is a great book that many ESL Students can relate to. It's a story of a girl named Yoon who moved to the US and her struggles with her new American name.  It's very touching and gives the reader a new perspective from the eyes of a little girl named Yoon who moves across the world to live in America.

Speaking English: The Struggles with Fluency

I've taken plenty of Spanish classes and my biggest struggle was and still is speaking. I can't get the words organized in my head quick enough to say a sentence let alone have a conversation. I remember this when I'm teaching English Learners. It's hard and very frusturating. When I talk to them and ask a question, it sounds like I'm speed talking and it takes time for students to process what it is exactly I'm saying or asking. Responding is an entirely different challenge. 

Over time it gets easier, especially since most students learning English are submerged in an English speaking environment. I have found that speaking fluently tends to come after the student has solid a foundation with listening and reading. 

I've been working with a young boy from Korea. Last year he came late in the school year and over the summer he had some regression in the English language like most English Learners do. His parents and teachers are both concerned. As I brainstormed on ways to help this little guy, it clicked....teach him how to speak. Sounds reluctant, isn't that what I have been doing!?!  

This time we did things a little differently. I found an engaging big book with fun vibrant colors. We discussed the pictures and we introduced new vocabulary by looking at the pictures. Then I said something about the picture and had the boy repeat exactly. We focused on the fluency of repeating what I said. Lastly, it was his turn to come up with a sentence about the picture. Having previously modeled this exercise, made it much easier for him. We will continue these type of modeling exercises to see how well we can gain fluency in speaking. Our next discussion will be the fun illustrations of the work from Dr. Suess!