10/13/2015
International Partnership Program News for September 10-October 12, 2015
Parent Involvement
We had a very well attended parent night on September 28th. Parents were given a great deal of information (see PPT) about our program, credits, and post secondary options. We’ve seen more parent involvement with reading at home since that initial meeting.
Social and Emotional Well Being
Max has been busy assessing students in the IPP and helping to create plans with teachers and parents. We are hoping Max’s after school acculturation and identity group will be starting soon.
Tutors and Mentors:
Right now we have approximately 7 tutors in the IPP program. These do not include the additional 15 students who visit each week from WSU. Our students are getting a lot of one on one support. Thank you Hubert!
Assessment:
All of the students were assessed as of 9/28 and these results are available to teachers. Because we do not yet have OELPS tests, we used NYSESLAT so we could get a basic sense of not only reading and writing, but speaking, listening, and active literacy skills in content areas, which helps us develop a better understanding of where/if their formal schooling gaps are extensive.
From their performance on that test and the initial interviews and observations I’ve done, we were able to come up with a typology for this program. These typologies are only specific to our special program.
Our goal is to have them at a RR level 25 (independent reading) and be in the advanced typology before they transition to high school, GED, or to the workplace.
Content Area Classes: We had a content area meeting to go over the OELPS and make plans for the year in regards to these standards for our students. We made a planning document for this term (ending in December). Health and PE is shaping up as well and students are learning all of the U.S. games. We are playing to the teacher’s strengths, since we do not have a health teacher currently. We will be supplementing with guest speakers as they trickle in.
Literacy Focus:
We are currently partnering with WSU to bring one on one tutoring for one hour per week for all students. Graduate students in Sally’s ED 6010 course have interviewed, researched, and compiled case studies on our students in order to create individual reading plans for each student, which include ongoing assessments geared toward those individuals. The WSU students will then create volunteer kits so that we can continue with sustainable literacy intervention after the class is finished.
In addition to this work, our emergent readers are also getting one additional hour per week of literacy intervention from an ESL tutor through WSU.
Homework:
Students in the intermediate/advanced IPP program should be getting at least 30 minutes a night of homework OUTSIDE of their reading for ESL. Please be sure that the homework is something they can do by themselves at home and/or share with a parent. Critical literacy is very important right now for all of the intermediate/advanced students. So, giving them real texts that relate to your content area (maps, graphs, advertisements, conducting interviews, bringing in artifacts, etc.) are excellent assignments.
Students who are emergent/beginner should be getting 20 minutes of homework a night in addition to their reading from ESL class. Please see above for tips on what homework should look like. They must be able to complete it alone by using their English skills. If you’d like more resources on how to plan homework for your students, please let Sally know.
Current work in progress and things we need:
We are working with TEJAS to get a local artist in to work with our students on a public art piece about adolescent immigration in Dayton. We have no idea what this will look like, but the students want their voices heard and they asked us to find someone, so. . . more on that soon.
We are also slowing teaming up with WSU’s partners to get our students shadowing and intern experiences. This process is moving much more slowly than we would like.
WE NEED PEOPLE who can serve as job resources for our students. They need opportunities to shadow people in the workplace and we need help creating school to work options for a few students. We want these options to be meaningful lifelong opportunities.
We also need people who can do some STD talks with our students. If you know of anyone who would be good, please let us know.
We need agendas for all of our students. We are having trouble coming up with these. If you can help us, please do.
We are also in need of great children’s and YA literature for our students. We are doing well with the leveled readers (thank you Ruskin!), but they need access to real texts as well. If you have any magazines as well, that would be great too.
Thank you,
The IPP team
