Reflection #4

How will you, as a school leader, ensure that the needs of students who are English language learners are met?

How will you supervise programs for ELL students?

First off, as stated in the power point by Ms. Jenkins, as a school leader one must start by identifying and addressing the needs of the students.  If a school has a high population of limited English proficient (LEP) students who require special language services, it would then be the responsibility of the administrator to provide the necessary resources for academic success. 

A starting point to address the needs, once assessed, is to create a team that is equipped to train and support teachers who need assistance with ELL students. This team could be similar to the RTI team, and maybe even work with the RTI team, but specialize in ELL strategies.  (This team may already be a standard in some states or schools, but I have not worked in a school with this in the works.) This team could present strategies at staff development days, hold after/before school open-door strategy sessions, parent involvement meetings, tutoring opportunities, etc.

The next step would be to determine which type of language program or programs work for the LEP students, teachers, and staff.  Honigsfeld (2009) gives examples of program models that might be seen in a public school system.   The English-language monolingual program is where a LEP student is placed in a class and receives no special instruction with language skills. The English-language-monolingual-plus ESL program holds students in a general education classroom but also provides instruction in English as a second language (ESL). The transitional bilingual educational program starts with the child in a bilingual classroom.  The student is taught in their native language and is also given ESL services.  However, the instruction is eventually provided only in English and the student is moved as quickly as possible to a monolingual English classroom. A maintenance bilingual education program is very similar to the above transitional program.  The only difference is that this program’s goal is to develop full proficiency in both languages. Finally, a structured immersion program is when the student is placed in a general education classroom where instruction is provided only in English; however LEP students are allowed to address the teacher in their native language when they do not understand.  The teacher must be fluent in the native language of the students, but does not use the language often unless necessary while teaching a certain subject. After determining which program or programs would be the most beneficial in our school, I would then provide the appropriate trainings and hiring that teachers would need in order to successfully implement the program in their classroom with the least amount of change to their procedures.

Supervising the program would then take constant communication with the teachers, staff, students, and even parents.  Communication regarding what works and what does not work will help all parties involved be more successful.  Also, communication through trainings is important. As the teachers are trained in strategies to teach students, it would be imperative for administration to be present to learn as well.  Administrators need to be actively engaged in learning and teaching.  When the staff sees the administration present, they sense the importance of the training and will be more inclined to participate and implement the instructional strategies in their own classrooms. Finally, assessing teacher instruction is the responsibility of the administration. If teachers are trained to work with LEP students, they should be implementing the strategies that will provide for positive academic achievement. Through this, hopefully the students will benefit and the school will move forward in a positive manner.

References

Honigsfeld, A. (2009). ELL programs: not one size fits all. ProQuest Education Journals, 45(4), 166-171.