So just now I was wondering... what will our Dual Language Program look like?

By Jessica Maciejewski

2018, here we come! I had the privilege of attending the DLeNM (Dual Language Education New Mexico) sponsored conference entitled, "La Cosecha," or "The Harvest," from November 9-12, 2016, in Santa Fe.

A few key points. Santa Fe was colder than Chicago. At 7000 feet, it was an adorable and quiet town in its off-season, but still replete with tons of great local shops and delicious food. Everything was adobe, and there is are strong, proud Navajo and Mexican populations. We showed up to the conference with more empty space than actual questions at this point, ready to learn, and discovered a whole world currently in formation. Finally, and possibly of the most importance: I WON THE CONFERENCE. There was a weird game in the app, and I won (until I hit a minor glitch that no one could figure out and tied but whatever here is a picture of me in all my glory):

When I returned, I asked a few colleagues what they would most want to know~ here are their questions and, to the best of my ability (!), some answers:

1. How long is a DL program? What are its goal / benefits?

>So, it seems like the most successful DL programs start in kindergarten or, at the latest, 1st grade, and last through 12th grade.

For Elk Grove HS, we are fortunate that Salt Creek Elementary and then Grove Middle School started a program! The first cohort of kids are currently in 7th grade, so we have this year and next year to prepare our program.

In Woodstock d200 (IL), which is a unified school district, they recently graduated their first full 1st-12th DL students. For them, the superintendent was able to make the choice to start it in their pre-K/K/1st grades and have it continue all the way up; non-unified school districts will have to vertically articulate across districts/principals/superintendents to make it happen.

>The goal is to achieve academic reading/written/listening/spoken fluency in two languages, or more tangibly, a seal of biliteracy on their diplomas. Illinois adopted an "Illinois Seal of Biliteracy" in 2013 which means that when students complete the high school requirements (see footnote), they graduate with a second certificate/seal. Each school can then add special cords or a medal or whatever. One cool thing Woodstock did was have kids design a logo for their DL program, then use it to make medals for kids as they completed the program in 8th grade. There's not really an official seal for middle school, but the school itself can host a special awards night, make certificates, etc. 


>Benefits include future college resume & job attractiveness, and as of January 1, 2017, each public university in Illinois is required "to accept the State Seal of Biliteracy as equivalent to 2 years of foreign language coursework taken during high school if a student's high school transcript indicates that he or she will be receiving or has received the State Seal of Biliteracy" (thanks, IL House Senate Bill 4330!).

2. How does a student qualify to be in a DL program?

This is kind of what we're figuring out. Obviously if kids come into EGHS having completed the program through 8th grade, they are in. But what about English/Spanish fluent transfers? Or what about a kid who isn't fluent in English yet and who might benefit from weaning off Spanish into English? So, no definitive answer yet on who, or on how. There isn't one test that we can think of using; instead, maybe we'll do interviews and/or observations at Salt Creek/Grove.


3. What models of DL schools are near us?

Interestingly, we went to New Mexico because they have SO many awesome programs and are kind of at the forefront of development... but there were also presenters there from Waukegan (trying to recruit New Mexicans to move to the ol' Plain State) and a fantastic presentation by not-too-far-away District 200 - Woodstock. 

Woodstock is a unified school district, which means they can decide, "Hey, all of us are going to do a DL program, and it's going to be awesome!" In D214, we can offer/try to vertically articulate with our feeder elementary and middle schools, but we don't have the same superintendent so there's a lot more negotiating involved.

Finally, Salt Creek Elementary and Grove Middle School are the awesome schools that already started the program, to whom we'll be looking for collaboration and guidance. Their district, d59, is consolidated with 11 elementary and 3 middle schools. 


4. How can a non-bilingual teacher help/support a DL program?

Right now in the creation process, we can just really use support and positive word-of-mouth. :) 

This includes valuing students who have experience of other languages~ thinking of "ESL" students NOT as "remedial," but as having a kind of hidden superpower. One of the fancy new terms is "emerging bilingual," which is pretty cool because they aren't necessarily remedial at all... maybe in their native language, these students would be in Honors or AP, and now they are learning academic vocabulary in English, too. 

Finally, just being excited and positive about the program, talking it up to students and parents, and assuaging any fears by pointing people with concerns/questions to our current crew, which includes: Ricky Castro, Dean Burrier-Sanchis, and me, Jessica Maciejewski, as well as our administrative staff.


Bonus facts! 
Check out how many states (this is as of 2016) have or are in the process of having a seal:

Critical Thinking to Prepare for the SAT

By: Rachel Barry

In Illinois, we switched from the ACT to the SAT as our standardized test.  The math department's digital curricula were originally developed based on the ACT College Readiness Standards, however, we made some changes this summer to also prepare our students for the ACT.  You can read more about these changes here.  

One of the document templates of our regular math courses was an ACT10.  We have one of these documents developed for each skill that we teach our students.  The front side of the template presents students with approximately 5 ways that the ACT would question students on the current skill they were learning in class.  The back side of the template gives students a mix of 5 ACT-type questions of topics that students have already learned to reenforce their understanding.  Here is a sample of an ACT10 that was used in my regular level Algebra I class.  

These documents can still be used as warm-up problems and to help students gain an understanding of ACT-style questions, however, the SAT questions are set-up much differently.  The ACT focuses on one mathematical skill per question, while the SAT merges multiple skills into a question.  Therefore, we need to strengthen our students' critical thinking skills in order to perform better on the SAT.

Therefore, I started brainstorming and came up with a new template.  We have been doing a lot of work at Elk Grove High School to find commonalities throughout content areas, so I thought it was fitting to model this template after a science lab report.  Students are already accustomed to the process of writing a lab reports, and this format would help break down the SAT question for students.

Here is a sample of this SAT template:








This document helps in two ways: 1) forces students to slow down when solving the problem and 2) gives students who may be lost a place to start.  Students who benefit the most from the first way are those that know what to do, but make silly mistakes.  The conclusion part of checking their work helps force these students to double check their answers.  The students who benefit from the second way are those who defeat themselves before they start the problem.  These students may read the problem and immediately give up because they don't know what to do.  This step-by-step process helps students to break down the problem to show them that they may know how to do part of the problem.  Then, if they can find confidence in understanding part of the problem, they can try to critically solve the rest of it.  

Author's Purpose and Thesis Development

By Kim Miklusak and Mark Heintz

Bonnie Kale invited us in to see her sophomores analyze each other's work after the three of us had been talking this year about the purpose of our courses.  We quickly realized each of our classes has been getting students to create arguments and defend them with specific pieces of evidence.  Another point of our courses to have students know that authors use different approaches to getting their arguments across to the reader.  So traditionally we rely on the 5-paragraph paper format because it's easy to teach at younger grades, but we realize it's so limiting as students progress.  Bonnie's class was working on getting students to see these patterns and reflect on their own reading and writing.

Prior to the class we saw, the students read a short story and created an outline for their literary analysis.  The students were tasked with two things in their literary analysis. For the first task, the students attempted to identify the author's main idea. For the second task, the students attempted to identify the organizational approach used by the author.

The students had to include both tasks in their thesis for their literary analysis. For the lesson, Mrs. Kale wanted students to identify if students completed both tasks.  She was not having the students provide feedback to other students.  She wanted to see if students could tell when other students completed the task and their effectiveness in the task.  The students walked around the room and attempted to see if other students completed the task using a graphic organizer on their iPads.

Before allowing students to move on to the actual writing of the literary analysis, Mrs. Kale ensured students knew when they were writing to the task at hand.  There has been so much overlap in the skill, the students are seeing that they are writing to a specific audience and for a specific purpose.  Moreover, they are seeing that authors are writing to a specific audience and for a specific purpose in all disciplines.  Some authors are more effective in their argument than others. That same day, all three of us inadvertently focused on the same skill!

Hopefully as this year's sophomores move into juniors, they will have more background in the foundational and cross-disciplinary approach to crafting arguments and supporting those arguments with specific pieces of evidence.  

Functional Behavioral Assessment/Behavior Intervention Planning (FBA/BIP) A Primer

By Sean Mulcrone

What is a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) or Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)?

A Functional Behavior Assessment, or FBA, is a process that seeks better understand a problem behavior; when it occurs, what happens before the problem behavior, what happens after, what factors contribute to it, and most importantly, what the purpose, or function, of the problem behavior is. In other words, an FBA ultimately seeks to answer the question, what does the student obtain/gain from engaging in the problem behavior? Once this question is answered, then a Behavior Intervention Plan can be written.

A Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) is an individually tailored plan that seeks to reduce the frequency, intensity or severity of the problem behavior and teach the student a more socially appropriate way of obtaining the underlying function of the problem behavior. There are two BIPs that can be written, a “Simple” BIP, which identifies helpful strategies that have worked in the past, and a “Complex” BIP, which details a series of specific steps aimed to reduce a problem behavior.

An FBA is always written first, followed by a BIP. One of the most common mistakes people make is by writing a BIP without properly doing an FBA, thereby increasing the likelihood that the intervention plan will be ineffective/inappropriate.

Who is in charge of conducting an FBA or writing a BIP?

The process of completing an FBA or developing a BIP is done collaboratively as a team, which includes a social worker or psychologist, counselor, dean, teachers, student and family members whenever available.

When would we write an FBA/BIP?

Since an FBA/BIP is an intensive intervention, it should only be written after several other interventions have been attempted first (for example, 2 or 3 of the following: conferences with student, discussions with parents, writing discipline referrals, contacting dean and/or counselor, recommending Mentoring, talking with coaches, etc). If other interventions have been implemented, the only other criteria is:

The target behavior is exhibited by less than 20% of the students in class. If they are exhibited by more than 20%, then a class-wide intervention may more appropriate.
The target behavior is evident in different classes, and is happening with a frequency, intensity and/or severity that is disruptive to the classroom environment.What the process of writing an FBA/BIP?

Step 1). Contact a counselor with concerns over student behavior.

Step 2). If an FBA/BIP is appropriate, then a team will meet to gather more information about the behavior (interviews, observations, file reviews, etc) and conduct a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA).

Step 3). Based upon the information gathered, the team will set up a meeting with the student and family (when available) to gather additional information and begin to develop a “Simple” Behavior Intervention Plan (See “Simple” Behavior Intervention Plan form for more details).

Step 4). The team will then meet with the teachers to share information and further develop the “Simple” BIP.

Step 5). The “Simple” Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) will be finalized by the team and sent to the teachers via email.

Step 6). In order to monitor student’s progress a “Google Form” will be sent to teachers 1x a week asking for feedback related to classroom performance.

IF NO PROGRESS HAS BEEN SEEN AFTER 4-6 WEEKS, A MORE INTENSIVE, OR “COMPLEX” BEHAVIOR INTERVENTION PLAN WILL BE IMPLEMENTED
Step 7). The team will reconvene to analyze the student’s response to the “Simple” BIP and gather additional information (observations, interviews, etc) in order to revise the original FBA.

Step 8). Once the FBA has been revised, meetings with student and family (when available) will be held to gather information and discuss potential solutions.

Step 9). The team will then hold meetings with staff members to share information and develop the “Complex” BIP (See “Complex” Behavior Intervention Plan form for more details).

Step 10). Once the team finalizes the “Complex” BIP, it will be shared with teachers via email.

Step 11). In order to progress monitor the student’s performance, a “Google Form” will be sent to teachers 2-3x per week asking for feedback on the student’s classroom performance.

Building a Culture of Learning: A Day of Spark Sessions and Learning Labs

by Linda Ashida

Today the Collab Lab hosted Spark Sessions and Learning Labs for all staff during an extended late start Thursday morning.

It was a great morning of professional learning and interdisciplinary collaboration with 8 Spark Sessions (~five minutes each) followed by 2 informal Learning Labs (twenty-five minutes each).

We shared the schedule with staff via this Google Doc.  Our goal for the morning was to spark learning that would continue long after the day was over.  To faciliate future learning, we decided to make the doc editable during the morning and we invited all staff attending to add resources in the far right column of the document.

Feedback from the morning has been very positive. Staff indicated that they enjoyed the variety of the spark sessions and opportunity to learn and explore new ideas with colleagues from so many different departments in the Learning Labs. Also, many noted how the Learning Lab sessions demonstrated the rich interdisciplinary culture of learning at Elk Grove High School that continues to grow. A Spanish teacher commented how she enjoyed collaborating with a Science teacher and two music teachers to experimenting with audio assignments in Schoology! To get a better idea of what our day looked like and sounded like, check out highlights from Twitter curated in this Storify.