UNDERSTANDING WIDA AND MPI IMPLEMENTATION LOWELL PUBLIC SCHOOLS ELE DEPARTMENT: DR. PHALA CHEA, JAANA THORARENSEN, CARRIE POWERS MOODY SCHOOL: ROBERTA KEEFE, PRINCIPAL LISA MICHEL, GR. 3-4 NEWCOMER TEACHER STEVEN IBARGUEN, GR. 3 TEACHER
UNDERSTANDING WIDA AND MPI IMPLEMENTATION
LOWELL PUBLIC SCHOOLS ELE DEPARTMENT:
DR. PHALA CHEA, JAANA THORARENSEN, CARRIE POWERS
MOODY SCHOOL: ROBERTA KEEFE, PRINCIPAL
LISA MICHEL, GR. 3-4 NEWCOMER TEACHER STEVEN IBARGUEN, GR. 3 TEACHER
DSAC WIDA NETWORK PROJECT � Four school districts:
� Haverhill, Methuen, Peabody, and Salem � Teams of four teachers, (2 classroom teachers and two ESL
teachers) and 1-2 administrators � Received a stipend for work completed
� Attend three full days of guided practice sessions on June 3, 6 and 30, 2014
� Collaboratively create a minimum of 3 MPI matrices for grade 5 model curriculum units
� Each district focused on a subject area (Math, Social Studies, Science, ELA)
LOWELL DEMOGRAPHICS Grade Span
Total SPED % Low Income %
FLNE Former ELL %
PK-12 14,031 15.1 75.1 39.6 7.4
ELL # ELL % Most Common Language/%
2nd Most Common Language/%
# of Languages
4,121 29.4 Spanish 37.1
Khmer 35.8
40
DESE 2013-2014 District Analysis and Review Tool (DART) for English Language Learners
MOODY SCHOOL DEMOGRAPHICS Grade Span
Total SPED % Low Income %
High Needs %
FLNE Former ELL %
K-4 270 5.6% 89.6% 94.8% 61.5% 0.4%
ELL # ELL % Most Common Language/%
2nd Most Common Language/%
165 61.1% Portuguese 46.1%
Arabic 12.1%
DESE 2013-2014 District Analysis and Review Tool (DART) for English Language Learners
UNDERSTANDING WIDA AND MPI IMPLEMENTATION
� Focus of the district’s Leadership Institute in August: � analyze data to determine district’s 2014-15
Theory of Action � Approval from Superintendent and Assistant
Superintendent for Professional Development � Secure funds – Title III Grant
FOCUS OF UNDERSTANDING WIDA AND MPI IMPLEMENTATION PD
� Provide additional Professional Development to teachers who have completed the SEI Endorsement Course
� Build capacity within the district to differentiate instruction for ELLs
� Build a library of sample MPIs that can be shared within the district and/or other districts
UNDERSTANDING WIDA AND MPI IMPLEMENTATION PD
� Based on data, determine which schools should be offered this PD opportunity
� Meeting with Curriculum Coordinators to determine subject area and grade level focus: � Gr. 1-4 – Social Studies, “Children Discovering Justice”
Unit � Gr. 5-8 – Science Unit
� Meeting with Consultant � Present PD opportunity to principals
UNDERSTANDING WIDA AND MPI IMPLEMENTATION PD
� 6 schools participate in PD � Principals identify teachers for each
subject and grade level � 12 teachers & administrators from each
school participate, for a total of 65 educators
UNDERSTANDING WIDA & MPI IMPLEMENTATION
� Attend one full day of PD on Sept. 23, 24, or 25, 2014 � Complete two lessons and two unit plans on
Differentiation of Curriculum Units for ELLs � Submit two MPI lessons and unit plans by Oct. 22,
2014 on Google Drive � Attend a follow-up meeting on Oct. 22, 2014 to share
out in small groups
COMPONENTS OF LOWELL WIDA MPI PD
� Implement at least one of the lessons in their classrooms
� ELE Dept. observed implementation of lessons in October
� Share lesson & unit development and implementation process with colleagues during PLC/CPT/Faculty meetings between October-November 2014
� Earn compensation for 10 hours � Earn 20 PDPs for successfully completing all tasks
SCIENCE AND SOCIAL STUDIES SAMPLE TOPICS
� Science topics � Seasons on Earth � How are Living Things
Classified? � Cycling of Matter � Inner and Outer
Planets of our Solar System
� Social Studies Topics � What is Freedom? � What are Rights &
Responsibilities? � Difficulties of Living in
the Colony of MA � Reasons Why People
Immigrate to the US
ESL NEWCOMER TEACHER GRADES 2, 3 & 4 • 27 students from Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, China, Nepal, Portugal,
Brazil, Jordan and Thailand • 9 different languages spoken & 6 Students with Limited or
Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) • WIDA Language Proficiency Levels 1 (Entering) & 2 (Beginning)
Classroom Strategies-Modeling of Lessons, Use of Nonlinguistic Cues(Visuals & Intonations)Total Physical Response(TPR), Graphic Organizers, Dance, Songs, Interactive Word Walls, Clozes, Read Alouds & Think Alouds, Reader’s Theatre, Puppets, Dialogue Journals, Technology, Picture Word Inductive Models(PWIM), Cooperative Grouping, Scavenger Hunts, Picture Dictation, Show/Tell & Environment of Discovery Learning
Benefits of creating MPI’s with colleagues- • Customize activities or assessments and differentiate instruction for our students • Share ideas of scaffolding activities to maintain rigor of lessons • Ongoing discussions of language skills our students need to engage standards and tasks • Maintain focus on the features of academic language – words, sentences & discourse
GRADE 3 “MAINSTREAM” CLASS MOODY ELEMENTARY
LOWELL, MA.
u 25 students u 5 are FLNE from backgrounds where a language other than English is also
spoken u 16 are ELLs
u 4 are native English speakers u 6 languages are spoken including Portuguese (8), Spanish (2), Tigrinya (1),
Chinese (1), Nepali (1), and Swahili (1)
Range of WIDA ACCESS Proficiency levels: • 3 Developing (knowing and using social English
and some specific academic language) • 4 Expanding (knowing and using social English
and some technical academic language)
IMPACT OF MPIS ON TEACHING
Ø Target instruction to appropriate proficiency level(s) making learning more accessible for ELLs
Ø Promote best practices for optimal learning i.e. vocabulary instruction; language supports which include sensory, graphic, and interactive
PRINCIPAL’S REFLECTION
� Analysis of data � RETELL/SEI Endorsement � WIDA MPI PD � Implementing school wide changes � Next steps for additional PD
LESSONS LEARNED � Length of PD � Narrow the focus – subject/grade � Teachers are more aware of the learning
needs of ELLs � Participants are making instructional
changes
Questions?