Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

I hope you're all doing well and staying safe. In this newsletter I'm going to highlight some of the different types of supports I've been adding to the Supports for English Learners boxes on the calendars.

My goals have been to...

• Look for common themes, topics, or skills across the department
• Provide supports across all four language domains that build background knowledge, help develop discipline-specific language, and offer more opportunities for students to dig deeper through resources that are accessible to a variety of language proficiency levels

Here are some examples of the kinds of supports I've been adding to the calendars:

• Vocab tracker (can be modified to fit content)
  
• Reading short stories graphic organizer
• Signal & Transition Word Chart
• Close reading math word problems
  
• Remote learning texts

Is there some kind of support you wish you had for your students? Please let me know. I can create or search for something that may be helpful to you and your students.

The health and safety of our students takes top priority, and I am well aware that engagement with remote learning is very low for our EL students. Our students do want to participate, but some face many challenges and roadblocks, some of which have always been there, but are being exacerbated by this crisis.

I encourage you to try multiple approaches when reaching out to your EL students, while keeping in mind that many of them are feeling extremely overwhelmed by the number of emails and amount of text they are encountering every day (aren't we all!?). Here are some ideas:

• Send messages in accessible English directly to your EL students (here is an example)
• Create videos or screencasts so that students can listen and watch as many times as they want
  
• Ask for help with making phone calls to connect directly with your EL students
• Consider offering alternative tasks for EL students to complete
• Make use of different tools and strategies like those in this document if you do have EL students join any virtual meetings you hold

With any and all of the above, I am here to help. All you need to do is reach out via email any time, especially as we begin to switch over to teaching new content. I'm available to join department meetings, provide job-embedded professional development to individuals or groups, look over materials and provide feedback, or just to chat.

• You can schedule an individual appointment with me using my appointment calendar
• While you can send me emails any time, I plan to be immediately available to staff during additional office hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays 2:00 - 3:00

Thank you for all that you do!

Email: JSantiago@framingham.k12.ma.us
Website: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/selfsched?sstoken=UUhiTHhrblByQ1R1fGRlZmF1bHR8NDJmOTNiMjFhMDFmZGVjOTA4OWM3Yzk0NmVhYzFjOWE
Twitter: @JSantiago47