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April is National Bilingual/Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month, a time to celebrate and advocate for multilingual learners in our schools by celebrating their accomplishments, affirming the assets that they bring to the educational environment, and advocating for the resources they need to succeed in school and life.
The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has a trio of free toolkits to help parents, educators, and administrators support these students and this issue of the Program Quality Highlights offered North Carolina resources as well. Learn about ELD standards related resources and professional learning, play ML Advocacy Bingo, and explore highlights of great ML work around the state. As you read, know how much we appreciate YOU and all you do for ML students!
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ELD Standards/Instructional Practices
Learn about the ELD Standards online!
The “Understanding the ELD Standards” Canvas course provides an overview as well as an in-depth, close reading of the NC English Language Development (ELD) Standard Course of Study. All educators of ML can benefit from this course, especially beginning and lateral entry teachers. Work through the course at your own pace or with a PLC and come back to the course periodically to review as you implement the ELD standards!
*Note: This is a public Canvas course; users do not need a Canvas account to access this course. Take the Course!
From the Field
Making Key Language Uses (KLUs) Visible
Tamara Coburn, Lead ESL Teacher, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
Noting the impact of sentence frames and stems for scaffolding language use in the content classrooms, we created these KLU posters to share with ESL teachers. Now these posters appear in many different classrooms throughout the district as teachers of MLs participate in professional learning centered around the NC ELD SCOS and as we expand our collaboration with core content coaches. I appreciate tools that scaffold scaffolding for mainstream teachers. Most teachers know scaffolding and differentiation are important aspects of inclusive instructional design. The obstacle is understanding how to scaffold or when to fit it into instructional planning and delivery.
These posters can be an anchor chart for educators to support language awareness while also offering students an entry point to classroom participation and engagement. My goal is to see these posters in every classroom in our school district as we all grow in awareness of the new NC ELD framework centered around the KLUs: Narrate, Inform, Explain, and Argue.
WIDA KLU ML Posters Ledger PDF (We recommend printing on 17” cardstock, B&W, one side only.)
Find more of our resources at bit.ly/wsfcsMLs or contact Tamara Coburn at tjcoburn@wsfcs.k12.nc.us. - Images and resources shared with permission.
Setting the Stage for ELD Standards Implementation
Oscar Vega, Spanish Teacher & ESL Lead Teacher, Warren County Schools
At the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year, Warren County schools started the implementation of the NC ELD Standard Course of Study. The Multilingual Learner (ML) Team provided the school educators and the community (parents) with a couple of activities to get them familiar with the ELD Standards. An ELD Standards overview presentation was scheduled during the staff meetings in the school district. The School District also wanted to guarantee that parents were involved in the dissemination process. Thus, we held the first orientation camp for multilingual learners (MLs) and families. During the camp, all parents were supplied with the Parent/Caregiver Guide for ELD.
As a next step in this process, the team has planned to create a cartoon video. This video would provide insights into the ELD Standards. Along with this video, we are still working on supporting all our teachers to learn and prepare more about the ELD Standards until full implementation.
What other ideas have you developed in your school district to engage families in the ELD Standards implementation? Let’s connect at ovega@warrenk12nc.org.
Professional Learning Opportunities
Spring Training is in FULL Swing!
State-wide sessions offered by the ELD Support Team, sponsored by the ML/Title III Team, have been well attended and loaded with useful information that can be applied in the classroom. Offerings include SIOP, ExC-ELL, GLAD, and Family & Community Engagement. These sessions are open to K-12 educators--including content educators!
Although many of the sessions have already taken place, several remain and all will be archived on the ELD Standards Hub. To access the Resource Hub, please use the short URL bit.ly/ELDStandardsHub or the direct link https://ncdpi.instructure.com/courses/6424.
Register now!
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ASL for Spanish Speaking Families
Spanish speaking families who live in NC with children who are deaf or hard of hearing can attend a FREE virtual introduction to American Sign Language course. Instruction in this 6 week course will be presented in ASL and Spanish only. Classes begin May 2.
If interested, view the English flier or the Spanish flier to register!Click to edit this placeholder text.
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Conferences Update
See upcoming conferences below and let us know what conferences need to be added for next month's publication.
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2023 Growing Success for MLs Summer Conference
Join us June 20-22 at McDeeds Elementary School in Southern Pines, NC for the Growing Success for MLs Summer Conference.
ALL educators of multilingual learners (MLs) are invited to choose one three-day strand to attend
- Best Practices
- Common Space: Collaboration and Co-Teaching for MLs
- Engaging Schools, Families, & Communities for ML Success
- Glimpse of GLAD
- Making Content Comprehensible with SIOP
- Taking Flight for Academic Success: Integrating Content and Language Development
Spaces are limited, register today!
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2022 NC Principal of the Year, Dr. Patrick Greene, from Greene Central High, Greene County Schools, is this year’s keynote speaker. Dr. Greene has 13 years of administrative experience, and has been an NC Principal Fellow and NC Teaching Fellow.
Join us during the conference kick-off and be inspired by Dr. Greene as he helps us set the tone of our Summer Conference with an engaging opening message on the importance of stakeholder collaboration.
Explore the conference program and register today!
June Conferences
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June 26-28, 2023 Virtual Conference
“Making an Impact” - Register
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Spotlights
Heritage Language Academy at Asheboro City Schools
In March of 2023, UNC Greensboro (UNCG) highlighted the Heritage Language Academy (HLA) program in Asheboro City Schools (ACS). The HLA program builds upon a long-term university-school collaboration that offers heritage language learning opportunities to Spanish-speaking students and parents in. Instead of double monolingualism, this HLA program is designed to create an environment where language is taught as a situated cultural practice through project-based learning to enhance learners’ multilingual and multicultural growth (García et al., 2013). In addition to youths’ development, HLA also includes an element for parents as they develop literacy and technology skills using Spanish as the instructional language.
HLA was initiated by educators and Spanish-speaking families in ACS in collaboration with the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program at UNCG. When it was first launched in 2009, a small group of third-grade students and their families participated in the program. Today, the program has been expanded to include both elementary school and middle school students in the district.
In 2023, 42 students and 23 families completed Spanish and English bilingual projects through the HLA and celebrated their completion at UNCG. At the celebration, many families and students shared their appreciation of the HLA space for them to not only engage in teaching and learning of heritage language and culture, but also share their cultural values through intergenerational projects.
Educators from ACS who led the HLA program have also engaged in research efforts and shared their insights through the chapter entitled “Challenges and Strength-Based Strategies for Cultivating a Sense of Belonging in a Heritage Language Program” in the book Resisting Barriers to Belonging.
Multilingual Learners Discover STEAM With LEGO
Allison Hilton, ESL Teacher, Shuford Elementary School
Mrs. Hilton and her multilingual learner (ML) students at Shuford Elementary School recently received the FIRST® LEGO® League Discover grant from STEM West’s LEGO® Community Grant program. The Discover grant provided her kindergarten and first-grade students with the opportunity to explore and engage in 10 real-world science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) sessions designed to teach students about different types of energy used throughout the world. My MLs were provided with a FIRST® class pack, which contains the LEGO® Education STEAM Park, Discover sets, engineering notebooks, team meeting guides, and family engagement LEGO® sets that allow students to explore at home with their families. Once my students complete the 10 sessions, a family celebration night will be held for students to share their knowledge and showcase their LEGO® building skills with their families. Through this grant, MLs have the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the FIRST® LEGO® League’s core values of discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun.
Through this kind of project integrating STEM/STEAM, ML students develop a deeper understanding of the cultural and social contexts of the language they are learning, which is an essential component of their language proficiency. Students learn academic and scientific vocabulary and concepts. They are exposed to words and phrases that they may not encounter in everyday conversation, which helps them expand their vocabulary.
Images are shared with parental permission.
STEM West, located in Hickory, NC, has received the LEGO® Community Grant, valued at $80,000, over the last three years. The grant provides teachers and students with LEGO® curriculum, kits, and training across six counties. If you want to learn how Mrs. Hilton was able to obtain this grant and engage my MLs in this project, contact her on Twitter @MarvelousMLs or allison.hilton@n-ccs.org.
This listserv features highlights and/or initiatives regarding ELD happening in Public School Units (PSU) across the state. The information included in this message is self-reported by leaders of NC PSUs and shared verbatim. Unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing, NCDPI does not endorse and makes no warranties, representations, or undertakings relating to the news shared by PSUs in this listserv update.
Networking and Collaboration UPDATE
Explore all the resources and get inspiration for your classroom with our ELD Hub in GoOpenNC. These standards-based resources are created by educators for educators. Explore the curated collections and connect with like-minded educators by joining a group.
Connect With Other Educators
Join the educator groups in the library of open education resources #GoOpenNC. This is an opportunity to connect with other educators and share best practices, resources, and ideas. As a member of these groups, you have access to a collaborative platform where you can share your expertise, ask questions, and receive support from peers. Whether you are a new or experienced educator, this community offers a wonderful space to build your professional learning network.
Join these groups and be a part of this community of practice!
Program Compliance
Program Quality Review (PQR) Webinar Series
The NCDPI Multilingual Learner/Title III Team offered this professional learning designed for ML Program Coordinators and other applicable ML stakeholders in the use of the Program Quality Review (PQR) tool. The webinar series was recorded and the recordings and slide deck are linked below.
Connect with the NCDPI Multilingual Learner/Title III Team!
ESLTitleIII@dpi.nc.gov
Twitter: @NCDPI_MLs #NCMLs #NCELD
NCDPI ELD Web Page | ELD Standards-Resource Hub | ELD GoOpenNC Hub
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Unless otherwise expressly agreed in writing, NCDPI is not in any way associated with the owner or operator of any of the 3rd Party Websites or responsible or liable for the goods and services offered by them or for anything in connection with such 3rd Party Websites. NCDPI does not endorse and makes no warranties, representations or undertakings relating to the content of any 3rd Party Website.
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