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In Stories That Sparkle Powerful Conversations blog post, I shared a lesson I started with our SIFE (Students with Interrupted Formal Educations) ELs. This lesson led to another wonderful week where students created a wonderful presentation to show the rest of the class. All our newcomer ELs are expected to present their learning in our ESL class, of course, the bar remains high for SIFEs. Just like Kanako Suwa says, "Simplifying is GIVING UP, Scaffolding is BELIEVING. Simplifying is dumbing down/lowering expectations. Scaffold = same expectations and content + supports put in place to help Ss meet the expectations." With the understanding that these students are capable of more - I encouraged them to create their own book using the sentences they had formed from the book Dreamers. My students were very excited when they noticed that they were creating their own book using the information they understood. Both students were able to create and publish their own book but only one student had the strength to record the reading. It does take a lot of courage to do this knowing that your voice is being heard by others and you're not sure of yourself in the targeted language. So the platform I use to publish my students' stories is WriteReader. This platform is student-friendly and it can be used by students K-12. One of my students used the camera to take some pictures of the book that matched his text, another student took photographs of her own illustrations. Here's Yousef's book: DREAMERS (link includes voice/reading) 
Here's Abril's book: DREAMERS
Both of my students did a great job and they are very proud of the work they accomplished.
You see, it really doesn't take much to help our English learners (and SIFE) to perform at their highest potential. If you choose to use this platform to publish your students' stories, please let me know! I'd live to share them with my students as well. Thank you so much for reading!
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 This school year, my English for Beginners class is quite different than last year's class. This year I have a lot more newcomers <1 year in the USA than I did last school year. Just in case you didn't know, this is only my second year teaching HS ESL and I'm loving it! One of the challenges I am facing this school year is having so many different levels of English proficiency in one class. This is a challenge when planning one whole group lessons and not all your students are at the same level on the proficiency continuum. My biggest group is in the entering stages of the continuum (Level 1), a couple in the beginning stages (Level 2), and another group of 5 students are in the developing stages (Level 3).  Of course providing whole group instruction would not provide all with the needed support to grow linguistically. I've tried a couple of lessons but I still had to end up diving students in the corresponding groups to work with students at their level.
So what I started doing is working in small groups! I started assigning them readings and projects as groups and they work with peers completing the assignment if they are not in a group with me. These assignments could be assigned by language domain or a project of choice. I created this Wakelet with resources they can use to help them practice each language domain.
So this is it! We made it!!
Today, Monday, June 10th, 2019, was the last meeting class with newcomers at Concord High School. It's a happy day because I get to see, hear, and read how much English my students have learned. This, of course, brings joy to my heart since I had them from day one as newcomer students in the USA.
But as happy as this day can be - there's also sadness. My heart feels heavy knowing that they will no longer be in room #225 with me. English for Beginners is a course our school/county designed to provide the foundations of the English language our students need to be able to fully engage in our school, and mainstream classrooms. We meet every day for 90 minutes and we create an environment where risk-taking and changes are supported. I have students who started the school year with only enough English to understand questions such as "What's your name?" - Today, they were writing complete sentences and sharing with peers how far they've come. Of course, I couldn't just say good-bye and not have any memories written to show the world how awesome our class was this school year. So...we created our own presentation with moments that are forever in our mind and heart. New Position
I am super excited to share with you that I am starting a new position for the 2018 - 2019 school year...I will now be a HIGH SCHOOL ESL teacher!!!
Working with high school ESL students it's a desire that it's been in my heart for quite some time now. I understand first hand the struggles and huddles newcomer high school students are facing as they begin their educational journey in the USA. It is my hope that my personal experiences and 14 years in an elementary setting, have equipped me with the skills I need to support students are Concord HS. I am very sad to leave Irvin Elementary!! I've built great relationships with students, parents, and staff. However, I feel very strongly about this change. It's the right time. I must admit that I am a little nervous. New content, new staff, new students, new EVERYTHING! However, the excitement and passion I feel about this change are going to help me adjust to all new changes. Wish me luck...and send any HS resources my way please...I'll be needing all the support I can get.
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