Academic+English+for+SPED+Andersen

Team Members/ School(s) Andersen Jeff Johnson, Tom Smith, Dana Williams, Terri Kendle, Susan Larson, Martha Spriggs

Brief description of Learning Circle plan: Meet with EL expert (Jill Bromenschenkel) and SPED experts (TBD) and work together to identify strategies that will accelerate English academic language skills for ELs receiving SPED services.

Plan for measurement & eval: Pre and post WIDA assessments.

Timeline: 2 hour survey of interactive strategies. Plan for data collection (pre test using WIDA) ||  ||   || Meet biweekly for 2 hours each time to discuss strategies. Implement strategies with EL/SPED students. Look at student work and adjust. ||  ||   || Meet biweekly for 2 hours each time to discuss strategies. Implement strategies with EL/SPED students. Look at student work and adjust. Post test using WIDA Share ideas at whole middle school PLC. ||  ||   || Post test using WIDA. Share data with school and dual eligible task force. ||  ||
 * March || April || May || June ||
 * || 2 hour planning meeting – goal setting.

Work & Progress:
To do: identify students assess and accelerate. Use high interest books to get these students to read more. Meet with students one-on-one.
 * Met March 28** for 1 hour. Brainstormed ideas and issues. Issues include: motivation, weak test takers, fear/lack of confidence, and fossilized language skills.

Members attending Learning Circle Meetings: Susan Larson, Terri Kendle, Dana Williams, Martha Spriggs, Jill Bromenschenkel FINAL PROJECT IS THE FIRST DRAFT OF OUR PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR 2012 2013. We prioritized the SPED and EL teacher schedules to look for time/classes for co-teaching and planning time.
 * Met April 12** for 1 hour. Discussed "Book Whisperer" and how we could use the idea of increasing independent reading for our dual eligible students. Susan ordered the book for teachers and discussed how we can order more high interest books for students who have lowere reading levels.
 * Met May 3** for 1 hour. Jill B. joined us to talk about how we can support dual eligible students as they gain acquisition skills. Dana shared that special education students are working on skills for math and language. Some of the same strategies will work for dual eligible students. Discussed next year's schedule to find time to collaborate between SPED and EL students.
 * Met May 24** for 1 hour. We did not follow our learning circle plan. The bulk of our Learning Circle time was spent sharing ideas that work with EL and SPED and reading. We realized that the best use of our time would be to focus on finding ways to collaborate between SPED and EL teacher and clustering dual elibigle students together so that they get support from EL and SPED teacher. Ideally, the EL and SPED teacher would co-teach with the mainstream teacher. We will try this model next year.