Promoting English Literacy in the Face of Growing Language Barriers

Purpose & objective

• Educational or infrastructure challenge/situation. – the student population that I work with is in a high poverty, low literacy, and high crime area. Historically, these students have limited access to education.
• Technology intervention (include specific names/titles and descriptions if tools are not widely known and available). – Increase digital and English language literacy through the online program “readtheory.org”
• Models employed (include a brief description). – In class as well as out of class work in the program. Frequent check in’s to ensure students are successful in the program with clearly defined goals per week.
• Lesson plans or instructional activities/strategies employed (include a brief description of your instructional electronic resources or tools used). – The first week of school, students complete the Pre-Test so that the program places the students into a reading level that is appropriate for them.
• Evidence of success. – Students can see their growth over time as well as the teacher. Evidence of where each student is vs. the standards is clear.

Outline

• Content and activities: What content will be presented and/or in what activities will the audience participate? – The presentation will be on how I use the program and integrate students into the program and show students how they can track their success over time.
• Time: How much time will be spent on each content component? – One Hour
• Process: Include specifics on the frequency and tactics you plan to use to engage the audience (e.g., peer-to-peer interaction, device-based activities, games or contests, etc.).- Attendees will have a QR code so that they can take guided notes. Attendees will be encouraged to ask questions so that it is interactive.

Supporting research

While there are many resources – From the Center of Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA), “Promoting the Success of Multilevel ESL Classes: What Teachers and Administrators Can Do”
https://cal.org/caela/esl_resources/briefs/multilevel.html

From the US Department of Education, Family Literacy
Why Should Parents Become Involved?
Emerging research studies assert that children's motivation to succeed in school is influenced by the educational achievement of their parents. Cognitive science research stresses the impact of the family and social environment on cognitive development and literacy acquisition of children. Parental involvement in their children's schools influences student achievement, attendance, motivation, self concept and behavior. Parents who read to their children, have books in their home, exhibit a positive attitude toward school and establish high achievement goals for their children tend to have higher achievers than parents who do not. Adults who have not mastered the basic skills cannot model appropriate literacy behavior and often pass on to their children the attitudes and abilities that keep them from breaking the cycle of illiteracy. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/f14.html