The Long Hill School ExcEL team was very busy this year analyzing student work and planning things that we could do as a team to help facilitate EL student success in our school. After using the DLLP (Dynamic Language Learning Progressions) to analyze student writing samples, we decided that sentence structure would be a great place to start. We discussed the various things that were already being done in the classrooms across the grade levels to help EL students achieve grade-level expectations in writing, and one place we thought needed more attention was the use of sentence and paragraph frames. Some team members expressed their lack of knowledge in developing sentence and paragraph frames, and others pointed out that they are very lengthy and involved for teachers to create for every type of writing done in their classrooms. Because of these two factors, we chose to use our time as a team to create sentence frames and paragraph frames for all grade levels in the following types of writing: narrative writing, opinion writing, informational writing, writing about reading, and writing about math. These sentence and paragraph frames are currently being compiled into a shared document for the entire staff so they can easily implement them in their instruction. At the beginning of the next school year, the ExcEL team members will be presenting the document to their grade levels and providing training to them on how to use the frames in their classes.
This project has fulfilled two goals of Project ExcEL at Long Hill. First, it targeted a student need in our building and created a way to address that need. Second, it helped to build capacity in our staff in strategies for helping ELs. After being a part of this team for two years, their grade levels will now be receiving training from them and they will be able to show what they have been a part of. They have developed their knowledge of sentence and paragraph frames, they have developed sentence frames and paragraph frames for all different uses, and now they will get to help put them into practice. Our team is looking forward to taking the next steps with this project and others in the coming school year!
This project has fulfilled two goals of Project ExcEL at Long Hill. First, it targeted a student need in our building and created a way to address that need. Second, it helped to build capacity in our staff in strategies for helping ELs. After being a part of this team for two years, their grade levels will now be receiving training from them and they will be able to show what they have been a part of. They have developed their knowledge of sentence and paragraph frames, they have developed sentence frames and paragraph frames for all different uses, and now they will get to help put them into practice. Our team is looking forward to taking the next steps with this project and others in the coming school year!