If you've recently come home with your IA child, or if you're planning to bring your child home soon, you may find this document helpful.
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**Example**
ELL Plan for
Post-Institutionalized, Internationally Adopted Student
References:
Kansas State Department of Education, English
Proficiency Level Descriptions, Spring 2000. Version 2.5
United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights
Department. Discrimination Against
English Language Learner Students (Settlement with Boston Schools
documents) http://www.justice.gov/crt/edo/ellpage.php
Resources:
Melanie Manares, ESOL Education Program Consultant,
Kansas State Department of Education.
Phone: (785) 296-7929, Email: mmanares@ksde.org
Office for Civil Rights, Kansas City Office, U.S.
Department of Education - 8930 Ward Parkway, Suite 2037 - Kansas City, MO
64114-3302 - Telephone: (816) 268-0550
Fax: (816) 823-1404 – email: OCR.KansasCity@ed.gov
Fax: (816) 823-1404 – email: OCR.KansasCity@ed.gov
Dr. Boris Gindis, Director, Center for Cognitive
Developmental Assessment and Remediation. 150
Airport Executive Park, Suite 152, Nanuet, NY 10954, Tel.: (845)694-8496 – http://www.bgcenter.org
FIRST OF ALL – IMPORTANT FACTS
1. It is against the law to place or hold
back a child because of language learner status. No child, not even an internationally adopted
child with little or no prior education, can be legally placed at a grade level
below his or her age-level peers without the prior and explicit written request of the
parents. The school may not recommend it,
nor require it. Schools MUST place
internationally adopted kids according to the age. Additionally, the school can NOT hold back a
student because she or he is not “up to grade level” with their age peers. Additionally, placing or holding a child, without parental request, due to a lack of prior education is AGAINST
THE LAW!
2. Nearly 100% of all internationally adopted
children under the age of 12 will lose
their first language within 6 months of coming home to live with their
English-only speaking family. English
will become their new first language. They will not be 2nd language
learners. They will be learning an
entirely new first language.
Post-institutionalized, internationally adopted (PIAI) students will,
for the most part, not have sufficient language skills in their native first
language due to institutionalization.
Translating English into their old language to “help them understand”
actually hurts their English
language acquisition. More importantly,
it is DETREMENTAL to their attachment to their English-only speaking, new families. Even
IF someone can speak to a child in his native language at school, THEY SHOULD
NOT DO IT! The child will learn more
quickly – not only English, but all academics – and will attach more quickly to
their new family.
Within 4 months of being
home, most PIAI kids under 12 are doing quite well in their new classroom
setting. While there are still often
challenges to re-learning expected behaviors, catching up developmentally and academically,
most teachers see a marked difference after a child has been in their classroom
by the fourth month.
3. Teachers CAN
NOT expect a PIAI child to “do the work” of their classmates. Do not expect
a child to be “taught to the test.” Deal
with it. Your PIAI child WILL MESS UP
your state test scores, especially during the first 1-2 years home. Sorry.
But that’s not your student’s problem.
It’s not their parents’ problem either.
YOU MUST MODIFY work for your
PIAI student. The older the student is
when they arrive home, the more modification needed, and the longer it will
take for your student to perform at grade level. For example, a boy home at age 12 and in
school three years (now 15) still needs considerable modifications on much of
his work. Yet, when he came home, he
could not add two digit numbers together.
Today, he is getting A’s in 8th grade level math. He is of average intelligence. His sister, home at age 9 just skipped from 4th
grade into 6th grade. She had
no more schooling than the average pre-school child in America when she came
home. She is a now a straight “A”
student. Both students were placed in
grade levels requested by the parents.
5. You MUST
HAVE a written ELL plan for your PIAI
student. Document all progress! MOST PIAI students will test out of ELL after
their third or fourth full year home.
Their English language acquisition is amazing! The first few months home can be rough. The first few years of healing from “Lord of the
Flies” behaviors learned in order to survive their very tough start in life can
be challenging. However, most teachers
will be amazed at how well their PIAI students are doing with language
acquisition as compared to their other ELL students.
ELL Plan Suggestions
for
Student Name
Grade __ - School Name
Submitted by Your Name (Your Role), Date
Qualifying Need
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English
as (student’s name) new first language, replacing his original first language
of (Spanish/Russian/Mandarin/etc).
Residence in the USA since (date) with no prior English language
abilities before adoption into an American family.
Listening:
Speaking:
Reading Comprehension:
Writing:
*See English Language
Proficiency Descriptions above.
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Language Arts
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Modify written assignments to include
projects. Allow for appropriate
reading level materials. Do not expect
student to read at levels of age peers.
Correct spelling and sentence structure but avoid substantial grading
on these. Weight any reading logs
lower for grading purposes than most other students due to mental energy
exerted and stress related to required reading. Provide support for academic language. Make sure directions for assignments are understood.
Allow for shorter tests and
modified assignments. Possibly allow take-home
tests or modified tests. Provide easy
access to a safe person or safe place to which (student) may retreat if
feeling stressed. Provide for
teacher's awareness to signs (student) is shutting down or withdrawing.
NOTE: PIAI children go into a “Language
Limbo” between losing their first language and gaining English as their new
first language. They are unable to
translate “in their heads” like other ELL students from bi-lingual
backgrounds. The way they learn is NOT
THE SAME! See articles by Dr. Boris
Gindis – resource website above.
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Social Studies
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Provide professional or peer
guidance for understanding academic language.
Establish take-home academic vocabulary within context of material
covered in class.
Allow for shorter tests and
modified assignments. Possibly allow
take-home tests or modified tests.
Provide easy access to a safe person or safe place to which (student)
may retreat if feeling stressed.
Provide for teacher's awareness to signs (student) is shutting down or
withdrawing. Do not take basic
world knowledge for granted. Avoid
surprise assignments including out-of-ordinary homework assignments or pop
quizzes. Give clear, simple directions
for assignments. Break directives into
simple steps, simply worded. Encourage
shared note-taking. Substitute or
supplement textbook reading assignments and classroom discussions with direct
experience through film, CD's, recordings or internet links.
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Science
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Provide academic vocabulary
within context of material covered.
Modify tests to include clear multiple-choice questions. If fill-in-the blank tests are used, make
the blank the size of the correct answer.
Use a word bank.
Allow for peer
interaction and cooperative learning activities based on kinesthetic
techniques. Allow for modified test
arrangements. Be aware of student’s
limited world knowledge and explain concepts in very simple terms, using one
or two syllable words. Encourage shared note-taking. Substitute or supplement textbook reading
assignments and classroom discussions with direct experience and audio/visual
materials, CD's, recordings or computer programs/links. Reinforce verbally anything presented in a
traditional format.
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Math
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Allow extra time for
student to work on concepts not previously learned. Assign student fewer problems for homework
– only enough practice to ensure understanding or to assess knowledge (or
lack of knowledge). Allow extended
time to complete calculations. Allow
student to “skip” problems she/he is unable to complete within a given
time. Provide adequate examples (for
student's sake as well as parents'). Work with student to space problems far
enough apart to allow room for calculations and reduce distractions. Group similar problems. Consider using graph paper to aid student
in lining up place value accurately.
Limit word
problems. Understand student concepts like the passage of time, charted
schedules, etc. are things which student has no prior concept of before
coming to America due to institutionalization/orphanage living. While the student will learn much quickly,
he/she will be overwhelmed with information and will not be capable of
retaining it all.
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Art/Music
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View art as therapy for
(student). Place very few, if any
requirements on work. Break
instructions down into simple steps, using simple vocabulary. Ask student to repeat instructions back to
teacher or class.
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Physical Education/Gym
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Present directions
in clear, easy-to-understand vocabulary.
Allow for rest if
student complains of chest pain or a headache. Be aware of signs of distress and modify
activity or allow retrieval to a safe person or safe place if student is
feeling inadequate or overwhelmed.
BE VERY AWARE of
post-institutionalized behavior. Your
student will likely be quite competitive and will even make themselves ill
trying to be “first” in any sort of physical contest.
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General Academic Considerations for
ALL SUBJECTS
And ALL Teachers
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-IMPORTANT:
-DO NOT EXPECT GRADE LEVEL WORK until
the third or fourth year home for students under 8.
(For students between the ages of 8-12+, do not expect grade level
work with age peers until even later.)
-OMIT ANY BIOGRAPHICAL ASSIGNEMENTS! Do not even ask. Do not ask your student about their
background. Period. (Read
Boris Gindis articles for more education on why not.)
-Introduce key
vocabulary before an assignment.
-Give student opportunity to read aloud or verbalize
assignments to peers, ELL teacher or a para familiar with the child.
-Provide assistance for answering text-based
questions.
-Provide tests that are typed and neatly printed,
clearly legible, with ample space for responses.
-Avoid “trick” questions, slang, jargon and
idioms.
-Allow student break or rest time.
-Allow easy access to a safe persons (This might be
the ELL teacher or counselor.)
-Preview assignments to orient student to a topic.
-Develop a study guide or outline for material
covered.
-Allow student to use graphic aids such as maps,
charts, posters, videos, computer, etc.
-Allow for open book or take home tests.
-Allow for memory aids, cues and references.
-Provide
opportunity to retest if necessary. Be aware of the trauma experienced by any
sense of failure due to any
PIAI child’s past.
-Provide experience & discussion before and
after reading or introducing new concepts as a frame of reference and
reinforcement.
-Ask “WHAT” a student understands vs. “IF” they
understand. Have the student tell you
specifically what it is they believe the assignment to be.
-Directly and specifically point out relationships,
as students are often confused about what is “real” and what is “imaginary”
or fiction because of limited world knowledge. (Again, this is true for ANY PIAI child.)
-Omit assignments requiring rote copying. A brain in “language limbo” does not absorb
material by copying material.
-Omit scrambled word assignments.
-Use demonstration to teach whenever possible.
-Provide manipulative objects whenever possible.
-Provide self-correcting materials, if available.
-Pay special attention to trauma triggers. ALL PIAI children are traumatized. Just being adopted and brought to a new
country is a significant traumatic experience. (See more about trauma and attachment in
adoption at www.attach.org,
http://blogspot.traumamamat.org
, and other web sites.)
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©Trauma
Mama T 2011 – All Rights Reserved
Please
contact Trauma Mama T for
permission to reprint.
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