Boosting Achievement Book Study - Week 1

“...their hardships, like any challenges, bring perspective. Their personal stories may impact them with certain strength for learning as well.”

​This quote is core of what I am about. A personal story, especially a story filled with struggles and hardships beyond our imagination, can be the foundation for our students’ success. 
As educators, we must be open-minded about the possibilities for SIFE students and begin to see their culture and language as an asset not as a deficit. Being SIFE doesn’t make them any inferior.

“THEY EXPERIENCED A LACK OF OPPORTUNITY, NOT AN INABILITY TO LEARN."

​Now, Carol advised and modeled that just being aware of students’ stories and previous hardships, is not enough; we must also act, and to me, acting is finding ways to provide SIFE students the opportunities they need to be successful.
​This thought led me to gather a few resources I found helpful on this topic: 

The Immigrant Learning Center offered two wonderful webinars on July 11th and 12th. Follow this link to access presentations and other resources.

• Topic for day one: America’s Evolving Classrooms: Data and Projections; Psychological Profile of Immigrant and Refugee Students; Breaking Down Implicit Bias; Teacher as Ally and Advocate for Immigrant and Refugee Students; Lesson Plans to Create Welcoming Classrooms
• Topics for day two:  Supporting Immigrant Families in Today’s Climate: What Can Schools Do?; Empowering Immigrant Students to be Leaders and Advocates; Discovering our Shared History: An ESOL Curriculum; Storytelling

You want to check this site: https://immigrantstories.umn.edu/

Access Newcomer Tool Kit provided by the U.S. Department of Education: Who are our newcomers;

Welcoming newcomers to a safe and thriving school environment; How do we support newcomers’ social and emotional needs; Establishing partnerships with parents.
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oela/newcomers-toolkit/index.html

Education Connection also offered interactive 3-part webinar series and provided resources on supporting newcomers: You must sign up to access their resources but its totally FREE!

• The first session: addressed background information related to newcomer students and best practices for integration of native language supports into classroom instruction.
• The second session: focused on the unique challenges faced by newcomer students and strategies for promoting literacy development.
• The third session: focused on the socio-emotional needs of newcomer students, how schools and teachers might best address them, and application activities for improving students' access to core content.​​

word cloud from Tan's words in foreword in page 4&5

We are learning so much from this book club already. Many of us have been challenged to do some things we never thought we would do. I, for example, learned how to create a 3D avatar and posted a bookSnap! Check it out!

#Ellchat_BkClub #PLN thank you for a great first week of learning!

Improving pedagogy...because #ELs_DeserveIt □✨ pic.twitter.com/tZgW7TZq75

— Emily Francis (@emilyfranESL) July 14, 2017

Don't forget to check out Carol Salva's blog for more resources: Boosting Achievement Week 1

If you have the book and would like to go over the questions we used during week one for discussion, here they are! Thanks to Katie Toppel (@Toppel_ELD) for providing the questions. 
All tweets under #ELLchat_BKclub are here so you haven't missed any:

Here it is! Wk 1 of #ELLChat_BKclub 6.0 https://t.co/I6S3Hu6ous (for those of you like me who couldn't keep up during the wk)!

— Shaeley Santiago (@HSeslteacher) July 15, 2017

Thank you for reading!