February was a busy month full of local Professional Development opportunities and collaboration. Elementary, middle and secondary ELL teachers came together in person at the Welcome and Learning Centre this month on different weeks to collaborate on best practices for supporting our students. Thank you to everyone who was able to attend and participate in the discussions! It was such a positive experience to be together in the same room with our dedicated ELL teachers who have such a wealth of knowledge and experience and are so willing to share.

With gratitude,

Jen Barber, District ELL Teacher Support

David Hovis, District Principal

Spring break is around the corner and many of our families are trying to find care, camps or extracurricular activities for their children. Below are some links to grants for families in need which was shared a few months ago.
-Kidsport: https://kidsportcanada.ca/british-columbia/provincial-fund/

-Jumstart:https://jumpstart.canadiantire.ca/pages/individual-child-grants

-L.I.F.E program (50 free access to recreation center activities, can be applied in all recreation centers, such as:

https://planh.ca/success-stories/capital-region-life-flourishes-recreation-facilities

-Athletics4kids: https://www.a4k.ca/apply_now

-Viasport: https://www.viasport.ca/grants/other-funding-sources

-Other possible grants: https://britishcolumbia.grantwatch.com/cat/34/sports-and-recreation-grants.html

Some parents have found it difficult to find availability for English language learning classes for themselves since there is currently a waiting list at the ICA. Here is a comprehensive list of other options locally.

New immigrant and refugee students should have a SWIS worker (Settlement Worker In Schools) assigned to them to help support their transition to school. Normally they would be connected to students at the point of registration, but it is good to double check. This is a program offered through the ICA (Inter-cultural Association of Greater Victoria). The referral form has been emailed out as a fillable pdf. It can also be found on the ICA website.https://www.icavictoria.org/immigrant-welcome-centre/settlement-workers-in-schools/

Staff from VICCIR have been leading ProD every week with ELL teachers at different levels of education. Two sessions were for elementary teachers, one will be for middle school teachers next week and, finally, the first Wednesday in March will be for secondary teachers. If you have a student that the school counsellor and ELL teacher feel should be referred to VICCIR for counselling, please speak to the parents about it first, describing it as a way to help them cope and deal with stress.

We are pleased to share that we have several more upcoming Pro D events with Tan Huynh this year. Although we can’t have him back in person, we have great opportunities to learn with Tan Huynh via ZOOM. As we have shared out before, Tan has a great website “Empowering ELLs” that is a resource center for English as an Additional Language (EAL*) educators who want to empower their Multilingual learners (MLs) to achieve English proficiency, develop thinking skills, and possess effective social skills. On this site, you will find articles related to English language instruction supported by research and field-tested in his classroom and in those of content teachers with whom he works with.

https://www.empoweringells.com/

Upcoming Pro-D opportunities with Tan Huynh

Friday, April 26

3:00 - 4:00 PM

Lesson planning for SLIFE (students with limited or interrupted formal education.

All new eligible families should come through the Greater Victoria School District's new Welcome and Learning Centre. We welcome all new immigrant and refugee students supported by our local community agencies. When in doubt, please reach out. Referrals can be made to Tanya Clarke, Administrative Assistant for the District Team and Referral Contact, by phone at 250-475-4157 or by email at taclarke@sd61.bc.ca.

We are here to welcome students and their families and to ease their transition into the school system. Community partners can now contact the Welcome and Learning Centre directly for assistance with student registration and school placement. By first attending this transitional program, students have the opportunity to participate in an intensive half day English language class with a low student-teacher ratio. Schools receive additional lead time to prepare for incoming students and to co-ordinate school-specific supports.

Thank you to our new Ukrainian interpreter Elaine McVie for helping to support our newcomer Ukrainian families as they have arrived in Victoria over the past few months. Elaine is a retired Victoria principal who happens to speak Ukrainian. She has been a very welcome addition to our team!

Multilingual/ dual language books and where to get them:

1. School House Teaching in Victoria has dual language books.

https://schoolhouseteaching.com/

2. Storybooks Canada is one of our favourite 3 sites for online books in many languages.

3. https://www.uniteforliteracy.com/

Unite online library provides free access to more than 400 original picture books, one fourth of them written in Spanish. The digital books provide audio narrations in more than 40 languages, spoken by native speakers in warm, expressive voices. The languages of narration include indigenous and endangered languages along with languages most widely spoken in the US. Our publishing services include the ability for our partners to curate and embed a selection of books on their websites.

4. https://worldstories.org.uk/

5. RAZ Plus also has books in many languages:

Select books in multiple languages (right side near top) - French, Polish, Spanish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese https://www.raz-plus.com/books/leveled-books/. If the link doesn’t work, take a look at the screenshot.

A Systematic Approach to Teaching K-12 Newcomer English Learners

https://www.ballard-tighe.com/webinars/

Best Practices for Serving English Language Learners and Their Families.

This is a very comprehensive and informative asyncronous webinar on culturally responsive teaching. Though it is based in the US, the majority of the content is directly relevant here as well.

https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/webinars/best-practices-for-serving-english-language-learners-and-their

Comprehensive and approachable guidance on time-saving co-planning strategies are offered in this article and episode on Tan Huynh's website, Empowering ELLs.

https://tankhuynh.com/5-co-planning-strategies/

The Empowering ELLs website listed above is a wonderful resource to use and share with colleagues. On his homepage, look on the right side for "Collaboration".

To simplify the wording of more complex text:

• https://rewordify.com/
• This is a helpful resource for simplifying wording of more complex text.

Newsela

This is a US-based newspaper, written for educational purposes. Every article is available at five reading levels. Therefore, this is a great way to differentiate reading in the classroom. While this resource has not officially been sanctioned by GVSD, it is possible to print off interesting articles at different reading levels for students.

https://newsela.com

• https://sweetwaterschools.instructure.com/courses/1080113/files/31344925
• This is a great resource for the teacher to use when supporting students. This document provides numerous sentence stems and frames (and more) to help students with their writing.

Free SIOP Training and Resources (Sheltered Instruction):

• https://padlet.com/allysonleann/SIOPMU2020

Here are some other strategies:

• Use adapted or translated texts. If they are doing a novel, see if it can be found in his home language. If not, see if there is an adapted version (for kids) or an audiobook version.

• Literature Circles with graphic novels like ABC or Persepolis are great.

• Ask the student(s) to write in his home language, and translate it into English afterwards. Make sure you are assessing the content of the ideas rather than the writing style or grammar (rubrics are great to help with this).

• Offer paragraph and sentence stems to help students.
• Poetry is great for ELL students because it is free from rigid grammar rules.
  

https://bit.ly/FebruaryMulticulturalCalendar2023

Another good multicultural calendar online:

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/canada/2022

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/canada/2023

Check out the CBC Kids website for excellent visuals and information about celebrations around the world, or how people celebrate spring in different ways.

https://www.un.org/en/sections/observances/international-days/index.html

The UN has an established a list of International Days. Note that March holds a number of days relevant to multilingualism and the elimination of discrimination.

https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/8-new-year-traditions-from-around-the-world

New Year's traditions around the world, with visuals and simplified language.

Information about the ICA, including SWIS (settlement workers in schools) referral forms and contacts, has been shared a number of times. However, it couldn't hurt to share it again, so please see below for what these pdfs looked like in your email. The referral form is even a fillable pdf!

Supporting Students with Refugee Experience

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/administration/kindergarten-to-grade-12/diverse-student-needs/students-from-refugee-backgrounds-guide.pdf

Shared Google Drive

Did you know? There is a shared Google Drive entitled "ELL/ESD Teacher Resources" containing assessments, writing prompts, a video tutorial on AIP development and the Annual September Checklist. Current and past GVSD ELL teachers should have access. Please reach out to Jennifer Barber (jbarber@sd61.bc.ca) if you need help accessing this helpful drive.

BC ELL Standards - just Google this title to see the pdf online.

Strategic Plan

The GVSD Strategic Plan for the next 5 years is on the district website, along with the Operational Plan for the current school year. All of the goals and strategies relate to cultural responsiveness.

https://www.sd61.bc.ca/our-district/plans/