We hope that you had a restful spring break and are now enjoying the beautiful cherry blossoms that line the streets of Victoria. In April, we as teachers of multilingual learners begin to prepare for the annual spring assessment of our ELL students on our caseloads. As such, included in this newsletter will be links to our district-developed oral assessments to use and guidelines for the use of writing prompts. Drop in zoom sessions are available for consultations as needed. Please feel free to reach out for guidance.

With gratitude,

Jen Barber, District ELL Teacher Support

David Hovis, District Principal

It is now time to start the annual spring assessments of ELL students on your caseload. Please start with students who will be transitioning to middle or secondary in the fall (grade 5's and grade 8's) to help inform transition meetings in May. All funding-eligible ELL students for next year require a new AIP for 2023-2024 school year. The date of assessment needs to show that it took place in the year 2023, so any assessments for new students since January are useable. Funding eligible means that next year they will have 5 years or less on the 1701. At least one language assessment must be completed (oral, reading or writing) for every student this spring and a new goals set by in the 2023-2024 AIP by mid-June. If you are doing an oral language assessment, please use the ones on our shared Google drive entitled ELL/ESD Teacher Resources. The files are housed in the folder called Oral Language Assessments. Feel free to reach out to Jen Barber at jbarber@sd61.bc.ca for guidance or if you have any questions about assessments or AIP development. Starting on Wednesday, April 12, there will be a drop in Zoom session available for ELL teachers with questions about assessments and AIPs at 12:30 throughout the spring assessment period.

Instructions for spring assessments & AIP development:

AIP and assessment common questions:

-L.I.F.E program (50 free access passes to local recreation centres):

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

-Kidsport: https://kidsportcanada.ca/british-columbia/provincial-fund/

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

-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

Moms Against Racism (MAR) was just awarded a grant from the Victoria Community Grants Foundation to run a new program for BIPOC kids. There will be fun activities and field trips every month. See the link below for more information.

As part of our jobs, ELL teachers in SD61 co-teach and even co-plan with advisory and subject teachers. Middle and secondary teachers may be interested in this interesting site with specific project ideas to help engage multilingual students.

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.

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.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/education/kindergarten-to-grade-12/teach/pdfs/ell/ell-standards-full.pdf

https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2023ECC0003-000066#:~:text=The%20new%20provincial%20anti%2Dracism,%2C%20inclusive%20schools%20for%20all.%E2%80%9D

Excellent multicultural calendar developed and maintained by Sooke School District:

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.

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/