The DeForest Area School District’s Multilingual Services Program will provide services to identified English Language Learner students in PreK-12 to assist them in achieving the overall goals of the program. The World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) Consortium English Language Proficiency standards will provide the foundation for the program plan for language acquisition and academic development of identified ELL students. These standards can be found at the WIDA website.
A combination of the different program components described below will provide a program which meets the needs of all identified ELL students in the district:
Structured English Immersion or Specifically Designed Academic Instruction Delivered in English (SDAIE)
Students receive individual support, from multilingual educational assistants or a Multilingual Services teacher in the classroom setting. The goal of this service is to provide support to mainstream classroom teachers.
Content Area Tutoring/Guided Study
One-on-one or small group tutoring/assistance to ELLs in the content areas, including English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. This service helps students develop comprehension and mastery in the academic content areas.
Staff Development/Consultation with Mainstream Teachers
Multilingual Services staff work with the mainstream teaching staff in order to provide them with effective strategies and modification techniques to help them work with students whose first language is not English. The staff provides advice and suggestions to the teachers working with the students, and also helps modify and differentiate instruction, assignments, and assessments.
Bilingual Support
The DeForest Area School District is able to offer translation and interpreting support to students, parents, and staff in English, Spanish and Hmong on a daily basis. Information and communication is written or spoken in Spanish and Hmong to better serve our Spanish and Hmong speaking families who lack English proficiency. The DeForest Area School District Multilingual Services staff can help with translation of documents into Spanish, Hmong, as well as other languages in order to better support our families. When available and appropriate, bilingual assistance will be provided to students to help them acquire English language skills while receiving academic subject assistance and/or instruction in their native language.
Pullout Services
The student leaves the classroom to receive one-on-one/small group English language tutoring from Multilingual Services staff. These services usually take place during free/work time so that they do not miss valuable class instruction. Topics may include social/academic English vocabulary, English reading and writing, math, homework support, etc. as determined by the classroom teacher. This affords the student the opportunity to receive intensive language practice and clarification.
In-Class Support/Cooperative Teaching
The Multilingual Services Program Coordinator comes into the classroom to work with students in small groups in collaboration with the classroom teacher. Cooperative teaching is also an option which the Program Coordinator and mainstream teachers can consider. The Program Coordinator can collaborate with mainstream teachers and go into classes with struggling students in order to offer modified instruction as well as support the students in the class.
Testing Support
The Multilingual Services staff administers and provides accommodations on state tests, MAP tests, class exams, semester and final exams, as well as administering the ACCESS test each year.
Monitoring of Successful Academic Progress
Multilingual Services staff monitor student's academic progress, reviewing English and academic testing results and classroom teacher reports/grades. Parents will be notified if the Multilingual Services teacher identifies need of additional ELL or Special Education support to ensure successful academic progress.
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