[Erica Fain]

Right on, Dr. Mooney! In fact, our monthly district administrators meeting this morning shared a similar message. We heard from an OKC police officer who is trained in cultural intelligence – Lieutenant Wayland Cubit. He asked us if we could truly understand other cultures if we keep ourselves in our “silos” while those of other racial backgrounds remain in their “silos”. By doing so, we are hearing only one perspective, one point of view; we can’t understand the other side of the story. I argue that this same theory applies to teachers in our buildings; how can we understand what the struggles of our “enemies” are if we keep to ourselves in our own safe silo? Start small; Rome wasn’t built overnight!

[Erica Fain]

I will never forget hearing the term LTEL for the first time; I had to Google it while sitting in a consortium meeting of my peers. I thought I had a firm grasp of EL jargon, but LTEL was a new one to me that spring. I started reading about them which led to researching my district to find out just how many LTELs we had. What I found was pretty interesting; 97% of our LTELs were identified as ELs while attending an elementary school within our district. These were not mobile students. They had been in our charge for the duration of their education, yet they were still unable to attain English Language Proficiency (according to OKSDE criteria) in under 6 years. Now 97% sounds like a lot, but in our defense, we are talking about 85 students out of about 1,200 ELs in a district of about 25,000. Even more interesting was the fact that about half of those 85 LTELs attended 2 elementary schools both of which are Title I schools. Sounds like poverty definitely plays a role in LTEL status. Fortunately I was able to add 2 additional EL teachers after I presented this information to my associate superintendent, but I’m not sure that’s enough. My team and I need specific information on how we can A. help those who have slipped into LTEL status and B. help our ELs avoid becoming a part of an LTEL statistic down the road. Looking forward to hearing from you on Monday Dr. Mooney! Thanks for sharing your expertise on ELs with your articles and discussion boards!

[Erica Fain]

Managing the conversations in all of your groups can be challenging! Here’s a simple strategy that can be employed to help keep the “Chatty Cathy” from doing all of the talking; it’s called Talking Chips:

How to implement:
1. Ask a question to elicit discussion.
2. Distribute the same number of talking chips to each member of the group.
3. Each time a member contributes to the discussion, s/he places a chip in the center of the table.
4. Once individuals are out of chips, they can no longer speak.
5. Continue the discussion until all chips are exhausted.

Why use Talking Chips:
1. The chips provide structure to small group discussions.
2. The chips ensure all students get an opportunity to contribute.

Talking chips can be any type of manipulative- teddy bears, math counting chips, even poker chips!

Thanks for your well-organized forum, Dr. Mooney! What a valuable resource for teachers of English Learners!

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