��� Vision Include your vision for a program that meets the needs and laws regarding the ELs in your school, as well as other students that need academic language support. This vision should also align with the school or district’s vision, mission, and core values. In this section, you are also defending your program’s components. • Process for Involving Stakeholders: Describe the process you will use for involving stakeholders in the final design and implementation of your proposed plan. Provide a rationale for your approach and then connect it to the literature in the field on best practices for involving stakeholders in district and school program planning. Make sure to describe necessary staff development and how you would implement any needed components. • Process for Identifying ELs and their Needs, including Learning Styles and Disabilities: Explain how your plan will identify ELs in your school and the process for assigning them to classrooms and ESL/Bilingual services. Explain how your plan will address the needs of the different subpopulations of English language learners (e.g., newcomers, refugees, long-term English language learners, English language learners with disabilities, students with limited interrupted formal education [SLIFE], undocumented immigrants, migrants) and the distinct strengths and challenges of each subpopulation. Please describe how the program will locate the second language development stages and address how long it takes for ELs to become proficient in English and how effective instruction can accelerate that process. • School and Classroom Environment and Climate: Explain how your plan will create schools and classroom environments that reduce the environmental “affective filter;” demonstrate knowledge of sociocultural, political, and ideological factors that can affect first and second language development (., social distance, social and cultural capital, race/ethnicity, and identity); and maintain a safe and collaborative learning environment that values diversity, promotes student engagement, and motivates students to meet high standards of conduct, effort, and performance. • Family Involvement: Explain how your plan will involve the family, community, linguistic, and cultural practices to support students from homes in poverty, ELs, and other students with language needs’ academic achievement. Describe appropriate support services and instruction to EL populations (., immigrants and refugees) and describe how to deliver appropriate support services and instruction. Include plans for how you will reach EL families, including strategies for linguistic and culturally responsive communications. • Practices for Improving Students’ Language Acquisition: Identify methods your plan will utilize to implement critical theories of first language acquisition, fundamental theories and understandings related to second language acquisition, ., Cummins’ Common Underlying Proficiency, Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) distinction, Krashen’s Five Hypotheses, language transfer, and language competence vs. performance; understand the significance of various vital factors on second language acquisition, such as age, prior schooling in the L1, L1 literacy level, familiarity with school culture and academic discourses, metalinguistic/metacognitive awareness, motivation, and personality. • Instructional Practices for Supporting Content Learning: Explain how your plan will apply the factors that promote learning and language acquisition, including types of English language development programming models. Explain how your project will recognize the nature of culture, significant concepts related to culture (., deep vs. surface culture, collectivism vs. individualism) and cultural adaptation (., cultural shock), and the influence of cultural differences (., cultural assumptions, beliefs, and values; communication patterns; socioeconomic differences; cultural views on literacy) on the teaching and learning of English language learners. • Formative and Summative Assessment Practices: Explain how your plan will address the types and purposes of formative and summative classroom assessments (., grading rubrics, textbook assessments, curriculum-based assessments, performance assessments, assessment portfolios), including the benefits and features of performance-based content assessment for English language learners at various English proficiency levels, and how to interpret and use informal assessment results to inform classroom instruction (., grading English language learners at various proficiency levels, providing appropriate assessment feedback). Include how to differentiate assessments for English language learners as appropriate for the purpose and their English proficiency level (., modifying formative assessments by reducing the linguistic load while maintaining high content and knowledge expectations), including acceptable assessment accommodations (., bilingual dictionaries, linguistic modifications) for English language learners on classroom assessments and state standardized assessments. • Data-Driven Decision Making: In this section, be sure to provide the types of data you will use for decision-making and provide a rationale for each. In this section, you need to address such issues as fair and equitable and meet mandated assessment requirements of legislation and your district. Map out a short-term and long-term plan for using data to make decisions to improve the language development and learning of ELs. Also, include how you will use data to determine the effectiveness of your program and how data will guide your revisions for continuous improvement. • Plans for Sustainability: This section will tie it all together. Describe strategies for sustainability and continuous improvement.
