Sergio+Recommendations+Practice

Putting recommendations into practice
Following is a list of how the NLP’s recommendations can be implemented in the classroom. More importantly, these specific strategies can also be a focus for future research. As is evident in the NLP report, language minority children have many obstacles to overcome and little research to help them. Hopefully this list of suggestions and links will help spark the desperately needed research in this domain of literacy development by language minority children.

[|Home to school communication] [|National Standards] [|Culture Matters Workbook] 1. Provide interesting and motivational activities for the whole family to participate in. 2. Student performances and recognition activities are powerful incentives to bringing parents to the school. 3. Provide translation in different languages as needed. 4. Bombard parents with advertisements, notices, follow-up notifications, posters around the school, etc. 5. Provide many types of hands-on workshops (Family Math, Family Reading). 6. Staggered Back to School Night (first half hour for primary and second half for upper grade). Have back to School Night on two or three different nights (K, 1-2, 3-5). Recruit Parents at Back to School Night. 7. Have Volunteer Appreciation celebrations (teas, luncheons, banquets). 8. Have special multicultural fairs and programs to celebrate diversity. 9. Send home parent surveys to determine opinions, concerns, interest and needs. 10. Offer parenting classes on topics such as homework/study skills, positive discipline, etc. 11. School should maintain close contact with homeowners association and partnerships to establish or maintain strong school/community ties. 12. Home visits. 13. Welcome parent volunteers. 14. Communicate information about the school and classroom through newsletters. 15. Provide scheduling options during parent conferences (evening). 16. Parent hotline.
 * Increasing Home/School Communication and Parent Involvement**

[|Stages of Second Language Acquisition] [|Cultural Lessons] [|Center on Instruction] 1. Use visual/graphic representations with high frequency. 2. Use body language and gestures. 3. Build on students’ prior experience. 4. Increase “wait time” 5. Provide numerous opportunities for cooperative learning (pairs, triads, mixing ELL’s with fluent English speakers) and peer tutoring. 6. Create a comfortable learning environment that encourages risk-taking. 7. Teach and model learning strategies. 8. Slow down speech and repeat as needed, use fewer idioms and pronouns, use fewer multi-syllabic words, and modify language to be more comprehensible. 9. Preview and review lessons/materials, provide background knowledge and promote active learning by having many hands-on activities. 10. Use graphic organizers/semantic maps. 11. Draw illustrations and pictures to define and teach vocabulary in context. 12. Teacher modeling. 13. Teach through relevant familiar topics (cultural). 14. Utilize questioning techniques appropriate to the stage of language acquisition. 15. Periodically check for comprehension. 16. Create an environment that fosters recognition, appreciation and value to all linguistic and cultural backgrounds. 17. Celebrate efforts and successes.
 * Effective strategies for teaching LEP students**