LYNN — The English Learner Education (ELE) department is planning to implement more interdisciplinary unit enhancements in the city’s kindergarten to second-grade classrooms for more English Language Development (ELD).
ELE Executive Director Rania Caldwell and Assistant Director Amanda Campbell updated the School Committee Thursday night on the plan.
Caldwell said the data she has found, along with conversations with school leaders and teachers — found the traditional school structure in the Lynn Public Schools does not allow for time to address needs for students, specifically for ELD and Sheltered English Immersion (SEI).
To fix this, Caldwell and the ELE department are recommending a combination of interdisciplinary units and regularly scheduled ELD periods throughout the school day to maximize teaching and learning.
“Students will be able to leverage vocabulary, academic language, background knowledge and skills that repeat throughout the unit to provide multiple practice opportunities,” said Caldwell.
Sixty-six percent of kindergarten students are English learners (ELs), along with 69 percent of first-graders and 65 percent of second-graders. In total, 67 percent of students from kindergarten to second grade are ELs.
All students, from kindergarten to second grade, regardless of status, will receive integrated ELD education in two different ways.
The first method, known as integrated ELD, entails a 35-minute, large-group session led by an ELD-licensed staff member. Staff who are not ELD licensed will act as support for the group.
The second method, known as designated ELD, is a smaller group setting. Students designated as ELs — those who speak English as a second language — would receive an additional dose of development time for extra help.
“Both of these ELD components, integrated and designated, would increase our students’ explicit language development from an average of 22.5 minutes to 47 minutes per day,” said Caldwell.
Campbell expanded upon what interdisciplinary unit enhancements are. She said the units take into account the students and what sorts of high-quality materials they should use to teach during these periods.
“To develop these units,” said Campbell, “We think really carefully about who our kids are first and foremost.”
Campbell said kindergarten classes installed interdisciplinary unit enhancements in 2020. She said the teachers and staff read and designate certain books for the students to teach them vocabulary, social justice, problem solving or any other additional topics related to the assigned unit.
“We teach our kids grade-level standards through high-quality structural materials,” said Campbell.
School Committee member Lorraine Gately asked the two ELE department members if phonics are a part of the curriculum, saying it is an important part of learning the English language and some students are not fortunate enough to have that support.
Both Campbell and Caldwell assured Gately that phonics were a part of the curriculum.
Committee member Lenny Pena made note that 36 percent of students in the Lynn Public Schools are ELs, which is one of the highest percentages in the state. Pena asked if the department had reached out to other school districts with high percentages of ELs, such as Chelsea, about other methods that are being implemented.
Cadwell told Pena she was on a call that day with school districts in the communities of Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Lawrence, Revere and Springfield, and had been coordinating with them to create new ideas.
“We’re constantly talking about the issues that are facing ELs across the state,” Caldwell said. “Particularly in districts with high EL students.”
Caldwell and Campbell said feedback from teachers on the interdisciplinary units have been positive. Teachers highlighted the focus on social justice, social studies, sciences and real-world applications. There were requests, however, for a more specific outline of math and its connections with the “big idea” of each unit, and more supplemental resources to address the different units.
Ninety-four percent of Lynn Public Schools educators who are required to have an SEI endorsement already received one as of December 2020. Of the remaining 50 educators, 15 will complete course work for the endorsement in the spring of 2022.
