ELA | ESL | SLA | SSL

The English Language Arts (ELA) Curriculum at the Amigos School is based on the Language and Literacy Collaborative Framework in partnership with Lesley University.  This framework is the instructional design for best practices in language and literacy teaching and learning in grades K-8.  It provides a structure within which teachers can accommodate the varying needs of their students.  It is a flexible framework that integrates the range of reading, writing, and word study activities essential for promoting literacy. It consists of three blocks (Language and Word Study, Reading Workshop, and Writing Workshop) built around a foundation of oral language. The teacher provides direct instruction through very specific mini-lessons and guided learning in whole group and small group settings. 

The Language and Literacy framework is particularly suited to a dual-language school, where teachers must take into consideration their students’ native and second language proficiency and tailor instruction to meet individual students’ needs.

The Literacy Collaborative is a professional development program based at the School of Education at Lesley University.  In The Literacy Collaborative, teachers learn classroom strategies and activities that help develop students’ speaking, reading, and writing skills within a language arts framework and across the curriculum.  In K-6, some of every school day is spent on Reading and Writing Workshops.  The Literacy Collaborative reading program emphasizes phonological awareness, letter-sound correspondence, fluency and comprehension within the context of reading meaningful texts. 

As part of the Literacy Collaborative, the Amigos School has a “Literacy Coordinator” who participates in a training program at Lesley and collaborates with other Amigos School teachers to review and update literacy instruction as needed.  The Center for Reading Recovery and Literacy Collaborative at Lesley supports the program with professional development opportunities and materials.

For more information on The Literacy Collaborative, please visit:
http://www.lesley.edu/crr/lc_intro.html



English as a Second Language
English as a Second Language (ESL) is a support system for native Spanish students. The Amigos School model provides for both “in class” and “pull out” support. Upon entering the Amigos School, ESL students are evaluated and assigned a “Lau Score” which measures students English language competency levels. Classroom work, homework and special projects are overseen by the ESL teacher in conjunction with the classroom teacher. Students are provided with strategies that support listening, speaking, reading and writing through the content areas. ESL support involves vocabulary building and strategies for remembering and practicing new words. Students are asked to draw words, sing about them and even dramatize the vocabulary words. Students and teachers practice conversations by incorporating student interests into storytelling. Making connections with an ESL student’s background and interests helps students connect to learning and build self-awareness and language skills, while also preserving their cultural identity. Teachers gently correct students’ grammatical errors and provide pronunciation help as needed. ESL teachers work with the classroom teachers, specialists and often the students’ families to coordinate learning plans and optimize support.

The English Language Proficiency Benchmarks and Outcomes (ELPBO)
The English Language Proficiency Benchmarks and Outcomes are a set of benchmarks, meant to serve as a guide in setting goals and establishing progress of limited English speaking students (LEPs). A limited English proficient is defined as a student whose first language is a language other than English who is unable to perform ordinary classroom work in English.

Specifically, the purpose of the document is to:

• define for all teachers of LEP students the English Language Proficiency Outcomes that indicate an LEP student has made progress in learning English and/or has moved to a level of performance in English that permits the student’s participation and achievement in academic classroom activities that are not tailored to limited English proficient students; and 
  
• serve as the basis for defining the Benchmarks and Outcomes that will be annually assessed by the Department of Education’s future English Proficiency for LEP Students as now required by state and federal law (Massachusetts Chapter 71A and No Child Left Behind, respectively).
  

Three central themes are found throughout the ELPBO document:

• Vocabulary is integral to language development.
  
• The role of oral language is essential in the development of Academic English Proficiency, and,
  
• There is a critical relationship between English language acquisition and instruction in other academic subjects.

Organization of the ELBPO
The ELPBO document is organized around four language domains: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Cultural, as a basis for understanding language and identity, is also an integral strand within the document.

Spanish Language Arts
The Spanish Language Arts Curriculum at the Amigos School is based on the Language and Literacy Collaborative Framework in partnership with Lesley University. This framework is the instructional design for best practices in language and literacy teaching and learning in grades K-8.  It provides a structure within which teachers can accommodate the varying needs of their students.  It is a flexible framework that integrates the range of reading, writing, and word study activities essential for promoting literacy. It consists of three blocks (Language and Word Study, Reading Workshop, and Writing Workshop) built around a foundation of oral language. The teacher provides direct instruction through very specific mini-lessons and guided learning in whole group and small group settings. 

The Language and Literacy framework is particularly suited to a dual-language school, where teachers must take into consideration their students’ native and second language proficiency and tailor instruction to meet individual students’ needs.

Spanish Language Arts in Middle School
Spanish Language Arts in the Amigos 6th-8th grade is considered a core subject with academic expectations and homework requirements equal to those of other subjects at the middle school level. It is scheduled and taught to all students for five periods a week. Spanish at this level continues to utilize the Literacy Collaborative framework as a model of instruction. The Literacy Collaborative framework is the English Language Art’s curriculum, instruction and assessment program in grades K-8 in the Cambridge Public Schools. At the middle school level, listening, speaking, reading and writing are previewed, viewed and reviewed through a “workshop” model. The workshops include: reading workshop, writers workshop and word study. Both communicative and academic skills are developed and reinforced at higher levels to extend students critical thinking, comprehension, content vocabulary and writing. There is a greater emphasis on thematic units that reflect students’ interests and experiences. As such, the language activities promote student talk and reflection as students continue to build their language competencies. While grammar is developed throughout the Spanish language curriculum at Amigos, there is an increased emphasis on students’ ability to utilize correct Spanish grammar, both orally and in writing. Explicit grammar activities are embedded in language lessons and taught through reading and writing. Amigos students, therefore, are well prepared for the transition to the Spanish as a foreign language program at the high school level.


Spanish as a Second Language
Spanish as a Second Language (SSL) is a support system that facilitates the development of the Spanish language by coordinating the implementation of the curriculum with the room teachers.

Our goal is that the students learn to use the different stages of the verbal, written and body languages to improve the understanding and expression of the Spanish language by means of their participation in planned and systematic experiences.

The planned activities consist in providing opportunities to the students for actively using the oral and written Spanish language individually, in small groups, and with the whole class. These activities also intend to enrich the vocabulary by means of supervised exercises, educational games, puzzles, plays, and dramatizations to apply the oral language.

We also coordinate activities and services for the families and the school in order to create a forum for the use of the Spanish language.