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Math Instruction for ELLs

English language learners

Developmental disabilities are a group of conditions due to an impairment in physical, learning, language, or behavior areas. About one in six children in the U.S. have one or more developmental disabilities or other developmental delays.

An emotional and behavioral disorder is an emotional disability characterized by the following: (i) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and/or teachers. For preschool-age children, this would include other care providers. (ii) An inability to learn which cannot be adequately explained by intellectual, sensory or health factors. (iii) A consistent or chronic inappropriate type of behavior or feelings under normal conditions. (iv) A displayed pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression. (v) A displayed tendency to develop physical symptoms, pains or unreasonable fears associated with personal or school problems.

A child with EBD is a child who exhibits one or more of the above emotionally based characteristics of sufficient duration, frequency and intensity that interferes significantly with educational performance to the degree that provision of special educational service is necessary

Eligibility and Placement.

The purpose of the project is to build partnerships between parents and educators to ensure that children receive the highest educational opportunities and achievement possible.

A team consisting of a parent of a special needs child and an educator staffs each PERC

All PERCs have certain common functions and responsibilities including: Providing information, resources, and training for parents on important issues such as parenting skills, problem solving, educational planning for their child, behavior management, home learning activities, and other topics to strengthen home-to-school partnerships; Assisting families on an individual basis to better understand their children's educational needs and to discover opportunities and options for meeting these needs; Connecting families with appropriate community services; and Offering information, resources, and training to educators to increase the skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to encourage and strengthen family involvement and positive school-to-home partnerships.

If your child has an Individualized Education Program (IEP), the IEP team will meet every year to bring it up to date. One of the first steps is to update your child’s present levels of academic achievement and functional performance. Some states/school districts refer to this as PLAAFP, some as PLOP and others as PLP.

What does PLOP include?

To write the PLOP, the IEP team draws information from several sources. They should include teacher observations and objective data, such as test results and scores.

The Progress Test in English (PTE) assessment enables you to accurately measure how your school and your students are performing – student by student, class by class and year by year. 

The tests can be used initially at the start of the year to set a baseline and from then on at the end of the year to measure and track progress

Detailed reports for teachers analyse key dimensions of learning and provide a question-by-question breakdown to help identify those students who may need extra support, and in which areas.

A reevaluation is a full-fledged look at a student’s needs. There are two types of reevaluations: Triennial reevaluation (three-year review) Parent- or teacher-requested reevaluation

The purpose of the triennial reevaluation is to see if a student’s needs have changed. It’s also to see if they still qualify for special education services.  

Just like an initial evaluation, a reevaluation is an involved process.

English Learner (EL) and English Language Learner (ELL) These two terms essentially mean the same thing, and they are often used interchangeably.

Additional terms that have been used to refer to ELLs include limited English proficient (LEP), English as a second language (ESL), and language minority students.

Emergent Bilinguals This term promotes the most positive view of English learners by acknowledging their proficiency in another language as a strength, rather than just considering them people who need to learn English or focusing on their limits.

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework that many schools use to help students who are struggling with academics.

A multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) is more comprehensive. It may include the three levels of RTI.

Understanding how your school uses RTI or MTSS can help you advocate for your child.

When a child has been identified as gifted and talented, this means that they have a greater potential for learning in at least one subject. GT kids can be exceedingly creative or intensely analytical. They can be socially mature or delayed, they can be introverts or extroverts, goofballs or unusually serious. In other words, you can’t stuff them into a single easy to categorize box.

Gifted and Talented vs Advanced Placement

They need more time to think and explore, not more time doing homework and yet some schools work on the false impression that GT simply means ‘academic superstar’ and pile on the AP classes and maintaining this schedule is expected in order to keep your ‘gifted’ qualification.

The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of the law is to make sure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

No matter where they obtain their education, they need an appropriately differentiated curriculum designed to address their individual characteristics, needs, abilities, and interests.

Content consists of ideas, concepts, descriptive information, and facts. Content, as well as learning experiences, can be modified through acceleration, compacting, variety, reorganization, flexible pacing, and the use of more advanced or complex concepts, abstractions, and materials.

To modify process, activities must be restructured to be more intellectually demanding.