Bayview Academy Needs Assessment Summary

April 8, 2013 Claire Ballon & Christie Charles

Introduction and Rationale For this project, we will be working with Bayview Academy to help design a curriculum for English Language Development (ELD) that will enhance and support the resources currently in existence at the school. Bayview is a K-5 school that will expand over the next few years into a K-8 school. Because the school is fairly new, only two years old, the school is still trying to find its footing in terms of funding, so their ELD has limited funds. At present, Bayview has a reading intervention/ELD teacher that assists students through informal pull-out sessions to bolster their vocabulary and reading skills. These sessions make use of picture books and at times graded readers and picture workbooks, but the ELD program at Bayview has few materials designed for ELD. In addition to these sessions, all students at Bayview learn through thematic units that provide cohesion between all of their core class subjects. The class sizes are also relatively small and the school aims to keep the number of classes to two per grade so that the school will remain smaller and more close-knit. As future teachers of K-12 English Language Learners we were attracted to this project targeting elementary ELLs. We recognized the exposure and experience we would receive from working with Bayview would give us a firsthand look at ESL teaching methods in the K-12 context. Through this project we hope to integrate project-based instruction into the current existing thematic units inspiring the students to be creative, critical thinkers. We chose to utilize a progressivist philosophy considering the individual student as a whole in order to promote learner autonomy. With this philosophy in mind, we aim to foster a sense of ownership and confidence about the English language in our ELLs, so that they can express their own points of view. Bayviews motto of community, innovation and passion incompasses the very ideals we aim to incorporate in a community context where we foster local partnerships.

Procedures The procedural framework we utilized in the information gathering portion of our needs analysis consisted of a diverse array of tools. We began the process by creating a Google Document and having a few preliminary meetings prior to meeting with Bayview Academys administration and faculty. During these meetings we considered the different sources we would gather information from with a few mentioned above. We looked at the website for some background information and at notes gathered during the Bayview presentation from the Board of Directors. We also considered different questions that were pertinent in order for us to gauge which grade levels we would target in the design of the curriculum design project and what their needs are through the use of appreciative inquiry (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005). Lastly we considered certain procedures that would allow us to discover, dream, design and determine the destiny of the Bayview curriculum design project. One of the main tools we used in our needs assessment was a survey. We used two surveys with some different content: one geared towards the teachers and one geared towards the students. There were two variations of the teacher surveys, one for the ELD teacher and one for the homeroom teachers that we would be targeting. The ELD teacher survey consisted of 14 questions, consisting of 12 fill in the blank questions, one ranking question, and one circling question. We ended up administering this survey cooperatively with the ELD teacher in the form of an interview. The homeroom teacher survey consisted of 12 questions with the same format as the ELD teacher survey. The questions we used were determined by using Pattons six question types ranging from behavioral/experience, opinion/value, feelings, knowledge, sensory, and demographic/background (as cited in Brown, 2001, p. 30). The blank form of the ELD survey

can be found in Appendix A, and the blank form of the Homeroom Teacher Survey in Appendix B. For the student survey, we realized that a purely text-based survey would be tiresome and less engaging for our target audience of elementary school students. With the help of our group artist and an English - Spanish translator we were able to create an interactive attitudes survey for the students with six pictures depicting what they like to do in English the most. The six tasks were: sing songs, listen to music, talk to new friends, read books, and play games. Each student was given three stickers to place next to the picture(s) that represent what they like to do in English. Our target surveyors were kindergarten students since we determined from our survey with the ELD teacher that kindergarten contained the largest concentration of ELLs with 9 out of 18 school wide. The results of this survey would allow us to gauge what activities would be appealing and more aligned with the interests of the students. We conducted classroom observations with the ELD teacher and the two kindergarten homeroom teachers. Early on in our information gathering period we observed three pullout sessions with the ELD teacher. We took notes and received feedback from the ELLs through our attitudinal survey. We also observed the two kindergarten classes and recorded a few of the ELLs interactions with native speakers. During our observations we were able to have most of the ELLs respond to the attitudinal survey as well. Along with administering surveys we also conducted two interviews with Principal Tacconi. The first interview was a quick introduction to Bayview and what they do best using the appreciative inquiry method. The following meeting was a synopsis of what we concluded would be the best way to proceed with our curriculum design project after conducting our needs

assessment. We wanted to insure we were meeting the needs of Bayview with our proposed project idea. Findings Interviews with Principal Tacconi From our interviews with Principal Tacconi and our trips to the campus we learned that Bayview has many positive elements going for the school. We learned that there is not just a heavy involvement from parents, but that each family must donate 30 hours of their time each year to community activities for the school. When visiting the school we took a photograph of the poster showing which families had already completed their community service hours a high number of parents had already done so. We also learned that the school keeps true to its word in being involved in the community. We learned that for Spanish class the students visited a local Spanish language market and purchased fruits and vegetables in Spanish, and on our third visit to the campus we witnessed a culture day where performers from many diverse backgrounds (e.g.; Polynesian dancers, West African drummers) came and displayed their talents for the students. We also learned that Bayview heavily supports its thematic units and that all of the core classes as well as the Spanish class incorporate school-wide thematic units into their lessons. Interviews with Kristen Paul Kristen Paul, the reading intervention teacher as well as the ELD teacher, gave us great insight into the specific issues that the ELD program at Bayview faces. From speaking to Kristen Paul, we learned that there are 18 ELLs who come to her regularly for help with their English language development, and that of those 18 students, 9 are in kindergarten. Kristen Paul is a specialist in teaching of literacy, so she utilizes a wide array of picture books as well as short chapter books to foster literacy development as well as vocabulary building and writing skills.

We learned from her that while she has over 30 years of experience in teaching of literacy as well as a doctoral degree, she has no training or certification in English language teaching, so she has devoted her efforts to adapting her skills from literacy teaching into her ELD sessions. She is interested in pursuing TESOL credentials but has no funding for that level of professional development. Kristen told us about some of the other challenges she faces in her duties as ELD teacher. Bayview uses the pull-out method of instruction, which, while more flexible, also eats into instruction time for the students as well as snack time, lunch time, and recess. Many of her students need the time during the pull-out session to eat, which limits their ability to produce speech in class. Kristen also received no funding this year for lesson materials, so most of the picture books and graded readers are donated, borrowed from the general school library, or bought with her own money. In addition to this, Kristen is only contracted to work 30 hours a week, and there is no clear boundary between her reading intervention duties and her ELD duties. Her limited hours also seemed to create some communication problems between her and the rest of the school, as on one of the days we visited she discovered once she arrived at school that all her sessions for the day had been cancelled due to an assembly that she did not know about. Kindergarten Teacher Survey One of the Kindergarten teachers has not yet responded to our survey. The other Kindergarten teacher, Kevin, provided responses that are included in Appendix C. Through the survey we determined that out of the nine kindergarten ELLs, six of them are in Kevins class. All of their L1s are Spanish except for one student who spoke Italian. The ELLs in Kevins class have no trouble interacting with their native speaking classmates. They work in small groups and with partners. At times students feel frustrated because they cannot express themselves and that

is when the teacher intervenes and provides support through providing sentence frames and guidance. The in class support that the teacher receives is in the form suggested instructional adjustments. With more guided practice with individual students they can learn strategies to enhance and retain what they learn. Through our findings we discovered that the integrative skills that are the focus are listening and reading. For each integrative skill the teacher utilizes effective activities. For listening the teacher uses visual and kinesthetic activities such as choral response. For speaking the teacher has the ELLs pair share with partners. For reading the students do partner reading going over high frequency words. For writing journaling has been useful activity. The students are able to self-assess for errors using a checklist. Observations of ELLs and ELL survey From our observations of the ELLs as well as the learner survey, we learned that the ELLs typically do not have problems participating in small group activities or in regular play, but that they generally do not contribute to whole class discussions. We also learned something about the preferences of the ELLs through our attitudes survey. In our attitudes survey for the children, we asked the students to list their top three activities for learning English. The picture survey is included in Appendix D. Figures A and B below show two dimensions of our findings.

Figure A- Attitude survey of ELLs by student

Figure B Attitude Survey of ELLs by total number of votes

These findings seem to indicate that the majority of the learners are interested in activities where they can actively use the language, particularly to communicate with others. Figure A illustrates that 15 students preferred playing games followed by telling stories with 8 students and talking to new friends with 7 votes. Figure B illustrates the overall voting of the ELLs accounting for amount of stickers in each category. Playing games received 21 votes. Telling stories and talking to new friends received the same amount of votes. Our results show that creating activities geared towards playing games will engage the students and motivate them to

learn English. We are looking to intertwine games and technology consider that these students exist in the digital age are likely to be motivated and inspired through the use of technology and games. We will also incorporate the other activities such as telling stories and talking to new friends in our curriculum catering to the students wants. Implications for syllabus We have decided to focus our curriculum design project on a four-week summer camp geared towards K-3 learners (potentially even pre-K). We hope that by designing a program for the summer, we can help prevent some of the language attrition that inevitably happens during long breaks in learning. A sustained four-week program would also allow us to introduce project-based learning in the curriculum. We feel that this would be beneficial for the students because it will allow them to create something of their own in English, so that they can use their language skills productively. Many of the students expressed interest in learning through telling stories and playing games, so we hope to give the students a chance to learn more interactively and collaboratively to have fun with English and to express themselves creatively. We think that a summer camp would be very much in line with Bayviews core values as it would help foster inter-grade collaboration. If possible, we might also be able to help develop a mirror Spanish language camp for the students who wish to continue to practice Spanish during the summer. If that were possible, we could also incorporate elements into the curriculum that would allow the students to learn from each other and to boost their appreciation for each other as experts in their respective L1s. Conclusion For our needs assessment of Bayview Academy we have conducted several surveys, carried out extensive interviews, and spent time observing our learners in their ELD classes and

homeroom classes. In this time we have come to gain an appreciation for the enthusiasm of the faculty and staff and have seen the strong ties to the community that Bayview has achieved in its short time as a school. Though we approached our needs assessment from an appreciative inquiry perspective, we learned how hard it can be not to fixate on the challenges of the ELD program at Bayview. We have also learned that while there is likely much more that we could focus on for developing Bayviews ELD curriculum, we have to be realistic in the scope of our project in order to produce a quality curriculum given the time and resources we have available to us. We have chosen to limit our curriculum design project to a summer camp program for this reason. Nevertheless, we discovered many wonderful achievements and strengths about Bayview such as being in existence for almost two years and recently renewing their charter for another five years. We have also learned of the dreams of Bayviews faculty; to expand their school, to further incorporate project-based learning into their thematic units, and to foster a sense of inspiration and confidence in their learners. Proceeding we will continue to design and determine the details of our summer camp curriculum addressing the academic needs discussed by the kindergarten teacher, the goals of promoting self-confidence and self-esteem that are so important to the ELD teacher, and the incorporation of games and interactive storytelling desired by the ELLs.

References Brown, J. D. (2001). Using surveys in language programs. Cambridge, U.K: Cambridge University Press.

Cooperrider, D. L., & Whitney, D. K. (2005). Appreciative inquiry: A positive revolution in change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

APPENDIX A Bayview Academy ELD Teacher Survey Thank you very much for taking the time to participate in this survey. This survey will help us understand the needs of the English language learners at Bayview with particular focus on one grade. We will use what we learn to aid in designing a new approach to the ELD curriculum at Bayview. Our main objectives with this survey are to learn more about the current curriculum in place for ELD at Bayview, as well as to receive your valuable input as the ELD instructor on the methods of learning that Bayview students respond to best. Thank you again for helping us by filling out this survey.

1. How many ELLs are there in grade ___? 2. Please list the first languages of each of the ELLs in grade ___.

3. Please rank these student objectives from 1-7 (1-8 if Other is included) in order of their priority for ELLs at Bayview: ___Improving speed and fluency ___Improving accuracy ___Improving knowledge of grammar ___Improving reading comprehension ___Improving listening comprehension ___Improving pronunciation ___Improving understanding of American culture ___Other:_______________________________ 4. When do pull out sessions occur during the school schedule? Are they individual or group pull out sessions?

5. How long are pull out sessions?

6. How is the content of pull out sessions determined?

7. Are you satisfied with the current pull out system? If not, why?

8. What happens during a typical class session?

9. How is the proficiency level of ELLs evaluated?

10. How would you describe your teaching approach? Please circle one. Task Based Content Based Project Based Grammar Translation Method Other:____________________

11. What is your primary goal for the students in the school year?

12. What is the best aspect of the current English curriculum?

13. What is the most challenging aspect of the current English curriculum?

14. What area of the current English curriculum would be most beneficial to change?

Thank you for your completion of this survey. The input you have provided us will be invaluable in our goals of improving upon the current design of ELD at Bayview Academy and enhancing the language learning experience for all English language learners at Bayview.

APPENDIX B Bayview Academy Teacher Survey Thank you very much for taking the time to participate in this survey. This survey will help us understand the needs of the English Language Learners (ELLs) at Bayview with particular focus on kindergarten. We will use what we learn to aid in designing a new approach to the ELD curriculum at Bayview. Our main objectives with this survey are to learn more about the current curriculum in place for ELD at Bayview, as well as to receive your valuable input as the classroom instructor on the methods of learning that Bayview ELLs students respond to best. Thank you again for helping us by filling out this survey. 1. How many ELLs are there in your class? 2. List the first languages of each of the ELLs.

3. What is your primary goal for the ELLs during the school year? What would you say are their needs?

4. Please rank these student objectives from 1-7 (1-8 if Other is included) in order of their priority for ELLs at Bayview: ___Improving speed and fluency ___Improving accuracy ___Improving knowledge of grammar ___Improving reading comprehension ___Improving listening comprehension ___Improving pronunciation ___Improving understanding of American culture ___Other:_______________________________ 5. How do ELLs interact with their native English speaking classmates in class?

6. Describe any challenges that your ELLs face when participating in class.

7. How does the ELD teacher support your ELLs? Is there in class support? Is their collaboration on ELL objectives?

8. How would you describe your teaching approach? (Circle) Task Based Content Based Project Based Grammar Translation Method Other:____________________ 9. What activity has been most effective for practicing listening?

10. What activity has been most effective for practicing speaking?

11. What activity has been most effective for practicing reading?

12. What activity has been most effective for practicing writing?

Further Comments:

Thank you for your completion of this survey. The input you have provided us will be invaluable in our goals of improving upon the current design of ELD at Bayview Academy and enhancing the language learning experience for all English language learners at Bayview.

APPENDIX C Bayview Academy Teacher Survey

Thank you very much for taking the time to participate in this survey. This survey will help us understand the needs of the English Language Learners (ELLs) at Bayview with particular focus on kindergarten. We will use what we learn to aid in designing a new approach to the ELD curriculum at Bayview. Our main objectives with this survey are to learn more about the current curriculum in place for ELD at Bayview, as well as to receive your valuable input as the classroom instructor on the methods of learning that Bayview ELLs students respond to best. Thank you again for helping us by filling out this survey.

1. How many ELLs are there in your class? We have six ELLs in my class.

1. List the first languages of each of the ELLs. Jonathan Spanish Iran Spanish Melissa Spanish Alessia Italian Ashley Spanish Thomas Spanish

3. What is your primary goal for the ELLs during the school year? What would you say are their needs?

The primary goal for the ELLs during the school year is listening and reading comprehension. Their needs is to have more individualized guided practice in terms of applying learning concepts on what they have learned.

4. Please rank these student objectives from 1-7 (1-8 if Other is included) in order of their priority for ELLs at Bayview: _3__Improving speed and fluency __4_Improving accuracy __7_Improving knowledge of grammar __2_Improving reading comprehension __1_Improving listening comprehension

__6_Improving pronunciation __5_Improving understanding of American culture ___Other:_______________________________ 5. How do ELLs interact with their native English speaking classmates in class? ELLs interact with their native English speaking classmates in class the same as they would with any other students. At times, these students may be frustrated because they do not know how to express their feelings. Thus, I would have to intervene and guide these students to solve their problems. However, the ELLs in the class are usually able to interact in small groups and partner work. 6. Describe any challenges that your ELLs face when participating in class. ELLs tend to not participate during classroom discussions because they do not know how to word their opinions. However, providing sentence frames and guidance encourage these students to participate. Random selection can also help these students volunteer in the classroom discussions. 7. How does the ELD teacher support your ELLs? Is there in class support? Is their collaboration on ELL objectives? The ELD teacher pull outs ELLs to read them stories and work with their phonemic awareness. At times, she would pull some out to lunch and converse with them using sentence structures. There is in class support with the instructional aide whether working one on one or with a small group. There is collaboration on ELL objectives on how we can adjust instruction and their guided practice for the lessons.

8. How would you describe your teaching approach? (Circle) Task Based Content Based Project Based Grammar Translation Method Other:____________________ 9. What activity has been most effective for practicing listening? Kinesthetic and visual activities have been most effective for students to practice listening. Providing opportunities to do choral response help students to apply what they listened to. 10. What activity has been most effective for practicing speaking? Pair share has been most effective for students to practice speaking. Students would have think time before they would share. Once they have thought about it, they would face their partners to talk about what they would share to the whole class. Students seem to respond very well to this. 11. What activity has been most effective for practicing reading?

Partner reading has been most effective for students to practice reading. Students enjoy reading high frequency words to their partners as they listen to each other.

12. What activity has been most effective for practicing writing? Writing in their journals seems most effective for students to practice writing. Students would think of characters, setting, and event to create their journal entries. Students would have a checklist including punctuations, capitalism, and details to make sure they have an appropriate journal.

Further Comments: N/A Thank you for your completion of this survey. The input you have provided us will be invaluable in our goals of improving upon the current design of ELD at Bayview Academy and enhancing the language learning experience for all English language learners at Bayview.

APPENDIX D