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Thank you! with MidShore Gives logo over a photo of a children's Christmas concert

THANK YOU everyone who donated to the Kent County Public Schools Education Foundation Fund during Mid-Shore Gives! Through your generosity, we raised more than $1,000 for the Foundation. A special thank you to Mid-Shore Community Foundation for organizing yesterday's Giving Tuesday fundraising marathon! This show of community support allows us to further our Foundation’s mission of helping teachers bring innovative instruction to the classroom, broadening students' experiences with special field trips and keeping us moving forward with planning renovations to the Kent County High School planetarium. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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English Language Development

Teaching and Learning: Providing district leadership, support and accountability — with link

Maryland is a member of the WIDA Consortium and has adopted WIDA’s English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework, which is a language development standards framework for K-12 academic settings. 

The WIDA ELD Standards Framework is like a map in that it offers language expectations as destination points, as well as road signs to set goals for curriculum, instruction, and assessment for multilingual learners (WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition. pg.23).
 
The WIDA ELD Standards Framework consists of four components that are like building blocks of language development and work together to construct comprehensive language development. 

These four components are:

1. Five WIDA ELD Standards Statements — shows language for thinking and doing
  • Language for Social and Instructional purposes
  • Language for Language Arts
  • Language for Mathematics
  • Language for Science
  • Language for Social Studies

2. Key Language Uses — ways language is used in school
  • Narrate (language to convey real or imaginary experiences)
  • Inform (language to provide factual information)
  • Explain (language to give an account for how things work or why things happen)
  • Argue (language to justify claims using evidence and reasoning)

3. Language Expectations — language associated with specific content areas
  • Communication modes
    • The interpretive communication mode encompasses listening, reading, and viewing 
    • The expressive communication mode encompasses speaking, writing, and representing 
  • Language expectations
    • Language functions (common patterns of language use)
    • Language Features ( types of sentences, clauses, phrases, and words) 

4. Proficiency Level Descriptors – describes a continuum of language development
 
WIDA's English Language Development (ELD) Standards Framework measures the progression of a student's ELD in interpretive and expressive language by using five proficiency levels — entering, emerging, developing, expanding and bridging. 
 

Eligibility for the English Language Acquisition Program

The ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) program provides instruction to English Learners in grades K-12.

Eligibility for participation in the program is determined by an English language screener. 

Upon school registration, a home language survey is given to determine potential eligibility for ESOL services. 

Any student demonstrating limited English language proficiency on the WIDA Screener Assessment (as required by the Maryland State Department of Education) is eligible for instructional services.  

If the student has transferred from another MD county, a call or email is made to capture any scores or learning narrative regarding the student. A copy of the Home Language Survey is sent to the ESOL Office.
 
Depending on individual school and student needs, ESOL teachers will either meet with students outside the classroom in small groups (pull out) or with students in the grade-level classroom setting (push in).

Students will exit from the ESOL program when they demonstrate proficiency on the annual English language proficiency assessment and are able to succeed in age/grade appropriate learning environments.
 
Parents/Guardians have the right to refuse ESOL instructional services at any time by contacting your child’s ESOL teacher and/or the school.

ESOL Program Strategies

Kent County Public Schools ESOL program includes English language development and teaching strategies differentiated for each student’s level of English language proficiency. 

The ESOL strategies are used to help each student reach English proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing and succeed academically in all core subjects. 

The expectations for English language learners (ELLs) are that students fully transition into mainstream classes, meet appropriate academic achievement standards for grade promotion and graduate from high school at the same rate as mainstream students.

Contact Information

Cassie Swayze
Instructional Specialist
410-778-7116
  
Tracey Kendall-Parent
ESOL teacher
 
Ivette Martinez Ayala
EL Family Liaison