1. SIFE PROGRAMS
FOR STUDENTS WITH
INTERRUPTED FORMAL
EDUCATION
Betsy Markman
MurchisonMatadors.org/Markman
Betsy,Markman@Austinisd.org
Murchison Middle School
ESL Teacher
Sheltered Math for SIFE students
ESL Writing
2. Please note:
There is a far more interesting
version of this slide show, but I
can not show it outside my
district because it contains
photos of my students and their
parents.
3. Definitions
SIFE = Students with Interrupted Formal
Education
Students who started school but then had a
gap of a semester or longer in the course of
their schooling. Usually these are refugees or
asylees, but not always.
And………..
4. SIFE Education serves:
• Students whose education has been
interrupted by war, border crossing, financial
considerations, safety, and survival.
• Students with no formal education.
• Students who attended school only a few
hours daily, but have not missed any years.
• Students whose formal education started
later.
5. This presentation aims to ...
⦿ Show what we do at Murchison to support ELL
newcomers in general and SIFE newcomers
specifically.
⦿ Show how our program has changed since the
influx of SIFE and other refugee students in the
past 2 years.
⦿ Show what we’ve found that works on our
campus.
6. The Big Ideas
⦿ Students need to feel safe in school and in their
classrooms.
⦿ Structures are very important.
⦿ The ESL teacher often becomes the person
that the kids and the families trust most.
⦿ The ESL classroom is the safe place for
students and their parents.
⦿ SIFE students want to do well, want to
participate in everything the other kids are
doing.
⦿ But they need more support than typical
newcomers.
7. Identification of SIFE Students
⦿ ESL teacher present at registration.
⦿ We have made our own educational history
form which includes the number of hours per
day of schooling & language of instruction.
(Parents sign this, and it becomes part of the
data we can use to exempt from testing.)
8.
9. We involve parents and students in
scheduling without needing much
language via slideshows like this one,
usually on the iPads.
11. Testing
We administer LAS LINKS because we have to,
but find that the information it provides is limited,
so we also do informal testing, including having
the student read to us and asking them to write a
few sentences in each of their languages. We use
a computation test that covers kindergarten to 6th
grade skills. Last year, we tested our new kiddos
whose families are originally from DRC, at the
public library, before the year started.
We keep it all with the LAS LINKS in their folder.
12. How SIFE students differ from other
new English Language Learners
The typical ELL new
immigrant
SIFE new arrivals
⦿ Academic knowledge and
skills are present, and can
be transferred to English.
⦿ More used to school
structures and the
processes of classroom
learning.
⦿ May have had a chance to
say goodbye to friends.
⦿ May have never been in a
classroom.
⦿ May not trust unfamiliar
adults.
⦿ May be intimidated by
school.
⦿ Very likely to have PTSD
issues.
⦿ Very likely to be in a family
with PTSD issues.
13. Family-School Connection
We have no parent support
specialist, but we provide the
following:
⦿ We have the ability to text in
any language to individual
parents or groups via https:
//mightytext.net/
⦿ We make home visits.
⦿ Our PTA pays for dance
admission and field trip fees.
One parent texted me
a pic of his brand new
American baby.
14. PTA & Church Support
⦿ We work with PTA
volunteers and a local
church to provide household
goods and clothing.
⦿ The same church hosts a
“Free Shopping Day” twice a
year and a Sunday
Thanksgiving feast for our
refugee families. One of us
attends.
Our refugee program
(which is the bulk of our
ENL newcomers
program) has been
adopted by the church
that rents space from
Murchison on Sundays.
This has been HUGE!
15. Community Support
25+ Church and PTA members help with the
following:
⦿ Reading buddies in ENL class
⦿ Transportation for families to the Target
where teens can get clothing.
⦿ Transportation to the PAC for concerts.
⦿ Inclusion support in math, science & social
studies classes.
⦿ Cooking for celebrations.
⦿ A “bring your mail” day to help parents.
⦿ A million other things
17. Portraits of a few Murchison SIFE
students:
A.
⦿ Speaks Turkmen at home.
⦿ Attended school in a shortened day for 2 years with
instruction in Kurdish.
⦿ One year of no schooling.
⦿ Two and a half years of schooling in Arabic, a
language he didn’t speak, in a classroom of 60
boys, for three hours a day.
⦿ Learned that he wasn’t expected to understand
school – just to sit quietly.
18. E.
⦿ Attended school for two years in Myanmar, with
instruction in a different dialect of Burmese than
the one spoken at home.
⦿ Her next school was in a refugee camp in
Malaysa. Instruction in English, but the only
class with open seats was 2nd
grade, so she
repeated second.
⦿ No schooling for three years before arrival in
United States.
⦿ Learned to love school and is an eager student.
19. B.
⦿ Born in DRC and fled to a refugee camp in
Burundi with mom and extended family
when she was a toddler.
⦿ Speaks Kinyarwanda at home, but
education was in Swahili and French, but
was such that she can not hold a
conversation in French.
⦿ Morning session of school was free, but the
afternoon classes cost money, so she was
only able to attend when mom could pay.
20. The first week
⦿ Full backpack (Backpacks are provided by a
local church.)
⦿ Tour guides – usually another ELL who speaks
the same language and can guide them through
the school the first day and explain the cafeteria.
⦿ Lunch cards. – bright yellow. These include
name, ID number, language, English level,
enrollment date, whether or not they eat pork,
and the phone number of the ESL portable.
⦿ A “Please welcome …..” letter to teachers.
⦿ SAFE SPACE pass back to the ESL rooms
21. These cards are
given to all new
ELLs who enroll,
with Murchison as
their first school in
the United States.
However, we
designed them
primarily with ELLs
in mind.
23. Sample welcome letter to teachers
Good afternoon,
Please welcome our newest 6th
grader ___. She uses both
her first and middle names as her name. She has recently
come from Afghanistan, where she was in school for kinder-
2nd
grade only. She will be on free lunch. She is in Laurie’s
beginner class, and she speaks Pashto.
Please email us with any questions.
Thanks!
Betsy
The teachers
know “free lunch”
means to ask us
for supplies.
25. We use a lot of technology, even the
first week or two.
❏ http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm
❏ http://www.abcya.com/letter_match_uppercase_lowercase.htm
❏ http://www.abcya.com/letter_trace.htm
❏ http://www.primarygames.com/math/learnnumbers/
❏ http://www.abcya.com/number_bingo.htm
❏ http://www.abcya.com/connect_the_dots_10.htm
❏ http://www.abcya.com/number_match.htm
❏ http://www.henryanker.
com/Math/Number_Sense/Kinder/K_Number_Basics_Set_1.swf
❏ http://www.henryanker.
com/Math/Number_Sense/Kinder/K_Number_Basics_Set_2.swf
❏ http://www.henryanker.
com/Math/Number_Sense/Kinder/K_Number_Basics_Set_3.swf
❏ http://www.abcya.com/shapes_colors_bingo.htm
26. Murchison Facts and Classes 2015-16
as of January 15, 2016.
⦿ 1360+ students
⦿ 137 English Language
Learners
⦿ 34 Immigrant Status
⦿ 22 Refugee/Asylee
(years 1-5)
⦿ 54 monitored
⦿ 3 ESL/ENL Teachers
CLASSES:
⦿ ENL Beginners* (14)
⦿ ENL High Beginners* (11)
⦿ ENL Intermediates (18)
⦿ ENL Writing (long term ELLs)
⦿ ENL Reading (long term ELLs)
⦿ Sheltered 6th World Cultures
⦿ Sheltered math for SIFE (from
beginner to long-term)
⦿ ENL Study Skills
⦿ Tutorials after school, 1 hour x 3
days for all subjects
* Inclusion Support offered in
social studies & science by ESL
Staff , teachers with off periods,
and community volunteers.
27. Most of each newcomer (beginner, high
beginner & intermediate) class is made
up of refugees.
28. SIFE Education at Murchison
⦿ Like our other ELLs, SIFE students are with us
for ENL Class. (We renamed ESL to ENL –
English as a New Language, because many of
our students are learning English as a third,
fourth or fifth language.)
⦿ Like our other ELLs, they are in an immigrant
advisory with an ESL teacher.
⦿ Like our other ELLs, they are in a general
education class for science and social studies,
sometimes with inclusion support.
29. But also…..
⦿ We developed a SIFE study skills class that can
focus on skills like the following:
● Handwriting
● Cutting and gluing
● Numbers
● How to use a computer. (Many of them had never
touched one before they started school.)
● Homework help
● 2014-15 – Trauma counselors worked with boys 45
minutes each week and girls for 45 minutes on a
different day. (Program is unavailable 2015-16)
30. SIFE Study Skills
⦿ If possible, we find them a classmate with the
same language to assist them in study skills,
the cafeteria, and class. (We then separate
them in a month or so and ask a classmate
with a different language to assist.)
⦿ We organize their binder, folders and agenda
with them.
⦿ We support their learning in other subjects.
⦿ We help with homework from all subject
areas.
31. She needed to
draw HEADS and
TAILS of a penny
for a probability
assignment in her
regular math class.
(This is before we
created the
sheltered math
class.) With such
limited schooling,
she does not copy
well, so I let her
and another SIFE
classmate trace
them from the
board.
32. This activity supported the grammar and vocabulary
lesson in the beginner ENL (ESL) class, and also gave
students a chance to practice their cutting and gluing
skills.
35. SIFE Study Skills supports the regular
class:
⦿ All the 6th
graders work on the same world
cultures current event.
⦿ All 7th
graders work on the same science
current event.
I always choose a topic where I can find video to
go with a topic from here, and I print from
https://newsela.com/ at the lowest lexile
available. Sometimes we use Scholastic
News, which has excellent photos.
36. Our current events have a
differentiated format.
⦿ Students with no English yet draw pictures from
the video and copy labels from a lined post-it. (I
write in perfect handwriting on the post-it.)
⦿ Students with some English copy phrases into a
WHO-WHAT-WHEN-WHERE organizer.
⦿ Students in the high beginner class write
sentences from sentence stems in the organizer.
⦿ Students in the intermediate class write their
own sentences and a short summary.
39. This student was in
her second year of
formal schooling,
having arrived in the
Spring of 5th grade
with no previous
formal education. On
her own, she chose to
write a book. I labeled
her first picture and
she wrote the others,
with help from a
picture dictionary.
40. Comprehensible Material
⦿ Picture dictionaries
⦿ Very simple books with good pictures, but that
do not look too babyish.
⦿ Google images
⦿ Websites for ESL and math
⦿ Bilingual dictionaries only if the students are
literate. (One Iraqi girl asked for a Turkish
dictionary since she’d forgotten how to read in
Arabic.)
41. We just started a SIFE math class
⦿ A SIFE student can have some success in a
history or geography class when teachers use
sheltered instruction methods.
⦿ A SIFE student can have some success in a
science class when teachers use sheltered
instruction methods.
⦿ It is almost impossible for a student who was
never taught multiplication or division to be
successful in a middle school math class.
42. The idea behind SIFE Math
⦿ A smaller class with small group differentiation.
⦿ Content pulled from primary grade TEKS
⦿ All content is taken from the building blocks for
middle school content.
⦿ Simplified version of grade level TEKS
● We learn the first quadrant of the coordinate grid
because few students are familiar with negative
numbers.
⦿ Hands-on with manipulatives, foldables and
student-created anchor charts.
⦿ Computer or iPad use daily.
43. Note that math and English are
integrated. Writing made use of
sentence frames. Students wrote
first on paper, then copied.
This activity
involved cutting,
gluing, math
vocabulary,
academic English
discussion, and a
cooperative group.
50. Math for the
first weeks
A simple activity
like this allows
them to practice
their colors and
write our numbers
even when they’re
new to school and
math.
54. Differentiation
I wrote their names on tape that covers
the grade level on the book, but most
kids don’t mind their classmates seeing
that. They don’t like kids in other classes
seeing the level of their math books.
55. Integration: One picture, many skills
Money, fruit, math facts, colors, simple word
problems, & signal words. I also have the
students write their own word problems when
they’re learning question words in ENL class.
56. During inclusion support in the regular 6th
grade math class,
my students did only the word problems that I could illustrate
for them on a white board, and we worked as a group.
The math is
still too hard
for this
group, more
than a year
later, and is
part of the
reason we
developed
the sheltered
math class.
58. Other Structures
in ENL
⦿ Lifelong Journal*
⦿ Fun Friday
● listening comprehension
● awareness of, and
participation in the school
culture
⦿ Ask the Expert
⦿ Tour Guides
⦿ Cultural Celebrations*
⦿ Immigrant Advisory
* Separate Slide
59. How the Lifelong Journal
helps SIFE students
● all ENL classes, 15 minutes, 4x/week
● Students write in any language
● Students may copy (if they note that it is from
a book or song)
● Students may draw
● Teacher NEVER writes in the journal.
● Teacher leaves post-it comments that
students may answer, or that form the basis
for the writing conference, and skills groups
● Students share their feelings and histories
● Students may choose to keep a page private.
63. high beginner - Note the use of the native
language (Burmese) and the interactive nature. Half
her entries are love notes to the teacher.
64. Cultural Celebrations
Teach, learn,
and have a
party.
Paper, internet
research, personal
photos, clothing,
Google slides
presentation, food
from the country.
68. Immigrant Advisory
90% of what we do is the same as other
advisory classes of the same grade, but there are
some activities specifically geared toward students
who are new to the United States, particularly before
holidays or pep rallies. This is also
where we teach them anything
from crossing the street in the
U.S. to fire drills.
It’s also a time when we
can have class meetings and
resolve conflicts between peers.
71. Our Technology Program (for newcomers
and some long-term ELLs)
We have 7 iPads with the
following apps: The school
has purchased licenses for
these:
⦿ Spelling City
⦿ Kids A to Z
⦿ IXL
Assorted free apps.
We also have 10 iPods with
recordings of books that
kids can take home.
Computer programs:
⦿ Spelling City
⦿ Kids A to Z
⦿ IXL
⦿ Starfall
⦿ My Reading Coach
⦿ henryanker.com/
⦿ http://www.abcya.com/
⦿ www.esolhelp.com/
⦿ Mathplayground.com
⦿ http://www.math-play.com/
⦿ http://studyjams.scholastic.com/
For more, see MurchisonMatadors.
org/Markman
We help students install these
apps on their own devices if
they have one.
