[MUSIC] Welcome to the final video of engaging ELLs and their families in the schooling community. Congratulations on finishing the course and taking the initiative to make ELLs and their families feel welcomed and engaged in you school and community. Before you take the final assessment and participate in the optional peer review assignment, let's take a few minutes to revisit some of the key ideas presented in this course. The course was structured around five modules, each filled with fantastic models of schools and organizations that successfully engage families of ELLs in the classroom, school and community. Each lesson was designed to give you ideas of ways to better engage your students and their families. We hope that you can adapt many of these ideas and strategies in your own classrooms and schools. In the first module, you were provided a general overview of ELLs in the classrooms throughout the United States. There are over 4.3 million ELLs nationwide. The majority of homes speaks Spanish. ELLS come to our classrooms with a wide variety of backgrounds and diverse stories, making it both challenging and exciting to get to know them and all they have to offer our classroom and communities. We reviewed some key strategies for engaging the ELL in the classroom by making connections through art, music, culture, and storytelling. You learned the importance of family engagement, and the need to form a partnership between the families and schools to inspire classroom success. And finally, in module one, you learned key strategies to help cultivate parent-teacher relationships. These strategies were based on Joyce Epstein's Framework for Defining Parent Involvement, which includes six aspects of involvement. Parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with the community. >> Module two highlighted a special program called the American Dream Academy. The American Dream Academy reaches out to parents and families, including many ELLs, and offers training on how to better be involved in the education of their child. We heard from the American Dream Academy's director in regards to their mission and purpose. We learned about the American Dream Academy's success ladder and academic success plan, and how they helped to facilitate the support of learning at home. The success ladder includes seven steps for parents to complete as they navigate the American Dream Academy program. Once parents complete the steps, in theory, they are ready to support the child in the classroom and at home with the ability to employ a success plan. In module two, case strategies were given to support learning at home. As parents strive to encourage their child success, reading, writing, math, science and social studies activities were suggested. The video provided ways for teachers to communicate to parents to help them better understand how to support learning at home. The American Dream Academy also hosts a teacher training program called, Teachers Involving Parents, which aims to help teachers better understand the parents of the students in their classroom. And some of the common challenges of cross cultural communication within the frameworks of individualistic and collective societies. Finally, you were given tips on how to communicate across cultures. >> Module three introduced you to Longfellow Elementary School in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where a community of engagement is being fostered. From this school and this module, we learned the importance of motivating ELLs by providing opportunities to build background knowledge and through the use of motivating lessons. You were provided with some key aspects of cross cultural discipline and behavioral issues and some strategies for parent training that could help facilitate a better learning environment. We highlighted some of the ways that Longfellow engages ELLs and their families through the use of bilingual signs, books, and even the school song. Longfellow provides bilingual aids so that students and families feel supported and are able to communicate with others in a school. Finally, Longfellow Elementary and its teachers make an extra effort to honor the cultures of their school by celebrating holidays such as Mung New Year, and traditions such as Mexican dance clubs. >> In module four you were introduced to Alhambra High School in Phoenix, Arizona. Home to over 200 ELLs from around the world. This module provided you with so many examples of students and parenting engagement. You heard from the principal and the ways in which he works with his teachers, staff, parents, and students to create a unique culture at his school. Other ideas and strategies for engagement include clubs such as Breakaway, and school wide activities such as Diversity Day and Lion's Town. Bringing in cultures from around the world in special ways, such as through bell music translated parent communication. Finally, Alhambra demonstrated ways in which sports can create a common ground and be a place where all students can feel welcome and encouraged to feel part of the school family. >> In module five, we discussed community resources that can be useful in family engagement. In the first lesson, you were introduced to the Iraqi American Society for Peace and Friendship as an example of a community organization that teachers can partner with to help with cultural training and understanding. As well as, translation services and family support. We encourage you to check your community for similar organization. In the next lesson we highlighted Table Talk at the Tempe Public Library, which provides free English services for those interested. This is another great way to make families feel more comfortable communicating in English and about topics related to their child's education. Seek out such services in your community and guide parents to them as a way to support their engagement. Finally, we introduced and discussed online resources to help teachers engage parents in their classroom. As well as apps designed to engaged families with their child in the classroom. These are great ways to open up two-way communication, in ways that are a bit more comfortable and unthreatening to parents who may be shy or lack confidence in their language skills. We truly hope that you found many of these ideas and suggestions useful. And that they inspire you to implement ways to engage your students and their families. We look forward to hearing some of your unique ideas and perspectives on the discussion board and hope that you will participate in the optional peer review at the end of this course. >> We have enjoyed your presence in our class and are proud of the many wonderful things you are doing to ensure ELLs have the best and most successful experience possible in your class. >> Good luck.
