To gain more insight into some of the learning challenges our students experience during their school day, FMS educators participated in three exercises today: tracing the outline of a star on a sheet of paper only by seeing the image in a mirror, reading a paragraph where the words are scrambled on the page, and listening to a message while someone taps on your shoulders and scratches your neck. What if it were me? What if the student was still learning English and had to translate the words first? What modifications would I need to make as an educator?
Those situations and best practices were part of the EPO/ELD Summit being held today and tomorrow at Farmington High School. The purpose of the summit is to collaborate and share ideas for serving students with disabilities who are also English Language Learners. The goal of this exciting work is to increase teacher and administrator awareness, and most importantly, student success ahead of the new school year.
Our educators were a good sport during EPO/ELD Summit’s “Challenge Box,” but they did relay that the exercises were pretty difficult to complete and helped them gain great insight into the challenges students with disabilities and English Language Learners experience.
Kudos to our Exceptional Programs Office and Multicultural Programs Department for this joint effort with the districts’ EPO Site Specialists and the English Language Development Site Specialists at our schools.