May 24, 2011
Dear Dr. Lourdes Ferrer,
Probably you do not remember me, but I am one of the ELL teachers from the School District U-46, trained by you as a NAES (Navigating the American Educational System)Facilitator. I am emailing this to invite you to visit the Lowrie Elementary School (District U-46), where I am a Bilingual Second Grade teacher.
Why? You would ask. Well, every year I worked hard to improve students achievement. I read and took courses to better prepare myself to teach standard-based content, but with little improvement. However, everything changed last year when my school principal sent me at your NAES Facilitator Training at DuPage County. I was engaged with the program because it promoted helping students succeedthrough enhanced parenatl involvement.
As I said, every year I worked hard to accomplish the ELL Second Grade goals requested by the school district. But at the end of the school year I always finished frustrated and with few achievements. The NAES Program helped me realized that parental support is the best help I could have to achieve those goals.
After the training, I started working with parents the last two months of the 2009-2010 school year. Ifound out you were right about “Differentiated Parental Support.” Latino parents could fit in any of the “ifferentiated Parental Support Levels. I noticed too, they wanted to help their kids to achieve educational goals. Nevertheless, that was not all, they were eager to learn something to monitor their progress.
For the 2010-2011 school year, I planned NAES trainings, developed graphs to monitor their children’s progress and data interpretation (for parents and students). I planeed for not only two annual parent conferences, but as many as needed (individually and in groups), before and after school. I also created and set individualized student’s goals. I promoted parental involvement in homework completion, volunteering to support students during literacy learning centers, technology, etc.
And we did it! My 25 students no only achieved the U-46 goal on Reading and Math for ELL students but for General Education students too. The NWEA norm for Reading is 190, they scored 190; for Math 191 and they scored 192. In addition, 7 out of 25 exited the Bilingual Program. 15 out of 25 were pre-screened for the gifted program and 12 are eligible for formal gifted 3rd grade evaluation. Oh, and their Spanish Reading scores improved too, most of the students are on grade level or more.
Dr. Ferrer, I am very proud, delighted, and astonished with of all these wonderful achievements. Did I work hard? Yes, I did; but not alone. I applied Data Interpretation and your “Tricycle Theory.” The front wheel is the student and rear wheels are parents and teacher. Team work was the key!
After this long explanation, I want to extend you the invitation to visit our school. We would like to show you what we have done because my school principal is very happy with our results and next school year other teachers after so many frustrations (as I had) plan to implement it.
On June 2nd we will have the last NAES seminar and parents’ graduation; I know it is probably out of time, but if you accept we will be extremely happy if you can be with us. It will be such an honor and great surprise for my students’ parents to see you in person instead of on the TV. I hope you can come. Lowrie Elementary School is located on 264 Oak Street, Elgin IL 60123 Phone # (847) 888- 5262
Thank you for your time and attention to this happy letter and please, contact me if you have any questions.
Very Truly,
Ms. Cecilia Lima
ELL Second Grade Teacher
Lowrie Elementary School District U-46
(847) 888-5260
CeciliaLima@u-46.org
I attached Reading and Math graphs to show you the achieved students’ scores by quarter –fall, winter, spring.-
