Filling the Gaps: instructional support for newcomer youth with limited prior schooling

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Filling the Gapsinstructional support for
newcomer youth with limited prior schooling

• Identifying the learners
• Models for program delivery
• Initial assessment and placement
• Curriculum
• Ongoing assessment and review
• Effective literacy practices
• Parents and community

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Identifying the learners

• Newcomer students who have had limited
  educational opportunity because
• They are from refugee-producing or war-torn
  countries, and/or
• They are from countries where socio-economic or
  geographic factors limit access to quality
  schooling, and/or
• They have migrated more than once

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Models for program delivery

• Congregated programs
• L1 in-class support (Ottawa model)
• L1 tutoring (North York model)
• Peer tutoring
• Core program
• Integration with age peers
• Social inclusion
• Mentoring

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Program administration

• Central co-ordination
• Admissions and reviews
• Length of service
• Who hires the teacher?
• Choosing the right teacher
• Ongoing development for teachers
• Demonstration classroom

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Initial assessment and placement

• Writing in English
• Describing/labelling a picture
• Telling/writing a story
• Age-appropriate placement
• L1 assessment
• Environmental assessment

• Reception centres
• Dynamic assessment
• Oral interview
• L1 writing sample
• Baseline assessment
• Informal reading inventory
• Mathematics

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Curriculum

• ESL and beginning/early literacy development,
  adapted for age level
• Integration of key concepts and skills from
  elementary Math, Social Studies, Science
• Curriculum adaptation attainable outcomes
• Compression intensive accelerated program

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Ongoing assessment and review

• Dynamic assessment
• Portfolio assessment
• Repeat testing
• Program goal 2 for 1
• Placement review

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Effective instructional practices for literacy

• Language experience stories
• Extensive reading
• Literature circles
• Key visuals
• Modelled/shared/guided reading/writing
• Writing frames and templates
• Developmental approach (First Steps)
• Word walls

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Parents and community

• L1 outreach and communication
• Special meetings
• Honest but optimistic appraisal
• Regular (weekly?) contact
• Student-led conferences
• Child and Youth workers
• Role models and mentors from the community