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  • Essay / ELL Population - 691

    Ayers Ryal Side Elementary School is home to the elementary ELL population in the Beverly Public School District. Currently, we have 71 ELL students, grades K-5, which represents 14% of our total school population. The ELL program at Ayers has continued to grow over the past year and the ELL population continues to steadily increase in our district. The profile of our students changes slightly depending on the school levels. Our students in grades K-1 were primarily born in the United States (84%) with the remaining students born in Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Greece. Similarly, the majority of our students in grades 2-5 were born in the United States (54%), but other students were born in countries such as Brazil, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Albania, Japan, Greece and Nepal. , Haiti, Kenya and Ukraine. At our school, Brazil is the most common country of origin, after the United States. In addition to the different countries of origin, there is a wide range of languages ​​spoken. The most common languages ​​spoken by our students are Spanish, Albanian, Italian, Greek, French, Cambodian, Hindi, Vietnamese, Nepali, Haitian Creole, Amharic, Greek, Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Russian. In some cases, parents/guardians indicate their native language and English as the “main” language spoken at home. For some, this is because one parent only speaks the native language and the other speaks English. There are also influences from other family members, such as grandparents, living at home who only speak the native language while the parents speak English. Ayers is home to many ELL students, and each student comes with a different background both cultural and educational. Many of our students' families have come to the United States for professional reasons such...... middle of paper...... A high percentage of our general education teachers have already completed their SEI endorsements, and the remaining teachers will fulfill these requirements in the near future. The ELL team ensures that the parents of our ELL students also feel supported and included in our school community. The translated materials are sent to parents and the ELL teacher frequently makes phone calls or visits in person with parents. Students are included in whole-class instruction as well as differentiated instruction. They receive support in the primary language, peer modeling, and pull-and-drop services to meet their educational needs. Collaboration between the ELL team and general classroom teachers continues to help our program grow and expand through a cohesive and effective toolbox of strategies to support our growing ELL population..