Student Support Services
CIA FIRST’s Student Support Services department is committed to the academic, behavioural and social-emotional growth of all students. Composed of counselors, SEL coaches, University and Career Counselors, Multilingual Learner Specialists, Literacy Specialists and Learning-to-Learn Specialists, the SSS team collaborates with teachers, leaders, and families, in order to ensure all students are equipped with what they need in order to succeed.
Objective
The objective of Multilingual Learning Support is to ensure all students receive the English language and literacy skills they need to independently achieve academic success.
With our program, MLL Specialists and Homeroom or Subject Teachers maximize co-planning time to integrate content and language instruction effectively, with the goal to accelerate academic language development, and to meet the individual needs of the students receiving intensive support.
The MLL Program follows research and evidence-based best practices in academic language acquisition and is guided by WIDA’s English Language Development Standards and Framework. CIA FIRST uses a hybrid model of push in and pull out support which is flexible depending on the needs of the interventions provided to students and pacing of units of study.
Why Push in?
The MLL Specialist joins regular mainstream classes to provide push in support with co-planned scaffolded resources for comprehensible input and structured academic output and employ co-teaching strategies with their partner teachers. These differentiated resources and activities with support from both teachers are to help them obtain the necessary understandings to complete their work and strengthen their reading, writing and language acquisition.
Why Pull Out?
Pull out sessions are to give extra instruction out of the class dependent on the needs of the students working on their goals outlined in their Individualized Learning Plans. These can be working with small groups or individual students, giving them individual feedback.
Students who are beginner and emerging multilinguals with WIDA levels below 3.0 may benefit from more pull out sessions to focus on the foundational language skills they are missing which are vital for future academic success.
Students with suspected neurodivergent conditions such as Dyslexia and ADHD may learn better with extra accommodations such as working in smaller group or individual settings.
How are students assessed?
Students enrolled in the MLL Program receive scaffolded summative assessments with additional modifications and accommodations to meet their needs. This scaffolding is faded out to support and encourage the student's emergent autonomy in their learning as they become increasingly academically proficient across language domains.
'Removing scaffolds prematurely leads to disengagement and frustration, while leaving them in place when they are no longer necessary breeds dependence' (Huynh, T. and Skelton, B., 2023)
How are students referred?
Students can be referred in three ways:
Internal referrals from teachers using the SSS referral form(s)
Self referral by students who request additional support
New students flagged through data collected in the Admissions process.
Which grade levels have MLL Support?
MLL Support is a service offered to students from Grades 1-10 across school branches.
How are students screened?
All students referred for MLL Support are administered a WIDA test that falls within their grade level cluster.
Student achievement data and teacher observations are also considered before a collaborative decision is made as to what tier of support and type of intervention(s) the student needs using CIA FIRST's MTSS framework.
When can a student leave MLL Support?
On average, a CIA FIRST student receiving Tier 3 MLL Support needs 2-3 years of intensive English Language Development support to acquire the language in order to function independently and successfully in the mainstream classroom and beyond school.
Research shows it takes five to seven years on average to become academically proficient in English, but the speed of language acquisition changes at different developmental levels. Some other variables that need to be taken into consideration which may also affect duration:
Age
First language (L1) proficiency
Learner motivation
Learner aptitude
Family involvement
Previous educational experience
Other identified learning differences
Students' progress will be measured and re-evaluated regularly. Students who respond positively to the support and show increased independence and progress in focus areas will be recommended to move from Tier 3 MLL (WIDA Levels 1-2) to Tier 2 MLL (WIDA levels 3-4). Students at this stage of language development will have developed the foundational literacy skills and basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) but still need scaffolded support and leveled assessments to develop their academic language proficiency (CALPS).
Specific to language interventions, students can be considered for exiting the program when they have achieved an overall WIDA proficiency level of 5.0. This allows them to communicate socially and participate successfully in academic classes with mainstream students without modified materials and texts receiving Tier 1 Support from their Homeroom or Subject teacher.
According to WIDA, English Learners being considered for exit should achieve the following:
Understanding and speaking conversational and academic English well
Near proficient in reading, writing and content area skills
Require only occasional support in English language development
More information on WIDA’s Guiding Principles of Language Development can be found below:
Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS)
Social-Emotional Learning
Literacy Support
Social-Emotional Learning Coach
Tiers of Support
On average, a student receiving Language Support will need 18 months to 2 years of English as an Additional Language support to acquire the language to function independently and successfully in the mainstream classroom and beyond school. However, other variables need to be taken into consideration which may also affect duration:
Age
First language (L1) proficiency
Learner motivation
Learner aptitude
Family involvement
Previous educational experience
Other identified learning differences
When Can Students Leave the Academic Support Program?
Students' progress will be measured and re-evaluated regularly. Students who respond positively to the support and show increased independence and progress in focus areas will be recommended to move to Tier 1 support, after receiving feedback from teachers and specialists.
Specific to language interventions, students can exit the program when they have achieved an English development level that allows them to communicate socially and participate successfully in academic classes with mainstream students without modified materials and texts.
According to WIDA, English Learners being considered for exit should achieve the following:
Understanding and speaking conversational and academic English well
Near proficient in reading, writing, and content area skills
Require only occasional support in English language development
Those who exit the program too soon may not be able to adequately participate in content-area learning in the mainstream classroom and there is a high chance that these students will fall further behind and be re-referred to Student Support Services.
Restorative Practices
Community
CIA FIRST school community recognizes the vital role that relationships play in teaching, learning, and contributing to a healthy learning environment. CIA FIRST utilizes Restorative Practices as a framework to build and strengthen relationships within the school community, to collaboratively problem-solve and to teach our young learners how to be conflict-competent.
Restorative Practices
The aim of Restorative Practices (RP) is to proactively build healthy relationships and to cultivate a sense of community. By nurturing a culture and environment based on mutual support, reciprocal dialogue, and listening with understanding and empathy, students have a voice and are encouraged to be active participants in their learning.
When harm or conflict occurs, Restorative Practices utilise a fair process of Engagement, Explanation and Expectations Clarity, to repair the harm done to relationships and people, rather than punishing or blaming individuals. This helps students to problem-solve and provides them the opportunity to tell their side of the story, as well as listen to others. Collaboratively, community members find ways to repair the harm and move forward. The outcome is co-constructed and the relationships restored and sustained.
Tenets of Restorative Practices
1. Relationships: Building and Maintaining healthy relationships within the school community.
Restorative values include accepting the individual as a whole and recognising that each individual comes with their own sets of beliefs, values and individual backgrounds. Relationships are at the centre of a restorative community.
2. Restoration: Putting things right.
The primary aim of Restorative Practices is to fairly address and repair harm and mend relationships. This also means no further harm is likely caused.
3. Participation: All participants' needs are met.
Only those who have a direct stake in the harm/relationship to be repaired are involved (depending on severity of the concern).
4. All participants need to be ready before a restorative chat/conference is held. (calm, honest, respectful)
All participants have a voice. All participants have an opportunity to listen.
5. Accountability: Taking ownership and co-constructed outcomes
Each participant is encouraged to reflect and take ownership of the part they play. An agreement is made that suits all parties. Outcomes are co-constructed, not imposed.
6. Re-Entry into the school community
On occasion there may need to be a re-entry meeting or conversation after an incident, to ensure everyone is feeling safe prior to student/s returning to the school community. This meeting might include school staff representatives, students and parents. Re-entry meetings are a restorative way to engage students, who have hopefully had time to reflect on the incident, and focus on what needs to be done moving forward with clear expectations.