Core Thoughts - Opening Face-Off

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all have the same starting point every day? As a Core French Teacher I am collaborating and working with my colleagues every single day. It makes sense as we teach the same children, and it is always a good way to reflect on my day and make the next day better.  The one teacher I wasn’t collaborating enough with was the SERT, which didn’t make much sense since we share all the neediest kids in the school.

When Lisa came to me with the idea of supporting Core French with support from SERT, we did some digging. There are current documents about supporting children in second language learning but we found no evidence of teams putting this into practice at the school level.

One of my frustrations has always been the minimal input the Core French Teacher has in the IEP writing process, other than the modified French pages, especially when the IEPs are printed out and my mailbox is full from top to bottom with every IEP in the school. There had to to be a way for information to be shared that isn’t so overwhelming, so that was our first goal - creating classroom profiles with a focus on language and behaviour needs.

We created our own Class French Special Ed Profile template that includes:
- students with IEPs   
- students on the SSC caseload   
- diagnoses in the classroom 
- a chart of literacy, learning behaviours and classroom performance (that we modified from Katy Arnett’s student profile in the book "Access for Success: Making Inclusion Work for Language Learners")
- a summary of accommodations and modifications in the classroom
- a summary of the safety plans in the classroom

Now, instead of an armload of IEPs, we have a couple of sheets for each classroom with all the key information about the special needs in the class that a Core French Teacher needs. Lisa also shared the profiles with the classroom teachers and it is helpful for everyone, including the SERT.

Things I’m Grateful For
I am grateful for the TLC grant to give us the time to develop a plan to share with other school teams, and able to collaborate and work with a colleague that shares a similar vision.

Things I’m Wondering About
How are other Core French Teachers managing all of their IEPs?
If more students felt successful in elementary Core French would that transfer into more students staying in French after grade nine?

Paul