Initial ELL Reflection

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Initial ELL Reflection
Jillian Shay
California University of Pennsylvania

Initial ELL Reflection As a school psychologist intern at Seneca Valley School District (SVSD), I have learned about ELL students and some of the challenges they face in American schools. While I am familiar with the literature regarding best practice recommendations for conducting psychoeducational evaluations of ELL students, my overall knowledge base is limited outside the testing arena. In formulating my opinions related to ELL students, I have largely drawn upon my internship experience. The following discussion details my individual thoughts and perspectives regarding language learning, mainstreaming ELL students, and counting ELL students in standardized testing.
Based on my personal experience of attempting to learn a second language, in addition to information shared with me by teachers at SVSD, I think learning a language is difficult. I took Spanish for five years during my secondary studies and minored in Spanish at Gannon University. Although some elements of Spanish were easier to master than others (e.g., learning the alphabet and …show more content…

As certain types of funding for public schools are based on students meeting academic proficiency standards, I think it is illogical to make funding contingent on all students (including ELL students) meeting one-size-fits-all standards that do not consider their unique needs. Therefore, even though I think ELL students should be required to meet standards, I think modifying standards for performance is appropriate. I also believe an alternative assessment may be in order, one that has been normed for administration with ELL

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