Assessment / Differentiation / Technology

As an ESL practitioner, I believe firmly in assessment, planning, differentiation and reflection.  I use iPads and spreadsheets to engage in weekly formative assessment and reflection.  Further, I am experienced in administering the full suite of assessments from World-class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) as well as state standardized assessments.  Using this data, I have helped facilitate differentiated instruction for students with a wide range of varying backgrounds, interests and abilities by implementing supports, such as sentence frames/stems, realia, and interactive graphics, and flexible grouping.   I also believe strongly in using technology and have utilized the following software and services  to help differentiate instruction:  Reading A-Z, Readlive,  Read Works, Imagine Learning, Newsela, and Moodle.  Similarly, I employ the use of iPads, PowerPoint, Google Slides/Docs, Smartboards, and Promethean Boards to create dynamic differentiated teacher and student-generated content.  Through these classroom practices, I have assisted East African students to raise WIDA scores by an average of one full point year over year.  Moreover, I can show measurable gains in student writing through student work samples.

 

I believe in formative assessment and reflection.  To see a sample of my formative assessment, click here.

 

I also developed and managed a school-wide online knowledge base for teachers to pool and share resources and gain access to often-used forms and materials and managed Banaadir Academy’s website and published all of its content  for four  years.

Cultural Responsiveness and Leadership

Cultural Responsiveness

As an ESL teacher, I value diversity as not only important but necessary to foster a well-rounded and productive educational environment.  In this regard, I have accomplished many things that have helped Banaadir Academy become a more culturally responsive school.  In order to address low first-language literacy and limited background knowledge about the U.S. education system, I collaborated with students to produce a series of bilingual training videos for SLIFE and their parents, detailing school procedures and norms.  An example video can be found at http://www.fossenbell.org/videos/.   In addition, I facilitated the creation and implementation of our school’s interpreting team.  Both of these initiatives led to a marked increase in parent-teacher communication.  In a similar vein, I implemented and managed the Somali Word of the Week initiative to help Western staff learn more about Somali language and customs.

 

See samples of my culturally responsive teaching here.

 

Leadership

I have a documented history of taking initiative and holding leadership positions at every organization for which I have worked.  Most recently, I served as a Professional Learning Community (PLC) Lead for grades 5 and 6 and facilitated data-driven flexible grouping of students which has led to increased test scores and overall student success.  Further, I created, implemented and managed the award-winning Reading Buddy volunteer program, which has provided students over three thousand hours of extra small group and one-on-one support.  Lastly, I facilitated a school-wide transition to adopt the WIDA W-APT and MODEL for language assessment and placement.

Read more about the Reading Buddy Program

Reading Buddy Program wins award!

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