Ms. Marshall's ELL & ASL Class

Class Overview

ELL stands for English Language Learner. This program is designed for any student, K-12, that has a language other than English spoken at home, and also for students that are bilingual. It's designed to help support students in 4 academic content areas: Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Listening. The annual WIDA test is administered in the spring, which is an opportunity for students to test out of the program once annually. There is a WIDA screener that can be done throughout the year to see if students qualify for the program assistance. Our curriculum is designed to help students perform better in all their other classes. We focus primarily on vocabulary development, public speaking skills, higher-level thinking, problem-solving, reading comprehension, deductive reasoning, test taking strategies, and small group and whole-group discussion. Please contact myself, or Mrs. Granman, if you have a referral for the program, or you think that your child would benefit from the program and wish for him/her to be screened. There is a Home Language Survey that must be filled out prior to qualifying to be screened for services, and you can obtain one from the elementary office. Mrs. Granman is my teaching partner, and a huge part of our program here at Onalaska School District.

ASL stands for American Sign Language. I also run this program more as a remote proctor, with students having the opportunity to take these courses during any period of the high school day. It takes place in the library. Work is provided and students are paced out at one lesson, quiz, and test per week. Now we are able to offer one period of in-person instruction, which is 6th period. I'd encourage students next year to sign up for 6th period Sign Language, as it's always a more ideal and meaningful learning environment to have the teacher present. There are 4 courses offered. 101 and 102, which are the first year's classes, and 103 and 104, which are the second year's classes. ASL does cover the 2 years of foreign language requirement for students to get into a 4-year college.