Language Policy

Philosophy

With an understanding that all students progress at a different pace, we view the ongoing language development for Pulaski High School students as the shared responsibility of all stakeholders: parents, students, teachers, administrators, and staff. These vested parties are responsible for supporting language acquisition and ensuring all students use English responsibly.

1. All students should have the opportunity to experience learning a second (or, for many of our students, third or fourth) language. This provides significant experience in international education, enabling students to understand the thinking and culture of other people and peoples. Through effective communication in another language, students are exposed to and immersed in cultural diversity and thus better able to understand the global world in which they live. This prepares them to be active participants in multilingual, multicultural communities at home and around the world. To that end, all Pulaski High School students have the opportunity to work with both counseling staff and their own families in selecting which of the offered target language courses to study during their schooling. (At this time, Spanish is the target language offered, along with, possibly, American Sign Language.)
2. All students at Pulaski High School are encouraged to speak their home language.  It is essential students, as well as families and community members, are comfortable and welcome speaking their home language in our building.  All students will do at least a portion of their Language and Literature coursework in English, but some students will complete some Language and Literature assessments in Spanish in accordance with federal, state, and district laws and guidelines. Students have the right to complete other coursework or IB projects in any language that a staff member can assess but, at this point, Spanish is the only such language.
3. All students, regardless of their legal status or English language proficiency level, will be admitted to the school and IB program.
4. We employ a variety of instructional methods in all areas of the IB MYP curriculum to show the interconnection among reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the home and target languages; such interdisciplinary planning happens during collaborative planning time in the IB MYP.
5. The whole school and community are informed of this policy through the school’s website, on the internet, in the main office, and in the Division of Bilingual Multicultural Education office at Central Office.

Language Profile for Native-English Speakers

Home Language = English

Target Language (foreign language) = Spanish

• Native-English speakers will take four years of the home language (English) through English Language Arts (ELA).

• Native-English speakers will meet the foreign language requirement by taking 2 years of the target language (Spanish or, possibly, American Sign Language).

• Language interventions

• Reading support

Language Profile for English Language Learners (ELLs)

• Spanish Speakers

Home Language = Spanish

Target Language = English

• Spanish-speaking ELLs will take four years of the target language (English) through ELA.  ELA is offered as a bilingual or monolingual course.

• Spanish-speaking ELLs will have met the foreign language requirement through their home language.  Spanish speakers will also take Spanish for Spanish Speakers.

• Stand-Alone* ELLs (ELLs whose home language is other than Spanish)

Home Language = varies (Approximately 20 different languages are spoken, including, for example, Somali, Burmese, Karen, Urdu, Arabic, Punjabi, and Malay.)

Target Language = English

• Stand-alone ELLs will take four years of the target language (English) through ELA. ELA is offered as a sheltered co-taught course or a traditional ELA course.     

• Stand-alone ELLs will have met the foreign language requirement through their home language. They have the option of taking an additional foreign language (Spanish and, possibly, also American Sign Language) as an elective.

*Stand-alone refers to ELLs in a school without a bilingual program in their home language.  Pulaski’s

bilingual program serves only Spanish speakers.

Guiding Principles

Scope and Sequence Grades 9-10

Support for ELLs

Identification and assessment of English Language Learners is mandated  through the Milwaukee Public School system, which Pulaski High School is a part of. Board policies and administrative regulations are set out in the document at the end of this language policy, which is labeled “Guidelines and Procedures for Identification, Assessment, Classification, Placement, and Monitoring of English Language Learners.”

• Pulaski High School, as a part of the Milwaukee Public School District, is required to comply with state and federal laws and guidelines regarding services for ELLs, as well as for ELLs identified as needing Special Education services.

• ELLs with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) are also served by the Special Education Department. IEPs may allow for modifications in students’ home languages, as appropriate.

• The bilingual program serves Spanish-speaking students.  Bilingual content teachers teach in the areas of math, science, English, and social studies; Spanish-speaking paraprofessionals provide additional support to bilingual students.  

• The ESL program serves ELLs from all language groups.  Three ESL teachers teach four levels of ESL classes and co-teach sheltered content courses for stand-alone ELLs and monitor ELLs with higher English proficiency levels.

• All teachers, including bilingual and ESL, work to ensure that all students have full access to the MYP program and curriculum.

• Teachers are sensitive to creating a culture of respect and inclusion by acknowledging and integrating represented home languages into instruction so that all learners are engaged in learning and are provided further opportunities to communicate their thinking and understanding. The staff supports the preservation and development of students’ home languages and cultures.  

• All staff are sensitive to creating a culture of respect and inclusion around working with families who may not speak English, working with students who may be refugees or recently arrived or experiencing culture shock, enrolling and programming students,and the like.  We recognize the importance of our immigrant families understanding the U.S. educational system, the rights they have, and how they can be heard. Welcoming families into the building is an important step in facilitating parent involvement and improving student outcomes.

The ESL Department works with staff one-on-one and in groups around ways to support ELLs in the following ways.  This list is not exhaustive:

• Pairing students with more advanced students of the same home language

• Providing school signs and announcements, when possible, in home languages

• Using teacher translators when requested and available

• Advising families on arrangements for native-language support through outside cultural organizations offered in the community

• Providing translators for parents to respond to their questions and concerns because they are a necessary, welcome, and valued part of the school community

• Providing tutoring sessions

• Utilizing a range of accommodations to meet students’ needs by differentiating in content, process, product, affect, and learning environment. (See document titled “Nine Types of Assessment Adaptation” below for examples of possible accommodations.  This list is not exhaustive.)

• Informing teachers how and when to allow ELLs to use their home language in beneficial ways, for example, to produce better writing in English; how to use talk and discussion to produce better writing; allowing students, under certain circumstances (for example, students with IEPs, SIFEs [students with interrupted formal education]), to take assessments in their home language; how to make content and assessments more comprehensible.

• Collaborating with the Guidance Department when programming ELLs to meet their unique needs

• Promoting identity support in after school clubs

• Organizing cultural events that support the various cultures of our student body

• Providing supports for ELLs who have suffered trauma

• Providing translated and/or modified school documents such as transcripts, graduation requirements, personal/community project information

• Conducting family educational workshops to explain the previously mentioned documents to families in their home languages, when possible

• Offering building tours conducted by students speaking families’ home languages

• Sensitizing the building to students’ dietary and religious considerations concerning classes (for example, gym) and extracurricular, as well as to potential political, gender, etc. tensions between different groups.

Works Cited

The Pulaski Learning Team drew upon ideas and wording from the following language policies:

Ronald Reagan High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

Rufus King International High School, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA