Philosophy/Mission:

The philosophy of the ELL department is to promote self-advocacy and independent life skills for English Language Learners academic and social success at Hinsdale Central High School.  Research in second language acquisition studies shows that best practice way to learn academic and social language is by incorporating explicit strategy instruction and metacognitive reflection into culturally relevant English as a Second language curriculum. The ELL department has integrated this philosophy into the ESL curriculum and is very excited to be working with the Social Studies department in creating a Sheltered US History and World Cultures class curriculum using the Sheltered Instruction Observational Protocol method (SIOP).

References:

Chamot, A., & O’Malley, M. (1994). The CALLA Handbook: Implementing the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

Echevarria, J., Short, D., & Vogt, M. (2008). Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model. Boston: Pearson and Allyn & Bacon.

O’Malley, M., & Valdez Pierce, L. (1996). Authentic Assessment for English Language Learners: Practical Approaches For Teachers. United States: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.