Valory Stopczynski

ACCESS Testing Begins Soon!

All over Georgia, English Language Learners will be taking the ACCESS for ELLs test to determine yearly growth in their acquisition of English.  Students in Cobb County will test between January 20th and March 3rd.  At McCall Primary, Lisa Redman and myself will do our best to complete the  testing long before the testing window is over. Kindergarten students will be tested individually while first grade students will complete a listening, reading and writing test in small group. They  will complete a speaking test that is given individually.  All areas of the test assess social and acedemic language.  The questions test the students' knowledge of English as it pertains to grade level acedemic situations (math, science, social studies and language arts).  Letters were sent home with students with specific information about the test. We will receive the test results before the school year ends.  Individual results will be sent home to parents in May.  The ACCESS for ELLs will help to determine continued placement in ESOL.

Stopczynski's ESOL

Hello! Hola! Ni Hao! Jambo! Konnichiwa! Bonjour! etc......
My name is Valory Stopczynski and I am one of two ESOL teachers here at McCall Primary. I am excited to announce that this year we have qualified 73 kindergarten and 1st grade students for ESOL this year! Acworth is becoming a very diverse and culturally rich place to be!

This year our first grade ESOL students will be taught in their classrooms during reader's or writer's workshop.  We will study units driven by our Georgia Performance Standards for ESOL, Science and Social Studies.  We will be  focusing on  literacy and writing  as we  explore units such as "families,” "communities,” "plants and animals,” "weather" and "sound". This year we will concentrate on reading as every child at McCall has a goal to read 1,000,000 words!

These standards and units of study can be viewed in Picasso.

What Is ESOL???

ESOL = English For Speakers of Other Languages        

ESOL is a support service we offer in Cobb County to provide support to students whose native language  is something other than English.

How did my child qualify for ESOL?                                     

Students are screened for qualification in ESOL based on a parents' responses to questions asked on their registration forms. These questions ask, "What was the first language learned?", "What language is most spoken at home?" and "What language does your child speak most often?".  If any other language is mentioned besides English, a screening test is administered.

Students that qualify for the ESOL program are able to recieve 45 minute daily small group instruction.  This will be in the form of "inclusion" where I will collaborate with their classroom teacher to work with the ESOL students in their own classroom. In a rare case it may require "pushing in" where a student is brought into a different classroom to receive instruction with other ESOL students.

A Great Resource for Parents of English Language Learners

On Monday, November 5th, the ESOL teachers in Cobb County were able to get some fantastic training that will surely enhance my teaching.  I was especially excited to share a website that is packed with all kinds of  great information for teachers, parents and students. I wanted to give you a "sample" of some of the wonderful things you will find there. 
If you decide to check it out for yourself, I'd love to hear from you!  I'll give a special treat to your student for emailing me with the answer to this question: "Why is the website called "Colorin, colorado!?".
I can't wait to hear from you!

(click the link below to view the website)

Colorin, colorado!