7th and 8th Grade ELD Transitional English

Parents of seventh and eighth-grade students in Catherine Ball's English Language Development Transitional English class visited the classroom today to view portfolios of student learning. The portfolios reflect student improvement in English (speaking, listening, reading and writing) throughout the semester, according to Ball. Even though the portfolio work is all in English, Ball asked the students to share their learning journey by explaining the process to their parents in their first language. "This can be tough to do as they need to seamlessly switch from one language to another, just as a United Nations translator does," Ball says.