EL students show ‘lessons learned’ in SAIL
MADISON – This summer, students in the English Learners or EL program strengthened their language and cultural skills in the Summer Adventures in Learning or SAIL initiative.
SAIL is a combined effort of Community Foundation of Huntsville/Madison County and The Schools Foundation. A grant from The Schools Foundation to Madison City Schools made the SAIL program possible.
Madison Elementary School hosted the EL SAIL program as a convenient, central location for students across Madison during June.
“Madison City Schools celebrated the end of the EL program on June 30 at Madison elementary,” MCS Public Relations Manager John S. Peck said. “Madison City Schools is a very diverse school system with more than 50 languages spoken at homes throughout the district.”
“Madison City Schools Superintendent Robby Parker, Assistant Superintendent – Operations Eric Terrell and board of education members came to meet students, teachers and parents and see first-hand what students learned,” Peck said. “The celebration culminated in song and a potluck lunch of an international fare.”
SAIL targets EL students with academic and language needs, helping them to avoid summer learning loss. Approximately 100 children participated in sessions at Madison elementary.
“Our district is also used federal funding to supplement the grant and provide the best support to our students attending the program this summer,” Dr. Natalia Dooley, MCS Federal Programs Coordinator, said.
Heart of the Valley coordinated a SAIL site at Madison County Elementary School. Village of Promise worked with Huntsville City Schools for SAIL at Highlands Elementary School.
“We partnered with Better Basics to provide rigorous and engaging theme-based EL instruction in reading and math,” Dooley said. In addition, a MCS instructional technology team involved one teacher each for STEM, art and music “to provide experiential learning opportunities for EL SAIL students to make it feel like summer fun.”
Junior League of Huntsville, University of Alabama in Huntsville and Athens State University provided volunteers for other needs with the program.
To determine SAIL’s success, organizers will review student math and reading assessment data and social-emotional assessment results, along with survey data from students and staff. Coordinators for 2018 will use these findings for next summer’s sessions.
For more information, visit communityfoundationhsv.org/impact/SAIL.
