How can teachers structure one-to-one student conferences to help ELs own their academic growth while also building relationships? What are some innovative ways we can leverage everything from testing data, student work artifacts, and portfolios to help students and teachers set and measure progress towards goals? How can schools make these conferences and learning celebrations more widely practiced and systematic across their classrooms?

We discuss these questions and more with Sarah Said. We first featured Sarah on Highest Aspirations back in 2018, and we are excited to bring her back. Sarah Said is the Director of Language and Equity Programs at the Elgin Math and Science Academy in Elgin IL.  Sarah has spent 17 years working with language learners. Currently she is launching the Stand Up Stumps, which is a social justice based public art project in Elgin. Sarah has written various articles in EdWeek Teacher and Confianza and appeared on Highest Aspirations to discuss cultural responsiveness back in 2018.

You can find additional resources and episode takeaways on our ELL Community page at ellevationeducation.com/ellcommunity. If you haven’t done so already, we invite you to join our ELL Community while you’re there so you get weekly resources, strategies and tips from that you can use right away.