Headphones Help English Language Learners

AUSD Instructional Coach, Candice Camp, requested support from AEF in purchasing headphones for her students. She wrote: "The students will use these headphones with different educational applications and websites throughout the school year, from reading to listening to speaking. They will be especially helpful for our learners who are new to English. They will be able to practice newly-acquired English skills on Imagine Learning and Lexia English. They will be able to listen to passages and directions in English, record their own passages, and be able to practice language and get feedback at their own level. Having their own headphones will help them learn and practice at their own pace, without the distraction of 25+ computers projecting different sounds out into the classroom. This project will impact approximately 43 students every year (ongoing) at Maya Lin."

AEF chose to fulfill this grant request as a part of our focus on equity in the District.

Here's what Candice wrote back after she received the headphones:
"I want to take a moment before the year is done to say THANK YOU for helping us get the headphones with microphones earlier this year. They have been essential in supporting multilingual English learners with listening and speaking applications and differentiated learning experiences. Students were able to learn and practice English at their own pace and practice speaking in a way that provided more privacy than in they had to speak loudly into a computer microphone, and this created conditions that are safer to take risks, and we all know that's where the magic happens!"