1. Culture & Religion
1.1. Low Speaking German Mennonite
1.1.1. Women in the culture are quieter and expected to be submissive. Women marry quite young and have many children.
1.1.2. Women are to tend children and education is of little importance to boys and less to girls.
1.2. Fundamental Christian
1.2.1. Eva's family is old order Mennonite and are very religious. They do not work on Sunday and attend a reform church.
1.2.2. The family prays daily. They do not approve of the new sex ed curriculum because they have strict old order Christian values. They feel it does not support their beliefs.
2. Profile & Assessments
2.1. OLB
2.2. Eva is in Stage 1 for Oral Language, Reading and Writing. She was assessed at the board reception centre.
2.3. Language
2.3.1. Eva can read an early picture book and some early words with picture cards. She can write her name.
2.3.2. A Primary Spelling Inventory was administered as well as a DRA II. She read a level 2 text.
2.4. Math
2.4.1. Prime Math was administered.
2.4.2. Eva's ability to do computation is at about her age level. She can easily add, subtract, multiply and divide.
3. Family
3.1. Immigrated from Mexico
3.1.1. Eva is 11 years old and in gr. 5. She is the eldest of 5 children. She is a very shy and quiet girl.
3.1.2. Eva was born in Mexico and did not attend school.
3.2. Goes back to Mexico from Nov - Mar
3.2.1. Her Father speaks some English but her Mother appears to not speak any. Her Mother is very quiet and makes limited eye contact.
3.2.2. Eva was taught to read, write & do arithmetic in low-speaking German by her Mother and other female family members.
3.3. Eva works in the fields
3.3.1. Eva is expected to work on the land that they harvest for a farmer. They rent a home on sight.
3.3.2. Eva has chores that she must do before and after school and help tend to her siblings.
4. Placement & Supports
4.1. LEARN
4.1.1. Eva was assessed at the TVDSB Gentle Centre & her school. It was determined that intensive support placement would be best.
4.1.2. The LEARN classroom is 50% time in their age appropriate classroom and 50% in an intensive ELD classroom. The focus in LEARN is on Literacy and Numeracy.
4.2. Supports
4.2.1. A former Mennonite student from the LEARN program is an ambassador to help Eva. The school wants to link up the families as well, especially for support and understanding for her Mother. Eva will require an IEP with modifications and accommodations as her English is at about an SK/Gr 1 level.
4.2.2. A welcome pamphlet has gone home explaining assessment, placment and school life as well as information for settlement.org
4.3. Materials
4.3.1. While Eva is in Mexico during the school year (Nov. to Mar.) a package will be sent with her for completion. It will include early readers, an Ontario Math Workbook and the Scholastic Spelling Program.