TESOL: Fieldwork Experience The student observed for the Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM) was a native Spanish-speaking 16-year-old female who was a high school sophomore. The student's SOLOM score for the observation was a 20/25 with limited English proficiency. Based on what was learned about the student during the SOLOM initial assessment and previous fieldwork experiences, this paper identifies an appropriate instructional strategy for use with this student and reports the results of that strategy.

The instruction strategy selected for this exercise was "building trust with families" as advocated by Pompa (n.d.) of the AdLit organization. Just as it is vitally important for clinicians to forge a therapeutic relationship with their clients in order to formulate efficacious treatment interventions, it is likewise vitally important for ELL teachers to reach out to students' families in order to encourage their more active involvement in the education of their children. Indeed, the importance of parental involvement in children's education has been well-documented and this importance extends to ELL learner families as well. For instance, studies have repeatedly shown that parental involvement in children's education is one of the most important predictors of academic success in the United States as well as abroad (Vera &

Moreover, Pompa (n.d.) emphasizes that parents of ELL students want to be more actively involved in their children's education but are uncertain how to help. Therefore, it is essential for ELL instructors to actively reach out to parents in the community and provide culturally relevant initiatives and support services in order to build trust and encourage their contribution to their children's educational process. Some of the steps that can be taken for this type of strategy include: (a) encouraging parents to visit the school to observe their child's learning environment; (b) encouraging parents to attend English language classes; (c) spending time with their child working on homework or projects or accompanying them on field trips, and (d) attending parenting classes concerning childhood development issues such as nutrition and standardized testing…