PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

CREATING ACCESS AND UNDERSTANDING FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS

Literacy Design Collaborative

Common Core is for All Students

• How do we prevent English learners from falling even further behind?

• How do we remove the barriers to learning that impede academic progress?

(Wong Fillmore, 2012)

Differentiation

• Decisions made by teachers who think about the needs of the learner first when planning instruction

(Tomlinson, 2010)

Deconstruction

• Take students through a process of dissecting text. Call attention to words, phrases and guide them through how each part contributes to the whole

• Learn about the structures of writing by guiding students

to reconstruct

(Wong Fillmore, 2012)

Sample Mini-Task Preparing for the Task

TASK ANALYSIS

Ability to understand and explain the task’s prompt and rubric and build connections to the task and content to existing knowledge, skills, experiences, interests, and concerns

Action/Prompt

In cooperative learning groups, deconstruct the teaching task by color coding each section with a highlighter and discuss the expectations orally

Sample Mini-Task Preparing for the Task (continued)

Teaching Strategies• Provide guiding questions (i.e. What is the essential question?

What text will you read? What type of writing product is expected? Is this informational, argumentative or narrative? How does this task connect to prior learning in the content area? )

• Assign roles in the learning groups focusing on oral language facilitation with the expectation that each student will be able to communicate the expected outcome of the teaching task

• Direct students to identify unfamiliar vocabulary and in pairs determine the meaning and add to their personal vocabulary notebooks

Sample Mini-Task Preparing for the Task (continued)

Duration

Two 20 minute class sessions

Scoring

Work meets expectation if students are able to explain elements of the teaching task in their own words and vocabulary terms are added to personal notebooks

Language Acquisition

• To meet the language demands of the common core standards, language competencies must be developed!

• First, one must know where their students fall on the continuum of language acquisition

Language Acquisition Stages

Steven Krashen (1982) outlined the stages of language for second language learners but also recognized that language acquisition is an ongoing process and that growth may occur at varying rates. The initial phases may progress quickly while students will spend years in the intermediate and advanced stages.

Silent/Receptive Stage

• The student does not verbally engage but is taking in language

• Students should be included in activities but not forced to speak

• Teachers should give students time and clues to encourage participation

• Non-verbal interaction with peers; being included in general activities and games; and interacting with manipulatives, pictures, audiovisuals, and "hands-on" materials are appropriate

• Encourage students to elicit one-word responses by repeating and imitating words and phrases

Early Production Stage

• English Learners begin to respond verbally using one or two words and develop the ability to extrapolate meaning from conversation

• Listening skills become more acute and an expanded recognition vocabulary develops

• It is common to hear two or three words grouped together in short phrases to express an idea

Speech Emergence Stage

• ELs respond in simple sentences if they are comfortable with the school climate and engaged in a setting that includes ample opportunities to process comprehensible input

• All efforts to communicate should be encouraged and reinforced

Intermediate Fluency Stage

• Students transition to more elaborate speech so that familiar phrases with continued comprehensible input generate sentences

• The best strategies for students in this stage are to give more input, extend vocabulary development, and provide opportunities to produce language in a safe environment

Advanced Fluency Stage

• Students begin to initiate conversation and produce connected sentences. This is appropriate timing for some direct instruction, focusing on idiomatic expressions and comprehension skills

• Activities are designed to develop higher levels of thinking, vocabulary skills, and cognitive skills, especially in reading and writing

Full Academic Proficiency

• May take from four to ten years for ELs to meet the cognitive and linguistic demands of academic work in the second language

• Thomas and Collier (2004) have estimated that the time needed could take as much as 14 years

What Do Language Stages Mean for Classroom Instruction?

Knowledge of language acquisition levels promote the use of higher level questioning so students are “nudged” to the next level of language use and understanding. This knowledge helps teachers identify appropriate scaffolds, questions and prompts.(Hill & Flynn, 2006)

Creating a Climate for Learning

• All students need: respect, belonging, challenge, support, purpose and a balance between effort and success. (Tomlinson, 2010)

• English Learners also need enormous amounts of teacher modeling, and metacognition (teachers thinking aloud about language use and reading strategies). (Frey, Fisher, Nelson, 2013)

More Classroom Climate Tips

• English learners need authentic modeling of teachers and students serving as mentor writers …”standing next to them and showing them how real writers write.” (Gregory & Burkman, 2012)

• English learners need to practice oral and written language in a supportive environment. (Gregory & Burkman, 2012)

• Learning will stick if it has meaning and can be connected to an established schema (categories that are already understood and stored together).

Comprehensible Input

• Input must involve numerous repetitions and needs to be attached to meaningful context

• Students need to understand at least 90% of what is being said to them to make sense of the communication (Kauffman, 2007)

• Students need to be able to comprehend 95-98% of the words in a text for them to make meaning (Allington,2001)

Selecting High Leverage Strategies

Research shows that many of the strategies to increase student learning are also very effective with English Learners.

(Gregory & Burkman, 2012; Hill & Flynn, 2006)

Classroom Instruction that Works!

• Jane Hill and Kathleen Flynn (2006) used the research from Classroom Instruction That Works (Marzano, Pickering & Pollack, 2001) and modified the suggested high yield strategies for English Language Learners

• The following slides will highlight the recommended strategies and modifications

Developing Content and Language Objectives

• Language learning and content learning can occur simultaneously if both types of objectives are set for students

• Language structures and forms should be learned in authentic contexts rather than through worksheets and drills

• Build on prior knowledge (i.e. students may not have studied the American Revolution in their native country but they may have experienced a similar conflict where meaning can be attached)

Determining Language Functions & Structures

Language function = use of language to accomplish a specific purpose

Common examples:– Asking for assistance– Giving directions– Expressing likes/dislikes– Comparing– Evaluating– Identifying– Asking for permission– Expressing position

Sample Classroom Examples

Social Studies

• Content Objective: To understand the 1920s period, the women’s rights movement and what women could/couldn’t do

• Language Function: Comparing

• Language Objective: Contractions (couldn’t, didn’t etc.)

Sample Classroom Example

Science

Content Objective: Understand the sequence and relationship of the steps of experiment

Language Function: Explaining steps in order

Language Objective: Use “if-then” statements to explain the sequence

Sample Classroom Example

Language Arts

Content Objective: Express persuasive position

Language Function: Persuading

Language Objective: Use the structures (or sentence starters) “ I think” or “In my opinion”

Sheltering Instruction

Another strategy to nourish both concepts and language proficiency is to embed the use of the following procedures. • Manipulatives, realia• Visuals • Repetition, clear articulation, eye contact• Gestures, pantomime, body movement• High frequency vocabulary• Reduction of idioms• Use of cognates• Description through synonyms• Preview content

Feedback

• Feedback for English Learners should be comprehensible and useful/specific to the task

• Information about what is correct and incorrect should be incorporated

• The best way to provide feedback about pronunciation or grammar is by timely modeling

• Incorporate self-evaluation

• Use rubrics

• Focus feedback (no need to correct every error in one session)

Nonlinguistic Representation

• Students in the early stages of language production will internalize concepts better if they are guided to construct a physical representation

• Graphic organizers, maps, diagrams, pictures, videos, and recorded books assist students in involving several pathways to grasp new information

• Encourage verbal explanation of the physical models or pictures (accept native language, English or a combination of languages)

Cues and Questions

• Questions should focus on what’s important not necessarily what is unusual

• Provide wait time…students often compose their thoughts in the native language and then translate

• English Learners should also be required to answer higher level questions

• Provide questions prior to input (reading, listening, multi-media)

Cues to Access Prior Knowledge

• K-W-L Chart (What I Know, What I Want to Learn, What I Learned)

• Tony Stead, in Good Choices, (2009) recommends adding columns to the chart after the unit is complete. One column lists new facts learned, the next column lists the facts that are verified and the last column lists items the student is still wondering about (or concepts that still need to be learned).

Expanded K-W-L Chart

What I Think I Know

What I Want to Know

Facts I Verified

New Facts What I am Still Wondering About (or concepts I still need to learn)

Advance Organizers

• Acting out or telling a story, showing a video or beginning with a lower lexile text related to the content can help students’ understanding with the goal of accessing grade level text

• The SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review strategy (Robinson, 1961) remains popular with ESL teachers. With English Learners the reading/skimming process needs to be guided and modeled before they are released to independently use this strategy.

Sample Mini-task Reading Process

ACTIVE READING

Ability to identify the central point and main supporting elements of a text.

Action/Prompt: Use multi-media material to prepare students for the text required in the teaching task.

Teaching strategies:

*Watch a video related to the content and have students identify the central points.

*Locate texts at a comprehensible level for English Learners and in pairs have students read and mark spots where they are confused or have a question. Direct students to reread the selection and write questions related to the text or the confusion they felt. Oral discussion and sharing of questions follows group work .

*If possible, locate text in students’ native language and provide opportunities for them to read and ask questions prior to presenting the text identified in the teaching task.

*Provide a recorded version of the text to use as a resource for English Learners.

Duration: Four, 30 minute sessions if all strategies are used.

Scoring Guide: Work meets expectations if : Students are able to identify central points and supporting elements of the text/media.

Cooperative Learning

• Use small groups for English Learners to manage interaction and increase time for students to talk and use language

• Organize heterogeneous groups and provide cues for English dominant students to share the “talk”

• Prepare all students by initiating team-building activities

• Variety is important. Cooperative strategies should be balanced with whole group and independent activities

Summarizing

• Provide English Learners with summary frames that align with different types of writing (i.e. narrative, argumentation, informational)

• The frames provide an organizational structure and may also include guiding questions to provoke thinking about the content

Sample Mini-task Transition to Writing

BRIDGING CONVERSATION

Ability to begin linking reading results to writing task.

Action/Prompt: Using highlighted text and a writing frame, students complete the topic sentences for each paragraph of their argumentative essay.

Teaching Strategies:

Direct instruction and practice in “highlighting” important elements for stating a claim, locating evidence and counterclaims.

Provide students with a frame for organizing argumentative writing. (see next slide)

Duration: Two, 30 minute sessions.

Scoring Guide: Work Meets Expectations If: Students complete highlighting of text and topic sentences of organizer.

Advance Organizer Reading Reflection

• - Reading

• CCSS Reading - 1, 2, 8

Name__________ Date_______

Text/Article__________________

The author’s main argument is ____________________.

One example of evidence used to defend the argument is____.

Another example of evidence used to defend the argument is

__________________________________________________.

The author best defends the argument when they say “________”.

I (agree/disagree) with the argument because___________________.

One way the author could make the argument stronger is to_________.

© Copyright R-Coaching

Reciprocal Teaching

• Reciprocal teaching is a strategy that incorporates summarizing and has shown to increase reading comprehension

• The four components of reciprocal teaching are: summarizing, questioning, clarifying and predicting

• This strategy can be effective in either a large group or small group setting

• In the Classroom: A Toolkit for Effective Instruction of English Learners (Fashola, Slavin, Calderón & Durán, 1997) provides sample lessons

Note-taking

• Strategies for taking notes will be dependent on the student’s stage of language acquisition

• In the early production stages of language, students may need oral or written examples in their native language or notes prepared by the teacher

• Students in the more advanced stages of language production may need to experiment with note-taking options offered by the teacher to discover which format makes sense and helps to create meaning and understanding

Homework and Practice

• English Learners may need additional opportunities to orally clarify homework assignments and see a model of expectations

• Native language support through tutors, parents or instructions may be needed

• Students should practice tasks already learned in class such as application of vocabulary, reading, writing, and math concepts

• Feedback from peers/teachers should occur regularly related to practice, effort and accuracy

Vocabulary Development

• Direct instruction in vocabulary development can assist in closing the achievement gap

• Guide students to develop definitions in their own words and create drawings or pictures that will aid memory

• Discover cognates

• Find familiar root words and patterns

• “Play” with the words to deepen comprehension

Sample Mini-task Reading Process

ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY

Ability to identify and master terms essential to understanding a text.

Prompt/Action: Using a short excerpt from the text, and after listening to an audio tape of the text, students identify the vocabulary words that are unknown or challenging for them.

Teaching strategies: Direct instruction in a select number of academic vocabulary terms that are specific to the content occurs prior to students’ reading/listening activity.

Students identify personal words in addition to the academic language identified by the teacher.

All words are added to the students “Vocabulary Notebooks” using the following guidelines: 1. write the word in English 2. write the word in your native language 3. identify cognates 4. write a definition of the word in your own words 5. draw a picture of the word or use an icon that will aid memory 5. write or draw what the word “is not”

Duration: Ongoing

Scoring: Work meets expectations if all identified terms appear in the students’ vocabulary notebooks using the prescribed criteria.

Reinforcing Effort

• Attitudes about learning and self-confidence can impact the desire to acquire a new language and the motivation to put forth effort to achieve ( Krashen, 2002)

• Using charts and graphs to track progress and confer with students about their progress may illuminate the correlation between effort and achievement

Providing Recognition

• Recognize English Learners progress in learning a second language ( i.e. using complete sentences, participating in class discussions)

• Connect rewards and praise to specific standards of performance not merely completing a task

• Use praise and symbolic rewards as a motivator in place of tangible rewards

Generating and Testing Hypotheses

• For English Learners this complex reasoning skill can be simplified by focusing on developing the language structure “if-then”

• Require students to retrieve prior knowledge, access new information and draw conclusions

• Students practice stating their evidence and conclusions to reinforce oral language skills prior to completing the writing task

Identifying Similarities and Differences

• English Learners should start with familiar topics ( i.e. two consecutive days of school lunch) to identify similarities and differences and then move to content related topics

• Pair written responses with visual representation to cement learning and verify understanding

• Comparing and classifying will be more successful with students in emergent stages of language while creating analogies and metaphors will require advanced language development

Valuing Native Language

Numerous researchers, including Gregory and Burkman,(2012) reinforce the value of utilizing students’ native language abilities. Their recommendations include:• Make connections to cognates (i.e. accept/aceptor,

accessory/accesorio) to increase vocabulary

• Allow students who speak the same language to use their native language to rehearse and “check for understanding”

• If feasible, provide practice/homework in both languages to encourage family involvement (Linse, 2013)

Build on Experiences!

Beth Skelton, language consultant, who teaches a course titled What’s Different About Teaching Reading to Student Learning English? (CAL, 2007) recommends that to access understanding of content based text we do the following activities FIRST.

English Learners and Reading

• DO the experiment, field experience, video, application activities first to build background knowledge

• DISCUSS the activities and experiences using multiple opportunities to practice vocabulary and oral language

• RESPOND to questions about the experience orally and through written responses

• READ the text to determine if English Learners require modified text or a variety of texts at appropriate levels to eventually access excerpts of the grade level text

RESOURCES

The following resources provide guidelines, activities and suggestions for engaging English Learners.

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)

A research-based resource that provides numerous examples of content & language objectives as well as detailed samples of sheltering instruction.

www.siopinstitute.net

WIDA Consortium

Developing a Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Approach to Response to Instruction & Intervention (RtI2) for English Language Learners Connecting to WIDA Standards, Assessments, and Other Resources

www.WIDA_RtI2_forELLs.pdf

Sample Resources in the WIDA Document

• Protocol Template for Gathering Screening Data Along the Seven Integral Factors

• Characteristics of Oral Language and Literacy Instruction and Intervention for ELLs within an RtI2 Framework

• WIDA Performance Definitions• WIDA Writing Rubrics • WIDA Speaking Rubric • Statutory Basis for the Education of ELLs • Federal Regulations for RtI2 and Special Education

Determination

Colorin Colorado

• Colorin Colorado is a bilingual site for families and educators of English Learners

• One supporting document that is attached to this file is a sample lesson on the Gettysburg Address designed for English Learners

• Access other information related to CCSS and English Learners at www.colorincolorado.org

Spanish Cognates

Many Spanish and English words have Latin and Greek roots and also have the same meaning. These words are called cognates.

Visit www.spanishcognates.org for a complete list of Spanish/English cognates.

Understanding Language

The Understanding Language team is a group of experts from Stanford University focused on helping educators comprehend the role of CCSS and to provide resources to present high levels of instruction and content to English Learners.

http://ell.stanford.edu/

More about Understanding Language

Additional resources to check out on this site:

1. Persuasion Across Time and Space – a five lesson unit that shows approaches that will help English Learners meet CCSS

2. “Realizing Opportunities for English Learners in the Common Core English Language Arts and Disciplinary Literacy Standards (Bunch, Kibler, Pimentel, 2012)

3. “Guidelines for ELA Instructional Materials Development”

4. “Key Principles for ELL Instruction”

http://ellstanford.edu/teaching_resources/ela

Framework for EL Proficiency Development Standards

Framework for English Language Proficiency Development Standards Corresponding to the Common Core State

Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards

http://www.ccsso.org/Resources/Publications/The_Common_Core_and_English_Language_Learners.html

Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS)

• A teaching method used by World Language teachers but has merit for all language learners

• A systematic, personalized approach to vocabulary instruction

• A valuable teaching tool to deliver compelling comprehensible input

• Check out www.tprstorytelling for more detailed lessons and resources

CDE Resources

Using Best Practices to Motivate and Engage ELLs at the Secondary Level Instructional Tools Guide

http://www.cde.state.co.us/cde_english/elau_pubsresources.htm

CDE Resources

Guidebook on Designing, Delivering, and Evaluating Services for English Learners (ELs)

www.cde.state.co.us/cde_english/download/ELLGuidebook/Final%20EL%20Guidebook%202011_8-22-2011.pdf

Colorado English Language Proficiency Standards

ELP.1• ELLs communicate for Social and Instructional purposes within the school setting.ELP.2• ELLs communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic

success in the content area of Language Arts.ELP.3• ELLs communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic

success in the content area of Mathematics.ELP.4• ELLs communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic

success in the content area of Science.ELP.5• ELLs communicate information, ideas, and concepts necessary for academic

success in the content area of Social Studies.

Supporting Materials

“College and Career Ready English Language Learners: Challenges, Strengths and Strategies”

View this presentation by Diane August of the American Institute of Research that was shared at the NABE conference (Feb., 2013)

Build a Culture to Value All

Language Learners