Being able to assess ELLs with reliability and validity presents unique challenges. For this discussion, you will read about and disseminate the purpose of and complications with assessing ELLs. Respond to either the K-12 or adult learning questions, but not both.
To structure your writing,
· Your audience will be you. This post will require reflection on our content.
· Your role is that of someone who understands the information from a research perspective.
· The format options include: 1) PPT with or without screencast or voiceover, 2) Video submission through Week 3 Discussions, or 3) a two to three paragraph written piece.
· The purpose is to explain the purposes of assessment and challenges of assessing ELLs.
Children or Students in a K-12 Learning Context
Adult Learning Context
Read from your primary text:
· Chapter 4: Assessment and Program Options
· Chapter 9: Learners with Special Needs
Watch colorincolorado’s 2015 video
Assessment for ELLs (Links to an external site.)
Read from your primary text:
· Chapter 9: Learners with Special Needs, 9.1-9.3
· Lieshoff, Aguilar, McShane, Burt, Peyton, Terrill, and Van Duzer’s 2008 article
Practitioner Toolkit: Working With Adult English Language Learners (Links to an external site.) pages IV-25-IV-32
Watch International TEFOL Academy’s 2011 video
How to Assess Listening in Your ESL Classroom (Links to an external site.)
Address the following items in your original post.
· Explain the purposes of assessment for ELLs.
· Summarize some of the challenges with assessing ELLs.
· Clarify what information is new to you and how your thinking might have changed based on this information.
· Generate one or two questions you still have about assessing ELLs.
Address the following items in your original post.
· Explain the purposes of assessment for ELLs.
· Summarize some of the challenges with assessing ELLs.
· Clarify what information is new to you and how your thinking might have changed based on this information.
· Generate one or two questions you still have about assessing ELLs.
Submitting Discussion Post: Indicate if you are answering questions from the K-12 or adult perspective by using the following format for your file upload: LastNameDiscussionTitleLevel (e.g., RobinsonAssessmentAdult or RobinsonAssessmentK12).
Writing and Content in the ESL Classroom [WLOs: 1, 2] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4]
Writing can be very challenging for ELLs. By being aware of how to scaffold instruction, we can help them acquire this domain to make themselves understood while writing. Respond to either the K-12 or adult learning questions, but not both.
To structure your writing,
· Your audience will be a group of colleagues who are unfamiliar with these ideas or who need clarification and strategies to help with the presented problem.
· Your role will be a well-informed teacher with knowledge of teaching ELLs.
· The format is a discussion post.
· The purpose is to explain the information in a way to help others.
Children or Students in a K-12 Learning Context
Adult Learning Context
Read from your primary text:
· Chapter 7: Content-Area Teaching
Read:
Robertson’s article
Improving Writing Skills: ELLs and the Joy of Writing (Links to an external site.) (n.d.)
Watch:
Acacia University (2017). Writing strategies for ESL students (Links to an external site.) [Video file].
Writing a paragraph with high school ELLs (Links to an external site.)
Read:
· Mahmoud and Oraby’s 2015 article
Let Them Toil to Learn: Implicit Feedback, Self-Correction and Performance in EFL Writing (Links to an external site.)
Watch:
Acacia University (2017).
Writing strategies for ESL students
. (Links to an external site.) Retrieved from
International TEFL Academy’s 2011 video
Teaching Writing Skills in the ESL Classroom (Links to an external site.)
Address the following items in your original post.
1. Describe some challenges with teaching writing and content in an ESL classroom.
2. Explain how teachers help students overcome those challenges.
3. Determine how teachers can help students with the vocabulary needed to write.
4. Defend how BICS and CALP language proficiencies can impact a student’s writing.
Address the following items in your original post.
1. Describe some challenges with teaching writing in an ESL classroom.
2. Explain how teachers help students overcome those challenges.
3. Determine how teachers can help students with the vocabulary needed to write.
4. Defend how BICS and CALP language proficiencies can impact a student’s writing.
Submitting Discussion Post: Indicate if you are answering questions from the K-12 or adult perspective by using the following format for your file upload: LastNameDiscussionTitleLevel (e.g., RobinsonWritingAdult or RobinsonWritingK12).
Interview [WLOs: 1, 2, 4,] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4]
The paper for this week requires students to watch an interview with a teacher who has experience working with English language learners (ELLs). For this assignment, watch the videos below and read the resources. Then, follow the instructions below. Respond to either the K-12 or adult learning questions, but not both.
To structure your writing,
· Your audience will be a group of colleagues who are unfamiliar with these ideas or who need clarification and strategies to help with the presented problem.
· Your role will be a well-informed teacher with knowledge of teaching ELLs.
· The format is a discussion post.
· The purpose is to explain the information in a way to help others.
Children or Students in a K-12 Learning Context
Adult Learning Context
Read from your primary text:
· Chapter 8: Differentiating for Diversity
· Chapter 10: Putting It All Together
Watch Allen’s 2014 video
Interview With ELL Teacher (Links to an external site.)
Read from your primary text:
· Chapter 8: Differentiating for Diversity
· Chapter 10: Putting It All Together
Watch ALISwebsite’s 2012 video
Occupational Video—English as a Second Language Teacher: Adults (Links to an external site.) and SMACE videos’ 2015 video
San Mateo Adult School (Links to an external site.)
Address the following items in your original post.
· Identify how this teacher promotes comprehensible input.
· Explain some of the complications of teaching ELLs that are presented by this teacher.
o What ideas would you have for a teacher to overcome those challenges, based on what we have been learning?
· Infer some cultural challenges that teachers should be aware of.
o How can this be impacted by Culture Shock?
· Distinguish the strategies this teacher recommends.
· After listening to the teacher, outline strategies you would recommend.
· Infer and describe how this teacher utilizes BICS, CALP, comprehensible input, silent period, language proficiency, total physical response, assessment, affective filter, scaffolding/differentiation.
Address the following items in your original post.
· Explain some of the motivations that send adults to school to learn English.
· Examine the complications faced by these students without knowing and learning English.
· Summarize some unique challenges faced by adults who want to or need to learn English.
· Infer the cultural challenges that teachers should be aware of. How can this be impacted by Culture Shock.
· Infer and describe some of the ways the adult English teachers utilize BICS, CALP, comprehensible input, silent period, language proficiency, total physical response, assessment, affective filter, scaffolding/differentiation to assist their students while they are learning English.
Vocabulary Word Map [WLOs: 3, 4] [CLOs: 3, 4]
As you have learned, teaching vocabulary is one of the most important things we can do. In this exercise, you are going to create a virtual vocabulary mind map and then paste your mind map into the discussion. Here is a video to show you how to create the mind map on
bubbl.us (Links to an external site.)
.
Word Bank
Wait Time English as a Second Language
BICS Realia
CALP Comprehensible Input
Language Objectives Four Domains of Language
Language Proficiency Levels Affective Filter Hypothesis
Communicative Language Teaching Assessment
Vocabulary Development Receptive Skills
Productive Skills
· Use the site
us (Links to an external site.)
to create a map that includes 10 vocabulary words from the list below. Through the map, demonstrate how the words are connected.
· Create a vocabulary map that shows logical connections between the words based on the concepts learned in this course.
· For a quick tutorial of bubbl.us, watch
Recording #52 (Links to an external site.)
To structure your writing,
· Your audience will be a group of colleagues who are unfamiliar with these ideas or who need clarification and strategies to help with the presented problem.
· Your role will be a well-informed teacher with knowledge of teaching ELLs.
· The format is a discussion post.
· The purpose is to explain the information in a way to help others.
Submitting Discussion Post: Indicate if you are answering questions from the K-12 or adult perspective by using the following format for your file upload: LastNameDiscussionTitleLevel (e.g., RobinsonWordMapAdult or RobinsonWordMapK12).
Text
Piper, T. (2015).
Language, learning, and culture: English language learning in today’s schools
. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/
· This text is a Constellation™ course digital material (CDM) title.
Articles
Deng, F., & Zou, Q. (2016).
A study on whether adults’ second language acquisition is easy or not: From the perspective of children’s native language acquisition. (Links to an external site.)
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 6(4), 776-780. doi:10.17507/tpls.0604.15
Himmel, J. (n.d.).
Language objectives: The key to effective content area instruction for English learners. (Links to an external site.)
Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/language-objectives-key-effective-content-area-instruction-english-learners
Lieshoff, S. C., Aguilar, N., McShane, S., Burt, M., Peyton, J. K., Terrill, L., & Van Duzer, C. (2008, March).
Practitioner toolkit: Working with adult English language learners. (Links to an external site.)
Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/caela/tools/program_development/CombinedFiles1
Mahmoud, S. S., & Oraby, K. K. (2015).
Let them toil to learn: Implicit feedback, self-correction and performance in EFL writing. (Links to an external site.)
Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(8), 1672-1681. doi:10.17507/tpls.0508.18
Robertson, K. (n.d.).
Improving writing skills: ELLs and the joy of writing. (Links to an external site.)
Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/improving-writing-skills-ells-and-joy-writing
Rymniak, M. (2011).
Adult ESL classroom strategies and lesson ideas. In A toolkit for ESL practitioners: Supporting skilled immigrants. (Links to an external site.)
Retrieved from http://www.globaltalentbridge.org/toolkit/pdf/CH3_ESLStrategies
TESOL (n.d.).
Pre-K-12 English Language Proficiency Standards Framework (Links to an external site.)
. Retrieved from https://www.tesol.org/docs/books/bk_prek-12elpstandards_framework_318 ?sfvrsn=2
Multimedia
Acacia University (2017).
Writing strategies for ESL students (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd3ezbUBbLo
ALISwebsite. (2012, March 8).
Occupational video—English as a second language teacher: Adults (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/eofvMAB8Dqg
Allen, T. [Taylor Allen]. (2014, February 4).
Interview with ELL teacher (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/OBL5orPLxyk
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/q6fG4FmibEQ
colorincolorado (2012, February 7).
Writing a paragraph with high school ELLs (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/wbZ2k5j8MFk
Films Media Group (Producer). (2004).
Differentiated instruction and the English language learner
[Video file]. Differentiated instruction and the English Language. https://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=100753&xtid=60329
International TEFL Academy. (2011, September 22).
How to assess listening in your ESL classroom (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/A-Ag69w1Hjg
International TEFL Academy (2011, July 28).
Teaching writing skills in the ESL classroom (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbZUKAamXDU
International TEFL Academy. (2011, September 22).
Teaching reading in an ESL classroom (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/8wfH99DeKfY
PCG. (2012, October 12).
Teaching reading and comprehension to English learners, grades K-5 (Links to an external site.)
. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/s4A85oOjZW0
Pinker, S. (2005, July).
What our language habits reveal (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought
SMACE videos. (2015, June 9).
San Mateo Adult School (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/n1YoUwGaOGg
Westergaard, C. [Chris Westergaard]. (2015, March 14).
ESL beginner lesson demo (Chris Westergaard) (Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/2_38JfVFQoU
265
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter you will be able to accomplish the following objectives:
• Articulate the major themes that influence the teaching of English language learners.
• Apply the themes to a lesson plan in social studies for a class of diverse learners.
• Describe how emergent digital media can be used in the planning and delivery of curriculum and instruction.
• Compare traditional assessment tools with those made possible by digital media and evaluate their useful-
ness for the classroom teacher.
• Explain why professional learning communities are valuable to teachers, especially teachers of dual language
learners.
Section 10.1 The Synthesis: Twelve Takeaways for Teaching ELLs
Introduction
This chapter has three purposes. The first is to synthesize the key ideas that shaped the last
nine chapters into the dozen major themes that best capture the information and discus-
sions that have emerged. The second is to apply that synthesis by examining how the 12 ideas
are represented in practice by peeking over the shoulder of one practicing teacher. The third
purpose is to examine how teaching practice can be enhanced by two emergent trends: the
growing use of digital technologies and the establishment of professional learning communi-
ties (PLCs).
We begin by identifying the topics that have recurred again and again as we examined them
from a variety of perspectives, and then we see how these topics relate to an ELL teacher’s
classroom practice. More precisely, we will work through a real exercise—a teacher’s intro-
ductory lesson plan for a social studies unit for his diverse sixth grade class. Actually, you
will see only part of the teacher’s plan, a skeleton that provides you with the opportunity to
add flesh by applying what you have learned by completing and supplementing the plan with
ideas of your own. In completing the plan, it is likely that you will look for ideas. Where you
look and how you plan will likely mirror what highly effective teachers do regularly—look for
digital resources and find out what others are doing. The last two sections of the chapter rec-
ognize the fact that the demands placed on teachers today necessitate a greater and broader
pool of resources. Being able to adapt to and to use newer technologies effectively to plan,
teach, and evaluate is part of a teacher’s professional skill set, and particularly, as schools
commit to meeting the high standards set by the Common Core, the ability to work coopera-
tively and collaboratively with other educators is also an essential tool.
10.1 The Synthesis: Twelve Takeaways for Teaching ELLs
We have covered a great deal of material in the previous nine chapters, and as we have seen,
certain topics recurred again and again as we examined many of the same issues from differ-
ent perspectives or through different lenses. For example, we first visited the topic of culture
in Chapter 1 in a description of the demographics of the United States and how an increas-
ingly diverse population is impacting our classrooms. But culture was also a dominant topic
for discussion in Chapter 2 in our discussion of the relationship between language, learning,
and culture. Because this relationship underlies every decision we make about ELLs, whether
in placement, program and curriculum planning, instruction, or assessment, we revisited cul-
ture multiple times. Culture emerges, then, as the first of 12 themes that emerge from the
previous chapters:
1. Culture shapes how we see the world, and culture shock, which occurs when a
person moves from one culture to another, can affect ELLs’ adjustment to school-
ing as well as their success in learning the language and making progress in school.
Teachers must be open to learning about new cultures and sensitive to the different
perspectives ELLs have on the world.
2. Learners commonly referred to as ELLs are an extremely diverse group. These
learners don’t all arrive conveniently in kindergarten, learn English in two years,
and continue in mainstream classes until graduation. They arrive at different ages
speaking different languages, (although according to the Center for Public Education,
Section 10.1 The Synthesis: Twelve Takeaways for Teaching ELLs
79% of ELLs in the United States speak Spanish), and take different lengths of time to
become proficient in English. Some will have language or learning impairments and
others will be gifted. They will arrive with different levels of education, first language
literacy, and with different attitudes toward Americans and schooling. This diversity
is what makes teaching ELLs such a challenge and such a joy.
3. The four language domains (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are inextrica-
bly linked in the school context. In an informal setting, it is perfectly possible for a
person to learn to speak the language without learning to read and write it—infants
do it, as do the nearly 800 million illiterate people in the world, 67 million of them
children, who do not have access to schooling (Cree, Kay, & Steward, 2012). We have
also seen that it is possible to acquire a “reading” knowledge of a language without
having much oral proficiency. Neither condition is ideal, of course, and in the school
setting it is impossible. All four skills can and should be taught together, although
some degree of oral language usually comes first.
4. Background knowledge and linguistic and educational experience profoundly affect
success in both language and content learning. No learner of any age is a tabula rasa.
What ELLs bring in terms of prior education and literacy not only influences the
speed with which they will learn English, it affects the program options available,
and teaching methods and techniques used, and can ultimately influence their suc-
cess in school.
5. The goal of language teaching and learning is communicative competence, which
must include both social and academic language facility. To help their ELLs to
achieve communicative competence, teachers need to ensure that the language they
hear and see (in print or other visual forms) is challenging but comprehensible, but
they also have to take into account the affective variables of motivation, attitude,
anxiety and self-confidence. The quality of interaction is extremely important for
achieving comprehensible input and for lowering the barriers that may be pres-
ent due to learners’ uncertainty or anxiety. The result should be communicative
language teaching that is learner-centered, does not focus on errors, emphasizes
listening and speaking, and does not rely (heavily, if at all) on any use of the home
language.
6. English should be viewed as an additional language, not a replacement for the home
language. This is an extremely important viewpoint for teachers of ELLs to hold and
to embody in everything they do. Everything an ELL has learned in the past is impor-
tant to the learning that will occur. Moreover, as we saw in Chapter 3, there is strong
research evidence that bilingualism may confer significant cognitive advantages. Any
indication on the school’s part that English is somehow more important or is meant
to replace the home language is not only ill-conceived; it is counterproductive to
learners’ motivation and adaptation.
7. The interdisciplinary focus and organization of the Common Core standards accords
with communicative language teaching (CLT) because CLT emphasizes authentic,
purposeful language use and practice.
8. Literacy is at the heart of learning English and content simultaneously. All content
learning in school is dependent on the ability to read and the ability to demonstrate
that learning is dependent on the ability to write. In order for ELLs to succeed in
acquiring all the curricular content and to demonstrate their understanding, they
have to be able to read and write at progressively higher levels of proficiency. The
Common Core State Standards focus primarily on literacy precisely because it is
foundational to all content learning.
9. In Chapter 7, we saw that the CCSS are centered on reading and math skills, with
the expectation that reasoning and comprehension skills advance each year. Care-
ful planning is needed to build language and content skills incrementally, and it is
important to know the abilities and skills of each learner in order to know when and
how to adapt reading or writing tasks to the appropriate level without compromis-
ing the content. One way of accomplishing this is the use of educational scaffolding.
10. ELLs are overrepresented on the rolls of special education programs and are under-
represented in gifted programs. One of the reasons for this disproportionality is the
fact that few measures exist that can assess language or learning impairments both
in English and the ELL’s home language.
11. The entire issue of assessment is problematic for ELLs. Standardized tests, school
or district tests, classroom tests, are all language dependent and thus run the risk of
not truly representing what ELLs know. Accommodations need to be made to ensure
fairness and accuracy of results.
12. Diverse learners require diversified instruction (one size does not fit all). Based
on the information they gather from a variety of sources, teachers use knowledge
about learners and the multitude of factors that influence how they learn to create
high-impact strategies or adapt strategies for mainstream learners in order to help
ELLs to succeed linguistically and
academically.
These 12 points summarize the breadth
of the business of teaching English to dual
language learners. Developing depth as a
teacher, however, requires experience, but
it also requires ongoing effort. Teaching
ELLs is a joy but it is also a huge challenge,
and so it is incumbent on us as teachers to
keep current through ongoing professional
development (PD), and to exploit all avail-
able resources. In the remainder of this
chapter, as we continue to synthesize what
we have learned so far, we will also discuss
the use of those resources from the per-
spective of one teacher, Alejandro Sanchez,
a sixth grade teacher in a suburban school.
10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques
Just as the four language domains, or skills, are not acquired independently. nor independent
of critical thinking skills, the techniques used in teaching should not be one-dimensional. They
must be varied and tailored to the task and to the learner. We know that there are many differ-
ent ways in which students learn and that certain learning styles, or preferences, respond better
to certain kinds of input than to others—some learners need to see print or other visual forms,
while others are able to recall well after hearing the material once or twice. Some people learn
more readily on their own, but others learn more effectively in groups, and there are several
other dimensions along which learners may vary. The teacher’s goal is to make input compre-
hensible to all.
Monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Thinkstock
Diverse children require diversified
instruction. Computer-based technologies
make it easier for teachers to individualize
learning plans.
To make input comprehensible to diverse learners, teachers must take advantage of the wide range
of media available to them. For many years, teachers have used realia, gestures, pictures, drama,
captioned video, and a whole host of other media, in addition to print. In recent years, they have
also been able to take advantage of content available electronically and accessible by computer or
other electronic devices. Although the term multimedia is often used with particular reference to
information that is created, played, displayed, or accessed by computer or other electronic devices,
here we use the term in its original meaning: content that uses different forms of media.
We have seen throughout this book that it is possible to work on all four language skills even
when the focus is on content and one particular skill, such as social studies content and read-
ing comprehension. Rather than reiterate what we have already seen, let’s look instead at
how one teacher integrated the four language skills content using a variety of media for ELLs
and native English speakers in the same class.
An Extended Example: Mr. Sanchez’s Sixth Grade Lesson
Alejandro Sanchez is in his third year of teaching in a suburban elementary-middle school. At
the beginning of the school year, his roster of sixth grade students included 13 native speak-
ers of English and 10 English language learners. He knew that most of the ELLs were Spanish
speakers because he had supervised them in lunch room and recess the previous year. Two
ELLs were new to the school according to the notes the principal had attached to the roster.
One was a newly arrived Argentinian boy named David and the other was Elena, a Russian girl
who had been adopted a few months earlier by a U.S. family. The principal noted that Elena
appeared to understand some English and that it was likely that she had had limited educa-
tion in Russia; she had attended school “in the orphanage.” Mr. Sanchez had done sufficient
reading to know that was code for very basic or no formal education. The other eight ELLs
were Spanish speakers, and although Mr. Sanchez hoped that in sixth grade they would be
fully bilingual, he knew that was not always the case.
Even before he met the class, Mr. Sanchez was concerned about Elena. He knew that she
would likely need an intensive English language program of some kind if she were to have
any hope of catching up with her classmates. Unfortunately, the school did not have many
options, but before he could consider what might be available, he needed a clear picture of
her language proficiency in English. He also needed to know more about her literacy level in
Russian, how much schooling she had had and what deficiencies she might have. He decided
to test David and Elena together on English language proficiency using the instrument that
the district approved for ELLs, the LAS Links, a test intended to test proficiency in all four
language domains in order to determine the correct placement of newly arrived ELLs, (see
Chapter 4). Unfortunately, this test would not be given for several weeks and he would be
meeting his class in ten days. What would he do?
He wasn’t too worried about David. Bilingual himself, Mr. Sanchez was confident of his abili-
ties to learn a great deal about David’s abilities by talking with him and his family and by
administering an informal reading inventory (IRI), which he could administer in both Spanish
and English, if necessary. He was more concerned about Elena because he knew less about
her background and nothing at all about the Russian language. He called the district office and
talked to the consultant who said that they had no resources in Russian, but that she would
consult with her colleague in another district. A few days before students were to begin, when
he still had not heard from the district office, he decided to proceed with Elena in the same
way as with David. If he later had reason to suspect any kind of learning disability or language
impairment, he would worry about finding a way to assess her in Russian then. In the mean-
time, he called the families of the two children and learned as much as he could about them.
Planning for Diversity
After much thought, Mr. Sanchez decided to begin by conducting an informal reading assess-
ment. For the IRI, Mr. Sanchez chose this passage from ReadWorks that was appropriate for
fifth graders in content and at a reading level that would be accessible to many third and most
fifth graders:
Earth Science: Earthquakes
One summer I was in Las Vegas with my family. Our hotel room was on one
of the top floors of a high-rise building. There was a morning of that vacation
I will never forget. We woke up around 6:00 a.m. The building was shaking and
swaying back and forth like a pendulum. It was an earthquake. Las Vegas is in
the western state of Nevada, which is right next to California. The epicenter
was actually in California, but we still felt it over 100 miles away.
Earthquakes occur when plates in the Earth’s crust rub together. This friction
causes the surface to shift back and forth. It also makes huge cracks in the
ground, sometimes miles long and several feet deep.
Luckily, that summer in Las Vegas, my family got out of the building safely. I was
never so scared in all my life. Others in history have not been so fortunate.
On Jan. 17, 1995, an earthquake struck in Kobe, Japan. It caused over 6,000
deaths. In 1906, a huge earthquake hit San Francisco, killing over 3,000 peo-
ple and destroying over 25,000 buildings. (Grade 5, 185 words, Lexile 710)
The boldfaced words had definitions provided (in English) at the bot-
tom of the page. Working with each student separately, Mr. Sanchez
gave them as much time as they needed to read the brief passage, and
then asked them a series of questions orally. His assessment of David
confirmed what the boy’s parents had told him, that he was a good
student and a fast learner. David’s answers were brief and awkwardly
phrased, and he resorted to Spanish occasionally to make himself
understood, but it was clear that he had been able to understand the
passage. He had understood, for example, the inference that being on
a high floor in a hotel was scarier than being on a lower floor, although
he had to explain it in Spanish.
Elena was a different matter. Mr. Sanchez knew that Russian has a different alphabet, but her
adopted family had assured him that she had learned the English alphabet already and could
“read a little.” When he gave her the passage, she stared at the paper for two or three minutes
before looking up. When Mr. Sanchez asked “Where is Las Vegas?” she shrugged her shoul-
ders. When he pointed to the paper and asked her “What is this about?” she replied, “Story.”
“What is the story about?” he asked. She looked at the page again and then said, “Family,” and
then continued, “Family go trip.” “Where?” he asked. “Japan,” she responded. At this point,
Mr. Sanchez realized that she had some decoding and word recognition skills (Chapter 6) but
she was a long way from being able to cope with the sixth grade curriculum. He called the
district office and insisted that they send either an ELL teacher or a reading specialist to work
with Elena. The district office agreed to send an ESL specialist to work with Elena for an hour
a day, four days a week (Chapter 4). Ms. Davison would work with Elena on her language skills
but she would integrate her work with whatever content the class was working on. It would
be a team effort, the ESL specialist explained on her first day. Beginning in the second week of
school, Elena spent one hour a day with Ms. Davison, except on Wednesdays, and the remain-
der of the time she was in class with Mr. Sanchez and 22 other sixth graders.
To see how Mr. Sanchez planned for his very diverse class—besides the ELLs, the 13 native
speakers represented a wide range of abilities including one student who was likely gifted
and one who had a mild learning disability—we skip ahead to the end of the beginning of
the second quarter. The social studies lesson he planned to introduce—a unit on home-
lessness—demonstrates integrated content, language objectives and activities, a variety of
teaching techniques, and multimedia materials. As you read the following lesson plan and
participate in expanding it, think about what additional themes are applied from the previ-
ous nine chapters.
Teacher(s): Mr. Sanchez
Subject: Social Studies
Grade: Six_________ Time allotted: 1.5—2.5 hours
Part 1: Setting Objectives
Content
objectives
Relevance/
rationale
Language objectives
(ELL modifications indicated in italics.)
CCSS
alignment
To state the
main causes of
homelessness
To raise aware-
ness about the
plight of the
homeless
Content
objectives
Relevance/
rationale
Language objectives
(ELL modifications indicated in italics.)
CCSS
alignment
The ESL teacher recommended working with Elena
on a simplified passage and simplified wording of
the comprehension questions before it was intro-
duced in class.
To differentiate between claims supported by fact,
and evidence from claims that are not supported
by fact
To compare
and differenti-
ate between
three kinds of
homelessness
To avoid mak-
ing negative
judgments
about the
homeless
To articulate
why unin-
formed judg-
ments about
people are
often wrong
Listening
To demonstrate comprehension by taking of
notes prior to reading passage
To demonstrate comprehension by following all
directions and responding to questions.
To describe the
choices that
poverty forces
people to make
and explain why
they are difficult
Speaking
To answer the eight questions in sentences flu-
ently and with appropriate detail
To ask questions arising from the text
To ask appropriate questions seeking clarification
SL6.1.A
SL6.1.B
SL6.1.D
SL6.1.C
To explain what
is meant by pub-
lic assistance
and why it may
be needed
Writing
To take notes on the pre-reading vocabulary
activity
To use idioms from the passage in original
sentences
To answer the eight comprehension questions in
well-formed sentences
To produce a 250-word paper on a subject related
to passage
SLW.6.4
SLW.6.5
SLW.6.6
SLW.6.7
SLW.6.8
Grammar
To correctly use the relative clause formation
(There are also homeless people who . . .) using
who and which
Text structure
To explain the writer’s point of view or purpose
for writing the text
To explain what a chosen sentence fits into the
structure of the paragraph or text
RI.6.6
RI.6.5
Which CCSS
standard
aligns with
this goal?
What activi-
ties would
you add to
the delivery
plan to help
students
meet this
standard?
Lesson sequence Technique
(ELL modifications indicated in italics.)
Materials
Introduction/
orientation
Show pictures of
homeless people
beginning with
most obvious (i.e.,
“street people”
and concluding
with a child going
to school with a
backpack), mak-
ing the point that
these people all
have something in
common that we
can’t see.
Elicit possibilities
and list on board.
Elicit what all the people shown
in the photos have in common.
Multiple paraphrases:
How are they all alike?
What is the same about all these people?
What could they have in common that you
might not see?
Ask additional questions (e.g., if student
says “they are sad,” ask Why do you think
they are sad? Or What makes them sad?
How do you know they are sad?
Provide advance organizer for the passage
and sentence frames for the questions
Provide simplified passage for ELLs who
are reading significantly below fifth grade
level or below Lexile 700
Pictures
Teacher
presentation/
modeling
Read the text aloud.
Present simplified version of text first for
ELLs with lower literacy skills (see below).
Text (See Homelessness)
Simplified version of text
Student
participation/
practice
Rephrase some comprehension questions
(#5: Why are poor people more likely to be
homeless? And #8, Why can we not ignore
homelessness?)
ELLs use simplified text as prompts for
answering comprehension questions.
Others?
*Reader participation especially
encouraged in this area
Independent
practice
Group discussion: Small groups discuss
“What can we do to help eliminate home-
lessness?” Take notes and be prepared to
report back to class
Pair less proficient ELLs with academically
strong native speakers.
Other ideas?
*Reader participation especially
encouraged in this area
Synthesis/
summary
Introduce new
vocabulary and
idioms before
viewing video
Ask learners to put up their hands if there is
a part they do not understand. Teacher does
not stop the viewing but makes note of the
part to address later with ELLs.
Make video available for students to view
later.
Related reading
See NBC reporter Ann Curry’s
Employed but Still Homeless video at
https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=MdbHEZp0WPA
Students could make their own video
about homelessness in their town or
city.
Sarah Lean’s book A Dog Called Home-
less (Lexile 660)
Other ideas?
*Reader participation especially
encouraged in this area
Why would
Mr. S. use
fifth grade
and 700
Lexile as cut
off for sixth
graders?
What defines success? How measured?
(ELL modifications indicated
in italics.)
To state the
main causes of
homelessness
Answers in accord with text
Answers that could be extrapo-
lated from text
Less proficient ELLs complete
statement: Poor people might be
homeless because . . . .
Correct answers to quiz ques-
tions (written)
Accept oral answers or provide
prompts for written answers
(the words, transitional, chronic,
episodic).
To explain the rela-
tionship between
poverty and
homelessness
Response, orally or in writ-
ing, that poor people have
little money and fewer choices
about how to spend it, and
housing is expensive
To compare and dif-
ferentiate between
three kinds of
homelessness
Ability to differentiate
To describe the
choices that
poverty forces
people to make and
explain why they
are difficult
*Reader participation espe-
cially encouraged in this area
*Reader participation especially
encouraged in this area
To explain what is
meant by public
assistance and why
it may be needed
Understanding of
key vocabulary
Ability to use correctly in
speech and writing
Ability to identify and use
alternative forms (e.g., epi-
sodic/episode or transient/
transition/transitional)
Ability to use in other contexts
Key words used in oral and
written responses
Quiz at end of lesson:
______________ refers to something
that happens occasionally and
at irregular intervals.
Matching exercise with words on
one side of the paper and defini-
tions on the other
Others?
*Reader partici-
pation especially
encouraged in
this area
The Passage: “About Homelessness”
Homelessness is an issue that affects people of every age and from every country. If you walk
down the street in many big cities in the United States, you might notice people sleeping on
the sidewalk or begging for food or money. These individuals are very visible to passersby,
and it is difficult to ignore them. But there are also homeless people who do not sleep on the
streets. They are not as visible to the public eye, but they are also homeless. These people
often spend their nights sleeping in shelters, which provide food, rooms, and often a variety
of social services (like daycare). We might not see these people on the streets, but it does not
mean that they aren’t suffering.
When thinking about homelessness, one of the first questions that might come to mind is: why
are people homeless? People become homeless for a variety of reasons, often outside of their
own personal control. Two key reasons have been identified on why people become homeless.
The first is a lack of affordable housing. The second is poverty, or the condition of being poor.
The government is usually responsible for providing affordable housing to people and families
in need. It builds large apartment buildings or housing developments for people who cannot
afford to live elsewhere. Sometimes there is not enough affordable housing for all the people
who need it. Those who are unable to secure housing may become homeless.
Homelessness and poverty are quite clearly linked. Poor people must often choose between
such important things as buying food or paying for medical care versus paying the rent. When
poor people are faced with these difficult decisions, housing is often the first expense to be
dropped because it generally requires the most amount of money. Many of the homeless in
the United States are simply unable to find jobs due to a lack of opportunity. Others are men-
tally ill or addicted to drugs. Still others who are homeless have previously relied on public
assistance but have lost that assistance for one reason or another. An example of a public
assistance program is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides help
for people who struggle to afford healthy and nutritious food.
There are three distinct kinds of homelessness. The first is called chronic homelessness, and it
represents the group of people who move from shelter to shelter in a seemingly never-ending
cycle. Often, the chronically homeless are older, and often suffer from disabilities or addiction.
The second type of homelessness is called transitional homelessness, and it describes people
who must enter a shelter for a short period of time. For example, if they are evicted from their
homes for not being able to pay the rent, they might go into a shelter or enter government-based
transitional housing. They may live there for up to two years until they are able to get back on
their feet. The third kind of homeless is called episodic homelessness, which accounts for peo-
ple who move in and out of shelters at various points throughout their life. Those who experience
episodic homelessness usually have difficulty maintaining steady employment. People who
are considered transitionally homeless and those who are episodically homeless are often young.
Homelessness rises when people are unable to find or keep jobs. But it also affects people who
are not even employed in the first place—children under sixteen years old. As minors, they are
not legally allowed to work. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, one in
every 45 children experiences homelessness each year. Most families that experience homeless-
ness are made up of a mother and her children. The National Center on Family Homelessness
reports that 29% of adults in homeless families in the United States are working. Yet the wages
are often not enough to support the various needs of a family, like healthcare, food, and shel-
ter. Furthermore, many families try to stay out of shelters. Shelters can be noisy, overcrowded,
and stressful places for both children and parents. These families would often rather stay at the
homes of friends or relatives, or even sleep in their cars. Families that experience homelessness
in any situation are under a ton of stress, due to the lack of stability and privacy.
There are no simple solutions to this major social issue. But homelessness affects too many
people around the world to be ignored. (Grade 4, 731 words, Lexile 1120)
The Modified Passage
Homelessness affects people of every age and every country. In many cities, you might see
people sleeping on the sidewalk or begging for food or money. It is easy to see these people
but hard to ignore them. Not all homeless people sleep outside, and we do not see them.
These people often sleep in shelters that provide food, rooms, and often some social services
(like daycare). We might not see these people on the streets, but they are suffering.
Why are people homeless? There are two main reasons that people become homeless. One is
that housing costs too much where they live. The second is poverty. The government some-
times builds large apartment buildings or housing developments for people who cannot afford
to live elsewhere. Sometimes there is not enough of this housing for everybody who needs it.
When people cannot find a place to live that they can afford, they may become homeless.
Homelessness and poverty are clearly related. Sometimes poor people must choose between
buying food, or healthcare, and paying the rent. When poor people are forced to choose, they
may not choose housing because it costs more. Many homeless people in the United States
cannot find jobs because there are no jobs nearby or because they do not have the skills to do
the jobs. Others may be mentally ill or addicted to drugs. Still others once received govern-
ment assistance but lost that assistance. An example of a government assistance program is
one that provides help for buying food.
There are three different kinds of homelessness. The first is chronic homelessness and describes
people who move from shelter to shelter over a long period of time. Often, the chronically
homeless are older, and often suffer from disabilities or addiction.
The second type of homelessness is, transitional homelessness and it describes people who
are homeless for a short period of time. For example, if they are evicted from their homes
because they cannot pay the rent, they might go to a shelter or enter government housing.
They may live there for up to two years until they are able to afford other housing.
The third kind of homelessness, episodic homelessness, describes people who move in and
out of shelters at various points throughout their lives. These homeless people usually have
a hard time keeping a job. They are often young. More people are homeless when people are
unable to find or keep jobs. Some are children under sixteen years old who are not legally
allowed to work. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, one in every
45 children is homeless. Most homeless families are made up of a mother and her children.
The National Center on Family Homelessness reports that 29% of adults in homeless families
have jobs but do not earn enough to pay for the things their families need. Also, many families
try to avoid shelters. Shelters can be noisy, overcrowded, and stressful places for everyone.
These families would often rather stay at the homes of friends or relatives, or even sleep in
their cars. Homeless families are under a lot of stress because they have no privacy and their
future is uncertain.
There are no simple solutions to this major social issue. But homelessness affects too many
people around the world to be ignored. (555 words, Lexile 970)
10.3 Using Digital Technology
Mr. Sanchez’s lesson on homelessness utilized a number
of different media, but because of the rapid increase in
the availability and use of electronic devices and applica-
tions, we should take a closer look at some of the ways
in which electronic media can be used to support learn-
ing inside and outside the classroom to realize learning
objectives and to foster independence. We also need to
consider how teachers can make use of newer technolo-
gies for assessing, tracking, and reporting student prog-
ress. Our discussion will not be exhaustive because new
applications appear with such speed that they are hard
to track and evaluate. The point of this section is to exam-
ine some of the possibilities and to encourage teachers
to stay abreast of developments in technology for educa-
tional use.
Classroom Applications
Students need to be “self-directed learners,
effectively seeking out and using resources
to assist them, including teachers, peers, and
print and digital reference materials.” (CCSS,
ELA Anchor Standards)
One way to engage students actively in the process of learning is to use a variety of media,
especially those most familiar to them such as electronic notebooks and tablets. Using these
media helps to maintain interest while carefully chosen applications advance learning. More-
over, as we saw in Chapter 7, while the CCSS do not specify a separate set of standards for
technology, there is a clear expectation of technological proficiency in both the English lan-
guage arts/reading and the mathematical standards. As stated in the standards,
New technologies have broadened and expanded the role that speaking and
listening play in acquiring and sharing knowledge and have tightened their
link to other forms of communication. Digital texts confront students with
the potential for continually updated content and dynamically changing
combinations of words, graphics, images, hyperlinks, and embedded video and
audio. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2015)
Mathematically proficient students at various grade levels are able to identify
relevant external mathematical resources, such as digital content located on
a website, and use them to pose or solve problems. They are able to use tech-
nological tools to explore and deepen their understanding of concepts. (Com-
mon Core State Standards Initiative, 2015)
Digital media, and particularly the Internet, have accelerated the speed at which the connec-
tions can be made between speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students are required to
Zhekos/iStock/Thinkstock
Digital technology is
transforming the way that
children learn and teachers
teach. These boys are as
comfortable with digital tablets
as they are with coloring books.
use all four modalities, often simultaneously and across all content areas. So while technologi-
cal savvy is in itself a goal, there is little need to treat it as a separate subject in the curriculum
because the need to use the tools of current technology is embedded into every aspect of the
curriculum from preschool through university. The challenge for teachers is that what is “cur-
rent” changes extremely rapidly, meaning that both teachers and learners need to be adapt-
able in response to that change. Ellen, the teacher we met in Chapter 1, puts the issue into
temporal context in A Teacher’s Story: Change and Challenge.
A Teacher’s Story: Change and Challenge
I remember in my third or fourth year of teaching, my colleagues and I were upset when the
district made the decision to change the math text book series for grades one through three.
I was comfortable with the old series and couldn’t see any reason for changing it. To make
matters worse, they also changed the social studies text to make it more accurate. Well, I was
very comfortable with the math and social studies books, and I was not happy about so much
change happening so fast. Can you imagine? I thought that was change!
In this last decade of my career, I’ve had to cope with NCLB, with the adoption of the Common
Core State Standards, with a new computer adaptive system for measuring student progress,
and with my school’s new tablet policy—this year, every third grader was issued an electronic
tablet and the school held a workshop for teachers that lasted for two full days on how to
integrate them into our teaching. When I started teaching, a tablet was made of cardboard and
paper, and we didn’t need professional development to learn how to use it. Now, a tablet looks
like a miniature television set, and even after the PD (personal development), it feels like I
spend most of my time online just trying to catch up with what the kids know how to do when
they took them out of the boxes. Now that is change!
But somehow, as I enter my final year in the classroom, I am beginning to see that technology
can be used to make concepts clearer. If a learner is struggling, I know it sooner and I am able
to search a number of source materials for an alternate way of illustrating the troublesome
concept and do it quickly. Digital libraries make many more stories and books available, and
it is easy to determine readability for individual learners. Homework has become easier to
customize to the needs of individual learners, and I’ve seen my ELLs benefit especially from
being able to listen to audio versions of text as they follow along. Interactive comprehension
questions allow them to work at their own pace, and there are some excellent games available
that really are educational. Every day, I see more potential for using these new technologies to
augment and supplement my teaching. When a bilingual boy suspected of having a learning
disability was assigned to my class, I not only had the school district’s resources to call on, I
also had an online community to consult. I was able to find excellent materials, a list of support
services in Spanish available in our community, and suggestions for adapting my teaching to
include Jake. I also found that it was easier to communicate with parents via email or text—I
could see whether they had read my messages or not, which was a great improvement over the
days when I could only hope that the note I sent home actually got there.
Last year, my colleague Jim’s fifth grade class built a class website they named “Our Space in
Cyberspace.” It is on the school’s intranet so everyone in the school can view it, and parents
We learn from Ellen and Mr. Sanchez that there are many applications for new technologies.
1. Communicating with parents. Parental involvement is important to learners’ success.
Setting up parent-teacher conferences, inviting them to school events such as con-
certs or plays, soliciting volunteers for field trips or class activities, notifying them
of upcoming educational or sports events—technology can play a role in all of these.
Many schools produce a regular electronic newsletter to keep parents informed
about and to try to engage them in classroom activities.
2. Engaging learners. Even experienced teachers face the task of getting learners
interested in and actively engaged in learning content that does not immediately
appeal to them. Solar energy, for example, might not be a compelling topic for study
for some fourth graders. Introducing it with key words or a list of facts about the sun
might be helpful, especially for ELLs’ comprehension, but will likely do little to excite
learners. One teacher, while doing an Internet search, found a website called What
If ? that gave him an idea. He began by taking a contrarian approach: By presenting
the case that the sun going out would have many benefits to humans, and then he
challenged the students to prove that the disadvantages would outweigh the advan-
tages. Before allowing the students to go searching for counterexamples, this teacher
led them to pose hypotheses about what might happen if the sun went out and why
they thought so and then to search for the evidence in support of their hypotheses.
Another way to engage learners is with electronic interactive textbooks. The text-
books of today go well beyond pictures to supplement text with hyperlinks to web
sites that may include assignments, assessments, animations, supplemental materi-
als, video and audio files.
3. Publishing and celebrating learners’ work. Poster board displays are becoming a
thing of the past as software takes over the job of displaying information, illustrat-
ing relationships, and generally demonstrating what learners know about a subject.
There are Web tools available that allow learners to create a multimedia presenta-
tion to illustrate what they know. More traditional formats are also made easier.
Using students’ contributions to create class books, publishing individual students’
stories or portfolios of work can be quickly and inexpensively done with readily
A Teacher’s Story: Change and Challenge (continued)
can access it with a password. It provides an excellent place to publish students’ writing, to cel-
ebrate accomplishments, and to showcase art work. There is also a message board and a space for
blogs. They documented the experience of building and maintaining the site in print and also in
video. At the end of the year, they put together a three-minute video collage capturing their year
of intense learning about the net and on the net. I was amazed by what these kids accomplished,
but I had heard about the dangers of the Internet and I was skeptical. But Jim told me that the stu-
dents policed the content very responsibly, with his oversight, and so far he had had no problems
with inappropriate content or with unwanted visitors to the site. I may try it myself this year.
I used to worry that technology would replace teachers, but I now know that is not the case
and never will be. It’s a very powerful tool, and used appropriately it has the potential to make
good teachers great, which means that all students will benefit. It is so exciting that some days
I almost regret my decision to retire.
available word processing and publication software. Online publication on class or
school websites is another way to share work within the school or with parents, but
paper publication is also possible. One caution: Web publication provides the pos-
sibility of a much wider audience, and so teachers must carefully monitor the sites
on which learners comment about their work or their lives. Most schools have safety
measures built into their intranet or portal to the Internet, but once children leave
the school, dangers exist, and so it is useful each year, or even more often, to conduct
a reminder lesson on Internet safety. There are several available free, including one
at GCF LearnFree for older learners and one from Brainpop Educators for younger
children.
4. Research. As we saw in Chapter 7, the Common Core State Standards require that
students be able to conduct research and evaluate source materials. Research used
to be so labor intensive that teachers specified a minimum number of source materi-
als just to ensure that students spent time learning how to search for relevant evi-
dence. The long hours in the library have been replaced by a few mouse clicks as the
Internet has made research easier and faster for both teachers and students. While
care must be taken to ensure that students understand that not all source materials
on the Internet are accurate, the problem of unfiltered search results is becoming
easier to manage. One reason is that, increasingly, peer reviewed journals are mak-
ing their content available via digital media, and these journals may be accessed
directly or through membership in a library that holds the digital subscription. Nev-
ertheless, teaching students how to filter and use quality information is necessary to
ensure that they are able to meet the rigorous standards for evidence-based reason-
ing that the CCSS establish.
5. Communication. An elementary teacher with several years’ experience recently com-
mented that “note-passing is a thing of the past.” It isn’t, of course, but now the notes
are text or email messages. Web logs (blogs) dedicated to particular subjects of
interest are a great way to build learning communities, of teachers and of students.
6. Organization. Past generations of teachers, especially English teachers, risked back
injury with all the paper and books that they carried home with them most nights.
Books, three ring binders with lesson plans, grade books, student papers and port-
folios—the mountain of paper
was overwhelming. Their desks
were covered with stacks of
assignments to mark, assign-
ments to return, lesson plans,
grade books, appointment books,
attendance sheets, permission
forms, and any number of other
kinds of paper. Today, teachers
have many technological tools at
their disposal to eliminate most
paper and to speed up all the
processes that all that paper
represented. Parent-teacher
conferences are more produc-
tive because parents can track
their children’s progress on
line and communicate with
Lisa F. Young/iStock/Thinkstock
The Internet has given teachers many more
resources to call upon as they work together
to meet the learning goals they collaboratively
established.
teachers more readily. Organization has been simplified by technology and as more
integrative applications are developed, it will become even easier for teachers to
deal with the administrative functions more easily and free them to spend time on
the things that more directly impact learning.
7. Professional development for teachers. New technologies offer a plethora of opportu-
nities and options for teachers to find ideas for teaching, discover new techniques,
discuss possible solutions for classroom problems, stay up to date with district,
state, and national regulations, seek information about how others are implement-
ing CCSS, and share best practices. There are many different types of media, and
those listed below include a few examples as illustrations of what is available; for
each medium, there are many more:
• Podcasts are digital audio, video, PDF, or ePub files made available on the Internet
to be downloaded onto a computer or portable media player—iTunes, for example,
has a subscription to podcasts for ELS learners including several short grammar les-
sons. Many of the podcasts on iTunes are interactive as well as free.
• Blogs or weblogs—such as Edublogs, Sciencefix, and Mrs. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog to
name but a few—invite observers to witness experienced teachers in action and, in Mrs.
Cassidy’s case, to watch students as they progress in their learning. They serve as online
communities where teachers can learn from each other and share ideas that work.
• Websites of professional organizations such as the American Speech-Language-
Hearing Association (ASHA), the National Education Association (NEA), Teachers of
English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and the National Council of Teach-
ers of English (NCTE), among many others, provide useful information for teachers
on their sites and often provide links to other resources.
• Other professionally focused websites such as Colorín Colorado, which offers
resources and tips for parents and educators on almost everything related to bilin-
gual learners, and Edudemic, which focuses on making connections between tech-
nology and education, provide a wealth of information.
• Common Core State Standards website.
• Websites and information posted by other school districts. New York State,
for example, produces some excellent resources for teachers including one on Technology-Enhanced Instruction for ESL and Bilingual Learners.
• Social media used to connect with other professionals.
These few examples illustrate the potential of technology to change the way teachers plan,
teach, assess, and organize their professional lives. But the bigger question is whether tech-
nology affects the way that people learn? In other words, does technology just make the
learning mechanisms and processes that we already have faster and more efficient? Or does
it change the way in which we learn? As we see in Figure 10.1 technology has facilitated four
major changes in how we learn.
Ease of differentiated and individualized instruction
Multitasking
Individual Collaborative
Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology
Figure 10.1: How technology is changing learning
Technology has changed and will continue to change the way teachers teach and learners learn.
Adapted from Lepi, K. (2014, August 6). 4 Ways Technology is Changing How People Learn.
Passive Active
Ease of differentiated and individualized instruction
Multitasking
Individual Collaborative
Some of the shifts that are taking place in how we experience learning may not answer the
question, but they suggest that we need to pay attention. As J. S. Brown states, one aspect of
the Web
is that it is the first medium that honors the notion of multiple intelligences.
This past century’s concept of “literacy” grew out of our intense belief in text,
a focus enhanced by the power of one particular technology—the typewriter.
It became a great tool for writers but a terrible one for other creative activities
such as sketching, painting, notating music, or even mathematics. The type-
writer prized one particular kind of intelligence, but with the Web, we sud-
denly have a medium that honors multiple forms of intelligence—abstract,
textual, visual, musical, social, and kinesthetic. As educators, we now have
a chance to construct a medium that enables all young people to become
engaged in their ideal way of learning. (Brown, J. S., 2000, p. 12)
Another popular concern is that digital media are turning children into passive learners,
when in fact the opposite appears to be the case. There are two powerful arguments: First,
the definition of literacy has broadened beyond text to include image and screen literacy as
well as information navigation. As Brown states, “The real literacy of tomorrow entails the
ability to be your own personal reference librarian—to know how to navigate through con-
fusing, complex informational spaces and feel comfortable doing so” (Brown, J. S., 2000, p. 4).
The ability to navigate the Internet may well be the main form of literacy for the 21st century.
Brown goes on to point out that one of the concerns that teachers and parents often express
about digital impact on children—that they seem to have shorter attention spans—may not be
so troubling as it appears. He suggests that “the short attention spans of today’s kids may turn
out to be far from dysfunctional for future work worlds” that require exactly the kind of rapid
shifts in attention and multitasking that they are learning as users of digital devices (p. 13).
Moreover, as Prensky points out, today’s learners may have shorter attention spans for
the old ways of learning, but “their attention spans are not short for games . . . or for anything else
that actually interests them” (Prensky, M., 2001, p. 4). For the past several hundred years, the
main function of schools has been to retrain our speech-oriented brains to be able to read. Read-
ing doesn’t just happen; it almost always has to be taught (Chapters 2 and 6). With the advent of
television, the human brain once again had to be recalibrated or reprogrammed to process tele-
vision viewing. It is, thus, highly likely that the human brain is changing once more to accommo-
date the highly varied and very fast digital media. (See Digital Media and Brain Change).
Digital Media and Brain Change
Does extensive use of digital media change the way the brain learns? Probably. Based on
research in neurobiology, we know that the input can actually change brain structure and
affect the way people think and that these transformations continue through life. Here is some
of the evidence:
1. Experiments have shown that when blind people are taught braille the “visual” areas of
their brains have “lit up,” showing increased activity, even though they could not see.
2. Similarly, nonhearing people use their auditory cortex to read signs.
3. An experiment in which people were taught a complicated sequence of finger tapping
over several weeks, and then had their brains scanned, showed a larger area of the
motor cortex becoming activated than when they performed sequences they had not
practiced.
4. Researchers have found that an additional language learned later in life is stored in a
different place from the languages they learned as children.
5. A comparison of the brains of musicians and nonmusicians showed 5% greater volume
in the cerebellum of the musicians, believed to be a result of intensive musical training
and practice.
6. If the brain is not static, that is, if it reorganizes itself and changes itself based on input,
as evidence is beginning to show, then digital media has undoubtedly changed the way
in which children learn.
Source: Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part 2: Do they really think differently?
On the Horizon, 9(6), pp. 1–6.
The second argument that digital learning is active rather than passive is that young people
today do not approach the learning of something new in the way previous generations did.
Today, computers and other digital media rarely come with manuals. Hand a six year old a
new cell phone or electronic tablet and it is unlikely that she will ask how it works. She cer-
tainly won’t ask to see the user’s guide. Rather, she will turn it on and get busy figuring out
how it works based on what she has already learned about how similar devices might work.
Technology is here to stay, and it has tremendous potential to have a profound effect on how
we teach and learn. Nevertheless, a word of caution is in order. As we move deeper and deeper
into technology, we have to do so with the most information available to us. Just as the Com-
mon Core State Standards are rooted in evidence, so should the methods and techniques used
to realize the standards be grounded in evidence. Before adopting a significant innovation,
whether for teaching or testing, it is important to see what the evidence tells us. Fortunately,
the very technology we need to be cautious about has also given us the means by which to
gather relevant evidence quickly and in increasingly large quantities.
Evidence Matters
In its report Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World (2013), the U.S.
Department of Education advises educators to embrace big data for its capacity to provide
information not only about student outcomes but on student progress that shines light on the
learning process. Warning that the first consideration in evaluating an innovation is whether
it will align with deeper learning objectives and incorporate sound principles of learning, the
report goes on to describe “how big data and an evidence framework can align across five
contexts of educational improvement” (U.S. Department of Education, 2013, p. ix):
1. To guide improvement. By uncovering patterns of learner behavior, educational data
mining can be used to guide improvement. If, for example, a significant number of
students struggle with questions related to earth science, educators may want to
dig deeper and find out what texts are being used and whether the curriculum is
adequate.
2. To individualize teaching and learning. Adaptive learning systems adapt the presen-
tation of educational material according to individual students’ needs. By comparing
Antonio_Diaz/iStock/Thinkstock
Critics who argue that digital media are turning children into passive learners have not paid
close attention to children using digital media. Which activity appears to be more engaging to
this girl?
a learner’s response to materials against a large data base of other learners’
responses, these digital resources can personalize learning by altering the pace, the
level of difficulty, or the content.
3. To guide intervention for struggling students. Increasingly, states are using statewide
data systems to track information about students, such as when they move between
schools. There is also the capability and potential, using big data, to link other
social services such as foster care, juvenile justice, or family services with school
information.
4. To shift the focus of assessment to new outcomes and to provide more timely informa-
tion to educators and learners. Newer adaptive assessment systems make it possible
to measure the types of outcomes defined by the CCSS, something that traditional
standardized tests rarely captured. Moreover, traditional norm-based standardized
tests were usually given near the end of the school year when the results were of
little value to the classroom teacher. Further, the current generation of high-stakes
tests are mostly given at year’s end. The MAP (Measures of Academic Progress)
tests described later in this chapter are a good example of how an adaptive system
can gather better data that helps teachers to individualize instruction earlier in the
school year.
5. To allow educators to make informed choices about learning resources. Ideally, educa-
tors always make their decisions based on evidence of what works and what does not,
but that evidence is not always easy to acquire. Big data is changing that, and, increas-
ingly, educators are able to choose materials and approaches based on the successes
(or failures) of other educators.
10.4 Assessment and Record Keeping
Throughout the previous chapters, we have discussed the importance of appropriate assess-
ment. Not only do teachers and schools need the information provided by summative assess-
ments done at or near the end of the school year, but teachers need to find out what students
know or don’t know, what concepts are causing them difficulty, and what they can and can-
not do in order to hone their instructional plans while there is still time to make a difference
(Chapter 4).
The Common Core State Standards established a set of objectives for each grade level, but
they did not establish a set of tests for determining whether students are on track for college
and career readiness. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education established a competitive
grant program for state consortia of 15 or more states to develop new assessment systems
aligned with the following criteria:
1. prompt return of student-level results,
2. information that helps teachers refine instruction,
3. results that measure student performance over time (to enable evaluation of teacher
and principal effectiveness), and
4. the incorporation of fair and reasonable accommodations for students with dis-
abilities and English language learners. (Center for K–12 Assessment & Performance
Management at ETS, 2012 http://www.k12center.org/rsc/pdf/Coming_Together_
April_2012_Final.PDF)
Accountability and Progress Assessments
Two consortia were funded, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and
Careers (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), with 45 states and the
District of Columbia as members of one or both consortia. The member states committed to
implementing the common assessments in the 2014–15 school year to replace the NCLB assess-
ments in grades three through eight and for high school ELA and mathematics. Since 2010, some
states have withdrawn as a result of political pressure, but the consortia remain largely intact.
There are many similarities between PARCC and SBAC—both offer summative assessments
and both have optional formative (interim) tests in development. Both utilize computer tech-
nology, but PARCC uses a fixed-form delivery, meaning that students are assessed on one of
several fixed, equated sets of items or tasks. SBAC, on the other hand, uses computer adap-
tive testing (CAT), meaning that students see an individually tailored set of items or tasks.
Computer adaptive technology is also being used in the assessments developed by a third
consortium, the North West Education Association (NWEA). Unlike PARCC and SBAC, their
formative tests—Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), MAP for Primary Grades (MPG), and
Children’s Progress Academic Assessment (CPAA) for pre-K through second grade—are not
intended as mandated accountability measures. Rather, they can be given three or four times
per year and are intended to provide personalized data in a timely manner so that teachers
can adapt their teaching strategies, individualize instruction, or even change direction.
The way CAT works is straightforward: If a test taker is able to answer an intermediate level
question, the next question selected will be more difficult. If the student cannot answer an
intermediate level question, the program will select an easier one next. In that way, a truer
measure of the student’s knowledge or skill level can be attained. There is much potential in
this technology for ELL teachers because it corresponds with what we know about compre-
hensible input—in order to advance their language learning, learners need to be presented
with material that is just slightly beyond their level of competence. Table 10.1 summarizes
the similarities and differences among the three assessments.
Alternate Testing
Whatever format they take, general summative and formative tests are not suitable for all
learners (Chapter 4). No Child Left Behind mandated that states develop appropriate accom-
modations for testing reading and mathematics for learners with significant cognitive dis-
abilities, and although the states met this requirement by 2005, the type and quality of the
tests used varied from state to state. In 2010, the Obama administration offered competitive
incentive grants to spur the development of new alternative assessments to be jointly devel-
oped by state consortia.
Two consortia were funded, the Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment Consortium
(DLM) and the National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC). Aligned to the Common Core
State Standards, the instruments being developed by both consortia will be aligned with
both PARCC and SBAC. It is the objective of both DLM and NCSC to provide timely diagnostic
information along with instructional support for teachers through a system of “instruction-
ally embedded and end-of-year assessments” (Center for K–12 Assessment & Performance
Management at ETS, 2012).
Both consortia took a broader view of assessment, and the suite of tools they offer in their
assessment package includes guidance and support materials for teachers as well as profes-
sional development resources. In order to develop these assessment tools, DLM began by
defining the essential elements and achievement descriptors of the CCSS for students who
take the alternative assessment. They also developed learning maps based on the assumption
that there are multiple learning pathways to the same objective or standard. The defining fea-
ture of these learning maps is that they provide support for multiple pathways. A significant
feature of the DLM learning maps
is that they not only include the definitions of the subject specific skills that
students will acquire—such as being able to add a series of three-digit num-
bers or define a vocabulary word—but also provide useful delineation of the:
• precursor academic skills needed to master the tested skill;
• communication skills required to communicate answers through speech,
pointing, or other means; and
• attention skills needed to focus on the task or item (Center for K–12
Assessment & Performance Management at ETS, 2012, p. 35).
The DLM system utilizes a variation of CAT called dynamic delivery. Unlike CAT, which
selects items based on their difficulty, dynamic delivery relies on several pieces of informa-
tion—for example, the learner’s success with the previous item and the item’s position in the
learning map and the amount of support or prompting required. More significantly for the
learner and the teacher, the system provides immediate corrective feedback, meaning that it
Table 10.1: Properties of three consortium-created summative
and formative tests
integrates assessment and instruction—or such is the intent. The system was scheduled to
begin in the 2014–15 school year and has not yet been used with a significant number of
learners.
The assessment system developed by NCSC is similar in its goals, if not in its method. Like
DLM, this consortium is developing formative tools along with the summative assessments
so that teachers can monitor student progress throughout the year. Instead of learning maps,
NCSC bases their tools on Learning Progression Frameworks (LPF) that describe the cur-
ricular sequence that typical students follow as they develop and demonstrate greater under-
standing in each of the content areas:
From these LPFs for mathematics and English language arts (ELA), NCSC is
developing grade-level assessment content targets and alternate achievement
standards, linked to the CCSS, for students with the most significant cognitive
disabilities. The system of assessments, curricular materials, and professional
development materials will address these grade-level learning targets in the
context of the broader curriculum for all students. (Center for K-12 Assess-
ment & Performance Management at ETS, 2012, p. 39)
Like their PARCC counterpart, NCSC is given in an essentially fixed-delivery mode, but there
are some differences. NCSC claims to have “a mechanism to determine the appropriate
parameters for each student’s assessment participation and teachers will then be given flex-
ibility to select appropriate items within those parameters” (Center for K-12 Assessment &
Performance Management at ETS, 2012, p. 39). As is the case with DLM, the NCSC consortium
assessment has not yet had extensive use and it is too early to judge how user-friendly or
effective it is.
ELLs’ Language Proficiency Testing
Since the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2001, all states have assessed K–12 English
language learners annually until they are deemed to be proficient in English. States are also
required to participate in the state academic assessments of mathematics and English lan-
guage arts. As we learned in Chapter 4, it is sometimes necessary to make accommodations
for ELLs. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education offered a competitive grant to develop
new assessments for ELLs who met the following criteria:
• consortium members would agree on a common definition of English language
learner;
• the test would include both diagnostic and summative assessments;
• the test would assess all four domains of English language proficiency from kinder-
garten through 12th grade;
• the assessment would produce results that indicated whether individuals had
attained a level and complexity of English proficiency necessary to participate fully
in academic instruction entirely in English;
• the assessment tools would be accessible to all English language learners except
those who were eligible for alternative assessment, such as those with severe cogni-
tive disabilities; and
• technology would be used to the maximum extent appropriate to develop, adminis-
ter, and score the tests.
Only one grant was awarded, to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in collabo-
ration with the World-Class Instructional and Design Consortium. The 29 state consortium
is developing a system called Assessment Services Supporting ELLs through Technology
Systems (ASSETS), and they are creating a diagnostic/placement instrument, interim prog-
ress tests, and an annual summative measure of English language proficiency. Expected to
be available for the 2015–16 school year, ASSETS will test all four skill areas from K–12
using computer delivery. The first iteration of the test will not utilize computer adaptive
technology, but the consortia are considering developing an adaptive version at a later time.
In the meantime, the English language assessment of MAP is used by some schools for ELLs
and may be particularly useful for teachers with ELLs in a mainstream class. St. Paul school
district recommends that ELLs be allowed to attempt the MAP at the appropriate grade
level. The computer adaptive function will select lower grade levels if the items are too
difficult and will generate no scores if learners are guessing. Very preliminary research
indicates that MAP can provide a fair assessment of academic progress in English for ELLs
(Bohlman, 2012).
10.5 Building Learning Communities
Although elementary school teachers are usually responsible for the entire curricu-
lum, it is frequently the case that individual teachers excel at one or two particular sub-
jects. Back in the first chapter, we recognized the fact that today’s teachers have heavy
demands placed on them, whether there are ELLs in their classes or not. When we add
the particular needs of ELLs to the heavy emphasis that the CCSS puts on informational
text and the integration of science and social studies into the ELA curriculum, not to
mention accountability testing, we can see that collaboration can lead to better teaching
and outcomes.
As we saw in Chapter 1, teachers are held accountable for their pupils’ test scores and there is
often pressure from the district or school administrative personnel to “prepare for the test.”
Collaborative professional development can go a long way toward demystifying the testing
process for teachers and increasing understanding of what skills the test is evaluating and
how the skills are evaluated. In particular, when teachers work together, reading a sample text
and completing sample tasks or answering questions, they
begin to wrap their heads around the cognitive demands of the prompt. This
simple but very important step helps teachers clarify expectations of profi-
cient work, and builds a common understanding of proficient work within a
team and across a building. Additionally it supports the teacher in creating
a coherent plan that delivers content instruction clearly. Teachers, working
in collaborative teams, talk about instruction, and sometimes these poignant
moments unearth content or pedagogy deficiencies that can be quickly
addressed. (Krehbiel, 2012, p. 9)
By understanding how to take advantage of each other’s individual interests, teachers can
maximize their instructional effectiveness. Teachers with different skills and interests can
work together to plan lessons—for example, a teacher with a particular interest in or gift for
science can work with a language arts teacher to ensure that the goals of language learning
and content learning are met and that the standards are met. Or a teacher who has had extra
professional development on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards can
help colleagues to see that a particular standard should receive greater focus or be discon-
nected from a particular lesson.
Another way for teachers to collaborate is a kind of bartering system—teachers can “trade”
their own strengths and interests with those of another teacher. A gifted art teacher, for exam-
ple, can exchange her time with the gifted math teacher of another class. Some of the program
options available for ELLs require collaboration between teachers. For example, with the
pull-out program (Chapter 4), cooperation between the mainstream classroom teacher and
the ESL teacher can take many forms. Ideally, it begins with planning. Mr. Sanchez had only a
part-time ESL teacher available to assist with Elena, but getting her input and advice before
beginning the unit on homelessness helped him to make his plan more inclusive of Elena and
the other ELLs. He conferred regularly with the ESL teacher who was able to identify prob-
lematic areas in Elena’s comprehension and to recommend activities for her that Mr. Sanchez
could carry out in the classroom or in homework assignments.
All the examples so far have shown the impact of collaboration for addressing particular
issues or situations. Situational collaboration is very effective, and it is a wise school leader
who facilitates strong working relationships among teachers so that they can help each other,
not only after a problem or issue arises, but before. The professional learning community
(PLC) is not a “one of ” but a framework for ongoing professional development. There are two
basic models, although each can be implemented in slightly different ways.
School-based Professional Learning Communities
Professional learning communities provide a structure in which teachers can collaboratively
engage in ongoing professional development that is targeted to the goals and objectives of
the school. Professional development that is embedded into the expectations, organization,
and schedule of the school is likely to have a more enduring impact than onetime workshops
or webinars. The point of a PLC is to foster collaboration, but not collaboration for collabo-
ration’s sake. Rather, the purpose is “to make an impact on classroom practice in order to
achieve better results. Participation in a PLC allows teachers to engage in ongoing dialogue
around their repertoire of effective instructional strategies and build a sense of community”
(Linton, 2011, para. 3).
For schools with ELL learners, the PLC can be an extremely effective tool. Broadly based
conversations and discussions about bilingualism, about the nature of second language
learning and teaching, analyzing student data, and tracking the progress of individual
learners can all be facilitated in this environment. But the true value of the PLC lies in
the opportunities for teachers to create plans to meet the needs of diverse learners, espe-
cially in the context of the CCSS. Teachers can deconstruct lesson plans and rebuild them
to align with CCSS standards that they collectively identify, while providing the individual-
ized adaptations that ELLs—and other learners—may require. They can talk about upcom-
ing units and how subjects can be integrated—how, for example, can the art teacher or
music teacher contribute to the theme of homelessness in Mr. Sanchez’s lesson? Is there
a CCSS aligned math lesson in there somewhere? These conversations allow teachers to
gain hands-on skills while simultaneously drawing on the knowledge and skill set of every
teacher in the school.
An Extended Example: Deer Park Elementary Builds CommunityLearn
The teachers at Deer Park Elementary School had all been experiencing some uncertainty and
frustration about the Common Core when they attended a one day participatory conference
on collaborative teaching and learning. From that experience, they could see some of the ben-
efits to taking a more collaborative approach, but like many experienced teachers, they knew
that the impact of a one-day conference would fade away unless they acted deliberatively. So
the teachers of Deer Park Elementary School organized themselves into a learning commu-
nity. They decided that taking a collaborative approach to teaching would help to reduce their
anxiety, and more importantly, help them to be more effective in planning and implementing
curriculum and instruction for the new standards. Once the teachers had decided to organize
a PLC, the principal, Mr. Hayes, worked with the district office to adjust the schedule at Deer
Park to accommodate half-day working sessions every two weeks. Figure 10.2, The Commu-
nity Calendar, shows the first two months of their schedule for the 2014–15 academic year.
As the Deer Park PLC schedule shows, the teachers recognized that their community could
be expanded. Parents and community associations could play important roles in the learning
community.
Deer Park Elementary School’s CommunityLearn is a new community, and it is too soon to
judge its success. Its chances for success are good, however, because the participants built into
their organization and plan most of the elements others have found successful. Specifically,
1. They spent time learning how to collaborate. By planning their workshops as partici-
patory collaborative sessions, they were able to do small scale collaborative exer-
cises that will benefit them as they move into larger collaborative activities. Some
PLCs have a trained PLC facilitator, but the Deer Park teachers decided that their
small group would rely on their principal if they needed a facilitator. As the schedule
shows, however, they did not often call on him but took charge of their own learning.
2. They worked within an atmosphere of trust. Only one of the teachers at Deer Park was
new to the school and so they entered into the community building project trusting
one another. It takes trust for a teacher to admit to not understanding or knowing
how to do something, and CommunityLearn had that from the outset.
3. Sufficient time. The teachers were wise to build the PLC into the regular schedule
of the school year and to commit to it over the course of the year. The adjustments
needed to the student schedules were minimal, and all that was required by the dis-
trict office was to change the order of the school bus drop-off to allow the school day
to start eight minutes earlier.
4. A broad and inclusive attitude.
Although many PLCs consist only of teachers, a broader population can
be brought in, such as administrators, parents, and community mem-
bers who support their school. The objective is to align everyone’s
interests and expertise with the school’s vision and goals (Ullman,
2009). As the November 7 schedule for CommunityLearn shows, these
teachers recognized that there are others in the community who have a
stake in the school, its students, and their outcomes. One of the groups
they identified was a local community center that served a mostly His-
panic population. This center offered translation services, among oth-
ers, for recently arrived Spanish speakers. Bringing their director into
the PLC would, they believed, help them to be more effective in plan-
ning inclusive practice for their growing number of Hispanic ELLs.
Implementing the CCSS: Overview Assessing the
Standards
Practice test exercises RTI (response
to intervention) benchmarking
Information about
new students and their needs
Principal Hayes
Ms. Canfield,
Special Ed
Principal Hayes &
Ms. Canfield
Ms. Jacobs, Asst.
Principal
August 21,
Morning
Planning for diverse learners (gifted,
special ed, ELL)
August 25 SCHOOL STARTS!!!!
September 19,
Afternoon
Interpreting RTI results: Where do we go
from here?
Ms. Jacobs & Mr.
Acevedo
October 3,
Afternoon
Preparing quarterly reports: How has CCSS
changed what is reported to parents? How
should they change reporting to parents?
Mr. Wilson, 5th
grade
Group
exercise
October 17,
Morning &
Afternoon
Interim progress monitoring: The new system
Collaboration at all stages:
• Planning
• Teaching
• Evaluating
District personnel
Mr. Acevedo & Ms.
Saab,
2nd grade
Mr. Wilson & Ms.
Richards,
Art
Ms. Canfield & Ms.
Reyes, 4th grade
November 7 Expanding our Community
• via parents
• via local community associations
• via the Web
Ms. Acevedo
Ms. Canfield
Ms. Charles, 1st
grade & Mr. Levine,
3rd grade
Ms. Canfield & Mr.
Acevedo (ELL/ESL)
Date Topics Leaders
Section 10.5 Building Learning Communities
Deer Park Elementary School
CommunityLearn
2014–15 Schedule
August 20, All
Day
Implementing the CCSS: Overview Assessing the
Standards
Practice test exercises RTI (response
to intervention) benchmarking
Information about
new students and their needs
Principal Hayes
Ms. Canfield,
Special Ed
Principal Hayes &
Ms. Canfield
Ms. Jacobs, Asst.
Principal
August 21,
Morning
Planning for diverse learners (gifted,
special ed, ELL)
August 25 SCHOOL STARTS!!!!
September 19,
Afternoon
Interpreting RTI results: Where do we go
from here?
Ms. Jacobs & Mr.
Acevedo
October 3,
Afternoon
Preparing quarterly reports: How has CCSS
changed what is reported to parents? How
should they change reporting to parents?
Mr. Wilson, 5th
grade
Group
exercise
October 17,
Morning &
Afternoon
Interim progress monitoring: The new system
Collaboration at all stages:
• Planning
• Teaching
• Evaluating
District personnel
Mr. Acevedo & Ms.
Saab,
2nd grade
Mr. Wilson & Ms.
Richards,
Art
Ms. Canfield & Ms.
Reyes, 4th grade
November 7 Expanding our Community
• via parents
• via local community associations
• via the Web
Ms. Acevedo
Ms. Canfield
Ms. Charles, 1st
grade & Mr. Levine,
3rd grade
Ms. Canfield & Mr.
Acevedo (ELL/ESL)
Date Topics Leaders
Figure 10.2: The Community Calendar
In this example, educators at Deer Park Elementary School decide to take a collaborative, long-term
approach to help ensure their curriculum and instruction satisfy Common Core standards.
The Deer Park teachers had all called on Internet resources from time to time and recog-
nized the Web as the powerful tool it can be. They had no desire to create an exclusively
online PLC, however, but rather sought to use it as a means to include the wider professional
community in their community. The model they envisioned for their PLC was the one shown
in Figure 10.3.
Ellen Rodriguez, the teacher we met in Chapter 1, has now retired. Her reflections on a career
spent teaching dual language learners give us some perspective on how the future of teaching
looks to someone who remembers so much of the past. This reflection is excerpted from the
speech she gave at a banquet given in her honor by her colleagues.
Figure 10.3: Communities within communities: The PLC
A professional learning community can extend beyond a single school and include educators in
different districts, neighboring states, or even other countries.
E
xc
ha
ng
e Collaboration
Teach
Le
ar
n
District and
community
resources
School
colleagues
Teacher
National and
international colleagues
via the internet
Summary
We identified in this chapter the 12 major themes that emerged throughout the book and
examined how they are realized in the planning, teaching, and evaluating of learners. The
implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the adaptations that need to be
made for individual learners, and especially English language learners, means that teachers
need to be able to call on a wider range of resources. Fortunately, the digital age has made
it easy for teachers to visit or even join a much larger community of professionals, draw-
ing from their experiences to grow their own repertoire of techniques and tools. The digital
age also reminds us of the value of our colleagues, and somewhat paradoxically, the value
of face-to-face contact. We see in the establishment of professional learning communities
much hope for an approach to teaching practice that is as integrated as the content areas
are in the Common Core standards. Collaboration with colleagues in cyberspace or in the
classroom down the hall adds a richness to the experience of teaching that makes helping
ELLs to succeed in school and to realize their potential as members of the community a truly
fulfilling undertaking.
A Teacher’s Story: A Life of Love and Laughter
Can you imagine spending 7,200 of your days doing the same thing? Those of you who have
just begun your careers can’t imagine how this is possible, and when I began, neither could
I—which is okay because as it turned out, I didn’t. Yes, I taught for roughly 7,200 days, more
than that if you count the weekends spent chaperoning, grading papers, tutoring, or just turn-
ing up to watch a young boy play soccer because he didn’t have anybody else in his life who
would bother, but I wasn’t doing the same thing. There were days when I wished I had some
old standby to fall back on, and like all of you, I did have my tried-and-true bag of tricks, but
no two classes ever needed the same things or responded in the same way, and so even when I
tried, I couldn’t do the same thing. I’m grateful for that. For that and so much more . . . .
One of the reasons that teaching kept me so engaged for so long is that early in my career I was
assigned a class with mostly second language learners. I wasn’t so grateful for that at first. In fact,
I was petrified, but what kept me working so hard was the progress I could see almost daily. For
the most part, teachers have to be patient—we don’t often see immediate progress, except in
baby steps. But I found, and have often said, that if you are not a patient person, if you need to see
results right away, get yourself assigned to a first grade class filled with second language learners.
You don’t have to wait to the end of a quarter to test them to see what they’ve learned—you can
see and hear it every day. And soon, they are teaching you! The year I had a fifth grade class that
was made up of kids from five different countries, it was like I was able to go on a world tour. They
also taught me enough to keep me from embarrassing myself with new technologies. When the
school put in its first computer lab, I traded math tutoring for one of my fourth graders for lessons
on how to use the desktops, and when the school put two of the things in my room, I watched
over their shoulders as my third graders took turns using the publishing software. It was a first
grader who showed me a few years ago how to turn on my smart phone and a fifth grader who
set it up to send and receive email. Just as I’m finally learning to leave the 20th century behind
and embrace the new ways of teaching and learning, it is time to pass the challenge on to another
generation. It is a generation in which I have a great deal of faith, and if you find in teaching even
a small measure of the joy that I have found, you will live a very rich and fulfilling life.
1. When Mr. Sanchez was unable to get a formal assessment of Elena and David, his
first step was to call their families and arrange a meeting. Why was this an important
component of his assessment of the learners?
2. For his initial assessment of the new ELLs, why did Mr. Sanchez focus on reading?
Key Ideas
1. ELLs are not a homogeneous group but are as possessed of the full range of variabil-
ity as native speakers, in addition to all the diversity attributable to being bicultural
and bilingual.
2. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are equally important for achieving com-
municative competence, but reading and writing dominate the school agenda.
3. Educators must take the view that English is an additional language for dual lan-
guage learners; it is not a replacement language!
4. Implementing the Common Core State Standards for ELLs requires adaptation at the
planning, instructional, and assessment stages.
5. In evaluating an innovation, an educator’s first concern must be that it aligns with
deeper learning objectives and incorporates sound learning principles.
Effective teaching requires cooperation and collaboration among colleagues in the school,
other community members, and beyond —to national and international colleagues via the
Web.
Key Terms
big data Data sets that are too large to
manipulate and use with standard meth-
ods or tools but are accessible with digital
technology.
blogs/weblog A personal website on which
an individual records opinions and informa-
tion, such as links to other websites.
computer adaptive testing (CAT) The use
of computers to select test items based on a
learner’s response to previous items.
data mining The practice of examin-
ing large databases to generate new
information.
dynamic delivery A kind of CAT that relies
on several pieces of information, such as
the learner’s success with the previous item
and the item’s position in the learning map
and the amount of support or prompting
required.
fixed-form delivery Computer-delivered
tests for which students are assessed on
one of several fixed, equated sets of items or
tasks.
podcast Digital audio or video files (in
various digital formats) available through
subscription and downloaded or streamed
onto a computer or mobile device.
professional learning communities
(PLC) Groups of educators who meet regu-
larly, in person or virtually, and work col-
laboratively to improve teaching skills and
academic performance of students.
webinar A seminar conducted live over the
Internet.
Core Subjects—3Rs
and 21st Century Themes Information,
Media, and
Technology
Skills
Learning and
Innovation Skills—4Cs
Critical thinking * Communication
Collaboration * Creativity
Standards and
Assessments
Curriculum and Instruction
Professional Development
Learning Environments
Summary & Resources
3. During the informal reading inventory Mr. Sanchez administered, David sometimes
resorted to Spanish to make himself understood. Should this concern Mr. Sanchez?
Why?
4. Can you suggest an alternate introductory activity using a new technology for
Mr. Sanchez’s unit on homelessness?
5. Why do you think Mr. Sanchez chose Lexile 700, fifth grade, as a cut-off point?
6. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills produced a toolkit that includes a guide for
aligning their framework with the CCSS, entitled P21 Common Core Toolkit: A Guide
to Aligning the Common Core State Standards with the Framework for 21st Cen-
tury Skills. The document includes the following graphic (Figure 10.4). Examine it
carefully, and then, using the information and insights you have gained in this book,
explain what the graphic means and how its parts relate to one another.
Figure 10.4: 21st century student outcomes and support systems
Source: P21, Framework for 21st Century Learning. Used with permission from Partnership for 21st Century Skills, www.p21.org.
21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems
Life and
Career Skills
Core Subjects—3Rs
and 21st Century Themes Information,
Media, and
Technology
Skills
Learning and
Innovation Skills—4Cs
Critical thinking * Communication
Collaboration * Creativity
Standards and
Assessments
Curriculum and Instruction
Professional Development
Learning Environments
Additional Resources
For ideas on how to use technology with ELLs, see
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/04/07/the-best-sources-for-ideas-on-how-to-use-
technology-with-english-language-learners/
The Teaching Channel has a good example of how collaboration is used for planning a CCSS
aligned lesson for ELLs at
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teacher-collaboration-for-ccss-ells-nea
Dennis Van Roekel helps to ease the concerns of teachers fearing the Common Core in his
article Getting to the Core of Common Core on the National Education Association website at
http://www.nea.org/home/53977.htm
Introduction
English language learners tend to be overrepresented in special education programs for
students with disabilities and underrepresented in programs for the gifted. Many factors
contribute to the disproportionate representation, ranging from imprecise or conflicting fed-
eral regulations to unconscious bias and inappropriate assessment. The most fundamental
one, however, is that many professionals have an inadequate understanding of second lan-
guage acquisition and confuse typical developmental “errors” with those caused by language
impairment or learning disability. In this chapter we begin with the distinction between
developmental language, or language-in-process, on the one hand, and specific language
impairments (SLI) and learning disabilities on the other. Wrongly diagnosing ELLs can
have a negative impact on academic achievement as well as negative social consequences
(see Why Getting it Right Matters.) Thus, it is very important that when professionals refer
ELLs for special education, they do so with a high degree of certainty. We turn, then, to the
pre-referral process, which involves assessment, multiple levels of intervention, and regular
progress monitoring designed to confirm that observed behavior affects both languages and
is not caused or exacerbated by inadequate instruction. The goal is to ensure that by the time
a dual language learner is referred to special education, every effort has made, every possible
opportunity created, for her to succeed.
Why Getting it Right Matters
Ms. Hayward put down the pencil she had been using to mark her sixth grade students’
social studies test. It was clear that Max hadn’t understood most of the questions. Here it was
February, and his reading comprehension hadn’t improved much since she first met him in Sep-
tember. She hadn’t been able to have his reading ability tested in his home language, Serbian,
but his family insisted that he had been reading when they left the country two years earlier.
Ms. Hayward had worked with him on the English alphabet, which he’d picked up quickly
enough, and his word identification skills were excellent. He was also good in math. Although
Max didn’t say much in class, she had heard him on the soccer field with his classmates, and he
was communicating pretty well. But he struggled with reading, whatever the language. Should
she send him for a special education assessment, she wondered. What harm could it do?
The answer to Ms. Hayward’s question is that it could potentially do a great deal of harm for
many reasons:
• once students begin to receive special education services, they tend to remain in those
classes;
• special education classes tend to be based on a less demanding and more limited
curriculum;
• there is a danger of a double stigma because both ELLs and special needs students are
more likely socially stigmatized. Lower expectations of special needs students often
lead to diminished academic achievement. Segregation from academically able peers
impedes language development, academic development, and social development; and
• inappropriate placement can be directly harmful; a study in 1986 showed that Spanish-
speaking ELLs in special education classes showed no academic improvement and some
scored lower on IQ tests after three years (Harry & Klingner, 2006; Ralabate, 2007;
Donovan & Cross, 2002; Wilkinson & Oritz, 1986).
At the other end of the spectrum of learners with special needs are gifted students. Although
the consequences of failing to identify gifted ELLs correctly may be less dramatic—they
are less likely to drop out of school than ELLs wrongly assigned to special education, for
example—they are significant. The purpose of schooling is to help students to realize their
potential to the fullest possible extent, and if ELLs who should be in gifted programs are not,
the school has not done its job. This chapter concludes with a discussion about and some
pointers for accommodating diverse languages, diverse abilities, and diverse needs, within
the mainstream classroom.
9.1 Difference or Disorder?
As we have seen in previous chapters, although second language learning follows a fairly
predictable path, there is a great deal of variability among individual learners—some learn
faster than others, some exhibit a long silent period, while others begin to speak immediately.
Generally speaking, there is also a great deal of commonality that characterizes the process.
Sometimes dual language children have language impairment or learning disabilities, and it
can be challenging to determine whether one of these is the cause of the difficulties a dual
language learner is experiencing or whether they are simply manifestations of a developmen-
tal stage. Disabilities are broadly classified as either low-incidence or high-incidence. In
the low-incidence category are those rare conditions—severe mental retardation, blindness,
cerebral palsy, and complex health issues, among others—which are normally diagnosed by
teams of medical personnel and which are generally found in 1% or less of the school popu-
lation at any given time. The high-incidence category includes specific learning disabilities,
speech/language impairments, emotional or behavioral disorders, as well as mild to moder-
ate mental retardation. Although all are important, we will focus our attention on specific
learning disabilities, and especially language and reading impairment, because more confu-
sion surrounds the cause of these disorders in dual language learners.
Specific Learning Disability
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) counts among specific learn-
ing disabilities (SLD) conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain
dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia that do not result from hearing or motor
disabilities, “mental retardation” (previously referred to as intellectual disability), emotional
disturbance, or environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage (IDEA, 2004). The most
recent additions to the law include an attempt to be more specific by stating that a student is
considered to have a learning disability if:
The child does not achieve adequately for the child’s age or to meet state
approved grade level standards in one or more of the following areas, when
provided with learning experiences and instruction appropriate for the child’s
age or state approved grade level standards:
• reading fluency skills,
• reading comprehension,
• mathematics calculation, and
• mathematics problem solving.
(U.S. Department of Education, 2006)
Six of the eight behaviors involve language and reading, and so the two most common forms
of specific learning disorder are language impairment and reading impairment. Because of
their high frequency of occurrence in general and because ELLs are more likely to be identi-
fied as having them, language and reading impairment will be discussed separately.
Language Impairment
With children acquiring their first language or two languages simultaneously, there are devel-
opmental milestones by which we can judge whether there is an atypical language delay that
may be a symptom of a more significant disability. If a child, by the age of five, is not able to
name some colors or is not asking or answering who, what, and where questions, for example,
there might be some cause for concern because children normally acquire these abilities by
age three or four. It is possible, however, that the child is merely experiencing language delay,
meaning that development is following a normal course but at a slower pace. Most children
with delayed language development will have caught up, or nearly so, by the time they reach
kindergarten; in elementary school, children who have experienced language delay as very
young children are indistinguishable from their unaffected peers (Paradis, Genessee & Crago,
2011, p. 200).
A delay in speech is not in itself cause for concern, although children with specific language
impairment will typically be language delayed as well. Specific language impairment (SLI),
also called developmental language disorder, is a communication disorder such as stut-
tering, impaired articulation, a language or voice impairment that adversely affects a child’s
learning, not caused by hearing loss or other developmental delays.
Children with SLI start out with language delays, but their difficulties and pro-
tracted development of language extend into the school-age years and possi-
bly never completely resolve over time, although they can come close to their
unaffected peers for some language abilities by the end of elementary school.
(Paradis, Genessee & Crago, 2011, p. 200)
Children with true SLI may not exhibit impairment with all domains of language, but they
typically exhibit deficits in one or more aspects of language processing, and are unlikely to
achieve the same ability levels as their unaffected peers. Some characteristics of SLI include:
• SLI affects between 7% and 8% of children in kindergarten;
• SLI consists of persistent language problems in the absence of other cognitive or
physical problems, although some children with SLI may also have mild cognitive
deficits;
• between the ages of four and seven, children with SLI will exhibit significant general
language delays such as vocabulary size and sentence length, as well as more pro-
found specific language delays such as difficulty with verbs, especially regular and
irregular past tense forms and verb endings;
• the impact of SLI usually persists into adulthood;
• the cause of SLI is unknown, but there is evidence of a strong genetic link; between
50% and 70% of children with SLI have parents or siblings with SLI or significant
delays in speaking; and
• children with SLI are at greater risk for reading problems (Paradis, Genessee &
Crago, 2011; Piper, 2007).
There are four types of specific language disorder:
1. voice disorders affect voice quality and are not temporary;
2. fluency disorders affect the rate, rhythm, and the continuity of speech. The most
common of these is stuttering. Less common is cluttering, characterized by exces-
sively rapid speech which significantly disrupts the flow of speech;
3. articulation disorders comprise a wide range of disorders ranging from
persistent difficulties with a particular sound that have little impact on intelligibility,
to severely impaired phonological systems that render the speaker incomprehen-
sible; and
4. language processing disorders are those afflictions that do not fit into any of the
other three categories but which represent systematic deviations in speech, reading,
writing, or signing that interfere with a speaker’s ability to communicate with their
peers (Piper, 2007, p. 199).
Dual language learners are susceptible to any of these disorders, though no more so than the
monolingual population, but particular care must be taken to ensure that any variations from
the norm are attributable to communicative disorders and not simply communicative differ-
ences associated with the learner’s home language or culture.
Language Impairment in Dual Language Learners
With imperfect mastery of the language, some ELLs will exhibit communicative differences, some-
times quite marked, but these are developmental; they will disappear as the learner becomes
more proficient with the language. Recognizing the difference between a language impairment
and a developmental delay or difference
requires some understanding of the nor-
mal course of second language develop-
ment as well as some knowledge about
how language impairments are manifest
in dual language children. What, then,
are the characteristics of dual language
children with language impairment?
Simultaneous Bilinguals
As we learned in Chapter 3, children
may acquire their two languages simul-
taneously or in succession. Although
there will be some variability among
individual children’s proficiency in
either category, there will generally be
Catherine Yeulet/iStock/Thinkstock
Early detection of hearing loss can help to prevent
language delay and learning problems that result
in reduced academic achievement.
little variability among normally developing simultaneously bilingual children by the time
they reach school. Normally developing simultaneous bilinguals bear strong resemblance to
monolinguals in many aspects of development, although there are minor differences.
Researchers have asked whether bilingual children with language impairments exhibit the
same symptoms and follow the same course of development as monolingual children with
SLI. Paradis and her colleagues addressed the question “What happens to the language devel-
opment of simultaneous bilingual children who are later diagnosed with SLI?” (Paradis,
Genessee & Crago, 2011, p. 203). Studying a group of French/English bilingual seven-year-
olds who had been diagnosed with SLI after the age of four, these researchers found that the
bilingual children had significant problems with verb forms in both languages, but they were
essentially the same problems experienced by monolinguals with SLI. All of the children in
the study were below age expectation in language development in both of their languages,
had nonverbal IQ scores in the normal range, and had no history of neurological trauma. The
MLU (mean length of utterance) in the bilingual SLI children was shorter in both languages
than unaffected French or English monolinguals, but it was the same as monolinguals with
SLI. They also found that the children used the appropriate language for the person or occa-
sion and that evidence of code mixing was essentially the same as bilinguals without SLI. In
other words, there was nothing to differentiate bilingual and monolingual children with SLI
(Paradis, Genesssee & Crago, 2011, p. 203). These results have been confirmed by research-
ers studying Spanish/English bilinguals in California (Guitiérrez-Clellen, et al., 2008). The
evidence, then, is that dual language children who learned both languages from infancy will
follow the same course of development as monolingual SLI children.
Successive Bilinguals (ELLs)
Two questions are of concern with learners who are not bilingual from birth but who add a
second language during the school years, that is, the majority of ELLs teachers encounter. The
first is whether there are differences in language development between these learners with
SLI and monolingual English speakers with SLI. The second is what impact SLI might have on
the acquisition of English. Remembering that monolingual children with SLI are delayed in
acquiring language and later develop more profound delays, the question arises whether dual
language learners with SLI also experience developmental delays in the second language—
English. Although there is no large body of research examining these precise questions, the
available research is strongly supportive of the position that English language development
proceeds in much the same way for children with SLI, whether English is the first or second
language (Paradis, Genessee, & Crago, 2011; Rothweiler, Chilla & Clahsen, 2009). Neverthe-
less, because research is limited, it is important to remember that many external factors and
individual differences contribute to the speed and ease with which ELLs acquire English;
the fact that many bilingual children with SLI have demonstrated patterns of development
consistent with monolingual children with SLI does not mean that the same success will be
achieved by all bilinguals in all settings. Each learner must be evaluated and monitored indi-
vidually. In A Teacher’s Story: Miguel, second grade teacher Margo Leisey recounts the case of
an at-risk child named Miguel who was struggling with English for reasons that were some-
what unusual.
Children such as Miguel can be helped with specially designed instruction and regular moni-
toring. The plan for Miguel was to spend half an hour each morning and another half hour
in the afternoon with a special education teacher who would coordinate with Ms. Leisey;
both teachers would carefully monitor his language. A few weeks after the plan was put
into action, Ms. Leisey had a visit from Miguel’s mother, described in A Teacher’s Story:
A Tough Question.
Margot Leisey’s exchange with Miguel’s mother raises an important question about SLI in
bilinguals. In asking whether she should switch to English with her son, she is asking the
larger question: Do bilingual children with SLI benefit from maintaining the minority lan-
guage the same as unaffected bilingual children do? Research indicates that they do, and that
A Teacher’s Story: Miguel
Miguel had been in our school since kindergarten, and he’d struggled with English from the
beginning. He came from a bilingual home—his father spoke Spanish and his mother Portu-
guese—and the family was one of only eight or nine non-English speaking families in the small
city where we all lived. He was one of only three ELLs in his kindergarten class and he lagged
significantly behind them, but his kindergarten teacher attributed it to the fact that English
was his third language and thought that he was just experiencing a delay. He had made some
progress in first grade; his teacher, Mr. Carlton, said that by the end of the year he could name
the letters of the alphabet, although he could not recite them in order, and he could identify
only a few very common words. He could write his name, but the “g” looked like a “q” and he
occasionally made a “W” instead of an “M.” He also seemed inattentive and sometimes slow to
react. The language barrier made it hard to get reliable information from the parents about
Miguel’s language development at home since they were just learning English themselves.
Mr. Carlton suspected dyslexia or a cognitive disorder, so he requested a formal evaluation.
Shortly after the school year started, I was able to talk to the speech-language pathologist who
had led the three-person team that conducted the assessment.
The pathologist spoke Spanish and had a Portuguese interpreter present. She interviewed
the parents about Miguel’s language development and was assured that his Spanish and
Portuguese were “just fine.” When pressed via the interpreter, his mother said that he still
had some problems with some of the verbs in Portuguese and he confused expressions of
time— yesterday, tomorrow, today—in English. She also said that she thought he had the same
problems in Spanish; the father said he didn’t know. On behalf of the speech-language patholo-
gist, the interpreter asked the mother when Miguel had begun to speak. The mother replied
that he didn’t say much until he was “three or so.” She quickly added that she was sure that was
because he heard two languages instead of one. When asked whether he ever confused the two
languages, the mother said, “A little, but then so do I.” When asked what Miguel’s dominant
language was, his mother said she really didn’t know. She thought he was “about the same” in
both languages. The parents reported that they read to Miguel every night and that he liked to
look at the pictures in his books but had not shown much interest in reading. After testing him
in English and in Spanish, the pathologist reported that he had specific language impairment,
and her prognosis was that he would make progress, with the right kind of help, but he would
probably never catch up linguistically to his peer group. She also reported that he was good
with number concepts when using manipulatives, and that she wasn’t certain but thought he
had perfect pitch—she said I should have him sing for me because he had a beautiful voice.
Mr. Carlton hadn’t mentioned Miguel’s singing, but he had shown me some of his drawings,
which were very good and very colorful. I was nervous about how to proceed with Miguel,
but I was also relieved to have a diagnosis and the assurance of the pathologist that her team
would be available to help Miguel (and me!).
abandoning the home language(s) does not benefit, and could be harmful to the child. After
doing an extensive review of the research literature, Paradis, Genessee & Crago found “there
is no evidence for thinking that dual language learning is a risk factor for children with lan-
guage delay or impairment and, in turn, there is no basis in evidence for counseling parents to
switch to one language at home . . . .” (p. 208). The best advice to Miguel’s distraught mother
would be to continue to use the languages they have always used at home and also to continue
reading to him and encouraging his efforts. Miguel was already off to a slow start with read-
ing, and research has shown that many children with SLI will also have reading problems,
sometimes serious.
Internationally Adopted Children
Children who are adopted from other countries may be very different from the successive
and simultaneous bilinguals that make up the majority of our ELL classes. If children are
adopted into an English-speaking family as infants, they will in all likelihood have acquired
English and will resemble other ELLs who have learned English from a very young age—with
one important distinction: Their first language will almost always have stopped with their
adoption. Some American adoptive parents do make an attempt for their children to relearn
the language of their birth, but this happens necessarily at a later age, and it is the exception
rather than the rule.
Most international adoptees are older, if for no other reason than the government legalities
and procedures in the United States and the other country involved, which can extend the
process of adoption for several years. Children who are adopted at an older age are more
likely to have lived in an institution, sometimes for an extended period of time, to have limited
or no formal education, and, like the infants who were adopted, will lose the opportunity to
function in their first language abruptly upon adoption. Unable to use their first language,
not yet proficient in English, and with a great deal of academic catch-up to do, these learners
are at high risk for failure. They are also more likely than the general ELL population to have
learning disabilities because they are more likely to have been raised in orphanages. Research
A Teacher’s Story: A Tough Question
Miguel’s mother arrived in my classroom after school one day with an interpreter. I could see
that she was upset and I tried to put her at ease by telling her that we were pleased by Miguel’s
progress. The interpreter translated but she remained upset. The interpreter explained that
Miguel’s mother was worried about her son because he wouldn’t speak to her in Portuguese
any more. He would only speak English and she was worried because she didn’t know much
English. She said she was “studying hard” to learn more English so she could help him. She
was convinced, the interpreter said, that his problem was caused by having to speak too many
languages, and since he had to go to school in English, she wanted to speak English, too, but
she was frustrated because it was hard for her. She thought she might be faster at learning
more Spanish and wanted to know if it would help Miguel if they spoke Spanish at home but
no Portuguese. I felt her pain, and at that point I had to admit to myself that I really didn’t have
a good answer. I did remember reading that children sometimes stopped speaking their home
language for a time, and I told her this. What I really wanted to say was “I’ll have to get back
to you on that.”
on 3,800 children in 19 countries indicated that children raised in orphanages have an IQ
20 points lower than peer age children raised in foster care (van Ljzendoorn, Luijk, & Juffer,
2008). Although the number of children adopted from other countries has decreased in the
last decade (Swarns, 2013), thousands still arrive each year, and they will need special atten-
tion (see A Snapshot of Internationally Adopted Children).
Reading Impairments and SRI
There are many different types of reading impairments and many different causes. For our
discussion, it is necessary to distinguish two broad categories of reading disorder:
1. Acquired reading impairment refers to reading problems that result from imper-
fect mastery of the language, a different alphabet in the home language, low expo-
sure to reading, and inadequate instruction, to name a few.
2. Specific reading impairment (SRI) affects children with normal intelligence and
visual-auditory abilities, adequate learning opportunities, and the absence of neu-
rological and psychological problems. Between 5% and 20% of U.S. school children
are affected. For dual language learners with SRI, the condition will impact both
languages, although not necessarily to the same extent (Paradis, Genessee & Crago,
2011, p. 21).
A Snapshot of Internationally Adopted Children
Internationally adopted children are a unique subset of the ELL population in schools, and
they are more likely to require special attention and even special education services.
• Most internationally adopted children in the United States are from China, Ethiopia,
Ukraine, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo (U.S. State Department, Bureau of
Consular Affairs, 2014)
• After several decades of steady growth, the rate of international adoption has been
declining since 2004 (Voight & Brown, 2013).
• An important difference between these children and other ELLs is that, prior to adop-
tion these children learn a first language, but in most cases their learning and use of that
language is prematurely halted when they are adopted.
• The first language is lost very quickly. Russian children adopted between the ages of
four and eight typically lose their expressive use of that language within three to six
months of adoption, and all functional use of the language within a year (Glennen, 2012)
• Interrupted first language learning is known as arrested language development.
• Loss of the first language before the second language is firmly established leaves them
without a functional language. Unlike the bilingual child who has a functioning first lan-
guage to fall back on, the internationally adopted child may have very little language in
which to communicate.
• Some school districts do not count these children as ELLs, claiming that they are not
truly bilingual because of their first language deficiencies, and label them as learning
disabled instead.
• Most students adopted at older ages will need many years to acquire full proficiency
in English and will require more support than other ELLs to keep from falling behind
academically.
Trouble with buttons, zip-
pers, snaps, learning to tie
shoes
Yes Unknown None
Ages 5–9 Problems with sound-
symbol correspondence
Unknown Yes High
Unable to combine sounds
to make words
Unknown Yes Low
Confuses basic words when
reading
Unknown Yes Moderate
Heavy reliance on context
(including pictures and
prior knowledge)
Unknown Yes Moderate to high
Trouble learning basic
math skills
Yes Unknown Moderate, depending
on previous formal
education
Problems telling time Yes Unknown Low
Correctly identifying an SRI is a complex process that cannot be accomplished with a single
test, but is largely a process of elimination. A reading specialist, or sometimes a team of spe-
cialists, will need to rule out factors such as inadequate prior instruction, lack of opportunity
to read in either language, visual problems, sociocultural factors, or insufficient familiarity
with oral English—the developmental factors indicative of an acquired reading disorder,
which would require a different set of interventions than a true SRI. There are certain com-
mon behaviors, however, that are indicative of a possible reading problem and the need for
further assessment. See Table 9.1.
Section 9.1 Difference or Disorder?
Age Signs and symptoms Possibility
of SLD (other
than SLI or SRI)
Possibility
of SLI or SRI
Risk of confusing
with L2 develop-
mental difference
Ages 5–9
(cont.)
Difficulty remembering
sequences
Yes Yes Moderate in early
stages of second
language learning
Slow to learn new skills Yes Unknown Low
Poor coordination Yes Unknown None
Impetuous behavior Yes Unknown Low
Immature way of speaking Unknown Yes Moderate to high
Absence of strategies for
identification and under-
standing of new words
Unknown Yes Low to moderate
depending on prior
literacy exposure and
instruction
Comprehension problems
including poor understand-
ing of what is read and
inability to relate what
is read to learner’s own
experience
Unknown Yes Moderate to high
Weak vocabulary skills Yes Yes High
Ages
10–13
Avoidance or dislike of
reading and writing
Unknown Yes High
Avoids reading aloud Unknown Yes High
Spells words differently at
different times
Unknown Yes Moderate to high
Heavy reliance on context
(including pictures and
prior knowledge)
Unknown Yes Moderate to high
Poor organization skills Yes Unknown Low
Poor handwriting Unknown, but
probable in
conjunction with
other deficits
Unknown Low to moderate
depending on prior
learning
Poor coordination Yes Unknown None
Trouble following
directions
Yes Yes Moderate to high
Impetuous behavior Yes Unknown Low
Immature way of speaking Unknown Yes Moderate to high
Table 9.1: Signs of possible learning, language, and reading
impairments at different ages (continued)
What is the relationship between spe-
cific language impairment and specific
reading impairment? Specific language
impairment is not a single disorder but
a category of disorders, as noted earlier.
Similarly, there may be a wide range of
difficulties experienced by children with
reading disorders, and so it is impos-
sible to equate the two. Nevertheless,
there is a strong correlation between
SLI and reading disorder. Children diag-
nosed with SLI often experience reading
difficulties—between 40% and 75%,
according to the Merrill Advanced Stud-
ies Center (Simpson & Rice, 2009)—
and, conversely, more than half of
children who are identified as having
specific reading disorders have also been
identified as having some form of SLI
(McArthur, et al., 2000). The coincidence of SLI and reading disorder is not surprising—as
we have noted repeatedly, reading is a language-based skill that is heavily dependent on oral
language. What is also possible, however, is that there is a single underlying, and currently
unidentified, condition that causes both. Interventions for Miguel will be aimed, in part, at
preventing further reading difficulties, and the prognosis is hopeful:
It should be noted that, although children with SLI are at substantially
increased risk of reading difficulties compared to other children, they are by
no means destined for poor reading; some youngsters with a preschool his-
tory of SLI go on to achieve normally in school, and those with ongoing dif-
ficulties can certainly be helped. (Spear-Swerling, 2006)
Helping dual language learners with both SLI and SRI will depend on the correct identifica-
tion of the disorders. This is the role of the pre-referral process, as we will see below.
Age Signs and symptoms Possibility
of SLD (other
than SLI or SRI)
Possibility
of SLI or SRI
Risk of confusing
with L2 develop-
mental difference
Ages
10–13
(cont.)
Absence of strategies for
identification and under-
standing of new words
Unknown Yes Moderate to high
Weak vocabulary skills Yes Yes High
Inconsistent school
performance
Yes Yes High
Sources: Eunice Kennedy National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2014 Paradis, Genessee & Crago, 2011
Table 9.1: Signs of possible learning, language, and reading impairments
at different ages (continued)
Medioimages/Photodisc/Thinkstock
If this child experiences problems learning to read
in Spanish, her grandmother will be able to advise
her English teacher; this information is very
important in the correct diagnosis of any kind of
reading impairment.
Assessing any student with a suspected learning disability is a complex process, but when
that learner is a bilingual, it becomes more so. There is no single symptom or profile that is
reliably indicative of a learning disability, but there are some behaviors that serve as warning
signs of possible problems. These may manifest themselves differently at different ages, as
shown in Table 9.1.
While these behaviors are warning signs, they do not constitute sufficient evidence for the diag-
nosis of a learning disability; professional assessment will be necessary. These signs are help-
ful, however, in the process of pre-referral to determine what further evaluation is necessary.
9.2 Disproportionality
Addressing the issue of minorities in special education, Martin Gould wrote in a submission
to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights:
Disproportionality in special education programs in the United States has
been among the most critical and enduring problems in the field of special
education for many years. Although the presence of overrepresentation has
been consistently documented, it is fair to say that the full complexity of the
problem has not yet been understood, nor has a clear picture emerged at the
national level concerning the causes of disproportionality. (Gould, 2009, p. 26)
Disproportionality matters for obvious reasons: It is important that language or cultural
issues not impede ELLs’ access to special assistance if they are in need of it; it is equally
important that they not receive interventions that are inappropriate and don’t work.
In “2009–2010, (minority) students comprised the majority of the population with disabili-
ties in the nation and represented about four million children and youth in U.S. schools, about
69% of the entire special education population” (Artiles, 2011, 341). A significant number
of these are English-speaking African American children, but Latino and other minority stu-
dents are also disproportionately identified as having learning disabilities and speech and
language impairments (Waitoller et al., 2010; Lydon, 2013). Although there are data indi-
cating that nationwide, 9.2% of the total population of special education students are ELLs,
compared to 13.5% of the general population (Zehler et al., 2003), it is hard to interpret what
it means because:
1. fewer than 7% of Asian ELLs are in special education programs;
2. Spanish-speaking ELLs account for 80.4% of the ELL/special education population
nationwide, but only 76.9% of the total ELL population; and
3. there is extreme variation across school districts in this country in the proportions
of ELLs in special education. Districts with fewer than 100 ELLs referred nearly 16%,
while larger districts identified an average of 9.1% of their ELLs as requiring special
education (Zehler et al, 2003). These differences may be explained by differences
in the ways in which districts classify both ELLs and learning disabled or language-
impaired students. For example, data from the U.S. Office for Civil Rights reveal that
predominantly white school districts (75% or more) label more than twice as many
Hispanic males as emotionally disturbed as do predominantly minority schools, more
than 80% more as mentally retarded, and more than 42% more as SLI (Ladner, 2007).
There is no a priori reason to assume that bilinguals are more (or less) likely than monolin-
guals to have learning disabilities. In fact, as we saw in earlier chapters, bilingualism appears
to confer certain cognitive advantages. So why are ELLs in some jurisdictions more likely to
be assigned to special education and less likely to be identified as gifted than their monolin-
gual peers?
There are many factors that lead educators to refer ELLs. One is that federal legislation is use-
ful for specifying what has to be done, but it is silent on how.
Identifying these high-incidence disorders does not entail using consistent standards, but
depends on judgments, and is, thus, subject to interpretation. As a result, a learner with mild
or moderate retardation in one jurisdiction can “recover” just by moving to another state.
Where there is vagueness of definition, there is almost certainly vagueness, or worse, in inter-
pretation and application.
For many school districts across the nation, assessment in an ELLs’ native language is not
feasible; they simply do not have access to the resources needed to conduct a valid assess-
ment—assuming that appropriate, reliable, and valid evaluation tools even exist in multiple
languages. If they have to use English language assessment tools, however, they disadvan-
tage ELLs, especially those in the first three stages of learning English. Moreover, there is no
indication given of how long an ELL should be in the United States before being evaluated;
nor is there a requirement that ELLs have any English language instruction before being
evaluated.
We have learned that fair rules and regulations, important though they may
be, are a point of departure and not a destination. When regulatory proce-
dures require tests that are valid for the intended use, for example, the test
instruments must be available and the capacity at the school level to use the
instruments properly must be in place for the rules to matter. Similarly, both
assessing and designing a program that is responsive to a student’s individ-
ual needs requires a capacity at the school level to observe, understand, and
design responses that are sensitive to student differences. (Donovan & Cross,
2002, p. vi)
Another reason that ELLs are too frequently assigned to special education classes is that edu-
cators accept certain myths about minority students.
Myths
Myths have a powerful influence on practice; they can influence the way we interpret perfor-
mance and behavior, they can affect our responses, and they can impact the decisions that we
make about student placement. Five myths are especially pervasive.
Myth #1: Equating Special Education with Individualized Instruction
Too often, classroom teachers refer ELLs to special education because they believe they
don’t have another option (Ralabate, 2007), thinking that something is better than nothing.
They assume that the special education teacher will provide the ELL some kind of indi-
vidual attention. It is easy to see how this myth survives because certain outward behaviors
may be similar to those exhibited by children with SLI or SRI (see Table 9.1); it is also
potentially harmful as we saw earlier in Why Getting it Right Matters. As Mavrogordato &
Paul point out,
Providing an ELL with special education services when the student does not
possess a special learning need is poor practice, period. Services that are
meant to help children with learning, linguistic, or cognitive disabilities are
unlikely to help ELLs acquire English proficiency. In fact, these services may
even limit ELLs’ opportunity to learn since special education interventions
often target discrete skills that are practiced out of context, and a meaningful
context helps ELLs make sense of unfamiliar language. Research has shown
that ELL students, particularly those with limited language proficiency both
in English as well as their native language, are overrepresented for special
education services. (Mavrogordato & Paul, 2014, para. 5)
Myth #2: Using Only One Language Reduces Confusion for ELLs
It is easy to understand why people with little understanding of bilingualism might conclude
that using only one language will “simplify” matters for the bilingual, but there is no research
evidence to support this too commonly held belief. Rather, research has shown that children with
speech, language, or learning impairments can become fully functioning bilinguals ( Genessee
et al., 2004; Hamayan et al., 2007; Paradis, Genessee & Crago, 2011). It thus follows that bilingual
special needs children can receive specialized interventions without having to abandon either of
their languages. Moreover, in most circumstances, teachers should not discourage students from
communicating in their native language. “Doing so sends the message that ELLs’ native language
and, by extension, their cultural heritage, is not valued at school, which may very well exacerbate
poor academic performance” (Mavrogordato & Paul, 2014, para. 6).
Myth #3: It Takes Up to Seven Years to Learn Enough English to Make
Assessment and Placement Feasible
Technically, this myth might be expected to result in the under-identification of ELLs for spe-
cial education, but it is important to consider here because the point is appropriate identi-
fication and placement. As we have seen in earlier chapters, it may well take five to seven
years for an ELL to become fully proficient in academic English, but this estimate does not
give teachers license to ignore any impairment that might exist. If a student has a learning
or communication (speech/language) disorder, that impairment will affect all the student’s
languages. The sooner it is detected, the better the student’s chances for success in school. It
is important for teachers to remember, however, that learning a new language and adjusting
to a new culture both take time. We learned in Chapter 3 that ELLs frequently experience a
silent period during which they have little to say. This period may last from six weeks to six
months, and attempting to assess an ELL for special education during this period will result
in an inaccurate assessment.
Myth #4: For ELLs, the More Accommodations, the Better
Accommodations refer to procedures and materials that are meant to increase the likelihood
that ELLs will understand and be able to function. Many different kinds of accommodation
may be used, depending on a student’s need and the school’s resources. They include:
• providing additional time,
• supplementing oral instructions with written instructions, or vice versa,
• simplified text (see Chapter 8),
• pictures and picture dictionaries,
• bilingual dictionaries, and
• using the native language to check for comprehension of content.
Accommodations do not reduce learning expectations, but are intended to meet specific needs
of ELLs. Generally speaking, it is good practice to provide accommodations during the test-
ing process to ensure that their limited language proficiency does not severely disadvantage
ELLs. Similarly, making adaptations or accommodations to make classroom content acces-
sible to them is also good practice if the accommodations are “aligned with and tailored to
students’ specific individual needs” (Mavrogordato & Paul, 2014, para. 9). On the other hand,
not all accommodations are appropriate for all learners. Research has shown that “. . . making
as many accommodations as possible available for students may not be the most appropriate
or valid way of providing access to classroom content” (Mavrogordato & Paul, 2014, para. 11).
Kopriva, et al., showed that while ELLs who needed and received accommodation “. . . outper-
formed those who needed but did not receive accommodation, ELLs who received inappro-
priate accommodations performed no better on average than ELLs who did not receive any
accommodations” (Kopriva et al., 2007, p. 18). Moreover, there could be a danger that using
them inappropriately can slow down the language learning process. For example, teachers
must take care not to over rely on simplified text; as we learned in our discussion on com-
prehensible input, learners need exposure to language that is just slightly beyond their profi-
ciency level in order to make progress.
Myth #5: Classroom Teachers Should Have Lower Expectations of ELLs
Because ELLs sometimes struggle with academic content due to limited English proficiency,
some teachers, consciously or not, lower their expectations of these students. But academic
success for all children begins by creating an environment that fosters learning. Characteris-
tics of positive learning environments for ELLs include:
• respect for linguistic and cultural diversity;
• teachers knowledgeable about second language learning;
• collaborative relationships between home, school, and community;
• academically rich curriculum that teaches basic skills in the context of higher order
thinking and skills;
• a challenging curriculum;
• high expectations of all learners;
• a safe and orderly school environment;
• ongoing, systematic, and transparent evaluation of student progress; and
• strong leadership and a shared commitment to excellence (Artiles & Ortiz, 2002, p. 78).
High expectations for student achievement play a crucial role in creating positive learning envi-
ronments. Although it may be necessary to calibrate expectations in particular circumstances—
it would not be reasonable, for example, to expect a newly arrived immigrant learner to pass
an eighth grade test on the U.S. Constitution—it would be a mistake to assume that the entire
eighth grade curriculum is inaccessible. Not providing a challenging environment through low-
ered expectations may well contribute to lowered outcomes.
Policies and Practice
Other factors that contribute to the misidentification of ELLs as special needs learners are
related to policies and practices that are generally well-intentioned but, for a variety of rea-
sons, disadvantage bilingual students. There are two highly prevalent contributors—the
influence of the medical model on education and problematic assessment practices.
The Influence of the Medical Model on Education
In medical practice, diseases are typically identified by a list of common ailments—if a person
has skin lesions lighter than normal skin color that have not healed after several months and
are not sensitive to touch, heat, or pain, and if the person is also experiencing muscle weak-
ness and numbness in the extremities, a doctor will test for leprosy, the disease that best
“matches” those symptoms. In medicine, the model usually works. Conceptualizing special
education within a similar framework assumes that disabilities can be “diagnosed” based on
the fit with a list of symptoms.
The problem with applying the medical model to special education is that it gives educators
a false certainty that they can easily identify language and learning disorders in a valid reli-
able manner—false “because the complexity of the phenomenon and the individuality of the
ELL are often overlooked” (Hamayan et al., 2007b). The reality is that exceptionality is not an
entirely objective or easily verifiable empirical notion:
Rather, it is a social construct, and the diagnostic criteria employed for various
exceptional traits have been constructed on the basis of a number of sociocul-
tural factors that mirror whatever ideologies are in vogue at any given time.
(Hamayan et al., 2007b)
These criteria are further confounded by the ambiguity and subjectivity in the evaluation
process.
Problematic Assessment Practices
The single most prevalent reason for misidentification of ELLs as SLI or SRI is the difficulty
of assessing dual language learners. Among the many factors that must be considered are the
ELL’s cultural and linguistic experiences, and it may be beyond the capacity of the school to
evaluate either. As a result, a number of biases find their way into the assessment process. We
will consider four:
1. Focus on superficial behaviors. Sometimes the responses that ELLs give are similar to
those given by native speakers with learning or speech disorders. The similarity of
“output,” however, does not mean that the underlying causes are the same. There is a
significant difference in cause between a developmental error made by an ELL with
an imperfect command of English and, for example, and an error made by a student
with a language fluency disorder:
Children learning English as a second language, for instance, may speak
with hesitations, false starts, and frequent repetitions that impede the
easy flow of speech. These occur when the child has difficulty in think-
ing of the appropriate word in English, or perhaps doesn’t know it,
or when the child is in any way unsure of the language. It would be a
mistake to classify these developmental differences as fluency disor-
ders; they will in all likelihood disappear as the child learns more of
the language. (Piper, 2007, p. 197)
The interventions would be very different for the ELL and the child with fluency
disorder—in fact, the ELL would probably require no particular intervention; the
symptoms are likely to disappear as language skills grow. Referral in this case would
be inappropriate, waste the special education specialist’s time, possibly be outside
her scope of knowledge, and likely have no positive effect on the learner.
2. Inadequate data. We saw in Chapter 4 that assessments intended for native English
speakers are often inappropriate for ELLs. If the data used for referral purposes
relies heavily on standardized or norm-referenced test scores, there could be a
problem of information quality. In the first place, these tests are able to reveal only
a narrow range of the student’s abilities, even if that student is an English speaker. If
the student is an ELL or comes from a different culture, there will also be a question
of how valid or authentic an indication it is of the student’s ability. Language and
content are also confounded: ELLs may give a wrong response not because they do
not know the answer but because they did not understand the question. Fortunately,
there are some assessment tools developed in Spanish which might be useful, but
even a good test reveals only a small part of the learner’s abilities or knowledge. If
they are used at all, tests must be supplemented by other kinds of data, as we will
see in the pre-referral process. As Blatchley and Lau point out,
The focus in academic assessment is generally on the skill areas of
reading, writing, and mathematics, and to a lesser extent, the con-
tent areas (such as science and social studies). The more unique an
individual’s educational experience and background, the more edu-
cators must individually tailor the assessment. Norm-referenced
achievement tests are often not very useful in assessing ELLs because
the norms do not adequately represent ELL populations. Further,
test content does not adequately reflect ELL students’ instructional
experience and test formats are often unfamiliar and confusing to the
student. (Blatchley & Lau, 2010, p. 4)
3. Use of inappropriate assessment models. For many years, determining whether learners
needed special assistance was based on a discrepancy model, meaning that there
was a severe discrepancy between the student’s achievement and their intellectual
ability. By 2004, a consensus emerged among experts from a variety of disciplines
that this amounted to a “wait-to-fail” model, rather than one based on early preven-
tive measures within the regular education system. In other words, learners should
be referred only when they demonstrate serious educational deficits, and before
referral the emphasis should be on interventions to help struggling students before
they accumulate significant educational deficits. This rethinking of special education
led to response to intervention (RTI). The educational community made itself heard,
and in 2004, Congress recognized that many students classified with specific learning
disabilities might not have needed special education if they had had instructional sup-
port and interventions earlier in their education, and built pre-referral requirements
into the law. The RTI is a step in the right direction, but for some schools it has intro-
duced another kind of problem in practice. Adopting the RTI has generated a predict-
able tension between educators’ desire to identify and help struggling students through
early intervention and the legal duty to comply with IDEA’s Child Find requirements.
Child Find is short hand for the legal duty for public schools to “find” children who
may have a disability and need special education services, imposed by the 2004 itera-
tion of IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). This law means that schools
must aggressively locate and identify learners whom they suspect may require special
education services, and evaluate them for eligibility. They cannot wait for parents to
ask for an evaluation, or even for a teacher to report that a student is struggling. School
personnel have to establish procedures for locating potential candidates, and these
procedures should include pre-referral protocols. Once a school has reason to suspect
that the student has a disability and requires special services, they must evaluate the
learner within a reasonable time to satisfy the law and to avoid legal challenges.
It takes time to establish and implement an RTI program, but while school person-
nel are doing so, the Child Find mandate remains in place. Violation can have serious
negative consequences for schools. Hence, the school, through no fault of its own,
is back to the discrepancy model, because two portions of federal law are in con-
flict. The discrepancy model is especially ill-suited for ELLs because of the miscon-
ceptions and lack of knowledge about second language learning (Hamayan, et al.,
2007b). We will discuss RTI in depth later in this chapter.
4. Misconceptions about language learning and bilinguals. It is sometimes difficult to
distinguish developmental errors from disorders. Education professionals who do not
have a good understanding of the nature of second language learning with all its indi-
vidual variability might make the wrong assumptions about the language of ELLs. It is
very likely that a widespread misunderstanding of bilingualism is responsible for the
fact that ELLs are sent for oral proficiency testing in their native language far more often
than native English speakers (MacSwan & Rolstad, 2006). Why? What are the assump-
tions inherent in requiring Hispanic learners, for example, to “prove” their competence
in Spanish, when evidence abounds that almost all children routinely learn language as
part of normal development, without being taught? One is a belief that children grow-
ing up on the U.S./Mexican border do not have fully developed skills in either language
because they speak a “hybrid” Spanglish, with mixing of the two languages. Their lan-
guage is not judged to be a “real” language and they are, thus, judged to be “non-nons,”—
non speakers of English and Spanish (MacSwan & Rolstad, 2006). This is unfair because:
with regard to language acquisition, we expect children to acquire the
language of the specific speech community in which they grow up . . .
If a child successfully acquires the language of her speech community,
we view the learner as functioning normally from a linguistic point
of view. If not, there may be reason to suspect that the child has a
language-related learning disability. However, whether the child’s lan-
guage is in any way similar to that of another speech community—
for instance, the community of speakers that constitute the educated
classes— is entirely irrelevant to the question of whether the child
speaks her language fluently or proficiently. (MacSwan & Rolstad,
2006, p. 2,308)
4. Thirteen states require that ELL students undergo an oral native language assessment
as part of the ELL identification process required by federal law.
Myths and misconceptions about bilingualism, bias in policies and practice, and federal leg-
islation that can be contradictory when applied to ELLs—all these factors contribute to the
inappropriate referral and placement of ELLs to special education. Because misidentification
can profoundly impact the future of ELLs, it is critical to establish procedures to ensure that
learners who need special education receive it, and those who do not receive the language
support they need in the mainstream class or other language class. It begins with the pre-
referral process to determine whether a student’s struggle is due to language development,
or cultural differences, or to a specific learning disability or communication disorder. It is the
law, as we have seen, but it is also common sense.
9.3 The Gifted Dual Language Learner
Gifted learners are often overlooked in the public school system. Only 6.7% of Hispanic stu-
dents, for example, are assigned to gifted programs, compared to 9% of white majority lan-
guage students (Harris, 2009, p. 369). Some teachers, already under pressure to meet the
needs of ELLs as well as students with disabilities, may adopt the attitude that “because gifted
children appear ‘normal’ and do not fit some stereotypical image, teachers often assume erro-
neously that these children do not have any special needs.” In fact, they require “more rigor,
depth, and breadth in their curriculum along with trained educators who can deliver the cur-
riculum in engaging and challenging ways” (Lovell, 2011, p. 255).
Many different definitions of giftedness exist, but there is no universally accepted one. In
fact, every state has its own definition, and they range in scope from those very conserva-
tive definitions related to high IQ scores, to more liberal interpretations that involve multiple
criteria. The federal government’s Javits Act, which provides grants for bright children from
low-income families, defines giftedness:
The term gifted and talented student means children and youth who give
evidence of higher performance capability in such areas as intellectual, cre-
ative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who
require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools in order
to develop such capabilities fully.
A compatible but more detailed interpretation of the term is provided by the National Asso-
ciation for Gifted Children:
Gifted individuals are those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude
(defined as an exceptional ability to reason and learn) or competence (doc-
umented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more
domains. Domains include any structured area of activity with its own symbol
system (e.g., mathematics, music, language) and/or set of sensorimotor skills
(e.g., painting, dance, sports). (NAGC, n.d.)
How a school defines giftedness will determine what programs and services they will provide,
and to which students. Whatever definition a state adopts, there are certain factors that should
be taken into account in making those decisions. First, giftedness embodies more than high
intellectual ability; it also includes ability in specific content areas, the performing arts, and
physical dexterity, as well as exceptional leadership skills and social adeptness. Second, pro-
grams for the gifted should be based on the state definition of giftedness and on how the school
operationally defines it. Third, definitions of giftedness are impacted by cultural, political, social,
and economic factors. Giftedness is not restricted to, nor more common in, any one group of
students; males, females, minorities, ELLs, wealthy children, poor children, and students with
physical handicaps are all represented among the population of gifted children (Codd, 2012).
While ELLS are over-identified as having learning disorders, they are also under-identified
as being gifted. “Despite increased awareness of the need to identify more ELLs into gifted
programs, this population remains underrepresented in GT [gifted & talented] programs”
(Harris, 2009, p. 370). It is somewhat surprising that this is the case given the cognitive
advantages that bilingualism confers; it would be reasonable to expect to find many ELLs
among those designated as gifted. That is not the case; ELLs are vastly underrepresented in
gifted education programs (Lohman, Korb & Lakin, 2008). Why?
One of the main reasons is the difficulty in identifying ELLs as gifted. How students are iden-
tified for gifted programs varies across school districts, but the process generally begins
when a teacher or parent requests an evaluation. With ELLs, however, it is rare for parents
to request an evaluation for giftedness (Lovell, 2011, p. 260). Teachers are also less likely to
request an evaluation for ELLs than for native English speakers. They may view children who
rapidly acquire a new language and are reading at or above grade level within a year or two of
arriving in school as just doing what they should be doing. Conversely, they may not recognize
a particular gift, such as for math or science, because the child has not yet mastered enough
English for it to manifest.
The formal evaluation process itself can disadvantage ELLs. In the past, IQ tests were heavily
weighted in the determination of giftedness. Most IQ tests rely heavily on verbal acuity and, if
given in English, may under represent an ELL’s language facility. In recent years, teacher check-
lists, quota systems, alternative assessments, and nonverbal intelligence tests have been added
to the list of available tools, and these have improved matters somewhat. Still, it is largely the
classroom teacher who is in the best position to observe and evaluate whether a learner might
have exceptional ability in one or more areas. Researchers do not concur on all of the charac-
teristics of gifted ELLs, but some of the more common ones observed by teachers are:
1. demonstrated high level of critical and in depth thinking,
2. ability to perform above the usual standard,
3. ability to learn English quickly,
4. willingness to take risks in using English,
5. quick mastery of subject matter,
6. strong vocabulary skills and general language proficiency,
7. questioning and curious in class,
8. artistic,
9. perfectionist—sets high standards for self,
10. exceptional math skills,
11. ease in switching between two languages and cultures,
12. exhibits curiosity about American culture,
13. likes to work independently,
14. persistence/long attention span, and
15. retains and easily recalls new information (Lovell, 2011; Castellano & Diaz, 2002).
The identification of ELLs as gifted is by no means a precise process with clearly delineated
categories of behavior or ability or any prescribed ways of measuring them. Table 9.2 lists
some of the characteristics of gifted ELLs and some of the questions that need to be asked,
and the actions taken, to gather the information needed to determine them.
Table 9.2: Identifying the gifted ELL
What to do and
what to ask →
Observe
and
document
language
use
Observe
social
behaviors
in both
cultures
(if possible)
Seek
parental
input
about
behavior
at home
Is L1
cultural
behavior
obscuring
potential
giftedness?
Are
standardized
test results
consistent
with other
data?
Frequent
and
ongoing
classroom
assessment
Characteristic
of gifted ELL
↓
Rapid L2
acquisition
√√√* √√ √√ √√√
Ease of
learning idioms
and Americanisms
√√√ √√ √√ √√ √√√
Exceptional math
ability
√ √ √ √√√
Understands and
appreciates cul-
tural diversity
√ √√√ √√ √ √√ √√
Ease in switch-
ing between
languages
√ √√√ √√√ √ √√ √
Can translate
easily and
accurately
√ √√√ √√√ √ √√ √
Behaves/adapts
appropriately for
both cultures
√ √√√ √√√ √√√ √ √√
*Number of check marks indicates level of importance; √√√ is most important.
Whether gifted or talented ELLs are formally identified or not, they deserve to have what
all students have—high quality instruction that is challenging and engaging, allowing them
to realize their full potential. Some school districts have special schools for the gifted; oth-
ers have special enrichment classes. Often, however, gifted ELLs remain in the general
classroom because they have not been identified as gifted, or the school does not have the
resources, or parents or students themselves resist placement in a gifted program. Teacher
Marc Yanovich met such a student in his seventh grade class (see A Teacher’s Story: Gifted?
No Way!)
A Teacher’s Story: Gifted? No Way!
Alex joined the class at the end of September after his family relocated from Argentina. He
came with his parents, who told me that Alex had taken ESL classes in Cordoba, but all his
education had been in Spanish. His mother said that he had taken the TOEFL Junior test and
that we should have the results shortly. I considered having him take the districtwide test,
but decided to spend some time with him first. In class he confirmed my first impression
that he was a quiet boy, but he was also very attentive in class. At first he didn’t ask any
questions, and his responses were correct but short. Although it took him a little longer to
read the texts, and I saw him looking up words in his bilingual dictionary fairly often, he
was able to read the same materials that the class was reading. His written work had few
errors, but was not yet at seventh grade level.
When his TOEFL Junior test scores arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. Out of a possible 300
in each category, he had tested at 200 in listening comprehension, 240 in language form and
meaning, and 225 in reading comprehension, for a total of 665—an extraordinary score for
someone who had studied English for only two years in Argentina (600 would have been
excellent). Alex had no difficulty with math, telling me he had already done the same work
in Cordoba. I gave him materials from the eighth grade curriculum, which he tackled easily.
My only concern about Alex was social. He kept to himself except for the occasional exchange
with other Spanish speakers, but he told me that none of them were from Argentina. His
shrug told me that they didn’t have much in common. He buried himself in work, breezing
through the eighth grade math curriculum and spending his free time reading science fic-
tion, sometimes in Spanish but often in English. His writing improved rapidly, and although
he made errors in spoken English, he was also adept at self-correction. By mid-March, I was
pretty certain that I was dealing with a very gifted young man, and I started the process of
getting him assessed.
Our district had a special program for gifted middle schoolers, located in a school not far
from his home. I knew the school staff and knew he would flourish there. Because Alex was
bilingual, at first I had a hard time persuading the team to test him. They had some tests in
Spanish but were not confident of their ability to interpret them. The team was impressed
with his math scores, but they were reluctant to assign them too much weight, reasoning
that he had been taught at a more advanced level in Argentina. I didn’t understand this
Mr. Yanovich was an experienced ELL teacher who knew that effective teaching strategies
helped Alex and others like him to thrive in the general classroom. It is especially important
that gifted ELLs with lower language proficiency remain engaged and challenged until their
language catches up with their intellectual abilities. Some of the strategies that have been
proven effective are:
1. role playing, dramatization, and pantomime;
2. games, especially word and math games, that are difficult enough to be challenging;
more able students can be encouraged to devise games appropriate for different
subject matter;
3. music, poetry, rhyme (for younger learners);
4. creating graphic or artistic representations for concepts and material being studied
in class;
5. use of content reading materials at higher-grade level;
6. demonstrations and hands-on activities;
7. supplemental assignments to augment what others in class are doing;
8. opportunities for interaction with others; “peer teaching”; and
9. cooperative learning activities.
If these strategies sound familiar, it is because they are essentially the same ones identified
as useful for differentiated and individualized instruction in Chapter 8. Differentiating and
A Teacher’s Story: Gifted? No Way! (continued)
because it seemed to me that it was his ability that allowed him to do advanced work. They
had him retake the TOEFL Junior, but while we awaited the results, I tested his reading com
prehension and found he comprehended social studies texts with a Lexile measure of 670
(the lower range of sixth grade), but he comprehended science texts in the 1000 range, near
the top of the scale for twelfth grade. I showed the team the results, but they still had a wait-
and-see attitude.
In the meantime, he was starting to make friends. His classmates responded to his sense
of humor, which became apparent as his spoken English improved. Finally, just before the
school year ended, the coordinator of the gifted program told me that she had reviewed all
the team’s documentation and had spent time with Alex. She agreed that he would be well
suited for placement in the gifted program. I had kept his parents informed of the testing
we were doing, and they seemed pleased but unsurprised. I was so excited on the day I was
able to tell Alex that he was going into the enhanced program. I called his parents in for a
conference and broke the news to all of them. The parents nodded and beamed with pride.
Alex, well, that was a surprise—he jumped up and said in perfect, unaccented English, “NO
WAY!” The parents started questioning him in Spanish and then explained to me that he
didn’t want to go to another school because he didn’t want to leave his friends. They said
he had been very lonely for months, and now that he had made friends, he wanted to go to
eighth grade with them. I had taught ELLs and I had had some experience teaching gifted
children, but this was my first experience with middle school. I guess I hadn’t realized the
importance of peers and a friendship to adolescents.
individualizing instruction are the underpinnings of effective teaching for all ELLs, gifted
or otherwise, because of the linguistic, cultural, and intellectual diversity these students
bring.
9.4 The Pre-referral Process and RTI
Federal regulations require that schools provide evidence that all students referred to special
education, including ELLs, have been given every opportunity to achieve academically in the
regular classroom before they are referred. The mechanism for providing these opportuni-
ties is the response to intervention (RTI), which also serves broader purposes. The RTI is
intended as a framework for identifying at-risk students and monitoring student progress
in order to provide data that informs both instructional practice and interventions. It often
serves as the framework for school improvement projects and is touted as being useful for
preventing and remediating behavioral and learning problems before they lead to failure.
There are three different levels of intervention, and each level may consist of one or multiple
interventions. School districts vary in how they design and implement their RTI plans, but
they all have the same four components: assessment for screening purposes, a multilevel pre-
vention system, data-driven decision making, and progress monitoring (National Center on
Response to Intervention, 2010, p.2).
Implementing the RTI
The RTI is a procedure that educators use to identify students who are “at risk.” These stu-
dents fall into three categories:
1. students whose learning style or experience of learning does not match the instruc-
tional style or approach. Many ELLs would fall into this category because of language
or cultural differences, or a combination of the two;
2. students who lag behind their peers and struggle academically but do not have
cognitive deficits or linguistic impairment. Their problems might be a result
of other factors such as hunger, excessive absence, or homelessness, for
example; and
3. students with true cognitive or language problems that require specialized
interventions.
In general terms, the purpose of the screening component of the RTI is to differentiate among
these three categories. Faced with an ELL who is academically or linguistically struggling, a
classroom teacher working within the structure of the RTI, should be able to determine that a
special education referral is appropriate only for those in the third category. It may be tempt-
ing to refer others because they are not faring well in the general classroom, but it is a mistake
to do so without trying other solutions.
The first step is to identify students at academic risk or with problematic behavior. The
RTI process requires a two-stage screening process, the first of which is schoolwide or
districtwide screening of all learners at the beginning of the school year. For learners who
score below the cut point, or the score that educators use to determine whether a stu-
dent requires additional interventions, a second level of screening is done. This objectives
of this screening are to predict with
greater accuracy which students are
truly at risk for poor learning outcomes
and to design and implement preven-
tive measures.
Based on the data they gather through
screening, school personnel will imple-
ment the first level of prevention, pro-
viding high-quality, research-based core
instruction. Presumably, high-quality
instruction is the goal of every teacher
in every class, but student results may
indicate that adjustments are needed to
make it more effective. If, for example,
a significant number of students score
below grade level or the cut point on
basic concepts in math, the core curriculum, and possibly teaching approaches, would need
to reflect a greater emphasis on math. The same initial screening may have identified learn-
ers who appear to be at risk. They will receive the same quality instruction, but they will also
receive an intervention targeted to address the presumed problem or deficit—this is level
two prevention.
When a student is identified via screening as requiring additional interven-
tion, evidence-based interventions of moderate intensity are provided. These
interventions, which are in addition to the core primary instruction, typi-
cally involve small group instruction to address specific identified problems.
(National Center on Response to Intervention, 2010, p. 6)
Progress is monitored with a formal assessment (progress is usually monitored three or four
times per year for learners who receive first level interventions), and depending on how much
improvement has been made, will either continue with a first level intervention or move on
to a second level intervention and, eventually, a third, if needed. The third level consists of
individualized interventions of increased intensity, and progress is regularly monitored. It is
not a strictly linear process:
. . . students should move back and forth across the levels of the prevention
system based on their success [response] or difficulty (minimal response) at
the level where they are receiving intervention, i.e., according to their docu-
mented progress based on the data. Also, students can receive intervention in
one academic area at the secondary or tertiary level of the prevention system
while receiving instruction in another academic area in primary prevention.
(National Center on Response to Intervention, 2010, p. 13)
Many models of the RTI exist and they evolve as school districts become more familiar with
the purpose and use of the process, but the purpose, essential components, and basic schema
are the same as represented in Figure 9.1.
Shironosov/iStock/Thinkstock
The first step in implementing an RTI is to screen
all students at the beginning of the school year.
No High-quality research-based
classroom instruction Target
Targeted intervention
Level 1
Targeted intervention
Level 2
Targeted intervention
Level III
Progress Monitoring (2 to 4 times yearly)
Adjust
interventions
Section 9.4 The Pre-referral Process and RTI
Using the RTI for ELLs: Special Considerations for Special Learners
The RTI was not developed specifically for ELLs, but because it focuses on early intervention, it
has great potential for helping educators to distinguish between developmental language behav-
iors and true impairment or disability. Once initial screening is carried out, each of the three
levels of intervention provide opportunities for targeted interventions. The challenge is in the
screening, and with schoolwide monitoring, is in the assessment tools used. Few are sensitive to
cultural and linguistic differences (Chapter 4). The results are subject to misinterpretation—an
impairment instead of a developmental language issue. Brown and Doolittle (2008), in a brief for
the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt), responded to this
School-wide Screening
Scores above
cut point
Scores below
cut point
Secondary
Screening to
Identify Areas of
Difficulty
None
identified
Potential learning
problem identifiedLearning
disability?
Refer to Special
Education RTI
Ends for now
No High-quality research-based
classroom instruction Target
Targeted intervention
Level 1
Targeted intervention
Level 2
Targeted intervention
Level III
Progress Monitoring (2 to 4 times yearly)
Adjust
interventions
Figure 9.1: Implementing the RTI
Schools can implement the RTI process to help identify at-risk students and monitor their progress.
Level 3
Smaller groups & individualized instruction
More frequent specialized interventions
Enhanced progress monitoring
Level 2
Targeted small group instruction
Regular specialized interventions
Progress monitoring
Level 1
Universal Screening
All students receive high-quality classroom
instruction
Progress monitoring
Section 9.4 The Pre-referral Process and RTI
concern by creating a framework to augment the RTI for ELLs. The “guiding questions” they pose
are meant to ensure that assessments are supplemented with additional information and that
interventions are culturally sensitive. Their questions are as follows:
• is research-based instruction being offered that takes into consideration the cultural,
linguistic, socioeconomic, and experiential background of the ELL?
• is instruction targeted to the learner’s English language proficiency level?
• is any identified concern examined within the context of language of instruction,
degree of acculturation, and educational background?
• have the parents had an opportunity to provide information and their input
documented?
• has accurate baseline data been collected on what the student can do as well as what
she has yet to learn?
• has the “ecology” of the school and classroom been assessed?
• what were the learner’s preschool literacy experiences?
• have hearing and vision been tested?
• what tasks can the student perform and in what settings?
• have specific first level interventions that are culturally, linguistically, and experien-
tially appropriate been developed? (Brown & Doolittle, 2008)
The answers to these questions will assist educators in designing appropriate levels of inter-
vention. The exact components of these interventions will differ from class to class, school
to school, and year to year, but the basic configuration of the three levels of intervention is
shown in Figure 9.2.
Level 3
Smaller groups & individualized instruction
More frequent specialized interventions
Enhanced progress monitoring
Level 2
Targeted small group instruction
Regular specialized interventions
Progress monitoring
Level 1
Universal Screening
All students receive high-quality classroom
instruction
Progress monitoring
Figure 9.2: Levels of the RTI
These three levels of intervention are flexible and can also be applied in instruction specific for ELLs.
These levels are flexible enough to allow language instruction for ELLs for specialized inter-
ventions for any student lagging behind. They are also flexible enough to allow for enhanced
instruction and activities for gifted students (Table 9.3).
Teacher Paula Gardner learned firsthand how important it is to gather as much information
as possible about a learner’s past experience before requesting a special education evalua-
tion. See Why I Teach: Paula Gardner.
Table 9.3: RTI for ELLs provides a framework for implementing the RTI
for classrooms with ELLs
Who What How Special considerations for ELLs
All students Initial screening Schoolwide or dis-
trictwide universal
screening tools
Formal assessment augmented by additional
background information
High-quality,
research-based
core instruction
Flexible grouping
and individualized
instruction
Identify areas of weakness in English
(oral, reading, writing) and design learn-
ing activities to provide opportunities for
development; provide ample opportunity for
language practice
Progress
monitoring
Universal monitoring
tools at regular inter-
vals; classroom tests
and assignments;
teacher observation
Teacher logs, portfolios of student work to
document progress, and other informal class-
room evaluations; evaluate ELLs within peer
group (other ELLs of similar ability level)
Students
identified
by progress
monitoring
as needing
further
information
Core instruction
continues supple-
mented by level
two intervention
via curriculum
designed to address
specific needs
Small groups (five or
fewer) in 30 minute
sessions three–five
days per week
Consider changing group membership; con-
sider a different curriculum from core; con-
sult with reading, special education, or ESL
teachers about unresolved learning problems
Progress
monitoring
Universal assessment
if within the school’s
RTI protocol; class-
room and small group
evaluation
Determine whether student has demon-
strated language growth and if there corre-
sponding improvement in other areas
Students
who
have not
responded
to level two
interventions
Core instruction
continues, supple-
mented by level two
intervention
Groups of three or
fewer; two daily
30 minute sessions
to address targeted
deficiencies
Identify language domain that is causing
most difficulty and target interventions
accordingly; consider alternative research-
based instructional level two teaching
approach/method; consult with reading,
special education, or ESL teachers about
unresolved learning problems
Progress
monitoring
Determine whether student has demon-
strated language growth and if there is cor-
responding improvement in other areas
Why I Teach: Paula Gardner
I cried a lot that first month. I was in my second year of teaching and after one day with my
new third grade class, I felt that my teacher education program and first year of teaching hadn’t
even come close to preparing me. When the school district closed two of their six elementary
schools, many teachers were relocated, and as a newbie, I didn’t get to choose. So I went from
teaching a small fourth grade class with one advanced English language learner, to a class of
21, only seven of whom spoke English. Their English language proficiency was varied, but
most of them appeared to function fairly well in English—except for one. My first impression
was that Javier was a beginner because he rarely spoke in class and didn’t appear to be able to
read, except to identify a few words—his name and common vocabulary words such as see, go,
is, and the. He could write his own name and seemed to understand most of what I said to him,
and he followed classroom routines. He could also print his name and copy words and letters.
It occurred to me that he might be in a silent period, if he really was a beginner.
On the second or third day of the school year, I went with the class out onto the playground
because I knew that I would find the ESL teacher there, and I wanted to talk with her about
having him tested. I was pleased to see that Javier joined in with the other boys in the class in a
game of soccer, but I was totally amazed when I heard him speak, in clear perfect English, “It’s
Raul’s turn to be goalie, so we’re gonna win!” I knew I had to rethink my initial assessment of
his language proficiency, but then also started to fear that he might have some kind of learning
disorder.
I called to schedule an appointment with the special education consultant but was told that
it would be three weeks before she could even talk to me about Javier, much less do an eval-
uation. For the time being, I was on my own. So I called the professor who had been my
internship supervisor two years earlier. She listened and reminded me what I should have
remembered, that there were many things I should do before calling in the special education
teacher. The first was to schedule a meeting with Javier’s parents. I’m glad I did that. What I
found out was that this was the first time that Javier had regularly attended school. He had
been enrolled in school the previous year in another state, which I knew from his school
record, but his mother said he hadn’t really attended for many reasons. I later learned that
the family feared being deported and didn’t trust the school system not to report them. Now
that their immigration status was certain, however, they made sure he went to school every
day. Remembering what I had learned in college, I asked about his Spanish—when he had
first spoken, whether his mother had noticed anything unusual about his language learning.
She said that he might have been a little slower than his older sister, but she hadn’t noticed
anything unusual about his pronunciation or vocabulary development. When I asked about
reading, Javier’s mother said that he liked to be read to, but he didn’t know how to read in
Spanish. I asked if she had tried to teach him to read, and she replied that she hadn’t because
she wanted him to read in English, not Spanish. I could have hugged her. That small clue
started me down the right path. I suspected that Javier had some sort of specific reading
impairment, and that gave me hope.
Talking to the reading consultant for the district and remembering what his mother had
told me about his interrupted schooling, I suspected that Javier might have an acquired
reading impairment. The reading specialist and I decided to work under that assumption,
and together we devised an instructional plan for Javier. If he did not progress significantly,
we would re-evaluate after a few months. The plan called for Javier to work with a reading
Summary
In earlier chapters, we discussed problems in assessing and placing ELLs in the appropri-
ate program and grade level. In this chapter, we have seen that the challenge intensifies
when there is a possibility that the ELL has a learning disability, or language impairment, or
intellectual gifts, all of which require special interventions. ELLs are at greater risk for being
misidentified as special needs students or being sent to special education when teachers
believe wrongly that ELLs will get individualized instruction that will help with their lan-
guage learning. We have seen that there are many reasons for misidentification of ELLs, but
the fundamental one is the misconceptions that educators hold about bilinguals and second
language acquisition. The RTI process, if used with thoughtful attention to cultural and
linguistic factors, can be a great help to educators in making the right decisions about ELLs,
whether in special education or in the mainstream classroom.
Key Ideas
1. ELLs are overrepresented in special education classes because they are misidenti-
fied as having special needs.
2. There are many reasons why ELLs are inappropriately placed in special
education classes, but the two which should most concern teachers are
a) misperceptions about second language learning, and b) inappropriate
methods of assessment.
3. The most common misconceptions about second language learning that affect
placement are the length of time it takes to learn a language and the belief that
typical developmental errors are the result of an impairment.
4. ELLs are more likely to be identified as having both language and reading
impairments than the native English-speaking population.
Why I Teach: Paula Gardner (continued)
tutor for 30 to 45 minutes a day. Fortunately, there was one available, and the plan was to
work with him one-on-one for 30 to 45 minutes per day. I also met with his mother again
to explain the plan and to tell her that if she should encourage him to read in Spanish if he
showed any interest.
Just three weeks into the plan, I could already see the difference in Javier. He was more atten-
tive to classroom activities, his writing improved, and I saw him trying to follow along in his
book when we were reading aloud in class. Then, one day just before Christmas, his reading
tutor was sick and so Javier stayed in the classroom while the rest of the class engaged in silent
reading. He had a book that he had been working on with his tutor. When Javier raised his
hand to indicate he needed help, I went to his desk to see what he needed. He had opened the
same book that the rest of the class was working on, and he asked me how to pronounce the
word invisible. I did, and he didn’t recognize it, but when I told him the meaning, he nodded
happily and returned to his book. Javier was clearly on his way to being a reader, and he is one
of the big reasons why I teach.
acquired reading impairment Reading
problems that result from, for example,
imperfect mastery of the language, a different
alphabet in the home language, low exposure
to reading, and inadequate instruction.
articulation disorders A wide range of
disorders ranging from persistent difficul-
ties with a particular sound that have little
impact on intelligibility, to severely impaired
phonological systems that render the
speaker incomprehensible.
cluttering A fluency disorder characterized
by excessively rapid speech, significantly
disrupting the flow of speech.
cut point The score that educators use to
determine whether a student requires addi-
tional interventions.
discrepancy model Assesses whether there
is a significant difference between a student’s
scores on a test of general intelligence and
scores obtained on an achievement test. This
model was traditionally used to identify stu-
dents with learning disabilities.
fluency disorders A language disorder that
affects the rate, rhythm, and the continuity
of speech.
gifted students Students “. . . who dem-
onstrate outstanding levels of aptitude
(identified as an exceptional ability to
reason and learn) or competence (docu-
mented performance or achievement
in the top 10% or rarer) in one or more
domains” (National Association for Gifted
Children, n.d.).
high-incidence disability Specific
learning disabilities and speech/language
impairments, emotional or behavioral
disorders and mild to moderate mental
retardation.
language delay Language development
that follows a normal course but at a slower
pace.
language processing disorders Systematic
deviations in speech, reading, writing, or
signing that interfere with a speaker’s ability
to communicate with their peers.
5. Research supports the belief that bilingual children with SLI benefit
from maintaining the home language just as unaffected bilingual
children do.
6. Gifted ELLs are often not identified as having extraordinary abilities or skills
because of their limited language skills.
7. A mainstream classroom can accommodate a wide range of ELLs, including those
with some special needs and the gifted, if the teacher has support and individualizes
instruction following the principles introduced in Chapter 8.
8. Pre-referral interventions are designed to identify students who are “at risk” and, for
ELLs, to confirm that observed language or learning problems affect both languages,
and are not caused or exacerbated by inadequate instruction.
9. The most commonly used intervention is the RTI, a procedure that educators use to
differentiate among:
• students whose learning style or experience of learning does not match the
instructional style or approach,
• students who lag behind their peers and struggle academically but do not have
cognitive deficits or linguistic impairment, and
• students with true cognitive or language problems that require specialized
interventions.
1. What is the main argument against placing an ELL in a special education class just to
get extra attention for that learner?
2. Hispanic learners are typically overrepresented in special education classes and
underrepresented in gifted programs. What factors in the educational system might
be contributing to these facts?
3. What is the difference between language delay and language impairment?
4. How can a teacher tell the difference between a language delay and a silent period in
a dual language learner?
5. Why does it make sense that there is a strong correlation between SLI and reading
impairment in ELLs?
6. Why is it important to involve parents in the pre-referral process?
7. Look again at Figure 9.1. What adaptations or elaborations might be needed for
internationally adopted learners who had arrived at age eight or older?
8. How do mainstream English speakers benefit from language and ability diversity in
the classroom?
9. What role might educator bias play in the misidentification of ELLs as special needs
or gifted learners?
learning disabilities Disabilities that
occur in people of average or above- average
intelligence who struggle to acquire skills
that impact their ability to function effec-
tively in school, home, community, or
workplace.
low-incidence disabilities Conditions—
such as severe mental retardation, blindness,
cerebral palsy, and complex health issues—
that are normally diagnosed by teams of
medical personnel and generally found in
1% or less of the school population.
norm-referenced tests Standardized tests
designed to compare and rank test takers in
relation to one another.
response to intervention (RTI) A multi-
tier approach to the early identification
and support of students with learning and
behavior needs.
specific language impairment (SLI) A
communication disorder such as stuttering,
impaired articulation, a language or voice
impairment that adversely affects a child’s
learning, not caused by hearing loss or other
developmental delays. Also called develop-
mental language disorder.
specific learning disabilities (SLD) Condi-
tions such as perceptual disabilities, brain
injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia,
and developmental aphasia that do not
result from hearing or motor disabilities,
“mental retardation,” emotional disturbance
or environmental, cultural, or economic
disadvantage (IDEA, 2004).
specific reading impairment (SRI) A
disorder that affects children with “normal
intelligence and visual-auditory abilities,
adequate learning opportunities, and the
absence of neurological and psychological
problems.
standardized tests Tests in which the same
tests are given under the same conditions
to all test takers and are scored consistently
across all learners.
stuttering A communication disorder char-
acterized by disruptions in the production
of speech sounds that, in most cases, have
an impact on at least some of the speaker’s
daily activities.
voice disorders Distortions of voice quality
that are not temporary.
Additional Resources
To see how the IDEA defines specific learning disabilities, see
http://idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/,root,dynamic,TopicalBrief,23,
For a concise summary of the educational issues surrounding gifted education, see the
Rhode Island Advocates for Gifted Education site at
http://www.riage.org/articles/why-do-we-need-to-define-giftedness/
For a good overview of the issues surrounding ELLs with learning disabilities, see Elsa
Cardenas-Hagan on the topic at
http://www.colorincolorado.org/webcasts/disabilities/
Introduction
In previous chapters we discussed the characteristics of learners, how to assess them, and
the content and language they need to learn. We have looked at curricula, at objectives, at
materials, and the kinds of lessons that align with all these. Now that we have learned some-
thing about the who, the what, and the why of teaching, it is time to take a closer look at the
how. We do this with caution. The most effective teacher is not the one with the biggest bag
of teaching tricks, even if those tricks are comprised of well-established techniques; the most
effective teachers are those who have many techniques upon which to draw, but who know
the importance of using them within a thoughtful, well-organized plan for learning and for
monitoring learning. ELL teachers are constantly seeking strategies that will help LTELLs, and
indeed, all ELLs, to progress linguistically and academically. The purpose of this chapter is to
examine some of the strategies that research has shown to be effective and how they can be
adapted for a variety of learners and circumstances.
Experienced teachers know that there is no such thing as a truly homogenous class, and that
they will need to take into account the differences among the children they teach. But when
the class represents such a wide range of abilities as Candace Marin’s fourth graders, (see A
Teacher’s Story: Overwhelmed!), developing a plan and mapping onto it the best methods or
strategies for each of them requires even more planning and forethought. Fortunately, as we
will see in this chapter, there are many sources and resources to which teachers can turn,
based in research, based in practice, and based in experience.
A Teacher’s Story: Overwhelmed!
At the end of my first month of full time teaching, I went home and told my husband that I
felt like I had to do everything for everybody when none of those “bodies” needed the same
“things”. I had been so excited to get this assignment, a fourth grade class in a well-resourced
school in an affluent suburb. As a student intern, I had been in classes as large as 31 in badly
maintained schools with few resources in the inner city. So when I found out that I had only 18
children in my class, I was thrilled.
Just four weeks later, I was overwhelmed.
I had six ELLs, one with special needs, and the other five with different levels of language pro-
ficiency and different skills. One had amazing spoken English, but he was reading at first-grade
level, barely. Another girl had good reading and writing skills, but she wouldn’t read aloud and
barely spoke. The native speakers were almost as varied as the ELLs—one appeared to be
gifted and another appeared to be dyslexic, although neither had been formally assessed. Still
another had attention and behavior problems.
Because I had a relatively small class, I did not have another adult in the room to assist, and
the only additional support for the ELLs was an itinerant ESL teacher who came twice a week
for 45 minutes.
And then there was the Common Core. Before the start of the school year, the district had held
a series of professional development workshops to prepare us, but after a month, I felt less
prepared than I had on my first day as an intern.
8.1 Differentiation for ELLs
Today’s pluralistic, inclusive classrooms demand a sharp lens of understand-
ing and awareness from our teachers to reach and teach all students. This lens
must serve as a microscope to magnify teachers’ understanding of individual
student’s talents and skills as well as a stethoscope to listen deeply to their
students’ daily experiences, unique interests, and individual dreams.
(Oberg, 2010, p. 2)
We know that ELLs learn at different speeds and in different ways, but what do we do with that
information? Teaching diverse students is not a “one size fits all” endeavor. On the other hand,
no teacher has the time to teach each student individually. Finding an optimal zone between
the two extremes that allows us to maximize instructional impact is a daunting task. This sec-
tion describes tested strategies that have worked for other teachers coping with classrooms
of diverse learners, concentrating on literacy “power standards” (Gregory & Burkman, 2012).
Knowing the Learners
In previous chapters we learned a great deal about English language learners. Knowing about
our learners, however, is not the same as knowing our learners. We can get some indication
of what learners know by using performance assessment tools such as those described in
Chapter 4. We can speculate about
how learners might learn by revisiting
what we discovered about differences
in learning styles in Chapter 2. We can
further study the research described
in Chapter 3 on how the brain learns
to refine our ideas about teaching
bilingual learners, but ultimately, teach-
ers will have to discover how all these
factors—and many others such as
differences in maturity—interact and
help to shape each individual learner.
Getting to know a learner takes time
and it takes continuous effort. It also
takes deliberate actions.
Teachers Need to Be Observant
There are tests and exercises that can be administered to learners to find out their preferred
learning styles, but the best indicator may well come from observation. To differentiate
instruction meaningfully, teachers need a clear understanding of how learning progresses.
Observing where learners appear to fall along different dimensions and recording those
observations helps teachers to find effective strategies and also to assess progress.
Teachers Need to Know how Learning Progresses
Remembering that ELLs learn best when the material is just beyond their current level of
competence and comfort, the goal of differentiated instruction is to find the “propellers” for
Monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Thinkstock
This teacher knows that getting to know her
learners will make it easier to plan for their
individual needs.
each learner—what moves them to the next stage in which the new material is no longer new
and they are ready for the next challenge. According to Tomlinson (2001), learning is a pro-
gression of development along eight dimensions that can be thought of as the tracks on which
breakthroughs may occur:
1. Foundational to transformational. This dimension refers to information, ideas, mate-
rials, and applications. At the foundational end of the continuum, learners are able to
relate to key ideas contained in text or to classify animals or objects on the basis of
visible physical similarities and differences, for example. Those who are nearer the
transformational stage can handle ideas that are removed from the text or immedi-
ate experience and can generalize ideas or skills to different materials or settings.
2. Concrete to abstract. This dimension refers to representations, ideas, issues, prob-
lems, skills, and goals. At the concrete stage, learners fare best with tangible objects,
hands-on activities, and literal rather than analogic or metaphorical examples. As
they progress toward the abstract stage of thinking and learning, they are increas-
ingly able to hold images and ideas in their minds, cope with intangible ideas, and
with metaphors, analogies, and symbols. They can understand principles indepen-
dent of specific events.
3. Simple to complex. Moving along this dimension, learners proceed from a basic
vocabulary of common words in texts that are easy to read to a more advanced,
academic (and therefore abstract) vocabulary in advanced texts. They progress from
being able to work with few if any abstractions to being able to work with multiple
abstractions, and from dealing with the idea or skill being taught to the ability to
incorporate newly learned ideas and skills into those previously learned.
4. Single facet to multi-facet. Processes or procedures with fewer parts, fewer steps, or
stages, characterize the lower end of this dimension, while multiple parts, steps, and
stages, characterize the higher end.
5. Small leap to great leap. Early in their learning, learners are able to deal with few
unknowns, relate best to familiar elements, and are not likely to be flexible in their
thinking. As they progress they are able to tolerate more unknowns and unfamiliar-
ity is no longer a barrier. They are capable of more flexible thought and are more
revolutionary than evolutionary in their thinking.
6. Structured to open-ended. For learners at the early stages, teachers will need to
provide more directions, more precise directions, and more modeling of expected
behaviors. As learners grow in their abilities, teachers will need to give fewer direc-
tions, do less modeling, and allow learners more choice in how they approach a
problem.
7. Dependent to independent. As learners move from dependent to independent learn-
ers, they require less guidance and monitoring in order to identify problems, set
goals, establish timelines, or to find appropriate resources. They will require more
scaffolding in the early stages but will gradually require less as they gain and dem-
onstrate their independence as learners.
8. Slow to fast. ELL teachers are admonished always to allow adequate time. In the early
stages especially, learners will need more time for almost everything—to read, to
practice, to review, to process. As they become more efficient learners, however, they
will need less time for all of these; it is as though they gain momentum.
Observant teachers make note of what strengths learners have and what motivates and
excites them to participate and to learn. They can do so throughout the day, at the end of the
day, or whenever they have an opportunity to make a notation of a success, failure, or source
of frustration. Observing learners on the playground can also give valuable insights into their
social language competency that can be built on in the classroom.
Teachers Need to Build Profiles Over Time
These observations should be kept as part of the learner profiles that teachers create to guide
them toward providing the best support they can. Teachers who make good notes and collate
those notes at regular intervals will find those accounts invaluable as a profile of the learner
starts to take shape. For example, a teacher who has observed repeatedly that a learner likes
to draw or likes poetry or nursery rhymes will be able to use that knowledge in future work
with that learner.
Teachers Can Get Help From ELLs
There are two ways of getting help from the learners themselves. Saying something as simple
as “Tell me if this seems too hard for you” provides a useful starting place. Asking learners
to reflect in writing on tasks, lessons, or assignments, not only provides teachers with useful
feedback but also gives learners valuable experience in writing. It is an authentic language
experience!
Teachers Can Collect Data From Many Sources
Teachers can supplement their own observations with data from a variety of other sources:
other teachers, whether previous or concurrent, parents, test scores, the school bus driver,
principal, counselor, or even social media sites. There are many sources of information about
learners that a teacher can mine to get a better idea of what will work with individual learners.
Setting the Stage for Learning
Obviously, teachers do not have time to identify and cater to every learner’s particular mix
of experience, skills, abilities, and learning styles for every lesson. Differentiating instruction
does not require that. Rather, the starting place is for teachers to:
• Concentrate first on language skills because English, and especially literacy, as we
have seen, is the core competency that makes all content learning possible.
• Focus on creating a learning environment in which all ELLs feel comfortable and
competent. Finding a way to make each learner feel competent gets to the heart of
differentiated instruction.
Gregory & Burkman (2012) offer five suggestions for helping teachers to plan for “multiple
modalities in each lesson while incorporating strategies for English language learners” that
are based on who, why, what, how, and so what. Letting learners know who they can turn to
for information or support tells them that they are not alone and gives them a sense of control
over their own learning. Resources might be a bilingual friend, a resource teacher or librarian,
or even a website. Letting them know why they are learning a particular skill or why they are
engaged in a particular reading or writing task helps them to see relevance. By connecting
the lesson or assignment to something they already know or need to know, teachers make the
experience more meaningful.
Giving learners the what by providing them with advance organizers (such as those we saw
in earlier chapters) prepares them to focus on what is important and to improve their predic-
tion skills. Advance organizers can be tweaked for learners of different skills levels, with more
information provided for those who need more help. Telling them the how means giving the
learners adequate time for practice and for application—for actually using the literacy skills
they are acquiring. Again, making the connection with their existing knowledge helps them to
integrate and remember new information and skills. Finally, the so what relates once more to
relevance by providing learners with “outlets for creativity and dynamic interaction with the
material and skills” (Gregory & Burkman, 2012, Ch. 3), which may involve using their home
language or finding their own culturally specific applications. These five general recommen-
dations help teachers to set the stage for making adjustments that benefit all learners. To
implement any of these recommendations, however, it is useful to have tools. There are three
that are particularly versatile.
Three Power Tools for
Differentiated Instruction
Whether teaching English language or any
of the content areas, teachers will find that
manipulatives and technology are multi-
purpose tools that can be used to adjust
instruction for English language learn-
ers. Equally important is the power of
collaboration.
Manipulatives
One of the major benefits of manipula-
tives is that the amount and type of lan-
guage needed to use them is adjustable;
they reduce the significance of language
for less advanced learners but can also
serve as prompts for more sophisti-
cated language use with intermediate or advanced learners. Objects that can be handled,
arranged, and rearranged, can be used to teach colors, shapes, sizes, and also be used to
illustrate prepositions such as above, below, around, beside, and so on. Interlocking blocks
can be used to build objects around which stories are told and written, and more advanced
learners can write or speak directions to less advanced learners on how to build or accom-
plish something with objects. Manipulatives also help to make math and science content
comprehensible. They give learners a way to test and confirm their mathematical reasoning
and help them to solve problems. They also make learning more fun.
Technology
Children in school today have never known a world without computers, cell phones, elec-
tronic readers, and tablets. Today’s young people are familiar with and like technology, and it
can be one of the most valuable tools in a teacher’s kit if it is used wisely. Schools vary greatly
in terms of what technology is available, and technology itself changes so rapidly, (hardware
RPedrosa/iStock/Thinkstock
Both the calculator and abacus require less
language or language-based thought to use, but
the abacus has the advantage over the calculator
as an instructional manipulative for ELL
teachers. Why?
Section 8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies
and applications), making it difficult to provide specific recommendations. Nevertheless,
there are a few basic directives that apply:
• For math, teach ELLs to use a calculator, if they don’t already know, and have them
practice using it.
• Take advantage of the school’s available technology by staying up to date on soft-
ware available through the school and at the many online sites for teachers, some of
which are listed at the end of this chapter.
• Engage native speakers in recording stories or other passages for ELLs to follow as
they read.
• Teach learners to use electronic dictionaries, bilingual if necessary, and to do inter-
net research. The CCSS demands high levels of research, analytical, and synthesizing
skills in the upper grades, and teaching ELLs to take advantage of all the resources
available furthers their content knowledge, language skills, and reasoning abilities.
Collaboration
Many program options for ELLs involve more than one teacher for at least part of the day—the
classroom teacher and possibly a specialist ESL teacher, or an art, music, or physical education
teacher. For example, art can play a very important role in language development (Chapter 7). We
have seen that the organization of the CCSS provides incentive and opportunity for teachers to
think holistically about the curriculum. The interdisciplinary approach “reflects the crucial role
ELA teachers play in developing students’ literacy skills while at the same time acknowledging
the impact other subject matter teachers have in students’ literacy development” (Bunch, Kibler,
& Pimentel, 2012, p. 1). English language teachers will need to collaborate with other teach-
ers and school personnel on teaching ELLs to read and comprehend nonfiction, to use language
proficiency standards to support instruction, and to design appropriate assessment instruments
to get a fair assessment of ELLs’ knowledge and skills. Just as language proficiency forms the
foundation for other learning, so does language arts provide the curricular basis for teaching the
other core subjects. Perhaps most importantly, teachers who work together, pooling their obser-
vations as well as their skills and knowledge, reach a better understanding of their students and
increase the likelihood of finding high-impact strategies that work for every learner.
In the next sections we will see opportunities for applying the five recommendations for
diversifying instruction and for applying the three tools described here. Before we turn to our
discussion of high-impact strategies that can be adapted for use with English language learn-
ers, let’s remind ourselves why it is so important that teachers find highly effective strategies
for these learners.
8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies
In Chapter 5 we saw the grim statistics for LTELLs: We know that too many ELLs become
LTELLs because educational interventions are delayed, ineffective, or even absent. With every
year and grade level that passes without ELLs reaching grade-level proficiency in language
and content, their chances diminish for ever catching up. The result is an achievement gap
between ELLs and non-ELLs. The evidence is abundant that even when other factors are con-
trolled for, the ELL population fall behind the mainstream population in achievement, and the
gap gets wider throughout the school years unless the ELLs are able to exit developmental
English class in a timely manner. The evidence comes in a variety of forms:
Section 8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies
1. “In 2013, the achievement gap between non-ELL and ELL students [in the NAEP
(National Assessment of Educational Progress) reading assessment] was 38 points
at the 4th-grade level and 45 points at the 8th-grade level.” (Institute of Education
Sciences, 2013).
2. Researchers studying the educational trajectories of ELL learners in Texas collected
data for the years 1990–2009. Their findings tell a similar story: “Whereas 86% of
students who exited an ELL program in three years ‘met the standard’ in math in the
11th grade, only 59% of long-term ELLs ‘met the standard.’” Those ELLs “who had
been in the program for seven or more years were even less likely to meet standards
(44%)” (Flores, Batalova, & Fix, 2012, p. 13).
3. Analyzing graduation data as well as post-graduation trajectories for Texas students
in this same period, the researchers’ results showed “that ELL students who started
in first grade and progressed ‘on time’ to grade twelve and who exited ELL programs
within three years had much better outcomes than other ELL students as well as
their non-ELL counterparts” (Flores, Batalova, & Fix, 2012, p. 20). Also, “the data
raise serious doubts about the academic success of students whose parents opt out
of English language development classes” (p. 21).
Table 8.1: Achievement levels among ELL students, white students, and
Hispanic students
Math Reading
Achievement level Grade four Grade eight Grade four Grade eight
ELL students % % % %
Advanced <1 1 1 0
Proficient 11 5 6 4
Basic 43 23 21 24
Below basic 46 71 73 71
White students
Advanced 7 7 10 3
Proficient 40 30 30 34
Basic 42 42 35 43
Below basic 11 21 25 19
Hispanic students*
Advanced 1 1 2 1
Proficient 18 12 13 13
Basic 48 38 29 41
Below basic 33 50 56 45
*Both ELL and non-ELL students are counted in this category.
Section 8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies
4. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2005 rated fourth and
eighth graders’ proficiency levels in math and reading as advanced, proficient, basic,
or below basic. Table 8.1 shows the percentages of ELLs, Hispanic (ELL and non-
ELL), and white non-ELLs in each category.
5. According to the Education Trust, the 2013 assessment of educational progress as
measured at grade 12 showed the following:
• One in four public high school seniors demonstrated reading skills below the
basic level.
• African American, Latino, and Native American students are about one-third
to one-half as likely as white or Asian students to be proficient in reading.
See Figure 8.1.
• Over the past two decades there has been little change in overall reading scores.
• Since 1992, reading scores have risen for Asian students but remained flat for
other groups. See Figure 8.2.
• Only one in four seniors demonstrated proficient or advanced math skills (NSF,
2004).
• Approximately one in ten African American, Native American, and Latino students
demonstrate proficient or advanced math skills.
• Nationwide, math scores have risen only slightly since 2005.
• Math scores for Asian and Latino students have risen more than other groups, but
Latinos still lag far behind. See Figure 8.3.
Below Basic Basic Proficient/Advances
Grade 12 – NAEP Reading (2013)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
45%
21%
32%
47%
22% 26%
39%
35%
18%
36%
46%
40%
37%
40%
30%
20%
10%
15%
0%
P
e
rc
e
n
ta
g
e
o
f
st
u
d
e
n
ts
African
American
Asian Latino Native
American
White
Below Basic Basic Proficient/Advanced
Figure 8.1: Reading proficiency rates for diverse 12th graders, 2013
A higher percentage of African American, Latino, and Native American students have below basic
levels of reading proficiency.
The Education Trust, (2014, May 7), Statement From The Education Trust on 12th Grade Reading and Mathematics Results From
the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Retrieved from http://edtrust.org/press_release/statement-from-the-
education-trust-on-12th-grade-reading-and-mathematics-results-from-the-2013-national-assessment-of-educational-progress/
*Accommodations for students with disabilities and English language learners not permitted
Grade 12 – NAEP Reading
330
320
310
300
290
280
270
260
250
240
230
A
ve
ra
g
e
S
ca
le
S
co
re
1992* 1994* 1998 2002 2005 2009 2013
White Latino Asian/Pacific
Islander
American
Indian
African
American
*Accommodations for students with disabilities and English language learners not permitted
Section 8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies
Perhaps the most succinct statement of the issue comes from the Texas study in which
researchers concluded, based on their data, those ELLs “who had been in the program for
seven or more years were even less likely to meet standards (44%)” than other ELLs (Flores,
Batalova, & Fix, 2012, p. 13). It seems to come down to time and how we use it.
Throughout our discussions, time has been a recurring theme; ELLs are already at higher risk
in the school system because of their more limited English, and the dual demands of language
and content-area learning mean that teachers cannot waste time with teaching strategies that
don’t work. And yet, there is so much diversity. Every child is different from the one sitting at
the next desk; every class is different from the one next door and from the one that sat in the
same room the year before. Only the curriculum and the content are constant. Or are they?
The goals and objectives are the same for all learners, but the path for attaining them can
vary greatly as we have seen in discussing ELLs in previous chapters. The purpose of the right
high-impact strategies is to make the path for ELLs straighter and easier to travel. It is cru-
cial that education professionals find ways of more effectively serving the ELL population to
prevent their becoming LTELLs and putting at risk their opportunities for career and higher
education. Hispanic learners are at particular risk, and as we have seen, they make up the
majority of ELLs in the public school system. High-yield or high-impact strategies are, thus,
especially important.
Grade 12 – NAEP Reading
330
320
310
300
290
280
270
260
250
240
230
A
ve
ra
g
e
S
ca
le
S
co
re
1992* 1994* 1998 2002 2005 2009 2013
White Latino Asian/Pacific
Islander
American
Indian
African
American
*Accommodations for students with disabilities and English language learners not permitted
Figure 8.2: Reading scores for diverse twelfth graders, 1992–2013
Reading scores of Asian/Pacific Islander students improved beginning in 2005, while the scores of
other twelfth-grade students remained constant.
The Education Trust, (2014, May 7), Statement From The Education Trust on 12th Grade Reading and Mathematics Results
From the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Retrieved from http://edtrust.org/press_release/statement-from-
the-education-trust-on-12th-grade-reading-and-mathematics-results-from-the-2013-national-assessment-of-educational-
progress/
8.3 High-Impact Strategies
Learn, achieve, and do it fast! That appears to be the take-away for ELLs. The teacher’s job is
to make it happen. The education literature abounds with books and articles on high-impact
instructional strategies, many of them based on research conducted by Robert Marzano and
his colleagues. Titles such as “Nine High-Impact Strategies that Work” or “High-Yield Strate-
gies that Get Results” imply that there are easy fixes for complicated situations. Marzano
himself recognizes the fallacies implicit in some of the ways these strategies have been
implemented. One of the major problems has been to assume that instructional strategies
are the only ones that work, when in fact, strategies for classroom management and assess-
ment are also important. Marzano has identified high-impact strategies in all three areas
(Marzano, R. J., 2009) that have been widely adopted in this country. His strategies do not
specifically address ELLs, but they are well-aligned with the achievement goals that ELLs
are expected to reach, and so we examine here the applicability of several of these strate-
gies for ELLs.
There is a tendency among educators to apply Marzano’s strategies too literally, to assume
they are the only strategies that work, or to attempt to apply one set independent of the oth-
ers. For example, some educators will adopt the Marzano instructional strategies without
Figure 8.3: Math scores for diverse twelfth graders, 2005–2013
Math scores for Asian/Pacific Islander and Latino students indicate larger gains between 2005
and 2013.
WhiteLatino American Indian
Alaska Native
African
American
Asian/Pacific
Islander
Grade 12 – NAEP Math
200
190
180
170
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
A
ve
ra
g
e
S
ca
le
S
co
re
2005 2009 2013
The Education Trust, (2014, May 7), Statement From The Education Trust on 12th Grade Reading and Mathematics Results
From the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Retrieved from http://edtrust.org/press_release/statement-from-
the-education-trust-on-12th-grade-reading-and-mathematics-results-from-the-2013-national-assessment-of-educational-
progress/
reference to the assessment or classroom management strategies. But ELL teachers need to
understand how the three areas work together and to have in their arsenal techniques or
applications for all three. They interact with and support one another, as we see in Figure 8.4
which is based on the categorization in Marzano (2009) and serves as an advance organizer
for this section of the chapter. Given the limitations of time and space, not all the strategies
will be discussed in this chapter; while they are all applicable to one degree or another, the
only ones to be discussed here are those in which the application may not be obvious, or may
differ slightly for ELLs, and those which clearly exemplify the communicative approach to
teaching discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. The nine strategies are summarized in Robert
Marzano’s Nine High-impact Instructional Strategies.
Content Strategies
These are the strategies that help students to understand content. More specifically, for ELLs,
they include strategies for dealing with the academic language necessary to further their
understanding. Strategies in this general category are useful for introducing new content, for
Marzano’s Nine High-Impact Instructional Strategies
1. Identifying similarities and differences. Breaking down problems by creating charts or
by comparing, classifying, and creating analogies helps students to understand complex
problems.
2. Summarizing and note taking. Activities that force students to analyze and state what is
important and what is not in their own words promotes comprehension.
3. Reinforcing effort and providing recognition helps learners to see the importance of
effort and allows them to make the connection between effort and achievement.
4. Homework and practice. Providing opportunities to extend learning outside the class-
room in assignments targeted to help with difficult concepts, and with a purpose that
students can identify, maximizes learning.
5. Nonlinguistic representations. Providing learners with images, graphics, objects, move-
ment, or realia, that support the material being learned helps to create additional neural
pathways that assist both learning and recall. (Carey, 2014).
6. Cooperative learning. Groups that are formed according to interests and experiences
and are not too large allow learners to develop social skills and to learn with peers, thus
fostering independence.
7. Setting objectives and providing feedback. Students need direction and they need feed-
back in order to learn. Teachers can help students to personalize the goals set to maxi-
mize their own learning.
8. Generating and testing hypotheses. Higher-order thinking skills can be developed
through using deductive reasoning in all subject areas.
9. Cues, questions, and advance organizers. When students can use what they already
know in the learning of a new task, they learn and remember better. Different kinds of
advance organizers can help, as described in the fifth strategy above.
practicing, integrating and deepening understanding of previously learned content, and for
helping ELLs to engage in cognitively complex learning activities.
Introducing New Content
How we prepare ELLs for new information, whether linguistic or content-based, sets them up
either for success or for frustration and possibly failure. Useful strategies include:
1. Identify critical information. ELLs need a head start on content-area learning.
They need to know ahead of time which information is most important in what
they are about to read or hear. They also need to be prepared for the new words
and the kinds of sentence and text structures used in academic texts, not only so
that they can understand what they read and hear, but so that they can speak
and write appropriately. For them, then, an important application of this
strategy is to explicitly teach the academic language needed to understand
the content.
Figure 8.4: High-impact strategies and applications
Though not specifically designed for ELLs, Robert Marzano’s high-impact strategies align well with
the achievement goals ELLs are expected to reach.
Content
Spontaneous
Behaviors
New
Practice/deeper
understanding
Cognitively Complex
Tasks
Goals/Progress/Success
Classroom routines/
procedures
Engaging students
Adherence or non-
adherence to classroom
rules
Maintaining relationship
with students
Communicating high
expectations
1–8
1–7
1–3
1–3
1–3
1–3
1–3
1–2
1–9
RoutinesStrategy Type
Younger learners will likely have had more exposure to and will understand the
structural properties of stories better than they will nonfiction. They will need to
have simplified materials while they are being introduced to informational text. For
example, a starting point for kindergarten or first grade ELLs would be step-by-step
directions for making muffins or constructing a kite, accompanied by illustrations or
pictures. Teachers point out the sequencing words, then, next, after, and so on, and
help them to write directions for another simple task. Sentence frames with high-
lighted signal words are useful for teaching other relationships such as cause-effect
or compare-contrast: “The snow is melting because _____________________,” and “The
sun is shining, but _____________________.”
Another difficulty with academic language is the vocabulary. If learners don’t under-
stand key words, they won’t be able to figure out the main ideas. Depending on the
subject matter and the level of difficulty, there may be a large number of unfamiliar
words in informational text. While a large number of unfamiliar words in a text can
increase the reading difficulty initially, they also represent good teaching opportu-
nity, precisely because they are contextualized. ELLs can benefit from vocabulary
maps such as the one shown in Figure 8.5 which serve to make connections with
known words, to introduce new and specialized meanings for familiar words, and to
introduce synonyms, related words, and antonyms.
If ELLs are to become proficient independent readers, it is important to teach them
strategies for guessing words from context. Remember that reading has been char-
acterized as a psycholinguistic “guessing game,” and as learners begin to read less
narrative and more informational text, it will be critical for them to have strategies
for figuring out word meanings. While useful, dictionaries (preferably English only)
should be used only for highly technical vocabulary or if other strategies fail. Over
reliance on dictionaries is counterproductive for learners because they need to
develop the ability to determine meaning from context in order to become proficient
readers.
2. Organize ELLs to interact with new knowledge. ELLs can benefit from working in small
groups or dyads when they are learning new content.
Cooperative learning activities promote peer interaction, which helps the
development of language and the learning of concepts and content. It is
important to assign ELLs to different teams so that they can benefit from
English language role models. ELLs learn to express themselves with greater
confidence when working in small teams. In addition to ‘picking up’ vocabu-
lary, ELLs benefit from observing how their peers learn and solve problems.
(ColorínColorado, 2007)
Recall in Chapter 5 (Figure 5.1) that some seating arrangements are more
conducive to language learning than others. No one arrangement works for every
situation; sometimes a dyad is effective, and other times a task calls for a larger
group; sometimes a homogenous group is desirable, while other times more
advanced learners can help less proficient learners while gaining meaningful prac-
tice. Many teachers, however, find that groups of four work well for many lessons
because they allow learners to break into dyads for some tasks and return to the
larger group for others.
3. Preview new content. Remember the passage on Olympic curling in Chapter 6?
Although the primary objective is to rely on text, some background knowledge is
essential to understanding the text. The language used in social studies might not be
as difficult for ELLs as the concepts themselves, since they may have little familiar-
ity with some of the topics covered—for example, the different levels of government
and how they are structured and chosen—or with the U.S. perspective on the world
in general, (for example, the notion of the Far East will have a different meaning to
Asians than to North or South Americans). Another kind of background that it is
helpful to build for ELLs is the structure of academic texts. Language arts curriculum
Figure 8.5: Vocabulary map for the word crowd
A vocabulary map can help ELLs make connections among known words, synonyms, and antonyms.
Name:
My Sentences
My brother got lost
in the crowd.
My sentences
We tried to crowd
too many people
into the car.
Date:
Crowd
Noun: a large
group of people
Verb: to pack or
fill to capacity
My sentences My sentences
Synonyms
mass, throng,
hoarde,
multitude, swarm
Synonyms
pack, fill, jam
Words I need to
look up:
capacity, horde
Antonyms
small group,
sparse
gathering,
few people
Antonyms
scatter,
spread out,
separate
has typically focused on stories, especially in elementary school, and the shift to
nonfiction will likely require some advance work with learners on how those texts
are structured.
Informational text and literary text have different structures. For younger ELLs who
are mostly familiar with story structure, it is helpful to teach the structural differ-
ences between literary and informational text. Informational text often involves the
development of an argument or line of reasoning. Therefore, teachers need to be
able to show how to identify the word cues or signals. (See Signal Words for Five Text
Structures.) Although the goal, ultimately, is for ELLs to acquire the ability to extrap-
olate meaning from text by learning the structural, linguistic, and mechanical con-
ventions, and the vocabulary used in academic writing, the starting place must be
with what they already know. By identifying cultural differences that might interfere
with comprehension and eliciting what learners already know about a given subject,
teachers eliminate some of the barriers and open the doors to understanding infor-
mational texts.
4. Chunk content into smaller, manageable “bites.” One of the purposes of advance
organizers is to show the major points and the relationships among them. One of the
purposes of organizing books into chapters and chapters into sections under mean-
ingful headings is to break the content into more easily “digestible” pieces. What is
overwhelming in the whole can be made very accessible when reduced to coherent
parts.
Signal Words for Five Text Structures
Description: above, below, under, beside, down, up, across; color words: blue, green, red, yellow;
adjectives: tall, old, short, squat, round, young
Chronological: next, before, then, first, second, third, finally, during
Comparison/contrast: on the one hand, on the other hand, in contrast, similarly, however, but,
compared with, different from, similar to
Cause/effect: because, for this reason, since, as a result, therefore, then, in order to, due to, as a
consequence
Problem/solution: because, since, consequently, as a result, therefore, solve, solution, resolve, as
a consequence
Notice that many of the signal words for cause/effect and problem/solution structures are
the same. Although they will have one main organizational structure, many informational
texts will also have other logical structures embedded in them. For example, a problem
may be stated (“The country of Haiti faces grave economic challenges”), the causes and
their effects described (“Its geography makes it vulnerable to major weather events such
as hurricanes, its history as a French colony [may involve chronology], its lack of natural
resources”), and the solution, or inability to reach one, stated in terms of addressing the
causes.
Source: Adapted from McLaughlin, & Overturf, 2014.
5. Process new information as a group. There is great value in “talking through” each
“chunk” of information. The teacher helps learners to summarize what they have
covered so far. It is also good practice to ask questions in order to gauge ELLs’ under-
standing, to identify the source and correct any misunderstandings or fill in any
gaps before moving on. Five Ideas for Cooperative Learning lists other ways of using
cooperative learning for processing new content information.
6. Elaborate on new information. As we learned in Chapter 6, technical and scientific
writing may employ words that look familiar but are used in precise ways. A valu-
able way of elaborating and expanding on the new information that is contained in
science or other content-area texts is to expand upon the meanings of these special-
ized words. Ideally, readers learn to find the meanings of unfamiliar words in the
text itself. This is an opportunity to make use of prior knowledge of a subject, where
it exists, or if not, to show students how to use textual information to figure out the
meanings of technical terms.
Most English words have more than one meaning, some of which are idiomatic.
Idioms are words or groups of words used in such a way that the meaning cannot
be deduced from the conventional meanings. The English language also abounds
with homophones and homographs. As discussed in Chapters 6 and 7, ELL teachers
should exploit every opportunity to expand their learners’ receptive and productive
Five Ideas for Cooperative Learning
1. Round robin. Introduce a category such as “state capitols” and have learners take turns
naming the state and its capitol. The category could be birds, mammals, fictional heroes,
words that start with “p,” and so on.
2. Writearound. This can be used for summarizing or for creative writing. Begin by pro-
viding each learner in each group with the start of a sentence and ask everybody in
the group to finish it. They then pass the paper to the right (or left), read the sentence,
and add one of their own. Two or three rounds should complete the story or summary.
Learners then read each story to the class or “publish” it in other ways.
3. Team puzzle. The teacher divides a text into four sections and gives each person in
the group one-quarter of the text. Each learner reads the section and then teaches the
others. They collectively put the piece together again and summarize its main ideas and
purpose.
4. Literature circle. The teacher makes sets of four books available. Learners choose their
own books and groups form on that basis. Learners read the books individually, but the
groups are responsible for analyzing and discussing what they read. Learners will need
different amounts of guidance, depending on the complexity of the content and their
language proficiency levels.
5. Math teams. Pairs of learners can work together on math worksheets. One learner does
the first problem while the other acts as “coach”. Roles are reversed for the next prob-
lem. After completing the first two (or four) problems, they confer with another group
to check their answers and talk through any errors.
Source: Adapted from http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/content/cooperative/
vocabulary by teaching the full range of possible meanings, so that learners are
not surprised or confused when they encounter what they thought was a familiar
word which doesn’t make sense in the context. If, for example, they have learned
the meaning of clear in the context of “It’s a clear day,” they might not understand
“I cleared my calendar” or “There are clear reasons for believing in climate change.”
In general, ELL teachers should make use of any opportunity they can to elaborate
on new information in a way that helps ELLs to integrate it into their existing knowl-
edge and experience. Asking questions that elicit opinions or judgments or that
require them to make and defend inferences is a good way of expanding knowledge.
7. Record and represent knowledge. One of the Common Core standards related to
key ideas and details requires that learners from third grade onward be capable
of summarizing what they read. Teaching ELLs to take notes on which they can
base their summaries helps them to develop better listening skills and to become
more adept and efficient readers. One of the ways that teachers can assist is to
identify the number of key ideas to listen (or read) for, and list one or two of
them, leaving the others blank. Similarly, they can provide one or two support-
ing details. It is also helpful to show ELLs that notes need not be in sentence
form but can be organized numerically or graphically using arrows or whatever
mechanism works, then later they can be written into summary statements in
sentence form.
8. Reflect on learning. Once a lesson is completed,
it is useful for teachers to reflect with learners
on what they have learned. For young learn-
ers, the exercise can be as simple as “What
new things have we learned about giraffes
today?” For older learners, the exercise can be
more complex. For example, the teacher might
ask each learner before reading a passage to
list everything they think they know about a
topic—world population growth or the effects
of fossil fuels on the planet. After each lesson,
the teacher can ask what they have learned,
to confirm, raise doubt, or refute each belief.
For learners at all ability levels, it is an oppor-
tunity for their teachers to do comprehen-
sion checks and to probe the source of any
misunderstanding.
Practicing and Deepening Understanding
of Content
Most of the content presented in schools comes from
written text, but some of the “standard issue” texts
used in school may be too difficult for ELLs. Texts writ-
ten for native speakers may need to be supplemented
or adapted to make the language easier to understand,
while preserving the content. Teachers may look for
texts presenting the same material in simpler language
Goodluz/iStock/Thinkstock
This boy is writing a summary
based on notes he has taken. Taking
notes also involves the ability to
summarize ideas, though, because
few people can write down every
word they hear.
before introducing the more complex texts, or they may find it useful to provide advance orga-
nizers for the more complex texts:
1. Review content. Reviewing previously learned material is always good teaching prac-
tice, but for ELLs it helps to solidify the integration of the content and also provides
an opportunity to expand vocabulary within familiar content by introducing syn-
onyms, antonyms, or other related words and phrases within the review.
2. Organize students to engage in authentic practice. In order to learn to use language,
ELLs need ample opportunity to speak it and authentic settings and reasons for
using it. Small group work helps ELLs to negotiate meaning with classmates, and
they also benefit from the feedback of peers, which may be less formal and more
comprehensible than teacher feedback.
3. Practice skills, strategies, and processes. Provide practice by creating text-dependent
questions appropriate to grade and language proficiency levels. Learners need prac-
tice in finding the answers within the text, and so structuring questions that cannot
be answered on the basis of prior knowledge without having read the text provides
valuable support. Questions such as “What is the capital of Montana?” or “What is
the most populous state in the United States?” require little or no dependence on
text. Either the learner already knows the answer or can scan the text quickly for
words that match those in the question. On the other hand, questions such as “What
are the main factors contributing to poverty in the United States?” require the reader
to extrapolate and summarize information from text.
4. Examine similarities and differences. Teaching ELLs to analyze what they read and
hear involves the ability to:
• Compare and contrast
• Understand and generate metaphors and analogies
• Classify and categorize
Very simple exercises such as the one shown in Figure 8.6 begins to teach the obser-
vational skills and the language that will be needed later for more complex analysis in
academic text.
5. Explore errors in reasoning. Having ELLs retell a story or to outline the argument from
something they have heard or read achieves two purposes: It helps to develop their
note-taking and summarizing skills, and it helps the teacher to discover any errors in
comprehension or reasoning and address the source of those errors. Another dimen-
sion of this strategy is to ensure that learners can distinguish fact from opinion. Recall
7 Billion and Counting! from Chapter 7? This is an excellent example of a text that can
be used to help ELLs to determine what is fact and what is opinion. Teachers can build
this understanding through the use of advance organizers such as the one shown in
Figure 8.7 and by incremental questioning such as in the following example:
a. What is the population of the world?
b. How many people are born each minute?
c. How do we know? Or, who reported it?
d. What will the population of the world be in 2030?
e. Is the statement “the world is jam-packed” a fact or an opinion?
f. How do you know?
g. Can you find other opinions in the piece?
1. Make a list of all the properties shared by each shape in Set A
2. Make a list of all the properties shared by each shape in Set B.
3. Use the following words in at least one of your lists:
a. Monochromatic
b. Curve or Curved
c. Angle or angular
d. Outlined
4. Begin one or more sentences with All of the shapes in Set A
5. Begin one or more sentences with None of the shapes in Set B
6. This shape fits best in Set but could also fit in Set because
but it could also fit in Set because
Set A Set B
Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies
Some topics that might be used include:
a. Do you think there are too many people on Earth?
b. What might cause the population of the Earth to grow faster? Or slower?
c. What do people need to live that there might not be enough of if the population
grew too fast?
These techniques can be adapted for use for learners in the upper grades who also
need additional content and language support.
6. Use homework productively. Homework is an opportunity for learners to engage
with material on their own time and to find its “place” in their own “catalog” of
learning. Encourage ELLs not only to complete additional tasks related to what they
Figure 8.6: Categorizing by comparing and contrasting
This type of exercise allows learners to practice observation and language skills that will be required
to complete more complex analyses of academic texts.
Name: Date:
1. Make a list of all the properties shared by each shape in Set A
2. Make a list of all the properties shared by each shape in Set B.
3. Use the following words in at least one of your lists:
a. Monochromatic
b. Curve or Curved
c. Angle or angular
d. Outlined
4. Begin one or more sentences with All of the shapes in Set A
5. Begin one or more sentences with None of the shapes in Set B
6. This shape fits best in Set but could also fit in Set because
but it could also fit in Set because
Set A Set B
have learned but to come back with questions about anything they may not have
understood or things they would like to know more about. Homework assignments
are ideally suited for teachers to provide targeted assistance to individual learners,
whether through specific questions or supplemental reading or listening activities.
Homework is a good place in which to take advantage of technology. One of the
advantages of the computer for ELLs is that some of the materials intended for
Figure 8.7: Advanced organizer for discriminating between fact and opinion
Teachers can use this type of advanced organizer to help ensure learners comprehend a story by
encouraging them to summarize the story, prompting them to distinguish fact from opinion.
“big” news
Earth is
jam packed
Name: Date:
7 Billion and Counting!
7 billion
people on
earth
Population
continues to
grow
261 people
born each
minute
Population
doubled
since 1960
Other? World Population
Kerry Kangaroo Hops
Kerry Kangaroo was growing up. Mama Kangaroo let him out of her pouch.
“You are getting big,” said Mama. “Big Kangaroo kids need to learn to hop.”
Kerry tried out his strong legs and big feet. He hopped a few times. He hopped and hopped.
He hopped away from Mama. He hopped here and there. He even hopped with his eyes closed.
Splash!
(continued)
native speakers are more accessible to ELLs when they can proceed at their own
pace, repeat and review as necessary, look up further information, and so on. That
they can do all these things away from the judgment and scrutiny of peers and
teacher empowers them to become independent learners.
7. Revise and clarify information. Learning is an evolutionary and transformational
process. As we learn new things, we figure out how our new knowledge fits into
what we already knew. We revise what we previously believed to be true, or we
form new opinions. When teachers clarify new information or help ELLs to revise
their own understandings, they expand knowledge. Helping ELLs to add to or
expand their definitions of words or learn how they are used idiomatically is a
very easy but effective way for teachers to build content and language knowledge
simultaneously.
Cognitively Complex Tasks
The focus of the Common Core standards is for learners to develop abilities to read, under-
stand, and undertake progressively more complex academic tasks, and, ultimately, to gener-
ate and test hypotheses, especially in science (Chapter 7). For ELLs, the complexity resides
both in the language and in the content, and so it is especially important to prepare them in
to engage with more complex academic material. Useful strategies for teaching cognitively
complex tasks include the following:
1. Organize learners for cognitively complex tasks. Learners may benefit from working
in groups to “pool” their knowledge and skills to complete cognitively complex tasks.
Students who are linguistically more advanced are often able to help those less pro-
ficient, explaining or describing using language that is closer to their comprehension
levels. Before group work can be effective, however, teachers may need to analyze
texts and ensure that ELLs are knowledgeable about the structure and vocabulary
found in complex academic writing.
2. Engage learners in complex tasks. What ELLs find complex may differ from what
native speakers find complex because of gaps in language. An activity that works well
for young ELLs is to engage them in a discussion of whether a story is true, possibly
true, or fantasy, and make them defend their decisions about each. Even first graders
can take part in an activity such as the one in Kerry Kangaroo Hops.
Older and more advanced learners need to engage in problem-solving, decision mak-
ing, and experimental inquiry. Math, social studies, and science are all well-suited to
these tasks. One math example is shown in Five Ideas for Cooperative Learning, but
other subjects also lend themselves to problem-solving and decision making. One
effective technique for use in any subject area is to use scenarios. Teachers con-
struct in advance scenarios that involve problems to be solved. In A Courtroom in the
Classroom (Chapter 7), we can see that this article sets the stage for many problem-
solving and decision making activities. It is an ideal vehicle for scenario-based
activities that learners could work on cooperatively. Two examples are provided in
Classroom Courtroom: Two Scenarios.
Classroom Courtroom: Two Scenarios
Chris Crosser has been charged with jay-walking and endangerment of life. His trial begins today.
1. First, be sure that you understand each word in italics and how it is used by explaining
what crime has been committed.
2. Define the job of each of the following participants:
• Defendant
• Defense attorney
• Prosecutor
(continued)
Kerry Kangaroo Hops (continued)
Kerry hopped right into a water hole! Mama Kangaroo helped Kerry out.
“That is too much hopping for one day!” cried Kerry.
He hopped back into his cozy pouch. He was tired. He fell fast asleep.
What is true? What could be true? What is not true?
Baby kangaroos sleep in their
mothers’ pouches.
The baby Kangaroo might be
named Kerry.
Kangaroos do not speak.
Baby Kangaroos grow up. Kerry might hop into the
water.
The second scenario requires learners to think inferentially, to posit and test hypoth-
eses, to consider the difference between fact and opinion, and to reach a conclusion.
What other judgment, problem-solving, decision making, or hypothesis testing will
be required in the two scenarios? Using scenarios for problem-solving and decision
making encourages independent learning and also allows the teacher to adopt the
role of resource provider and guide.
3. Provide resources and guidance. Perhaps the most important aspect of guidance is to
provide scaffolding support so that ELLs at different levels of language proficiency
can participate in meaningful conversation and writing using complex text.
We learned in the last chapter that instructional scaffolding builds on existing skills
and provides support to move learners to the next level of competency. Because
the demands of academic language in the content areas are progressively greater
through the grade levels, the kinds of support will vary from learner to learner as
well as from year to year. Some learners in the lower elementary years will need
highly structured questions to guide them through the text, some will require
additional vocabulary support, and others may need the background information
mentioned above. Scaffolding activities “include modeling the use of academic or
technical language; contextualizing academic or technical language through the use
of visuals, gestures, graphic organizers, and demonstrations; and using hands-on
learning activities that involve the use of academic or technical language” (Arizona
Department of Education, 2011, p. 3).
Classroom Courtroom: Two Scenarios (continued)
• Judge
• Clerk
• Police officer (witness) who wrote the ticket.
3. Choose classmates to play each of the roles. Others in the class will be in the jury pool.
You have heard the case against Chris Crosser, a 21-year-old man accused of endangering him-
self and others by crossing the street against the light in busy traffic. Both sides have presented
their case, and the case has gone to you, the jury. Please select a foreman and then examine the
following evidence:
1. The crime was crossing the street against the light in busy traffic.
2. It occurred at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday in November.
3. Two eyewitnesses testified that the defendant was having dinner with them at their
home six miles away at the time of the crime.
4. One of these witnesses is the defendant’s cousin and the other is the cousin’s girlfriend.
5. One eyewitness, a 45-year-old woman, testified that she saw the defendant commit the
crime.
6. This witness was approximately 25 feet away from the defendant at the time.
7. Security cameras at a nearby restaurant caught images of a man who bore strong resem-
blance to the defendant as he stepped onto the sidewalk and entered the restaurant.
How would you proceed? The fate of this defendant is in your hands! (Additional prompts
could be provided if needed.)
A trophy is one way of
recognizing achievement, but
success can be celebrated in
more subtle but equally effective
ways every day.
Establishing and Maintaining Routines
Routines are not only of the “housekeeping” variety. The routines that ELL teachers need to
concern themselves with relate not only to how they establish and maintain a classroom that
is conducive to learning but to how they communicate learning goals and track and celebrate
learners’ progress.
Communicate Learning Goals, Track Progress, and Celebrate Success
It is easier to get somewhere if we know where we’re going. It is also easier to stay motivated
if we can see that we are making progress on the route and if we mark milestones along the
way. The three strategies in this category are about setting objectives and indicators for meet-
ing them.
1. Provide clear learning goals and scales or rubrics to measure those goals. Effective
teachers are those who set high expectations for their students, even those who
are traditionally “underachievers”. This music teacher explains his frustration in
dealing with misconceptions about innate ability and the low expectations they
can cause:
As a music educator, this author battled constantly with student and par-
ent misconceptions such as “music is a gift” or “either you’ve got it or you
don’t”. Music, like so many other human endeavors, is learned, and the
expectations that the teacher holds for each and every student are not
only important, but perhaps determinant of out-
comes. Teachers must develop their own teach-
ing skills (also learned!), believe both in their
own effectiveness and in a student’s potential to
learn, and act to foster the learning they expect.
(Miller, 2001)
2. Track learner progress. Design appropriate
assessments for ELLs at each grade and language
proficiency level. As we saw in Chapter 5, ELLs
require some accommodation when it comes
to assessing their content-area knowledge. The
language arts teacher needs not only to have an
accurate indication of learners’ language ability,
but also be able to provide advice to content-area
teachers about how to assess learners’ con-
tent knowledge independent of their language
proficiency.
3. Acknowledge and celebrate student success. One
of the exciting things about teaching young ELLs
is being witness to the progress they make daily.
Acknowledging this progress is both motivating
and affirming. Some successes will be celebrated
by the entire class or even the school, but others
will be more private—the quiet acknowledgement to the learner of the progress a
learner has made in reading or math, or in a note on a returned assignment that can
be taken home for parents to see. Learners who receive positive feedback for their
accomplishments are more likely to accept constructive criticism or error correc-
tion in the helpful spirit in which they are intended.
Establish and Maintain Classroom Rules and Expectations
While it is important to motivate learners with interesting and even fun activities and to wel-
come some spontaneity, a classroom that is orderly, without being oppressive, and where
learners know what to expect, is more conducive to teaching and learning.
1. Establish classroom routines. Elementary students are more free to concentrate
on language and learning when classroom routines are familiar. Knowing what to
expect in the science curriculum and being able to see in advance how it is orga-
nized will help learners make connections between topics, relate to prior knowl-
edge, and reinforce the sense of familiarity; it also helps parents or others who may
help with homework to understand what broader objectives are being served by a
particular lesson.
At the lesson level, outlines or graphic organizers provide an overview or roadmap
of the lesson’s objectives and key concepts. Effective lessons are planned and have
structure and flow that make them easier to follow. They also make the class more
predictable (in a good way!) and comfortable for learners. Lesson flow maps may
vary in some details from teacher to teacher, but the one shown in Figure 8.8 has
the main elements of a lesson and is adaptable for different teachers and subject
areas.
2. Organize the classroom layout for learning. A classroom that is organized for learn-
ing is rich in resources, visually engaging, and inviting. Furnishings should be
easily moveable to allow different size groups to work on different kinds of proj-
ects, and there should be ample space for displaying student work. Traffic patterns
should be established for ease in movement without distracting or interfering with
work.
This type of flow diagram can be adapted according to the specific subject area and lesson the teacher
wants to cover.
Statement
of Title
or Topic
What We Know
(active Background
Knowledge)
What We Think We’re
Going to Learn
(Prediction)
Presentation
(Chunk of
Material)
Presentation
(Chunk of
Material)
Summarize
What we learned
(Review)
Facts Opinions
Follow-up
(Practice)
Homework
(Individualized
Instruction, authentic
practice…)
What we want
to find out
Discussion
Discussion
Comprehension Check
Comprehension Check
How? (Sources)
Name: Date:
Table 8.2: Strategies and applications for dealing with
spontaneous behaviors
Engage learners. Deal with learners
who adhere and
do not adhere to
classroom rules.
Maintain
relationships
with students.
Communicate high
expectations.
Monitor attention and
participation.
Notice and react when
learners are inattentive
or not participating.
Demonstrate
awareness of
variations in learner
behavior.
Marzano calls this
“with-it-ness.”
Understand stu-
dents’ interests and
backgrounds.
Demonstrate value
and respect for “low-
expectancy” learners.
Low expectations
can be a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Respect
learners who struggle
and set high yet attain-
able goals for them.
Use academic “games”
to re-engage learners.
Apply consequences. Use behaviors that
indicate regard for
learners.
Respect for ELLs as
individuals and for their
cultures makes them
more comfortable and
willing to take linguistic
risks.
Ask questions of “low-
expectancy” learners.
Tiered questions
allow these learners to
participate actively in
lower-level questions
and passively in higher-
level questions.
Manage response rates.
Give ELLs adequate time
but do not allow time for
attention to wane.
Acknowledge com-
pliance with rules
and procedures.
Positive feedback
serves not only to
motivate but to rein-
force the rules.
Display objectivity
and control.
Teachers, like parents,
have a role other than
“friend”.
Probe incorrect
answers to determine
the source.
It is easier for teachers
to correct a misunder-
standing or fix a prob-
lem if they understand
why it occurred.
Use physical
movement.
Having ELLs move to
different groups or
learning centers or using
activities that require
some movement helps
to maintain interest and
focus.
(continued)
Responding Spontaneously
Careful planning does not require that every moment of classroom time be scripted; in fact, it
would not be possible to have much authentic language use if it were. Students do not always
respond in the way that would be ideal for moving the lesson forward; sometimes students
are slow to respond or do not respond at all. Other times, students may not follow classroom
rules or may even be disruptive. Teachers need to be able to respond to whatever happens in
the classroom to maintain focus on the learning outcomes they are trying to achieve. Table 8.2
summarizes the strategies involved in this category.
Section 8.4 Action Research: Learning from Practice
8.4 Action Research: Learning from Practice
The strategies we have examined so far have been research based, relying extensively on
the work of Robert Marzano and his colleagues. Their own research was synthesized with
the work of countless other researchers who have investigated effective practice for many
decades. Adapting and using strategies that research and practice have shown to have a high
impact is an excellent starting place for ELL teachers, but ultimately, every teacher needs to
adapt those strategies to learners’ particular needs. As much as we rely on the experience
of others, we also know that our own practice and experience as teachers is also a valuable
resource.
Beginning teachers sometimes despair when a lesson doesn’t work or when learners seem
confused; more experienced teachers know that not every strategy works with every learner,
that many instructional ideas need just a little tweaking to make them more effective, and that
some should just be discarded. Even though they may not document what they have learned
in their own classrooms, throughout the years, teachers learn from experience what works
and what doesn’t. They adapt, improve, and expand what works, and abandon what doesn’t.
They are, in a very real sense, action researchers.
Action research is “a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the
action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the actor in improving
or refining his or her actions” (Sagor, 2000, Ch. 1). Why is it important? Much of the literature
on action research focuses on school improvement as the ultimate goal, but it is also appli-
cable for individual teachers because “no group of people are more emotional and passionate
Engage learners. Deal with learners
who adhere and
do not adhere to
classroom rules.
Maintain relation-
ships with students.
Communicate high
expectations.
Present unusual infor-
mation (or information
in an unusual way).
Maintain a lively
rhythm.
ELLs are less likely to
get bored or lose focus
when a lively pace is
maintained.
Demonstrate enthusi-
asm and intensity.
Encourage and use
friendly controversy.
Provide opportunities
for learners to talk
about themselves.
Table 8.2: Strategies and applications for dealing with
spontaneous behaviors (continued)
Section 8.4 Action Research: Learning from Practice
about promoting universal student success than classroom teachers” (Sagor, 2011, Ch. 1).
Action research, as its name suggests, leads to strategic actions, but before teachers can
engage in research leading to actions, they need to determine a focus, and in order to do that,
they need to reflect. Reflection is, thus, a very useful precursor to action research. What sets
action research apart from other kinds of research is that it has immediate applicability to the
person conducting it.
Sagor suggests using written narratives as a means of reflection and has found that the out-
comes teachers usually envision in their narratives fall into three categories: performance tar-
gets, process targets, and program targets. Performance targets focus on the learners—what
they know, what they can do, what they choose to do, and how they feel about themselves and
the situations they are in. Program targets are school-level outcomes (2011, Ch. 1) affected
by factors such as the accountability movement. As we have seen in the past seven chapters,
the high performance targets for ELLs and the expectations set for school performance put a
great deal of pressure on teachers. Process targets focus on the teacher and especially those
techniques and strategies that are “keepers” because they have been found to be successful.
Succinctly put, every day, the ELL teacher is confronted with the task of figuring out, not only
for each class, but for each learner, what the most appropriate strategy is for teaching the
content in order to meet the learning objectives.
Action research is conducted by practising language teachers because they
themselves are valuable sources of knowledge regarding their own classroom
situations, and as a result change can be implemented more credibly because
practising teachers will find the results more credible and valid for their
needs. (Farrel, 2007, p. 94)
The literature on the use of action research by ELL/ESL teachers indicates the following
characteristics:
• it involves collecting information about classroom events (in the classroom), through
observation or through collecting information in other ways, such as through inter-
views, questionnaires, or recordings of lessons;
• it involves careful and systematic collecting of that information;
• the research involves some kind of follow-up action;
• this action involves some change in practice, and monitoring the effects of such
change;
• the results are owned by teachers, rather than the research community;
• the results of the research can be reported at a staff meeting or through a written
report;
• it seeks to build up a knowledge base about teaching based on practitioner’s knowl-
edge, rather than expand the knowledge base developed by academics and theoreti-
cians outside of the school context;
• it develops research skills useful for classroom inquiry;
• it brings about changes in classroom teaching and learning;
• it develops a deeper understanding of teaching and learning processes; and
• it empowers teachers by giving them the tools which they can use to further impact
changes within the profession in that they work.
(Farrel, 2007, p. 95)
Section 8.4 Action Research: Learning from Practice
Action research is not a teaching approach or method; rather, it is a philosophical and psy-
chological mindset that characterizes how teachers reflect upon their work and engage in the
building of learning communities. It is empowering for teachers because they are identifying
and working on problems that are immediate and relevant and because they are participating
in their solutions. It is empowering for learners because it engages them as active partici-
pants in their own learning. In contrast to teachers who view research as something done by
others, evaluated for its relevance and applicability, and then used in the classroom, teach-
ers engaging in action research are always pursuing a relevant question that has immediate
applicability and which can be evaluated and modified continuously.
Figuring out what works best with ELLs is usually left to the individual teachers, although
there is much to read on the subject. “Although there is no question that teacher instincts and
judgment play a significant role in instructional decisions, research has shown that they’re
not enough.” (Syrja, 2012). We all know intuitively, and research confirms, that some practices
simply work better than others. Teachers who are adapting mainstream strategies for use
with ELLs need to be able to evaluate the effect of their adaptations—this is action research.
Keeping a record of what has worked, what hasn’t, and what adaptations have been made, is
part of the process, but it is also just good practice.
We conclude the chapter with the words of a teacher. In her second year of teaching, Martina
Fernandez discovered the power of action research and collaboration.
Why I Teach: Martina Fernandez
Very little about my first year of teaching was easy. I had a third grade class in my small Ari-
zona town. Although all of my 22 children spoke some English, there were only four or five
who were at or near grade level in reading. Every day with every lesson, I struggled to find the
middle, that place where I thought most of them would be able to keep up and to learn. By the
end of the first quarter, I could see that was working for five or six of them, but I wasn’t reach-
ing three-quarters of the class—several were just bored and starting to act out and the others
were really struggling. One day in the staff room, the art teacher was talking about a course
she had taken on using art to teach other subjects. I asked her, begged her really, to come and
work with my kids. She spent a morning in my class, and I learned more from watching her
than I had learned in college about dealing with diversity. She spent a few minutes talking
with the whole group about what kinds of art they liked to create, and then she divided them
into groups. With one group, she used her few words of Spanish to get them to teach her, and
I watched fascinated as together they negotiated a drawing of a scene inspired by a story she
told them. I worked with her and another group on a project that had one child look at a pic-
ture and then use words to direct another child to draw it. Fortunately, I had the presence of
mind to make notes of what she did and, at the end of the day, to reflect on why it had worked.
The note-taking habit was one that I continued through the year as I built on the half-day les-
son I had learned from my colleague. The year improved, and as I began my second year of
teaching, I did so with more confidence, having started to build my own tool kit of ideas and
techniques that worked for me. That kit and the colleagues who help me add to it are the rea-
son I keep teaching.
Summary
The key take-away of this chapter is simply this: When it comes to teaching, one size does
not fit all. Diversity in a classroom requires differentiation. Differentiation is, by definition,
impossible to codify in advance for every teacher, class, or learner. Instead, teachers must
find their own way based on knowledge about learners and the multitude of factors that
influence how they learn and on knowledge of each individual learner. Fortunately, there are
principles to guide teachers and tools for them to use in finding the high-impact strategies
that help to move ELLs to succeed academically. We have seen that the strategies that work
for mainstream learners can also work for ELLs if we take care to consider and adjust for
their particular needs. As important as they are as a starting place for teachers, high-impact
strategies have to be tweaked, tuned, and incorporated into teachers’ own repertoire of
teaching skills through reflection and action research. Differentiation for diversity and good
practice require it.
Key Ideas
1. Teaching diverse students is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor.
2. In order to differentiate instruction effectively, teachers need to get to know their
learners through formal assessment, observation of a number of dimensions of
learning, and by collecting data from a variety of sources.
3. For differentiating instruction, manipulatives, technology, and collaboration are the
three most essential tools in an ELL teacher’s “kit”.
4. For ELL learners, time is of the essence. With every year and grade level that passes
without ELLs reaching grade-level proficiency in language and content, their
chances diminish for ever catching up.
5. It is essential that teachers use high-impact strategies for teaching ELLs, to keep
them from becoming LTELLs, for whom the prognosis for academic success is poor.
6. High-impact strategies address how teachers approach content, classroom routines,
and spontaneous behaviors.
7. How we prepare ELLs for new information, whether linguistic or content-based, sets
them up either for success or for frustration that might result in failure.
8. Adapting and using strategies that research and practice have shown to have a high
impact is an excellent starting place for ELL teachers, but, ultimately, every teacher
needs to adapt those strategies to learners’ particular needs.
9. Teachers are empowered when they are identifying and working on problems that
are immediate and relevant and when they are participating in their solutions.
Key Terms
achievement gap Any significant and persistent disparity in academic performance or edu-
cational attainment between different groups of students.
action research “A disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the
action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the actor in improving
or refining his or her actions” (Sagor, 2000, Ch. 1).
cooperative learning A teaching strategy in which small teams comprised of students with
different levels of ability use a variety of learning activities to increase their understanding
of a subject.
tiered questions Questions organized in a progression that begins with an easy-to-answer
question and in which each subsequent question builds on the answer to the previous one.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. How does the notion of communicative competence relate to the need for differenti-
ated instruction?
2. What is the relationship between differentiated instruction and the action research
that ELL teachers are encouraged to do?
3. Why is predictability and structure important for ELLs?
4. Why are advance organizers important for ELLs? How might they differ for beginner
and advanced learners?
5. Read Classroom Courtroom: Two Scenarios again and suggest a follow-up lesson
using another scenario.
6. Why is it important for ELLs to be able to summarize what they read (or hear)?
What transferable cognitive skills will they build?
7. What does the label “overachiever” imply about expectations that others may have
of the learner labeled in that way?
8. Why is practice important and how can it be made consistent with authentic lan-
guage use?
Additional Resources
For greater detail about teaching in a standards-based environment and about differentiated
classrooms, see
http://www.nycteachingfellows.org/fellows/June%202004%20Guidebook
An excellent article on differentiating instruction for middle school ELLs can be found at
http://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet/TabId/270/ArtMID/888/
ArticleID/350/Differentiating-Instruction-for-ELLs.aspx
For further information on action research, see
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/100047/chapters/What-Is-Action-
Research%C2%A2.aspx
An excellent discussion of the importance of teachers having high expectations for learners,
supported by research findings, is available at
http://www.greaterexpectations.org/briefing_papers/improvestudentlearning.html
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter you will be able to accomplish the following objectives:
• Describe the significance of the Common Core Reading: Informational Text Standards for ELLs.
• Articulate the challenges of and opportunities for teaching science to ELLs.
• Identify and evaluate the unique opportunities that social studies provides for meeting English language
standards and for increasing cultural awareness.
• Argue coherently for linking math and language in the instruction of English language learners.
• Evaluate the role and importance of the arts in the curriculum for ELLs.
Introduction
We learned in Chapter 6 that to succeed in school, ELLs must learn language and content
simultaneously and that reading comprehension is central to both. In this chapter we take
a closer look at the subjects in the school curriculum—social studies, science, math, the
arts, and because it is foundational to all of these, English language arts. This perspective
is consistent with the organization and focus of the Common Core State Standards. The
CCSS provide a useful frame for our discussions, not only because they are a practical
reality in education but also because they embody the reality that language and literacy
are central to all learning. They represent an opportunity to develop elementary school
curricula that are truly cross-disciplinary, or inter-disciplinary, and that are also consis-
tent with the principles of communicative language teaching. For kindergarten through
fifth grade, the CCSS provides standards for only two areas—math and English language
arts because “they are areas upon which students build skill sets that are used in other
subjects. Students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in
a variety of content areas . . .” (CCSS, FAQ). For later years, the standards for science and
social studies/history specify discipline-specific skills, but they are embedded within the
standards for comprehension of informational text. Math has a separate set of standards
that pertain to content rather than language, but, as we shall see, even math requires lan-
guage proficiency.
Before delving deeper into the CCSS, we need to be clear about what the standards are and,
especially, what they are not. Perhaps the most important point to make about them is that
they are not a common curricula. Standards set the expectations for the minimum level of
knowledge a student must master at each level. Curriculum, on the other hand, is a road map
that specifies content, resources, environment/context, and possibly methods or techniques
for achieving those standards. The Common Core has not been without controversy. Much
of the controversy is rooted in misunderstanding, misinformation, and even to residual ill
will over the accountability requirements imposed by No Child Left Behind. Misconceptions
abound, but the information included in Table 7.1 can help teachers to understand the intent
and assess the magnitude of change that adopting the standards implies for schools, teachers,
and learners.
Our purpose in this chapter is to understand the intersection of English language learning,
content-area learning, and the goals established by the CCSS. The relationship between lan-
guage and teaching the arts is not demarcated in the Common Core standards themselves, but
the CCSS does support teaching of the arts, and as we shall see, there are many opportunities
for integrating teaching of the arts with the English language arts standards, especially for
listening and speaking.
Although some examples of techniques are given for illustrative purposes in this chapter, it
should not be thought of as an instruction manual or set of directions—we will see more of
these in the next chapter. Rather, it is a discussion intended to provoke teachers’ own creativ-
ity, a guide to ways of thinking about how to meet the needs of ELLs.
7.1 Teaching English Language Arts
With the goal of ensuring that all learners have the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed
in school, higher education, and careers, the English language arts (ELA) standards represent
three shifts in emphasis from traditional curricula. They have a greater emphasis on content-rich
nonfiction in the earliest years, regular practice with complex texts and the academic language
they require, and reading, writing, and speaking, grounded in evidence from texts, both literary
and informational text. The ELA standards themselves are defined in four strands:
1. Reading
a. Foundational skills
b. Literature
c. Informational texts
2. Writing
3. Speaking and listening
4. Language
Table 7.1: Myths and facts about the Common Core
Myth Fact
The CCSS are mandated by the
president and/or the Department
of Education.
The CCSS were not handed down by the federal government but were
developed and adopted by the majority of the 50 states working in
concert under the auspices of the National Governors’ Association
together with the chief education officers of those states.
Every school in the country that
adopts the CCSS will have to fol-
low the same curriculum.
The CCSS do not constitute a curriculum. Rather, they represent a
framework on which a curriculum can be built.
Literature will be abandoned. The confusion on this point likely results from the fact that the CCSS
integrate history/social studies, science, and technology within the
informational reading standards, perhaps leaving the impression that
literacy involves only those areas. In fact, the CCSS outlines standards
for reading literature at all grade levels.
Every child in the country will be
reading exactly the same texts in
each grade level.
The CCSS do specify that certain critical content should be mastered.
This includes classical myths from around the world, foundational
U.S. literature, United States’ founding documents, and Shakespeare.
But except for providing a list of suggested texts, the CCSS do not
dictate content.
Teacher autonomy will be lost. For the most part, in using the CCSS, teachers retain the autonomy to
choose content and the curricular path they will take. Where they do
not, it is not because of the CCSS but because of local or state strictures.
Districts and states may choose to establish common curricula in some
areas or to specify particular content or materials, but the CCSS them-
selves are mostly silent on the issue of how and what to teach.
The CCSS require even more
assessment.
Schools will need to assess how well their pupils are doing in order to
adjust their curricula and practice, but the CCSS does not “come with
a test.” There two consortia of states currently developing assessment
instruments to measure how well learners are meeting the CCSS
(Chapter 10), but the CCSS itself does not focus on testing.
While all the skills these standards capture are important for ELLs, in this section we focus
mainly on standards for reading: foundational skills and informational text, for two reasons.
First, ELLs are more likely to start school with fewer foundational skills in English than their
native speaking peers, and second, the standards for social studies and science are embedded
in the standards for reading: Informational text for grades K–5 and are closely aligned with
them thereafter. As noted above, we will examine some of the standards for speaking and
listening within our discussion of the arts. Most of the practical suggestions for helping ELLs
to meet these standards are found in Chapter 8, but there are also some practical suggestions
included in the next section on foundational skills because they address specific early skills
and are not as generally applicable across the content areas.
Foundational Skills
We learned in previous chapters that language structures are not learned in a vacuum—students
do not learn the individual sounds of the language by practicing them in isolation from words,
nor words in isolation from sentences and meaning. And yet, sometimes this is exactly what
ELL learners need to do—to focus on segmenting words into individual sounds and to see how
they are represented in print. This fact does not go unnoticed by the creators of the CCSS who
acknowledge that these foundational skills are “important components” of reading comprehen-
sion but “are not an end in and of themselves” (CCSS Initiative, Introduction, 2015).
The CCSS and Foundational Skills
For kindergarten and first grade, the standards for foundational skills fall into four strands:
1. print concepts,
2. phonological awareness,
3. phonics and word recognition, and
4. fluency.
Standards for third through fifth grades cover only the latter two categories. At any grade
level, however, ELLs may lack the skills related to print concepts or phonological awareness
in English. Many will need to acquire these lower-level skills before they can progress to the
higher-level skills required for reading fluency and comprehension. Fortunately, these skills
can be taught. We know, however, that they should not be taught in isolation, but in the con-
text of a broader reading program, and embedded in meaningful language activities.
Learning to read involves, first, phonemic awareness, or the understanding that words are
made up of individual sounds, and that these sounds can be reorganized or manipulated to
form new words (Chapter 6). Although phoneme awareness differs from phonics, which is
a method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning the relationship
between sounds and letters, letter groups, and syllables, it is good practice to teach the two
together or to follow phoneme awareness activities with those centering on sound-symbol
correspondence. For example, showing children that fat, cat, hat, mat, sat, and pat not only
share similar sounds (phonemic awareness) but also share the same spelling of the vowel
sound (phonics), is a way of providing dual input (oral and visual) to aid retention.
The reading fluency standards are subsumed under the general goal that learners “read
with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension” (CCSS Initiative, 2015),
specifying that first graders, for example, be able to read grade level text with purpose and
ELLs and Foundational Skills
The real challenge for ELLs is to acquire these foundational skills quickly. Most ELLs require
practice with a variety of language activities to increase phonemic awareness. Many different
techniques used with younger English speakers are effective with ELLs if they:
• are of short duration,
• are related to other language objectives, and
• are focused on the needs of individual learners—it is counterproductive to have an
ELL practice the /p/b/ distinction if she has already demonstrated that she knows it.
Reading Informational Text
The ability to read and comprehend informational text is central to other academic learning,
particularly social studies and science. There are four standards for reading: informational
text, related to:
1. key ideas and details,
2. craft and structure,
3. integration of knowledge and ideas, and
4. range of reading and level of text complexity.
understanding, and to read aloud, accurately, with expression, and without hesitation. The
standards also require that learners be able to use context to confirm or to self-correct their
word predictions and reread as necessary. Again, ELLs are less likely to have acquired these
first grade fluency standards even by third grade.
Building Phoneme Awareness
There are many ways of helping ELLs to recognize and identify the individual sounds in words.
For example,
a. Questions such as “What is the first sound in dog?”
b. A sound/picture identification task: The words rat, cat, hat, and pat are written or
shown on flash cards and learners are asked to match the word with the picture of a cat
(or a hat or a rat).
c. Questions such as “What sound is the same in all of these words: mouse, mix, mom, and
moon?”
d. Questions such as “Which word does not belong? Dog, log, rock, hog?” (How would
adding clog to the list complicate it for beginners but possibly not for more advanced
learners?)
e. Questions that require “subtraction:” “What is stop without the /s/?” or “What is block
without the /b/?” Would the question “What is black without the /l/?” be harder or
easier for more advanced learners? Why?
f. Rhymes play an important role in making infants aware of individual sounds, and they
are also useful for ELLs. Children’s books featuring rhymes are good because they
provide authentic context and teachers can expand the rhymes in the stories to other
words.
Because the standards for history/social studies and science are embedded in English lan-
guage arts standards, we will examine each of them here before turning to discipline-specific
variations later.
Key Ideas and Details
Broadly, the objective of this standard is for students to learn to identify main topics and
supporting details. The progression of skills from kindergarten to third grade is shown
in Table 7.2.
Table 7.2: Key ideas and details: Progression of skills K–5
Skills to be mastered
Kindergarten With prompting and
support, ask and answer
questions about key
details in a text.
With prompting and
support, identify the
main topic and retell key
details of a text.
With prompting and sup-
port, describe the connection
between two individuals,
events, ideas, or pieces of
information in a text.
First grade Ask and answer ques-
tions about key details in
a text.
Identify the main topic
and retell key details of
a text.
Describe the connection
between two individuals,
events, ideas, or pieces of
information in a text.
Second grade Ask and answer such
questions as who, what,
where, when, why, and
how to demonstrate
understanding of key
details in a text.
Identify the main topic
of a multi-paragraph
text as well as the focus
of specific paragraphs
within the text.
Describe the connection
between a series of histori-
cal events, scientific ideas or
concepts, or steps in technical
procedures in a text.
Third grade Ask and answer
questions to demonstrate
understanding of a text,
referring explicitly to the
text as the basis for the
answers.
Determine the main
idea of a text; recount
the key details and
explain how they sup-
port the main idea.
Describe the relationship
between a series of histori-
cal events, scientific ideas or
concepts, or steps in technical
procedures in a text, using
language that pertains to time,
sequence, and cause/effect.
Fourth grade Refer to details and
examples in a text when
explaining what the text
says explicitly and when
drawing inferences from
the text.
Determine the main idea
of a text and explain how
it is supported by key
details; summarize the
text.
Explain events, procedures,
ideas, or concepts in a histori-
cal, scientific, or technical text,
including what happened and
why, based on specific infor-
mation in the text.
Fifth grade Quote accurately from
a text when explaining
what the text says explic-
itly and when drawing
inferences from the text.
Determine two or more
main ideas of a text
and explain how they
are supported by key
details; summarize
the text.
Explain the relationships or
interactions between two
or more individuals, events,
ideas, or concepts in a histori-
cal, scientific, or technical text
based on specific information
in the text.
As we look at the progression of skill development, there are a few things to keep in mind for
ELLs. First, it is likely that they will need “prompting and support” well beyond kindergarten,
and so teachers may need to tailor instruction for ELLs to develop the skills a grade or two
below their actual grade level. Second, there is much presumed knowledge entrenched in
these standards that ELLs might not have. Some of it relates to linguistic content and some to
cultural content, where text may refer to events or people unfamiliar to them. Teachers will
have to do a great deal more scaffolding with ELLs in order to keep them from falling behind.
Craft and Structure
This standard is concerned with how different kinds of text are structured, vocabulary in
context, and perspective and point of view. Learners are expected not only to understand
what they read but, by the end of fifth grade, to begin to think logically and critically about it.
Table 7.3 shows the growth expected between kindergarten and fifth grade as well as the
expectation of ability by the end of high school.
Table 7.3: Expected growth in craft and structure
Kindergarten 5th grade 11th–12th grade
With prompting and support,
ask and answer questions about
unknown words in a text.
Determine the meaning of
general academic and domain-
specific words and phrases in a
text relevant to a grade five topic
or subject area.
Determine the meaning of words
and phrases as they are used in
a text, including figurative, con-
notative, and technical meanings;
analyze how an author uses and
refines the meaning of a key term
or terms over the course of a text
(e.g., how Madison defines fac-
tion in Federalist No. 10).
Identify the front cover, back
cover, and title page of a book.
Compare and contrast the overall
structure (e.g., chronology,
comparison, cause/effect, and
problem/solution) of events,
ideas, concepts, or information in
two or more texts.
Analyze and evaluate the
effectiveness of the structure an
author uses in his or her exposi-
tion or argument, including
whether the structure makes
points clear, convincing, and
engaging.
Name the author and illustrator
of a text and define the role of
each in presenting the ideas or
information in a text.
Analyze multiple accounts of
the same event or topic, noting
important similarities and differ-
ences in the point of view they
represent.
Determine an author’s point
of view or purpose in a text in
which the rhetoric is particularly
effective, analyzing how style and
content contribute to the power,
persuasiveness or beauty of the
text.
Source: CCSS
Not surprisingly, the increased emphasis on the different ways in which informational text is
structured corresponds with expectations of the writing standards. By the end of fifth grade,
for example, learners should be able to “Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a
point of view with reasons and information” (CCSS Initiative, 2015). These are high level literacy
expectations for fifth graders, and for ELLs
they are especially important. Remember
what we learned in Chapter 6: The best
predictor of academic achievement is an
ELL’s reading ability at the end of third
grade, and the lack of reading skills is the
major language barrier to ELLs’ achiev-
ing academic success. An ELL who hasn’t
even begun to learn English until third
grade has a great deal to accomplish to
meet these literacy standards by the end
of fifth grade.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
To develop research skills, this set of
standards addresses how readers and
writers use visual and textual evidence to support an argument or conclusion. By the end
of fifth grade, learners are beginning to analyze and synthesize different kinds of data from
a variety of sources. A great deal of growth is expected in the elementary years to reach the
standard expected for high school graduation, see Table 7.4. To meet the standards, teach-
ers of ELLs will need to help learners to organize information from different sources and to
understand the difference between conclusions and the details that support it. Teachers may
find helping ELLs to meet these standards a less daunting task because the reliance on non-
text sources relieves some of the linguistic burden for ELLs; they also provide an additional
medium for understanding and remembering.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
The purpose of this standard is to grow learners’ skills with increasingly more complex texts so
that they can function effectively with content-area texts. The range of skills is shown in Table 7.5.
How do we know the level of text complexity or that it is intended for third or fifth graders?
The CCSS identifies a number of measures for determining the reading level of text, one of
which is the Lexile measurement system, as described in Lexile Measurements and How They
Are Used. The Lexile measure for the Introduction section of this chapter is 1470, and the
mean sentence length is 29.3.
Moodboard/Thinkstock
This teacher is helping her students with a writing
task that requires them to express and support an
opinion on the material they have just read.
Table 7.4: Expected growth in integration of knowledge and ideas
Kindergarten 5th grade 11th–12th grade
Skills to be
mastered
With prompting and sup-
port, describe the relation-
ship between illustrations
and the text in which they
appear (e.g., what person,
place, thing, or idea in the
text an illustration depicts).
Draw on information from
multiple print or digital
sources, demonstrat-
ing the ability to locate
an answer to a question
quickly or to solve a prob-
lem efficiently.
Integrate and evaluate mul-
tiple sources of information
presented in different media
or formats (e.g., visually,
quantitatively) as well as in
words in order to address a
question or solve a
Table 7.5: Expected growth in range of reading & level of complexity
Kindergarten 5th grade 12th grade
Skills to be
mastered
Actively engage
in group reading
activities with
purpose and
understanding.
By the end of the year, read and
comprehend informational texts,
including history/social studies,
science, and technical texts, at
the high end of the grades 4–5
text complexity band indepen-
dently and proficiently.
By the end of grade 12,
read and comprehend liter-
ary nonfiction at the high
end of the grades 11-CCR
text complexity band, inde-
pendently and proficiently.
Source: CCSS
Lexile Measurements and How They Are Used
The Lexile Framework for Reading measures both reader ability and text difficulty on the same
scale. It is not an intervention, but is a tool for gathering information on which to base inter-
vention that offers a “. . . ‘big picture’ view of growth of student reading ability from preschool
through graduate school. Although the measure does not purport to establish grade level
equivalencies, because there is so much variability among learners at any one grade level, the
publishers of Lexile do provide data to illustrate where the “middle 50% of readers for each
grade fall on the Lexile scale. These data are shown in Table 7.6.
Table 7.6: Lexile reader measures
Grade Lexile reader
measures
Mid-year
25th to 75th
percentile
2009 text demand
study
25th to 75th percentile
2012 CCSS text
measures
1 Up to 300L 230L to 420L 190L to 530L
2 140L to 500L 450L to 570L 420L to 650L
3 330L to 700L 600L to 730L 520L to 820L
4 445L to 810L 640L to 780L 740L to 940L
5 565L to 910L 730L to 850L 830L to 1010L
6 665L to 1000L 860L to 920L 925L to 1120L
7 735L to 1065L 880L to 960L 970L to 1120L
8 805L to 1100L 900L to 1010L 1010L to 1185L
9 855L to 1165L 960L to 1110L 1050L to 1260L
10 905 to 1195L 920L to 1120L 1080L to 1335L
11 & 12 940L to 1210L 1070L to 1220L 1185L to 1385L
Sources: CCSS, Appendix A; The Lexile® Framework for Reading, http://www.lexile.com/about-lexile/grade-
equivalent/grade-equivalent-chart/
Readability measures can also be used to obtain information about the level of a student’s
writing and can be used to track growth. The Lexile measurement can be used for this pur-
pose, but since using it requires the text to be converted to plain text, it may be easier to use
the Flesch-Kincaid measure within MS Word 10. The Flesch-Kincaid measure is easy to use
and can give teachers a rough indication of a writer’s level of sophistication. Keep in mind,
however, that these measures are not designed primarily to evaluate expression but to evalu-
ate readability, and so they can serve only as rough indicators of writing growth. Also, because
of slight variations within the two measurements, teachers using them to track students’
writing progress should be consistent and use only one.
A Note on Basal/Core Readers
Basal readers, also known as core readers, are textbooks created specifically for the
teaching of reading. Typically they come with a set of instructions and suggestions for
teachers to use in teaching reading at various levels. They are a time-honored tradition in
U.S. classrooms. Whether they will continue to enjoy such prominence in an increasingly
diverse classroom in the era of the Common Core remains to be seen. What seems indis-
putable is that basals alone will not be sufficient for meeting Common Core standards,
especially for ELLs. They may have utility for beginning teachers: “The structure of a basal
program—its units, materials, and lesson plans—can guide the thinking of novice teach-
ers, but as a teacher grows in knowledge and experience, she can modify and augment
the program to meet her students’ needs” (Kersten & Pardo, 2007). “Even the most expe-
rienced professionals can find within a basal program materials and ideas to solve some
instructional problems, but it is not the best set of tools for educating avid readers or those
who struggle with the basics” (Dewitz, P. & Jones, J., 2013, p. 391). Moreover, for ELLs, the
potential shortcomings of following a basal/core program without significant augmenta-
tion are especially serious: “Unfortunately, the typical ESL series uses decontextualized
language, bizarre sentence patterns, strangely repetitious language, and stories that do
not contain familiar cultural content. Generally, basal readers are inappropriate for begin-
ning “ESL” students” (Gunderson, Odo, & D’Silva, 2014, p. 185).
These last two sets of standards, integration
of knowledge and ideas, and range of read-
ing and level of text complexity, are especially
good illustrations of the interdisciplinary
nature of the CCSS for grades kindergarten
through fifth grade, represented in Figure 7.1.
As noted earlier, the ELA Standards for read-
ing, writing, speaking, and listening apply to
all the subjects in the K–5 curriculum. For
grades six–twelve, standards are articulated
in two sections—those that pertain exclu-
sively to English language arts and those that
pertain to social studies/history, science and
technology.
ELA
Social
Studies
Science
Math
Figure 7.1: The interdisciplinary
nature of the language arts
Standards for reading, writing, speaking,
and listening apply to all subjects in the
curriculum.
7.2 Teaching Science
The science classroom can be a frustrating place for English language learners. The com-
plex language of science is often problematic even for native English speakers. Although it is
important to distinguish language problems from an inability to think scientifically or to learn
scientific concepts and procedures, eventually the two have to work together: a functional
knowledge of science requires facility in the language of science.
Science in Grades K–5
The CCSS for K–5 science are integrated into the ELA Standards, but many states and dis-
tricts that have adopted the CCSS have also adopted the Next Generation Science Standards
(NGSS), which outline the science based content and skills that students should acquire
throughout the school years. While these standards are independent of the Common Core
standards, they are also highly compatible:
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Literacy were written to help
students meet the particular challenges of reading, writing, speaking, listen-
ing, and language in their respective fields—in this case, science. The literacy
standards do not replace science standards—they supplement them. The
NGSS lay out the disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices,
and crosscutting concepts that students should master in preparation for col-
lege and careers. (NGSS, 2013)
Table 7.7 lists the goals and objectives for Earth and human activity in grades three through
five as well as the alignment of their expectations with Common Core fifth grade standards.
It is easy to see how the two sets of standards work together in the following text, the opening
paragraph from Pythons Invade the Florida Everglades, which describes the changes caused to
the Florida Everglades by the introduction of the Burmese python.
When Tommy Owen, a tour guide in the Everglades National Park, saw the ani-
mal, he immediately went after it. Owen was giving a tour of Florida’s famous
national park wetlands. He and a group of tourists were floating in a boat through
the shallow water that makes up the Everglades. One of the women in the boat
he was steering saw a snake in the water. She got Tommy’s attention and pointed
the snake out to him. When Tommy saw the snake, he acted fast. He reached into
the water and grabbed the animal by the head. He got a good grip and didn’t
let go. Tourists in the boat were worried when the snake wrapped itself around
Tommy’s arm. After several minutes, he got control of the animal and removed
it from the water. The snake was a ten-foot-long Burmese python. It was a snake
not native to Florida and, quite simply, it didn’t belong there. (ReadWorks, 2015)
By the end of the unit this paragraph introduces, the teacher will have had ample opportunity
to give students practice in:
• separating fact from opinion,
• quoting accurately from text,
• drawing on and integrating information from multiple sources and media, and
• making connections with their previous knowledge and experience.
5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual
communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s
resources and environment.
The performance expectation above was developed using the following elements
from the NRC document A Framework for K–12 Science Education:
Obtaining, Evaluating, and
Communicating Information
Obtaining, evaluating, and commu-
nicating information in 3–5 builds
on K–2 experiences and progresses
to evaluating the merit and accu-
racy of ideas and methods.
• Obtain and combine
information from books
and/or other reliable media
to explain phenomena or
solutions to a design problem.
ESS3.C: Human Impacts on
Earth Systems
• Human activities in
agriculture, industry,
and everyday life have
had major effects on
the land, vegetation,
streams, ocean, air,
and even outer space.
But individuals and
communities are doing
things to help protect
Earth’s resources and
environments.
Systems and System Models
• A system can be described
in terms of its components
and their interactions.
Connections to Nature of
Science
Science Addresses Questions
About the Natural and
Material World
• Science findings are limited
to questions that can be
answered with empirical
evidence.
Connections to other DCIs in fifth grade: N/A
Articulation of DCIs across grade levels:
MS.ESS3.A ; MS.ESS3.C ; MS.ESS3.D
Common Core State Standards connections:
ELA/Literacy
RI.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text
says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
(5-ESS3-1)
RI.5.7 Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, dem-
onstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or
to solve a problem efficiently. (5-ESS3-1)
RI.5.9 Integrate information from several texts on the same topic
in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
(5-ESS3-1)
W.5.8 Recall relevant information from experiences or gather relevant
information from print and digital sources; summarize or para-
phrase information in notes and finished work, and provide a list
of sources. (5-ESS3-1)
W.5.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support
analysis, ref lection, and research. (5-ESS3-1)
Source: Next Generation Science Standards, Human Impact on Earth Systems
Because there is no specialized or technical vocabulary in the first part of the paragraph, which
reads much like a story, with characters and the suggestion of a plot, it will appeal to young read-
ers. And yet the passage goes on to make an important point about the impact of human inter-
vention on an ecological system; the content is scientific but the language is not. In sixth grade,
however, the Common Core standards require learners to cope with more demanding text.
Science in Grades 6–1
2
From sixth to twelfth grades, learners are expected to broaden and deepen their knowledge
of science and technology. Not only do ELLs have to learn increasingly detailed technical con-
tent, they have to learn more abstract and complex language to do so; there is much to learn
and not a great deal of time in which to learn it.
The Standards
The NGSS identify a wide range of core ideas within four disciplines that students should
learn in middle and high school:
• Physical sciences
• Life sciences
• Earth and space sciences
• Engineering, technology and applications of science
The NGSS are aligned with the CCSS, which are organized around the now familiar four strands
for reading informational text. One of the first challenges, and one of the reasons that reading
comprehension of scientific texts requires special attention for ELLs, is that the language of
science has its own set of conventions. Educators working on the Stanford Data Science Initia-
tive identified four features of science language that may cause learners more difficulty than
other kinds of informational text—science vocabulary, science discourse, multiple modes of
representation, and science texts (Quinn, Lee, & Valdés, 2012, p.5).
Science Vocabulary
One of the reasons that ELLs have difficulty with scientific text is that words they think they
know from everyday usage—cell, space, work, energy, for example—have more precise mean-
ings in science. Similarly, the academic vocabulary of higher-order thinking—compare, ana-
lyze, infer—may have precise usage in science that ELLs without prior knowledge of science
will find difficult. For example, analyzing a political issue differs from analyzing an unknown
chemical to determine its identity, and the two activities require different behaviors. Highly
specialized vocabulary created for the discipline can also cause problems for learners who
have not have encountered them before. Words such as biome, alleles, and dizygotic are likely
unfamiliar even to fluent English speakers, and it is difficult to work out the meanings from
context for the simple reason that understanding the context might depend on understanding
the word.
Science Discourse
“Learning the register of discourse of a discipline is a form of socialization into how members
of the discipline talk, write, and participate in the knowledge construction” (Quinn, Lee, &
Valdés, 2012, p. 6). Different specialties within science have their own conventions, but there
is also a level of scientific discourse that is understood by scientists in all disciplines (as one
can discover by watching almost any episode of The Big Bang Theory). In order to read sci-
entific text with comprehension and to write and engage in conversation about the subject
matter, learners must learn to pay attention to precise meanings and be able to explain and to
construct evidence-based argument orally and in writing.
Multiple Modes of Representation
Both oral and written language are important for conveying and discussing scientific knowl-
edge, but science also uses mathematical and visual representations. Diagrams, graphs, tables,
charts, maps, pictures, equations, are all used to convey information. Students need to make
sense of all these different modes and to integrate all of it into a single coherent understand-
ing of the content. For ELLs, this is good news because the content is not entirely dependent
on language. The harder task for them will be to analyze and summarize this information in
their own writing.
Science Texts
Scientific writing typically follows a gen-
erally agreed upon set of conventions that
differ in fundamental ways from other
kinds of writing. Nonscientists might find
the resulting prose dry or lifeless, but
that is, in part, the point; scientific dis-
course strives for authoritative objectivity
by removing the human “observer” and
“packing” information into grammatical
bundles. Linguists have found that the key
features of scientific text include
1. �Removing�human�agents�from�the�
actions or discoveries being described
and using the passive voice (It was
found that . . . ), or by using general-
ized or anonymous participants (sci-
entists conclude . . . the research team
discovered . . .).
2. �The�use�of�nominals to summarize an
entire sentence into an abstract noun
phrase. Consider this sentence:
Specifically, we were interested in
the qualitative ecological differ-
ence in emphasis between changes
in composition vs. changes in rela-
tive abundance. (Academy of Sci-
ence, 2005, as cited in Biber &
Gray, 2013)
Shironosov/iStock/Thinkstock
ELLs have to learn to read and write science text
but also to interpret graphs, charts, and tables
in many formats.
This structurally and conceptually complex sentence is not likely to be found in an eighth grade
science book, but it bears some resemblance to middle school texts. Consider this excerpt from
A Brave New Climate by Edward I. Maxwell (2013) intended for eighth graders:
These historically beneficial Oceanside locations may prove detrimental to the
future growth and viability of these cities in a warmer world. Higher sea levels
and climate change have combined dramatically to create historic hurricanes
that have peppered the East Coast. Harbors that have been bustling ports for
centuries, with booming growth during the post-industrial 20th century, may
need dramatic fortification against surges, super storms and rising tides.
(http://www.readworks.org/passages/brave-new-climate)
While structurally simpler, this passage contains many of the features of science writing
described above. For example, words such as booming, super, and peppered all have different
meanings here than they would have in conversational English. Notice, too, the absence of
human agents in historically beneficial ocean-side locations (to whom?) and future growth and
viability of these cities (for whom?). The 67 words in this passage comprise three sentences
while the first 66 words of the Everglades passage contain four sentences. The writing in this
passage has more of the characteristics of professional science writing than does the earlier
passage on Burmese pythons in the Everglades.
Even though the vocabulary and writing style can be challenging, science abounds with oppor-
tunities for visual representations, demonstrations, and experiments that help to make explicit
the meaning behind the language the learner hears. In addition to vocabulary building, it is
important to develop listening, reading, and writing skills, simultaneously. Some of the strate-
gies described in Techniques for Teaching Science to ELLs may be useful along with the more
general ideas for providing support in all the content areas found in the next chapter.
Techniques for Teaching Science to ELLs
There are many techniques for teaching science to ELLs, including the following:
Visualization. Graphs, pictures, diagrams, charts, tables, or other media with minimal
language, reduce reliance on language and make input comprehensible. Science videos
may feature new terminology. Play the video all the way through without stopping, then
play it again and pause as needed to explain or discuss key concepts or terms. Don’t
hesitate to bookmark and replay sections as needed.
Writing. Although there is always a great deal of emphasis placed on reading comprehen-
sion, writing is also important. Students will become more effective writers only by writ-
ing. Provide sentence frames for beginners to complete. A few short questions in advance
of a science lesson serve not only as advance organizers, but as writing practice for slightly
more advanced students. Journaling, lab notes, and lecture notes, also encourage writing.
Demonstrations. Science requires precision. Procedures for conducting experiments,
dissection, or other science activities, must be made clear and precise, either through
demonstration or in writing, with pictures, or drawings on the board, on posters, or on
individual handouts.
7.3 Teaching Social Studies
In one sense, social studies can be a difficult subject for ELLs because they may lack
background knowledge of U.S. government structures and history. On the other hand, social
studies presents an excellent opportunity for ELLs to integrate knowledge of their own cul-
tures into the new content while learning vocabulary that has more immediate nonacademic
use than the language of science. It is also an opportunity for the English speakers and
teachers to learn about other cultures and to understand how many of our perspectives are
culturally determined. As Dorina Sackman, Florida’s 2014 teacher of the year put it, “I get to
travel the world every day without ever leaving my classroom because I teach ESOL (2014)”.
Teachers such as Ms. Sackman also ensure that all the learners in the classroom have the
same experience, because social studies provides an ideal opportunity for learners to learn
from other learners.
Grade K–5 Social Studies
The Common Core standards for reading: informational text are basically the same for sci-
ence and social studies, but social studies may provide even better opportunities to develop
the skills required for meeting these standards:
A Courtroom in the Classroom
Miss Blake wanted to show her third grade class what it’s like inside a court-
room of the United States, so she decided to stage a role-play. There are many
different people in the courtroom during a trial. All of them have different but
important jobs or roles. Miss Blake put her students’ names inside a hat. Next
to the hat, she had a list of the different people who participate in a trial. As
she went down the list of courtroom jobs, she picked a student’s name out of
the hat. She then assigned the student to act out that role in the class role-play.
Miss Blake thought it would be fun, and it was! (Stahl, 2014)
This third grade passage goes on to describe what happens in a courtroom and roles played by
everyone present. It even explains the difference between a bench trial and a jury trial. Notice
how the passage is personalized with the name of the teacher and how it reads much like a
story. Reminiscent of the Everglades passage, the structure is familiar to young learners, but
the material introduced will likely be new, as will much of the vocabulary—evidence, bench
Techniques for Teaching Science to ELLs (continued)
Hands on! Doing is generally more effective than seeing or hearing. Participation in
science activities, whether in the laboratory, classroom, or on the school grounds, are
very important for ELLs. Kinesthetic learning activities provide ways for learners to
make personal connections with the material as well as an additional memory “peg” for
remembering concepts.
Adapted from Norman Kerr, Ph.D. Strategies for Teaching Science to English Language Learners, http://
www.csun.edu/science/ref/language/teaching-ell.html
trial, jury trial, random. Even so, the material
can be related to other knowledge that ELLs
may have.
Key Ideas and Details
English language learners will have to follow
the same path as native speakers to meet pro-
gressively more demanding goals, but they
will be doing so within a compressed time
frame, and while they are learning English.
Moreover, because much of the social studies
curriculum is specific to aspects of U.S. history
and culture, ELLs may have less background
knowledge on which to draw.
Craft and Structure
One of the key standards relating to craft
and structure is the ability to distinguish the
author’s point of view from one’s own. Unlike
science and math, the information in social
studies texts may represent points of view
that differ, sometimes radically, from the
ELLs’ own. These texts provide an excellent opportunity for discussion of the differences,
and many “teachable moments” on the language used to indicate opinion as opposed to fact.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Although this standard addresses reading comprehension, we know that even if it were possi-
ble to teach reading independent of the other language domains, it would be inefficient to do
so. Integrating writing and speaking activities into the lesson makes good pedagogical sense
for all learners, and especially for ELLs. We have not examined the writing standards, but it is
useful to do so here in order to see how well social studies is suited to developing all literacy
skills. In the category of text, type, and purpose, the CCSS require that students be able to:
1. write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons,
2. introduce the topic or text they are writing about, state an opinion, and create an
organizational structure that lists reasons,
3. provide reasons that support the opinion,
4. use linking words and phrases (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example) to connect
opinion and reasons, and
5. provide a concluding statement or section.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
One of the difficulties with many of the topics covered in social studies is that the writers
sometimes omit concrete or anecdotal details that help learners to relate unfamiliar facts
or ideas to their own experience. Pythons Invade the Everglades used several mechanisms to
Meilum/iStock/Thinkstock
How could Miss Blake use these graphics
to develop deeper understandings of the
procedures used in the justice system?
Suggest kinds of language skills that could
be acquired or practiced simultaneously.
bridge the gap between the factual information and the reader’s experience—the tour guide’s
name and reference to a particular snake, for example. But not all Social Studies text is so
“user friendly”. Let’s consider another passage, 7 Billion and Counting!, which may be more
typical of social studies texts.
7 Billion and Counting!
19
50
19
60
19
70
19
80
19
90
20
00
20
10
20
20
20
30
20
40
20
50
P
o
p
u
la
ti
o
n
i
n
B
il
li
o
n
s
World Population
1950–2050
9
10
7
8
5
6
3
4
2
1
Leigh Haeger
We live in a jam-packed world. In fact, more people live here than ever before.
The population recently hit a whopping 7 billion! The big news was reported
by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The number of people on the planet has doubled since 1960. And that num-
ber continues to grow. As you can see from the graph, experts estimate that by
2030, Earth will be home to over 8 billion people. That is not surprising when
you consider that 261 people are born each minute. (Weekly Reader, 2006)
This passage would be appropriate in a unit on world population growth, and is intended for
use with a third grade class. Let’s take a closer look at how this passage could be used in a way
that would support the goals of the Common Core standards.
A Third Grade Example
7 Billion and Counting! demonstrates the alignment of the CCSS with the content of social stud-
ies. There is opportunity to distinguish fact from opinion and for further discussion about, for
example, whether the U.S. Census Bureau deals with facts or opinions. There is also ample
opportunity to address the key ideas and details standards shown in Table 7.8.
Table 7.8: Third grade CCSS for reading
Third grade
Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis
for the answers.
Determine the main idea of a text; recount the key details and explain how they support the main idea.
Describe the relationship between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in tech-
nical procedures in a text, using language that pertains to time, sequence, and cause/effect.
The vocabulary in 7 Billion and Counting! provides practice with general academic and
domain-specific words and phrases. It provides good opportunities for expanding vocab-
ulary and expressions well beyond the words in the text. It is also a good passage to
inspire writing assignments that reinforce the cognitive and reasoning goals infused into
all the standards, and there are many assignments that can be modified to suit the abili-
ties of ELLs.
What Accommodations Can Be Made for ELLs?
When she used this passage, Mrs. Whitcomb adapted it for ELLs, concentrating on building
background knowledge in pre-reading activities, as we see in A Teacher’s Story: Preparing
Carmella to Learn. While working toward meeting the standards, teachers can help ELLs to
A Teacher’s Story: Preparing Carmella to Learn
Mrs. Whitcomb was concerned that 7 Billion and Counting, which she planned to introduce in a
unit on world population to her third grade class, would be difficult for Carmella. She had been
in the United States for only a few months, and while Mrs. Whitcomb was impressed with her
English, she knew that this social studies unit might prove challenging.
Most of her third graders would be able to read the passage with only a little vocabulary assis-
tance, but she wasn’t sure about Carmella. Mrs. Whitcomb began to plan by identifying the key
ideas and details and creating a graphic organizer for them. She also wanted to use the pas-
sage to help learners to differentiate fact from opinion, but she knew that before they could do
that, they had to understand the passage. Her first thought was that her class would have little
concept of what a billion is, not to mention the time indicated by 1960 or 2030. Then there
was the vocabulary, whopping which most of her children would know or be able to figure out,
population would likely be a new word for most, but she could point to the previous sentence
as a clue to its meaning. And then there was jam-packed which a few would know and most
others would be able to figure out. But what about Carmella?
Knowing that Carmella’s spoken English is much stronger than her reading, she talked to the
class first about what they are going to read. She told them that it was about the number of
people who live in the whole world, using the globe in the front of the room to identify all the
countries they know and making the point that the word we use for all of the number of people
living in any defined area is population.
She then went on to talk about the population of their city, of the school and the classroom,
counting each child to demonstrate. She continued to develop the underlying concepts in the
passage, and each time, she began at a point that is comprehensible to most, and very nearly
so for Carmella (remember the notion of comprehensible input). She wrote on the board syn-
onyms for world—earth, this planet, Planet Earth, the globe. When it came to how big a billion
is, she built on their understanding of multiplication by drawing a shape (a town, she called
it) with seven stick figures in it. “What if we had ten times as many people in this town?” she
asked. She started to draw stick figures, but stopped and said “This takes too long! Why don’t
we just write the number?” She multiplied 7 times 10, then 70 times 10, and kept doing so
until she got to 7 billion. In this easy demonstration, she neatly transitioned from stick figures
to numerical ones. What Mrs. Whitcomb did was to create a graphic organizer for vocabulary.
This kind of organizer helps ELLs to prepare for reading, and also serves as a resource for
review later. Finally, Carmella was ready to read.
distinguish fact from opinion, and, to identify and understand the ideas and details, teachers
may want to:
• use a graphic organizer to capture the main ideas and separate fact from opinion;
• introduce key vocabulary in advance, including idioms/idiomatic expressions
such as jam-packed and slang such as whopping;
• build background knowledge such as the concept of billion. A teacher might, for
example, tell the class that the passage is about the number of people who live in
the whole world, using the globe that sits in the front of the room to identify all the
countries they know and making the point that the word we use for all of the num-
ber of people living in any defined area is population;
• use multiple modes of presentation: reading, writing, speaking, listening and
graphic, thus providing multiple channels for learning;
• build the questioning incrementally from simple to more complex; and
• do regular comprehension checks.
Social Studies Grades Six–Twelve
The Common Core State Standards for these grades focus on the same four informational text
skill sets. There are slight differences, however, in the specific standards within each skill set,
as shown in Table 7.9. The differences reflect the distinctive discipline-specific text features
and purpose for reading. For example, the social studies standards emphasize the ability to
distinguish between primary and secondary sources, something all learners will need for
higher education, even if they are not social science majors. Arguably, it is also a skill set that
is required for an educated citizenry whether or not they attend college or university.
Table 7.9: Standards for informational text, key ideas, and details, in three
content areas
Grade six, ELA Informational Text Grade six science Grade six social studies
Cite textual evidence to support
analysis of what the text says explic-
itly as well as inferences drawn from
the text.
Cite specific textual evidence
to support analysis of science
and technical texts.
Cite specific textual evidence to
support analysis of primary and
secondary sources.
Determine a central idea of a text
and how it is conveyed through par-
ticular details; provide a summary
of the text distinct from personal
opinions or judgments.
Determine the central ideas
or conclusions of a text;
provide an accurate summary
of the text distinct from prior
knowledge or opinions.
Determine the central ideas
or information of a primary or
secondary source; provide an
accurate summary of the source
distinct from prior knowledge or
opinions.
Analyze in detail how a key indi-
vidual, event, or idea is introduced,
illustrated, and elaborated in a
text (e.g., through examples or
anecdotes).
Follow precisely a multistep
procedure when carrying out
experiments, taking measure-
ments, or performing techni-
cal tasks.
Identify key steps in a text’s
description of a process related
to history/social studies (e.g.,
how a bill becomes law, how
interest rates are raised or
lowered).
There is no universally adopted framework for aligning standards with social studies content,
but the New York State Framework is a useful one from which to launch a discussion of how
the CCSS are articulated in practice. One of the social studies “practices” in that framework
relates to “gathering and using evidence.” The expectations for sixth graders in this theme
are to:
1. develop and frame questions about topics related to historical events occurring in
the Eastern Hemisphere that can be answered by gathering, using, and interpreting
evidence;
2. identify, effectively select, and analyze different forms of evidence used to make
meaning in social studies (including primary and secondary sources such as art and
photographs, artifacts, oral histories, maps, and graphs);
3. identify evidence and explain content, authorship, point of view, purpose, and for-
mat; identify bias; explain the role of bias and potential audience;
4. describe the arguments of others;
5. identify implicit ideas and draw inferences with support; and
6. recognize arguments on specific social studies topics and identify evidence to
support the argument, and examine arguments related to a specific social stud-
ies topic from multiple perspectives (New York State Common Core Social Studies
Framework, 2013).
It is easy to see how the CCSS map onto these skills and how teachers can use a variety of dif-
ferent topics to develop them. But what about ELLs? Just as the skills here build on those that
we examined earlier for third grade, so do the adaptations for ELLs apply to older learners.
The same strategies will work for older learners, as will all of those described in the section
on language arts earlier in this chapter, and the techniques in Techniques for Teaching Science
to ELLs, all of which are easily adaptable for social studies.
7.4 Teaching Math
Teaching ELLs math in ways that align with the CCSS involves “First and foremost . . . teaching
mathematics for understanding” (Moschkovich, 2012, p. 11). More precisely, math instruc-
tion for ELLs should:
1. balance conceptual understanding and procedural fluency;
2. maintain high cognitive demand;
3. develop productive beliefs; and
4. engage students in mathematical practices (CCSS Mathematics Standards; Moschkov-
ich, 2012, p. 11).
Although it is tempting to assume that math is a universal language and that math skills trans-
fer across language boundaries, there are, in fact, potential differences. Number formation
and the use of commas and decimals are different in some other cultures, and the U.S. mea-
surement system poses challenges for much of the world. Moreover, the methods by which
ELLs learned math in other countries may differ significantly—they may never have worked
with manipulatives, for instance, and may have spent more time memorizing than learning
processes, and may be more familiar with calculation than problem-solving. ELLs who have
had prior experience in math may encounter all these differences and also face the language
problem: They have to know sufficient English to understand and ask questions about word
problems.
The CCSS for math differ fundamentally from other standards because specific concepts and
content are delineated, and they are not based in, nor directly aligned to, the Standards for
English Language Arts. But we know that math learning does not occur for ELLs independent
of language learning. Even if we were to accept the view that math is a universal language,
learners need to be able to understand the language in which math instructions are given and
to comprehend word problems.
Because ELLs learn language and math simultaneously, much of what we have learned about
teaching social studies and science to ELLs, though not directly aligned with the standards we
examined, applies equally to teaching math. Vocabulary development, reading comprehen-
sion, building background knowledge, and the integration of oral language all play central
roles in the teaching and learning of math.
The Importance of Oral Language
We have seen in this and earlier chapters that oral language comes first. That is true, no
matter what the task, even when the task involves another symbolic system, as math
does. Why? Talking through problems before attempting to solve them gives the teacher a
chance to:
• identify and define unfamiliar vocabulary,
• clarify what the intent of the problem is,
• relate it to previously learned concepts or to real life situations, and
• identify any gaps in mathematical reasoning that might interfere with solving the
problem.
Teachers should encourage learners to ask questions. When faced with a word problem, ask-
ing and answering questions such as the following can be very helpful:
• What do we know for sure?
• What do we need to find out?
• What do we need to do with the numbers?
• Is this like another problem we’ve solved?
The Importance of Academic Vocabulary
There are two very important aspects of math vocabulary—the technical vocabulary par-
ticular to math and the precise and different definitions of familiar words as used in math.
An everyday word such as find has a meaning in algebra or geometry different from its com-
mon usage—asking Julio to “find Paris” in a geography lesson might require him to point
to it on a map, but in the equation 3x=30, the direction to “find x” does not require him to
point to the letter. As Figure 7.2 illustrates, technical words are learned after learners have
acquired some general academic vocabulary which, in turn, is built on a foundation of social
language.
While helping ELLs to cope with the language of
math, teachers should:
• Choose key words to pre-teach. For
example, it is helpful to ELLs to know
that less than implies subtraction and
more than implies addition in order to
choose the correct math function to
apply.
• Demonstrate that words have mul-
tiple meanings. Many words are used
in mathematics with meanings that
are very specific. With some, such as
quarter, it is easy to see the relationship
between the general and technical uses.
With others, however, the relationship is
harder to see. The word table is a good
example.
• Take advantage of visual media, manipu-
latives, and realia to demonstrate the
concepts represented by vocabulary.
Cutting an apple into sections provides an authentic opportunity to demonstrate the
meaning of half, quarter, eighth, for example.
Reading Comprehension in Math
Word problems cause problems for all ELLs. For those who have had formal education in
math, the problem is understanding the language of the problem. For those who have not
learned math in another language, the problems are the math concept and the language to
understand the problem. Working on reading comprehension helps—as learners become
more proficient readers they will become more proficient in reading math problems. But
teachers will need to work specifically on comprehension of math problems with daily prac-
tice, working and reasoning aloud while demonstrating or paraphrasing to make math prob-
lems comprehensible, and simplifying the language of the problem. Look at the following
two word problems:
1. The school is ¾ of a mile from Maria Louise’s house and ¼ of a mile from Marc’s
house. They both walk to school. How much further does Maria Louisa have to
walk?
2. Mrs. Sanchez wanted to make a salad. She spent $4.50 for a bag of spinach, $5.30
for red peppers, $4.00 for two pounds of tomatoes, $8.00 for a bottle of olive oil and
$5.69 for a carton of feta cheese. She gave the cashier $50. How much change will she
get back?
The first problem is simply worded and may need only minor modification, even for begin-
ners, but it is almost always helpful to provide alternative language for the same problem. It
can be rephrased as “Maria Louise walks ¾ of a mile to school and Marc walks ¼ of a mile to
school. How much further does Maria Louise walk than Marc?” The second one is long and, in
Math-
specific
language
General
academic
language
Non-academic
language
Figure 7.2: Tiered vocabulary
Technical words, such as those used in
math-specific language, are learned after the
learner has a firm grasp of both nonacademic
and general academic vocabularies.
She gave the cashier $50. How much change did the cashier give her?
It is also useful to have students translate math symbols into words, including numeric prob-
lems. Teachers can demonstrate alternative ways of “reading” a numeric problem. For exam-
ple, –3 x 2 = can be read or spoken in many different ways, including
• minus three times two equals
• minus three multiplied by two equals
• minus three times two is equivalent to
• negative three multiplied by two is equal to
The Role of Background Knowledge
In teaching math, scaffolding on existing knowledge, whether mathematical or general, can
make concepts and the language for expressing them easier to understand. Creating a math
problem from a familiar situation, for example, builds new knowledge on old. For example,
the following ways of presenting a problem require the same mathematical operations but
will pose different levels of difficulty for ELLs:
1. What is its perimeter of a rectangle that is 8′ by 4′?
2. Find the perimeter of a rectangle that is 8′ long and 4′ wide.
3. We need to put a fence around the vegetable garden we planted last week. What is the
shape of our garden? How do we know how much fence to buy? Do we have to mea-
sure all four sides?
In this problem, the longer third version will be easier for most ELL learners to understand
than the first two; it is grounded in prior knowledge and builds sequentially to the correct
computation and provides a concrete “hook” for learning and recalling the concept and word
perimeter.
Writing in Math
A good ELL teacher uses every opportunity to integrate language and content teaching. One
technique that helps learners to understand math concepts and to practice writing skills is to
have them create word problems from numeric ones. Asking them to create a story that cor-
responds with 6 + 3 + 4 – 2 = allows the teacher to lead ELLs through practice with story and
sentence structure, work on general and math-specific vocabulary, to see everyday applica-
tions of math, and to connect with their own experience.
7.5 Teaching the Arts
Because ELLs are under so much pressure to learn English and the core content of the curric-
ulum on which they will be assessed, teachers are sometimes tempted to forgo the arts—the
creation and appreciation of music, dance, drama, and all of the visual arts including graphics,
digital design, video, crafts, etc. As a result of some of the “accountability” measures discussed
in Chapter 1, some teachers believe that the emphasis on literacy and math has pushed the
arts out of the curriculum. Experienced teachers know, however, that this is a mistake. Not
only is study of the arts integral to a well-rounded education and to the overall quality of life,
it has significant academic benefits as well.
The Arts Increase the Capacity to Learn
Studies have confirmed what teachers have long suspected, that learning about and practic-
ing art has a broad effect on children’s cognitive development. For example, students gain
increased observational skills:
Meaningful appreciation and study of works of art begins with close observa-
tion. The Core Standards in Literacy similarly describe reading as the product
of sustained observation and attention to detail. Particularly when encounter-
ing complex art, or reading the level of complex text, students will need to be
ready for college and careers, students will need to learn to reexamine and
observe closely. (Coleman, 2012, p. 1)
Randy Kennedy, a researcher in New York City, studied the impact of the Guggenheim’s Learn-
ing Through Arts program on children’s learning in other areas. He found that children in the
program showed improved skills in six categories of critical thinking and literacy— including
description, hypothesizing, and reasoning—not found in nonparticipants in the program
(Kennedy, 2006).
Researchers have also found other important connections between the arts and other
learning:
1. There are links between “high levels of music training and the ability to manipulate
information in both working and long-term memory.”
3. “Training in acting appears to lead to memory improvement through the learning of
general skills for manipulating semantic information.” (Asbury & Rich, 2008, p. v)
4. The amount of musical training that children receive correlates with the improve-
ment in children’s reading fluency. (Wandell et al., 2008, p. 51)
There is widespread research and anecdotal support for the notion that the arts improve
children’s learning; it is also the case that teaching the arts can be supplementary or comple-
mentary to the teaching of other curricular subjects. For ELLs, specifically,
The visual arts enhance language development by offering nonverbal meth-
ods for communication and understanding and by providing a platform for
students to create mental images. Integrating the arts into language arts and
the content areas for ELLs can give students the opportunity to engage in new
and varied approaches while gaining positive emotional responses to learn-
ing, understanding others and communicating their own ideas. (New York
State Education Department, 2010, p. 2)
Also, the study of art complements social studies. Students gain a deeper understanding of
social, political, and cultural history by studying the art created during particular periods and
in particular places. Conversely, they can better understand art by understanding the social,
political, and cultural context in which it was created.
Alignment of the Arts with the CCSS
There are two ways in which to consider how
education in the arts fits into the goals inherent
in the CCSS. One is to look for references to the
arts in the language of the standards, and the
other is to seek commonality in the broad goals
and thinking skills required for both. The former
reveals only a few references to arts in the writ-
ing, speaking, and listening standards.
Writing and the Arts
Only one of the writing standards is closely
aligned to teaching of the arts, writing standard 2,
as shown in Table 7.10.
Monkey Business Images/Thinkstock
The time that children spend learning
music also contributes to their becoming
fluent readers.
Table 7.10: Progression of writing standard 2
Writing standard 2
Kindergarten Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several
loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and pro-
vide a reaction to what happened.
First grade Write narratives in which they recount two or more appropriately sequenced events,
include some details regarding what happened, use temporal words to signal event order,
and provide some sense of closure.
Second grade Write narratives in which they recount a well elaborated event or short sequence of
events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to
signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
Third grade Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective tech-
nique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences, and
provide a sense of closure.
Fourth grade Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective tech-
nique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. Use concrete words, phrases and
sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
Although the kindergarten standard is the only one that directly references art, there are
other ways to use art in fulfilling the requirements of these standards. For example, learners
could do a story board as a pre-writing activity (second grade standard), they can illustrate
their narratives, or a teacher could use the illustrations in books to elicit the details addressed
in this standard. The eighth grade version of this standard requires learners to
introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, con-
cepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting, graphics
(e.g., charts, tables) and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
Using multimedia, in particular, would provide an excellent bridge to between language and
the arts.
Oral Language and the Arts
Almost all of the CCSS for speaking and listening are highly relevant to the arts, and space
does not permit us to explore all of the commonalities here. Table 7.11 shows the progres-
sion of two standards that are especially applicable and relevant to ELLs. Because, as we well
know, ELLs need a great deal of oral language practice on which to base all other language and
content learning, the arts can be particularly significant for them. Not only does exposure to,
and the opportunity to create, art and music round out and add balance to the curriculum, the
arts provide valuable opportunities for ELLs to acquire broader communicative skills and to
develop while they nurture their aesthetic sensibilities.
Table 7.11: Progression of two listening/speaking standards aligned with arts
Comprehension and collaboration: Presentation of knowledge and ideas:
Anchor standards Evaluate a speaker’s point of view,
reasoning, and use of evidence and
rhetoric.
Make strategic use of digital media and
visual displays of data to express infor-
mation and enhance understanding of
presentations.
Kindergarten Confirm understanding of a text read
aloud or information presented orally
or through other media by asking and
answering questions about key details
and requesting clarification if some-
thing is not understood.
Add drawings or other visual displays
to descriptions as desired to provide
additional detail.
First grade Ask and answer questions about key
details in a text read aloud or informa-
tion presented orally or through other
media.
Add drawings or other visual displays
to descriptions, when appropriate, to
clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
Second grade Recount or describe key ideas or details
from a text read aloud or informa-
tion presented orally or through other
media.
Create audio recordings of stories or
poems; add drawings or other visual
displays to stories or recounts of experi-
ences, when appropriate, to clarify
ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
If ELLs are to receive maximum benefits from the integration of participation in the arts, other
content learning, and language learning, it is especially important that all teachers involved
in their education be working on the same goals. Ideally, the teacher who teaches language
and social studies also teaches art, but if this is not the school’s practice, then collaboration
between teachers becomes all the more important.
Before we leave this chapter, let’s hear from an ELL teacher who spent a productive summer
learning a simple technique that could be used across all content areas in Why I Teach: What
I Did Last Summer.
Comprehension and collaboration: Presentation of knowledge and ideas:
Third grade Determine the main ideas and sup-
porting details of a text read aloud or
information presented in diverse media
and formats, including visually, quanti-
tatively, and orally.
Create engaging audio recordings of
stories or poems that demonstrate fluid
reading at an understandable pace; add
visual displays, when appropriate, to
emphasize or enhance certain facts or
details.
Fourth grade Paraphrase portions of a text read aloud
or information presented in diverse
media and formats, including visually,
quantitatively, and orally.
Add audio recordings and visual dis-
plays to presentations, when appropri-
ate, to enhance the development of
main ideas or themes.
Fifth grade
Interpret information presented in
diverse media and formats (e.g., visu-
ally, quantitatively, orally) and explain
how it contributes to a topic, text, or
issue under study.
Interpret information presented in
diverse media and formats (e.g., visu-
ally, quantitatively, orally) and explain
how it contributes to a topic, text, or
issue under study.
Author created, based on Source: CCSS
Why I Teach: What I Did Last Summer
Colleen Williams is a fourth grade teacher in an urban environment. She typically has between
20 and 25 children in her classes, and most years, at least a third of them are ELLs. When the
Common Core State Standards were adopted in her state, Colleen decided that she needed
professional development, especially in the teaching of math. Here is her story:
I was always pretty good at math even though I didn’t much like it, but when I read the Com-
mon Core standards for math, I panicked. For a little while I even thought about changing
careers. Instead, I listened to my principal’s advice and went to a workshop in New York where
we spent a week observing, discussing, and practicing what we learned in a sheltered class-
room. It was an eye-opener! One of the methods we learned for math, which could be used
for any content area, was a pre-reading activity called Possible Sentences. The purpose is to
activate and connect with ELLs’ prior knowledge, and it’s really very simple. First, you choose
(continued)
Table 7.11: Progression of two listening/speaking standards aligned with arts
(continued )
Summary & Resources
Faced with the dual task of acquiring English while learning all the content of the
curriculum, ELLs are under a great deal of pressure to learn more and learn faster. Their
teachers face the same pressures but they have the added stress of preparing their learn-
ers to meet the rigorous requirements of the Common Core State Standards. But where
there is challenge, there is also opportunity, and we have seen in this chapter that the
interdisciplinary focus and organization of the CCSS actually accords with communicative
language teaching with its emphasis on authentic, purposeful language use and practice.
Careful planning is needed to build language and content skills incrementally and it is
important to know the abilities and skills of each learner in order to know when and
how to adapt reading or writing tasks to the appropriate level without compromising the
content. In the following chapter, we will delve deeper into this notion of differentiated
instruction in the context of teaching practice informed by research and by the experi-
ence of others.
Key Ideas
1. The Common Core State Standards for K–5 are written only for English language arts
and math, which means that there are many opportunities for ELLs to learn lan-
guage in context.
2. The most relevant standards for content-area teaching and learning are those asso-
ciated with reading for information.
3. The language of science presents particular challenges for ELLs, but science also
presents opportunities to integrate knowledge from other media such as graphics,
tables, charts, demonstrations, and hands-on experiments.
4. Similarly, social studies challenges ELLs because they might lack background knowl-
edge in U.S. government and society, but the subject also affords many opportunities
for cross-cultural comparisons.
5. English language learners are a valuable resource for teachers because of the differ-
ent perspectives they bring to subject-area study, especially social studies.
Why I Teach: What I Did Last Summer (continued)
vocabulary from the text that you are preparing to read and display the words somehow—on
the board, on paper, on a whiteboard. Then you ask the students to put any related words into
pairs and then to create sentences using the pairs of words, explaining that the sentences
should be the ones they expect to see in the text. Next, they read the text and compare their
possible sentences to the actual sentences in the text, and if they are inaccurate, they rewrite
their sentences to make them accurate.
It’s an easy technique, but I’ve tried it in social studies and science as well as math with my
ELLs of different ability levels. It works! I learned something that helped me as a teacher and
helped all my students, and that is why I teach—so that I can keep on learning, too.
(Possible Sentences originated with Moore & Moore (1986), and is a strategy which is widely
used to reinforce and predict vocabulary development.)
6. Although math is considered to have its own language, understanding it also
requires English language skills to read, hear, and correctly interpret word problems.
7. The arts provide learners opportunities for expression that is not wholly language
dependent.
8. Study of the arts is integral to a well-rounded education and to the overall quality of
life, but it has significant academic benefits as well, including increasing the capacity
to learn.
9. Although there are some teaching strategies that align especially well with each con-
tent area, generally the strategies that work in one area can be adapted for others.
Key Terms
basal readers Textbooks created specifi-
cally for the teaching of reading. Also known
as core readers.
curriculum A road map for teaching and
learning that specifies content, resources,
environment and context, and possi-
bly methods or techniques for achieving
standards.
English language arts (ELA) The generic
term for those subjects that develop stu-
dents’ comprehension and capacity for using
the oral and written language.
idioms/idiomatic expressions Words or
groups of words established by usage as
having a meaning not discernible from the
meanings of the individual words.
informational text A broad category of
nonfiction resources, including biographies
and autobiographies; books about history,
social studies, science, and the arts; techni-
cal texts, including how-to books and proce-
dural books; and literary nonfiction.
Next Generation Science Standards
(NGSS) A multistate effort to create educa-
tion standards rich in content and practice
and organized coherently across disciplines
and grade levels to provide all learners
an internationally benchmarked science
education.
nominal In grammar, a phrase or a clause
that functions as a noun.
phonics A method of teaching beginners to
read and pronounce words by learning the
relationship between sounds and letters, let-
ter groups, and syllables.
social studies A curricular area concerning
social relationships and the functioning of
society. Subject matter may be drawn from
history, government, civics, sociology, geog-
raphy, economics, and anthropology.
standards Guidelines that set the expecta-
tions for the minimum level of knowledge a
student must master at each level.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. In the introduction to this chapter, the author states that the Common Core
standards represent an opportunity to develop elementary school curricula
that are . . . consistent with the principles of communicative language
teaching. How?
2. Read the following excerpt from a passage called Extreme Weather.
A cold front happens when cold air is moving near the surface of Earth, and it
pushes warm air up very quickly. This is often the beginning of a thunderstorm.
Now, consider the following questions about the passage:
a. What is a blizzard?
b. What is a tornado?
What is the difference in the reading skills needed to answer the two questions
3. Consider the meaning of the word happen in the question “Why did that happen?”
Is there a difference in meaning between these two contexts:
a. The question refers to a man stealing $14 from a convenience store.
b. The question refers to a mudslide in Oregon.
Is the difference sufficient to cause confusion for ELLs?
4. Some schools have sheltered classes or ESL classes where ELLs can get additional
support. Others have neither and the classroom teacher must teach all the subjects
in the curriculum, including art. How could this situation be positive for ELLs, espe-
cially in the elementary grades?
5. Examine Table 7.12. How could you relate these data in 7 Billion and Counting! to
expand learners’ knowledge about population growth? What specific math and lan-
guage skills might be addressed at the same time?
Table 7.12: The ten most densely populated cities on Earth
Rank City Area (mi²) Density
(population
per sq. mile)
Summary & Resources
Rank City Area (mi²) Density
(population
per sq. mile)
Country
6 South Dumdum 5.23 75,069 India
7 Kamarhati 4.23 74,323 India
8 Caloocan 20.6 72,302 Philippines
9 Levallois-Perret 0.93 68,458 France
10 Le Pré-Saint-Gervais 0.27 67,047 France
Table 7.12: The ten most densely populated cities on Earth (continued)
6. Discuss the importance of background knowledge in the content areas, generally. Is
it more or less important in math than in art?
7. Describe ways in which art can be integrated into the teaching of core subjects.
8. What is the particular importance of graphic organizers and other nontext media for
ELLs?
9. What is the value in asking ELLs to state or explain a math equation in words? Is the
reverse activity any more or less useful?
10. Does the shift in emphasis of the CCSS from literary to informational text have any
particular significance for ELLs? Is it positive or negative in your view?
Additional Resources
For an overview of the challenges ELLs face in content learning, see
http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/challenges_ells_content_area_l_65322.php
Common Core foundational skills in reading are listed with preface and commentary at
http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/introduction/
Practical information for using Common Core ELA Standards for ELLs in grades K–5 can be
found at
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/51433/
A good resource for using science to develop ELLs’ language skills can be found at
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/15439/
To search for reading materials at different levels, visit
Next Generation Science Standards are available in an easily searchable format at
http://www.nextgenscience.org/search-performance-expectations?tid_2%5B%5D=
13&term_node_tid_depth%5B%5D=111
For a video about the teaching of science to ELLs by Dr. Okhee Lee in association with the
Stanford Understanding Language Project, see
http://ell.stanford.edu/publication/language-demands-and-opportunities-relation-next-
generation-science-standards-ells
An illustration of how science literacy requires the ability to interpret multiple modes
of presentation can be found in practice tests for the Ohio Grade 8 Achievement Test in
science at
http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Testing/Testing-Materials/Practice-
Tests-for-Grades-3-8-Achievement-Tests/Grade-8-Achievement-Tests/OH8SciPT_SB_Fall06.
pdf.aspx
For helpful hints on teaching math to ELLs, see
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/30570/ and
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/10-ways-help-ells-succeed-math/
For a good analysis of the importance of arts in the curriculum, see Smith, F. (2014), Why
arts education is crucial, and who’s doing best, Edutopia, April 30, 2014. Retrieved from
http://www.edutopia.org/arts-music-curriculum-child-development
Introduction
Fifty years ago, many Americans learned French or Spanish or German by translating text.
Although it was not an effective way to learn conversational skills or even writing skills, many
did acquire a “reading knowledge” of the language. Today ELLs are in a very different situa-
tion. They need to acquire both social and cognitive/academic language abilities. Although
they might be able to rely on oral language skills for many social situations, oral language
ability is not sufficient for academic purposes. Moreover, a “reading knowledge” is precisely
what many are lacking. It is usually the failure to acquire adequate literacy skills that causes
ELLs to become long-term English language learners (Chapter 5).
Beginning with a review and further discussion of the centrality of reading to language and
content learning, we delve deeper into what the process of reading entails. What do we know
about the reading process that helps us understand the task that confronts ELLs in learning
to read English? As we have seen in earlier chapters, if ELLs are able to read in their native
language(s), they have a head start on learning to read in English. In this chapter we examine
how teachers can take advantage of learners’ prior knowledge by using a variety of methods
to build skills in English reading and writing.
In school, children learn to read so that they can read to learn. Content-area literacy, then, is
not only the goal of but also a major component of reading comprehension. What is reading
comprehension? Can reading and writing be taught simultaneously? Does content or aca-
demic literacy differ from “other” reading and writing? If so, how is it learned?
The final section of the chapter synthesizes the different perspectives we’ve used to look at
ELL literacy within the communicative approach to teaching (Chapter 4). Recognizing that
there is no one method that works for all learners (or for all teachers), we conclude the chap-
ter with guidelines and principles that characterize effective methods for teaching reading
to ELLs.
6.1 Why Reading Matters
An excellent predictor of academic success for all children is reading ability. It’s a common
sense claim, but it also happens to be one supported by research. Table 6.1 summarizes some
of the more significant findings of the past two decades. Although all of the studies conclude
that the level of reading ability (by third grade) is a strong predictor of later academic suc-
cess, another finding is somewhat more surprising. Specifically, three studies all showed that
an even better predictor is math ability in kindergarten. This finding does not mean that we
should abandon reading to children or that reading is not important. Rather, they were uni-
fied in their results and their conclusions: Kindergarten math ability is a predictor of third
grade reading ability, and it is this ability that leads to further engagement in reading, which
in turn improves comprehension.
Table 6.1: Selected research findings on the importance of early reading ability
Researchers Studied . . . And concluded that . . .
Cunningham &
Stanovich (1997)
First graders followed
up as 11th graders
• Early exposure to print and comprehension
ability both predict the level of reading
engagement in 11th grade (p. 941);
• Third grade is pivotal year. Children who lag
behind in first grade but catch up by third or
fifth are likely to be engaged readers in 11th
grade (p. 942);
• Early success at reading acquisition is one
of the keys that unlocks a lifetime of reading
habits; and
• “The subsequent exercise of this habit serves
to further develop reading comprehension
ability . . .” (p. 943).
Hernandez (2012) 4,000 children from
first grade through
age 19
• Children who do not read proficiently by third
grade are four times more likely to leave school
without a diploma than proficient readers (p. 4);
• For the worst readers, those who could not
master even the basic skills by third grade, the
dropout rate is nearly six times greater (p. 4);
• Children with the lowest reading scores
account for one-third of students, but for more
than three-fifths (63%) of all children who do
not graduate from high school (p. 6);
• About 33% of Hispanic students who did
not achieve third grade proficiency failed to
graduate on time, a rate higher than for white
students with poor reading skills; but
• The ethnic gap disappears when Hispanic
children do read at grade level by third grade
and were not living in poverty (p. 5).
Duncan et al. (2007) Data from 35,000
children in the United
States, Canada, and the
United Kingdom
• The strongest predictors of later achievement
are school-entry math, reading, and attention
skills (p. 1,428); and
• Early math skills had the greatest predictive
power, not only of later achievement in math,
but also of later achievement in reading.
Romano et al. (2010) Canadian data on 1,500
school children
• Kindergarten math skills are best predictor of
reading ability in third grade (p. 995); and
• Kindergarten literacy also predicted later
academic achievement.
Hooper et al. (2010) African-American and
white children in the
United States
• Kindergarten math skills are the best predictor
of later academic achievement in both groups;
and
• There are indications that early expressive
language skills are important to later
achievement in both reading and math
(p. 1,018).
The reason that reading is so crucial to academic achievement goes beyond the obvious
fact that content learning requires reading at a high level of competence. There are long-
term cognitive consequences of learning to read, and to reading, and they are significant.
At the early stages of learning to read, a great deal of cognitive activity goes into decoding
as readers try to figure out how the marks on the page relate to the language they know. As
they become more proficient at decoding, the process becomes automated, and when this
happens readers have more cognitive resources to devote to “ . . . more general language
skills, such as vocabulary, background knowledge, familiarity with complex syntactic struc-
tures, etc.” (Cunningham & Stanovich, 2001, p. 138). The faster the process becomes auto-
mated, the better, because children who struggle with decoding and word identification
are exposed to less text than skilled readers, and they often find the materials too difficult
for them. Their deficiencies in decoding skills, lack of reading practice, and materials that
are too difficult significantly impact their ability to develop the automaticity they need to
develop the higher order cognitive skills. In contrast, skilled readers acquire decoding skills
very quickly, and with these “running on automatic” they can devote attention and cognitive
resources to extracting meaning, increasing vocabulary, and acquiring content knowledge.
It is a spiral, either upward or downward.
Because ELLs face the dual challenge of acquiring language and content area knowledge, often
to catch up to their grade level, it is especially important for them to learn to read quickly and
well. It is important that they learn the lower-order skills (decoding and word identification)
so that they can move onto the higher order skills as soon as possible. To learn content, they
need to be able to:
• understand sentence structure,
• have a large vocabulary on which to draw,
• understand how different kinds of writing (e.g., narrative, factual, biographical) are
structured,
• comprehend ideas,
• follow an argument,
• understand the writer’s purpose for the text,
• detect implications of the material, and
• integrate what they read into their prior knowledge of the subject.
English language learners will not acquire all these skills by being left alone in the back of a
classroom to figure things out or by being handed a textbook and a dictionary. The develop-
ment of reading skills must hold a prominent place in instructional plans for ELLs from the
beginning. The reason is simple: Academic success depends on it. Once an ELL learns to read,
she can read to learn. What is needed is targeted instruction. The remainder of this chap-
ter explores what teachers need to know about the reading process and how to build on a
learner’s prior knowledge, about content-area reading, and about how reading instruction is
implemented within a communicative approach to teaching.
6.2 What Is Involved in Learning to Read?
Understanding the characteristics of proficient readers is helpful for understanding the
process of reading but does not constitute a road map for teaching reading (Chapter 2).
Kenneth Goodman’s definition of reading helps us to understand why. Goodman, one of the
preeminent researchers to study the reading process in the last several decades, defined
reading as “a psycholinguistic guessing game” involving “an interaction between thought
and language.”
Efficient reading does not result from precise perception and identification
of all elements, but from skill in selecting the fewest, most productive clues
necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time. (1976, p. 2)
Native speakers have more “clues”—their linguistic- and content knowledge—on which to
base their guesses. And yet, ELLs also bring something to the task, raising the question we
will address shortly: What transfers? Before attempting to answer that, however, it will be
useful to consider in a little more depth what is available to transfer. In other words, what
does the reading process require of the reader?
In recent decades, researchers have made progress toward understanding the cognitive pro-
cesses involved in learning to read, and while the neurological and psychological bases are
not yet fully understood, there appears to be agreement that there are certain necessary pro-
cesses required. We know, for example, that reading begins with decoding and word identifi-
cation, but also has to involve comprehension.
Decoding
Humans have been speaking for tens of thousands of years. During this time,
genetic changes have favored the brain’s ability to acquire and process spoken
language, even setting aside specialized areas of the brain to accomplish these
tasks . . . . Speaking is a normal, genetically hardwired capability; reading is
not. In fact, reading is probably the most difficult task we ask the young brain
to undertake. (Sousa, 2011, Ch. 4)
From birth, and possibly before, infants can distinguish speech from other sounds. Shortly
after birth, they begin to comprehend that those sounds have meaning corresponding to
some real-world object or event. This is the beginning of phonological awareness and it
happens naturally in all hearing infants no matter what language is spoken around them.
The second phase of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness, which is the under-
standing that words are made up of individual sounds and that these sounds can be reor-
ganized or manipulated to form new words. As soon as infants realize that the family feline
is a cat, which differs from the thing that keeps their heads warm, and that neither is the
same as a cup, bowl, banana, and so on, they have begun to be aware of phonemes. The
ability to isolate one sound from others in a word is another aspect of phonemic aware-
ness. Early evidence of this awareness is found in children’s rhyming. Notice that so far
no print is involved. ELLs with prior exposure to reading in an alphabetic language will
usually have acquired both aspects of phonological awareness, and all learners will have
acquired the first phase—that speech is made up of individual sounds—long before they
reach school age.
The next step in learning to read is to figure out the relationship that exists between sounds
and what initially appear to be squiggles on the page. Phoneme-grapheme awareness,
commonly referred to as sound-symbol correspondence, is a necessary step for learning any
alphabetic language. It is also used by very young Chinese children learning to read pinyin
before moving on to characters. To get some idea of how difficult the task can be for young
children, consider the following string of symbols:
The cat wore his hat in the heat.
Each symbol corresponds to a sound (yes, in English!). But unless you can read Wingdings,
you won’t know that the sentence is represented in standard orthography, or the conven-
tional spelling system, as
The cat wore his hat in the heat.
For a child encountering print for the first time, the two “sentences” are equally meaning-
less, so the first task is to figure out what the squiggles mean. Those of us who already
know how to read might approach the Wingdings task differently than beginners. In all
likelihood we would look for patterns or repeated symbols, a or at, for example. This
would be essentially a phonics approach, but it is not the only one. We could also approach
the problem from a whole word recognition perspective, looking at larger chunks: the
which appears twice, or cat and hat which have very similar features. However, with
both approaches, without some context we have little chance of cracking the code. Once
someone utters the sentence aloud, however, we can figure it out pretty quickly using either
method.
It is in the sound-symbol correspondence task that different processes may be involved,
depending on the language. As we saw in Chapter 2, not all languages have alphabetic writ-
ing systems, and when children learn to read logographic languages, there is no sound-
symbol correspondence to learn. Rather, they have to learn a different character or symbol for
each word or morpheme. Chinese children normally do learn an alphabetic system initially
( pinyin), but they have to learn to recognize characters in order to become proficient readers,
and processing characters is cognitively different from processing alphabet-based text. The
difference is schematically shown in Figure 6.1 and Figure 6.2.
Sound to Symbol Correspondence
(Phonemes to Graphemes)
Sound to Symbol (pinyin)
used in initial instruction only
/mâo/≠/bâo/≠/dôu/
/mâo/= =mâo
/kæt/= /mâo/=
/kæt/= =cat /hæt/= /hit/=
/kæt/≠/hæt/≠/hit/
=heat=hat
Phonological
Awareness
Phonological
awareness
Sound to Symbol Correspondence
(Phonemes to Graphemes)
Sound to Symbol (pinyin)
used in initial instruction only
/mâo/≠/bâo/≠/dôu/
/mâo/= =mâo
/kæt/= /mâo/=
/kæt/= =cat /hæt/= /hit/=
/kæt/≠/hæt/≠/hit/
=heat=hat
Section 6.2 What Is Involved in Learning to Read?
Figure 6.1: Learning to read:
The beginning
Phonological
Awareness
Phonological
awareness
Sound to Symbol Correspondence
(Phonemes to Graphemes)
Sound to Symbol (pinyin)
used in initial instruction only
/mâo/≠/bâo/≠/dôu/
/mâo/= =mâo
/kæt/= /mâo/=
/kæt/= =cat /hæt/= /hit/=
/kæt/≠/hæt/≠/hit/
=heat=hat
Phonological
Awareness
Phonological
awareness
Sound to Symbol Correspondence
(Phonemes to Graphemes)
Sound to Symbol (pinyin)
used in initial instruction only
/mâo/≠/bâo/≠/dôu/
/mâo/= =mâo
/kæt/= /mâo/=
/kæt/= =cat /hæt/= /hit/=
/kæt/≠/hæt/≠/hit/
=heat=hat
Figure 6.2: Learning to read:
Chinese
Regardless of an individual’s native language, reading requires that the brain match symbols with
sounds. To be successful, this process requires the cooperation of three neural systems, working
together to decode the sound-to-symbol relationships peculiar to the language. This is not an easy skill
to develop and does not occur for most people without direct instruction (Sousa, 2011, Ch. 4).
The neural systems involved are the visual processing center, the auditory processing center,
and the executive system. This is how it is thought to work:
• Continuing with the examples in Figures 6.1 and 6.2, the visual processing center
records the word cat and then works with the auditory processing system (Broca’s
area of the brain), and the two systems together analyze the phonemes that com-
prise the word.
• If the combination of phonemes exists in the mind’s lexicon (mental diction-
ary), the information is moved to the executive system in the frontal lobe, which
consolidates the information from the two areas as a representation of the family
pet with whiskers and a long tail.
• Logographic writing systems require that the brain also activate an area of the right
hemisphere associated with graphical or pictorial representations.
Taken together, these processes constitute decoding. Keep in mind that this process is only
the beginning of the reading process. The brain also has to learn how to speed up or auto-
mate the recognition process so that it becomes less laborious. And the next time the reader
encounters the word, it is recognized without having to go through being fully processed in
each area of the brain.
A Teacher’s Story: The Codebreaker
I asked to meet with Mai’s parents to discuss Mai’s lack of progress in literacy. They came, bring-
ing with them one of Mai’s teenaged cousins to act as interpreter because their English was very
basic. I learned that before coming to the United States, Mai’s education had been sporadic at
best. The family had spent time in three different overseas camps en route to the United States.
I also learned that although her parents were themselves literate, educated people, they had not
taught Mai to read in Vietnamese because they were convinced that it would interfere with her
ability to learn English. The interpreter also said that although there had been English classes in
some of the camps, the instructors concentrated on basic spoken English.
After that meeting, I decided that Mai needed special assistance if she were ever to catch up
with others in her class, and so I consulted a district reading specialist. She was overwhelmed
with requests, but she sent me an intern, Casey, who worked with Mai for 40 minutes a day. I
had assumed that Casey would use simplified materials, but she said that no, she would use
the same materials I used in the class. One day a few weeks later, Mai held up her hand in
class, volunteering to read a passage aloud from our social studies lesson. She read it almost
perfectly, and I was amazed. I was even more amazed when she couldn’t answer a simple ques-
tion about what she’d read. I asked her to read it again, silently, and then I asked her the same
question, and again she couldn’t answer. After a few more similar incidents, I understood: Mai
had mastered sound-symbol correspondence and could decode very effectively. But her com-
prehension was almost entirely lacking.
Ellen’s experience with Mai in A Teacher’s Story: The Codebreaker reminds us of an obvi-
ous but important fact about reading: All reading is about comprehension. Yes, decoding is
important, but it is not safe to assume that because an ELL has a good command of spoken
English and is able to identify and pronounce written words, that comprehension follows.
In Mai’s case it had not, and it is a mistake to assume that what appears to be a neces-
sary condition for reading—basic sound-symbol correspondence—is a sufficient one for
reading comprehension. In fact, we know that it is not a necessary condition. Nonhearing
people learn to read; proficient hearing readers understand the meanings of words they
cannot pronounce; people learn to read a foreign language without knowing how to speak
it or how it sounds. Nevertheless, in normal, hearing children, the easiest path to reading
begins with understanding the relationship between the language they see in print and the
language they hear and speak.
Mai’s story also illustrates the relationship between prior educational experience and suc-
cess in academic language learning. Because her previous schooling was only sporadic,
Mai likely did not have the background knowledge to make sense of the social studies
text she was reading. Proficiency in reading means that the reader can understand indi-
vidual sentences and how they “fit together” in the overall structure of a piece of writing.
It means that the reader can comprehend the purpose of the text and the ideas presented
as well as follow the argument and understand implications. Proficiency in reading means
that a reader who understands the meanings of some of the words in a text can sometimes
figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words from the context provided by the known
words. Perhaps most importantly, proficiency means that a reader can distinguish what
is important and what is not related to the task at hand—the writer’s purpose and the
reader’s purpose. In other words, reading proficiency means that a reader is able to focus
on those elements that carry meaning and ignore those that do not. Consider the following
pair of sentences:
He had two reasons to move to Oregon.
His two reasons to move to Oregon had just evaporated.
The phrase two reasons has a different level of significance in the two contexts. In the first,
the phrase signals the reader that what is coming next is very likely the identification and
perhaps some explanation of the two reasons. The second sentence also demands that
the reader pay attention to what comes next, but in this case, what the proficient reader
expects to see is what happened, what “evaporated.” The second sentence also illustrates
how a proficient reader needs to be able to work out the meaning of a familiar word used
in an unfamiliar context. Learning a new meaning for a familiar word is the same as learn-
ing a new word. Proficient readers increase their vocabularies by reading, which in turn
makes them better readers, which in turn makes it easier for them to learn academic
content.
Word Recognition
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have been able to see
which parts of the brain are the most active at any particular point in time. In addition to
verifying that there are three areas in the left side of the brain that are activated during read-
ing, research has revealed that the left hemisphere of the reader’s brain has a dedicated area
with the unique highly specialized function of recognizing whole written words. This “brain
dictionary” is not something that the species evolved, but is learned in each individual (Glezer
et al., 2009). If each word that a reader learns is associated with its own set of neurons, then
it is possible that:
• the brain is organized in much the same way for reading alphabetic and logographic
languages;
• in teaching children pinyin, the Chinese have made it easier for children to learn to
read an alphabetic writing system later; and
• the initial learning processes might be even more similar than they appear in
Figures 6.1 and 6.2.
Understanding what is involved in decoding and word identification, however useful, does
not immediately lead us to an understanding of how comprehension develops, because com-
prehension involves more than decoding, identifying and then matching the printed word to a
word in the mental dictionary. Without comprehension, there is little point to any of the prior
processing.
At the heart of the matter is the question, How does the reader interact with the text to extract
the writer’s intended meaning?
In order to read with clear comprehension, students also need to under-
stand the words they read, construct an interpretive cognitive model of what
the author is trying to say, and have the requisite background knowledge to
categorize, interpret, and remember what an author is saying in relation to
established facts or a field of understanding (such as a content-area subject).
(Lawrence et al., 2011)
We saw in an earlier example that it is possible to “read” a passage—decoding, identifying,
and correctly pronouncing most if not all words—and still have little understanding of the
meaning. This is especially true for ELLs, as research has shown.
. . . by and large for language-minority children, word-level components of lit-
eracy (e.g., decoding, spelling) either are or can be (with appropriate instruc-
tion) at levels equal to those of their monolingual peers. However, this is not the
case for text-level skills, like reading comprehension, which rarely approach
the levels achieved by their monolingual peers. (August & Wan, 2007)
In the text that follows, we can see that comprehension involves much more than knowing the
meanings of words.
Messy ninth end for Sweden
A measurement in Canada’s favour in the eighth end and a trio of misses by
Sweden in the ninth sealed the win for Jones.
In that ninth end, Sweden’s Maria Wennerstroem had her final rock pick up
debris, opening up a pair of takeouts by Lawes. That, coupled with a miss by
Christina Betrup, left Canada lying three with skip stones remaining.
An in-turn raise by Prytz only gave Sweden second shot rock before Jones’s
last shot of the end drew onto the button.
Prytz’s final chance to salvage a point evaporated when her attempt to knock
Canada off the button nicked her own stone in the four-foot, giving Canada a
steal of two and a three-point lead heading into the final end.
“Of course it’s disappointing,” Sigfridsson said. “I know we won silver, but it
really just feels like we lost gold.”
Canada simply ran the Swedes out of rocks in the final end, and the Canadian
celebration was on. (Piercy, 2014)
How much of this did you understand? In terms of the reading process just described, how far
did you get? In all likelihood, every reader knows the meaning of every word with the excep-
tion of proper nouns. Some will even know that the topic is something that happened in the
sport of curling. A few might understand exactly what actions were described. For many read-
ers, however, the text is almost incomprehensible because we have no background knowl-
edge, no experiential context upon which to reconstruct the writer’s meaning.
Reading comprehension is what hap-
pens at the intersection of reader and
text, within a sociocultural context,
as represented in Figure 6.3. It is an
active process of extraction and recon-
struction of meaning. Understanding
what comprehension entails means
understanding first that reading is an
activity that takes place when a reader
encounters text, but that the process is
not static—it changes as a reader gains
practice and becomes more proficient
and also learns to approach the read-
ing of different texts in different ways.
The Reader
The reader brings to the activity a wide
range of capacities and abilities, knowl-
edge, and experience, as well as moti-
vation. Cognitive capacities include
attention, memory, linguistic, and ana-
lytical ability. Knowledge includes lin-
guistic knowledge such as vocabulary,
morphology, and sentence structure, as
well as content knowledge, knowledge of how texts are structured, and some degree of awareness
about what has worked in the past as a comprehension strategy. Motivation refers to the purpose
for reading. If it is for pleasure, the reader will usually approach the task differently than when
reading for information or to learn a skill. Whether the purpose is externally imposed or a choice
made by the reader can also impact motivation and thus comprehension. High stress situations
such as taking a test or learning how to give CPR to a co-worker in distress may affect how well
the reader comprehends and how quickly. The reader’s motivation can also be influenced by her
degree of reading fluency. A fluent reader will experience less stress and have developed more
effective comprehension strategies than a nonfluent reader. All the capacities, knowledge, and
abilities that a reader brings to the task of reading change with experience and with instruction.
The Text
Text can be thought of in terms of purpose, format, and delivery mode. Writers have many
purposes for creating text—letters, reports, opinion pieces, advertising copy—to tell stories
that are real, as in biography, or imagined, as in fiction. The list goes on. Writers also have a
variety of formats in which to present their writing—magazines, newspapers, books, novel-
las, journals, billboards, and so on—and they have a choice whether to use paper or electronic
means or, as in the case of this text, both. Text can be difficult or easy depending both on
inherent factors such as sentence length and the use of specialized or uncommon vocabulary
and on what the reader brings to the task. The mode may also interact with the reader’s moti-
vation—reading articles discovered in an internet search may cause the reader to read more
quickly, looking for key information, while articles that the reader has taken the time to find
in the library and copy to take home may demand more time and attention.
Reader
Text
Comprehension
Sociocultural
Context
Figure 6.3: Interactions involved
in comprehension
Reading comprehension, the intersection of reader and
text, occurs within a sociocultural context.
Sociocultural Context
Cultural factors influence learners in many different ways (Chapter 2). An important aspect
of sociocultural context for reading comprehension is instruction, because how ELLs learn to
read is shaped, to a large degree, by what happens in the classroom.
When we think about the context of learning to read, we think mostly of class-
rooms. Of course, children bring to their classrooms vastly varying capacities
and understandings about reading, which are in turn influenced, or in some
cases determined, by their experiences in their homes and neighborhoods.
Further, classrooms and schools themselves reflect the neighborhood context
and the economic disparities of the larger society. (Snow, 2003, p. 16)
For ELLs, the most significant cultural factors are the attitudes of home and of community to
reading (Is it strictly a utilitarian activity or is it valued for other purposes?); the value the
community places on formal education (Is it strictly job preparation or a place for learning
that has value in itself ?); and school or culture shock (Is the classroom too far outside the
ELL’s experience for comfort?).
Extracting and reconstructing meaning from the written word, reading comprehension is thus
a highly complex cognitive process influenced by many factors both internal and external to
the learner. The question for teachers is how do we take advantage of the reading skills that
ELLs bring to the task of learning to read in English? We explore this topic in the next section.
6.3 Transfer of Existing Skills
Language-minority students are not blank slates. They enter classrooms with
varying degrees of oral proficiency and literacy in their first language. There is
clear evidence that tapping into first-language literacy can confer advantages
to English-language learners. (August & Shanahan, 2006, p. 5)
Finding the best ways to use the knowledge that ELLs bring to the reading process helps
teachers to guide ELLs along the path toward literacy. Each learner brings different experi-
ences, but all can serve as the foundation on which teachers can support learning by scaffold-
ing learning activities.
Prior Knowledge and Experience
Language proficiency, whether in the first language or English or both, is the foundation upon
which the ELL teacher helps ELLs build their English literacy skills. The stronger the profi-
ciency, the better. Similarly, the greater a learner’s content-area knowledge, the better chance
the learner will have for developing both content-area and language proficiency. Unfortunately,
ELLs arrive at school with varying levels of first language reading ability, and they are more
likely than their English-speaking peers to lack the background knowledge needed for under-
standing subject-area texts (Irujo, 2007). Many ELLs arrive at school with some degree of read-
ing ability, even if only print awareness. If their first language is an alphabetic one, they may
have knowledge or at least awareness of sound-symbol correspondence. Teachers can build
upon that experience. If ELLs have learned to read a non-alphabetic language such as Chinese
This young boy is learning that words can be
represented by marks on paper and that they
tell stories. By the time he gets to school, he
may even have learned something about sound-
symbol correspondence. This early start will be
very important when he begins to read in English
at school.
or Japanese, teachers will have to teach
sound-symbol correspondence but they
will be able to take advantage of other
cognitive skills that readers use to extract
meaning from text. Depending on their
level of oral language development, ELLs
may need work on oral language skills
first, but children such as Mai or others in
second grade or above can benefit from
simultaneous work on literacy and oral
language. Even kindergarten and first
grade ELLs can benefit from seeing how
familiar words are represented in print.
Whatever language and literacy abilities
learners bring to the classroom, they
will need instructional support to build
further skills. One widely used approach
for supporting learners is instructional
scaffolding.
Building Reading Skills with Scaffolding
Instructional scaffolding refers to the ways in which an appropriate level of support is
provided for learners to help move them toward independence. First introduced in the mid-
20th century, scaffolding is a well-established practice in education. Jerome Bruner used the
term to describe how parents help young children to acquire language by providing informal
teaching and other kinds of support needed for learning (Bruner, 1966; Wood et al., 1976).
The purpose of scaffolding is to help learners become independent by figuring things out for
themselves, and can be thought of as the helpful interactions between teacher and learner
that help the learner move beyond the current level of independence to the next stage. Then
the scaffolding is taken away and recreated for the next stage of teaching and learning. There
are a number of ways in which teachers can use ELLs’ prior knowledge of reading as a founda-
tion on which to scaffold the learning that eventually leads to independence in reading.
Use Prior Content Knowledge
We have seen the importance of background knowledge to reading comprehension. Estab-
lishing what they know about the topic of the text they are about to read and then expanding
on that knowledge helps them to know what to expect and make better predictions as they
read. Making notes that everyone can see, especially if they are organized in a way that paral-
lels the structure of the text, not only helps connect oral and written language, but helps to
build necessary vocabulary.
Another way to take advantage of prior knowledge is to select materials that are culturally famil-
iar to ELLs. Using multicultural materials can in fact have many benefits not only for ELLs, but
for all students in the class. The most obvious benefit is that good literature from or about other
cultures helps to build a true community in the classroom. Using diverse literature also helps
expand learners’ perspectives and build understanding and respect for diversity by reducing
ethnocentrism. Moreover, through “. . . reading, hearing, and using culturally diverse materials,
young people learn that beneath surface differences of color, culture, or ethnicity, all people
experience universal feelings of love, sadness, self-worth, justice, and kindness (Dowd, 1992,
p. 220). For ELLs, in particular, reading stories and books about their own culture can be very
important to minority students’ sense of self-worth and in helping them make important con-
nections between the two cultures and languages in which they live. For all learners, good qual-
ity literature from and about people of other cultures gives them insight into the universality of
the human condition and the diversity that exists in how people in different cultures cope with
issues and problems that touch most people’s lives. Choosing the right literature, whether as a
text for use in the curriculum or as a supplemental text in a classroom or school library, requires
some care. Selecting Multicultural Texts elaborates on this idea.
Selecting Multicultural Texts
Finding out about and then finding materials that relate to learners’ backgrounds allows
teachers to engage them in literacy experiences that relate to their background knowledge,
thereby building on this knowledge. Before looking for multicultural texts, it is helpful to build
a classroom culture of interest in and respect for diversity:
1. Become a student of the different cultures represented in your classroom.
2. Engage students in teaching you and others about their culture, but do not expect them
to be the sole source of information about an entire culture. Also, do not put students in
uncomfortable positions—ask them beforehand if they are willing to share experiences
or information with the class.
3. Build bridges between topics introduced in class and the students’ experiences.
Use stories and folktales from other cultures to encourage students to make the connections
between what they are reading and their own experiences. Choosing these texts can be a chal-
lenge, but over time teachers learn which ones stimulate interest and which ones do not. In
general, multicultural literature should have the following characteristics:
1. It avoids negative attitudes or representations. The material should acknowledge the
diversity of experiences within a particular cultural group and not overgeneralize or
stereotype.
2. The author of the story or book is from the culture being depicted.
3. The material related is historically accurate.
4. It inspires, amuses, or takes on themes important to learners with well-crafted prose
and good storytelling.
5. If the book is written in English, it includes words and phrases used in the culture being
depicted.
6. The material is nonjudgmental and does not set different cultures in opposition to one
another.
7. The values of the culture depicted are accurately reflected.
Source: Edward, n.d.
Introduce Unfamiliar
Vocabulary
While eliciting and expanding on what ELLs know about the topic, teachers have an oppor-
tunity to see what vocabulary must be introduced to make the text comprehensible. This is
a good time to introduce new words, because there is a built-in context and learners will be
able to hear the pronunciation before they encounter the words in print.
Use Mixed-Ability Grouping
Combining learners with stronger language skills
with less proficient learners for certain activities
can benefit both groups. Learners with weaker skills
may be more receptive to peer assistance because
they are closer in communicative language ability.
If they speak the same first language, the more pro-
ficient learner may assist with translation if needed.
The more proficient learners may more accurately
gauge the language abilities and gaps in knowledge
than the teachers. Both groups are engaged in a com-
mon activity, but they will require different kinds of
support. The teacher’s interaction with the more pro-
ficient learners provides one level of scaffolding, and
the proficient learners in turn provide a more acces-
sible level of scaffolding for the less proficient.
Use Visual Scaffolding
Teachers like to talk! But ELL learners benefit from “dual input,” or having a visual represen-
tation as well as oral. Seeing a visual image helps them to understand and remember what
the teacher is explaining, thus making the input more comprehensible. It helps them access
prior knowledge by finding any connections that exist between what the teacher is explain-
ing about the text and what they already know. Whether the visual consists of words, graphs,
pictures, outlines, diagrams, drawings, or maps and whether they are presented on paper,
chalkboards, smart boards, or computer monitors does not necessarily matter. The medium
is not as important as the visual itself.
Motivate!
ELL teachers will usually find their classrooms filled with learners of mixed ability and some-
times with different language backgrounds. Their interests will also be different. Motivating
such a diverse group is a challenge, especially in reading—even majority language children
have different tastes and interests in reading matter. As we see in A Teacher’s Story: Read-
ing, Mai makes progress and motivation can be critically important. As her teacher, Ellen
Rodriguez, learned, allowing learners to have some choice in what they read is one way of
motivating them to want become active participants in reading.
Johncopland/iStock/Thinkstock
Do you understand what this sign says?
Is it because you can read Arabic? Prior
knowledge and context help readers
predict the meaning of text.
A Teacher’s Story:
Reading
Soon, Mai tired of “reading.” What had been something of a game for her—matching the
sounds with the squiggles on the page—was no longer fun, probably because I kept pushing
her in activities to improve her comprehension. Maybe I pushed too hard, because Mai became
very resistant. She simply didn’t want to read. Then one day, another child was telling a story
and I was writing it down and I noticed that Mai was paying close attention. The story the
Fourth Grade CCSS for Reading Informational Text
Key Ideas and Details
• Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly
and when drawing inferences from the text.
• Determine the main idea of a text and explain how it is supported by key details;
summarize the text.
(continued)
JordiDelgado/iStock/Thinkstock
Content-area literacy in math means
knowing the vocabulary of the discipline
as well as the oral and written language
necessary for reading relevant texts,
taking notes, and participating in class.
A Teacher’s Story: Reading (continued)
other girl told was about a little girl who got into trouble because she lost one of her mother’s
necklaces that she had borrowed without permission. They had combed the path to the play
area, the play area itself, the girl’s book bag—everywhere they could think to look but to no
avail. The story teller finished her story by saying that her character had gone to bed that night
without finding the necklace. That ending did not suit Mai, though. She insisted on knowing
what happened next, and so I asked her what she thought happened. With a little encourage-
ment, Mai told a fanciful tale about a bird who saw the shiny object and carried it away to a
nest. Others in the group added a few suggestions for details, which Mai accepted. I wrote
the story down on a flip chart. Mai copied it down into her book, and it became her first real
reading experience.
6.4 Content-area Literacy
Content-area literacy refers not only to read-
ing and writing, although reading is at the cen-
ter of academic competency. In fact, “even when
teachers base their instruction on content area
instruction, they still need strategies for dealing
with language itself, as content is not separate
from the language through which it is pre-
sented” (Schleppegrell & Achugar, 2003, p. 21).
To be literate and competent, a learner needs to
be able to demonstrate knowledge and under-
standing of the subject area in reading, writ-
ing, speaking, and listening. In other words, the
ELL should be able to read and to demonstrate
comprehension of informational text orally and
in writing. A good place to start in understand-
ing what is required for content-area literacy
is to look at the Common Core State Standards
for reading informational text. Fourth Grade CCSS for Reading Informational Text outlines the
standards that would be expected of fourth graders in Mai’s class.
Fourth Grade CCSS for Reading Informational
Text (continued)
• Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text,
including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text.
Craft and Structure
• Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a
text relevant to a grade-four topic or subject area.
• Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/
solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text.
• Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic;
describe the differences in focus and the information provided.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
• Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs,
diagrams, timelines, animations, or interactive elements on web pages) and explain how
the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
• Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text.
• Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about
the subject knowledgeably.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies,
science, and technical texts, in the grades four through five text complexity band proficiently,
with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Source: Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2015.
Literacy in the content areas depends on ELLs acquiring the following:
• Vocabulary. Understanding the words relevant to the subject area is particularly
important for comprehension and thus learning.
• Question formation. Knowing how to construct, orally and in writing, the appropriate
question to clarify or gather further information is necessary if ELLs are to advance
their understanding of the subject matter.
• The purpose of the text. History books and novels are written for different purposes
than business letters and thank-you notes. Understanding what the author is trying
to accomplish helps readers establish context for vocabulary as well as understand
how the text is organized.
• How text is constructed. Math texts differ from science texts, which in turn
differ from social studies texts in language, organization, and style of
presentation. It is important to learn the orientation of text construction in
order to make sense of the material. A learner who has read or heard only
stories may have difficulty in solving word problems, as required, for example, by
the CCSS for fourth grade mathematics. Similarly, story and mathematics
text structures differ from the structure of social studies texts in that
students need to be able to read the description of an historical process,
such as how a bill becomes law, as required by sixth grade Common Core
standards.
• Note taking and summarizing. It is important that ELLs learn to summarize,
orally and in writing, what they have learned (from listening or reading), not
only as a memory device and as a way of learning how to study and learn, but
to assist the teacher in identifying gaps in the learner’s understanding. To meet
the CCSS standard “Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or
secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from
prior knowledge or opinions,” a sixth grader would need to be proficient at
taking notes, and in order to take notes efficiently would have to know how to
summarize.
6.5 Implementing a Communicative Approach
We have analyzed and discussed reading from a variety of perspectives—its importance for
academic success, its relation to learning in the content areas, the process itself, and how to
help students to build on their first language literacy skills and background knowledge to
become proficient readers in English. How do we now synthesize all this information into a
coherent approach to the teaching of reading?
The quick answer is an easy one: An approach that is content-based and consistent with the
broader communicative approach discussed in Chapter 5 will work best for all learners. Drill-
ing down into the methods and techniques for implementing such an approach is more dif-
ficult. No single method works for every teacher or every learner, and there are a great many
techniques that can be used within each method.
Some of the methods used for native speakers of English can be adapted for use with sec-
ond language learners, but generally, without adaptation they are not effective, as noted
by the National Literacy Panel in their report on developing literacy in language minority
children:
Instructional approaches found to be successful with native English speakers
do not have as positive a learning impact on language-minority students. It is
not enough to teach language-minority students reading skills alone. Exten-
sive oral English development must be incorporated into successful instruc-
tion . . . . Literacy programs that provide instructional support of oral language
development in English, aligned with high-quality literacy instruction, are the
most successful. (August and Shanahan, 2006, p. 4)
Although August and Shanahan use the term approaches, a closer reading of the report
suggests that the focus of the underlying research was on methods and techniques (recall
the distinction drawn in Chapter 5). The goals of reading in the elementary school are the
same for ELLs as for other children, although there is more emphasis on the simultaneous
building of oral and literacy skills for ELLs, and so a communicative approach can be
broadly applied. The actual methods and techniques may be very different or at least
adapted.
. . . while approaches that are similar to those used with native-language
populations are effective, the research suggests that adjustments to these
approaches are needed to have maximum benefit with language-minority
students. For example, young Spanish-speaking students learning to read in
English might make the best progress when given more work with particular
phonemes and combinations of phonemes in English that do not exist in their
home language. (August and Shanahan, 2006, p. 3)
There is no one method that works for all ELLs, but research and practice over several decades
provide us with guidelines and principles that characterize effective methods for teaching
reading to ELLs.
Engage Parents Whenever Possible
Parents of minority language children are sometimes overlooked as resources for helping
their children to read. This is a mistake.
The majority of the parents of ELLs have come to the United States in order
that they and their children will have a “better life.” And many of these fami-
lies quickly come to believe that supporting their children’s educational
attainment is central to turning this dream into a reality. (Waterman & Harry,
2008, p. 15)
Even though communicative teaching
approaches do not rely on use of the home
language, we have seen that the more ELLs
know about and have experienced literacy
in any language gives them a head start on
learning to read in English. Reviewing rel-
evant research, the National Literacy Panel
found that “bridging home-school differ-
ences in interaction patterns or styles can
enhance students’ engagement, motivation,
and participation in classroom instruction”
(August & Shanahan, 2006, p. 7). Although
the same research could not establish a
clear, direct relationship between such
bridging and later levels of literacy, the
finding is nevertheless significant because
it emphasizes the importance of instruc-
tion. Teachers are thus wise to work with
parents to engage them in their children’s
learning.
Digital Vision/Photodisc/Thinkstock
Involving parents in the education of their
children is beneficial to the entire family.
Ultimately, the possibilities are promising and compelling. If schools devote
time and resources toward developing new ways of understanding and
approaching parent-school collaboration, they will generate a strong and
cohesive source of support for increased ELL school engagement and success,
as well as increased satisfaction for parents and school staff. (Waterman &
Harry, 2008, p. 16)
Don’t Forget Oral Language
In recent decades we have come to understand that for children, reading skills in any lan-
guage are best built on a solid foundation of oral language, and at least one of the studies,
summarized in Table 6.1, supports that view. Ellen Rodriguez learned, however, that excel-
lent oral language skills do not necessarily mean an easy path to literacy. In A Lesson for the
Teacher (Chapter 2), Ellen introduced us to Mai, a Vietnamese girl with good oral language
skills who struggled with beginning reading skills. In A Teacher’s Story: Reading, we learned
more of Mai’s story.
We learned in Chapter 5 that one of the defining characteristics of communicative approaches
is the focus on listening and speaking. In this chapter, we have stressed the importance of
reading. Not only is emphasizing oral language consistent with a communicative approach,
it is consistent with research findings that for ELLs, “well-developed oral proficiency in Eng-
lish is associated with English reading comprehension and writing skills” (August, 2008,
p. 10). Teachers should work on listening comprehension, as well as sentence production
and increasing vocabulary, not as separate from but as integral to the teaching of reading and
writing.
A good rule to follow with all ELLs is “listen first.” Before they even look at the written text,
tell them about what they are about to read. If the text is a story, write the names of the char-
acters so that they can see them and practice pronouncing them. Tell them that there may be
some new words in the text. Write them and elicit what they already know about the words
before defining them. Questions such as “What else would you like to know about . . .?” pro-
vide opportunities for them to learn and practice question formation for an authentic pur-
pose. Then read the text aloud. By the time the text is read aloud, the learners will be better
prepared to understand what they are hearing. For beginning readers, they are now ready for
the text itself, but it is often useful to let them follow along as it is read aloud one more time.
Later, they can listen to recordings or online readings for stories. (See Additional Resources
at the end of this chapter for suggested sites.)
Oral language should play a leading role in classroom reading activities. One way is to pro-
vide advance organizers that combine oral language with text. Figure 6.4 shows one type of
graphic organizer that would support oral and literacy development for kindergarten or first
grade ELLs.
Section 6.5 Implementing a Communicative Approach
What do we know about dogs?
Harry the Dirty Dog
by Gene Zion
growl
bark
wag tail
like to play
like bones
don’t like cats
large
small
many sizes
brown
spots
black
white
many colors
What do we know about this dog?
harry dirtywhite spots
What do we want to know about this dog?
How did he get dirty?
Will he get clean?
How?
Figure 6.4: Preparing for Harry
An advance organizer blends together oral language and text to help learners with classroom reading
activities. This particular organizer would work well when combined with a reading of Gene Zion’s
book Harry the Dirty Dog.
Older learners will benefit from a more structured language-based story guide (Table 6.2)
that prepares them for listening or reading and can be used to elicit written or oral responses.
Normally the teacher guides the students to pay attention to the who, what, where, when,
and so on, before the lesson, filling in any known information. After the reading, the teacher
encourages learners to fill in the remaining blanks on their own before doing comprehen-
sion checks to see how they have fared in the task. It is also important that ELLs learn how to
define words, first orally and then in writing, as this metalinguistic ability is also associated
with good reading comprehension (August & Shanahan, 2006, p. 4). New words are practiced
orally, defined, and immediately written down. Definitions should be at the learner’s level of
proficiency or just beyond. They may be a one-word synonym for beginners and very young
learners but be more grammatically sophisticated for older learners.
One word of caution, however: Although oral language and literacy development are interre-
lated, and although activities that encourage both are ideal, reading aloud is not a substitute
for authentic oral language use. Oral reading is useful way for a teacher to determine if an
ELL has a problem with word identification. But it does not give any good indication of true
reading ability because it requires the reader to pay particular attention to pronunciation and
other relatively low-level skills and not to the meaning of the text. Nevertheless, most ELLs
need help in making the connections between sounds and symbols that are a critical part of
word identification.
Most ELLs Need Word Identification Strategies
Although one of the pillars of communicative language is to create natural, authentic opportu-
nities and contexts for language acquisition—and targeted decoding and word identification
activities don’t appear to be “natural”—we have seen that they are essential for learners to
acquire as a prerequisite to reading comprehension and content-area literacy. For many ELLs,
this process begins with phoneme-grapheme correspondence. It is easy to understand why.
Spanish has approximately 35 phonemes, depending on the dialect, with only 38 different
ways of spelling those sounds. The correspondence is almost one to one. In contrast, English
has 44 different phonemes with an alphabet of 26 letters to represent them, and yet there are
more than 1,100 different ways of spelling the sounds (Sousa, 2011, Ch. 4). It is no wonder
that ELLs typically require more assistance than majority language students. It is sometimes
necessary to target particular problem areas, such as the th, ch, and sh digraphs, for example,
or the different pronunciations of ough. But these activities should be done mostly in the
context of vocabulary development and the building of background knowledge in pre-reading
activities, in part because there are so many exceptions to phonics “rules” that second lan-
guage learners find them less than helpful. Eventually they learn to take advantage of context
to figure out that rough and tough are pronounced in one way and through, trough, and ought
in others.
Even within a communicative approach, it is perfectly acceptable to target the specific sound-
symbol problems and to work with learners to learn the distinctions between similar sounds
and what they look like in print, but remember that communicative language teaching is also
learner centered. Whenever possible, these activities should not be isolated from but be con-
textualized within other language activities. Examples include the vocabulary needed before
starting a new text, the questions asked in preparation for or following reading, and stand-
alone mini-lessons such as a humorous story about what happens when cheap, chip, sheep,
and ship get confused. The point is to practice, not to drill.
Vocabulary Development
Learning words, the pronunciation of words, the spelling of words and, of
course, the meaning of words is crucial to all English language learning, but it
is especially important for learning to read. If readers know the meanings of
the nouns and verbs in a sentence, they can often predict the meaning before
they know much about sentence structure because they know the real-world
relationship between the objects or ideas the words represent. (Lawrence
et al., 2011, p. 1)
Reading comprehension, especially in content-area reading, depends to a large extent on
word knowledge. For the purposes of teaching reading comprehension, the purpose of teach-
ing vocabulary is twofold:
a) To link the words that learners may have heard and used orally with how they are
written and used in text, and
b) To expand the learner’s lexicon by introducing new vocabulary.
Therefore, methods that provide ample opportunities for vocabulary development will be
more successful when integrated simultaneously into oral and literacy activities rather than
in isolation.
Methods that focus on key vocabulary for specific academic texts will provide a useful and
meaningful context. Expanding vocabulary isn’t always about introducing new words. Draw-
ing learners’ attention to the root of the word and then eliciting or introducing other words
with the same root not only expands their inventory of words, but serves as a memory aid.
Drawing their attention to the affixes—the morphemes that change one part of speech to
another or serve a grammatical function—not only increases the learner’s inventory, but also
provide the opportunity for grammatical learning without a grammar lesson.
Methods that extend the vocabulary introduced for one purpose to other uses will expand
learners’ ability to understand both oral and written language. Methods that use visuals to
support language will improve understanding and retention of word meanings. Increasing
the number of words an ELL recognizes, understands, and can use is not the only way, but
it is the single best way to improve reading comprehension. Knowing the meanings of key
words allows learners to make better predictions and better guesses in the “psycholinguistic
guessing game” that is reading. Effective vocabulary development, then, helps to ensure that
learners:
• can correctly identify and spell the word,
• are able to use the word,
• are able to define the word, using synonyms and sentences,
• know other meanings of the same spelling,
• can recognize the word in other contexts, and
• can use the words in other contexts—in other words, can make it their own.
It is also very helpful to vocabulary growth to introduce antonyms and homonyms. It often
helps learners to remember the meaning of a word to know that it is “not X” or “the opposite
of Y.” For ELLs, it is also helpful and less confusing to know that words that sound the same
can have very different spellings and meanings—wait/weight, ate/eight, be/bee, deer/dear,
and so on.
The environment in which all these methods work is necessarily filled with language of all
kinds. ELLs need exposure to and practice with oral language for social and multiple aca-
demic purposes—they need to learn the language for carrying out routine classroom busi-
ness, to learn to listen productively, to read and to write stories, and to practice with the
language of math, social studies, science, and all the other content in the curriculum. What
they need, in short, is a language-rich environment.
Create a Language-Rich Environment
Children learn their first language because they are surrounded by people talking and they
are included in the conversation in varying degrees, depending on the culture. The job of
the teacher working within a communicative approach is, broadly, the same as that of any
teacher—to create an environment that is filled with talk and text about all manner of subjects
and in many different formats. We saw in Chapter 5 that the interaction hypothesis stresses
the importance of the communicative environment and the opportunities ELLs have to inter-
act with native speakers. We saw too that classrooms can be organized in ways that optimize
interaction, which helps learners develop oral language skills. We have seen in this chapter
that oral language and literacy acquisition are interactive and mutually supportive.
For reading, it is especially important to provide more than the text. In addition to the pre-
reading and scaffolding activities described earlier, it is helpful for learners to have access to
computers or other means to listen to stories or texts being read while they follow along. It is
also helpful to have classroom walls hung with posters and student work; labels on objects,
books, reference books (including grade-level appropriate dictionaries); word walls—all
kinds of print materials that are changed frequently to reflect what the class is studying or
focusing on. Having students tell or retell stories while the teacher or other learners write
them down adds another opportunity for reading and writing practice, one with familiar
vocabulary. The same principles that kindergarten and elementary teachers use for creating
language- and learner-centered classrooms can guide ELL teachers. For example, kindergar-
ten teachers often label classroom items so that their students can see how familiar words are
written. Beginning ELLs can use those same labels as a memory aid to remember the names
of the objects and, simultaneously, start to learn sound-symbol correspondence.
Why I Teach: Katarina
Katarina has an undergraduate degree in math and a graduate degree in computing science.
After working for three years in the private sector as part of a team that developed and beta
tested educational games for middle school–aged children, Katarina quit her job and returned
to class to earn her teaching certificate. She now teaches second grade in an urban Florida
school. Why? In her own words,
I teach because I believe that the classroom is one of the few places where you know you can
make a difference. Sure, it’s frustrating sometimes. Just the other day, I was scrambling to figure
out another way to help one of my little fellows who is struggling with reading, which means he’s
struggling with a lot of the curriculum. His mother assured me that he could read in Spanish, but
if he can, it hasn’t transferred over to English yet. But I asked him to bring me one of his favorite
books in Spanish. The next day, he did. I sat with him and the other children in the class and asked
him to read it to us. He was hesitant at first, but a page or so in he began to read the story fluently.
I would interrupt him from time to time and ask him to tell us in English what he was reading.
With a little help from other Spanish-speaking children in the class, he did. As he told me the story,
I wrote down what he was saying. Then after school I sat down at my computer and created a
book from my notes. I even added a few stock pictures that I found on the web. The next day, that
book was our text and Carlos was eager to try. Using the same techniques I had been using with
him but with “his book,” he made real progress that day. I used a similar technique, transcribing
stories he or other children would tell me and turning them into books. By the end of that year,
Carlos was reading at grade level. It’s progress that you can see and it’s why I teach.
Summary & Resources
Summary
To become proficient in English, ELLs have to acquire competency in all four language
domains—speaking, listening, reading, and writing. For succeeding in school, the core com-
petency is reading, not only because content is usually presented in text form and ELLs are
assessed on their knowledge with written tests, but learning to read has a cognitive effect on
all other aspects of learning. In school, children learn to read so that they can read to learn.
If reading is at the core of academic learning, comprehension lies at the core of reading—
whatever the purpose for reading—for pleasure, for information, for instruction—it cannot
be achieved unless the reader understands or comprehends what the writer created. Decod-
ing and word identification skills are prerequisites to comprehension. One of the goals of
reading instruction is to help learners reach the stage at which these skills are automatic so
that their attention and cognitive resources can be devoted toward extracting meaning and
gaining comprehension.
This chapter has examined the reading process and how teachers can make use of ELLs’
existing knowledge and skills, both linguistic and content-related, to support their learning,
using instructional scaffolding techniques to facilitate reading and thus learning in the con-
tent areas. How do we synthesize what we have learned from all these different perspectives
on literacy into a coherent framework for teaching? Building on what we learned in Chap-
ter 5 about communicative language, we identified five features that guide teaching within a
communicative framework. We concluded this chapter by personalizing some of this chap-
ter’s major themes through the words of a second grade teacher named Katarina.
1. The best predictor of academic achievement is an ELL’s reading ability at the end of
third grade. The lack of reading skills is the major language barrier to ELLs achieving
academic success.
2. Learning to read fluently has long-term cognitive consequences: The faster the read-
ing process becomes automated, the more cognitive resources a learner has avail-
able for other learning.
3. A major goal of reading instruction, therefore, is to help learners reach the stage at
which their decoding and word identification are automated.
4. The ability to read in any language is an asset when learning to read in a new language.
5. Learners with literacy skills in logographic languages may need assistance with sound-
symbol correspondence, even if they are proficient readers in their own language.
6. Comprehension is the goal of reading, and it involves a reader interacting with the
text to extract meaning.
7. Language proficiency, oral and written in either the first language or English, is the
foundation upon which literacy skills are built.
8. Scaffolding is a kind of instructional support that builds on prior knowledge to help
learners become independent by figuring things out for themselves.
9. Knowledge of content-area vocabulary is a critical component of comprehension,
and teaching lessons that integrate vocabulary into other oral and written language
activities are most effective.
10. A language-rich environment is the cornerstone of a communicatively based classroom.
antonym A word opposite in meaning to
another.
content-area literacy A learner’s ability to
demonstrate knowledge and understanding of
the subject area in all four language domains:
reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
decoding The process of translating a
printed word into sound, specifically the
appropriate spoken word.
homonyms A group of words that share
pronunciation and sometimes spelling but
that may have different meanings. Hom-
onyms that share the same spelling are also
considered homographs, although some
homographs, such as invalid (meaning both
not valid and a person who is ill), may have
different pronunciations.
instructional scaffolding The ways in
which an appropriate level of support is
provided for learners to help to move them
toward independence.
logographic languages Languages in
which a character or asymbol represents a
word (or morpheme) in print.
metalinguistic ability A person’s aware-
ness of language as an object or a thing and
the ability to reflect on the process of lan-
guage and the use of language.
phoneme-grapheme awareness The
relationship that exists between sounds and
written symbols.
phonemic awareness The understanding
that words are made up of individual sounds
and that these sounds can be reorganized or
manipulated to form new words.
standard orthography The conventional
spelling system.
Summary & Resources
Text
L1 ≠ L2
Reader
L1 = L2
Text
L1 ≠ L2
Reading
Does L1 = L2?
Figure 6.5: A definition for reading
Critical Thinking Questions
1. How does the graphic shown in Figure 6.5 define reading? How would you answer
the question posed?
2. Assuming that both children have acquired basic literacy in the first language, what
differences are likely to exist between a Mandarin speaker and a Spanish speaker in
learning to read English?
3. How does the notion of scaffolding relate to Krashen’s input hypothesis (Chapter 5)?
4. Suggest two different ways of providing visual scaffolding for first grade ELLs pre-
paring to read a story commonly read in first grade. (You choose!)
5. Explain the role that advance organizers can play in activating an ELL’s prior
6. Look at the graphic shown in Figure 6.6. Based on what you have read in this chap-
ter, who do you think is doing the juggling, the ELL or the teacher? What factors did
you take into consideration when answering?
Vocabulary
The
Writer’s
Purpose
How
Questions
are Formed
Structure of
Text
Summarizing
and Note
Taking
Vocabulary
The
Writer’s
Purpose
How
Questions
are Formed
Structure of
Text
Summarizing
and Note
Taking
Figure 6.6: Skills for content-area reading
7. In what sense can reading be considered a “psycholinguistic guessing game?”
8. Why is vocabulary development so important to academic achievement?
Additional Resources
For an excellent graphic showing how areas of the brain function during word recognition, see
http://content.time.com/time/covers/1101030728/brain/brain.swf
Examples and help for creating visual organizers for narrative text can be found at
http://schools.dcsdk12.org/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid
=194160&linkid=nav-menu-original-4-19314
For a readable account of dyslexia in “The new science of dyslexia,” Time, see C. Gorman
(2003) online at
http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2047912,00.html
A good site to find celebrities reading quality children’s stories aloud is
Kristina Robinson discusses the importance of and provides ideas for creating a language
friendly classroom at
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/33047/
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