Do All Your Students Speak English? FETC 2007 Linda Sharp

The number of children ages 5–17 who spoke a language other than English at home more than doubled between 1979 and Institute of Education Sciences, US Dept of Education

There was an 18% increase in the number of school-age children between 1979 and In contrast, during this period, the number of such children who spoke a language other than English at home increased by 162%, and the number who spoke a language other than English at home and who spoke English with difficulty increased by 114 %.

Between 1979 and 2004, the number of school-age children (ages 5–17) who spoke a language other than English at home increased from 3.8 to 9.9 million, or from 9 to 19 % of all children. The number of school-age children who spoke English with difficulty also increased, from 1.3 million (or 3 % of all 5- to 17-year-olds) to 2.8 million (or 5 %) over the same time period.

Children move through the stages of acquiring language—from babbling to one- word utterances, two-word phrases, full sentences, and then, complex grammar. Students learning a second language also move through these stages.

Students construct meaning by drawing connections between new information and what they already know (background knowledge).

Images (visuals) are international

Piaget recognized that young children handle concrete images more easily than abstract words. Gardner understood the importance of Multiple Intelligences.

Visual literacy is a powerful teaching ally in classrooms where not all students speak the same language.

Visual and Auditory Learning

AND Kinesthetic

E-Blocks Multi-Sensory Approach To Learning

E-Blocks is a research-based, innovative method for teaching English as a Second Language and for initial literacy exposure.

Levels of Language Acquisition Preproduction – Needs to learn vocabulary words – Has minimal comprehension – Does not verbalize Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners by Jane D. Hill and Kathleen M. Flynn

Early Production – Benefits from modeling good English. – Has limited comprehension – Produces one- or two-word responses – Participates using key words and familiar phrases Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners by Jane D. Hill and Kathleen M. Flynn Levels of Language Acquisition

Speech Emergence – Has good comprehension – Produces simple sentences – Makes grammar and pronunciation errors Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners by Jane D. Hill and Kathleen M. Flynn

Intermediate and Advanced Fluency – Has excellent comprehension – Makes few grammatical errors Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners by Jane D. Hill and Kathleen M. Flynn Levels of Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition? Phonetic Awareness Vocabulary Acquisition Reading and Writing

Who Uses E-Blocks? Language centers or ESOL programs Pre-schools and Kindergartens Primary schools (ages 4-10) Children with special needs

How to Uses E-Blocks Groups of up to six students Perfect for a learning center Invites Collaboration Individual Use Teacher led or independent student use

Project based learning is a constructivist pedagogy that intends to bring about deep learning by allowing learners to use an inquiry based approach to engage with issues and questions that are rich, real and relevant to their lives.

What Educators Say “I believe E-Blocks presents an opportunity for authentic learning, really engaging these kids at a critical learning point, and I am seeing their skills and knowledge transfer to other areas of performance.” Linda Vaughn Principal, Amarillo, TX

What Educators Say “Teachers at our school find E-Blocks to be a great program for motivating students to be responsible for their own learning. Our ELL students love to work with the E-Block system.” Molli Sipe Principal, Borrego Springs, CA

E-Blocks Levels Level 0 Introduces letter sound, names, left to right directionality, differences between upper and lower case letters. Level 1 Works with letter names to connect to words. It advances to the phrase level.

Level 2 Progresses from the word level to sentence level. Level 3 Progresses from sentences to reading text. Storyteller E-Blocks Levels

E-Blocks Results E-Blocks Reading Program Educational Support Systems, Inc. San Mateo, CA September 2006

E-Blocks Results E-Blocks Reading Program Educational Support Systems, Inc. San Mateo, CA September 2006

E-Blocks Results E-Blocks Reading Program Educational Support Systems, Inc. San Mateo, CA September 2006

E-Blocks Results Conclusion The E-Blocks supplemental reading resource appears to be an effective intervention for Kindergarten and First Grade children in combination with an adopted basal reading program such as Houghton Mifflin. Children in the classes studied achieved the Nonsense Words and Oral Reading Fluency DIBELS benchmarks at higher levels than did their peers in the control classes. E-Blocks Reading Program Educational Support Systems, Inc. San Mateo, CA September 2006

E-Blocks Results In addition to reading achievement, there appeared to be some benefit to the children in the study relative to increased positive attitude towards reading and increased socialization with classmates. There also may be benefits for Special Education student populations.

The number of non-English speaking students will not decrease. Our job is to uncover strategies to help them master the language, and achieve success.

E-Blocks Awards Best Software for Early Elementary EFL Best Software for Early Elementary and EFL United Nations Award Distinquished Achievement Education Publishers

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