Research-based strategies for teaching LEP students with disabilities in standards- based instruction Kristin Kline Liu National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO)

OUR RESEARCH QUESTION What instructional strategies do teachers recommend for delivering grade-level, standards-based instruction to ESL students with disabilities?

Multi-Attribute Consensus Building (MACB) Model Weighting Scale 0-20Very Unimportant 21-40Unimportant Neither unimportant nor important 61-80Important Very important

Staying Warm in Minnesota Weighting Strategy Wear a hat Dress in layers Wear good boots

Gersten,R., Baker, S., & Marks, S. (1998). Teaching English-Language Learners with Learning Difficulties: Guiding Principles and Examples from Research-Based Practice. ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education, Reston, VA.

Our definition of a strategy "A purposeful activity to engage learners in acquiring new behaviors or knowledge. To be useful for our purposes, an instructional strategy should have clearly defined steps or a clear description of what the teacher does”.

Research Subjects Draft instrument: 5 schools, 30 educators Frozen instrument: app. 8 schools, 42 educators Total: 72 educators, 13+ schools

Top recommendations Reading 1. Teaching pre-, during- and post-reading strategies 2.Fluency building (high frequency words) 3.Direct teaching of vocabulary through listening, seeing, reading and writing in short time segments Math 1.Tactile, concrete activities 2.Problem solving instruction and task analysis strategies 3.Daily re-looping of previously learned material Science 1.Hands-on, active participation 2.Use visuals 3.Use pictures to demonstrate steps

Types of teachers ALL # % FROZEN ONLY # % ESL/Bilingual % % Special Education % % Other % % Total % %

Teachers’ Experience

Overall weighting of content areas

Specific Strategies Reading—All participants 1.Teaching pre-, during-, and post- reading strategies 2.Fluency building (high frequency words) 3.Directly teach vocabulary through listening, seeing, reading and writing in short time segments

Specific Strategies Reading– Special Educators 1. Teaching pre-, during- and post- reading strategies 2. Fluency building (high frequency words) 3. Chunking and questioning aloud (reading mastery)

Reading

Specific strategies Math – All participants 1.Tactile, concrete experiences of math 2.Daily re-looping of previously learned material 3.Problem solving instruction and task analysis strategies

Specific Strategies Math – Special Educators 1.Tactile, concrete experiences of math 2.Problem solving instruction and task analysis strategies 3.Daily re-looping of previously learned material

Math

Specific strategies Science—All participants 1.Hands-on, active participation 2.Using visuals 3.Using pre-reading strategies in content areas

Specific strategies Science– Special educators 1.Hands-on, active participation 2.Using visuals 3.Use pictures to demonstrate steps

Science

Some well known strategies mentioned but not rated in top 3 Reading – All Think Aloud (82.8) KWL (79.5) Cooperative Learning (71.7) Curriculum-Based Probe (65.7) Math – All Curriculum-based probe (71.6) Reciprocal peer tutoring (74.6) Teacher think aloud (87.4) Model-lead-test (MLT) (80.1) Student think aloud (86.6)

Some well known strategies mentioned but not rated in top 3 Science - All Cooperative learning (86.4) KWL chart (83.8) Peer tutoring (80.34) Venn diagrams (80.2) Curriculum Based Probe (63.5)

Familiar strategies in reading by type of teacher

Familiar strategies in math by type of teacher

Familiar strategies in science by type of teacher

Observations High stress year for schools Relationships between special education and ESL/Bilingual departments affected participation Timing affected special educator participation Teachers had a hard time thinking about a child who was both an ELL and had a disability unless they had taught one who had an identified disability. Setting in which educators teach appears to affect their responses (e.g., self contained class vs. pull out)

Conclusions Not all teachers have the same understanding of what a strategy is. Could be topic for staff development. As a group, teachers tended to be neutral or positive about all strategies. Individually, they were often negative about some. Use of the native language did not frequently come up – teachers may not see it as a strategy

Conclusions Not a lot of variation in the top three strategies chosen in a content area across types of teachers. Teachers tended to weight what they used highly Curriculum-Based probes or Curriculum Based Measurement seemed to have the widest variability in weighting