English Language Learners and the Social Studies: An Urgent Priority, A Moral Imperative Vital Issues Panel National Council for the Social Studies November 14, 2008 Houston, Texas

Overview of ELLs in the U.S. Bárbara C. Cruz Professor, Social Science Education University of South Florida Tampa, Florida

Who are the ELLs in our classrooms? In the U.S., 1 in 5 school-age children are immigrants ¾ of the children of immigrants are native- born; about ¼ foreign-born

Where are they from? Country or Region of Birth for Foreign-Born Children, PK to 5 th Grade, 2000

Where are they in the U.S.? States with the Highest Shares of Children of Immigrants in PK to 5 th Grade, 2000

What languages do they speak? Roughly 1 of 7 students in our nation’s classrooms speaks a language other than English at home; this figure will soon be 1 in 4

Do teachers feel well-equipped to meet the needs of ELLs? More school systems now require ELLs to receive their English instruction not through stand-alone ESOL classes, but directly through their curriculum content classes Almost half of all teachers have ELLs in their classrooms, yet only 13% to 30% of those teachers have received instruction in ESOL methods Preservice education: in a study of 25 popular teacher education texts, it was found that less than 1% of the text included useable content related to the teaching of ELLs; in many cases, the topic of English language learning was not identified at all

Special Needs of ELLs Vivian Pratts Director for Bilingual/ESL Spring Branch ISD Houston, Texas

An English Language Learner Acquisition of Language is Like this Picture

Academic Language Proficiency BICS Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills CALP Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (Cummins, 1986) BICS CALP

Theory and Application Martha Martínez Elementary Bilingual/ESL Coordinator Spring Branch ISD Houston, Texas

Planning Language Framework Language functions and sentence patterns and structures to be practiced to be successful in the lesson.

Planning Language Framework TopicActivity Language Function Language Structure Vocabulary CommunitiesDiscussCompare/ Contrast A farm has… In the city… There are fewer… community, houses, people, animals, more, fewer ContinentsIdentifyingExpressingThey are all.. (continents) North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa.

Content Vocabulary:

Making Content Accessible to English Language Learners Becky Hampton Secondary ESL Coordinator Galena Park ISD Houston, Texas

Learning in a Second Language Cognitively Demanding Cognitively Undemanding Context Embedded (Concrete) Context Reduced (Abstract) S.E.E.. TALK DO Transfer

Where do these activities belong in the lesson? The students complete a map of major civil war battles. The students quiz one another about the impact of the Civil War Amendments. The students read a chapter about Lincoln’s Election and Southern Secession. The students view pictures of the Civil War.

Where do these activities belong in the lesson? The students quiz one another about the impacts of the Civil War Amendments. The students complete a map of major civil war battles. The students read a chapter about Lincoln’s Election and Southern Secession. The students view pictures of the Civil War. S.E.E. DO TALK Transfer

Free Form Map

Thirteen Colonies

Characterization Chart

Triangular Trade

Words Across Contexts a mathematician? an astronomer? a gardener? a historian? A chiropractor?

Someone Wanted But So…..

Someone Wanted But So…

THE DAY I BECAME A BEAR BY PETER J. NEGRONI

The Day I Became a Bear … a poem by Peter J. Negroni School had been uncomfortable for the first few years. I had been told to speak in English and forget my Spanish. I had become ashamed of my first language. The teachers had drummed it into me. Spanish was bad and English was good.

By the third grade I was reading very well in English and had forgotten a great deal of my Spanish. During the first week of school in the third grade, I was assigned to the Jets for reading. It was the very best reading group. I was a Jet and I was soaring.

About a month into the year, the teacher asked me if I spoke Spanish at home. I said yes. The next day I became a Bluebird. All of us knew the difference between a Jet and a Bluebird. We knew it by the way the teacher treated us.

Jets were the best and the teacher loved Jets. Bluebirds were next and I had become one. I felt bad that I could not stay a Jet. I felt even worse that I did not know why I could not stay a Jet.

Three months went by. It was a cold day in February. My mother who spoke no English had visited my teacher the previous week. My teacher asked me about my life at home. Don’t you ever speak English at home? No, I answered --- my parents don’t speak English at all.

Again, it was a cold day in February when the teacher looked at me and said, Today I am moving you to the Bears. The Bears? I questioned. Why the Bears? They are the lowest --- the worst --- the bottom. Because you belong with the Bears. In six short months, I went from a Jet to a Bear.

While I did not fully understand why I had become a bear, I knew, like every other Bear, it was not the thing we wanted to be. Why were there Jets, Bluebirds, and Bears? Why couldn’t everyone be a Jet? While I didn’t understand it quite as I understand it today, I began my real education the day I became a Bear.