Technology Integration in Secondary TESOL Corinne Cohen & Barbara Wood

Common Myths about ESL  ESL teachers speak all the languages of the students.  ESL is like Resource and teachers can send tests and work.  “They can speak English so what’s the problem?”  The ESL students are the ESL teacher’s responsibility  ESL teachers speak all the languages of the students.  ESL is like Resource and teachers can send tests and work.  “They can speak English so what’s the problem?”  The ESL students are the ESL teacher’s responsibility  ESL instruction is only in English – not bilingual  ESL teachers are providing content based instruction, have state assessment (NYSESLAT).  Many students speak English well but reading and writing takes more time.  All teachers are responsible for their ESL students. MythTruth

Who are Adolescent English Language Learners? There is no more diverse learning group than adolescent English Language Learners. They bring to U. S. schools a variety of -Linguistic differences -Cultural backgrounds -Educational experiences There is no more diverse learning group than adolescent English Language Learners. They bring to U. S. schools a variety of -Linguistic differences -Cultural backgrounds -Educational experiences

 The diversity of their backgrounds need to be understood because it has implications for instructional practices.  Adolescent ELLs have differing levels of language proficiency both in English and their native language (s).  Adolescent ELLs are on a wide continuum of content knowledge due to varying educational opportunities in their home countries.

 Many adolescent ELLs are newcomers (three years or less in the U. S.)  Some immigrants have a strong academic background and they are literate in their first language.  Some adolescent ELLs live in middle or upper class families.  57% were born on the United States but they lack academic literacy in English.  Others have limited or interrupted formal education. They have weak literacy skills in their first language.  But immigrant youth are more likely to be poor than non-immigrants

 Some immigrant ELLs are also undocumented.  Others come from families of migrant workers.  Low socioeconomics and mobility are factors that hinder school success.

Challenges For English Learners at the Secondary Level  Acquiring academic literacy: reading, writing and oral discourse for school…  It takes 4 to 7 years to acquire academic English (Collier 1987).  while trying to master complex course content  and adjusting to the culture of U.S. schools.

THEY HAVE MORE TO LEARN IN THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME AS THEIR NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING PEERS AND WITH GREATER SOCIAL PRESSURE.

How to address the needs of Secondary ELLs?  A curriculum that concurrently promotes language development and content learning.  Sheltered instruction: an instructional approach that integrates content and language objectives in every lesson.  SIOP= Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2003)  Video: FUUhttp:// FUU

Some components of the SIOP model  Build Background Knowledge  Provide Comprehensible Input  Promote High Level Thinking

The Importance of Academic Background Knowledge  Video clip: Outsourced How does lack of background knowledge affect learning?  What students already know about the content is a strong indicator of how well they will learn new relative information.  Interaction of information processing abilities plus academically oriented experiences produce academic background knowledge.

Building Academic Background Knowledge  Academically oriented experiences must be stored in permanent memory in order to become academic background knowledge.  Students require multiple exposures to information to integrate it into background knowledge.  Mrs. Wood’s four “Cs”: Culturally embedded content needs to be clarified or connected to in order to be comprehensible.  Trailer from Shrek: What do you need to know to fully understand this clip?

Building Academic Background Knowledge  Schools can make a difference!  Direct approach – field trips, mentoring, service learning.  Indirect approach – within the school day: providing exposure through reading and virtual experiences

Virtual Experiences: WebQuests  Have the potential to be valuable teaching and learning tools for ELLs  Careful design or adaptation is imperative for these students  Adaptations include native language support, information about links, a collaborative speaking component and checklists for self-monitoring.

WebQuests for ELLs  Many highly rated WebQuests are not well-suited to ELLs.  How can you tell the difference?  Effective WebQuests for ELLs have specific linguistic, multimedia and organizational features.  Using Sox and Rubenstein Avila’s rubric, how would you rate this?  m m

Virtual Field Trips  What is the difference between a Virtual Field Trip and a WebQuest?    VFTs can be visual tours or more task- oriented activities:  

How can technology support instruction in ESL? Digital Storytelling Technology:  Use of Photo Story or I-movie for teacher- composed Digital Jumpstarts (Rance-Roney, 2010)  A Digital Jumpstart is a scaffold that prepares students for reading: provides background information, develops schema, and introduces key vocabulary. Digital Storytelling Technology:  Use of Photo Story or I-movie for teacher- composed Digital Jumpstarts (Rance-Roney, 2010)  A Digital Jumpstart is a scaffold that prepares students for reading: provides background information, develops schema, and introduces key vocabulary.

 Example of Digital Jumpstart: Introducing A Step from Heaven by An Na  Why is the DJ project useful for ESL students?  How does the DJ build background knowledge, provide comprehensible input and promote high level thinking?  Example of Digital Jumpstart: Introducing A Step from Heaven by An Na  Why is the DJ project useful for ESL students?  How does the DJ build background knowledge, provide comprehensible input and promote high level thinking?

 Background information: Introduces the characters, settings and basic elements of the plot.  Cultural schema: Korean landscapes, people, terminology, music and relevant aspects of the Korean culture: religion, gender issues.  Language input: Contextualized vocabulary  Critical thinking: -Contrast women’s rights in South Korea and in the U. S. -Discuss acculturation/ loss of cultural identity and make personal connections.  Background information: Introduces the characters, settings and basic elements of the plot.  Cultural schema: Korean landscapes, people, terminology, music and relevant aspects of the Korean culture: religion, gender issues.  Language input: Contextualized vocabulary  Critical thinking: -Contrast women’s rights in South Korea and in the U. S. -Discuss acculturation/ loss of cultural identity and make personal connections.

Traditional reading scaffolds:  Web-based videos and professional film productions are linguistically overwhelming for new English learners.  No focus on language development (sentence structures/ key vocabulary) Traditional reading scaffolds:  Web-based videos and professional film productions are linguistically overwhelming for new English learners.  No focus on language development (sentence structures/ key vocabulary) Digital Jumpstarts (DJs):  DJs are customized to students’ linguistic needs: Vocabulary, voice of the teacher, schema, cultural sounds/images are integrated in ONE product.  DJs intentionally provides language input (lexical/grammatical)

Traditional Jumpstart Activities:  Graphic organizers, parallel reading of simpler texts, questioning, making predictions may not be sufficient to prepare for challenging readings.  Classroom activities. Traditional Jumpstart Activities:  Graphic organizers, parallel reading of simpler texts, questioning, making predictions may not be sufficient to prepare for challenging readings.  Classroom activities. Technology-based Digital Jumpstarts:  The DJ provides multiple, repeated exposures to academic language through both written and aural modalities.  The DJ can be converted into a DVD format and sent home for students to listen over and over.

Furthermore…  Ells need to develop “visual literacy” (Kist, 2005)  “There are great differences in the way cultures and even individuals represent the visual world.”(Kist, 2005)  Digital Jumpstarts integrate voice and word in a meaningful context, providing exposure to contextualized images of culture (Rance-Roney, 2010.)  Digital Jumpstarts give students entry into digital production in an increasingly multimodal society (Rance-Roney, 2010.)  Ells need to develop “visual literacy” (Kist, 2005)  “There are great differences in the way cultures and even individuals represent the visual world.”(Kist, 2005)  Digital Jumpstarts integrate voice and word in a meaningful context, providing exposure to contextualized images of culture (Rance-Roney, 2010.)  Digital Jumpstarts give students entry into digital production in an increasingly multimodal society (Rance-Roney, 2010.)

Other Applications  Interactive whiteboard technology has shown to raise the performance of ELLs in math and reading on state tests (Lopez, 2010.)  Comic Life as a tool to promote literacy in content areas.  Interactive whiteboard technology has shown to raise the performance of ELLs in math and reading on state tests (Lopez, 2010.)  Comic Life as a tool to promote literacy in content areas.

References  Echevarria, J., Vogt M. E., & Short D.(2008). Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model (3rd ed.) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.  Fitzsimmons, S., & Short D. (2007). Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners - A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.  Lopez, O.S. (2010). The Digital Learning Classroom: Improving English Language Learner’s Academic Success in Mathematics and Reading using Interactive Whiteboard Technology. Computers & Education, 54,  Echevarria, J., Vogt M. E., & Short D.(2008). Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model (3rd ed.) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.  Fitzsimmons, S., & Short D. (2007). Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners - A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.  Lopez, O.S. (2010). The Digital Learning Classroom: Improving English Language Learner’s Academic Success in Mathematics and Reading using Interactive Whiteboard Technology. Computers & Education, 54,

References  Marzano, R. (2004). Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement. Alexandria, VA : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.  Rance-Roney, J. (2010). Jump- Starting Language and Schema for English Language Learners: Teacher-Composed Digital Jumpstarts for Academic Reading. Journal of adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53 (5),  Rubenstein-Avila, E., & Sox, A. (2009).WebQuests for English Language Learners: Elements for Design. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(1), 38–48  Marzano, R. (2004). Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement. Alexandria, VA : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.  Rance-Roney, J. (2010). Jump- Starting Language and Schema for English Language Learners: Teacher-Composed Digital Jumpstarts for Academic Reading. Journal of adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53 (5),  Rubenstein-Avila, E., & Sox, A. (2009).WebQuests for English Language Learners: Elements for Design. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(1), 38–48