HELPING THEM SUCCEED: A Handbook for Mainstream Teachers Who Work with ELLs Elena Chiaburu Godwin Heights Public Schools

Who Are the ELLs? ELLs (English Language Learners) are those students who are not yet proficient in English and who require instructional support to be successful in their classes They may have/or may have not passed the English language proficiency assessment LEP or Limited English Proficient students are a special subset of ELLs who have not yet achieved proficiency as measured by a particular measurement procedure (ELPA—in Michigan)

Mainstream Teachers Who are they? Mainstream teachers Content area teachers General education teachers Some statistics: Only 29.5 % of teachers with ELLs in their classrooms have the training to teach them effectively Only 20 states require that all teachers have training in working with ELLs Only 26% of teachers have had training related to ELLs in their staff development programs Source: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition Report--2008

What Statistics Say: In the last two decades, the population of ELLs has grown by 169%, while the general school population has grown only 12% More than 75% of ELL population are born in the U.S. There are over 5 million ELLs in the U.S. The number has risen by 57% in the last 10 years Nearly 6 in 10 ELLs qualify for free or reduced price lunch

How Are the ELLs Doing in Schools? The average NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) scores of ELL have improved more steadily than those of all other students between mid 1990 and 2005 ELLs in 4 th grade increased their scores by 13%, compared to 5%, all students 8 th grade ELLs increased their scores by 7%, while there was no increase for general population

The Gap The gap widens for ELLs in higher grades Only 8% of U.S. teens are foreign born, yet they account for 25% of teen dropouts 8 th grade ELLs’ scores are less than half those of English-speaking peers on tests of reading and mathematics Students from households which speak a language other than English at home lag 20 points behind in high school completion rates Source: National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition Report--2008

The Challenge “If, (…) we are to truly make education for minority children not just equal, but possessing quality, we all—first language, mainstream, as well as second-language teachers must know what the other communities are doing and what kinds of questions they are asking.” Carole Urzua

Closing the Achievement Gap In order to close the achievement gap between linguistic minority students and their native English speakers, mainstream teachers need to prepare or upgrade their knowledge and skills in the following areas Content area knowledge Pedagogical content knowledge which addresses ELLs Strategies Knowledge of learning styles Source: Educating English Language Learners: Building Teacher Capacity Roundtable Report--NCELA

Closing the Achievement Gap Teachers with effective pedagogical content knowledge know: Their content standards Teaching ways that facilitate student learning of standards Ways to teach content and language simultaneously Accommodations and assessments which address ELLs TESOL and/or state standards for English Language Proficiency

Teacher Collaboration By working with ESL or bilingual staff members, mainstream teachers should be able to coordinate their content standards with English language standards to develop appropriate learning objectives. The ESL or bilingual education specialists should provide key information regarding Language acquisition process Effective methods to teach ELLs Ways of increasing student engagement by identifying language challenges in a text, differentiating material, and grouping students in purposeful and meaningful way

TESOL’S VISION All educational personnel assume responsibility for the education of ESOL students.

Helping Them Succeed: A Handbook for Mainstream Teachers Who Work with ELLs The goals of this project: To provide awareness for mainstream teachers To provide resources for mainstream teachers in a compact, graphical format To increase sympathy for all learners To increase understanding of differences among learners To pose questions for further explorations

Helping Them Succeed: A Handbook for Mainstream Teachers Who Work with ELLs Handbook Outline Introduction: TESOL’s vision of effective education for all students, myths about second language acquisition, a comparison between first- and second-language acquisition, factors affecting the academic success of ELLs An overview of second language acquisition theories General principles for teaching ELLs Presentation of the three approaches that are found to be successful with ELLs: Sheltered Instruction, CALLA, SIOP A sampling of strategies, grouped according to the four key principles for teaching ELLs Alternative assessment for ELLs, including cultural variables in ELLs’ assessment and ways of modifying tests

Second Language Acquisition Theories Please talk to your shoulder partners and list all the second language acquisition theories you are familiar with.

Second Language Acquisition Theories A Continuum of Learning Comprehensible Input Hypothesis (Stephen Krashen) Comprehensible Output (Merrill Swain) Affective Filter Hypothesis (Krashen and Terrell) Dimensions of Language Acquisition (BICS and CALP—Jim Cummins) Academic Language Proficiency Hypothesis (Stephen Krashen) Task Difficulty (Jim Cummins) Additive/Subtractive Bilingualism (Jim Cummins) Common Underlying Language Proficiency (Jim Cummins) Each theory is briefly introduced. Implications for mainstream teachers are added for each theory.

General Principles for Teaching ELLs Increase comprehensibility (drawing from Krashen’s comprehensible input and Cummin’s task difficulty theories) Increase interaction (drawing from Swain’s emphasis on comprehensible output) Increase thinking/study skills (drawing from Cummin’s theories of academic language and task difficulty) Use of one’s native language to increase comprehensibility (drawing from several Krashen and Cummins theories, as well as current research).

Strategies that help increase comprehensibility Linguistic modifications (enunciation and complexity of speech) Techniques to make the message clear Scaffolding techniques (verbal and procedural scaffolding) Supplementary materials that support comprehension and different learning styles Key vocabulary emphasized Use of structural analysis Word Walls Cloze sentences Concept definition map Personal dictionaries Word Generation Contextualizing key vocabulary

Strategies that increase interaction Cooperative learning Study buddies Project-based learning One-to-one teacher/student interaction

Strategies that develop thinking/study skills Learning strategies Metacognitive strategies Cognitive strategies Social/Affective strategies Rehearsal strategies Sample strategies: Mnemonics SQP2R PENS GIST

Alternative Assessment “When the goal is to see what a student has learned, those adaptations are fair for students with learning difficulties just as using Braille is fair for students who cannot see.” C.A. Tomlinson

Alternative Assessment Attributes of a good assessment plan for ELLs Cultural variables in ELL assessment Modifying tests Examples of non-verbal assessment strategies Examples of oral performance and written products Portfolios

Ways of using this handbook A quick review of relevant ELL related topics for all personnel, including ESL specialists District resource In-service material Collaboration time “Sell it!” Tell the teachers the good news: While the strategies presented in this handbook are found to be successful with ELLs, they are also adequate for all students.

Conclusion: “Ultimately, I hope we can all look at our children, and know that by broadening our knowledge as their teachers, we can see them as what they are—children. Not disadvantaged children. Not LEP children. Not even brown or black or yellow children. But as children. They deserve our best efforts to ask all the possible questions regarding their education so that, as their advocates, we can formulate a shared set of beliefs.” Carole Urzua—”I Grow for a Living,” in “When They Don’t All Speak English,” edited by Pat Rigg and Virginia G. Allen

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THANK YOU! MUCHAS GRACIAS! MERCI! SPASIBO! GRAZIE! DANKE! MULTUMESC!