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  • Funding for this webcast is provided by the American Federation of Teachers.

  • Additional support comes from the National Council of La Raza

  • and from the United States Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

  • Hello, I'm Delia Pompa. Welcome to the Colorín Colorado and Reading Rockets webcast series.

  • English language learners or ELLs are a growing population in classrooms throughout the country.

  • Teachers are often unsure about the best ways to help these children become good readers.

  • Today we're going to explore the challenges facing English language learners and their

  • teachers in grades four and six. Joining us is a Harvard researcher, Dr. Nonie Lesaux.

  • Nonie, we know many students face what we call the fourth grade slump, where kids are

  • sort of past learning to read and are now reading to learn. Is there such a thing as

  • the fourth grade slump and can you tell us a little bit about it?

  • Sure, thanks. There probably is a fourth grade slump, but the question is whether we're just

  • picking something up in fourth grade that's already been there for a lot of years for

  • a number of kids, and/or whether, in fact, there are differences in the comprehension

  • demands of the curriculum, and certainly that's a question. Mostly the way we want to think

  • about the slump is that we have K to three reading instruction and assessment set up

  • that really focuses much more on word reading than it does on comprehension, and even speed

  • of word reading. And so by fourth grade what we have are assessments of reading that are

  • mostly comprehension based, and so we start to pick up kidsmany more kids with low

  • comprehension who may have had low comprehension for years before. The other piece that we

  • have by the fourth grade that may contribute to what we call the this slump is that we

  • have instructionwe have reading that cuts across a number of areas of instruction,

  • so reading is not just relegated to reading instruction but rather we need to have good

  • reading comprehension skills for math, for science, for other areas of the curriculum.

  • Well how does this transitionthis fourth grade transition affect ELL learners or ELL

  • students differently than native language speakers?

  • It's probably not a whole lot different, but it's probably exacerbated, which is that if

  • they havekids with lower vocabularies, more limited proficiency with the language

  • have more difficulty with comprehension, so we think of our ELLs when we think about the

  • increasing demands, comprehension demands of the fourth to sixth grade classrooms in

  • curricula. So it's probably just exacerbated for them, and now that we start to assess

  • it around fourth grade, we certainly see that it's problematic.

  • Well, we have a lot of newcomers in that age group. How does this whole transition affect

  • them?

  • Well, I think newcomers pose a special challenge in that they need both basic skills in English,

  • conversational skills in English, as well as the academic language of the curriculum

  • and print. So it's probably that we have more demands for language and good comprehension

  • on them than other ELLs.

  • You know we hear the term "academic language" a lot these days. What's the difference between

  • academic language and social language or conversational?

  • Right; yeah, it's an important distinction. And I think there are many ways to think about

  • it. But probably the most straightforward ways to think about it are really this notion

  • of the language of print, the language of text, and in that sense, we're talking about

  • more complex sentence structures than we'd use on a regular basis in daily conversation

  • words that come up in the text that aren't necessarily used in daily conversation, so

  • we think about words like analyze, frequent, abstract, observe, the kinds of words we don't

  • see as muchwe don't hear as much in day-to-day conversation. We also think about the multiple

  • meanings of many words. That's part of academic language. Do I know that there are many meanings

  • for different kinds of words? The word "made," for instance, has a number of meanings. So,

  • and we also think about function words in print that don't necessarily come up in social

  • or conversational English, functions words like "therefore," or "else," "however" — the

  • real language of print.

  • Well you talked a lot about vocabulary. Are there other specific examples of academic

  • language being different?

  • I think you could think about the sentence structures, so those are more complex, the

  • way text is written, the fact that with text what we also need is an understanding of the

  • reader and the author's intent. So to be a good comprehender we need to understand the

  • purpose and what it is that we're doing and all of that really contributes to academic

  • language.

  • Well, how does this academic language proficiency affect reading comprehension?

  • Well, what we have is academic language as a very strong predictor of one's reading comprehension

  • so that, in fact, good comprehenders tend to have very good academic language. They

  • tend to have a good grasp of the language. They tend to understand nuance sentence structures,

  • syntax that's more difficult than that which they hear in everyday conversation. And what

  • we get is in fact often what's assessed when we're looking at assessments of comprehension

  • but also of content area.

  • Well, you said good comprehenders are good academic language users. Does it work the

  • other way, too?

  • It may or may not, depending on the demands of the comprehension task.

  • This is a question I know lots of teachers want to know. And how long does it take to

  • develop academic language proficiency fully?

  • You know, that's a reallyit's a common question. It's also a really difficult one

  • to answer. And it depends what we see as full academic language development, but it also

  • depends on instruction, so that we could accelerate academic language for a lot of kids, depending

  • on how much instruction they're getting. I know lots of people sort of throw around the

  • notion of three to seven years to develop full academic language proficiency. We have

  • a lot of kids who never become fully proficient with the academic language, native speakers

  • and English language learners, it's difficult. But it really depends on instruction, how

  • much opportunity to learn it they have had.

  • Well, if it depends on instruction, what are some effective ways to help students develop

  • academic language, especially for newcomers?

  • Right. I think, you know, the critical thing to remember is that some of the best work

  • on academic language is actually anchored in print, so whether it's with writing or

  • with reading, and it's a lot of discussion about the text, about the language of the

  • text, about one's ideas, connecting sentences, this kind of thing. So I think part of the

  • part of theone of the critical pieces is to think about it anchored in written activities

  • and lots of chances for discussion and for feedback, revising, rereading, summarizing,

  • this kind of thing.

  • Thanks, Nonie. If you'd like to download a list of useful academic words, please visit

  • www.colorincolorado.org. Now we're going to hear a student's perspective on learning English

  • as a second language. Meet fifth grader, Maricely.

  • Maricely lives in Hartford, Connecticut, but was born in Puerto Rico. See the flag?

  • This girl loves the spotlight, but that has not always been the case.

  • I was reading and then I came across a word I didn't know. And when I started saying it,

  • everybody starred laughing.

  • Maricely, she had trouble learning to read. She was learning in a second language. Could

  • you imagine learning to read Chinese or Greek? She moved from Puerto Rico when she was just

  • two. Her family speaks a little English, but everyone in the neighborhood and at home generally

  • speaks Spanish, and it's hard to practice her English.

  • It's hard to learn English, especially when your family speaks Spanish only. I didn't

  • know how to read or write English, and most of my friends would pass me a note and write

  • it in English. So when I went to read it, I didn't know.

  • One thing that confused Maricely was the same sounds being spelled in different ways. What'

  • that all about?

  • Christopher, it sounds like "f-e-r," but it's "p-h-e-r." And I would be like, it's too hard.

  • Things got so tough for Maricely, they decided she needed to repeat the fifth grade.

  • I was mad, and it was hard for me. I wanted to quit, but then I decided not to.

  • You go, Maricely! A lot of kids would give up, but not Maricely. She buckled down and

  • worked extra hard with her teachers.

  • The teachers always gave me a book, and I started reading that one. When I finished

  • it, I read it again. Then they give me one book harder and one harder, and they will

  • make me understand the English more.

  • Maricely also worked at home with her big sister Bette Marie.

  • It's hard, and at some points in time you feel like giving up, because maybe you think

  • it's not worth it. But it's worth everything. All the struggles and everything -- it's

  • going to be worth it.

  • Maricely thinks so, too.

  • I want to show them as I learn a second language. And here I am, talking in English, and so

  • can you.

  • And guess what? Next year, she will be heading to sixth grade, speaking and reading both

  • English and Spanish.

  • We can see Maricely is on the road to reading. But this isn't the case with all her peers.

  • Some are way behind and others are far ahead. A single classroom may have ELLs with many

  • different levels of English language proficiency and literacy development. Where does a teacher

  • begin in trying to address all these diversities, Nonie?

  • I think the teacher begins first with; we want to really value an understanding of that

  • diversity even within this population. There are incredible differences. And so I think

  • the first step is to really value grasping just how different these kids are, not just

  • in language and in reading, but in their own experiences and reasons why they came to the

  • country, and then relating that to the goals for instruction. How do these certain profiles

  • relate to the goals that I have for my instruction? What kinds of modifications are at my disposal?

  • What kinds of things do I want to accomplish that I think will be problematic for some

  • kids over others? So it's mostly at the planning stage that we want to think a lot about the

  • diversity within those kids. I think the other piece to think carefully about are the number

  • of native speakers in the classroom as well or kids who have fully developed their English

  • proficiency, because we know that peers as models is one of the best ways to learn language,

  • so that the more we can think about our groupings around language ability to promote and scaffold

  • language development of certain kids is a really important piece as well.

  • Well, how does the teacher draw on the student's own first language and literacy skills?

  • Well, I think that really depends entirely on just how well-developed those language

  • and literacy skills are for certain kids. There are situations in which one's first

  • language can be just a very strong asset, particularly one's literacy skills in their

  • first language. There's a lot about reading that is not language specific. Do I understand

  • why I'm reading this? Do I think about the author's intent? Do I know what information

  • I want to get from this? These are all kinds of questions and strategies that cut across

  • languages. So to the extent that teachers have a sense that kids have well-developed

  • literacy skills in their first language, that can certainly be an asset for instruction

  • and a way to leverage instruction.

  • Does prior schooling have a big impact?

  • Hugeprior schooling is probably the number one factor to be considering when we're thinking

  • about drawing on one's first language. First language may be well-developed conversationally,

  • but not academically. First languageoral language skills may be there, but not literacy

  • skills. All of these kinds of things need to be on the table when we're planning instruction.

  • If a child comes to you with a lot of prior knowledge or his own prior knowledge, how

  • does that compensate for a lack of English vocabulary or does it?

  • Well, it's a real asset in learning that second language. So if we any about vocabulary words,

  • not just as labels, but as concepts, so if I understand not just that the wordthat

  • there is a word, dog, but that I understand that dog is an animal, that there are similar

  • animals, I'm starting to grasp a certain concept. Children with well-developed literacy skills

  • in vocabulary in their first language need new labels, but they don't necessarily need

  • new concepts a lot of the time. They may need new concepts as they move through the grades,

  • but upon arrival, there may be lots of concepts that they have and they just need new labels

  • in English.

  • Are there unique or specific ways teachers can activate that prior knowledge?

  • There are certain wayspart of it is that there's always this certain barrier with even

  • just proficiency in English. But certainly there are a number of ways to activate that

  • graphically, represented with graphics, there arewe can represent that in casual conversation.

  • We can have students do some work in their native language with native language support

  • materials with the idea that they can understand that we're going to then try to learn that

  • material in English, et cetera.

  • The role of oral proficiency is a role we've sort of gone back and forth about as educators.

  • I know a lot of teaches have this question. Is it necessary to wait for a child to have

  • a high level of oral proficiency in English or oral fluency in English, before you begin

  • reading instruction in English, or reading instruction?

  • Well, if this is an English only instructional environment, then I don't think we want to

  • be waiting at all for kids. That, in fact, we can't possibly teach kids the thousands

  • of wordsthe thousands of vocabulary words and the nuances of the language strictly by

  • oral conversation and academic discussion. So we know that particularly for native speakers,

  • reading is a very powerful tool to develop vocabulary, to give kids experience with language

  • and the structures of language and the syntax, and the same holds for English language learners.

  • So we wouldn't want to wait for any reading and writing instruction. It's probably going

  • to be a powerful way to continue to boost vocabulary and oral proficiency.

  • Now you mentioned if the instruction is in English only. Are you qualifying that? Is

  • it different if there's some native language instruction?

  • Well it depends on the designif the design of the instructional program is one whereby

  • literacy is a goal, then we may start strictly in the first language and transition to the

  • second. That's certainly been a common model.

  • Does that whole approach apply also to writing?

  • Absolutely. And, in fact, writing is a really excellent way both to gauge literacy skills,

  • to gauge proficiency with the language, to give kids the chance to produce language in

  • a way that's not oral, to try out some words, that kind of thing.

  • You know, Maricely, in the clip, talked about the trouble with PH. Are there ways that we

  • can teach ELL students various spelling patterns that might be useful in their development

  • of literacy?

  • Right. That's true — I think English is particularly punishing in that sense. It's

  • far from Spanish where we have a one-to-one correspondence between sound and letters.

  • I think the real thing to think about with kids like Maricely is the benefits of learning

  • words and their spelling and the typicalthe typical kinds of patterns or the graphic patterns

  • is to do that in context, so that it's always got some meaning to it. One of the things

  • that we're learning in research with ELLs is that very traditional, explicit, sort of

  • rote methods of grammar and spelling haven't been so successful because it's in isolation,

  • and these kids aren't getting the meaning of these words at the same time. So one of

  • the best ways to learn to spell a word like Christopher would be work with Christopher

  • as a character in a particular story or something like that. That will also give a chance for

  • the teacher to assess spelling in that sense. So while we've typically done a lot of spelling

  • work, with you knowcan we spell the word, can we use it in a sentence, can we spell

  • it again, and we feel like that's certainlythey certainly may have the spelling,

  • what they may not have is the meaning, and that's where we want to think about spelling

  • instruction as an opportunity for language development as well.

  • Can you say a little bit more about the strategies you'd use for teaching that in context? I

  • mean, you mentioned Christopher and the story, but are there other ways to do that you've

  • seen that work.

  • Well, I think some of thethere are a number of different ways, and it's going to

  • depend on the age level and the goals of the class, the content material of the class.

  • But there are certainlythere are certainly the free right as one possible way. There

  • are also activities that can be structured alongside text, alongside a particular chapter

  • in a content area class, science, mathematics, where one might do some word work after that,

  • use the word in a particular sentence, try it out, use it again, and with a different

  • kind of meaning, that kind of thing. But typically connected to text and connected to writing

  • to improve spelling and vocabulary.

  • You know, Nonie, we know vocabulary development is a very important piece of literacy instruction,

  • and your work reflects that. You've written a lot about that. How do children develop

  • vocabulary in their native language?

  • One of theprobably the biggestthe sort of single most important finding that

  • we have in the field that we can certainly credit to a number of very important researchers

  • over time is that kids really learn vocabulary by being exposed to words, by being exposed

  • to high-quality language, by having language in their environment that's linked to particular

  • objects, to particular feelings of different people, this kind of thing, so we think a

  • lot about models. And when we think about modelslanguage models for English language

  • learners and for native speakers alike, we think of adults, but we also think of slightly

  • older peers as a great way to learn language. And certainly that's one of the ways that

  • we see vocabulary develop, particularly in the early stages is there's lots of interaction

  • and talk with individuals. But we also know that that's sort of the necessary but not

  • sufficient. Kids can't learn enough vocabulary to support their academic success and to support

  • school achievement over time simply by being in discussion with other peers and adults.

  • Kids need to be able to learn to read text for meaning and to have word-learning strategies

  • to learn words while they're reading, and particularly in light of this conversation

  • we had about academic language where we have a lot of words that are part of text that

  • aren't part of our day-to-day conversation. So when we think about vocabulary learning,

  • we really do really think about interaction with people, and exposure to words in conversation

  • and in oral discussion, but we also think about kids becoming good readers in order

  • to acquire vocabulary at a very rapid rate in a short time. I think, you know, kids need

  • to leave high school with a working understanding of about 50,000 words.

  • Wow, that's a lot.

  • Yeah, lots of words.

  • Does vocabulary acquisition work the same in second language learning?

  • From what we can tell, it does seem to operate in a very similar way, which is that we know

  • that English language learners need a lot of very good structured opportunities to produce

  • language, to hear language, and in this context of fourth to sixth -graders to really promote

  • their academic language, we think a lot about structured opportunity, both with language

  • and print and then also with their own writing and their own discussions. So, from what we

  • can tell, it develops in a very similar kind of a way, but it's very dependent on instruction.

  • Well, you talk about, and you've written about, and we hear about explicit instruction in

  • vocabulary.

  • That's what you were talking about. Are there some specificwell, can you give us some

  • example of strategies for these fourth to sixth grade children?

  • Yeah. I think we want to think about vocabulary. When we plan instruction for English language

  • learners, we want to think about in a couple of different ways. We're going for lots of

  • breadth, which is a big vocabulary. We've often thought act giving kidsmaking sure

  • kids have a large vocabulary, and that's what we think of when we think of breadth. But

  • we also know that lots of kids, particularly English language learners, might be able to

  • recognize a word and even use it, but not have any deep understanding of the word.

  • Meaning?

  • So we don't — we don't necessarilyso meaning — I might be able to userecognize

  • the word "interrupt" as something that happens in a conversation, and I might be able to

  • use it in conversation but not necessarily use it in my academic writing or in a free

  • write or some kind of narrative afterwards. We get lots of English language learners with

  • some sort of shallow understanding of words and not a lot of depth. So when we plan for

  • vocabulary instruction, we plan for some direct and explicit instruction, which might look

  • like a particular work sheet that's centered around a newspaper article where now we pull

  • out some particular words that might be difficult. Kids might use the dictionaries to go and

  • find meanings for those words and then use those words in a sentence. That might be some

  • kind of instructionsome kind of direct instruction. On the flip side, we also think

  • about giving kids strategies for word learning so that when they're reading independently

  • and when they're working independently, they're thinking about recognizing words that they

  • don't know and problem solving around their meaning. And by that we're really talking

  • about giving kids strategies to analyze often the roots of words. Do I know the root of

  • this word? Might I be able to pull apart the root of this word and think about what that

  • means? If I see if the word vision, might I think of television, might I think of television?

  • Might I think of other words that are related and start to gain the meaning of that word?

  • Well, you know, 50,000 words by the time you graduate from high school is a lot of words.

  • Are there guidelines for choosing which words teachers should teach and which ones they

  • should focus on?

  • There areand it sort of goes back to this idea of promoting breadth, size, and

  • depth. And really whatprobably the topic that's most discussed these days amongst teachers

  • and researchers is that what we're really going for when we go forin planning vocabulary

  • instruction are very high utility academic words, so not necessarily words that relate

  • to the specific text all of the time. So I might not pull outso I might be planning

  • for a read aloud and I might not pull out the word "dandelion" or "burrowed," which

  • are rare and interesting. But I might go after some of the more high-utility, more frequently

  • used academic words. I might think about the word "analyze." I might think about "frequent."

  • I might think about "compare." These kinds of words that cut acrossthat cut across

  • the curriculum have really been the focus of a lot of work on vocabulary, particularly

  • for fourth to sixth -graders.

  • I know cognates and the understanding a second language through use of your own knowledge

  • of vocabulary.

  • Right.

  • And your language

  • Right.

  • and the cognateswashas always been a piece of second language instruction.

  • Is explicit teaching of cognates something that is necessary, or do kids pick this up

  • on their own?

  • Unfortunately kids don't seem to bewe have lots of Spanish speakers who have well-developed

  • language and literacy skills in Spanish who, when they go to read English and come across

  • a word that might be considered a cognate, so similar looking and with the same meaning,

  • they don't necessarily use that as a strategy to problem solve the meaning of the word.

  • What we're finding is that kids like any tool to promote their vocabulary and their comprehension.

  • Kids need to be taught to be looking for cognates.

  • Now we should probably warn our viewers about false cognates. Nonie, can you explain all

  • that?

  • Yeah, well, it's certainly a hot topic these days. But what we have is both the desire

  • to use their first language as an asset and to have them looking for cognates, but what

  • kids also need to understand is that a large number of cognates are actually false cognates,

  • and by false cognates what we really mean is words that actually carry different meanings

  • in the two languages. So it sounds like it's something like 30 percent of words that are

  • cognates that have a shared look and meaning, but that, in fact, there's also a large proportion

  • that are false in that sense.

  • This is putting you on the spot, but can you give us an example of one?

  • I do, I do. You'll have to mind my Spanish, but "embarazada" is a word in Spanish that

  • in English they mean very different things so that we have meaning of embarrassed in

  • English and one, I think, that's to be pregnant in Spanish is a good example where there's

  • thisthere's a lot of similarity but no semantic.

  • It's a pretty dramatic example.

  • Yes.

  • Yeah, it is, thank you. A list of common English/Spanish cognates is available for you to download

  • at colorincolorado.org. Nonie, let's talk about the relationship between vocabulary

  • and comprehension. Is comprehension instruction the same for ELLs as for native language speakers?

  • I think the principles are very much the same, which is that we really want kids to have

  • structured time and strategies to comprehend text effectively. I think for ELLs we just

  • want to be clear that a lot ofoften the language demands of the text exceed their

  • proficiency in a way that they may not for native English speakers, so a little more

  • attention to the oral side of comprehension is probably what we'd recommend. But the principles

  • are really much the same, the structured opportunity for engagement with text, but also discussion

  • around text, becoming an active reader while reading. Am I noticing when I'm not understanding?

  • Am I asking questions of my peers or my teacher, et cetera? Those are the same kinds of principles.

  • Again, I think what teachers will want to know is how you do it in the classroom. So

  • are there some specific strategies that you would use with these kids in the fourth to

  • sixth grade, especially if you're preparing them for middle and high school?

  • I think some of the very specific strategies are actually one of them with English language

  • learners that's been very successful in some fourth and fifth grade classrooms that I've

  • been working on, is actually the kind of small group oral reading that we used to see a long

  • time ago as part of general reading instruction, a chance to read out loud, to slow down, to

  • listen to myself read, to stumble on words, get some corrective feedback and keep going,

  • and then have some discussion around comprehension. That's certainly a strategy that's gone by

  • the wayside by and large in reading instruction except for kids who are struggling, but is

  • one that would be very beneficial for more ELLs well into the upper elementary years,

  • rather than just in the primary grades. Other aspects of comprehension instruction really

  • focus on small-group discussion, small-group work, planning and previewing the materials

  • so previewing, readingpreviewing before a reading activity certainly givescan

  • serve many different functions. It might just generate more interest and motivation in the

  • topic, but for ELLs it often gives them some really much needed background information

  • if we have a discussion first. I would, as a teacher, be able to pick out a couple of

  • words that may be difficult for that student and pre-teach those and work with them, stop

  • while they're reading to find those words, et cetera. But also some of the tried and

  • true work on prediction is a chance both to talk about and gauge one's comprehension and

  • have the teacher get an informal assessment of comprehension, prediction, clarifying while

  • reading, stopping and summarizing, those kinds of things. The other piece about comprehension

  • instruction that I want to mention is, we have lots of classrooms across the country

  • doing lots of independent reading, so independent reading is a strategy to improve comprehension,

  • excellent of course, more exposure to text, more exposure to language. For English language

  • learners we want to be really clear that it's completely dependent upon a good reader text

  • matchthat if the book has too many unfamiliar words for them particularly in the fourth

  • to sixth grade, it's not a useful way to build vocabulary, because I don't know enough words

  • around that unfamiliar word to gain more comprehension, so what we really go for is, you know, 90

  • to 95 percent accuracy with the idea they might get some of those five percent of words

  • that are unknown. So that's a typical strategy that needs some real modification for English

  • language learners.

  • Can we rely on the transfer of comprehension skills from the native language to the second

  • language, or do teachers have to facilitate it, and how do they do that?

  • Well, we might be able to rely on some transfer. I think the best-case scenario where we see

  • a lot of transfer are newcomers with a lot of formal schooling in their first language.

  • That's mostly where we tend to see this notion of quote unquote transfer. For kids who have

  • had bilingual instruction, they need somethey still need some explicit prompting

  • like our newcomers about the ways in which this readingthis act of reading and making

  • meaning from the text is similar, but certainly they can draw on those skills. There are many

  • things about reading comprehension that are entirely the same across languages. Do I know

  • why I'm reading this? Do I know what information I'm looking for? Am I supposed to be summarizing

  • main idea? Am I thinking about what I'm learning as I'm reading? Am I stopping, this kind of

  • thing. Can't necessarily do it without some explicit instruction to think about those

  • similarities.

  • You know, on other webcasts we've talked about content teachers and them teaching literacy.

  • Why is this so important?

  • Right, well, what we're finding is that, of course, because reading permeates the curriculum,

  • because we're using reading as a mechanism by which to deliver a lot of the curricula

  • and especially do assessment, we're finding that it's not enough, it can't just fall into

  • the hands of the English language arts teachers to promote reading. What we have are linguistic

  • languagecertain registers that are specific to certain subjects, so what we get with mathematics,

  • for instance, is some estimatesome estimate

  • Fractions.

  • Fractions, right. Proportion. We also get what we get in mathematics are word problems

  • whereby it's very language-heavy. I first even need to understand the question. I may

  • have the mathematical skills, but I may not be able to wade through that reading problem

  • with some background knowledge. Maybe it's about a sport or a game of golf and they're

  • carrying scores. I've certainly seen that one recently on a state standards-based test.

  • So what we're getting is language and reading brushing up, right up against content area

  • in material. We're also getting lots of vocabulary that's specific to content area classrooms

  • that's not necessarily specific to the understanding ultimately that we want them to gain. But

  • we're always mediating the curriculum with language. We're all always delivering the

  • curriculum in a way that draws on language and reading skills.

  • Mediating, that's an interesting way to put it, mediating curriculum.

  • Yeah, language is always getting in the way.

  • That's one way to look at it. Now we'd like to take you to Frank Love elementary school

  • in Bothell, Washington, where reading expect Shira Lubliner will model a technique called

  • reciprocal teaching for us.

  • Tap--tap, tap--tap...a sea otter lies on her back in the water.

  • The goal of Reciprocal Teaching is to prepare students to run their own discussion, taking

  • turns as leaders. But first, Ms. Lubliner shows them how to guide a conversation about

  • a book.

  • My first job is to ask a question. And I'm going to try and ask an important, main idea

  • question that starts with a question word. Let's see. What does the sea otter do to prepare

  • lunch?

  • There is no replacement for a teacher who can generate a good discussion. And get kids

  • to really ponder what they've read, and the whys and wherefores, and connect those meanings

  • to their own lives.

  • I'm going to predict that we're going to learn some more about what sea otters eat.

  • Now, it's time for the kids to lead their own discussion, with a little help from Ms.

  • Lubliner. The kids begin with the first of four clear steps: Asking a question.

  • What do sea otters have to be careful of?

  • The next step is clarifying the meaning of unfamiliar words.

  • It means like somebody likes something better than they like something else.

  • Afloat? Jessie.

  • Afloat means a little bit above the water. And they're floating on the water, not just

  • under it or over it.

  • The next phase of Reciprocal Teaching is summarizing, finding the main idea.

  • Sea otters have a lot of enemies, so they have to be careful of eagles, white — I

  • mean sharks, and fishermen.

  • The final step is prediction.

  • I predict that we're going to learn more about otters in this story.

  • Reciprocal Teaching promotes a give--and--take between teachers and students that achieves

  • the ultimate purpose of reading, finding the meaning.

  • Nonie, how would a teacher with varying levels of proficiency in his or her classand

  • we know that's most teachersuse a technique like reciprocal teaching?

  • Well, I think in many ways reciprocal teaching is a great fit for that classroom, because

  • the goal is really to capitalize on the diversity in terms of language and reading ability that

  • we're really thinking about peers and teachers as models, as supports for building comprehension

  • skills, as a chance for some structured discussion. So, in fact, heterogeneous groupings in groups

  • with differing abilities in reciprocal teaching is certainly part of the goal. So it's a very

  • a scaffolded approach. What we really want is for kids to really get modelingto

  • be exposed to modeling of these different strategies, the questioning, the clarifying,

  • the predicting, the summarizing, and so it's this idea that in a structured setting we

  • might have differing levels. You might ask more sophisticated questions than I would,

  • but I would probably learn some language from that discussion, at least be exposed to some

  • new words or some new ideas, and then it's also a chance for the teacher to do some informal

  • assessment. So ultimately the model is a good one for classrooms with varying abilities,

  • particularly English language learners and some native speakers. And the idea behind

  • it is this gradual release of responsibility, so as we have highly scaffolded discussions

  • at the outset we would hopefully over time have English language learners leading those

  • discussions.

  • We're going to go back to content area teaching for a while, because there's a big question

  • out there that's always out there, and that's, how does the content teacher fit reading instruction

  • into her schedule when she has so much content to cover?

  • Right, she's reallyshe's really feeling saddled with a lot of content. I think the

  • point that I really want to make is that the key is really to think of it as part of that

  • content area instruction, that it's really almost impossible to separate the content

  • area from the language and reading demands that go along with it in order to learn that

  • material, in order to be assessed in a valid sort of way with that material. So the key

  • is often, I think, really in the planning stages to think about it as part of the content

  • area delivery. Incidentally, I will mention at this stage that will are a lot of native

  • English speakers who grapple with these same kinds of issues, the same kind of language

  • that's difficult for ELLs. So most of the current work is really to have that become

  • part of the planning process rather than to see them as two separate realms of instruction.

  • We, a lot of times, fall back on the same techniques. I know when we think of content

  • teachers teaching comprehension we think about graphic organizers. Are there other techniques

  • that content teachers might use that you could talk about?

  • Yeah, and I think in that sense, I would go back to this notion of thinking about it at

  • the planning stages up front. And I'll really, I think — I will feature the Sheltered Instructional

  • Observation Protocol, sometimes called the SIOP model as one really powerful tool, because

  • what it is is a tool to help teachers in their planning to identify both the content area

  • goals, the goals for instruction at the level of the content, but also to identify the reading

  • demands and the language demands and those words and structures at the level of the text

  • that may be difficult for their students. The model was originally developed for newcomer

  • students at the adolescentin the adolescent newcomers. It could certainly be adapted and

  • used earlier on fourth to sixth grade in those upper elementary years where we really need

  • to think about what are the content demands of this lesson and what are the language and

  • reading demands?

  • You know you bring up a good point. And for our viewers out there, I would like to refer

  • you to our webcast on middle and high school students where we talked about the SIOP model,

  • and when I say, "We talked about it," it was Dr. Deborah Short, and you can find that information

  • on our website. Let's go back and keep talking about content teaching because it is so important

  • to us. You talked about one resource which is SIOP, and lots of teachers know about that.

  • Are there other resources content teachers could use?

  • One other resource that I have in mind and have been working with a number of schools

  • on the West Coast, mostly English language arts teachers, is the vocabulary improvement

  • program published by Brooks, developed by Maria Carlo, Catherine Snow, Diane August,

  • and colleagues, and it's a vocabulary program that is specially-designed for the upper elementary

  • years to give kids really deep understanding of some of these high-utility academic words,

  • to start to drill down on their understanding of words families, relationships among words,

  • use of words in oral language but also in print et cetera. That's probably the other

  • resource that I think of.

  • That's helpful. Let's take a right turn here and talk about assessment, which is on everybody's

  • mind these days.

  • Right.

  • What should an ideal literacy assessment look like for ELLs in fourth through sixth grade?

  • I think the ideal assessment, which at some level, runs counter to the way we sort of

  • have been thinking about assessment lately, which is, you know, the very broad-based achievement

  • tests, the state standards-base tests, which certainly give us some kind of dipstick understanding

  • where certain benchmarks, who fits where. What those assessments don't do and what the

  • ideal assessment for English language learners would do is really tease apart some elements

  • of oral language and of reading. So in the realm of reading, I would not just want to

  • know that these kids are accurate and fluent word readers, but I'd also want to know about

  • their comprehension, and by comprehension, I might want to know how are they with literal

  • questions and how are they with questions that require some inferencing ability at the

  • level of oral language and aspects of vocabulary. I'd want to know their basic proficiencies

  • in the language. That's critical information. It's information we often get about English

  • language learners. I'd also want to know something about their academic language and their use

  • oftheir understanding of the syntax of the language. So in our own work, we work

  • with teachers to assess kids' morphological awareness, do I know how to transform a word?

  • Do I know how a word might change to match up with the sentence in order for it to be

  • meaningful but also syntactically correct, this kind of thing? So I really think much

  • more about kind of formative informal assessments to really get at aspects of comprehension,

  • aspects of oral language. In another situation, we do some work around, do kids understand

  • cohesion workers; that is, those function words? Lots of kids have good vocabulary words

  • but then lackvocabularies, excuse me, but then lack a really sophisticated understanding

  • of how sentences or clauses may be joined by a really critical function word. So I would

  • just want to know more about the ways in which oral language may be both well developed and

  • breaking down, and the same with comprehension.

  • I assume you were talking about assessment at the classroom level. Is this something

  • we can also do at the district and school level?

  • Well, I think at the district and school level, we typically have some achievement measures

  • or state standards-based assessments, so lots of the schools I work in, for instance, use

  • the SAT-10. I think what I would think about doing at the school and the district level

  • would be to take those kids for whom that assessment, raise the red flag, and do some

  • more in-depth assessment. The risk that we run when we use large-scale assessments and

  • even broad-based standardized achievement tests to guide our instruction is that we

  • don't really know what aspect of that skill was breaking down. What was it about that

  • comprehension test that was most problematic for these kids? And for English language learners

  • who really vary in thereeven within one child, who really vary in terms of their skill

  • levels, it wasn't everything that was problematic. There were some pieces that were more problematic

  • for others, and we don't always have that information.

  • So many districts today are attempting to assess children in both their native language

  • and English. How important is that?

  • You know, I think not unlike this question of transfer where we say, well, it's going

  • to depend on instruction, it's going to depend on what might goals for instruction are. I

  • think in many ways, I feel the same way about native language assessment. There are few

  • things to keep on the table. The first is, of course, whether we can do that in a way

  • that's sound. So do we have the tools and the instruments to do that? So if a district

  • has 50 languages, you know, how many of those language groups can we assess in the native

  • language? If we can assess in the native language, it can be very useful information, but not

  • information that we should be using in any way that would classifythat would be

  • used to classify children or to suggest particular outcomes, because we don't always know what

  • we can expect on those assessments. Often assessments of native language have been developed

  • and normed with monolingual students. So for instance when we use the Woodcock Johnson

  • measures of Spanish reading and oral language, we're comparing the scoring to a monolingual

  • group in Puerto Rico whofor whom the test was developed or with whom the developed.

  • And monolingual in Spanish, you're saying.

  • Exactly, monolingual in Spanish. So what becomes difficult is it can be really useful information

  • to get a sense of native language, to get a sense of whether we see the same kinds of

  • difficulties in one language versus

  • the other.

  • All assessment is used for instruction. How do teachers do that? How do they take what

  • they learn from these assessments for good instruction?

  • Well, I think it really goes back to that principle, which is good instruction starts

  • with very good assessment. And in the case of English language learners I think the big

  • thingsthe real critical piece to think about is that these kids are growing and developing

  • and often at rapid rates, at uneven rates. You have a lot of diversity in your classroom.

  • So the critical piece is to be doing that kind of assessment to monitor progress, to

  • then think about where modifications come in, et cetera.

  • Well, you've told us an awful lot today. Do you have any fine thoughts?

  • I think my final thought would be really that a lot of what we've talked about today, particularly

  • in the fourth to sixth grade realm, it's probably worth mentioning that given the demographics

  • of this population, the expected increase in this population over the next couple of

  • decades, we want to think a lot about the fact probably that what we're really getting

  • at is better academic language instruction in regular classrooms, and thinking less about

  • this group as an identified subgroup and more about language diversity in our K-12 classrooms

  • and what that means. And really, it parallels the way we're thinking about middle school

  • literacy reform, which is we're thinking much more about content-base literacy, writer's

  • workshop, these kinds of reforms to really increase academic language of all kids. It

  • also parallels where the field of special education is moving, towards a model of universal

  • design so that we really try to prevent difficulties. Think about increasing opportunities to learn

  • before we are labeling kids with a disability, and similarly, I think this is a group where

  • who hopefully in that sense will takewe will take a different approach with

  • them, rather than identifying them necessarily as a subgroup and more think about curricular

  • adjustments to promote their success, whether they're designated ELL or not.

  • Nonie, thank you so much for sharing all this information for us, and for telling us how

  • education is evolving and we need to stay ahead of the game. And thank you for watching.

  • For more information about teaching English language learners to read, and how to reach

  • out to their families, please visit our website, colorincolorado.org. On the main page for

  • this webcast you'll find recommended readings, discussions, questions, and more. You can

  • also tell us about what you think about this program by taking our survey.

  • Announcer Funding for this webcast is provided by the American Federation of Teachers. Additional support comes from

  • the National Council of La Raza, and from the United States Department of Education,

  • Office of Special Education Programs.

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