Making a Bold Change in Instruction for ELLs: From Remediation to Acceleration

1. Making a Bold Change in Instruction for ELLs:From Remediation to Acceleration Maryann Cucchiara macucchiara@gmail.com

2. Reading with Stamina, Fluency, and Critically: Getting Ready for College • “It seems to me curious, not to say obscene and thoroughly terrifying that it could occur to an association of human beings drawn together through need and chance and for profit into a company, an organ of journalism, to pry intimately into the lives of an undefended and appallingly damaged group of human beings, an ignorant and helpless rural family, for the purpose of parading the nakedness, disadvantage, and humiliation of these lives before another group of human beings.” • From Let us Now Praise Famous Men, James Agee

3. Needs Assessment: What ELLs Need to Meet the CCSSs • What Should We See? • What Do We See? • What Must we Do/Change/Re-vision? • How do we make those Bold Changes?

4. Productive Mindset for a Transformation • “Professional development – what little is invested is too often spent on forms of training aimed at improving things at the margins rather than developing structures aimed at causing teachers and administrators to think differently about their work and work differently because of what they come to think.” (Schlechty, 1990)

5. Cycle of Change

6. Stages of Learning: Fisher, 1998

7. Why was Change Needed? • Closing the “Opportunity Gap” • L2 Stall • Fragmented Approaches • ESL Teacher Isolation • Segregated ELLs • Simplified Materials regardless of ESL Level • CCSSs

8. Looking at the Data: “Sounding the Alarm” • NYSESLAT • ELA State Exams • School Report Cards • Reading Levels • Writing Proficiencies • Growing Population of Long Term ELLs

10. Why the Lag for ELLs? • Too much variability in understanding and beliefs around what ELLs need to meet any standards • Too much confusion from a variety of fragmented and isolated literacy approaches • Far too many long term ELLs, far too many ELLS/SPED, far too many pull-out, and way too much of watered down texts and curriculum • Too much of a “pot luck” approach Lily Wong Fillmore

11. Compounding the Problem • “Students who are classified as ELs are usually grouped for instruction. The instruction they are given is generally pitched at a lower level than instruction provided for English proficient students. • The texts used in such classes are usually less complex, less informative, and less demanding than those ordinarily used. As a result such texts rarely if ever provide any exposure to the kind of language students need to learn and use in carrying out academic work; • Less is asked and expected of students in such classes, and many of them lose hope in making academic progress, and sadly––their faith in their own ability to learn.” Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore

12. From the Writers of the CCSS • At the heart of these criteria are instructions for shifting the focus of literacy instruction to center on careful examination of the text itself.In aligned materials, work in reading and writing (as well as speaking and listening) must center on the text under consideration. The standards focus intently on students reading closely todraw evidence from the text and are emphatic about students reading texts of adequate range and complexity. David Coleman • Susan Pimentel

13. Criteria that Require Shifts • In addition, to develop reading comprehension and vocabulary for all readers, the selected informational text materials should build a coherent body of knowledge within and across grades. • Materials develop academic vocabulary prevalent in complex texts throughout reading, writing, listening, and speaking instruction. • Reading strategies are not offered as a separate body of material.

14. Major Change in Reading and Writing Performance • Questions and tasks attend to analyzing the arguments and information at the heart of informational text in grades K–5 and literary nonfiction in grades 6–12. • Writing to Sources and Research • Increasing Focus on Argument and Informative Writing

15. Types of Scaffolds • Scaffolds enable all students to experience the complexity of the text,rather than avoid it. • Rather than focusing on general strategies and questions disconnected from texts, strategies should be cultivated in the context of reading specific texts. • Materials make the text the focus of instruction by avoiding features that distract from the text.

16. CCSS Language StandardsLANGUAGE, Literacy,Learning • Amplify, Don’t Simplify • Teach How and Why Language Works • Preview and Play with Vocabulary • Deconstruct/Reconstruct/Map Meaning • Demystify Figurative Language

17. Becoming Aware: Gathering Baseline Data through Learning Walks • CALP Observation Protocols • Along the Pathway Classroom Practices • Teacher Self Evaluation Surveys

18. The Culprit: Simplified Texts The Tea Act of 1773 In May 1773 Parliament passed a law. It was called the Tea Act. King George wanted to help the British East India Company. The East India Company had 17 million pounds (7.65 million kilograms) of unsold tea. It was stored in English warehouses. The Tea Act said the East India Company could sell the tea to American colonists. The tea was taxed two times. It was taxed in England. Then it was taxed again in the colonies. The East India Company sent 1,700 chests of tea to the colonies. The colonists were not pleased. They did not like the tax. They did not want to buy the tea. Many people thought the king wanted to crush the colonists.

19. The Reality: • The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, would launch the final spark to the revolutionary movement in Boston. The act was not intended to raise revenue in the American colonies, and in fact imposed no new taxes. It was designed to prop up the East India Company which was floundering financially and burdened with eighteen million pounds of unsold tea. This tea was to be shipped directly to the colonies, and sold at a bargain price. The Townshend Duties were still in place, however, and the radical leaders in America found reason to believe that this act was a maneuver to buy popular support for the taxes already in force. The direct sale of tea, via British agents, would also have undercut the business of local merchants.

20. Where do they Need to Be: CCSS Expectations • Petry, Ann. Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad. New York: HarperCollins, 1983. (1955) From Chapter 3: “Six Years Old” • By the time Harriet Ross was six years old, she had unconsciously absorbed many kinds of knowledge, almost with the air she breathed. She could not, for example, have said how or at what moment she knew that she was a slave.

21. The Reality: • Students analyze in detail how the early years of Harriet Tubman (as related by author Ann Petry) contributed to her later becoming a conductor on the Underground Railroad, attending to how the author introduces, illustrates, and elaborates upon the events in Tubman’s life. [RI.6.3]

22. The Culprit: • Write a book report about the life of Harriet Tubman • Make a diorama about the early life of Harriet Ross

23. The Culprit: Simplified Texts Frogs are outside his house. They are quiet in the daytime. They are noisy at night. It is nighttime. The frogs are singing. He grabs a flashlight. He goes outside. He shines the light on a frog. It hops. He picks it up. It is soft and wet. It kicks its legs. He puts it down.

24. The Reality: Complex Texts, Complex Ideas Tiny poison dart frogs may only be one inch (2.5 centimeters) long, but they pack a powerful punch—of poison. Weighing less than an ounce (28 grams), these frogs are considered one of Earth's most toxic, or poisonous, species. For example, the golden poison dart frog has enough poison to kill 20,000 mice. With a range of bright colors—yellows, oranges, reds, greens, blues—they aren't just big show-offs, either. Those colorful designs tell potential predators, "I'm toxic. Don't eat me."

25. The Culprit: Simplified Tasks

26. The Reality: EquallyComplex Tasks • After multiple opportunities to read informational texts and use information/facts students will write a report about what they have learned about frogs.

27. Thinking Differently • From Remedial Approach to Acceleration • From Simplified to Amplified • From Everyday to Academic • From Pull out to Push in and Co-teach • From Isolated ESL Skills to Knowledge Building • From Everyday Topics to Content Themes • From an “Achievement Gap” to an “Opportunity Gap” • From “Near Home” to “Far Away” Literacy and Language Practices

28. Impact of Dr. Fillmore’s Work • The “Ls” Ells Need • Learning, Language, Literacy • “Children can only augment their knowledge base when they read IF they can make sense of what they read.”

29. Why Integrate? • Integration is consistent with the notion that language is learned through meaningful context • Concurrent teaching and learning of both subject matter and language is a way to accelerate • Non-integrated approach is insufficient for ELLs to succeed in mainstream classes • Situated language within a content curriculum has the potential to support in a continuous and reciprocal manner • Language rich diet of an ELL group can be nourishing for all students Taken from Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning by Pauline Gibbons

30. Have a Plan for Instruction: BICS B A Cognitively Undemanding Context Embedded Context Reduced D C Cognitively Demanding CALP

31. Integrated, Standards Based ESL Infrastructure Moves Instructional Moves Professional Development Moves Working Differently Because of our New Thinking

32. What Type of Changes • Integrated Approach to ELA/ESL • Humanities Approach to ELA/Social Studies • Integrated Approach to ELA/Science • Integrated Approach to R/W Workshop • Inclusion of Reading/Writing into Social Studies and Science Courses • NLA and Dual Language Integrated Approach

33. A Manageable Proposal • Look at one “juicy sentence” each day in each content area. • Hold instructional conversations that get learners to pay attention to complex texts • Find engaging ways to use and think about the academic language

34. High Leverage Language Practices • Previewing Vocabulary: Emphasis on Tier 2, Rigor and Play • RA/TA: “Landing Places” with the RA/TA to highlight/Amplify text • Shared/Guided reading time which explored language that framed big ideas/concepts within texts • Role of Mini Lesson: “Lifting the text” to study “author’s craft” and the language that he/she uses to frame ideas

35. From Research to Practice • Strategy #1 BICS and CALP Word Play

36. Academic Word Play • Talk It Out! Instructional Conversations • Act it Out! TPR with academic language • Draw it! Building from the base illustrations • Stretch it! Lexical Arrays • Grow it: Generative Words • Feel it: Denotes/Connotes

37. BICS/CALP Word Play Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs differing in manner (e.g., look, peek, glance, stare, glare, scowl) and adjectives differing in intensity (e.g., large, gigantic) by defining or choosing them or by acting out the meanings. Common Core Standards: Language Strands

38. From Research to Practice Deconstruct/reconstruct/Map Strategy #2

39. Language Watching Practices • Deconstruct/Reconstruct/Map • Instructional Conversations around how and why language works and frames ideas • Sentence Play----Sentence “Acrobatics” • Demystifying Figurative Language • Looking at Discourse Specific Language Functions

40. How and Why English Works: Academic Language Functions Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, including those that signal contrast, addition, and other logical relationships (e.g., however, although, nevertheless, similarly, moreover, in addition). Common Core Standards Language Strand

41. Demystifying Figurative Language • Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings • Interpret figurative language, including similes and metaphors, in context. Language Strands: CCSS

42. We are Aligned to the CCSSs: Can’t Stop NOW! • The Role of Text Complexity • The Role of NF • The Role of Vocabulary • The Language Standards • The Role of Staying on Topic Within a Grade: Building Knowledge Systematically • The Role of the RA for Informational Texts

43. Re-visioning Curriculum: A Blueprint

44. Nested Inside of Integrated Curriculum Maps • EQs • AcademicVocabulary • Focus on Academic Language • Performance Assessments: Conveying and/or Convincing • Alternate Text Sets • Aligned to CCSS

45. Essential Elements of Revisioned Knowledge Based Curriculum • Essential Questions are the focus of the Curriculum Design • Investigative/Inquiry Based Curriculum • Investigation requires routine reading and writing of complex texts that go to the heart of the matter • Diverse Alternate Texts: Fiction and NF • Assessments that highlight student’s ability to write argumentatively and/or in an explanatory manner • Routine Attention to Complex Texts and the Language of the texts, i.e. Vocabulary, Figurative Language and Language Functions/Grammatical Aspects • Alignment to ELA CCSSs and/or Literacy in History/Science CCSSs

46. Citywide Instructional Expectations • Engage all students in at least one literacy task and one math task aligned to strategically selected CCSS. • In literacy, students will complete a task that asks them to read and analyze informational texts and write opinions and arguments in response. • Multiple entry points for all learners including students with disabilities and ELLs.

47. DOE Performance Unit: Text and Task • What is confounding? Language, Literacy, Learning • How do we provide access, attention and engagement with such complexity in language, literacy and learning? • What types of scaffolding would be necessary for comprehension and production?

48. 6th Grade Performance Task • In a sun-dappled pool not far from the clamor of Waikiki Beach, two female dolphins poke their heads out of the water, waiting for a command. "O.K.," says Louis Herman, founder and director of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory, "now let's try a tandem creative." Two graduate students, positioned at opposite ends of the 50-ft. tank, throw full body and soul into communicating this message to the animals, Phoenix and Akeakamai. First the humans ask the dolphins to pay attention by holding a finger high in the air. Then they tap the index fingers of each hand together, forming the gesture that has been taught to mean tandem. Next they throw their arms up in an expansive gesture that signifies creative. The dolphins have just been told, "Do something creative together.” • From Time: “Can Animals Think?”

49. Academic Vocabulary • In a sun-dappled pool not far from the clamorof Waikiki Beach, two female dolphins poke their heads out of the water, waiting for a command. "O.K.," says Louis Herman, founder and director of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory, "now let's try a tandem creative." Two graduate students, positionedat opposite ends of the 50-ft. tank, throw full body and soul into communicating this message to the animals, Phoenix and Akeakamai. First the humans ask the dolphins to pay attention by holding a finger high in the air. Then they tap the index fingers of each hand together, forming the gesture that has been taught to mean tandem. Next they throw their arms up in an expansive gesture that signifies creative. The dolphins have just been told, "Do something creative together."

50. Academic Word Play • Talk It Out! Instructional Conversations • dip and submerge • Act it Out! TPR with academic language • Open and expansive • Draw it! Building from the base illustrations • A yell vs …. • Stretch it! Lexical Arrays • scream yell clamor uproar shout • Grow it: Generative Words • forethought • Feel it: Denotes/Connotes