Gaining Respect: Promoting ELL in the Low-Incidence School

1. Gaining Respect:Promoting ELL in the Low-Incidence School Charlotte Johnson, ELL Teacher, Mount Lebanon Elementary School Mary Quinton-Barry ELL Teacher, Lebanon High School SAU 88, Lebanon, NH

2. Why Respect?Or Doesn’t Everyone Already Know What a Great Job We Do? Problem: Lack of awareness and/or understanding of ELL issues among mainstream teachers “Don’t you just tutor students?”

3. Typical Issues of Respect (or lack thereof) in a Low Incidence School • Space issues • Communication issues • Misunderstanding of our role • Lack of ELL professional development for mainstream staff • Lack of ELL training in teacher prep courses

4. How to Increase Respect among Faculty and Administration Three major approaches: • Provide information and direct help to mainstream teachers • Provide professional development • Make presentations

5. I. Direct Help to Teachers • Distribute paper or electronic packets of information to classroom teachers at the beginning of school year • Provide additional information throughout the year as necessary • Meet formally and informally to discuss various issues

6. Info Packets: Start of School Year(Elementary Level) For example: (see handouts) • Ways for Mainstream Teachers to Help Your ELL Students • Explaining BICS and CALP • Three Tiers of Vocabulary

7. Throughout the Year(Elementary Level) For example: • Goals with recommendations for accommodations • Quarterly Reports • Articles of interest (or as the need arises), such as “The Case for Narrow Reading” by Stephen Krashen

8. Info Packets: Start of School Year(High School Level) Excerpt from a handout SAU #88 ACCOMMODATIONS DOCUMENTATION FOR ELL STUDENTS  GUIDELINES: Some ELL students require specific accommodations during assessment and instruction. These accommodations are set forth to address the unique needs of the student but that do not alter the subject matter being instructed or assessed. Student ______________School __________________________ Grade ___________ ACCESS assessment date: __________ Scores: Listening ____Reading ________ Writing ______________ Speaking___________ Composite ___________________ ACCOMMODATION(S) PROVIDED (Check where appropriate): Presentation/Instruction • Simplify language (both orally and written) but not content, as needed. ELL teacher can help with written assignments. • Present directions/information both orally and written. • Present materials in small sequential steps. • Written copies/notes of orally presented materials when possible. • Use props and gestures whenever possible. • Provide graphic organizers, charts, illustrations when possible.

10. Additional Information: Throughout the Year(High School Level) Examples: • ELLs: Do They Really Know What You Think They Know? • Oral Correction of ELLs • Difficulties in the Content Areas

11. Meet Formally and Informally to Discuss Issues Finding time to meet with mainstream colleagues is difficult! …Suggestions: • Catch them before/after school • Attend grade-level meetings/PLC meetings • Join school/ district curriculum committees • E-mail/Chat • Attend Parent/Teacher conferences

12. II. Professional Development • Book Study— Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: THE SIOP MODEL, by Echevarria, Vogt, and Short • Paraprofessional Workshops • Culture Workshops

13. Excerpt from the syllabus Book Study: The SIOP Model

14. Sample Activity from the Book Study and Culture WorkshopCulture Quiz 1. You are a 4th grade teacher with a new boy from Syria. He speaks very little English. He is having a problem getting along with the other students. He has fights on the playground every day which he seems to provoke by constantly touching the other boys. 2. Haitian brothers Jean-Baptiste and Jean-Pierre are often late for school. They are also each absent about once a week but on different days. 3. You have a Puerto Rican student in the 3rd grade who speaks English fluently. She participates orally in your classroom and socializes well with her peers. She even translates for other students. However, she is doing very poorly in her content area schoolwork. (Adapted from Judie Haynes, everything ESL)

15. Culture Quiz Answers 1. American boys in grades 4-6 do not touch each other except during contact sports or when fighting. This is the way they are socialized. In Middle Eastern countries boys playing on a playground are constantly touching each other. When a Middle Eastern child does this on an American playground, he is will end up in many fights. The American boys see this as “sissy” behavior. 2. They may be staying home on different days of the week to baby-sit for a younger sibling who does not yet attend school. They may be late because they have family obligations to help parents who are working. They may not have clean clothes for two that day. 3. This student has acquired BICS ( Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) but has not yet acquired CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) needed to learn in content areas. Many of our second language learners are exiting ELL programs at the BICS level. We need to work on CALP before these students are exited. Good BIC skills also fool mainstream teachers, who think that a child speaking with friends on the playground, is just being lazy when not doing his/her work.

16. Paraprofessional Workshops • Several thirty to forty-five-minute workshops to paraprofessionals (a very captive audience!) • Some ideas covered: • Understanding BICS and CALP • Teaching reading to ELLs • Understanding cultural differences • Identifying Tier 2 vocabulary • Nonverbal communication

17. III. Formal Presentations Find opportunities to present to various constituencies: • Special Ed Departmental Meetings • Faculty Meetings • Superintendent/Administrative Team • School Board • Office Staff/School Nurses

18. Excerpt from presentation Special Ed Presentation Lebanon ELL Program • ESL—English as a Second Language • ESOL—English for Speakers of Other Languages • or English as a Second or Other Language • ELL—English Language Learner • or English as a Learned Language

19. Topics Covered in our Special Education Presentation: • Definition, laws, and models of ELL • Role of ELL teachers • BICS and CALP • Needs of ELLs to succeed • Four domains and other things we teach • Methods and approaches used to teach • Factors determining rate of acquisition • Strategies we use • How mainstream teachers can assist ELLs • Criteria for exiting ELLs from direct services • ACCESS test • Referral of ELLs to Special Ed • Numbers of ELLs and services provided in Lebanon • How ELLs performed on the NECAP

20. Excerpt from SPED presentation What do ELL teachers know above and beyond “Best Practices”? The ELL teachers possess • Knowledge of second language acquisition processes and their effect on learning • Knowledge of cultural backgrounds and intercultural communication and an understanding of the role of ELLs’ cultures in learning • Expertise in providing comprehensible input to ELLs • Knowledge of linguistic differences and transfer issues ELLs are likely to experience—how L1 can impact learning • Skill in effectively identifying and making use of opportunities for language development • Awareness of the language demands and literacy skills needed for academic content learning and skill in scaffolding those language demands • Expertise in integrating and developing the language skills • Training in assessments for English language proficiency • Generally, more involvement with the students and with their families

21. Excerpt from SPED presentationIn addition to teaching, what else do ELL teachers do? Communicate with mainstream teachers • Test new ELLs • Test ELLs annually for NCLB • Monitor exited ELLs for two years • Develop yearly goals and objectives • Write quarterly reports • Maintain files • Attend meetings involving ELLs • Assist families of ELLs • Research languages and cultures of ELLs • Recruit volunteers • Stay current on the latest research • Educate others about the field/Serve as mentors • Serve as case managers • Offer emotional support to ELLs

22. Excerpt from SPED presentation What ELL Is… • Essential English language development for English Language Learners • Planned, daily instruction for English language acquisition. • Separate instruction time when ELLs have the opportunity to express themselves. • English language development through comprehensible content area instruction (“sheltered” English content instruction). • Sequential, strategic curriculum delivery using ELL methodologies. • Communication based instruction with grammar instruction provided as required for successful language development. • Teaching English to ELLs which may include multicultural aspects, i.e. recognition of students’ various cultural backgrounds and the impact of those backgrounds on learning. • An essential, integral part of the students’ academic program. • Instruction coordinated with and reinforced by the classroom teacher at the elementary level. • A program whose implementation is the responsibility of certified personnel with ELL training.

23. Excerpt from SPED presentation (con’t.) …and Is NOT • Special or remedial education • Just being in an all-English environment • Just a Language Arts class • Tutoring • Grammar-based instruction where students learn how to talk about English grammar • Multicultural education • Learning by ‘osmosis’ • The responsibility of paraprofessional personnel

24. Other Presentations • Faculty meetings - Overview of ELL issues - Academic language -Strategies for Mainstream Teachers -Cultural Issues • Superintendent/Administrative Team Background and statistics • School Board Overview of district program • Office Staff/School Nurses

25. Excerpt from presentation High School Faculty Meeting Tier 2 Vocabulary Most ****** ****** extinction today are ****** because of the *****, ********, or ******of habitats by ***** ********. We ***** or ***** habitats when we build roads, parking lots, bridges, and buildings; ***** forests to grow **** or ***** ********animals; and **** forests for ******. We ***** ****** to build on aquatichabitats, **** ******* them to terrestrial ones, and we ***** terrestrial habitats when we build dams with their *******. ******* and ******* of ******, including ****** *****, ****** the land and ******* habitats. Habitats are ***** by outdoor ********, including off-road ******, ****** ******, golfing, skiing, and camping. Because most ******* are ******* *******on a ****** type of environment, habitat ****** ****** their biological ****** and ******* to *******.

26. Reconstructed Text: Tier 2 Vocabulary Inserted Most speciesfacingextinction today are endangered because of the destruction, fragmentation, or degradation of habitats by human activities. We demolish or alter habitats when we build roads, parking lots, bridges, and buildings; clear forests to grow crops or graze domesticanimals; and log forests for timber. We drain marshesto build on aquatic habitats, thusconverting them to terrestrial ones, and we flood terrestrial habitats when we build dams with their reservoirs. Exploration and mining of minerals, including fossil fuels, disrupt the land and destroy habitats. Habitats are altered by outdoor recreation, including off-road vehicles, hiking off-trail, golfing, skiing, and camping. Because most organisms are utterlydependent on a particular type of environment, habitat destruction reducestheir biological range and ability to survive.

27. Excerpt from Office Staff Presentation • How can you tell if an incoming student will need ELL services? • The Home Language Survey should be filled out by the parents or guardians of all incoming students regardless of how well they speak English. • If a language other than English is spoken in the home, the ELL specialist will assess the child’s need for services based on discussions with the parents and on testing. • Note: Often children and their parents will appear to be very fluent in English, but this does not mean they will not require services.

28. Results of our “Outreach Program”Have We Gained Respect? • Mainstream teachers ask more questions, and ask for advice and materials • Mainstream teachers use strategies learned in ELL professional development • Administrators ask more questions • Administrators ask for presentations • Increased ELL staff • Improved instructional space • Increased ELL budget • More positive collaboration with staff

29. What does ELL look like in MA? • MA has approximately 57,000 ELLs currently enrolled in public schools (MA DESE, 2009b). • ELLs in MA are a consistently growing student population (Rennie Center, 2007). • Approximately 8,200 ELLs in MA receive no ESL instruction (MA DESE, 2009b). • ELLs in MA are the lowest performing subgroup in the state by every measure (e.g., MCAS, graduation rates, drop-out rates) (Data from DOE website profiles.doe.mass.edu). • “We have a critical shortage of ESL teachers in the state” (MA DESE, 2009b, p.2). From English Language Learners in Massachusetts (ELLs) Factsheet, Kara Mitchell for MATSOL,September 2009

30. More Respect…. • We respect your opinions. Please share your comments, ideas, and experiences. • NOTE We will post a copy of this PowerPoint on the MATSOL website, or contact: cjohnson@sau88.net or mquintonbarry@sau88.net