Effective ELD Instruction for K-5: Strategies and Implementation

1. Regional County Office of Education Lead Collaboration Meeting September 9, 2010

2. Chapter 2 Discussion: “English Language Development: Foundationsand Implementation Kindergarten Through Grade Five” by Marguerite Ann Snow and Anne KatzYee Wan, Region 5 COE Lead Denise Giacomini, Region 4 COE Co-Lead

3. Chapter Overview • Chapter synthesizes studies and research that focus on ELD teaching of students K-5 • Provides examples of strategies for teaching ELD in each skill area • Provides examples of effective ELD instruction that focus on Step 3, Design and enact activities in grades K-5 • Discusses the implications for professional development for pre-service education and in-service

4. Chapter Organization • Foundations of ELD Instruction for Young Learners • Designing ELD Instruction and Assessment • Examples of Effective ELD Instruction • Professional Development

5. Main Goal of ELD • Ensure students develop the levels of English proficiency required to succeed academically • Move English learners through the proficiency levels from beginning, early intermediate, intermediate, early advance, to advanced

6. Foundations for ELD Instruction for Young Learners Primary Language • Young ELs bring knowledge and skills learned in their primary language • Students’ sense of identity is embedded in home language, and schools and communities can create atmospheres where home language and culture is honored • Children’s exposure to higher order cognitive skills facilitates development of literacy in primary and secondary language

7. Foundations for ELD Instruction for Young Learners, continued Sociocultural Considerations and Parental and Community Support • In order to school ELs effectively it is important to understand background of students • Variety of languages, countries, cultures, primary educational experiences among English learners affects their schooling • Depending on age of arrival, grade placement, types of literacy practices in home, and amount of schooling in native countries students may differ in school success • Effective schools are places where personnel believe all students can learn, where school climate is safe and orderly, where there is a warm and caring community, where curriculum is challenging, teaching is informed by research and best practices, and where there is concerted outreach to parents

8. Foundations for ELD Instruction for Young Learners, continued Second-Language Acquisition Processes • Common continuum along second language route • Rate of acquisition varies and may depend on age, motivation, exposure to input, aptitude, learning style, support of teachers • Input, output and interaction are three views of what contributes to language acquisition • ELs need rich language environments to acquire second language • Explicit instruction (in reading, writing, listening, speaking), at language level of students, is necessary for language acquisition

9. Designing ELD Instruction and Assessment Standards-Based Instruction and Assessment • Plan for instruction must take into account relevant standards because they outline core content of instruction • Challenging standards linked to assessments leads to school accountability high motivation professional development leads to improved teaching leads to higher learning

10. Designing ELD Instruction and Assessment, continued Using Standards to Plan ELD Instruction and Assessment • Standards used to focus instruction and inform assessments; this occurs in a dynamic framework of planning, enacting and evaluating • Four steps • identify learner’s proficiency level • select standards-based language objectives • design and enact activities • assess learning through standards referenced assessments

11. Designing ELD Instruction and Assessment, continued Role of Academic Language • Learning the language of school is the primary focus of K-5 ELD • Academic language includes: grammar, vocabulary, discourse structures, conventions, and language for various functions • One suggestion is that the focus on differences between social and academic language should be on the differences in frequency of complex grammatical structures, specialized terminology, and academic language functions

12. Designing ELD Instruction and Assessment, continued Role of Academic Language continued • K-5 teachers need to plan systematically for instruction that will help students develop the decontexualized language skills they need for cognitively demanding academic subjects in upper grades • Students need to be able to transition from ELD to ELA • Gibbons suggests “language inventory” or list of academic language features found in unit of instruction – use to develop language objectives, design activities that focus explicitly on content related tasks, help in designing assessment around language

13. How Do I Teach Effectively? • It requires a well-designed plan that integrates standards, appropriate instructional materials, and effective instruction and assessment strategies that focus on second-language development. • Such a plan must address (a) dedicated ELD instruction in a specific time block and (b) instruction during the rest of the day.

14. How Do I Teach Effectively? Six Components of Language Learning: Crabbe, 2003 Crabbe, 2003

15. Strategies for ELD Instruction 1. Protracted Language Events: During these protracted language events, ELs can be exposed to a variety of sources of linguistic input, can practice or rehearse language performance, can have multiple opportunities to produce output, can interact with other language users, and can receive feedback on their language performances.

16. Strategies for ELD Instruction 2. Communitarian Practices: These include approaches such as cooperative learning 3. Multiple Representations: Teachers should provide students with multiple representations in instruction—visuals and manipulatives of all types

17. Strategies for ELD Instruction 4. Building on Prior Knowledge: Teachers use a variety of ways to activate background knowledge instead of only reminding students what was covered in a previous less 5. Learning-Strategies Instruction: Learning strategies are mental processes that students can learn to control consciously when they have a learning goal

18. Applying Instructional Strategies for Listening and SpeakingKey constituent skills of Listening/Speaking At first students segment speech stream into word units and start to recognize and use key vocabulary Then, they use intelligible approximations of English and gradually approximate native-like pronunciations They recognize the main idea and supporting details of a listening passage They listen for phonemes, morphological endings, stress and intonation and speak more fluently gradually They use context and their backgrounds to build expectations, predict and confirm predictions in speaking Eventually, they use standard English grammatical forms They recognize contractions, sentence fillers, reduced forms that are typical of spoken English and use them orally They will then make inferences and figure out the speaker’s intent Finally, they take notes from listening sources (e.g., CDs, mini-lectures) English Language Development Standards (2002)

19. Applying Instructional Strategies for Reading Examples 1. Label items in the classroom and have students read them. 2. Develop lesson plans using three-stage approach: prereading, during reading, and postreading. 3. Draw attention explicitly to common discourse patterns and function words during reading.

20. Applying Instructional Strategies for Writing Example • Explicitly draw attention to common discourse patterns and function words when teaching academic writing skills • Provide sentence-starters • Focus on writing as a way to express meaning and also develop syntactic skills • Develop writing skills by expanding the process for English learners to prewrite, write, share, revise, edit and evaluate

21. Applying Instructional Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary Underlying proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing is vocabulary. The three categories of words are: • High-frequency general words used regularly in everyday contexts • Nonspecialized academic words that are used across content areas and not specific to any content area • Specialized content-area words that are unique to specific disciplines Stevens, Butler, and Castellon-Wellington, 2000

22. Applying Instructional Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary • Use direct vocabulary learning strategies ● Word and wall charts ● Vocabulary flash cards ● Vocabulary journals and notebooks ● Work sheets on prefixes, roots and suffixes • Use indirect vocabulary learning strategies ● Extensive and narrow reading ● Listening activities ● Strategies for guessing the meaning from context • Capitalize on students’ native language, for example, Spanish-speaking students can benefit from highlighting cognates

23. 10 Elements of Effective ELD Instruction 1. Recognize and use primary language and culture to link students with family and community • Focus on academic language • Provide foundation of standards-based instruction and assessment • Use prior knowledge • Expose students to authentic input with multiple means and representations of language • Expose students to correct language models and frames that show how language functions is expressed • Give opportunities to use language receptively (input—listen, read) and productively (output—speak, write) • Create language skill explanations and practice cycles that give learners rehearsal opportunities in language events • Provide variety of grouping strategies to encourage and support extended interaction • Focus on learning strategies that lead to deep cognitive language understanding and student autonomy

24. Elements of Lesson Plan These topics are used in the sample lesson plans included in Chapter 2 • ELA and ELD Standards • Content and Language Objectives • Learning Strategy Objective • Materials/Resources • Assessment (self-evaluation) • Explicit Instruction in four language skills • Practice • Grouping Patterns • Closure • Homework/Extension

25. Professional DevelopmentFive functions in preservice development for teachers • Communicator—teachers structure their own language output for maximum clarity • Educator—teachers help students learn and use academic discourse in various school subjects • Evaluator—teachers make valid judgments about students’ abilities to understand variations in language from vernacular varieties to normal progress for second language learners or for delayed language ability • Educated human being—teachers understand basic language and literacy discussions in order to make informed decisions for English learners • Agent of socialization—teachers help students know the means and manner of communicating without undermining parents and community

26. Professional DevelopmentTen competencies to equip teachers in both preservice and in-service training • Knowledge of research on first- and second-language acquisition and how this research has informed instruction and assessment • Understanding of academic language in English, with experience in helping students make connections to the home language • Knowledge of discipline-specific content and its cognitive and linguistic demands on English learners • Deep understanding of instruction, in practice and through research, about implementing curricula and strategies that are effective with English learners • Understanding and implementation of assessment to inform instruction and monitor progress meaningfully and efficiently in response to English learner needs

27. Professional Development • Understanding contextual factors in classrooms, schools, and communities influence learning and access to the curriculum for diverse learners • Understanding learners and their families, their strengths and their challenges—especially the impact of language and culture on communities in poverty • Knowledge and expertise using approaches to involve families in extending classroom learning in diverse communities • Knowledge and skill in conducting inquiry about teaching and learning in classrooms in ways that respond to English learner needs • Skills and experience in working effectively and collaboratively within small communities of inquiry designed to advance learning for English learners (Merino 2007,6)

28. Implications for Practice • To develop lessons for instructed ELD, teachers need to draw on a variety of resources to deliberately plan for instruction that incorporates components to ensure they maximize student learning. • Districts need to build a comprehensive system that promotes and sustains high quality ELD instruction.

29. Discussion • What are some of the key insights from the chapter? • When providing technical assistance to Title III LEAs, how do we apply these guidelines? - How do we decide which guidelines to implement? - How do we prioritize the guidelines? - What are some of the challenges we encounter during implementation?

30. Discussion • How can district or site administrators measure the effectiveness of ELD instruction at their district/sites? • What are some ideas to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills, and disposition to effectively teach English learners?