Reaching English Language Learners in the Secondary Classroom

1. Reaching English Language Learners in the Secondary Classroom Jennifer L. Burden

2. “Immersion” a short film by Richard Levien

3. “Immersion” reflection questions • Does Moises know how to do Math? How do you know? • What is the difference between knowing content subjects like Math, Science and Social Studies—and knowing the English language? • What are assumptions made about English learners in U.S. schools about how much they know? Do people in the U.S. tend to equate intelligence with one’s abilities with the English language?

4. One student, two settings…… “(He) put his head in his hands and sighed. He watched Ms. Barnett standing at the board and tried to understand what she was telling him. He looked at the clock; she’d been talking for twelve minutes now. She wrote some numbers on the board and he noticed his classmates getting out their books. Copying their actions, he too opened his social studies book to the page matching the first number on the board. He looked at the words on the page and began to sound them out, one by one, softly under his breath. He knew some words but not others. The sentences did not make much sense…..He had to keep quiet, he had to read, he couldn’t use a dictionary, they didn’t do things….. (Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners. The SIOP Model Jana Echevarria, MaryEllen Vogt, Deborah J. Short p. 3)

5. One student, two settings….. He could understand the teacher much better in science. Mrs. Ontero let them do things. They would all crowd around a table and watch her as she did an experiment and he got to work with his friends, Maria, Hyunh, and Carlos, trying out the same experiment. He even liked the science book; it had lot of pictures and drawings. Mrs. Ontero always made them look at the pictures first and they talked about what they saw. The words on the pages weren’t so strange either. Even the big ones matched the words Mrs. Ontero had them write down in their personal science dictionaries. If he forgot what a word meant in the textbook, he would look it up in his science dictionary. (Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners. The SIOP Model Jana Echevarria, MaryEllen Vogt, Deborah J. Short p. 3)

6. We all teach English Language Learners…. • In 2004-2005, approximately 5.1 million or 10.5 percent of the U.S. student population are English language learners. • Approximately 79% of ELLs nationally are from Spanish-language backgrounds. • 61% of all ELLs in our school systems are most heavily concentrated in: Arizona, California, Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois. • Other states have experienced a 300% or higher growth of ELLs in a ten-year period from 1995-2005

7. We all teach English Language Learners…. • There are approximately 3 598 451 ELLs in the school system nationally who speak Spanish as a first language. • 60% of all LEP children were born in the United States. • 40% of foreign born children were LEP. • In 2000, 65% of LEP children lived in poor families.

8. 40% of the ELL population is foreign born and can be divided into two categories. Arriving with a strong academic background • May be at equivalent or above grade levels in the school curricula. • They have strong literacy skills in their first language. • They may have studied English in their home country. Arriving with a limited academic background • Limited formal schooling. • Weak literacy skills in their native language. • A lack of knowledge in specific subject areas. • Limited schooling experiences such as sitting in a class all day or taking formal exams.

9. 60% of the ELL population that was born and educated in the United States can also be divided into two categories…. Strong foundational skills • Students who have grown up in the United States but speak a language other than English at home. • They are literate in both their home language and English. Weak foundational skills • Students who have not yet mastered either English or their home language.

10. English learners must develop literacy skills for each content area in their second language as they simultaneously learn, comprehend, and apply content area concepts through their second language.” (Gracia & Godina 2004) Generate outlines Learn how to do tasks Negotiate roles in cooperative learning groups. Draw conclusions Express analyses Interpret charts and maps Pull together emerging knowledge Make hypotheses and predictions Read and understand expository prose What students do with language in the secondary classroom Articulate thinking skills. Use Textbooks Use reference materials Take notes from different written sources Take notes from lectures Argue points of view Write persuasively

11. ELLs require a good content and language objective to guide them in class. • Content objectives identify what students should know and be able to do and must guide teaching and learning. • Content objectives need to be written in terms of what students will learn or do, be stated simply, orally and in writing, and be tied to specific grade-level content standards. (Echevarria & Graves, 2007) • Language objectives should be stated clearly and simply, and students should be informed of them, both orally and in writing. • When developing the language objective, remember to highlight receptive skills (listening and reading) and productive skills (speaking and writing).

12. Writing a content objective Objective: What the student should be able to do at the end of class that they couldn’t do before. Content Objective “Magic Triangle” Evaluation: Makes the intended learning outcome clear. Learning Activities: Focuses on student performance and includes action verbs such as: list, describe, report, compare, demonstrate, analyze

13. Bloom’s Taxonomyand content objectives Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation ********************************** How to… Select a verb for performing the task. Determine if the verb you have chosen best describes the type of behavior learners need to display. Determine to which standards the task must be performed. The cognitive domain (Bloom, 1956) involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major categories, starting from the simplest behavior to the most complex. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first ones must normally be mastered before the next ones can take place.

14. Sample of a good objective… Objective:Students will create a civil war diary entry after making a bubble outline with a score of five or higher on the rubric. Explains what the students will do and what the end product will be Synthesis level verb Explains how the performance is assessed

15. Bloom’s Taxonomy(leveled verbs for task performance)

16. Effective Learning Objectives are… • Consistent with the goals of the curriculum. • Clearly stated • Clearly measurable • Realistic and doable • Appropriate for the level of the learner. • Worthy (Important stuff)

17. Language Objectives

18. Writing Language Objectives • Language objectives emphasize vocabulary necessary for students to master the content objective. • The vocabulary tends to be directly from the lesson and content objective; however, there may be some procedural vocabulary or background vocabulary that must also be addressed for the ELL student. Think carefully about everything that you will expect of the student, and be sure all the key vocabulary is included

19. Writing Language Objectives Language objectives are the HOW of the lesson. Your language objectives should include interaction in the form of discussion. Think about specific language skills you want students to develop; include them as language objectives. Verbs to use: • Define Explain • Describe Summarize • Rephrase Interview • Identify Discuss (peer/group work) • Label Elaborate • Name Imagine • Spell Predict • Compare Compose • Contrast Draft

20. More procedural verbs for ELLs…

21. Consider the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Mathematics in High School: (G.2) Geometric Structure The student analyzes geometric relationships in order to make a verify conjectures. The student is expected to -(A) use constructions to explore attributes of geometric figures and to make conjectures about geometric relationships and -(B) make conjectures about angles, lines, polygons, circles, and three dimensional figures and determine the validity of the conjectures, choosing from a variety of approaches such as coordinate, transformational, or axomatic.

22. Let’s write language objectives… • Content Objective: The student will be able to use constructions to explore attributes of geometric figures and to make conjectures about geometric relationships. Language Objective: The student will be able to use mathematical vocabulary to explain orally or in writing the attributes of geometric figures. Students will construct a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast one geometric figure to another. Students will work in pairs to create a list of construction methodologies related to the significant attributes of each figure.

23. Delivery of Instruction As educators of linguistically and culturally diverse students we face choices with respect to how we view language and human potential. Jim Cummins "When we have a chance to answer a question, make the other students quiet, because it takes a time to transfer thoughts in words.“ Written to a content teacher by an ESL student.

24. When working with second language learners, it is essential to use supplementary materials to the fullest extent.

25. When working with second language learners, it is essential to use supplementary materials to the fullest extent.

26. When working with second language learners, it is essential to use supplementary materials to the fullest extent

27. Adapting the content

28. Help to take notes from reading material Survey the material to be read. Connect the ideas Read the material Outline Look

29. The teacher must ensure that he/she uses meaningful activities to reach all learners. • Classroom experiences should mirror that which actually occurs in the learner’s world. • Students are more successful when they are able to make connections between what they know and what they are learning by relating classroom experiences to their own lives

30. When a student can relate to what they are learning…….

31. BUILDING BACKGROUND • Concepts linked to students’ background experiences. • Links between past learning and new concepts. • Key vocabulary emphasized. • Tie new information to students’ own background experiences, both personal and academic • Provide explicit connections between new learning and the material, vocabulary, and concepts previously covered in class. • Build a bridge from previous lessons and concepts to today’s lesson

32. Three Major Instructional Interventions for Building Prior Knowledge • Teach vocabulary as a pre-reading step • Provide experiences • Introduce a conceptual framework that will enable students to build appropriate background for themselves

33. Preteaching Vocabulary • Tyrotoxism • Rastaquouere • Limerance • Lamprophony • Ambulothanatophobia

34. Four Main Principles that should guide instruction of key vocabulary 1. Students should be active in developing their understanding of words and ways to learn them. • Word sorts • Concept Definition Map 2. Students should personalize word learning • Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy (self-selected key vocabulary) • Mnemonic strategies (acronyms) • Personal Dictionaries 3. Students should be immersed in words. • Word walls • Personal Dictionaries • Students should build on multiple sources of information to learn words through repeated exposures. • See and hear new words more than once. • Emphasize multiple meanings of a word

35. A word wall is a systematically organized collection of words displayed in large letters on a wall or other large display place in the classroom. It is a tool to use, not just display. Word walls are designed to promote group learning and be shared by a classroom of students. Shakespeare • Abate • Brush • Auspicious • Arch • Accite • Aspire • Baffle Ay

36. Word Wall Guidelines • Add words gradually, five a week • Make words very accessible by putting them where every student can see them, writing them in big, black letters, and using a variety of background colors so that the most often-confused words (there, their; what, when) are different colors • Be selective about what words go on the wall, limiting additions to those really common words which children use a lot in writing

37. Practice those words by chanting and writing them • Do a variety of review activities to provide enough practice so that words are read and spelled instantly and automatically • Make sure that Word Wall words are spelled correctly in any writing students do

38. COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT • Teacher speech appropriate for students’ proficiency level • Clear explanation of academic tasks • A variety of techniques used to make content concepts clear