The ABCs of ELLs

Structured English Immersion...the "program"

2012-10-28T12:31:00.001-07:00

The Disclaimer

Well, as with all things "educationese", there are very few things educators completely agree upon completely, so it helps to be a united front when non-educator forces wage war (like Ron Unz did in California in 1998).

From the Wake of Prop 227 to today...

And so, in what became law in the wake of Proposition 227, the educational community decided to fight back in the way that many other groups in the past have done-- appropriate a term that had negative (or heretofore confusing) connotations and use it to give language programs across the state a needed "reboot". Of course, as always, with our local control policies, results (and success) has varied from LEA to LEA-- that's Local Educational Agency :)

So what was Prop 227 supposed to do?
Bring a program that was to be the default with the only defined feature defined in the law as being "overwhelmingly in English". Yeah, not much to go on. However, the law allowed for parents to "waive out" of what the voters deemed as "the right" program for California children, SO, as a parent, if you willingly decided to turn your backs on the "people's mandate", (but adhere to what decades of second language learning research has shown) then the burden was on you to: 1. seek out a waiver every year and 2. sign and 3. return it to your child's school

So what happens in practice?
Well, this has essentially allowed "non-sanctioned" programs (which I call "alternative bilingual programs") to continue, albeit it in a variety of flavors and stripes, running the gamut from "Early exit" models that last from K-2 (or 3rd) grade and are a miss-mash of English (and almost always) Spanish (which is the WORST program for English Learners (ELLs ) (per research) to long-term "developmental" bilingual programs which follow an increasing exposure to English as ELLs progress through the grades with an equal decrease in Spanish, while receiving a rigorous program of core content-- that includes ELD-- in BOTH languages. Unfortunately, there is no State model or standard so again, these vary from LEA to LEA.

Structured English Immersion

So where does this leave the "default" program?
Again, largely defined by the local politics, demographics, resources and other issues. In more research-saavy districts, the Structured English Immersion (SEI) setting is a setting that is overwhelmingly delivered in English BUT done so in a way that supports the instruction of English in a way that English Learners can access curriculum.

Enter the SDAIE playbook

And THIS is where in my humble opinion, a "true" SEI program can be distinguished. It is in the use and implementation of SDAIE (Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English) techniques by teachers that allow English Learners to be able to take in instruction in English in a variety of scaffolded, supported and gradually portioned out cognitive tasks. Examples of these:

1. Visuals- posters, diagrams
2. Realia- concrete representations of items/concepts under study
3. graphic organizers- vary from note taking templates, paragraph containers, thought bubbles, etc.
4. multimedia
5. varied learning structures: pairs, small groups, etc.

So there you have it, when educators say that it's "hard to explain", they're not kidding! I hope this sheds a little light as to what's what and why the state of affairs at present is what it is.

Until next time!

So...an ELL is made...now where does he/she go?

2012-09-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

So...last time we discussed how an English Language Learner (or ELL) comes to be (at least in California, per State expectations).

So? Now what?

A Little Bit of Politics

Well, this is where it depends on how much of the anti-bilingual "cool-aid" your particular district took back at the turn of the century (I LOVE saying that) when a certain Mr. Unz (no relation to education whatsoever) decided to go on a personal crusade and abolish all bilingual education in the State of California. Some districts today have intact bilingual programs while some did completely away with them, hauled them out like trash and never looked back. Many are somewhere in between.

I know, I know, especially for those of you from other parts of the country, you might think this is only a tall tale, a fictitious "bogey man" made up to make sure we cherish, value and nurture our bilingual programs. But alas, no, it was quite real, Proposition 227 came to pass, and ever since then, bilingual education programs have come back in fits and starts, or not at all, depending on how much of a red mark that left on your particular corner of this usually blue state. as I alluded to above.

[Sorry for the political history but education IS political].

ELL Instructional Programs

So we get to your district, and more than likely, your school's main office. When that newly identified ELL is enrolling, this is what is supposed to happen:
1. The parents are told/reminded/made to understand of their child's ELL status
2. The parents are informed of the academic programs offered by the school and/or district that are most appropriate to the ELL
3. Parents make an informed decision based on appropriate program placement, ease of getting to the school where the program is offered, navigating school transfer procedures if appropriate, etc.
It should also be noted that State law states that this must be done by a certificated staff member (i.e. NOT the school "secretary" or administrative assistant, clerk, etc.)

So...are we talking just bilingual programs? What IS an "APPROPRIATE" academic program?

So glad you asked :).

No, absolutely not, PARTICULARLY when we are talking about ELLs who happen to come from countries where a language is spoken for which we do not offer a bilingual program. In the vast majority of bilingual programs, the other language represented is Spanish, not surprising as over 8 in 10 of our ELLs come with Spanish as their primary, native or somehow stronger language. What should be surprising is that the vast majority of our ELLs now are children who were born and have been schooled in this country for years. But that's fodder for another day....

And speaking of another day, let's leave it there for now. Let's look next at the seldom known "official" default program for ELLs (per the legacy of the law that was once Proposition 227) known as Structured English Immersion and contrast it with bilingual programs (themselves a "hot mess.")

Until next time!

How an ELL gets to be an ELL (how it's supposed to work)

2012-09-23T18:14:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone.

I hope everyone has experienced at least some lovely moment with a student, found fulfillment in some fashion and/or was fortunate enough to encounter that holy grail known as the "teachable moment," (and even better, seize upon it)!

I thought it might be nice to back things up, given my absence from writing as well as the fact that there are shiny new faces in our classrooms at this time of year, like the "new car smell" that we don't wish to ever fade, so that we can learn about how an English Language Learner (ELL) earns his/her "label."

Note: I am writing from California, and this is how the legend goes...(or at least, what State Education Code says):

The Home Language Survey

You might not realize that the journey of a potential ELL begins as soon as the parent makes initial contact with a school and/or district, usually with the former. While practices vary from district to district, as part of the general initial registration process (new students), parents are handed a Home Language Survey, which typically looks something like this:

The practice is that when a non-English language is provided by parents as a response to ANY of the first three questions, the child can be considered a candidate to be an English Learner.

Again, the specifics of the next steps vary from district to district, but at some point, the student will be called in to take what is known as the California English Language Development Test or CELDT. Taken directly from the test's 2012-13 Information Guide:

In accordance with EC Section 60810(d), one of the purposes of the CELDT is to identify students who are limited English proficient (LEP) [the archaic designation for ELLs]. Education Code, Section 306(a) defines an LEP student as a student who does not speak English or whose native language is not English and who is not currently able to perform ordinary classroom work in English.

CELDT

It is the results of the CELDT which have the final say in determining whether a child will be designated an ELL or not.

For the sake of simplicity, the average of the child's scores are taken for each skill section tested: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing and scaled. They fall within one of five levels of English proficiency: Beginning, Early Intermediate, Intermediate, Early Advanced and Advanced. The first three levels represent a true English Learner and will be designated as such. Levels four and five represent levels comparable to a native speaker and denote an Initially Fluent English Proficient student (IFEP).

In sum, this is the expected/ideal scenario:

So, there you have it, as far as the identification of English Learners is concerned, this is the bulk of the story. OF course, as with everything policy and law, implementation is in the eye of the beholder and some districts' practices may differ from this expected practice. It is at their own risk, for they will be audited by the State on a regular basis.

That's enough for today! It was a heavy topic to start anew, but one that many teachers are not aware of.

Thanks for reading!

How time flies!

2012-09-16T12:53:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!

Yes...I know it's been a LONG, okay L O N G time since I have added to or updated this blog.

To the one person that would read my blog on a regular basis, my apologies. However, I hope to resurrect this in some form or fashion, especially because while there seems to be more research on English Learners, the gap between what this bears out and the type of policies our politicians pursue grows ever wider. Moreover, much of this research is still not readily accessible by many of my fellow practicioners-- particularly classroom teachers, and our system does not support principals with the time, structure and resources to secure this research and make instructional decisions based on this.

Phew! That was a long sentence. So I'll try to keep them shorter. Maybe. We'll see.

Let's kick off this blog again and resuscitate English Language Learners as a topic and bring them back to the forefront of our conversation.

I think a reboot is in order. I think I will focus on the current process for the identification of English Learners in California will be a good re-launching point (and a great piece of information that so MANY educators are ignorant of)!

Do check back in from time to time!!!

the English Learner Advisory Committee

2009-10-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

got ELAC?

Well, you certainly should if the following is the case at your school site: there are 21 or more English Language Learners.

That's right. This is a state mandate that returns us to the conversations we had WAAAAAAAAAY back around the legal battles around discrimination against English Language Learners. Just as as these children would be categorically denied access to core curriculum due to a poor understanding of language acquisition and instead blaming it on lack of intelligence, their parents have routinely been underrepresented in the workings and decision making bodies of schools and school districts.

Enter the ELAC...
The ELAC is the English Learner Advisory Committee. It is a committee that is composed of the parents of English Language Learners and certificated and classified staff that work with English Language Learners. Its purpose is to advise the school's decision making bodies (especially around instruction, curriculum and budget) typically a School Site Council, on matters that involve decisions around English Language Learners. A large part of the committee's main thrust should be focused on the English Learners section of the school's Site Plan.

We'll talk about the inner workings of the ELAC next time. Who knew there was so much policy around ELLs?

- W

English Learners in our Classrooms

2009-10-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

Remember a while back when I talked about the legal precedents that gave rise to bilingual education and a growing realization that the academic needs of English Learners are unique but not deficient from those of native English speakers?

I know, I know, it's been a while. But the important point here is that eventually policy was created from this, and an entire system to support its implementation, monitoring and enforcement. At least here in California.

The Grand Summary to Date
We already know this:
1. We must provide our English Language Learners with instruction in English that will allow them to (eventually) access the core curriculum at a level comparable to their native speaking peers. This is what we call English Language Development, or ELD.
2. There is a test- the (California English Language Development Test) CELDT- which allows for students level of English proficiency to be determined on annual basis.
3. The levels of English proficiency range from:
- Level 1: a beginner, typically a newcomer or kindergartner
- Level 2: Early Intermediate, often those early on are in a "silent period" as they begin internalizing grammatical functions of English
- Level 3: Intermediate, the "wall" or "glass ceiling" that many of our ELLs can not seem to overcome
- Level 4: Early Advanced, students who approximate the speech of native speakers and are considered Fluent English proficient. This is also when ELLs become "reclassified" to RFEP (Reclassified Fluent English proficient). Hang on to that acronym, we'll talk more about reclassification soon).
- Level 5: Advanced. These students are generally indistinguishable from English speakers in the grammatical forms they use or academic vocabulary used. They will continue to increase the level of sophistication of vocabulary throughout their academic career and their lives.
4. California expects that ELD be taught at a student's level of English proficiency, and it is recommended that no more than two proficiency levels are addressed at one time.
5. ELD lessons involve targeting listening and speaking standards of the English Language Arts; these skills will build the foundation for what they eventually transfer into their writing and be able to read during the ELA time. ELD Standards were written with the goal of Level 5 students ELD standards essentially mimicking the ELA standards.
6. ELD lessons involve the explicit, systematic and intentional teaching of grammatical forms and language functions that students then practice and receive positive supportive reinforcement from peers and their teachers.
7. ELLs need to be practicing these new language features over 50% of the ELD time in order to internalize them.

So we know a lot so far! That's quite a summary of our travels so far.

Let's pick up on an aspect of ELLs we have not talke about yet- their parents, and how policy addresses their needs. (And yes, I promise we'll talk reclassification at some point too!)

Have a good night!

-W

Unexcused Absence

2009-10-18T15:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I last posted. October has most definitely set in, with the demands placed on us in California by the impending CELDT testing deadline looming and generally doing more at my job with less people well, you can see it didn't take much for my attention to be diverted to other places.

But I'm back for now...

A synopsis
Last time we chatted I was finishing up a long running series on dissecting an ELD Lesson Plan. To review, these are the components I presented, discussed and gave examples of:
1. Choosing the grammatical function
2. Choosing appropriate topical vocabulary
3. Identifying appropriate grammatical forms
4. Choosing appropriate language prompts that will elicit the grammatical function you want students to practice via a language response.
4. Learning to adjust for ELL's proficiency levels in English
5. Learning structured language routines that ensure ELLs practice new grammatical forms and functions at least 50% of the ELD block

All in all, this covers the basic blocks to be aware of when planning an effective ELD lesson. I do hope that at least some of the components have been useful, enlightening and (fingers crossed) eventually implementable in your classroom.

From Instruction to Policy
In the next few days, I would like to shift a little from instruction for ELLs to more of the policy around ELLs. California has an abundance of policy that cover not just instruction, but parent committees, testing, district compliance, etc. I hope that learning about this will be as useful to you as instruction is. Certainly, when I was in the classroom, I would do things I was asked to do without knowing the rationale or context for it- such as giving the CELDT or wondering why our school didn't have an ELAC.

It is my personal belief that learning how schools work and the expectations that the state has via policy towards schools and districts will help all teachers better understand their role and function in K - 12 education from a perspective that goes beyond their classroom.

I certainly hope you will agree with this sentiment.

We'll start this week!

Structured Language Practice IV: Lines of Communication

2009-09-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

What is "Lines of Communication?"
For this strategy, students are asked to either sit or stand facing one another in a line, such that every student has a partner they are facing. The objective is to respond to a language prompt using a language response sentence frame- hence practicing the grammatical form and/or topical vocabulary being targeted. Once both students get a chance to practice/ respond, one side of the line shifts over one student, such that every student on one side of the line now faces a new student. The cycle then repeats with Student A responding while Student B listens, switch, then Student A moves on to the next student.

Variations and Uses
Once students become more adept at using this strategy, one student can ask the language prompt while the other responds using a language frame. This is particularly powerful if used during the Supervised Independent Practice time of an ELD lesson, as it allows English Learners to practice both language prompts and responses, and allow them to increase their confidence in both skills. After more practice as a class you can generate more examples of the target grammatical form that they can use to expand the type of responses they can provide.

I hope these different structured language practices are starting to illustrate an important aspect of good ELD instruction: No matter how amazing ELD teachers we may be, we don't need to practice producing grammatical forms and target vocabulary, it is our students who need it! So why then do so many teachers talk the entire time?!! In ELD, at least 50% of the block should be devoted to these type of structured language practices that will, over time and with consistent use, help us develop English Speakers who are competent, flexible and have a wide breadth of vocabulary and grammatical forms they can employ in a variety of situations.

Have fun!

- W

Structured Language Routine III: Whip Around

2009-09-28T21:32:00.000-07:00

My apologies
Please forgive the many days since the last entry. As you can well imagine, and am sure, experiencing yourself, there is so much to do at school now that the school year is well under way. Now, multiply that by half a dozen schools and you'll get a sense of what I am faced with every day.

But hey, I'm back. And with yet another Structured Language Practice to share, the "Whip Around."

What is the "Whip Around?"

This is a strategy in which the teacher elicits responses to a prompt in a quick but structured manner. By quick, this means about no more than 10-15 seconds for one response to the teacher's prompt. By structured, it means that there is a predictable established pattern to the order of the responses, so that students know when they will expected to produce language. For example, up and down a row of desks, clockwise around a table, etc.

When is it appropriate to use?

This is a type of structured language practice that does require the teacher to supervise both the process and the resulting product. Generally speaking, this is a good strategy to help students produce all they know about a particular topic, or have learned about a particular topic. As part of the Evaluation/ Reflection portion of an ELD Lesson (which we have not yet discussed) , it lends itself as a quick and efficient way for the teacher to check in on whether or not her English Learners internalized the topical vocabulary introduced in the ELD lesson for the day.

However, it is also possible to use during the Guided Practice portion of the ELD lesson if students are asked to produce a grammatical feature that they know well, or have had practice with. This can be a great way to review/ practice a language response using the topical vocabulary learned (of course with the language prompt written out on sentence strip and pictures to accompany the vocabulary as a reference).

It all depends on the purpose.

There are plenty more to explore, but I'll probably just share a couple more, as there is much more to discuss in the world of English Learners. I mean, we haven't even started discussing the world beyond instruction, like ELACs and DELACs and waivers, etc.

We'll get there soon enough.

- W

Structured Language Routine II: Talking Stick

2009-09-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

What is the "Talking Stick?"
This refers to either the strategy or the actual "prop" that is used as part of this language strategy. Essentially, it can be as simple as a popsicle stick, as commercial as a plastic microphone or as creative as a personally created crafty decorated stick.

What does the Structured Language Practice look like?
Essentially, students respond to a prompt by taking turns in a structured way. Only one student at a time is allowed to speak/respond to a prompt/ produce a grammatical form-language response; the holder of the "talking stick." Other students should be active listeners, either ensuring the student who talks is producing a particular grammatical form, using a particular language response frame or simply attending to the content of the response.

When is it appropriate to use?
As this is best for use with a small group, it lends itself to be used during Supervised Independent Time, when English Learners are practicing the language response frames with the appropriate grammatical forms and/or topical vocabulary under study. However, it is a very versatile strategy and can also be used as a process activity, e.g. reflecting upon learning, sharing out, building community, etc.

I hope these strategies feel easy enough and applicable enough to be able to use in your own classrooms.

More to come!

- W

Structured Language Routine I: Choral Response

2009-09-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

What is choral response?

Choral response (after the think-pair-share) is one of the most commonly used response practices used by teachers. It simply involves students responding to a teacher's prompt in unison/ as a group. In most cases, the teacher and students agree upon a signal that will inform students that this is the appropriate response to a prompt. This is especially useful when a savvy ELD instructor has developed/implemented a wide repertoire of practices!

How do I implement?
In general, the best thing you can do to implement a new routine is to do so in the context of practicing something students already know. (Remember what I've been saying all along about either introducing new grammatical forms or topical vocabulary or a new routine, practice, etc.) In this case, we want our English Learners to focus their attention on learning the structured language practice routine.

What's the goal?
Well, the short term-goal with these practices is for students to internalize the routine to the point that through the use of a signal or the term itself (e.g., "let's use a choral response") they will be able to, in this case, chorally respond using the target grammatical form.

Of course, our long-term ultimate goal is for our students to gain fluency, automaticity and confidence in using a variety of grammatical forms during at least 50% of ELD instructional time. These routines will facilitate this goal.

However...not all are appropriate at all times of ELD instruction. Remember, we have an "I Do It" time (Teacher models), a "We Do it" time or Guided Structured Practice and a "You all Do it" time or Independent Supervised time. It should not be too hard to figure out that the Choral Response strategy is probably best suited for the "I Do It" time.

We will continue exploring more practices over the next few days!

- W

Practicing Language- Daily Routines

2009-09-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

Why bother?
So let's back up a bit. Remember the main purpose to ELD, at least the focus in term of language domains? The emphasis for ELD instruction is development of the listening and speaking domains. We know from research that students can not write what they can't speak, so ELD prepares students for their ELA time. (Much like the ELD standards provide the scaffold towards the ELA standards).

This means that ELLs should be speaking during the ELD block. Not just 5 minutes. Not just for one activity. They should be practicing (internalizing) newly acquired grammatical forms during 50% of this block! Yes, 50%. Practice makes automatic, and that after all is what we want our English Learners to be with the English Language and its great variety of grammatical forms and syntax.

So how does this happen?
Routines that are structured, predictable and create situations to engage in the language prompts you produce as part of the lesson in order to produce (speak) the grammatical form that will be part of the language response.

Structured means that they are used for a specific purpose (elicit the utterance of a specific grammatical form) and are selected to fit a particular context. For example, you are probably quite familiar with the Pair-Share protocol. In ELD, one student can ask the language prompt: Which animal is ___________ -er than the ________________? (We are assuming that at the start of this week of lessons, the students learned the topical vocabulary to also fill in the language prompt.) The grammatical form of course is the comparative adjectival. The other student can then respond with The giraffe is taller than the chimpanzee. This is an appropriate routineto use during Guided Structured Practice.

Predictable means that students have practiced these protocols to the point that they can use these in any other content area. They have internalized this routine. In fact, savvy ELD teachers will spend the first days of schools having their students simply practicing these language routines, and thus save valuable time when actual ELD instruction begins.

Great! What other routines are there?
Stay tuned...

- W

ELD Lessons: Grammatical Forms cont. and a Summary Thus Far

2009-09-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

Yes Effective ELD lessons are a big topic. (Which is why there are coaches, specialists and curriculum developers just for this!)

Often times, the classroom teacher feels that they have to be English grammar gurus to be effective ELD teachers. While we don't have to have every nuance of English grammar down pat, but with the tools I've shared, it is even more important to determine the context for your effective ELD lesson. It is also just one component (albeit a very important one) of your ELD lesson plan.

So How Do We Know What Grammatical Form is Right?

Ultimately ensuring a particular grammatical form is what your students need comes down to this:
- Consulting the ELD Standards (Remember that they are written such that they follow a progression towards the ELA standards)
- Getting to know the profile of each Language Proficiency Level (especially in light of the above information)
- Using a tool such as the ELD Matrix of Grammatical Forms in order to make informed decisions about specific forms to teach at each level of proficiency
- Creating appropriate language prompts to allow students to produce, practice and eventually master the grammatical form in appropriate language response frames
- Assuring this occurs within topics that are interesting, meaningful, relevant and age-appropriate (and starting off a week's lesson with the topical vocabulary that will help students "glue on" to the grammatical forms which will be the focus of the bulk of the ELD lessons over the week
- Attempt to increase the level of rigor of the grammatical form if the students seem to be mastering. For example, adding a negative language response frame (e.g. adding "not" to a response)

All this should sound familiar as these are all of the elements of an effective ELD lesson plan that I've been focusing on for most of this month.

The Last Piece

So far I've focused on the what of ELD teaching and a bit of the "how to know the what."

What does remain is to talk about those practices that will allow English Learners to practice newly acquired language forms for a large part of the ELD block. Tomorrow will be a good day to start that conversation. That will also be the last component of an Effective ELD lesson I plan to discuss.

EEEEK!! Grammatical Forms??? English??!!

2009-09-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

That's right. This is where we get technical. On the other hand, this is what makes us as teachers shine. We learn so that others may learn from us!

What is a grammatical form?
So let's remember what this is all about to begin with. Grammatical forms are simply put, the syntax of a language. And what is syntax- it is how words come together in any language in order to create well formed sentences. These words come in different flavors: verbs, adverbs, prepositions, etc. and are what we "fill in the blanks" to convey a message about a noun. For example, The ELD teacher __________ students very ___________.

How do I know what grammatical forms to teach?
This is the toughie. Remember the discussion around proficiency levels? Well, this is very important to consider when deciding upon what grammatical forms to teach. In the past, teachers had to "feel in the dark" or rely upon an extremely solid knowledge of the grammatical forms of the English language, and intuit how they build upon in more and more complex ways.

Well, since 1999, the California Department of Education has adopted ELD standards which are organized by grade span: K - 2, 3 - 5, 6 - 8, 9 - 12 (I have discussed the rationale for this in the past) but also by proficiency level. These are essentially the ELA Standards "scaffolded" up from the "Beginning" proficiency level towards the "Advanced," where the ELD and ELA standards are indistinguishable. Unfortunately, they did not call out grammatical forms very explicitly and so it left many ELD teachers to continue down that dark path, although with a little more light to see...

Nowadays, I know of at least one curriculum- The Carousel of Ideas from Ballard & Tighe that offers teachers a progression of sorts of increasingly more complex grammatical forms according to proficiency level. Unfortunately, many teachers have also (rightly) complained about the lack of rigor they notice in the grammatical forms it exposes ELLs to and the topics they choose for context are not always age appropriate- e.g. teaching about zoo animals to Intermediate ELL students in 5th grade.

The one excellent source that I've seen is the ELD Matrix of Grammatical Forms from EL Achieve. This is part of a tool kit you receive after going through a training on the Systematic ELD Framework. While even they claim it is not an exhaustive limit, nor meant to limit the forms to teach to students at any particular level (you know your students' needs best after all) it is an extremely wonderful guide to what to teach.

Fortunately for you, the Santa Unified School District has done the legwork of creating a correlation between The Carousel of Ideas curriculum and the ELD Matrix. For those of you out there who have never heard of The Carousel of Ideas until today, no worries. Ignore the numbers in parentheses and just focus on the grammatical forms in boldface. On the left you will see the various large categories of grammatical forms: verbs, nouns & articles, etc. By column, you will see the increasing levels of English proficiency. Thus, tracking the verbs for example, you can see a progression. From a focus on (simple) present tense at the Beginning level, to present tense with past perfect by Early Advanced, you should get a sense of how language demands become more complex as ELLs become closer to the goal of achieving fluency and automaticity similar to that of a native speaker of English.

Digest that for a while. And do give credit where credit is due if you plan to share this resource/ tool with colleagues.

And I hope you do!

- W

A Word on Proficiency Levels of English

2009-09-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

So as has become evident by now, ELD is also different from other content areas in that students should be placed in instruction appropriate to their level of English proficiency.

But how do we know what that is?

Assessments

CELDT
- Here in California, the most common source of that information is the CELDT. California English Language Development Test. It is a summative test and non-diagnostic, given at the beginning of every school year. The testing window closes on October 31st.

- It tests students in each of the four domains: reading, writing, listening and speaking. As of this school year, this also includes K and 1st grade students who take the reading and writing as well!

- Each subtest is given a rating from 1 to 5, a 1 being a "Beginner" and a 5, an "Advanced" English Language Learner (in essence, in CA, being a "4" or a "5" on all subtests is part of the criteria for no longer being an English Language Learner- being "reclassified." I've written a little more in depth about each of the proficiency levels, so feel free to dig in the archives and pull up that topic.

- The problem with CELDT is that the scores are pretty stale by the time they are used to place English Learners in appropriate ELD instruction. Remember, they take the test in August (new students to California schools), while everyone else does so in September or October of the previous calendar year. Scores are not received by school districts until late January/ early February. These same scores are used to place students at the beginning of the following school year! Crazy huh

Enter the ADEPT test

- The "A Developmental English Proficiency Test" is being used by some districts now to supplement the CELDT. It is a diagnostic test that is more rigorous than the CELDT. It tests specific grammatical forms and functions of English and expects specific constructions to be used. Having tested students on ADEPT, I can attest to the level of difficulty they encounter. On the other hand, this gives the ELD teacher a wealth of information allowing him/her to see not only the child's overall English proficiency level (that is more immediate and accurate than CELDT) but also the specific grammatical forms and functions the student has yet to master.

We'll have to take on grammatical forms next!

- W

ELD Lessons: Topic Vocabulary

2009-09-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a 3 day weekend to break the rut. But, it's back to work for all. I think by now, practically ALL teachers have started their school years, greeted by Mr. Obama's message to our students, one and all.

In that spirit of positive thinking, let's continue our conversation on the ELD lesson. But um, let's do a light topic today. I need to slowly get back into things here (because I had to dive head on back at work!)

The Purpose to Vocabulary

Why even bother to focus on topic vocabulary? Well, for starters, ELD instruction, like any other content instruction, does not occur in a vacuum. Much like in language arts for example, introducing topic vocabulary in the context of an instructional read aloud, with visuals and many examples our students begin to internalize the vocabulary and improve upon the target skill- e.g. reading comprehension.

However, here's the all important difference: In ELD instruction, content is not the emphasis, language is the driver. In other content areas, content is the target while language is a vehicle towards acquiring the content. The "content" of ELD is language (forms, functions and topical vocabulary)! Crystal clear right??!!

In any case, topics should be engaging, relevant, meaningful and age-appropriate. Certainly teaching the forms, functions and vocabulary without a context would not make kids want to learn at all! So topics make learning the grammatical forms and language functions more interesting!

Just remember, what drives an effective ELD lesson is the language function you are looking to teach, but the variety of topics you use allow students to employ one language function in a variety of settings and contexts!

Hope this makes some sense...it has been a few days since last posting. Get some sleep everyone!

- W

ELD Lessons: Watch the Language!

2009-09-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

Everything should follow from the language objective, especially the language patterns you will be using in order for students to engage in a particular language function (purpose for using the language). They come in two varieties:

1. The language prompt
2. The language response

The language prompt

The language prompt is basically a question. Why a question? Because that is the best way to elicit a response from students! Of course, it has to be a prompt such that when students "fill in the blanks," they will also be using the topic vocabulary being introduced in the first part of the week- which is why it is just as important to introduce/practice topic vocabulary at the beginning, before teaching a new grammatical form, or language pattern.

So, returning to the language objective of "students will compare two objects using the grammatical form ______-er, " a reasonable prompt for a week's lesson on the topic of animals, could be "Which ________ is _________-er?"

The language response

It is easy to predict an appropriate language response here. Basically, a language response is what students will be producing. When they "fill in the blank(s)," the emphasis should be on the grammatical form, although they must use topical vocabulary to convey their idea. This is why the language response is the last in the sequence to be introduced after: topic vocabulary, grammatical form and language prompt.

An appropriate response frame here could be: The _________ is __________-er than the __________.

As the days progress, you can increase the level of rigor by doing any of the following variations:
- adding another animal: The ________ and _________ are __________-er than the ___________.
- inserting a negative: The ___________ is not __________-er than the ____________.
- etc.

This is useful as students internalize more basic forms. Just remember, it all goes back to the language students are producing. Make sure it is in line with your objective!

- W

ELD Lessons: The Language Objective- Pt 2

2009-09-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

Your target: Mastery of specific language functions

Remember what a language function is? Basically, it is a purpose for using language, such as greeting people, simple describing, comparing and contrasting and describing events that occurred in the not too distant past are all examples of language functions.

So what does the language objective have to do with this? Well, for starters, the daily language objective should be a language function, expressing a grammatical form that students will need to employ (and master) in order to (also) master the language objective, or language function.

The tricky part is that sometimes there are language functions that are quite all encompassing, like when we say "describing events." Well, we could be simply describing events that are currently happening. That would require the use of the present tense grammatical form. A typical language pattern in which this would fit would be My ______ likes to _____. (For example, "My dog likes to roll in the mud." However, you may also need to describe events that happened a few days ago, in which case you would need to employ the past tense: My dog already ______ his _______. My dog already ate his dinner," for example.

As you can see, we have to help our English Learners build not only their repertoire of grammatical forms, but also be able to employ appropriate ones in increasingly more complex aspects of language functions (in this case, it could be the same function!).

Backwards planning

Which is why sometimes its good to start with your nice target for the end of the week, and work your way back. So, for example, if your students did have to employ the simple past tense by week's end, then perhaps we'd work backwards by introducing appropriate vocabulary on the first day (say we're describing our classroom pet's behavior, we'd learn some useful vocabulary that we would be describing eventually). We would practice rabbit, eats, sleeps, frolics, etc. We could then build up to the past tense on a different day by introducing the past tense grammatical form for the verbs we came up with. Then, we could introduce the language pattern that we will be using: Our ____ already ______ his/her/its _______. Our students would eventually fulfill the language objective- as long as they can do this independently.

It is easy to see why it is important to know our students' level of English proficiency, why it is even more important to ensure our students are grouped by English proficiency level during the ELD block: we need to ensure the language functions/ objectives are appropriately challenging. OF course, we also need to accommodate for students' age as well- 5th graders are not fond of describing their classroom pet bunny for 45 minutes!

Finally, it is also important to mention the most important fact of all: you know your students' needs best. If they need more practice with the language pattern, give it to them. If they've already mastered it, ratchet the cognitive challenge by adding an element: perhaps making a compound sentence Our ____ already ______ his/her/its _______ and ________ his/her/its ___________.

Remember, practice makes proficient!

Hope its been useful to focus slowly on the first building block of the ELD lesson.

- W

ELD lessons: The Language Objective

2009-08-31T18:30:00.000-07:00

So we have seen how language objectives theoretically come from the ELD standards and how school districts have made them easier to teach by creating a scope and sequence of increasingly challenging grammatical forms that correspond to an ELL's level of English proficiency.

First Things First: The Language Objective

So what does a language objective actually look like. Here's a generic template:

"Students will be able to use ______________ in order to ________________________"
grammatical form language function

So from our previous example, "students will be able to use the -er (comparative form) in order to compare two different zoo animals" would be a language objective that uses the topic of animals.

ELD vs. (Other) Content Areas

This is a good opportunity to mention something important here. ELD is different from every other content area in one major way: In ELD, content (the topic) is a medium, or vehicle, to teach the grammatical forms and functions of the English Language, but is not the purpose of the ELD lesson. So, for example, in this case, science would be the time for students to learn about the topic of animals explicitly, while in ELD they are learning about the grammatical forms and functions of language that will help them (in this case) explain how animals are similar to one another. It is easy to see however, how ELD supports other content areas, as ELLs will now have the appropriate language tools to apply in content area learning.

Now, it doesn't quite work the other way. For instance, many bilingual teachers feel that if they "teach in English" say, for their science lesson, they are fulfilling ELD. However, content is the driver here, and leaves no room for the teaching of grammatical forms and language function. It's one or the other. Which is why a systematic approach to ELD is critical for English Learners to be able to gain the confidence to engage in content/grade level curriculum during the rest of the day.

We'll continue examining ELD lessons tomorrow!

- W

ELD vs. ELA: What's Grammatical Forms Got to do With It??

2009-08-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

The English Language Development (ELD) Standards

In California, these standards were born in the late 1990s, eventually being adopted a little over ten years ago by the State Board of Education. If you want a copy of the framework published by the State of California which includes the ELD standards, you can download it here: http://www.huensd.k12.ca.us/teacherResources/englangdev-stnd.pdf courtesy of the Hueneme Unified School District. For some background on their existence and purpose, it is helpful to read the Introduction. Even seasoned teachers who may have received their credentials before these standards were even conceptualized should understand them.

Why ELD Standards? The Relationship to ELA...

Over 10 years ago, the discussion around English Learners finally came to a head. Now that there were English Language Arts standards were in place, it was clear that many children would not reach these rigorous benchmarks at their grade level. The ELD standards then were considered a pathway that slowly built up and scaffolded an English Learner's acquisition of English in all four domains (listening, speaking, reading, writing). These were a way in essence, to assess a child's eventual acquisition of the ELA standards. This is especially obvious when you see that the ELD standards for ELs in the "Advanced" (Level 5) category are suspiciously similar to the ELD standards.

However, there is one important difference between ELD and ELA standards. ELD standards are grouped into grade level spans: K - 2, 3 - 5, 6 - 8, 9 - 12. Why? Because there was an acknowledgement that ELs come in to U.S. schools at different ages, yet their English proficiency level may not match their incoming grade level's ELA standards. These again, are the scaffolds towards the ELA standards which are based on a grade level expectation.

Enter the Grammatical Form

Of course this did not answer the question for teachers as to how to plan for ELD instruction! Standards are one thing, language objectives are helpful but not the whole picture. Most of this decade California has failed to produce high quality, rigorous ELD standard based curriculum that also provided teachers with the knowledge base for figuring out what grammatical forms would fulfill their language objectives.

Well, its taken private companies (ELAchieve in particular) working together with County Offices of Education, consultants, teachers and many, many other educators to create such a list of expected grammatical forms that an EL can be taught (per the ELD standards), will prepare them for their ELA block and correspond to their current level of English proficiency.

Different districts have taken different approaches to such documents, your district may even use one. Again, picking on the Hueneme unified school district, this is what they've come up with: http://www.huensd.k12.ca.us/edProjects/sysELD.html
Just click on any proficiency level you're interested, for example "Beginning Forms" and voila, you will see a checklist of grammatical forms that ELD teachers observe and monitor for when teaching. This is of course, all in an attempt to provide a systematic way of instructing EL students so they can access the ELA standards.

So we come full circle!

I know it's a lot to absorb for one sitting, but now that we've started looking at ELD instruction in general, and ELD lessons in particular, I felt it was important to mention a little bit of the back story of why there is so much emphasis on language via grammatical forms and patterned language response.

- W

More to come on ELD lessons!

So... What's an ELD Lesson Look Like?

2009-08-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

Okay. So I got the conceptual understanding of an ELD lesson. Helping our English Learners acquire the grammatical structures to be able to use them in academic settings (And beyond).

So what does an ELD lesson look like? What's supposed to take place during ELD instruction? Let's break it down...

Introducing the target language form

The most effective ELD lesson remembers one thing: organize your language objective around a purpose to using the grammatical form. In my example below, children will be comparing two animals using the comparative form.

This is the time to model. Model being a competent speaker of English. Model using a specific grammatical form. Taking on from our example from yesterday, let's model the comparative form __________ -er.

But wait!!! Isn't it so very rote, dry and boring to simply plaster a wall or fill a pocket chart with such constructions. Well of course, but being such a wonderfully competent teacher you already realize that. So it is best to introduce all of this in a context of an interesting, engaging, and age-appropriate topic. Yes, we don't want to berate our 5th grade English learners with topics that would be way more engaging to first graders, such as zoo animals. So, choose a topic wisely!

So, back to this 5ish minute mini-lesson:
1. Introduce the target form
2. Introduce an appropriate language prompt that will elicit the grammatical form you want the students to internalize. For example, showing a picture of a giraffe and a horse, I can ask, by using a sentence strip or having the following written on the board: "Which animal is ____________-er?" I would answer by introducing the language frame (response) The ______________ is ____________-er than the ________."

The Guided Practice

Besides modeling ALL students require good modeling in order to learn. But that's only a third of the story. The next third is appropriate, respectful feedback for students as they practice the newly taught language response and associated grammatical form with you. You can start by asking students the language prompt as a whole group, working your way to a couple of student volunteers who can respond and eventually an appropriate way for students to practice with one another as you monitor, for example by using the much loved "think-pair-share" strategy. This is a good time to go back and model if you notice that students are not quite yet internalizing the grammatical form. Oh and depending on your students, this is probably about a 10 to 12 minute segment.

The Independent but Structured Practice

Yes, the final third to a successful ELD lesson is student practice in order to have the opportunity to produce the desired grammatical form in a structured way. What does this mean? For starters, students should be used to some type of instructional routine that involves specialized grouping activities such that everyone will get a turn to practice both the language prompt and the language response, using the necessary target grammatical form(s) in the process. For example, in groups of three, two students can each hold the picture of an animal taking turns asking the other student the language prompt. The student can then respond by stating that "The _________ (animal) is shorter/faster/lighter/etc ( __________-er_ than the _________ ).

This of course, should form the rest of (and therefore the bulk) of the ELD block. Depending on where you teach, the time allocated to ELD may vary. In California however, state guidelines call for a minimum of 30 minutes to be allocated for ELD instruction. Many school districts have adopted this standard for kindergarten and a 45 minute block for 1st - 5th (or 6th grade if it's a K-6 elementary district).

Why is this sequence and elements to an ELD lesson important?

Because our English Learners need explicit practice with the myriad grammatical forms of the English language. However, they also need to use these in a wide variety of contexts, demonstrating flexibility with them by applying them in other content areas (most importantly the English Language Arts- more on this tomorrow) with confidence and for a range of purposes.Slide 13 For instance, we want them to be able not just to compare animals, but apply this grammatical form to other areas, like comparing two historical events.

Once students master a certain form, increase the level of rigor. Another good topic to follow up on a different day.

An ELD Lesson in Action

For an example of an effective ELD lesson, check out this video:

Happy viewing and learning! There is much to glean from this video to inform our own practice.

Hope your first days are full of smiles and may you continue to feel a sense of fulfillment at the end of it all!

- W

Quick, the kids are here...what IS ELD again?

2009-08-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome to ELD 1A.

First of all, ELD stands for English Language Development. It is a content area, such as mathematics or science. What is the content of ELD? The (grammatical) forms and functions (language patterns) of the English Language. For example, the grammatical form ____-er (the comparative form) would fit the language pattern: "The ________ is ________-er than the _________."

When teaching ELD, we think of a language objective we want our English Learners to master by choosing a language function, or purpose to using a specific grammatical form. So for example, a language function might be: comparing objects. In order for students to accomplish this, they must need to be taught the grammatical form -er and (as a possible language pattern), "The ________ is _______-er than the _________."

In short, ELD is the time to explicitly teach English Learners about the English language so that they will have the tools to allow them to access the core curriculum- English Language Arts in particular.

- w

Checklist for the ELL/ELD Teacher: August/ September

2009-08-20T18:06:00.000-07:00

1. Identifying your ELLs!
Now now, not all of us are at a point where our district has a beautifully streamlined and efficient process of identifying ELLs. If you receive a list of students who are designated ELL, great! If you receive a list with their last level of proficiency identified- marvelous! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, ask! Hopefully, this should be happening behind the scenes...Please remember that this is the (idealized) procedure in California school districts
- in July/August, newcomer ELLs to your district should be tested at some identified district facility in order to determine their level of English proficiency. Newcomers typically are: fresh out-of-country arrivals, interdistrict transfers with no record of English proficiency testing or incoming kindergartners
- for the rest of your ELLs, those who have been tested before in your district (or another district in the state) they will be tested (with CELDT in California) sometime in September or October. California gives districts until the end of October to turn in all CELDT testing materials

2. Ask who is responsible for administering CELDT (or your state's EL testing)
- If the responsibility falls on you, make sure you are trained. All you cared not to know about CELDT procedures can be found here: http://www.ctb.com/netcaster/extranet/program_index.jsp?PROG_ID=3022
- 1st grade and K teachers this year: Remember that your students will be tested on reading and writing components for the first time ever! It's looking like 30 minutes per student (as you know, at this age, these tests are all one-on-one)

3. Get to know the English proficiency profile of each of your ELLs
- If you do have CELDT scores, figure out what these mean:
- There is an overall score (1-5, 1= beginner, 2= early intermediate, 3= intermediate, 4= early advanced, 5= advanced) SEE 7/10/08 blog for details on each of these levels
- There is also a scale(raw) score that each section (reading, writing, speaking, listening) receives. Sometimes ELLs may be on the cusp of achieving another proficiency level. The overall score can easily overlook this important information. We can talk more about this at a later date.

As this is a good point to stop (I like sets of three), let's do so!
Enjoy the planning/remodeling/envisioning of the classroom and how it will be used this year. Oh, the possibilities!

- W

First Days Routines

2009-08-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

Its time to greet bright, eager new faces again.

Those 20?30?40? students that we will be tasked with instructing, guiding, coaching and yes, even teaching are arriving at our doorstep. So much to think about and do, so much expected of us and soon so much to have to "show" for our work in the form of formative assessment results, subject matter exams and more.

But how can we expect to get there if we don't spend time on the most important thing that matters to a group of students who have to "start over" with someone new in a new space? That's why we take time to establish relationships with our students and build a sense of classroom community/ identity.

I'll share two activities I would ALWAYS do with my students, year in, year out, to reach this goal.

But first, an aside for the wayward secondary teacher...
(In case it hasn't been apparent in the past, I am generally referring to the teaching context of the self-contained elementary classroom and ELD teachers of elementary students. Secondary folks, I love you very much and admire you for your subject matter expertise/passion and the issues of the ages of the students you deal with. I don't have the experience of teaching students or leading schools at this level, so please let me know if I ever misrepresent your experiences. On the other hand, I think the concepts discussed here are universal and applicable at secondary, e.g. establishing community).

Activities I've done in the first days...
1. Establish classroom agreements.
- Yes, I've even done this with kindergartners. On a "T" chart, we put out what we would like to "see" happen in our classroom throughout the year (e.g. a common one is "kids helping each other) and "hear" (e.g. using positive language). Eventually a trend emerges and these become classroom agreements I would refer to all year long. Visuals obviously increase understanding for ELLs.

2. Go on a "classroom guess the space "
- My room had spaces dedicated to certain activities. For example I had a couch and adjacent shelves with books. I would have students go to the area where they would predict we would (fill in the blank, e.g. work in a small group with the teacher= kidney table). It helps ELLs orient themselves and preview the routines they will be engaging in every day.

And, I'm sure you are already quite familiar with the classic resource by Harry and Rosemary Wong, The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher. Here's a link to the amazon listing for it: http://www.amazon.com/First-Days-School-Effective-Teacher/dp/0962936022 in case you want a reminder of what the cover looks like.

Hope this is useful.

Happy first days to all!

- W

Other ELL Resources

2009-08-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

I know in the past I've thrown out a few links for some articles. Good stuff to be sure, but it may not always be as succinct as we like to fit our hectic schedules. And then there's teaching!

Webinars

There are other really great sources of info that you can access, and it involves no reading at all! I'm talking about "webinars," seminars that are broadcast on the web for everyone to see/hear. In fact, there is a whole series of webinars put out by WestEd, WestEd, in case your district hasn't run into them, is a nonprofit, public research and development agency that works at the local, state, and federal levels, developing research-based programs, intervention strategies, and other resources that school districts can then access. There are many districts that have partnerships and other joint ventures with this agency.

In any case, WestEd has put out (and will continue to) a strand of seminars all related to the English Language Learner. Here is a link to that series: http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/cs/smu/view/e/3912

Try it out.

The great thing is that this is the actual researcher/expert who develops the materials/ resources is talking! And, you can turn it off when you are bored.

Just glad to put out more avenues out there to become (even) better informed teachers of English Language Learners and their support staff.

Enjoy your upcoming/in-progress staff development days!

- W