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Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners

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Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners

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Response to Intervention in Reading for English Language Learners

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Response to Intervention in Reading for English Language Learners

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A considerable amount of evidence suggests that approaches involving early intervention, ongoing progress monitoring, and effective classroom instruction consistent with Response to Intervention (RTI) are associated with improved outcomes for the majority of students in early reading and math (e.g., Burns, Griffiths, Parson, Tilly, & VanDerHayden, 2007; Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007; Haager, Klingner, & Vaughn, 2007; McCardle & Chhabra, 2004). Considerably less information exists, however, about the effectiveness of these approaches with a growing population of students, English language learners (ELLs) at risk for reading problems. We also have considerably less information about the types of interventions that are effective for students who do not adequately respond to the interventions that typically are effective (Vaughn et al., in press; Wanzek & Vaughn, 2007). Such students are likely to be identified as having learning disabilities.

This article briefly highlights the knowledge base on reading and RTI for ELLs, and provides preliminary support for the use of practices related to RTI with this population.

Caveats and Considerations About Recommendations for Teaching English Language Learners with Reading Difficulties

ELLs are typically served in bilingual education or English as a second language (ESL) programs. Bilingual education students receive instruction in their native language and a structured program of ESL instruction. Students in ESL programs do not receive native language instruction; they are typically taught within general education classrooms and receive a support program for ESL. How much native language and/or ESL instruction students receive depends on the program model. In planning RTI approaches, it is important to understand the program in which ELLs are enrolled, how their native language and English proficiency is assessed and monitored, and the core literacy program they receive for development of native language and/or English literacy skills.

In implementing RTI approaches with ELLs, a significant challenge is determining students' knowledge and skills in their first language and then understanding their performance in their second language (English). For example, there are subgroups of students whose literacy knowledge and skills in their first language (e.g., Spanish) are adequate, but whose literacy skills in their second language (i.e., English) are low. These students have demonstrated the capacity to acquire reading skills and now require instruction so they can apply those skills to the acquisition of English literacy. Other students may have low literacy in both first language and English because they have not received adequate instruction in either language. Still another group of students, the smallest group, demonstrates low literacy skills in both their first language and English even after receiving adequate instruction.

Further complicating issues related to oral language development and literacy acquisition are situations in which a student's first language is not shared by other students in his or her grade, the student's first is a language without adequate print sources for instruction, or the student cannot receive instruction because a bilingual education teacher is not available to provide it. For these reasons and myriad others, there are no formulas or ready guidelines that can be easily provided for assessment and treatment.

It is also noteworthy that although there are many caveats and considerations involved in decision making about screening, assessment, and intervention for ELLs, parents and educators cannot postpone decision making until a better knowledge base is available. They are eager to make decisions that will be associated with improved outcomes and that will facilitate appropriate early identification and intervention when required. Thus, the following guidelines are provided to encourage educators to promote effective practices related to RTI with ELLs and to acquire further knowledge and skills so that they demonstrate improved confidence in their decision making with these students. Keep in mind, though, that teachers and schools must proceed with the most effective practices possible. Also, please note that these guidelines may be altered as new research evidence becomes available.

What skills must educators have to effectively implement RTI for ELLs?

Many educators, including those providing special education services, are concerned that they do not have the knowledge and skills to appropriately instruct ELLs. In some cases, these personnel are fearful that their lack of knowledge of the student's native language renders them incapable of providing valuable instruction. As a result, they may elect to do the minimum amount needed to intervene and instruct. For this reason, it is essential that educators be provided with the resources needed to support them in this process. Being provided professional development for enhancement of knowledge and skills is essential; in addition, a problem-solving team with knowledge and experience working with ELLs can be a valuable resource to facilitate decision making and to design instructional supports.

Provide ongoing and research-based professional development to teachers and other school personnel.

The more that personnel know about the development of oral language, early literacy, students' home language, contextual considerations, and the cultural background of students, the better informed they will be in making appropriate decisions about interpreting screening and assessment results and in designing appropriate interventions.

Fully credentialed bilingual education and ESL teachers must continuously acquire new knowledge regarding best practices in bilingual education and ESL.

General education teachers should regularly participate in professional development focused on meeting the needs of ELLs (e.g., information about bilingual education, ESL strategies, and the cultural and linguistic characteristics that serve as assets to the academic success of ELLs).

How Is Universal Screening Effectively Implemented With ELLs?

ELLs can be screened on the same early reading indicators as native English language speakers, including phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and word and text reading (Gersten et al., 2007).

Universal screenings must be conducted using native language and/or English measures that have demonstrated high validity and reliability (see the Research Institute on Progress Monitoring Web site).

Consider the proficiency in the target areas in the L1 of ELLs. Students highly proficient in early reading skills in L1 and low in that proficiency in L2 can be considered instructionally different from students low in proficiency in L1 and L2.

Provide instructional support to ELLs with low performance in reading areas even when oral language skills in English are low. Interventions should simultaneously address development of language and literacy skills in English.

How Is Progress Monitoring Effectively Implemented With ELLs?

Monitor ELLs' progress as frequently as you monitor the progress of all other students-a minimum of three times per year for students at grade level or above and three to six times per year for students at risk for reading problems.

When ELLs demonstrate low abilities in grade-level target skills in reading, provide research-based instruction.

Consider students' accents and pronunciations when scoring English measures and provide appropriate interpretations when words are mispronounced. Do not penalize students for dialect features.

Consider that students may be acquiring word meaning while acquiring word reading and, thus, oral reading fluency may proceed at an expected rate early (while students are focusing on word reading) and then proceed at a lower than expected rate later when students are focusing more on word meaning.

How Is Tier 1 Instruction Effectively Implemented for ELLs?

Set high but reasonable instructional expectations that provide ongoing instructional support to ensure that these expectations are met.

Consider the core instructional program that English Language Learners are being provided for oral language and literacy instruction in the native language and/or in English. Consider all of the knowledge and practices associated with improved outcomes for Tier 1 reading instruction and make sure these practices are in place for ELLs. Although these practices vary by grade level, in general they include consideration of the foundational skills such as phonemic awareness and phonics early in the reading process, with continued emphasis on vocabulary and concept building throughout the instructional process. Reading words accurately and with prosody, as well as reading for meaning and learning, are emphasized through listening comprehension early and then later through reading comprehension.

For students in bilingual education programs, use grade-appropriate measures that match the language of reading instruction. Monitor native language and English language and literacy progress from initial instruction through the transition process, and then in English when students are ready to exit and are no longer receiving reading instruction in the native language.

Do not wait for English oral language to meet grade-level expectations before providing reading instruction. Provide instruction in early reading while also providing support for English oral language development.

Promote language and vocabulary development throughout the day.

Ensure that students are provided ongoing and appropriate instruction in academic language use in the native language and/or in English. Integrate academic language development into core instruction across subject areas.

Scaffold language and opportunities to respond. Scaffolding language includes paraphrasing key words, providing opportunities to extend answers, supporting language by using familiar synonyms (e.g., "that is also like...") and familiar antonyms (e.g., "that is also different from..."), reframing students' responses, confirming aspects of the answer that are correct, and providing language supports to further explain aspects that require refinement.

Provide opportunities for appropriate peer learning, including peer pairing and small-group instruction.

How Is Tier 2 Intervention Effectively Implemented for ELLs?

Provide intensive reading interventions to ELLs demonstrating low reading skills immediately when needed. These interventions can be effectively implemented as early as 1st grade, as well as for more mature readers with reading difficulties.

Ensure that interventions are sufficiently intense by retaining small groups (3-6 students) who are provided intervention for a minimum of 30 minutes each day.

When students receiving literacy instruction in English demonstrate weak reading skills or have evident reading difficulties, do not wait for English oral language to improve before providing reading interventions Use appropriate practices for building oracy skills and vocabulary development as well as reading skills.

How Is Tier 3 Intervention Effectively Implemented With ELLs?

ELLs who are significantly behind in reading require highly intensive and extensive reading interventions that start immediately (as early as 1st grade) and continue until the student is able to adequately benefit from reading instruction provided within the core classroom instruction.

Tier 3 intervention needs to be provided by a well-trained specialist such as a bilingual education or an ESL teacher with a strong background in literacy, or a learning disability teacher who has a strong background with and understanding of the educational needs of ELLs.

Tier 3 instruction may need to last for a significant period of time when students are making minimal progress; adjustments to instruction may need to be made, with consideration given to the integration of contextual factors (e.g., family, personal, and classroom variables) that may need to be addressed as necessary. A team approach to problem solving may be very useful in interpreting factors that influence progress and provide suggestions for designing instruction.

Students who have been provided research-based reading interventions that are typically associated with improved outcomes may not demonstrate significant gains and may require highly individualized reading instruction that considers other factors such as attention, language and vocabulary development, and behavior problems. A team approach to problem solving that considers many of these factors may facilitate the development of an appropriate instructional plan.

How Confident Are We About RTI With ELLs?

There are many advantages to using RTI approaches with all learners, including ELLs. These advantages are realized when schools provide appropriate universal screening- at the beginning and middle of the year at minimum to identify students who are at risk for reading difficulties and to provide interventions to meet their needs. Determining that adequate instruction class-wide is occurring for ELLs ensures that students are less likely to fall behind and that they will continue to thrive in the classroom. Using ongoing progress monitoring as a source of data to inform decision making will facilitate both decision making and students' progress. When students demonstrate reading difficulties, the provision of small-group intensive interventions targeting their instructional needs and then monitoring their progress ensures that instruction is modified to meet the needs of students.

ELLs benefit from teachers who are highly interested in ensuring that their students make adequate progress in reading and that they themselves have the knowledge and skills to provide appropriate instruction.

ELLs will be better served if teachers and school personnel do not expect or accept low performance and if they do not view students as undeserving of effective interventions.

ELLs who exhibit learning disabilities may be underidentified and undertreated because school personnel may not have the knowledge and skills needed to identify and treat these students.

Students who are ELLs will benefit from native language instruction and from most of the same instructional practices that are associated with improved outcomes for native English speakers.

This is also the case for ELLs who receive instruction in English providing that appropriate practices for teaching ESL are used. Strategies and instructional routines such as repetitive language, rapid pacing, modeling, time to practice and discuss reading, and systematic and explicit instruction are beneficial with ELLs with reading difficulties.

School personnel do not delay literacy instruction until students' English oracy skills are well-developed, but instead support learning while promoting English language development.

Students benefit when school personnel are focused on meeting students' educational needs rather than on finding an external source to explain the educational needs.

Readings to Consider for Further Information

August, D., & Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Francis, D., Rivera, M., Lesaux, N. K, Kieffer, M., & Rivera, H. (2006). Practical guidelines for the education of English language learners: Research-based recommendations for instruction and academic interventions. Available from http://www.centeroninstruction.org/files/ELL1-Interventions.pdf

Genesee, F., Lindholm-Leary, K., Saunders, W. M., & Christian, D. (2006). Educating English language learners: A synthesis of research evidence. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Gersten, R., Baker, S. K., Shanahan, T., Linan-Thompson, S., Collins, P., & Scarcella, R. (2007). Effective literacy and English language instruction for English learners in the elementary grades: A practice guide (NCEE 2007-4011).

Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee.

References

Burns, M. K., Griffiths, A., Parson, L. B., Tilly, W. D., & VanDerHayden, A. (2007). Response to intervention: Research for practice. Alexandria, VA: National Association of State Directors of Special Education.

Fletcher, J. M., Lyon, G. R., Fuchs, L. S., & Barnes, M. A. (2007). Learning disabilities: From identification to intervention. New York: Guilford Press.

Gersten, R., Baker, S. K., Shanahan, T., Linan-Thompson, S., Collins, P., & Scarcella, R. (2007). Effective literacy and English language instruction for English learners in the elementary grades: A practice guide (NCEE 2007-4011). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional

Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee.

Haager, D., Klingner, J. K., & Vaughn, S. (2007). Evidence-based reading practices for response to intervention. Baltimore: Brookes.

McCardle, P., & Chhabra, V. (2004). The voice of evidence in reading research. Baltimore: Brookes.

Vaughn, S., Wanzek, J., Murray, C. S., Scammacca, N., Linan-Thompson, S., & Woodruff, A. L. (in press). Response to early reading intervention: A regression discontinuity design examining higher responders and lower responders. Exceptional Children.

Wanzek, J., & Vaughn, S. (2007). Research-based implications from extensive early reading interventions. School Psychology Review, 36, 541-561.

Wanzek, J., & Vaughn, S. (2008). Response to intervention with severely impaired readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 41, 126-142.

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Response to Intervention in Reading for English Language Learners

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A considerable amount of evidence suggests that approaches involving early intervention, ongoing progress monitoring, and effective classroom instruction consistent with Response to Intervention (RTI) are associated with improved outcomes for the majority of students in early reading and math (e.g., Burns, Griffiths, Parson, Tilly, & VanDerHayden, 2007; Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2007; Haager, Klingner, & Vaughn, 2007; McCardle & Chhabra, 2004).

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Reading 101 For English Language Learners

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Reading 101 For English Language Learners

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Learning to read is a complicated process. If you teach English language learners (ELLs), however, there are a number of ways you can support their literacy and language development through targeted instruction.

This article highlights ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000). This report is a study of research-based best practices in reading instruction and it focuses on the following five instructional areas: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, Comprehension. In addition, the article includes information related to two additional important areas of instruction for ELLs, oral language and the role of the home language.

Each of these topics is explored below, and each section includes:

a definition

an explanation of why the component is important when learning to read

challenges that ELLs may face

strategies for ELL instruction

You will find references to more in-depth information about ELLs and effective reading instruction from recommended resources below.

Note: Since this article includes in-depth information on a number of topics, we encourage you to use it in professional learning communities, jigsaw activities, and other collaborative settings!

What does the research say?

Before jumping in, it's important to note that, in general, what we know about effective literacy instruction for English speakers holds true for ELLs, but modifications and adjustments may be needed (Goldenberg, 2008). Since the original National Reading Panel did not include ELLs' literacy development as part of its research review, a subsequent panel reviewed the research related to language learners and released a report authored by principal investigator Dr. Diane August and panel chair Dr. Timothy Shanahan titled Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth.

Within the executive summary of that report, the authors note that, "Instruction that provides substantial coverage in the key components of reading - identified by the National Reading Panel (NICHD, 2000) as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension - has clear benefits for language-minority students." They continue, "However, while approaches that are similar to those used with native-language populations are effective, the research suggests that adjustments to these approaches are needed to have maximum benefit with language-minority students." (p. 3)

For example, many practices may need modifications or scaffolds which may not be reflected in different reading programs or materials (August, 2018; Goldenberg, 2008), and in some cases, certain strategies may not be appropriate even with adjustments. In addition, the authors note the important role of two areas that were not addressed in the original National Reading Panel: students' home language and oral language.

Many examples of specific modifications are outlined in the strategies below, along with discussion of home language and oral language. You can find additional research resources at the end of the article, including a recent working paper published by Pivot Learning, Narrowing Down to Find Common Ground: Shared Agreements for Effective Literacy Instruction in California.

An in-depth video book study highlighting Literacy Foundations for English Learners by Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan is also publicly available on YouTube.

When working with ELLs, students' home languages are a powerful tool that educators can use - even if they don't speak those languages or are working in a classroom with students who speak many languages. Drs. August and Shanahan write, "Oral proficiency and literacy in the first language can be used to facilitate literacy development in English" (2006, p. 5). And in hisColorín Colorado article about the value of students' home language, Dr. Fred Genesee writes:

Extensive research, again from around the world, has found that children who are learning to read in a second language are able to transfer many skills and knowledge from their first language to facilitate their acquisition of reading skills in the second language. The best evidence of this comes from studies showing that students with strong reading skills in the home language also have strong reading skills in their second language. Much of this work has been done on ELLs in the U.S. (August & Shanahan, 2006; Riches & Genesee, 2006).

Tapping into students' home languages (also referred to as a first or native language) as a resource can take different forms:

Helping students make connections between their language and English in order to identify similarities and differences, such as English/Spanish cognates

Providing opportunities to use the home language in the classroom for reading, writing, and discussion

Encouraging students to draw on all of their language skills across languages, which is called translanguaging

Promoting biliteracy through bilingual or dual-language instruction, which can support students' future opportunities and family ties (not to mention brain health!), with initiatives such as the Seal of Biliteracy, which has been adopted in many states

It is important to keep in mind that the extent to which a student's literacy skills from their first language transfer depends on many factors, such as how similar the alphabetic systems between the two languages are and whether they share any connection in their origins, such as two languages that both derive from Latin (Nieser & Cárdenas-Hagan, 2020, p. 65). The students' levels of literacy in their home language will also have an impact on their literacy development in their new language. Learning more about the languages students speak can help educators target instruction, notice patterns among speakers of the same language, and help students understand the relationship between their language and English

You can also provide students and families with access to bilingual books and texts and encourage families to continue using and developing the home language through activities such as rhymes, storytelling, and conversation at home. You will also find specific strategies related to home language throughout the key components below.

Recommended resources

In addition, as you will see below, oral language has a role to play across all reading skills, yet it often does not receive much attention as a critical part of ELLs' language and literacy development. Drs. August and Shanahan write, "Instruction in the key components of reading is necessary - but not sufficient - for teaching language-minority students to read and write proficiently in English. Oral proficiency in English is critical as well - but student performance suggests that it is often overlooked in instruction." (2006, p. 5)

Oral language supports students' literacy skills in different ways. For example, students need to be familiar not only with the sounds and letters they are learning but also the words in which they appear in order to support their word recognition and comprehension. Other more global oral language skills, such as facility with English syntax and grammar, and the ability to navigate specific language functions like describing, predicting, and comparing, also contribute to both reading and writing development for ELLs.

In addition, strengthening oral language supports students' ability to participate in peer groups and their proficiency in speaking and writing using academic language. Students need opportunities to practice applying their emerging oral language skills through partner talk and peer work (scaffolded with supports such as sentence frames), activities such as partner reading, and responding to comprehension questions using academic language.

Dr. Carrie Simkin, the director of our sister site AdLit.org, offers the following suggestions related to oral language:

Make it a learning target for lesson planning (e.g. be intentional about planning for it).

Consider how much of the learning time in your classroom is text based vs. discussion. Do students have opportunities to discuss ideas or do they mostly respond in written formats? We want to engage students in lively discussions!

Consider if students have opportunities to work in pairs as well as small groups and not just respond to teacher-generated questions.

Have you modeled how to orally respond to questions using the question as a sentence starter? Do you have sentence starters visible for share-outs?

Our strategies related to oral language are also woven throughout the components below.

Recommended resources

Note: You can read more about the role of oral language in the foreword of Comprehension and English Language Learners.

Phonemic Awareness and ELLs

Keeping the areas of home language and oral language in mind, let's dive into the five key skill areas, starting with phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is an important indicator of how well children will learn to read. Sometimes it is difficult, however, for speakers of a second language to "hear" and say sounds in the language they are learning. If you have had a student who could not master a particular sound in English, the sound may not have been a part of the student's native language.

In her chapter of Literacy Foundations for English Learners, Dr. Virginia Lovelace-Gonzalez notes that, "Phonological awareness skills can transfer across languages when students have opportunities to build these skills in their native language and English" (2020, p. 53).

For example, there are multiple sounds in English and Spanish that will directly transfer between languages, even if the sounds are associated with different letters (p. 50). Dr. Lovelace-Gonzalez writes, "For ELs, phonemic activities in English can be complicated by having to recognize sounds in English that do not exist in their native language...Instructionally, it is important for teachers to determine some of the similarities and differences between English and the student's native language to ensure the opportunity to learn" (p. 53).

Phonemic Awareness: Considerations and Strategies

What: The ability to hear and manipulate the different sounds in our language.

Why it matters: Phonemic awareness is the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills.

Considerations for ELLs

Learn more about the students' home languages.

Start by visiting a resource such as MyLanguages.org or Omniglot.com, which shares an overview of many different global languages.

Ask bilingual colleagues about how their languages are similar or different from English and common areas that need attention when learning English. For example, a group of Ukrainian teachers shared some of the questions that Ukrainian speakers have when learning English in this Colorín Colorado article.

Identify whether there are any sounds that your students' languages share with English. Use these as a starting point in your instruction. In addition, find out which sounds might be new to your students and be sure to include explicit practice of those sounds.

Help students think about the connection between their language and English.

Ask students how their language is the same or different than English in terms of how the language is written, the sounds that letters or symbols make, and words that might be related.

Help students become familiar with sounds, letters, and symbols that are shared between languages, as well as those that are not shared between the languages. (Some examples across different languages are included in Literacy Foundations for English Learners.)

Ask students if they have words that begin with a particular sound, or if there are any words related to a particular word in English. This can work with students who have limited literacy skills in their first language too.

Help beginning readers learn to identify sounds in short words.

Have students practice identifying the sounds in the beginning, middle, and end of these words. You may wish to use words that begin with a consonant, have a short vowel, and end in a consonant (CVC words) such as mat, top, and bus.

One very effective method is having students match pictures of words that have the same beginning, middle, or ending sound.

Use words that students already know in English.

Videos

Learn how to pronounce the 44 phonemes in English.

Phonics and ELLs

Phonics instruction aims to help new readers understand that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Students benefit from learning and practicing sounds and symbols, including blended combinations. ELLs often show many strengths in mastering early phonics skills but it's important to remember that decoding while reading and correctly spelling words does not ensure good comprehension.

That's why it's important to ensure that ELLs are familiar with the words they are learning to decode in order to support their comprehension. The authors of Words Their Way with English Learners write, "English learners need structured opportunities to learn many new words to add to their repertoires so that these words can become the material of their literacy learning" (2011, p. 79).

Phonics: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

Use a word study approach.

Word study is a powerful approach that connects letters, sound, meaning, word parts, and usage so that students are learning explicit foundational skills within a meaningful context. For example, ELLs need lots of opportunities to connect the sounds, letters, and words they are learning.

The authors of Words Their Way with English Learners write, "What is key to literacy development for English learners in the emergent stage is that they use language with teachers and peers and see oral language they understand captured in print" (Helman et al, 2011).

Look for opportunities to reinforce phonics in context.

Using literature and content material, you can introduce and reinforce:

letter recognition

beginning and ending sounds

blends

rhyming words

silent letters

homonyms

Vocabulary and ELLs

Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read, as well as in understanding what is read.

As students learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary. For ELLs, vocabulary development is especially important as students' develop academic language - in all subjects and activities! There are numerous ways to support explicit vocabulary instruction, which is essential for developing students' vocabulary knowledge. Dr. Coleen D. Carlson writes,

For EL students, drawing attention to unknown words during the initial presentation of the text, providing appropriate levels of definitions (e.g., providing English labels for words for which concepts and labels in one's native language are understood, quick definitions or demonstrations for simple words) and tying to background knowledge is critical. No amount of simply reading and rereading words will produce knowledge of unknown vocabulary. (2020, p. 97)

Vocabulary: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

Draw upon students' home languages.

You can draw upon students' home languages to build vocabulary by:

It is important to give students as much exposure and experience with new vocabulary words as possible before asking students to use them in a lesson or activity.

Select words that will support the reader's understanding of the story or text, as well as for other phrases and connectors that affect comprehension (even though, except, etc.). You can pre-teach vocabulary by using English as a second language (ESL) methods such as:

Role playing or pantomiming

Using gestures

Showing real objects

Pointing to pictures

Doing quick drawings on the board

Using the equivalent in students' languages and then asking students to say the word in English

Providing a student-friendly definition

Using graphic organizers

Cognates are words in different languages that are derived from the same original word or root. About 40% of all English words have cognates in Spanish (such as the English/Spanish cognate "family/familia"). This is an obvious bridge to the English language for Spanish speakers if the student is made aware of how to use this resource.

Teach students to recognize and use cognates, or words that are related across languages, and encourage students to be on the lookout for cognates from other languages as well.

Give students an opportunity to practice using new words.

As the teacher, you can explicitly teach word meanings to improve comprehension. However, to know a word means knowing it in all of the following dimensions:

The ability to define a word

The ability to recognize when to use that word

Knowledge of its multiple meanings

The ability to decode and spell that word

The ability to use different definitions word accurately in different contexts

Ensure students understand a new word by asking them to produce it themselves either orally or in writing.

I taught a summer school unit on habitats and healthy environments, and every student had to learn the phrase, "Reduce, reuse, recycle." Over the course of four weeks I gave students many opportunities to use those words to describe what we were doing: "We are reusing the grocery bag," or "We reused the scratch paper."

Build students' academic vocabulary.

You can increase students' academic vocabulary by teaching common structures and terms used in a specific content area. For example, sentence frames are a great way to get students familiar with these structures and can be used in writing and speaking:

You can learn more strategies in this related article.

The _____ is ______ than the _____.

I can conclude ______ because _______.

Videos

ESOL Specialist Sheila Majdi: Using sentence frames with ELLs

ESOL specialist Sheila Majdi from Arlington, VA explains what a sentence frame is and how she might use this strategy with ELLs.

Interactive reading of a story

In this classroom clip, first-grade teacher Albuquerque teacher Ali Nava leads her students through an interactive reading of Burro's Tortillas, a Southwestern adaptation of "The Little Red Hen."

Focusing on language in literacy instruction

In this classroom clip, fifth-grade teacher Clara Gonzales-Espinoza helps her students expand their understanding of the way language is used in a picture book version of Cinderella.

Instruction of key academic vocabulary with high school ELLs

In this lesson, students read a letter that Captain John Smith of the English Army wrote to Queen Anne in 1616. You can see lesson materials and reflection interviews from ELL teacher Anne Formato in our related classroom module.

Fluency and ELLs

Fluency is a tricky area when it comes to ELL reading instruction. For native English speakers, fluency and reading comprehension often share a strong correlation because fluent readers recognize words and comprehend at the same time. This is not always the case for ELLs.

Many ELLs can be deceptively fast and accurate in their reading because they are good readers in their primary language and have strong decoding skills. Yet they may demonstrate little understanding of the text, and hearing the text out loud may not necessarily provide a step towards comprehension as it is likely to do for native speakers. One important factor in the connection between fluency and comprehension is ELLs' oral language skills, which Dr. Carlson describes as "an important foundation that supports the role of fluency as a bridge to comprehension" (p. 93).

Fluency: Considerations and Strategies

Inaccurate indicator of ELLs' comprehension

It is not unusual for an ELL student to read a passage beautifully and then not be able answer more than a couple of comprehension questions correctly. Decoding skills (sounding out words) and comprehending the text are two different skills.

Limited benefit from hearing texts read aloud

Native speakers who are not strong decoders can often comprehend text that is read to them better than text that they read themselves. That's because when someone else is doing the reading, they can focus on meaning without having to struggle to get the words off the page.

With ELLs, however, comprehension problems tend to be associated with limited vocabulary and limited background knowledge. Thus, listening to text read by someone else won't enhance comprehension.

Comprehension and ELLs

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to 1) decode what they read; 2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and 3) think deeply about what they have read. Comprehension can be the most difficult skill to master, however, and can elude students who have mastered word-level skills. According to the executive summary of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth,

An important finding that emerges from the research is that word-level skills in literacy - such as decoding, word recognition and spelling - are often taught well enough to allow language-minority students to attain levels of performance equal to those of native English speakers. However, this is not the case for text-level skills - reading comprehension and writing. (p. 4)

ELLs at all levels of English proficiency, and literacy development, will benefit from explicit instruction in comprehension skills along with other skills because improved comprehension will not only help them in language arts and ESL classes - it will help them in content-area classes and in daily activities. It will also improve the chances of their interest in reading for pleasure.

Learn more from the following articles:

Comprehension: Considerations and Strategies

Considerations for ELLs

ELLs who struggle with comprehension may read more slowly, have a hard time following a text or story, have a hard time picking out important events, and feel frustrated. They may also have problems mastering new concepts in their content-area classes or completing assignments and assessments because they cannot comprehend the texts and tests for these subjects.

Check comprehension frequently.

As students read, ask them open-ended questions about what they are reading, and informally test students' ability to sequence material from sentences or a story by printing sentences from a section of the story on paper strips, mixing the strips or word order, and having students put them in order.

Use questions after reading.

After the ELLs and/or whole class have completed the reading, you can test their comprehension with carefully crafted questions, taking care to use simple sentences and key vocabulary from the text they just read.

These questions can be at the:

Videos

This video showcases a 5 th-grade team planning a science lesson about the difference between vascular and non-vascular plants. ESOL specialist Katy Padilla plays a key role in advocating for ELLs throughout the lesson planning process and sharing her strategies for engaging and supporting students.

Making Dual-Language Immersion Work

This video provides an introduction to Claremont Immersion School's dual language model and shows how teachers collaborating to develop a language arts language in English and Spanish.

Assessment for ELLs

Learn how third-grade teacher Samantha Kirch uses informal assessment in her classroom to better evaluate ELLs and their progress.

Story setup: Pre-reading strategies for comprehension

Learn about pre-reading strategies that will lay the groundwork before high school newcomer ELLs tackle a new text.

Teaching ELLs in upper elementary, middle school, and high school

Older ELLs bring a lot of valuable experience and interests to the classroom. At the same time, they face the double challenge of needing to learn content and a new language at the same time, which is further complicated if their literacy skills are limited. While they may still need foundational skills work, it can be hard to find materials that are age-appropriate. You can learn more about specific tips for supporting this diverse population from the following resources:

For great classroom videos at the secondary level, see our classroom video library!

Concluding Thoughts

This is a lot of information, but we hope that these resources and recommendations can inform your work with students as well as the conversations about literacy in your setting. The more familiar your team is with best practices for ELLs, the more effectively you can determine which practices and resources will best support your students in their ongoing literacy development - and future successes!

Recommend Resources

This new working paper released by Pivot Learning reflects collective consensus among literacy experts on key topics concerning (1) literacy and multilingual and English learner students; (2) early screening and assessment; and (3) foundational skills.

To learn more about the paper and how it was developed, see Can common ground be found on teaching reading in California? (EdSource)

Research articles and chapters

Books

Literacy Foundations for English Learners by Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan (You can see the related book study on YouTube.)

Words Their Way with English Learners: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling (2nd Ed.) by Dr. Lori Helman, Dr. Donald R. Bear, Dr. Shane Templeton, Dr. Marcia Invernizzi, and Dr. Francine Johnston

Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners by Dr. Nancy Cloud, Dr. Fred Genesee, and Dr. Else Hamayan

Dual Language Instruction from A to Z: Practical Guidance for Teachers and Administrators by Dr. Else Hamayan, Dr. Fred Genesee, and Dr. Nancy Cloud

Webcasts

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Reading 101 for English Language Learners

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Learning to read is a complicated process. If you teach English language learners (ELLs), however, there are a number of ways you can support their literacy and language development through targeted instruction. This article highlights ELL instructional strategies based on the five components of reading as outlined in Teaching Children to Read by the National Reading Panel (2000).

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Discussion Protocols - Harvard University

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Discussion Protocols - Harvard University

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What is multimodal teaching and learning?

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What is multimodal teaching and learning?

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Most corporate learning strategies start small. Typically, it's a few text-based courses with the occasional image or two. But, as you gain more learners, and become more confident in your training process, it's essential to branch out and consider creating courses that embrace different learning formats and ways to learn. This is where multimodal learning comes in.

Used to enhance the learning experience and increase engagement, multimodal learning recommends the use of different modes to train. It's a helpful methodology to memorize when creating your eLearning content.

What is multimodal learning?

Multimodal learning suggests that when a number of our senses - visual, auditory, kinaesthetic - are being engaged during learning, we understand and remember more. By combining these modes, learners experience learning in a variety of ways to create a diverse learning style.

For example, let's imagine an organization is onboarding a new sales hire, training them on their product, and has decided to take a multimodal approach. The first part of the course could be text-based, reading an overview document or slides about what the product they are going to be selling does. Then, they're enrolled in a webinar that visually and aurally explains what the product does. From here, they're requested to do a 'sample' demo via video to get them involved and active in the process. And, finally, they have a feedback session with an instructor to hear about their progress and help them further their learning.

Types of multimodal learning

There are four main methods of multimodal learning; visual, auditory, reading and writing and kinesthetic (VARK). Some experts believe that people prefer one over the other; for example they have a preference for visual learning, however the evidence to back this up is sparse.

That being said, VARK is still a valuable model to keep top-of-mind when trying to create diverse learning content to engage your learners.

1. Visual learning

Visual learning involves the use of graphs, infographics, cartoons and illustrations, videos, artwork, flowcharts, and diagrams - anything that primarily stimulates your learners eyes.
Techniques like color coding information, using different fonts and labelling important points with stickers are all part of visual learning too.

2. Auditory learning

Auditory learning is mostly concerned with what we listen to. For an organization delivering training, this can come in the form of a podcast, webinar, audiobook, or an instructor talking to learners face-to-face. Group discussions or debates on the topics covered can all form part of auditory learning.

3. Kinesthetic learning

Kinesthetic learning gets learners active; it can involve site visits, demonstrations and multimedia presentations. It's often a combination of several types of learning together; for example, making a video combines visual, auditory and kinesthetic skills; the different methods of multimodal learning don't operate in a vacuum - they intersect with each other.

If we think back to our sales onboarding example above, kinesthetic learning can be used to test a learner too, as our sales rep had to make a sample demo video as part of their assessment.

4. Reading and writing

Reading and writing - the type of learning we're most familiar with. Here, text-based courses, PDF's, documents, books, and eBooks are often used. Additionally, most written exams or assignments, like true and false or multiple choice questions, come under this bracket too.

How to create a multimodal approach to learning

1. Add different media to your courses

The first step with multimodal learning is to simply dive in and plan how you can add more modes to your courses. When you're creating your course think outside the box and start to use different formats, like video, slides, and audio.

We suggest you start small by repurposing the content you already have and taking advantage of resources outside of your organization, like YouTube videos and podcasts on the subject of focus. From here, you can then start creating your own videos, slides, audio, and interactive learning sessions.

Also, invest in an LMS that supports a wide range of content formats, including Word, PowerPoint, PDF, video and audio.

2. You can use blended learning techniques

Blended learning is an effective training technique that combines face-to-face training with online instruction through your LMS. It gives you all the advantages of interacting directly with learners in a classroom environment along with the convenience of eLearning.

With blended learning, you can hold a live training session with a group of learners, post some extra resources for them to your LMS, and then assign a task or exam to ensure they understood the topic completely. This allows you to easily document and report on who's taken the training session and how effective it was.

3. Learners can do multimodal assignments

You can take advantage of a variety of different means of assessment when you're training through multimodal learning. Challenge your learners to create a video or audio project and upload it to your LMS, give them instructions on a personal essay to write and post, or set up a quiz for them to take.

Setting multimodal assignments lets learners get creative, and encourages them to use different parts of their brain. Cognitive Learning Theory suggests that when learners are actively involved in their own learning, they retain more of their training, so multimodal assignments are likely to create better results.

4. Providing feedback through different media with your LMS

Occasionally, it's not possible for managers to give their teams feedback in person. This may be because some of your team work remotely or are often offsite, or perhaps you have some general feedback you need to provide to a large group and don't have the capacity to speak to everyone individually.

In this instance, recording a short video and posting it to your LMS can be a great solution. Providing feedback through email is risky, it's likely to be misinterpreted or misunderstood as the tone is impersonal. With a video, learners can hear your encouraging tone of voice and see your relaxed body language; and they'll understand that your feedback is constructive and well meant.

Do your training sessions mainly stimulate one or two of the senses, or do you attempt to engage your learners in a variety of different ways? Let us know what works for you in the comments.

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Multimodal Learning: Engaging Your Learner's Senses | LearnUpon

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Most corporate learning strategies start small. Typically, it's a few text-based courses with the occasional image or two. But, as you gain more learners, and become more confident in your training process, it's essential to branch out and consider creating courses that embrace different learning formats and ways to learn.

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How to plan for and accommodate SLIFE students 

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How to plan for and accommodate SLIFE students 

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There are some great first week of school remote activities!

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The ArtsLiteracy Project - The Handbook - Comprehending text

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(This is the fourth post in a multipart series. You can see Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here.)
The new question of the week is:
How can we best support students when we teach online?
In Part One, David Sherrin, Lorie Barber, Janelle Henderson, and Cathleen Beachboard contributed their experiences.

In Part Three, Matthew Johnson, Joseph Jones, T.J. Vari, Deb Blaz, and Cindi Rigsbee offered their ideas.

In today's post, we'll be exploring answers to an even more focused question:
What works-and what doesn't work-when teaching English-language learners online during school closures?
In response, Nick Fotopoulos, Helen Vassiliou, Cornelia Okraski, and Sam Olbes talk about what they're doing with their ELL classes.
Top 10 ways to handle ELL E-Learning Nick Fotopoulos is the lead EL teacher at Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Ill. He has taught at Sandburg for the past eight years:
Over the course of the last week, we have embarked on the E-learning journey. Much like many of you, it has been a week of twists, turns, questions, and uncertainness. However, our school community has come together and supplied valuable learning opportunities for our students. In a school of over 3,000 kids, our EL population consists of 120 students in which we service 60 students daily in our fully sheltered EL program. Our students mostly speak Arabic and Spanish and have similar cultural backgrounds. In our classes, their English abilities range from level 0 to fully proficient. This can be both challenging and awesome at the same time. We are extremely lucky to have students who are driven and want to master the English language. The use of technology is nothing new and is a vital part to our successes as teachers and for our students. With that being said, I wanted to give you a "Top 10" list of items that I have found beneficial in our EL E-learning journey. Take a look!

Top 10 ways we are handling EL E-learning:

1. Use your team - I am lucky to be surrounded by such great teachers and teacher aides. We constantly text, email, call, and video chat to discuss the best way to meet our students' needs. It's so important to stay connected.

2. Use online tools to help assist students and their language needs - YouTube videos, recordings of you explaining directions, videos of you teaching a difficult math problem, using various online resources to help teach material. Translations are essential in all languages-directions for sure! All are so important in keeping students engaged.

3. Making work easily accessible - We use the online course-management software Canvas as a district. It has been awesome in posting resources, lectures, notes, readings, quizzes, etc., for students to access. We also use Skyward to get information to students. Google Classroom is free for districts that do not have something in place.

4. Let the students guide the instruction - Have them record, video, explain, and teach a vocab word, a topic, a story, etc. By letting students have a voice in their learning (especially in a time when it truly is on them), it allows them to still feel connected to class and their classmates.

5. Don't overwhelm your students - Remember, in a typical high school day, they have 5-7 different classes. Remember, English-learners are still learning the language, and sometimes these "new" systems will impact them in a negative way.

6. Be patient - In the educational field, we want things to move at our pace. I have learned over the course of the last few days that less is more. I was trying to build these great engaging lessons all while online, but in reality, I needed to give short, pointed assignments that clearly taught the concept at hand. This is so important for English-learners.

7. Be flexible - Just like in the EL classroom, you need to be flexible in the online space. Make sure the students have what they need to succeed. You may even have to reach out to them personally to make sure they know what to do!

8. Use your aides - Our EL aides are the best. They have been available via Google Hangouts (chat and video) to help our students with translations, questions, and clarifications. They have been so important!

9. Try something new - Maybe there is something that you wanted to do but didn't have the chance. Online learning is a perfect way to do this! Maybe create a Quizlet, Flipgrid, Kahoot, Discussion post, Tik-Tok, Twitter Account, Instagram, etc. Once you get back to the classroom, these will be great tools to use as you continue on with your semester.

10. Breathe, have fun, and don't worry about getting to a certain spot. It's OK to put yourself out there. We are all going through the same thing, and kids need to know that. At this point, school should be an escape from what is going on around us. Allow your kids to have a solid educational experience and have some fun!

Teaching ELLs in the time of corona closure Helen Vassiliou is an immigrant herself and ESL specialist in West Chester, Ohio, currently serving the most fantastic elementary students and families at Adena Elementary:
It has always been integral to provide ELs with the same educational opportunities as their peers, if not more. I have made it my goal to demonstrate how ELs in Ohio can benefit from personalized learning using tech tools and online platforms. I have pushed the asset-based mindset "YES THEY CAN" so that our ELs are viewed as creators and innovators and not just consumers of information. As their biggest advocate I have implemented new building procedures that give all students access to learning content and English with technology. My students have created videos using WEvideo, they have created New Family Welcome Guides using GoogleDocs, and they have demonstrated that they can use the tools effectively if they have the experience, exposure, and opportunities to do so at school. My ELs are change agents.

Last week, after hearing about the school closures and the need for remote learning, I began to panic. How will my students learn without me? How will they engage in content if they do not have access to technology or Wi-Fi at home? In the lists of distance education resources we are frantically creating and sharing as teachers, I need to address the fact that 83 percent of Ohio's ELs are economically disadvantaged and may have limited access to reliable internet-connected devices during this school closure. Knowing this, I had to get creative. The first step was using Flipgrid to record a video of myself outside, telling kids to go play outdoors and observe nature and its beauty, to let them see me and know that it's going to be OK. I sent the video to families using the Talking Points App, which I often use. After students and their families responded back to my video, I knew I had one platform I could use to communicate with kids and parents. Many of my students do not have technology at home. Their apartment complex has a clubhouse with a few to use, but due to the social distancing, they cannot use them at all.

Next week, I will be returning to work virtually. I have only taught online college classes to adults. I'm not so sure how I am going to navigate this new challenge that faces me. I am expected to use the Canvas platform to instruct 3rd-6th grade students during the day. Canvas is a great and all-encompassing tool for remote learning. I can upload videos, give assessments, and upload documents. I am privileged to have it as a district resource available to me, but it may not be the solution for all of my students. Knowing that many of our ELs will not have access to Canvas or technology at all, I decided to make lessons using Nearpod. I make interesting and fun interactive lessons and share the codes with parents via text or Talking Points. I have created two lessons during my break this week, one about bats and one about Anne Frank, and pushed them out as a trial.

What has happened in the last two days is that the parents are learning alongside their children. I can collect data and check for understanding. Students are engaged in learning, even if they have to use a Smartphone or an X-Box instead of a tablet or computer. The uneasy feeling of inequity still exists. Will this kind of learning be enough? No, it will not. Will it be comparable to what their peers receive? No, but this is a plan that I have to try and build and improve, keeping in mind that access to anything is better than no access at all.

I will continue to push out videos using Flipgrid. My students need to see me. We are much more than just a class, we are more like a family. I need to see them, too. When they respond to videos or send messages, I know that they are still thinking about school. I haven't lost them to fear of the unknown.

Our district is currently working on a plan to get technology and connectivity to each and every student to use and continue to learn from home. District leaders are working on solutions to include all students, including ELs and homeless students in using Canvas as a learning platform. Until those issues get resolved, I will continue to make my daily videos of what I am cooking, the measurements I need for ingredients, quick stories about family traditions and share those with my students. I am thankful for all of the open educational resources I have access to and the free versions that have now become available to use with students and families. As I build the Canvas course to maintain student learning of all language domains, I will make sure that these students have opportunities to create, write books, visit museums, conduct research, collaborate, make up their own songs, and most importantly grow as learners of English. Because I taught them how to use technology for learning, they now will have to use it to continue to learn with me, but not next to me. We may fail, we may prevail, but we will be together again accessing learning.

This is teaching ELs in the time of corona closure.

Personal communication Cornelia Okraski is an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teacher at a high school in South Carolina. She is currently a doctoral candidate in curriculum & instruction at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who writes about edTPA and the seal of biliteracy:
Exactly one week ago, I finished a busy school day at my South Carolina high school, doing exactly what I do every day. I taught ESL to a class of newcomers; I provided support to dozens of English-learners (ELs) who needed help with assignments, quizzes, and tests before co-teaching biology during the last period of the day. I spent time interacting with my mostly Latino students during two lunch periods, as I usually do. Over the weekend, the governor of the state of South Carolina announced that, as of Monday, March 16, all schools would be closed for two weeks.

On Monday morning, teachers came to school to plan for at least two weeks of online teaching and/or learning. Our school uses Google Classroom, but teachers are not required to use it. My English-language support is typically very personalized and differentiated, not something that lends itself well to Google Classroom.

The school had planned to survey students on Monday about their access to computers, tablets, smartphones, and the internet during a possible school closure. However, since there was no school on Monday, this survey was sent out via email to parents. Asking about internet access via email may sound a bit odd, but there were no other ways to find out this information! If parents responded that there was no or little internet access, teachers were asked to prepare a "paper packet" for pickup later in the week. One EL student wrote in an email from her phone, "did i need yo pick up my class work for all my classes at school o I have to do it all in online for the work for ESL i have to do it in online." After reading her email, I imagined that others had similar concerns.

On Day 1 of the school closure, I made my very first Google Classroom site. I posted a welcome message, inviting students to join. I recorded an online presentation, mimicking my usual morning routine of conversation and speaking practice. Thanks to Twitter friends and several Facebook groups of ESL teachers, I spent hours perusing websites with free listening and reading activities for English-learners. The creative process would have been more enjoyable if I had not been so pressed for time. I experienced an urgency to create content online in order to have two weeks' worth of activities ready for students by the end of the day.

The school recommended providing a no-tech option, a choice board of activities for ESL students. I immediately created writing activities ranging from "write 10 questions that your ESL teacher should ask you to learn more about you" to "write about five new things that you have learned in 2020," and "write a list of five things that you miss about being in school."

I am expected to spend six hours per school day actively involved in school-related tasks: two hours of planning, two hours of grading, and two office hours (when I must be available via Google Meet and/or email). To be honest, I have been at my computer for much more than six hours per day. One EL student emailed me asking for help with comprehension of a video that a teacher recorded. The student wrote in an email that this particular teacher "is giving us so many videos that we have to watch and complete some work and I can't understand basically nothing of [the] videos." The student's accommodations require English subtitles and guided notes; I was able to provide both after obtaining access to the teacher's recordings, watching the videos, and sharing my notes with all the EL students who are in this particular class.

If there had been one day to prepare for all of this, I would have shown students how to use my Google Classroom. I would have explained how the listening or reading activities work and how to adjust the levels of difficulty when necessary. I would have signed up the entire class for English-learner apps for smartphones and I would have practiced these apps with them.

My students are not a homogenous Latino group; they come from a variety of Central and South American countries and have very different educational and socioeconomic backgrounds. Until now, I did not realize how the extent of differentiation impacts the way I teach every day. My knowledge of students, their English proficiency, and their preferred way of learning are what determine my particular form of differentiation for each student. Teaching online is teaching for and to the average kid in your class, without focusing on what I feel is the most important part of teaching ESL: personalized instruction. In my experience, there really is no "average" English-learner student.

Communicating with students every day is important during school closures, whether that is via email, Google Classroom, video recording, or phone. Teachers of ELs may choose one over the other, depending on their students' needs. Google Classroom and recorded lessons may not be ideal for smartphones. Instead, personal communication may be the best way to offer students English language and emotional support during school closures.

Steps for online instruction Sam Olbes supports students, parents, and educators to communicate better as she teaches newcomer ELLs in English and math at Manassas Park High School in Manassas Park, Va.
Distance learning may be new as we navigate our ever-changing normal. During my first week with continued, online learning, I made adjustments to my teaching every day to best accommodate my learners. After reflecting and polling my students, I offer you my experience about what works and doesn't work for my newcomer, high school ELL students.
WHAT WORKS Personal Connection
One of the most important things with ELLs is to maintain the high level of personal connection. Every morning, I send out a daily message to the students in my class with a greeting and their agenda for the day. I make a point to personally message two students each day to check in with them, be it a written or video message.

Office Hours. I offer office hours, an hour in the morning and one in the afternoon, to answer questions. We interact through Canvas, my district's learning-management system. At Manassas Park City schools, we are a 1:1 district, meaning that each student in grades 8-12 has a laptop and K-7, a Chromebook. On Canvas, students can send me a message or request an online conference to video chat. I can also set up a conference meeting for whole-group discussions.

Many of my students message me daily to check in or to say they've completed each assignment. I also encourage them to contact their classmates to engender social fortitude. I want them to know that I am here for them, and we are still a community.
Model, Model, Model
When working with ELLs, remember to "model, model, model." When you think you're done, model it again. Give them multiple ways to learn the same thing. A couple of days before our school closure, we practiced our distance learning together.

Videos & Visuals. This evolved into me making videos for them using WeVideo or Screencastify. I posted my videos to my district YouTube channel with closed captions and subtitles in English. In Canvas, each day has an agenda page. I make a video that captures my movement on my computer screen as I explain what they will do and share their content and language objectives.

For my assignments, I made lecture videos to introduce the material and demonstration videos to explain how I want them to complete their assignments. I often use visuals to help solidify concepts. I found success with these as I checked my students' comprehension with their work.

Transitions. Another thing that supports my students' comprehension is the use of transitions to alert them to what's coming. At the end of a lecture video, I put a slide up to signal them to return to Canvas to do a practice assignment on the topic we just covered.

Formatting. I also found success in keeping the same formatting as before. With their increased anxiety about our current situation, I didn't want to change too many things. This gives my ELLs a sense of normalcy when they see their routines built into their online learning. When I finish teaching a specific topic ("chunking"), I put up a slide that says, "Ask me a question." This gives them time to process the information and ask questions.

Be User-Friendly. Additionally, I aim to make things user-friendly. I give them options to access the same material-a link that opens up an extra tab, a link for them to copy and paste, an embedded video or picture, an embedded document, etc. I utilize bullet points and indentations to organize my material. If there are extra steps involved, they may not have success.

Repetition. My students shared that this was critical to their success. Our students are learning in a different environment. There could be many distractions at home, so constantly hearing or seeing concepts can assist with them mastering skills.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Vague vs. Too Much Instruction. When you aren't specific, things don't get done or they get done incorrectly. ELLs can feel overwhelmed when given too much free range; however, this doesn't mean overloading them with text as that can produce the same feeling. This means be purposeful in the words you use. Be specific and take out the fluff.

Inconsistency. Moving classes completely online involved a learning curve. I know that I was inconsistent with what I published to Canvas and I felt that each day got better. Because my students told me that Canvas can be difficult to follow or understand, I focused on being consistent with my formatting and transitions. I'll ask them again next week for feedback.

While information is constantly changing as we practice social distancing, I work hard to offer my ELLs the best that I have from afar. That involves self-reflection and continuing to learn so I can do what is correct for them.

Thanks to Cornelia, Nick, Helen, and Sam for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. And if you missed any of the highlights from the first eight years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. The list doesn't include ones from this current year, but you can find those by clicking on the "answers" category found in the sidebar. Look for Part Five in a day or two ...

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Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language Learners Online (Opinion)

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(This is the fourth post in a multipart series. You can see Part One here, Part Two here, and Part Three here.) The new question of the week is: How can we best support students when we teach online? In Part One, David Sherrin, Lorie Barber, Janelle Henderson, and Cathleen Beachboard contributed their experiences.

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In our last post, we shared information about the new Teaching Channel ELL series based on Academic Conversations (2011) by Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford featuring related classroom videos developed in partnership with the Oakland Unified School District. This week we'd like to delve deeper into these resources and provide strategies for building the oral language skills of ELLs across content areas that are framed around four practices.

Most teachers understand that pair and group work provide excellent opportunities for ELLs' oral language development because each student has more time to talk than in a large group discussion, and students often feel more comfortable sharing their ideas in a small group environment. However, in order to build on the skills described in the CCSS, it may be necessary to re-envision pair and group work and provide additional supports for ELLs. ELLs may find group work challenging if they do not understand their expected role in the task they are working on, or if they do not feel confident in using the language required for the task.

In this blog post we will first examine two speaking and listening standards that can be used to help frame group work. Next, we will highlight four student practices based on recommendations from Zwiers & Crawford (2011) and the practices demonstrated in the Teaching Channel classroom video clips. These four student practices will foster oral language development and support ELLs in meeting the standards. For each of the practices, we will provide an explanation and share some Teaching Channel video clips that show the practices in action.

Four Practices for Fostering ELLs' Oral Language Development

These four practices are:

1. Coming to the discussion prepared

2. Using appropriate body language for discussions

3. Participating by taking turns

4. Making connections to what others have said

Guiding Common Core State Standards

First, let's take a look at two standards that are part of the Speaking and Listening Anchor Standards for K-12 that are most relevant for our purpose.

Comprehension and Collaboration

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1 CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.4
Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

According to the standards listed above, all students (including ELLs) will need practice in holding discussions with varied partners, learning to effectively express their ideas with supporting evidence, and learning to build on the ideas of other students. Teachers can help ELLs meet those standards with the following practices.

Come to the discussion prepared

As we discussed in our Socratic Circles blog post, it is important for students to have sufficient preparation in the content they will be discussing. To view a model of ways teachers can help students prepare and engage in academic discussions through small group work, take a look at the video of Ms. Groves' class discussion of Siddhartha's Journey. In the video, Ms. Groves described having students do several close reading of the Siddhartha's text and answer text-dependent questions that are open-ended, are not only limited to questions with one right response, and require students to answer using evidence from the text. Students then shared their responses to the text-dependent questions in small groups.

In making recommendations for the types of questions and prompts teachers can develop to help students plan for think-pair-share activities, Zwiers (2010) makes some suggestions in the table below. Teachers can provide these types of prompts in a graphic organizer or a journal prompt prior to classroom discussions. It is important to note that these types of questions and prompts can be used across content areas and academic conversations should not be limited only English language arts.

Types of Questions and Examples

Create Questions That...;

Examples

Focus students on key content concepts.

What was the Magna Carta and why was it important?

Explain how the author uses metaphor to enhance the story.

Draw a picture of the water cycle and explain how it works.

Allow for divergent and personalized responses, as long as they connect back to evidence in the text.

If you were a colonist at this time, would you have chosen to fight against the British? Why or why not?

How does our school community deal with waste?

Describe how acids and bases are used at your house.

Emphasize one or more thinking skills being developed in the lesson and unit. Thinking skills that come from standards include: questioning, interpreting, classifying, persuading, evaluating, analyzing, comparing, and synthesizing.

What were the results of the Industrial Revolution?

Come up with two questions about electronic motors.

What can you infer about the character's feelings from her actions?

Deepen understandings and focus students back to the essential standards of the text, lesson, and unit.

What does this have to do with our goal of learning the many ways in which different people helped in the war?

Adapted from: ALDNetwork.org (2013). Think pair share tips. Retrieved from http://www.jeffzwiers.org
In structuring group and pair discussions, it is helpful for ELLs to have their written ideas or notes for reference. However, it is also important to help students transition to being able to speak without the use of notes. As you saw in the video of Ms. Groves' class, she suggested that her students not always read from their notes. Similarly, this video clip of Ms. Brewer's class shows how sticky notes can be used to support student discussion. Sticky notes will help students hold on to their ideas without allowing them to rely too heavily on written notes in a discussion.

Use appropriate body language for discussions

It is important that students learn the body language associated with academic discussions. Zwiers and Crawford (2011) identify behaviors that are valued in school:

Appropriate eye contact (which can mean not constantly staring at the other person but also not always looking down, away, or past the other person)

Facing each other with the entire body

Leaning toward the partner

Showing understanding through head nodding

Appropriate gesturing (not rolling eyes, sighing, or folding arms)

ELLs may need some direct instruction in what is considered culturally appropriate body language for discussions in U.S. classrooms. All the while, teachers of ELLs should recognize and respect how ELLs might show respect and engage in discussions in their cultures. This video of Ms. Nguyen's 6th grade less provides an example of a participation protocol that demonstrates one way to teach students how to appropriately use body language to engage in a discussion. She includes the following criteria in her class' participation protocol: look at your partner, lean towards your partner, lower your voice, listen attentively, and use evidence and examples. As students are having discussions, she uses a checklist to monitor how well they are meeting these criteria.

Participate by taking turns

It is important for students to take turns speaking. In pairs, it is likely that turn taking will occur naturally. However, in a small or large group, a tool such as a talking rock or talking stick (a rock or a stick that students hold to "give them the floor" to talk) can encourage all members of the group to take part in the discussion. Students can pass the talking rock or talking stick around in a circle, and the student who has the rock or stick can take the opportunity to say something or pass. The rock or stick can also be placed in the center of the group and students can take it as they have something to say. In the video of Ms. Groves' class, we saw students pass around a talking rock as a way to support students taking turns and to encourage all members of the group to participate.

An additional way to encourage turn taking is to teach and model strategies for inviting someone into the conversation (e.g., Manuel, what do you predict the girl in the story will do next?)

Make connections to what others have said

Not only do students need to be able to share their own opinions by using evidence from texts or content material being studied, they also need to interact with the ideas of others. Modeling and providing ELs with key phrases can support them in their efforts to build on the ideas of others.

More specifically, Talk moves are the discourse behaviors that students need to practice in order to effectively engage in a discussion. Such behaviors include: restating what was said, agreeing and disagreeing, asking clarifying questions, adding to or piggybacking on what someone has said, and making connections between ideas.

In this video clip, the students in Ms. Simpson's class practice using talk moves in a whole group discussion during a math lesson. Students will need practice with talk moves before they are able to use them on their own in small groups or pairs.

In the video of Ms. Groves classroom, we saw that she had sentence stems that were easily accessible to support students' use of talk moves, and when monitoring the small groups she referred students back to these stems. Another idea for using talk moves would be for each student to have a handout or index card with sentence stems that can be used that students could have in front of them during discussions. The table below provides some possible sentence stems for specific types of talk moves.

Talk Moves Sentence Stems

Restating

So you are saying...;

Put another way, you are saying ...;

What I understood you to say is ...;...;

Asking a clarifying question

Is it your position that...;?

Could you give an example of...;?

I'm confused when you say...;

Could you elaborate?

Zwiers and Crawford (2011) also propose conversation mini-lessons that provide teachers opportunities to introduce a conversation skill to students and then have them practice it in a relatively short time period. Examples of possible mini lessons could include asking each other for supporting examples, building on a partner's idea, and paraphrasing conversations themes. Mini lessons should include opportunities to analyze strong conversation skills, teacher or student modeling, some type of scaffolded support (e.g., graphic organizers, sentence stems), and opportunities to practice and build independent skills.

Summary

We have shared a lot of information with you in this blog post! To help you keep it all straight, the following table provides a summary of the four student practices that support ELLs' participation in pair and small group work. We also define each practice and share the accompanying Teaching Channel videos that show you what the practice looks like in action. Most of the videos are the same as were mentioned above. However, there are also a couple of additional videos added that model the student practices.

Student Oral Language Practice, Definition of Practice, and Video Examples of Practice

More Resources on Building ELLs' Oral Language

For additional resources and videos on this topic, take a look at the following:

We hope these suggestions and supporting video clips give you some new ideas for group work in your classroom. Let us know what works well for your class!

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Using Pair and Group Work to Develop ELLs' Oral Language Skills

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In our last post, we shared information about the new Teaching Channel ELL video series based on Academic Conversations (2011) by Jeff Zwiers and Marie Crawford. This week we'd like to delve deeper into these resources and provide strategies for building the oral language skills of ELLs across content areas that are framed around four practices.

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What should your lessons include for ELs?

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What should your lessons include for ELs?

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In content-area classes, English language learners (ELLs) face a double challenge: they must learn language and content at the same time. In order to succeed in these classes, ELLs need the literacy, language skills, and background knowledge necessary to master that new content knowledge.

One way to address that challenge is through effective lesson planning. Depending on their different stages of English proficiency and literacy, ELLs will benefit from the skills that a well-designed lesson can address. For additional tips on language instruction, see our tips for mainstream teachers.

This video showcases a 5 th-grade team planning a science lesson. ESOL specialist Katy Padilla plays a key role in advocating for ELLs throughout the lesson planning process.

Lesson planning for the ELLs: Step by step

Effective lesson planning requires a number of steps from initial preparation to the final review of material. This blog post on lesson planning with sheltered instruction offers a general roadmap for that process.

Identify standards and objectives

First, identify your goals for the lesson. What are your target standards? It is helpful to post these clearly so that students know what they will be focused on learning and eliminate unnecessary information that does not meet your objective.

Next, identify your content objectives and language objectives:

The content objectives focus on the content you will be teaching, such as a math, Science, Social Studies, or language arts objective.

The language objectives focus on the academic language functions that students need to master in order to access grade-level content.

It is critical to teach language objectives explicitly so that ELLs (and their peers) can learn the content and language they need.

For example, Jennifer Himmel shares the following examples in her popular article about how to write language objectives for content-area lessons:

3rd grade Science, States of Matter

Content Area Standard

Content Objective

Language Objective

California: Students know that matter has three forms: solid, liquid, and gas.

Students will be able to distinguish between liquids, solids, and gases and provide an example of each.

Students will be able to orally describe characteristics of liquids, solids, and gases to a partner.

Build background knowledge

Background knowledge is the hook that students hang new information on. When planning lessons for ELLs, it is important to both:

access students' existing background knowledge

build background knowledge that students.

To start this process, you need to:

1. Identify key background knowledge needed for the lesson

2. Identify students' existing background knowledge

3. Build background knowledge students need

Teach key vocabulary

Selecting words to teach

Select key vocabulary that students need to understand the content. Dr. Diane August notes that there are different kinds of vocabulary words that may need to be taught across different content areas:

words that are critical to the meaning of the lesson or text

words with multiple meanings ("plot," "table," "key," and "yard")

homonyms ("son"/"sun")

general academic words

academic vocabulary in a particular content area.

You can see additional recommendations on how to choose which vocabulary words to teach in this overview of the ACCELL project that Dr. August led at the American Institutes for Research.

Strategies for instruction

Write an ELL-friendly definition for each and post them where students can see them throughout the lesson.

Try different strategies to teach each word. If there are five words to be pre-taught, use different ways of engaging the students to hear and produce each word in context.

Give students ample opportunities to practice each new word both in oral and written languages.

Look for cognates, or words from different languages that are related. For example, Spanish and English have many cognates ("information" /"información") and they are particularly common in terms related to academic content. Learning how to use cognates can bolster Spanish-speaking ELLs' comprehension significantly.

Discuss word families and how different forms of words are used. ELLs may need explicit instruction in which form of a word to use. Help students look for spelling and usage patterns, such as past tense verbs ending in "-ed." Since English has so many exceptions, this isn't always a foolproof strategy, but a basic knowledge of these patterns, rules, and spellings will help.

Related resources

Support academic language development

Academic language, or the language of schooling, is the language that students need to succeed in their content-area classes. It is important for educators and students alike to understand the differences between social and academic language and why textbooks, tests, assignments, or class presentations may be more challenging for students than social conversations.

There are a number of ways to support academic language development, such as:

previewing the text

teaching grammatical structures relevant to a particular content area ("greater than" and "less than" in math class)

showing how the targeted academic language is used in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in your content area.

For example, what is the difference between the language students use to write a science report vs. the language used in a class message board? Sharing examples and teaching specific phrases or structures, especially when they related to a specific content area, can be a helpful way to help students feel comfortable in multiple settings.

Dr. August also encourages educators to familiarize themselves with some features of academic language that may present challenges such as the following:

visual presenations of information, such as graphs, charts, diagrams, maps, and equations

figurative language

syntax, such as passive voice and complex sentences

nominalization, which refers to using a word that is not a noun as a noun or noun phrase (i.e., "the rich").

Collaborating with an ESL specialist can be a helpful way to start identifying areas of academic language where additional support would be helpful.

Related resources

Video: Instruction of Key Academic Vocabulary with High School ELLs

Video: Pre-teaching concepts and vocabulary before a lesson

ESOL specialist Katy Padilla shares more in-depth information about her "Super Secret Science Club," an informal lunch activity for 5th-grade ELLs where they see a preview of the afternoon's lesson.

Video: Bricks and mortar in language instruction

Dr. Cindy Lundgren discusses the concept of "bricks and mortar" when thinking about effective vocabulary instruction for ELLs.

Learn some additional strategies for scaffolding and differentiating instruction.

Scaffolding instruction means to put in place some supports that can help students access grade-level content. In addition, your students may be at varying levels of English language proficiency, and some differentiation might be necessary. It's ok to start small -- and remember that this is an area where an ESL teacher can provide some helpful ideas!

Some strategies for scaffolding and differentiating include:

If students are having trouble with an activity, try to identify whether a new concept, set of directions, vocabulary word, or other element is causing the difficulty. Identify some different ways that you can help students move beyond those obstacles. These might include providing a book about the topic in the student's native language or reviewing new vocabulary words together.

Video: Pre-teaching concepts and vocabulary before a lesson

Video: Using "realia" to build background

Use peer review and cooperative learning strategies

Using peer learning can be a powerful way to help students master content. Here are some ways to get students working together:

Use graphic organizers. Have students work in collaborative groups and use a graphic organizer as a scaffold for specific tasks, such as identifying main ideas or relationships between information, etc. It gives a purpose while reading while interacting and using the language.

Assign reading partners. Pair ELLs with friendly fluent readers. Ask partners to read aloud to each other, alternating sentences or pages. After partner reading, ask them to summarize what they read. For variety, use choral reading once in a while. Assign different sections to each team, ask them to rehearse, and then ask teams to read chorally.

Use Think-Pair-Share (TPS). TPS is a collaborative learning strategy in which students work together to solve a problem or answer a question about an assigned reading. This technique requires students to (1) think individually about a topic or answer to a question; and (2) share ideas with classmates. Discussing an answer with a partner serves to maximize participation, focus attention and engage students in comprehending the reading material. Read more in the following articles:

1. Increase Student Interaction with "Think-Pair-Shares" and "Circle Chats"

2. AdLit.org Classroom Strategy: Think-Pair-Share

You may also wish to look for ways to engage students through hands-on learning and project-based learning. Learn about other ways to effectively using cooperative learning strategies in these articles:

Consider how to incorporate different language skills into the lesson

When learning a new language, students need to master four key skills:

(Drs. Andrea Honigsfeld and Maria Dove note that they like the acronym SWIRL, which includes "interaction" in the list.)

You can learn more about these skills in What Language Skills Do ELLs Need?, as well as ideas for teaching these skills both in person and online in Teaching ELLs Online: How to Develop Students' Language Skills.

For example, you can support ELLs' writing skills by modeling the kinds of writing used frequently in your particular content area, such as lab reports in chemistry class, or a persuasive essay in social studies. Help students understand what the purpose of different kinds of writing are, and review vocabulary that would be typically used in these kinds of assignments. Be sure to provide examples of the different kinds of writing to your students so they can learn and compare models.

Review and assess what students have learned

There are many ways to review and assess content following instruction. For example, graphic organizers are a helpful way for students to demonstrate that they understood the concepts and content, even if they only use a symbol or write one or two words for each category. Graphic organizers can also be used as a pre-teaching or post-teaching strategy for introducing or reinforcing key concepts and how they are related. The more connections ELLs make to the overall content and organization of the content before reading, the easier it will be to focus on and understand what is important. When teachers and/or students use graphic organizers at the end of a lesson, this helps to reinforce and synthesize lesson content.

For example:

Related resources

Video: Using informal assessment with ELLs

In this video, Ms. Samantha Kirch demonstrates the ways she uses informal assessment to gauge student understanding, as well as the kinds of support offered to ELLs who need some extra practice with the concept of drawing conclusions.

Examples from the Content Areas

For examples of content-related lesson plans and strategies for ELLs, take a look at the following:

Closing Thoughts

Finally, we want to close with some thoughts from expert ELL educator and administrator Kristina Robertson. First, she encourages educators to only introduce one new thing at a time when teaching ELLs. And she reminds educators not to be afraid to go back to the drawing board if it doesn't go well the first time! While your lesson planning process may involve some trial and error, you will start to see positive results when you take ELLs into account in your planning. You will soon be on your way to planning lessons that engage, include, and support the ELLs in your class.

Video: Try one new thing at a time

Video: When new things don't work

Kristina Robertson shares her advice for dealing with strategies that just don't work.

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How to Develop a Lesson Plan that Includes ELLs

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In content-area classes, English language learners (ELLs) face a double challenge: they must learn language and content at the same time. In order to succeed in these classes, ELLs need the literacy, language skills, and background knowledge necessary to master that new content knowledge. One way to address that challenge is through effective lesson planning.

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Not all students with learning disabilities struggle in mathematics. They do however have some characteristics in common. By definition, the term "specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations. Such term includes such conditions as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia. Such term does not include a learning problem that is primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, or mental retardation, or emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage. (IDEA amendments of 1997, P.L. 105-17, June 4, 1997, 11 stat 37 [20 U.S.C. §1401 (26)]).

Students with learning disabilities tend to experience academic difficulties, yet they have average to above average intelligence (Friend, 2005).

The academic language difficulties that are characteristic of students with learning disabilities are very similar to those of students learning a second language. For example, both may have difficulty retrieving words. In the case of a student with a learning disability, this may be due to a perceptual, processing or memory disorder. With English Language Learners (ELL), it is more a matter of learning a new word. In both cases comprehension may be slower due to the effort taken to remember words and their concepts. What strategies are useful for a teacher of mathematics whose student has a true learning disability and is also learning English as a second language?

In this article, we will specifically address the area of problem solving because of the strong emphasis it has been given by the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (2000). With the strong demand for language and conceptual development in problem solving, we will highlight aspects of the teacher and student's roles and the importance of discourse. We will provide some strategies for working through mathematical problems, questioning, and assessment. We are making the assumption that the determination of a learning disability was made using best possible assessment practice. We are assuming that the learning disability exists in both languages and that the student is being provided with a rich native language development curriculum.

Implications for Teacher Practice

Teaching Standards

The Teaching Standards are an integral part of the Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM, 1991). The first three standards include items that support language development for EL students who also have learning disabilities.

Worthwhile Mathematical Tasks

The teacher of mathematics should pose tasks that are based on:

Sound and significant mathematics

Knowledge of students' understandings, interests, and experiences

Knowledge of the range of ways that diverse students learn mathematics

and that

Engage students' intellect

Develop students' mathematical understandings and skills

Call for problem formulation, problem solving, and mathematical reasoning

Promote communication about mathematics

Represent mathematics as an ongoing human activity

Display sensitivity to, and draw on, students' diverse background experiences and dispositions

Promote the development of all students' dispositions to do mathematics

Teacher's Role in Discourse

The teacher of mathematics should orchestrate discourse by

Posing questions and tasks that elicit, engage, and challenge each student's thinking

Listening carefully to students' ideas

Asking students to clarify and justify their ideas orally and in writing

Deciding what to pursue in depth from among the ideas that students bring up during a discussion

Deciding when and how to attach mathematical notation and language to students' ideas

Deciding when to provide information, when to clarify an issue, when to model, when to led, and when to let a student struggle with a difficulty

Monitoring students' participation in discussions and deciding when and how to encourage each student to participate

Students' Role in Discourse

The teacher of mathematics should promote classroom discourse in which students

Listen to, respond to, and question the teacher and one another

Use a variety of tools to reason, make connections, solve problems, and communicate

Initiate problems and questions

Make conjectures and present solutions

Explore examples and counterexamples to investigate a conjecture

Try to convince themselves and one another of the validity of particular representations, solutions, conjectures, and answers

Rely on mathematical evidence and argument to determine validity

Tips for Teachers

Working Through Mathematical Problems

One approach to planning lessons involving mathematical problem solving is to plan in three parts: before, during and after (Raborn, 1991; Van De Walle, 2004).

Observing how a student approaches a problem can provide important information for teachers. Not all students will need to do each of the following steps every time they approach a mathematics problem. However, the skills that are listed below can help students prepare mentally for comprehending and solving problems. The following inventory also provides information for teachers to use in order to identify strategies that can be taught to develop and strengthen the language and concepts of mathematics. We have included an Inventory of Student Skills for Mathematics Problem Solving in Appendix A that can be used as an observational checklist for collecting assessment data. Appendix B provides lesson plan Web sites for mathematics instruction.

Before Solving Mathematical Problems

Student Skills

Teacher Strategies

Previews knowledge of the topic involved in the problem

Previews pictures, print, and concrete materials to generate ideas

Direct Instruction

Is familiar with the mathematics materials and is clear about expectations on how to use and care for them.

Direct Instruction

Identifies and requests any additional materials that may be needed to solve the problem

Direct Instruction

Accesses and applies background knowledge to understand the gist of the problem, the vocabulary and the mathematical concept involved in the problem.

GIST

Analyzes the Question-Answer Relationships to examine where to find the answer

Q-A R

Sets purpose - demonstrates understanding about what he/she needs to figure out (the problem and end product)

Direct Instruction

While Solving Mathematical Problems

Student Skills

Teacher Strategies

Brainstorms ideas for solving the problem

Listen. Give students time and space to discuss ideas. Make behavioral expectations clear

Uses concrete materials to manipulate ideas and to test solutions

Have materials readily available for use. Observe use of materials

Student monitors own comprehension

Provide hints only when necessary

Integrates new concepts with prior knowledge

Break down the concept and introduce a simpler version of the problem first

Looks for patterns

Encourage students to express ideas with peers or represent ideas in drawings, writing, or models

After Solving Mathematical Problems

Student Skills

Teacher Strategies

Summarizes and explains problem and solution

Questioning

Makes a symbolic/graphic representation to record solution

Prior Direct Instruction and Guided Practice

Makes a table or chart to show findings

Prior Direct Instruction and Guided Practice

Evaluates ideas from solving problem (ideas from self and peers)

Questioning

Makes applications to student's own life

Questioning

Connects ideas from problem and solution to broader community and societal issues

Questioning

Teaching Strategies

KWL and PREP are two similar strategies that activate students' prior knowledge and provide the teacher with information on what students already know about the topic.

KWL

With KWL, teachers ask students to identify:

1. What the students already Know (K)

2. What the students Want to learn (W)

3. What the students have Learned (L) after the lesson or unit of study

Generally, the class constructs a chart on the chalkboard or on poster chart paper. The chart is divided into three sections with ample room for students to contribute to each section.

PREP

Pre Reading Plan (PREP) is a strategy that helps the teacher to determine the prior knowledge and vocabulary that students have on a given topic (Langer, 1982). The teacher asks the students to tell her or him everything they know about the topic. There are two ways this can be done. Either the students give information verbally in an open discussion, or they contribute first in writing and then verbally. Some teachers distribute three postable notes to each student. Students write one fact they know about the topic on each postable note and place them in a basket. The teacher collects the notes and reads them one at a time with the whole class group. In either case, the teacher uses the student information to develop a chart of what students already know. As students are discussing what they know, the teacher can prompt further discussion with questions such as "What made you think of...?" "Do you want to add or change your first response?" Some teachers organize the chart by subtopic and then keep the chart posted in the room for students to review as they continue to learn about the major topic of study. Many teachers find it helpful to make a chart that organizes the extent to which students are familiar with the topic:

GIST

GIST is a strategy for identifying the most important aspects of a story problem. First, the teacher defines 'gist' to the students as the main idea without excessive details. The teacher draws a chart on the board for each paragraph of the text, or uses a pre-made overhead transparency with charts already outlined. Each chart has 20 boxes. The class can work in groups to capture the main idea of each paragraph in 20 words or less (one word for each of the 20 boxes). If the text includes more than one paragraph, students read and 'gist' the first paragraph completely before proceeding to the second paragraph. Then the students incorporate the information from both the first and second paragraphs in just 20 words. It is recommended that text with no more than three paragraphs be used in this exercise.

GIST Chart for Word Problems

Question-Answer Relationship

Question-Answer Relationship (Q-A R) strategies assist students in examining information provided by the author of the text (Raphael, 1986). Comprehension tasks now require students to answer both explicit and implicit questions. Students are taught to read the text carefully to determine whether answers are in the text or whether they will have to draw from their own knowledge to find answers to questions. Although this strategy is useful with reading of books and longer text, it can be used in problem solving to help students identify what information is indeed provided in the problem and what they will need to draw from their own knowledge. Q-A R uses four categories. When the answer is in the text, it is either stated directly "Right There" in one part of the text, or the student can "Think and Search" to put the answer together from information found in several parts of the text. When the answer is drawn from student knowledge, it is either between the author and reader (the reader must consider what the author is providing in the text and fit it with what the reader already knows), or the reader can answer the question without even reading the text (no part of the answer is in the story, the reader must draw totally from their own experience and prior knowledge).

Questioning Strategies

Current standards emphasize the importance of mathematics as communication. Many students with learning disabilities and many ELL students will benefit from the use of language to elicit, support and extend mathematical thinking. We have included a table of strategies and corresponding examples of questions to use to help students process and conceptualize solutions to mathematical problems. Yeatts, Battista, Mayberry, Thompson, & Zowojewski (2004) and Fraivilling (2001) recommend the strategies included in the table below. The questions were adapted from Carin, Bass & Contant (2005).

Strategies to Elicit Student Thinking

Questions to Elicit Student Thinking

Strategies to Elicit Student Thinking

Questions to Elicit Student Thinking

Elicit many solution methods for one problem

Did anyone find a different way to solve this problem?

Wait for, and listen to, students' descriptions of solution methods

What did you do? What happened when you...?

Encourage students to elaborate and discuss

What surprised you about... Were all of the groups' solutions the same? How were they different? Why do you think there was a difference between your groups' answers?

Use students' explanations as a basis for the lesson's content

What are some things you noticed about the...?

Convey an attitude of acceptance toward students' efforts

I see... So you're saying that...You may need to rephrase student response to clarify for student what was said. Write out student solutions for all to see, or have students contribute to group display.

Promote collaborative problem solving

Ask directly, "How did you work together to solve this problem?" or after one student has described the answer to a question, redirect the question to another member of the same problem solving group, "Rosa, would you like to add anything else?"

Strategies to support students' thinking

Questions to support students' thinking

Remind students of conceptually similar problems

How was this like the problem we solved last week using raisins?

Provide background knowledge

What objects do you see here? (Explicitly teach vocabulary of new and unknown items) What do you see that is new to you? Provide clear and vivid examples/stories or act out any actions required to solve the problem.

Lead students through "instant replays"

What happened first? In what sequence/order did things happen?

Write symbolic representations of solutions when appropriate

Let's write out all the solutions we found. Is there a way to organize these answers? (Organize solutions into tables or graphs)

Strategies to extend students' thinking

Questions to extend students' thinking

Maintain high standards and expectations for all students

Make sure that each student has an opportunity to participate and respond as a valued member of the group and class.
Simulate situations that require the particular problem solved. If you go to the doctor's office, you will expect them to know how to solve this type of problem. Your life could depend on it. Today, you are going to show me what you know by being my doctor. You will explain to me how you have solved this problem...

Encourage students to make generalizations

How does this relate to what your family thinks about...? (topic of discussion)
As a consumer, how would this help you make a choice about the products you will buy?

List all solution methods on the board to promote reflection

Looking at all of our work, how would you state the problem? What are the alternative choices? What personal and societal values are reflected in this problem? Which choice do you think is the best choice for you?

Resources

Preparing to Solve Mathematical Problems

With Teacher Support

Without Teacher Support

Solving Mathematical Problems:

After Finding a Solution to the Problem:

Appendix B: Lesson Plan Web sites

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Improving Mathematics Problem Solving Skills for English language learners with Learning Disabilities

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Not all students with learning disabilities struggle in mathematics. They do however have some characteristics in common. By definition, the term "specific learning disability" means a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may manifest itself in imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculations.

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What do Instructional Conversations look like?

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Teachers at King Middle School in Portland, Maine, make these sentence starters easily accessible by taping a talk moves printout to students' desks. King Middle School developed these talk moves inspired by Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn, Grades 1-6, Second Edition, written by Suzanne H. Chapin, Catherine O'Connor, and Nancy Canavan Anderson (Math Solutions, 2009).

This video is part of our How Learning Happens series, which explores teaching practices grounded in the science of learning and human development.

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Encouraging Academic Conversations With Talk Moves

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Sentence starters that students use to join a class discussion encourage both academic thinking and social connectedness.

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"Everyone tells us we need to teach this way, but no one has shown us how. This shows us how!"

~ teacher at NSTA conference in 2014

"For the first time in over 20 years of teaching, I'm confident that my students understand this. They don't need to memorize formulas or math jingles. They really understand the math."

~ a seventh grade Algebra teacher

"When I do my walk-arounds, I see 100% engagement in high-level math discussion. That's never happened before, and it's exciting."

~ principal in a participating school

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"Everyone tells us we need to teach this way, but no one has shown us how. This shows us how!" ~ teacher at NSTA conference in 2014 "For the first time in over 20 years of teaching, I'm confident that my students understand this. They don't need to memorize formulas or math jingles.

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EL Education - Collaborative Culture: Academic Talk

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Given how socially motivated our students can be, you’d think they’d be pros when it comes to talking about a task! Most students do not intuitively know how to have productive academic discussions, however. Asked to investigate or analyze a topic or begin a project, some students will hold back and…

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The little girl and her mother were standing in the office when I arrived. I had been called out of my class to help enroll a Spanish-speaking student in our elementary school. I was new to the school and not very familiar with the registration process.