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-As others have mentioned here, I'm wondering about the feasibility of testing students in their native language if there aren't staff on hand who speak that language and can interpret the results
-A possible solution here is to do online evaluation with a specialist who speaks the student's language and can offer testing in a virtual/digital format

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A solution orientation makes sense:
-We should aim to test students in their strongest language
-International schools, in particular, should seek community liaisons who can offer support in the student's/family's strongest language
-Teachers need training on how to distinguish specific EL needs from specific LS needs, as well as on what kinds of instructional strategies are most effective
-Bilingualism needs to be celebrated, not seen as a threat to development for students with learning needs

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From the Colorin Colorado article by Alba Ortiz, I learned that:
-early and appropriate interventions for ELs with learning needs are crucial
-there are relatively few educators who are trained in both LS and EL support, so when these needs converge, there seems to be scarcity of expertise in schools
-there is also a scarcity of assessments that can fairly and accurately identify bilingual students' learning needs
-a school culture of valuing bilingualism as well as sharing expertise is a key step in supporting ELs with learning needs
-this is supported by Juliana K's presentation this week, which emphasizes how problematic the myth is that bilingualism might be harmful for students with learning needs

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-This course provides us with a range of scholarly articles as well as practical readings from teachers working in the field.
-We might reach out to colleagues at other schools who have experience in this area.
-We might consult with LS teachers at our school and see what experience they have working with bilingual students.

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-As a high school teacher, I'm curious to know more about what identification and intervention might look like at this level.  It would be problematic, indeed, if a bilingual student still had unidentified/unsupported learning needs at this stage, but I'm sure this happens sometimes!
-I'm curious to know what further education and training I meet need to effectively meet the needs of high school students who need several layers of support.

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-From the assignment notes, we know that offering testing in the student's native language or primary language is the best way to identify learning issues and distinguish the from EL issues.
-We also know that ELs are often over represented in learning support, as a result of the conflation between EL needs and learning support needs.
-Additionally, we know that the intersection of EL needs and learning needs does happen, and the need for timely, effective intervention is particularly urgent in these cases.

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I would be interested to know if anybody works in a school environment were the EAL and LS are separate and how this approach might be modeled in international schools. I still believe that there is a stigma that come with being labeled as an EAL in international schools. How do we work to make the larger school committee to view EALs as highly capable students. The same may be said for LS students.

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To determine what best strategies to use it is important to determine the behaviors the students are demonstrating and determine which are the appropriate EAL and LS strategies that best match the students’ needs. If students do not respond positively to EAL strategies one should work with LS team, family and content teaches to rule out any possible cognitive issues.

In addition, it would be wise to develop an appropriate referral process for EAL students.

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I have to confess that my question is the same as Manu's. How can we remove the prejudice that communities have in relation to Learning Disabilities and diagnosis?

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Schools should have a detailed go to steps for teachers to take when they have identified a student.

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- That schools should not have a restrictive language policy. Translanguaging, translation and teacher differentiation should be present in all content areas.
- We have learned that we should always go back to the learner's first, home or native language to try and acquire more information on them.
- Some learners need more time.
- Every learner is entitled to differentiation.
- That the EAL/LS teacher is a valuable input and an essencial link to new students.
- That there should be specific, research based steps to take when referring a student to learning support.
- Good teaching strategies should be used in every classroom, for all students, but specifically EAL/LS students.
- We learned that although all students learn better through scaffolding, and other strategies and best practices, the shoe does not fit all. Specific strategies must be developed for each learner.

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- What does research say?
- Have the latest research advised us to do things differently?
- We should always be exchanging ideas and outcomes with LS and other departments at school.

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- We want to know how to make the EAL & LS departments be heard and respected.
-  We want to make sure that when the EAL/LS teacher sees that a learner needs to be assessed or seen by an outside professional, what is the magic trick to make this happen quickly?
- We want to learn how long should the  wait be. How long is long enough to be able to pinpoint if the learner has a learning issue or is taking a bit longer to acquire a new language?
- Should we pull out?
- Should we push in?
- Should we do both?

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- Schools tend to pair up EAL's and LS learners.
- All new students should be tested in order for the school to access where learners are on their language acquisition journey.
- Scaffolding is a one main differentiation that all EAL and LS student must be allowed this "treat".
- Testing allows us to view the ELL, but identifying LS needs comes with observation , time, family investment, and outside professionals.
- Testing to identify LS needs should happen in the student's native, or preferred language.
- EAL and LS students have different needs, but all students benefit from scaffolding and differentiation.

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The main question that I still have is how we as educators can help reduce the stigma associated with a LD.

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We can carefully prepare scaffolds for our lessons and materials so that the content is accessible to all learners.

Create a comfortable and safe learning environment.

Work more closely with specialists to identify these students and provide the appropriate support.

Create policies in our school to ensure that these students are receiving the proper support from trained specialists.

Having a professional development for EAL teachers and LS specialists.

Language experience approach → having students access information in their home language first and then in English.

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A series of factors need to be ruled out before placing a student in special education. For example, has the student been given the appropriate opportunity to learn

Some essential steps to take when a student is identified as struggling in class:
1.  Observe them in the classroom. Is the teacher implementing appropriate practices? Is the instruction targeted to the student’s English proficiency level? Are their peers succeeding?
2. If most of their peers are succeeding, collect student data. What is their cultural, socioeconomic, experiential background? What tasks can they perform?

A student with a learning difficulty has trouble in their first language as well as the language they’re learning.

There are several similar characteristics between the process of language acquisition and a LD. For example, both may have difficulty concentrating, and may become easily frustrated.

To determine if an ELL has a LD, we need to compare how they are doing with their peers.

The family of the child struggling should be notified and asked for their input. They should be provided with an intervention plan.

ELLs that have a LD must receive accommodations, modifications and adaptations.

ELLs with an LD need to have culturally and linguistically responsive teachers, must have a supportive environment, and should receive research-based interventions.

Some practices might include, small group instruction, explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies, explicit vocabulary preteaching, phonics strategies, repeated reading, scaffold story retelling, etc.

Some other accommodations include, extra time, clarifying instructions, provide visual supports, divide assignment into smaller chunks, allow use of L1 for expressing ideas, etc.

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Reading relevant research papers/articles from specialists.

Communicating with LS specialists

Reading different case studies.

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I want to know what an EAL teacher can do when they suspect they have identified an EL with a learning difficulty.

I want to know how language learning and a learning disability overlap. What are some common characteristics?

How can we help diminish the stigma surrounding learning difficulties/disabilities?

What are some strategies an EAL teacher can use when teaching a student with a learning difficulty?

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I already know that many English learners are wrongly placed into special education due to their lack of English skills.

There are many factors that come into play when placing an EL into special education. For example, taking into account if they are immigrants and are still getting used to a new sociocultural environment.

Students that are considered emergent bilinguals that belong to a ‘minority’ group are a lot more marginalized compared to their peers.

EAL teachers need to work together with specialists to properly determine a student’s placement in special education if needed.

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I still haven't found the answer about dealing with long term language learners. Is this a miss of EAL specialists or this is the effect of subtracted bilingualism, sequential language learning? Or it is a language learning disability and has to be addressed by LS experts?

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Our school already has well-stuffed LS and EAL departments that have vast expertise in their respective areas. What we can do as these course participants is the following:
1. Share the information we have collected with stakeholders: LS and EAL departments, School administration, and the Curriculum Coordinator. Agree with the need to make changes.
2. Create school-wide policies and ensure their consistent application.
3. Have PD with outsourced experts on this issue.
4. Discuss the information with content teachers. Everybody should be addressing the needs of multilingual learners.

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There are specific research-based strategies to support EAL learners with learning disabilities, among which are:
a)     provide students the opportunity to develop academic oral language while simultaneously teaching literacy and other content areas,

b)    provide support in students’ primary language, if possible implement bilingual programs or have a language specialist on site to intervene and assess

c)     teach high-utility academic vocabulary across content areas, (c) provide instruction and/or instructional support in the primary language as needed, and

d)     implement sheltered instructional techniques include having clear content and language objectives, building background knowledge, providing information in a comprehensible way, teaching learning strategies, and providing students with opportunities to interact with peers and teachers (see Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2012)

e)     implement culturally responsive instruction- consider cultural nuances while planning lessons

f)     Use peer-supported instruction/learning

g)    Teach explicit comprehension strategies. ELs must be explicitly taught comprehension strategies to help them access the content while they are developing English proficiency. Strategies include summarizing, inferring, making connections, and asking questions. Collaborative strategic reading, developed for ELs and other struggling students, is one method that has been shown to be effective in teaching comprehension strategies (Klingner et al., 2012)

h)    Progress monitoring and measuring learners’ progress short-term and long-term. More specifically: implement purposeful and appropriate assessment practices taking into account English learners’ primary language, English-language proficiency and ongoing academic progress.

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By closely communicating with LS specialists, reading relevant literature and doing research and professional training in this field and making conclusions, drafting policies and implementing them consistently.

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1. How can we join our efforts with LS Department to come as a united front in addressing our learners. It is true, their educational needs are different, but the approaches to meet the needs in classroom often overlap. How to capitalize on that?
2. How can we properly assess there is a problem with English learners? What are the research-based strategies to guide us in the process?
3. How do we treat long term language learners or those without one strong academic language? Is this a language learning disability?

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How do we make sure that we know what we know and we know what we don't know?
How do we make sure we know when to refer a student to the counselor or a specialist?

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I have come to the conclusion that we can approach our school organisation and our instruction in such a way that it anticipates possible EAL and LS needs. Not that this does not mean that I think we don't need diagnoses, but I do think we can do a lot (better) without.
These are some of the things teachers at the specialist ASD school did... Which ones are always a good idea?

Ensuring learners had a clear understanding of the timetable of the day through a visual timetable of what would be covered and when

Planning lessons where subjects such as numeracy and literacy would be earlier in the day and more creative subjects such as arts in the afternoon

Offering individual education plans to ensure that while the focus is on access to the curriculum for everyone and interventions are targeted to specific individual learning needs

Integrating ‘whole brain’ activities through using drawing, music, songs and games into all lessons

Demonstrating practical application of subjects with hands on experience so learners can discover for themselves

Delivering subject knowledge in meaningful ways but also ensuring an approach to consistent behaviour in the classroom – knowing when to listen to the teacher, when and how to be on task and structures such as putting up hands before answering questions or asking before moving about the class

Ensuring different types of assessment – including self-assessment.

Explaining behaviour and the consequences of behaviour through social stories as one of the main challenges with learners with ASD is in not understanding appropriate behaviour. This is a really powerful technique

Providing a safe room where a learner can go at any time for a calming environment or for release of stress/ anger away from others

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1. There should be clear distinction between differences and disabilities. While EAL learners need educational support, they should not be identified as having learning disabilities unless the proper testing is implemented.
2. Educators should consider  the culturally responsive teaching strategies besides the common interventions, such as sheltered instructions, in-class support, scaffolds etc.

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The texts I read were specifically on ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and MTSS. Here is the essence of the ASD text (and note the possible overlap with EAL learners):
Learners on with ASD are likely to have difficulties with the following;

Processing and retaining verbal information

Following instructions

Organising and planning

Seeing the bigger picture

Focus or motivation

Coping with change / unpredictability

Working co-operatively

Processing sensory information

Difficulty understanding and expressing feelings

Learning difficulties may arise from:

An excessive high sensitivity to sensory stimuli;

Inability to understanding abstract concepts such as, goodness, fairness, metaphor or humour;

An inability to understand appropriate behaviour in social contexts;

How to make to friends.

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Arguably, what we are doing now is very functional. Reading research and papers. Looking at MTSS and concept like universal screening. Talking to stakeholders, and experts.

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How can we try to get it right?
How can we train ourselves and our colleagues to do it better?
What can we do ourselves?
What can't we do ourselves and when do we need experts?
Who are the experts?

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Too often are either EAL or LS wrongly diagnosed by non-experts looking for an explanation. This is not generally done on purpose. There are, for example, many possible reasons why a student struggles with reading a text.
When a student has both EAL and LS needs, diagnosing this becomes even harder. A healthy approach really is to diagnose LS in the students dominant/first/native language.

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How can we realistically assess students in their mother tongue in a school setting if there is no teacher who speaks that language.

What are other concrete actions we can take to :
- better promote equity of our multilingual learners in International School
- Improve our curriculum to be culturally and linguistically responsive for our multilingual and multicultural population

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Good teaching strategies can benefit all students. Some of the LS strategies can support EAL studetns and viceversa.

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The main take away from me this week is to ensure our ELLs students are being assessed in English and their first language when we are trying to find out whether they have learning dis/abilities.

I also want to help our content teachers understand that our multilingual learners will develop at a different rate, not because they have learnig dis/abilities but most likely because they are (becoming) multilingual and this takes time because the language acquisition process is different for monolingual and multilingual students.

My immediate action is  to reinforce the message that being multilingual is an asset to build on and that our teachers need to be properly trained on culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy.

I also want to challenge the misconception that our students with learning dis/abilities can't learn a foreign language or even worse, should be discouraged from  using their home language. I always see students with LD removed from foreign languages classes in order to receive Learning Support. But, learning another foreign language / further developing their home language could help them with learning English. Why take away their opportunity to become multilingual because they have a LD when research shows that learning two languages does not delay the language development of bilingual children with Down Syndrom  and Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

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Reaching out to families. Finding out if they have noticed similar behaviours at home when using their native language.

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Collaborative works between conent, EAL and LS teachers. Multidisiplanary teams and dialogue is essential to understand students needs.

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👉 To help us make the distinction between ELLs and students with learning dis/abilities, we should :
- use a use a "hypothesis-driven approach" : exploring the hypothesis that the causes of the student’s learning difficulties are primarily external factors
- look for patters in students performance
- understand which English phonemes do not exist in the student's native language
- assess ELLs' language proficiency and academic skills in English and their first language
- encourage/allow students to respond in a combination of English and other languages

👉 learning two languages does not delay the language development of bilingual children

👉 Sequential bilinguals acquire one language in the home and then another language after they start school or even later

👉 Simultaneous bilinguals, on the other hand, acquire two or more languages at about the same time, from birth or during early childhood

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We need a fully understand our students (talk to their teachers, their family, improve our formative assessment practices, stop comparing our bilingual and monolingual learners, assess students in their home language, understand the language acquisition process…)

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How we help teachers make the distinction between a student with Learning Difficulties and ELLs?
How can we change the mentality from seeing ELLs' language as problem to be fixed rather than as asset to build on?
How can we ensure that ELLs receive an adequate opportunity to learn?

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- Often language acquisition is misinterpreted as a learning or language disability
- Often bilingual students are described as “limited in both language”

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Survey colleages, reach out to other EAL colleagues, review literature, find models school and ask for support.

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Has anybody worked remotely to diagnose a students with LS needs? It would be helpful when trying to evalute children in their native language.

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How many of you an EAL department at your school that is independent from LS?

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Has anybody come across any effective protocols to reffer EAL students who have might have LS needs for further evaluation?

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Schools tend to place EAL programs under LS services.

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Schools tend to place EAL programs under LS services.

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The best way to identify EAL students who have LS needs is to assess them in their native language.

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EAL and LS students do not have the same needs. Some EAL might have LS needs. (About 10% of EAL students are also LS students)