# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you're an educator committed to supporting language growth and equity for multilingual learners, translanguaging may be one of the keys to your success. In this article, I'll introduce you to translanguaging, its benefits in the classroom, and how you can leverage it within your teaching practice.

I remember one of my first trips to Latin America. My little sister and I visited Alajuela, Costa Rica. We were there to do volunteer work for the summer, teaching English in a local school. We stayed with a host family whose dominant language was Spanish.

My sister and I were just beginning to acquire Spanish, and so we were met with the expected challenges. From navigating the transportation system, to reading menus, to figuring out how to tell our host parents that there was a tarantula in our bedroom, we had constant language barriers to overcome.

How did we make it through and learn how to navigate this new place? What helped us interpret and express what was needed? What was even more helpful than our pocket dictionaries? Translanguaging.

What Does Translanguaging Mean?

Translanguaging occurs when a person utilizes features from more than one language to negotiate meaning or communicate within a single context. Languages blend and combine in a dynamic way. Research shows us that new languages develop in concert with, not compartmentalized from, existing foundational language. The brain needs to be able to fluidly refer to all linguistic assets as it constructs new features of communication.

Translanguaging in Various Settings

We may observe translanguaging happening spontaneously in social contexts, as two bilingual people converse using both languages in order to communicate information or increase clarity.

So my sister and I used translanguaging in Costa Rica when:

One of us would clarify the meaning of a Spanish word or phrase to the other

We would be talking with our host family, and turn to each other to confirm that we were understanding the conversation correctly

We had a conversation about pop culture with the teenage daughter of the host parents, using both English and Spanish

In the academic setting, translanguaging pedagogy can provide a guided process in which students draw from multilingual resources to maximize learning. Learners build bridges from their dominant language practices to those of academic English. For teachers, this could include giving students structured opportunities to:

Receive content-area input in both languages

Engage in peer discourse in one or both languages

Make explicit connections in a way that supports acquisition of new learning and vocabulary

Create a learning artifact that demonstrates content understanding, utilizing both languages, as needed

Learning how to guide students in productive translanguaging is a process. It requires a certain balance, as well. Of course, we want students to maintain growth in academic English acquisition. At the same time, we don't want to force the compartmentalization or limitation of languages that might be super helpful for learning. It's all about intentional planning and purposeful implementation.

Benefits of Multilingual Learning Environments Where Students are Invited to Translanguage

There are a multitude of amazing benefits that come when learners are empowered to translanguage:

1. Students are given the freedom to express themselves and take pride in their primary language.

2. The learning community experiences a shift toward equity and inclusion for linguistically diverse students, as multilingualism is celebrated as a useful and desirable asset.

3. Multilingual learners have an increased sense of belonging and are able to contribute/add value to classroom activities.

4. All students in the classroom have increased exposure to multiple languages, preparing them for success in our diverse global society and workforce. (Over half of Earth's population is multilingual!)

5. MLs are more likely to comprehend, analyze, and interpret content-area texts and materials.

6. MLs are more likely to participate in peer, group, and class oral discourse.

7. Assessment of content learning may be more accessible and equitable.

One of the benefits of multilingual learning experiences that I love the most is that it will allow students' linguistic identities to be affirmed, rather than stifled...Activated, rather than ignored. Individuals can fully come to life when their language can "breathe."

Leading Multilingual Learners into Guided Translanguaging Opportunities (even if you don't speak their language!)

Let's talk about practical ways you can invite students to translanguage to enhance the learning experience. Keep in mind that if structured appropriately, these methods will maintain a sense of purpose and intentionality. They will be a constructive use of lesson time, and will remain grounded by academic objectives and explicit teacher direction. Even if the teacher does not speak the languages represented in the classroom, translanguaging can be successful.

Some things that are strongly recommended before diving into translanguaging practices:

An asset-based, culturally-sustaining classroom, where all learners' differences are valued and given a safe space to blossom

Patience and perseverance, as students need time to grow comfortable, confident, and accustomed to class routines and expectations for activities. It takes time for any routines to become established in a classroom.

For monolingual teachers, a bit of courage, and even being okay with potential discomfort at first, when unable to understand student communications. The emphasis must be on students making meaning, in whatever language they are able to do so. You can have fun being an emergent bilingual alongside them, taking the stance of being a lifelong learner yourself! 🙂 It's okay to rely on translation tools-and the students-to help you interpret and engage with translanguaging students.

Ready to introduce translanguaging opportunities into lessons? Let's take a look at some options and examples.

Translanguaging Examples in the Classroom Setting: 5 Approaches

I always enjoy making the shift from theory to practical strategies which you may implement in your teaching context. So here are 5 possible approaches, with translanguaging examples in the classroom setting:

1. Strategic pairing and grouping of students

Example: You have established a routine for peer discussion or "turn and talk" during whole-group lessons. You intentionally place or partner same-language students together, and offer them the opportunity to translanguage as part of the discussion routine.

Example: You have the second language (L2) version of a chapter book or text available. As the class is directed to read a portion of the book, you position same-language peers so that they may read the L2 version together.

2. Tapping into multilingual literacies through content-area texts and materials

Example: You have planned to show a short video as part of your content lesson, and you have one student in the class whose dominant language is other than English. You know he will have a difficult time accessing the video presentation. You locate a video on the same subject matter in his L1, and give him opportunities to view this prior to the lesson.

Example: Your "big box" ELA curriculum includes Spanish versions of the texts for each lesson. Some of your students have Spanish L1 literacy, while others have had interrupted education, and are not able to read it. You allow these students to read the text in a small group, with those who are able reading it aloud in Spanish. As the lesson progresses, you ensure that these students have access to both versions of the text, so that they can reference and make meaning from the two.

3. Activating student talk

Example: You are about to guide students in a time of partner or small-group discussion, in which they will respond to a prompt or essential question. You provide a couple of sentence starters, and explain that you'd like to hear students using the sentence starters as they share their ideas. You also display the sentence frame (using Google Translate) in some students' L2, and say that they are welcome to translanguage as they share their ideas. (Be sure to group them strategically, so that monolingual students aren't excluded from discussion.)

Example: Establish a word/phrase of the day, in which a student teaches the rest of the class a helpful word or phrase in their L1. Encourage students to practice and apply new words or vocabulary throughout their day.

4. Multimodal, multilingual assessment options

Whether writing or speaking, some students may benefit from being able to initially produce or express academic ideas in their L1. This product may be assessed as is. It can also serve to launch them into a scaffolded English-language assessment activity.

Example: Students are writing a personal narrative. You have a newcomer with strong L1 literacy, and would like to give them the opportunity to freely express their story. You enable them to do so in their L1 first, and they submit a version in both languages. You work with the ML specialist to guide the student in a lesson in which they recreate the narrative. They might label pictures of the narrative events, or co-construct simple sentences, based on the student's English proficiency level.

Example: A team of students is about to present to the class the outcome of their science experiment. Part of students' grade is based on participation. You enable multilingual learners to language freely and flexibly throughout the experiment. For the presentation, you allow them to share their part/ideas/input using their L1. (They may speak, if they are confident to do so, or write, and translate as needed for the class to understand what is shared).

5. Impromptu translanguaging to respond to student needs

Example: You are working together as a class to solve a math problem, and one student has found a solution. If they are bilingual themselves, you may invite them to share their process/thinking in both English and their other language. Or, you have another student listen to the explanation, then repeat it in the L2.

Example: You are sharing new information on a topic, and have a sense that a key content term being used might have a Spanish cognate. You don't know much Spanish, and are unsure, but you refer to a Spanish-speaking student to translate, share from their background knowledge, or look up the translation. (We love a little on-the-fly bilingual sparkle in a lesson!) 🙂

These are just some translanguaging examples, to give you a sense of what this might look like for you and your learners. Do you have any additional examples or ideas? Please share in the comments!

Tips for Implementation:

Introduce the class to the definition of translanguaging

When you are preparing students for a learning activity where translanguaging will be encouraged, signal to them or directly state your intentions/expectations/hopes for the activity.

Remind students of tools and resources they may utilize.

You may wish to model for students what translanguaging may look like for a particular activity, especially if they are not accustomed to a linguistically-inclusive learning environment.

Remain very open and observant, responding to individual student needs and preferences, rather than relying on assumptions. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

One final encouragement:

It's a great idea to start small. Translanguaging in the classroom is meant to be purpose-driven. It's meant to be guided by the intentional, supportive structure provided by the teacher. The better you know your students, the more confident you will be as you guide them.

And if you'll humor me...some analogies (I love a good analogy!)

Just as an artist selects each color and each brushstroke to create something wonderful...Your students' linguistic palettes are ready for action, if you're willing to let them use all their tools to bring about new learning!

Let's say someone gets injured and needs immediate transportation to the hospital. Does it matter to you whether someone drives them by car, motorcycle, or airplane, as long as the vehicle gets them to the desired destination? No, because the objective is what's most important.

Let's say you're volunteering to build a house with Habitat for Humanity. You're grooving right along with your electric nail gun, and your friend shows up with a hammer. Of course, you invite them to build with you, using the tool they brought. In the end, the house will get built through collective effort!

Thank you for the good work you do to craft equitable learning experiences for your students! All the best,

Side note: I know there are some schools that have policies that prohibit or discourage translation or inclusion of languages other than English...So please receive and use this information in whatever way seems fitting or appropriate for your current context...(and consider advocating for change!)

For more on translanguaging, check out:

What is Translanguaging? (Heinemann Blog)

Rooted in Strength: Using Translanguaging to Grow Multilingual Readers and Writers, by Laura Ascezni-Moreno and Cecilia Espinoza

A Pedagogy of Translanguaging (Language Magazine)

Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators, by C. Celic and K. Seltzer

The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning, by O. Garcia, et al.

Honoring Language Assets - Whitepaper by Ellevation

You might also like:
3 Impactful Ways to Support ELLs When Teaching: Scaffolding Strategies 3 Important Considerations for Class Placement, Seating, and Grouping ELL Students in the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Simple Ways to Invite Translanguaging -and all its benefits!- Into Your Classroom - The All-Access Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you're an educator committed to supporting language growth and equity for multilingual learners, translanguaging may be one of the keys to your success. In this article, I'll introduce you to translanguaging, its benefits in the classroom, and how you can leverage it within your teaching practice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As more states and districts are embracing the "science of reading," some educators and advocates have raised the question: Will these methods work for English-language learners?

The "science of reading" has become shorthand in some literacy circles for approaches to early reading instruction that emphasize explicit, systematic teaching.

Some researchers and ELL experts say that's a problem. The National Committee for Effective Literacy, a new advocacy organization formed this year, has argued that states that have taken up these initiatives have narrowed literacy instruction to "a few foundational reading skills" that fail to meet the needs of English learners.

The group's aim, said Martha Hernandez, an NCEL member and the executive director of Californians Together, is to "ensure that the research and policies and practices that address English learner and emergent bilinguals were spotlighted, and are part of the national literacy conversation."

Other early literacy researchers, though, have said that NCEL is misrepresenting some of the changes that states and districts are making to their reading teaching methods-and that a lot of the strategies that work for native English speakers can be effective for English learners, too.

So what are these areas of overlap, and where do English learners need something different?

What do school systems mean when they say the "science of reading"?

States that have recently passed laws aiming to improve reading instruction have mandated that teachers be trained in delivering this kind of foundational skills instruction, or that schools use materials and assessments that support it.

Systematic, explicit instruction in letters and sounds is crucial for beginning readers, especially those with dyslexia or phonological processing problems, said Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, a bilingual speech-language pathologist and an associate research professor at the University of Houston.

Still, she said, "phonology and phonics are one piece of the puzzle. It's not everything that literacy is about."

Teachers need to help students develop a host of early literacy skills, like their ability to express themselves through spoken language, their ability to understand what others are saying to them, and their vocabulary, Cárdenas-Hagan said. Students should have opportunities for practice that integrates listening, speaking, reading, and writing, she added.

While these new state laws mandate certain approaches to foundational skills instruction, they direct schools to prioritize other reading skills, too. Many cite the five components of reading studied in the National Reading Panel in 2000-instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.

Even so, critics of these laws worry that a more comprehensive focus will be lost in their implementation, and that school systems will be incentivized to double down on foundational skills instruction at the expense of all else.

"When it hits the classroom, when it hits district administration, that's what they look for, that's what they assess," said Laurie Olsen, an NCEL member and the board president of Californians Together.

Still, he said, new state laws often don't specify how much time to spend on different reading skills or how to teach them-nor should they, Goldenberg said: "You can't expect legislation to be curriculum guides." That means, though, that these laws' success or failure lies in implementation, he said.

Does this research apply to English-language learners, too?

In 2002, the U.S. Department of Education convened the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth, tasking it with reviewing the research on best practices for literacy development among ELLs.

The panel's report, published in 2006, found that a lot of what works for kids whose first language is English is also effective for kids who speak a different language at home. Instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension-the five components of reading studied in the National Reading Panel a few years earlier-all had "clear benefits" for ELLs.

But the literature also showed that instruction was most effective when it was tailored to ELLs' specific needs and unique founts of knowledge. And crucially, kids learning English needed more instruction in oral English proficiency than their peers: things like vocabulary knowledge, listening comprehension, and syntax.

The panel found that schools weren't supporting students enough in these areas, and more recent research finds that schools still aren't doing enough to help ELLs develop academic language in English.

With these students, teachers need to discuss the meaning of words constantly-even shorter, simpler words that teachers might not treat as vocabulary words with native English speakers, said Cárdenas-Hagan. In working with students who are learning how to speak a new language, teachers need to be purposeful about developing vocabulary and oral language skills in every lesson.

In part, this is so that students can understand that the words they're sounding out have meaning, said Kathy Escamilla, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and an NCEL member. She gave the example of a 1st grade class, where a teacher might ask students to clap out how many sounds are in the word "sofa."

Native English speakers would know that word, but other students might not. If the teacher doesn't help English learners understand the meaning, then it's harder for students to make the connection that these sounds represent word parts, Escamilla said.

And there are other reasons why English learners might need teachers to pay more attention to vocabulary instruction. A word like "run," for example, has multiple meanings in English: You can run a race, but you can also run your finger down a list, or run a computer program. Discussing those multiple meanings as students encounter these words in phonics lessons is a key part of vocabulary instruction for English learners, Cárdenas-Hagan said.

Teachers need to build students' oral vocabulary beyond these words, too, so that they're prepared for the more challenging texts they'll encounter after the earliest grades, said Goldenberg. This is important for all students, but especially so for English learners.

"If the only English-language development that kids are getting in K, 1, 2 are the words they're learning to read, that is an impoverished ELD curriculum," he said.

Research on interventions for Spanish-speaking students who are at risk of reading difficulties has found that successful approaches combine both instruction in the five components of reading identified in the National Reading Panel report, and additional support in developing spoken language skills in English from trained bilingual intervention teachers.

What if students are in bilingual programs and learning to read in two languages?

English learners aren't blank slates. They come into schools with language-and often literacy-skills from the language they speak at home. These skills can support them in developing proficiency in English.

The number of dual-language programs in the United States is growing, but there's still a shortage of certified bilingual teachers-and, as Education Week has reported, English learners often face competition for spots in these programs from affluent, native English-speaking parents who are increasingly seeking out bilingual education for their children.

In its position paper, NCEL outlined best practices for English learners in dual-language programs. Good teaching in a bilingual setting isn't just "repeating the same thing in two languages," they write.

It requires "coordinated and aligned" literacy teaching, with a scope and sequence that makes sense in each language. Students should have access to high-quality materials and assessments in both languages, as well as opportunities to write, have conversations, and deliver presentations in both.

And importantly, they write, dual language programs should celebrate diversity, "including learning about the benefits of bilingualism and explicit efforts to equalize the status of 'minoritized' languages."

But Escamilla says the two goals aren't mutually exclusive. "While it is true that most of the kids who are labeled as English learners are in English programs, that does not mean that we shouldn't advocate or push for the development of bilingual programs."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The 'Science of Reading' and English-Language Learners: What the Research Says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As more states embrace certain evidence-based methods, advocates question: Will they work for English learners?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As a classroom teacher, I was largely ignorant of, and definitely suspicious of, research. I believed that researchers could make their studies come out any way they wanted them to, and that a good teacher who reflected on her own teaching knew much more about how to be effective with her students than any researcher did. Later, as a university professor, I learned how important good research can be, and how difficult it is to do really good experimental research in a field such as education, where it is impossible to control all the variables.

For that reason, I was pleased in 1997 when Congress funded the National Reading Panel (NRP) to evaluate research about teaching children to read. The panel's charge was to review existing studies, choose those that were well designed and well implemented, and synthesize their findings. The results were published in 2000 (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000), and became the basis of the Reading First grant program included in the No Child Left Behind legislation of 2001. Although there was initially a good deal of controversy about the findings of the report, all U.S. elementary school teachers were soon very aware of the five "essential elements" of reading instruction (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension).

Teachers of English language learners (ELLs), however, were left to wonder if and how the findings of the NRP applied to their students. How do you teach phonemic awareness and phonics in English to students who can't yet hear and distinguish the sounds? How do you teach fluency to students whose control of the structures of the English language is still limited? How do you teach them grade-level vocabulary when their vocabulary knowledge starts so far behind that of their English-speaking peers? How do you teach reading comprehension in English when they don't yet comprehend the English language?

Now there appears to be help. In 2002, the U.S. Department of Education funded the National Literacy Panel on Language Minority and Youth to survey, select, and synthesize research on teaching language-minority students to read and write. Their report was published recently (August & Shanahan, 2006).

How much help will this report provide for teachers of ELLs? A preliminary review of the Executive Summary (August, 2006) and the section of the full report on "Educating Language Minority Students" reveals these four potentially important general recommendations:

Literacy in the native language is an advantage.

We already knew this (see, for example, Collier & Thomas, 1997), and it doesn't help teachers working in situations where literacy instruction in the native language is not possible.

Substantial coverage of the five essential elements of reading instruction helps.

However, this finding is based on only 14 studies that looked at instruction of the essential elements of reading with ELLs. Because of the small number of studies, this recommendation is based on the fact that there is nothing in these 14 studies that contradicts the findings of the numerous studies of native speakers that were reviewed by the National Reading Panel. Also because of the small number of studies, no specific practices could be advocated for teaching the essential elements of reading to ELLs.

Reading programs for ELLs should include intensive language development as well as instruction in literacy strategies and skills.

This recommendation is not based specifically on the research, because there were no studies that addressed the inclusion of intensive language development in reading instruction for ELLs. It is instead a hypothesis drawn from several other findings: (1) native speakers benefit more from instruction in the essential elements than do ELLs; (2) ELLs with greater language proficiency benefit more from instruction in the essential elements than do those with less proficiency; and (3) instruction in the essential elements with ELLs has a greater effect on decoding and fluency than on comprehension.

Instruction needs to be adjusted to meet the needs of ELLs.

The report, however, states that there is not enough research to be able to identify specifically how those adjustments should be made. I could find only seven specific suggestions that would be useful to teachers of reading classes that include ELLs:

Provide additional work on English phonemes that are not present in the students' native language.

If students are literate in their native language, focus on differences between that language and English, with less attention given to elements that will transfer.

Provide extra practice in reading words, sentences, and stories.

Use cognate words in the native language as synonyms when teaching vocabulary.

Identify and clarify difficult words and passages.

Consolidate knowledge of the text through the use of summaries.

Find appropriate ways to use the native language.

These seven findings do not constitute a reading program for ELLs. We obviously need much more research. However, given the fact that teachers cannot wait until research catches up with their needs in order to implement effective practices with their ELL students, I think it is important to look not only at the research that is available, but also at what experienced, reflective teachers of ELLs (and observers of those teachers) consider to be best practices. The rest of this article will discuss the implications of available research on instructional practices in the teaching of the five essential elements of reading to ELLs, based on the findings of the National Literacy Panel as much as possible, but also drawing on information from reliable sources such as The Knowledge Loom: Spotlight on Elementary Literacy (The Education Alliance at Brown University, n.d.), as well as my own experience.

Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is difficult for ELLs because they may not yet have enough experience with English to be able to distinguish sounds that differ from those of their native language. There are three aspects of phonological awareness when learning to read in a second language that are important for teachers of ELLs to remember and incorporate into their instruction:

ELLs cannot develop phonological awareness in English until they are familiar with the sounds of English.

This means that before explicit instruction in phonological awareness begins, children should have extensive experiences with fun and appealing songs, poems, chants, and read-alouds that will allow them to hear and reproduce the sound patterns of English.

Once explicit instruction has begun, modifications must be made to allow for more practice with sounds that can potentially cause confusion.

These are sounds that either don't exist in the native language (most of the short vowel sounds of English don't exist in Spanish, for example), or sounds that are perceived as different in English but the same in the native language (such as /r/ and /l/ for speakers of Japanese, or /b/ and /v/ for speakers of Spanish). Because these differences vary from one language to another, teachers will have to become familiar with which sounds of English will need extra practice, depending on the language backgrounds of their students.

Once phonological awareness has developed in any language, it transfers to other languages that are learned.

Therefore, students who are literate in their native language will not need to develop this skill again in English; they will only need to become familiar with the sounds of English and to learn to discriminate sounds that are different between their native language and English.

Phonics

Phonics can be problematic because ELLs often have difficulty discriminating between similar sounds, and because the English language does not have a regular system of correspondence between letters and sounds. Here are some issues related to phonics instruction for ELLs, with discussion of their implications:

Systematic phonics instruction can be very effective in helping ELLs, even those at fairly low levels of language proficiency, learn to decode words.

However, this skill does not facilitate reading comprehension if students' oral language proficiency is not developed to the level of the texts they are expected to read. For this reason, reading instruction should be combined with intensive development of the oral language needed to understand the text.

The most effective reading programs for ELLs combine systematic phonics instruction with a print-rich environment that provides exposure to appealing reading materials in varied genres.

Skills practice that is embedded in meaningful texts helps ensure that decoding skills don't progress beyond students' ability to comprehend the text.

Many of the components of phonics instruction need to be modified to meet the particular needs of ELLs.

For example:

Before phonics instruction begins, students must have the phonemic awareness skills they need in order to perceive individual sounds in words. This is particularly important for sounds that are problematic because of the native language.

Teachers must be aware of whether a students' native language uses a non-Roman alphabet or is non-alphabetic. Even if ELLs have had no instruction in reading in the native language, environmental exposure to a different writing system can negatively affect the ease with which they learn to recognize the letters of the English alphabet.

ELLs must be able to hear and reproduce English sounds with a degree of accuracy commensurate with their pronunciation abilities, before they are taught to make associations between those sounds and particular letters.

It is helpful to explicitly point out different letter combinations that have the same sound, and provide extra practice with them. Multiple spellings of the same sound can be very confusing for ELLs, particularly if they have had some reading instruction in a language such as Spanish, which has almost completely regular sound-symbol correspondences.

Teachers must pay attention to the meanings of the words used to teach phonics skills. Teaching students to decode words they don't know only reinforces the idea that "reading" is pronouncing sounds out loud rather than creating meaning.

Automatic recognition of frequent words is very important for ELLs, whether the words follow phonics rules or not. Although ELLs may develop good decoding skills, their lack of total proficiency in the English language will always slow them down somewhat. Automatic recognition of words can help mitigate this difficulty.

Most ELLs will need additional time to master phonics. Given the need for extra practice to learn to hear and produce the sounds of English, to learn the meanings of the words used in phonics instruction, to learn the multiple combinations of letters that make the same sound, and to learn many more sight words than English speakers need, additional time for phonics instruction should be built into reading programs for ELLs.

Fluency

Fluency is difficult for ELLs because their lack of proficiency in English slows down their ability to decode words and hinders their ability to understand the meanings of the words and how the words combine to produce meaningful sentences and discourse. These suggestions will help teachers adapt fluency instruction for ELLs:

ELLs cannot achieve fluency in oral reading before they have achieved fluency in speaking.

Repeated readings of texts that contain unfamiliar vocabulary and sentence structures will not increase fluency. When working on developing fluency, be sure that students are reading texts that they are familiar with and can understand. Students' own language experience stories are a very good choice, as are read-alouds that students have heard several times and discussed.

ELLs' normal self-consciousness about accents and errors can affect their reading fluency, especially if they are asked to read aloud in front of the entire class.

This effect will be magnified if students are openly corrected or criticized. Fluency practice for ELLs can be facilitated by having them read along with the teacher, or by reading chorally with a group. If individual oral reading is necessary, provide an authentic purpose for the reading (such as a theatrical performance, or delivering information that the rest of the class needs), and let students practice first with a partner.

Decoding skills, fluency in oral reading, and reading comprehension interact in various ways.

The ability to decode words easily is obviously necessary for fluency, and it also facilitates comprehension by allowing the reader to pay more attention to meaning. Comprehension, in turn, facilitates fluency by making it easier to recognize new words. Effective instruction for ELLs integrates these three elements of reading (plus vocabulary learning) into the same lessons using the same text, as each element helps build and reinforce the others, producing a multiplier effect.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is difficult for ELLs; even for quite proficient learners, the extent of their knowledge of vocabulary is only a fraction of what it is for native speakers of English, and the failure to understand even a few words of a text can have negative effects on comprehension. There are many things teachers can do to help ELLs improve their reading vocabulary, including the following:

ELLs need more vocabulary instruction than their native-speaking peers.

If a native-speaking child enters kindergarten knowing about 5,000 English words, and an ELL with no previous exposure to English enters the same class knowing no English words, it's obvious that the same instruction for each of them will not produce the same results. Everything a teacher of ELLs does should revolve around vocabulary acquisition-explaining, demonstrating, drawing, repeating, reading, writing, and playing with words throughout every aspect of instruction.

ELLs need instruction in different vocabulary words than their native-speaking peers.

ELLs lack many of the basic words that native speakers know, so just teaching the vocabulary words that are suggested in the reading materials you are using will not be sufficient. Here are some of the many types of words that need to be explicitly taught:

words that are crucial for understanding a text;

words that are encountered in a wide variety of contexts;

frequently used words that contain word parts (roots, prefixes, suffixes) that can help students analyze other unknown words;

words with multiple meanings, whether spelled differently (homophones such as to, two, and too) or spelled the same (such as a dining room table and a multiplication table);

figurative language and idiomatic expressions;

academic words that indicate relationships among other words (such as because, therefore, and since to indicate cause and effect).

ELLs need different vocabulary teaching techniques and strategies than their native-speaking peers.

Handing out a list of definitions or asking students to put the words into sentences won't help ELLs learn the meanings of the words. Here are some things to keep in mind:

ELLs who are literate in a language that has many words that are similar in meaning and form to English words should be taught to recognize these cognates and use them to create meaning.

The meanings of words are acquired through multiple opportunities to hear, say, read, and write the words in slightly different meaningful contexts. Teachers will have to create these contexts in the classroom, since incidental learning of vocabulary cannot be relied on for ELLs.

Explicit explanations of unknown words should include contextual support through real objects, pictures or drawings, gestures, examples, demonstrations, or experiments that accompany the verbal explanations.

The use of context clues to infer meaning is not always successful with ELLs because they may not understand the context well enough to infer an accurate meaning.

Having to explain what a word means to other students helps develop comprehension of the full meaning of the word.

Comprehension

Reading comprehension is more difficult for ELLs than for native speakers for various reasons. Three of the most important reasons are discussed here:

ELLs are more likely than native speakers to lack the background knowledge necessary for understanding texts.

ELLs' prior educational experiences may have been substandard or interrupted, so reading texts that assume certain prior knowledge becomes difficult. Even for students with good educational backgrounds, cultural differences and culturally based assumptions can result in a lack of background knowledge and thus loss of comprehension. Whatever the reasons for a lack of necessary background knowledge, before asking ELLs to read a particular text, teachers must identify information that is prerequisite for understanding the text, evaluate students' prior knowledge of these prerequisites, and fill any gaps that are found. The best kinds of activities for building background knowledge are those that get students involved in manipulating language and concepts, rather than just receiving information from the teacher. These include experiential activities such as science experiments, classification activities, role playing, previewing a reading and generating questions about it, and sharing predictions about the answers to those questions.

The language level of the text to be read, compared with ELLs' language proficiency, is a major factor in how much they will understand of the text.

Even advanced ELLs and those who have been redesignated as fluent in English will experience difficulty with unusual vocabulary, figurative language, very complex sentence structures, or unfamiliar styles and genres (just as many native speakers of English do). For this reason, the integration of intensive language development with reading instruction is highly recommended for ELLs at all levels of language proficiency.

Reading comprehension instruction for ELLs needs to be modified to address their needs.

Asking ELLs to read the same texts and do the same activities as everybody else will only result in frustration for teachers and failure for students. This is not a matter of "dumbing down" the curriculum or applying different standards. It is a matter of implementing the curriculum at a language level that makes it accessible to ELLs, while at the same time working to develop their oral language so they will be able to comprehend texts at higher levels. Here are some general principles for modifying reading instruction for ELLs:

Provide as much nonverbal support for reading comprehension as possible, including pictures, diagrams, real objects, gestures, acting, and graphic organizers. The support can be used both for helping students understand a reading passage and for assessment, so students can show what they have understood in ways that are not entirely dependent on verbal ability.

Explicitly teach comprehension strategies, such as reader-generated questions, summarizing, and monitoring comprehension. Remember, however, that teaching strategies is not enough; students must practice them with texts that are accessible at their level of language proficiency. If students don't experience successful application of the strategies, they won't even try to use them with other texts.

Plan interactive activities around reading and interpreting texts. Sharing ideas, comparing perspectives, and coming to agreement (or agreeing to disagree) are all ways that students use the language of the text in meaningful ways, and thus progress to higher levels of language proficiency and reading comprehension.

Conclusion

The original intention of this article was to provide specific suggestions for modifying reading programs to meet the needs of English language learners, based on the findings of the National Literacy Panel. Because of the paucity of appropriate research studies, however, the recommendations made in the NLP report are not extensive enough to help teachers build appropriate reading programs for ELLs. I therefore looked beyond the NLP findings and included theory and experience as well as research.

I hope that readers will take this synthesis of research, theory, and experience and integrate it into their ongoing examination of what they do in their classrooms, what happens as a result of what they do, and why it happens. Research can tell us which kinds of practices are effective in general, but ultimately only individual teachers can determine what is most effective for them and the particular group of students they are teaching at the moment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Does Research Tell Us About Teaching Reading to English Language Learners?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a classroom teacher, I was largely ignorant of, and definitely suspicious of, research. I believed that researchers could make their studies come out any way they wanted them to, and that a good teacher who reflected on her own teaching knew much more about how to be effective with her students than any researcher did.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
6.Lily Wong Fillmore: Text Complexity, Common Core, and ELLs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.provider_name
English news and easy articles for students of English

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
News in Levels « World News for Students of English

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We write news in three different levels of English. We want to help you understand English more. Now all students can enjoy reading and listening to news.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
These glossaries are to provide permitted testing accommodations of ELL/MLL students. They should also be used for instruction during the school year. These glossaries may be downloaded, printed and disseminated to educators, parents and ELLs/MLLs.

Bilingual glossaries are an essential and expected test accommodation for ELLs/MLLs in the State of New York. The languages of these glossaries cover the top 10 languages at the state level, with new languages added based on changing language populations in the NY State student demographic data.

Schools should provide testing accommodations to ELLs/MLLs, as needed, on all NYS ELA and content-area assessments (i.e., Mathematics, Science and Social Studies). Districts/schools must make all necessary arrangements to make these accommodations available for ELLs/MLLs who need them. Please click here for the New York State Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages Webpage on "Assessment and Testing Accommodations".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These glossaries are to provide permitted testing accommodations of ELL/MLL students. They should also be used for instruction during the school year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Learn Spanish Fast with Spanish Cognates

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
SpanishCognates.org offers a comprehensive A-Z list of Spanish cognates. Cognates are great tool for learning English vocabulary, and learning Spanish Vocabulary Fast.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
'Translanguaging' - the use of different languages together - can be a powerful tool for learning ... but it can also go against the grain for language teachers who are used to supporting learners to master the intricacies of a single language. In this post, we ask what the research tells us about 'translanguaging' and how it can be used to support EAL learners in the classroom.

Picture the scene: two students are sitting together, working intently on a handout. They have different first languages but some shared knowledge of the words and phrases of each other's languages, so they are moving in and out of English to get their message across. Another two students are sitting together nearby. Both of them are Spanish speakers, but are very strong in English and often use it as their main language. At other times, as now, they blend Spanish and English together.

Are either of these examples of translanguaging?

In both cases, yes. The young people are using resources from different languages together, with very little regard for what we might call the 'boundaries' of named languages such as 'Spanish' or 'English'. They are using elements of each language together to communicate more effectively. This is translanguaging: it's about using the all your language resources to communicate.

Translanguaging is the act performed by bilinguals of accessing different linguistic features or various modes of what are described as autonomous languages, in order to maximize communicative potential.

Ofelia García (2009: 140)

Translanguaging is about communication, not about language itself. There are times when we need to be language teachers, focusing on accuracy in English so that our learners can pass exams and be taken as proficient speakers in wider society. Much of the time, though, we are working with students to explore concepts, add to their knowledge, make connections between ideas and to help them make their voices heard by others. This is often about communicating, and this is where using all our language resources can be very valuable.
A (very) brief history of translanguaging ...
Translanguaging is nothing new - it can be a very natural way for multilingual people to communicate - but as a focus of research it emerged in the 1980s in Bangor, north Wales. Cen Williams and colleagues were investigating strategies for learners to use two languages (Welsh and English) in a single lesson. They came up with the term 'trawsieithu' to describe reading or hearing input in one language (e.g. English) and writing or speaking about it in another (e.g. Welsh, or vice versa). The term was translated into English (and popularised) as 'translanguaging' by their colleague Colin Baker (see Lewis, Jones and Baker 2012).

Since then the term has expanded to cover the use of multiple languages in many contexts. It is one of a series of related terms (such as polylanguaging and flexible multilingualism) and the subtle differences between them suggest the wide range of academic work investigating how multiple languages are used - especially for learning. We can use 'translanguaging' as our general term.
The beginnings of a translanguaging pedagogy
Translanguaging pedagogy challenges what Jim Cummins (2008) called the 'two solitudes' approach to bilingualism, in which languages were kept strictly separate. It sees languages as a property of the community: the language resources that are relevant to the classroom are those shared by the students and the teacher. This separates the languages of the classroom community and the language of the test or the curriculum. We can use our classroom repertoire to learn, share and communicate, coming to focus on the language of the curriculum (highly formal and accurate English, for example) as necessary. It means making a distinction between forms of learning that require display (such as essays, often written in 'best English') and forms of learning that do not (such as worksheets). We can move between them within a lesson: perhaps using all our repertoire to discuss and to draft, moving into more formal/correct English to report to the group, back into translanguaging to revise the work-in-progress and into a very formal register for the final written product.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the strongly monolingual slant of recent education policy, much work into translanguaging pedagogy has been done outside mainstream classrooms. Creese and Blackledge (2010), for example, have looked at Gujarati and Chinese complementary schools. Li Wei and Zhu Hua (2013) studied learners at university, but connected translanguaging to migration and identity development in ways that are very relevant to school-based language policies. Hornberger and Link (2012) look at children the US, with an explicit focus on the restrictive language policies of that country, and offer ideas that are very applicable to the UK. A good starting point is García and Li Wei (2014) - a recent and very readable (only 165 pages) discussion that has a strong focus on translanguaging and education, with one author based in the US and one based in the UK.

The first issue of the EAL Journal (published in September and free to all NALDIC members) features Li Wei writing about translanguaging and the EAL classroom. Click here for information on how to join.
Recent developments
García's recent work has focused on translanguaging pedagogy as a political act, a critical response to the monolingual bias of current education policy. Earlier this year the South London EAL Group (part of NALDIC's national network of regional interest groups) discussed García's work on translanguaging stance - a teacher's political commitment to encouraging bilingualism in her classroom. The video below features Constant Leung discussing this approach and explaining how it connects to the UK context:
Constant Leung discussing Ofelia García's work on translanguaging, at NALDIC's South London EAL group. But what about exams?
Very often, we meet the colleagues who are keen to encourage multilingualism in their classroom (even experiment with a translanguaging pedagogy), but who are worried about how it will affect their students' exam performance.

A translanguaging approach is entirely consistent with high expectations in exams - if we recognise the difference between language and communication.

testing the proficiency of children in a language must be kept separate from testing their proficiency in language.

(Otheguy, García and Reid 2015: 299)

Translanguaging pedagogy is about you and your students. It draws on the languages you have available to your group - so even if you don't speak all (or any) of the other languages your students do, you can welcome them and encourage the learners to use them in the classroom. You can then make a distinction between your classroom approach to languages and the language resources the students will need to use in exams. If you have used a translanguaging pedagogy in your classroom (even if that wasn't the term you used for it) we would love to hear from you.
References
Creese, Angela and Adrian Blackledge (2010). Translanguaging in the Bilingual Classroom: A Pedagogy for Learning and Teaching? Modern Language Journal 94 (1), 103-115.

Cummins, Jim (2008). Teaching for Transfer: Challenging the two solitudes assumption in bilingual education. In: Jim Cummins and Nancy H. Hornberger (eds). Encyclopedia of Language and Education Vol. 5: Bilingual Education (2nd edition edition). Boston: Springer Science + Business Media.

García, Ofelia (2009). Education, multilingualism and translanguaging in the 21st century. In: Ajit Mohanty, Minati Panda, Robert Phillipson and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas (eds). Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalising the local. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, pp.128-145.

García, Ofelia, S. Johnson and K. Seltzer (forthcoming). Translanguaging Stance. In: Ofelia García (ed.). The Translanguaging Classroom. Philadelphia, PA: Carson.

Lewis, Gwyn, Bryn Jones and Colin Baker (2012). Translanguaging: origins and development from school to street and beyond. Educational Research and Evaluation 18 (7), 641-654.

Li Wei and Zhu Hua (2013). Translanguaging Identities and Ideologies: Creating Transnational Space Through Flexible Multilingual Practices Amongst Chinese University Students in the UK. Applied Linguistics 34 (5), 516-535.

Otheguy, Ricardo, Ofelia García and Wallis Reid (2015). Clarifying translanguaging and deconstructing named languages: A perspective from linguistics. Applied Linguistics Review 6 (3), 281-307.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Interested in translanguaging and what it means for EAL? We look at the research and share the essential info.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Reading Instruction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You can and should use what you already know to be effective, research-based reading instruction to English language learners (ELLs). However, ELLs will need additional support in learning how to read, and the strategies here will help you to provide assistance in your everyday teaching, particularl…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Co Teaching for English Language Learners in NYC

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Coming to America - English Learners Speak Out

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
12 Spanish Cognates Rules - Learn 1,000+ Spanish words in 4 minutes!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over the past few years, some states have spent millions of dollars and passed new laws in an attempt to shift the way that schools teach kids how to read.

These efforts take aim at commonly used ineffective literacy practices and programs, often focusing on teacher training. Many zero in on the foundations of reading, especially, with the goal of ensuring that teachers are using evidence-based methods for teaching the building blocks of literacy-like identifying letters and sounding out words.

But as more states try to tackle these persistent problems in early reading instruction, some advocates worry that these new initiatives may be introducing problems of their own.

A new coalition of researchers, educators, and advocates for English-language learners is pushing back against these policy changes, claiming that new legislation and guidance will disadvantage ELLs with a "one-size-fits-all approach" to teaching reading.

This group, the National Committee for Effective Literacy, released a policy paper earlier this year, claiming that the new approaches focus on drilling phonics skills in isolation, robbing English learners of the context that can support them in learning a new language and leaving teachers without enough time to work on developing students' oral language. They say that these methods ignore research on dual language development.

The paper made waves among researchers and early reading experts, landing as it did at an inflection point in the "reading wars"-the ongoing debate over how best to teach young students to make sense of the written word.

And it's added new dimensions to conversations about equity in a literacy movement that sprung largely from attempts to better serve students with disabilities and reading difficulties, propelling dialogue between proponents of structured literacy, English learner advocates, and educators who see themselves as part of both camps.

Advocates want English-learners' needs prioritized

A central battle in these "reading wars" is over phonics instruction, the process of teaching students how letters match up to spoken sounds.

Decades of psychology and neuroscience research have shown that phonics is the most effective method for ensuring that students learn how to decode words. This is especially important for students with reading difficulties like dyslexia, who may need more practice with these foundational skills to become fluent readers. But as reporting from Education Week and other outlets has shown, many popular curriculum programs and instructional approaches minimize phonics instruction, or teach other, disproven strategies for word identification.

Over the past few years, a group of researchers, educators, and parents-many of whom work with kids with reading difficulties or are parents of dyslexic children-have lobbied school districts and states to adopt methods that teach phonics in a systematic, explicit way as part of an approach called structured literacy.

They've clashed with advocates of balanced literacy, the instructional philosophy that's most commonly taught in teacher preparation programs and held by the majority of early grades educators.

Proponents of balanced literacy say that it combines some explicit instruction in foundational skills with guided practice, as well as independent reading and writing. Detractors argue that the approach doesn't do enough to make sure that students master the basics of reading.

The National Committee for Effective Literacy has taken aim at instructional frameworks that place what it sees as an outsized emphasis on phonics instruction. But both its members and the paper's critics say that they want to move past the phonics versus balanced literacy debate.

For NCEL, equity is the issue at hand-its members want to make sure that the needs of English learners aren't an afterthought as the national conversation on early literacy ramps up, said Martha Hernandez, the executive director of Californians Together and an NCEL member.

Students who speak a home language other than English have often faced marginalization within the U.S. school system. And until recently, 40 percent of the nation's ELLs lived in states under English-only laws, which prohibited English learners from being taught in their home language as well as English; only one state, Arizona, still has this type of law on the books.

"There's a political, historical, ideological component to this that you just can't ignore," said Claude Goldenberg, a professor emeritus at Stanford University who studies early literacy development in English-language learners.

Goldenberg and several co-contributors penned a response to the NCEL paper and a recent webinar from the organization, saying that the group misrepresented changes underway in state legislatures and departments of education: States aren't proposing that students spend entire literacy blocks on phonics, he said.

But, he said, it's established science that English-language learners need additional support, beyond the comprehensive literacy instruction that native English speakers need. And he agrees that new state laws mandating "evidence-based" or "science of reading" approaches will require careful interpretation-otherwise, they could be implemented in ways that don't support students.

"We saw that in Reading First," Goldenberg said, referencing the George W. Bush-era grant program that incentivized schools to adopt methods based in "scientifically based reading research."

"One of my concerns has been that we're repeating those mistakes."

How should reading-and foundational skills specifically-be taught for ELLs?

Reading First was based on findings from the National Reading Panel Report, which did not include studies that evaluated how best to teach English learners how to read. Later research would confirm that ELLs, too, benefited from the five components endorsed by the panel, but that they also needed additional, tailored instruction.

This meant that many English learners missed out on the language development and knowledge-building that would help them succeed in later grades, said Cristina Sanchez-Lopez, an NCEL member and an associate with Paridad, an educational consulting agency that works on ELL and equity issues. National evaluations of Reading First found that it had positive effects on students' phonics skills overall, but not on comprehension.

Now that states are using legislation as a lever to improve reading instruction, the English learner community wants to make sure that teachers are equipped to teach all kids, said Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, the president of Valley Speech Language and Learning Center in Brownsville, Texas, and an associate research professor at the University of Houston. Cárdenas-Hagan contributed to Goldenberg's response to NCEL.

The message from ELL advocates, she said, is: "I don't want to get the crumbs from your table. I want to be at the table."

Chief among NCEL's concerns is that much of early reading practice has been "developed around monolingual students," said Laurie Olsen, an NCEL member and the board president of Californians Together.

This is a problem, Olsen said, because ELLs are different from students who only speak one language. Kids who are learning to speak and read a new language at the same time need some different supports, and bring some different strengths, than kids who are only doing the latter.

Research is clear on this point. Students learning English still need instruction in foundational skills, vocabulary, and comprehension, just like native English speakers. But they also need more practice developing their spoken language, given that they're learning to speak and read English at the same time. (For more information on this research, see this story.)

NCEL members worry that because some states haven't explicitly set aside time for oral language development in their guidelines, it may fall by the wayside as teachers feel increased pressure to cover what is listed.

Olsen and Kathy Escamilla, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and an NCEL member, raised concerns about what they see as a narrow focus on phonics instruction, specifically.

"I don't disagree with people who say, '[Phonics instruction has] been kind of scattered, and maybe it isn't as linear as it should be.' But I haven't heard that kind of a qualitative discussion," Escamilla said. "What I'm hearing is, 'Let's do more of it,' but not, 'Let's do it better.'"

Structured literacy advocates dispute NCEL's claim that states are telling schools to focus on phonics instruction to the exclusion of all else. But Olsen also said that schools often teach phonics "out of context" for ELLs.

In foundational skills instruction, students are regularly asked to manipulate sounds and syllables. But it's harder for English learners to make the connection that those sounds are part of words if they don't understand what the words mean, Olsen said. Ideally, "there's a connection between the content and the language being used," she said.

NCEL is advocating for states and school systems to bolster dual language programs and put more resources toward helping students develop biliteracy.

This is a good goal, said Cárdenas-Hagan. But teachers don't have to be in bilingual settings to draw on students' knowledge of their home language, she said.

Teachers can use cognates, or words in two different languages that are related in origin, to help students understand word meanings. They can also start letter-sound instruction with letters that make similar sounds in English and the student's home language.

There are lots of ways to adapt foundational skills instruction for ELLs, Cárdenas-Hagan said. But she emphasized that it still needs to be explicit and systematic.

While phonemic awareness and phonics are only "one piece of the puzzle" when it comes to literacy, she said, "if I don't understand the letters in front of me, the letters and sounds, then I have a problem, no matter the language."

A collaboration to support ELLs in Illinois

In one state, Illinois, ELL advocates and structured literacy proponents are trying to figure out how to negotiate priorities through legislation.

There, literacy advocates were pushing for the state legislature to pass the Right to Read Act this session, a proposal that would have led to three big changes in early reading instruction in the state: requiring teachers to pass a foundations of reading exam for certification, establishing a grant program that districts could use to adopt evidence-based curricula, and mandating that the state board of education offer professional development for educators.

"It's fundamentally an equity issue here," said Jessica Handy, the policy director at Stand for Children Illinois. The group is part of the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition, which worked on the bill. Both bill sponsors are members of the Black Caucus, and the issue of early literacy was discussed in negotiations for the caucus' education agenda last session.

The Latino Policy Forum saw literacy as an equity issue, too. The group, which advocates for Latino issues in the state, hadn't been involved in drafting the original bill. But after NCEL released its position paper, the forum reached out to the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition.

Members of the forum raised concerns that implementation of "science of reading" laws elsewhere had harmed English learners and pushed for changes in the bill language. "Part of the issue was the narrow definition of what literacy was within the legislation," said Erika Méndez, the associate director of education for the Latino Policy Forum. "The concern was that it would narrow the set of practices that teachers would have in their toolbox."

The bill's sponsors pressed pause on the legislation this session. Now, the state board of education plans to convene stakeholders, including both the Latino Policy Forum and the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition, to work on literacy guidance this summer. Handy hopes that another version of the bill will be ready to propose during the veto session in November.

The challenge, said Handy, is developing a comprehensive plan that's inclusive, but not so broad as to be "a bunch of fluff." Still, she's hopeful.

"We don't want to enact a bill that's going to be harmful to a major population of our students," she said. "We in the coalition believe, first and foremost, that we've got to get it right."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What the 'Science of Reading' Should Look Like for English-Learners. It's Not Settled

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ELLs need additional supports for, and bring different strengths to, early reading instruction, experts say.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
04 Andy Brown  Translanguaging A multilingual Learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
LITERACY FOR MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS The National Committee for Effective Literacy uplifts research, policies, and practices to ensure that English learners/emergent bilinguals leave school as proficient readers and writers in English - and preferably more languages - and who thrive and succeed in school and their communities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Myths About English Language Learners and Special Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the myths and misconceptions around services and supports for ELLs. The result will be a better outcome for your students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tips for teaching newcomers in Elementary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation. While English may share very few cognates with a language like Chinese, 30-40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish. For Spanish-speaking ELLs, cognates are an obvious bridge to the English language.

Not surprisingly, researchers who study first and second language acquisition have found that students benefit from cognate awareness. Cognate awareness is the ability to use cognates in a primary language as a tool for understanding a second language. Children can be taught to use cognates as early as preschool. As students move up the grade levels, they can be introduced to more sophisticated cognates, and to cognates that have multiple meanings in both languages, although some of those meanings may not overlap. One example of a cognate with multiple meanings is asistir, which means to assist (same meaning) but also to attend (different meaning).

Classroom strategies for teaching cognates

Read aloud

When you read aloud to your students, ask the Spanish speakers to raise their hand when they think they hear a cognate. Stop reading and discuss that cognate. Point out the subtle differences you hear between the Spanish and English words. If you have a French, Italian, or Portuguese speaker in your class, invite them to contribute cognates in that language.

Student reading

As ELLs read their texts, ask them to find three or four cognates and write them on sticky pads. Collect those notes and put them on an OUR COGNATES laminated chart. Before the class ends, read or have students read them to the class. Discuss spellings or sounds that are the same and different between the cognates.

Follow-up activities:

Word Sort

Pair students and give each pair a set of cognate cards: one card has the English cognate and the other has the Spanish cognate. For example:

Have students sort the words. Then ask them what the word pairs have in common and write responses on the board.

Circle Differences

Ask students to indicate which letters are different between the cognates by circling the letters. Alternate between having them call out differences with the teacher circling and occasionally having students come up and circle the differences themselves.

False Cognates

Write examples of false cognates on the board. For example: embarrassed/ embarazada and pie/ pie. Warn students that they might run into some words that are false cognates. These are words that look alike but do not have the same meaning in English and Spanish. Ask the students:

Does anyone know what pie means in Spanish ( foot)? What does the word pie mean in English ( dessert)?

Another example of a false cognate is the word embarrassed in English and embarazada in Spanish. What does embarrassed mean in English (to feel ashamed about something)? Does anyone know what embarazada means in Spanish ( pregnant)?

Give students some cognates and false cognates and ask them to identify each. Examples of false cognates:

Ask students to work with a partner to find as many cognates and false cognates as they can from a given list of words. After they finish, ask partners to share one example of each with the class.

Exaggerate intonation and stress

Cognate words can cause problems for Spanish speakers learning English and vice versa because of different stress patterns in the two languages. Point out how the emphasis changes in the following words:

condition / condición

animal / animal

ability / habilidad

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using Cognates to Develop Comprehension in English

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation. While English may share very few cognates with a language like Chinese, 30-40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish. For Spanish-speaking ELLs, cognates are an obvious bridge to the English language.

# data[].attributes.headline
Comprehensive Literacy Instruction for Multilingual Learners

# data[].attributes.subject
Comprehensive Literacy Instruction for Multilingual Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Over 10 percent of students in the United States-more than 4.8 million kids-are English language learners (ELLs), and the number is on the rise. Though these students do not learn differently than their native-English-speaking peers, they do have particular educational needs.

To learn about these needs-and best practices for addressing them-I interviewed a range of educators and observers, including Larry Ferlazzo, an educator and author of The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide; longtime teachers of English as a second language (ESL) Emily Francis and Tan Huynh; and the journalist Helen Thorpe, who spent a year observing a teacher who works with ELLs.

The group emphasized that the strategies listed here, which include both big-picture mindsets and nitty-gritty teaching tactics, can be incorporated into all classrooms, benefiting both native English speakers and ELLs.

1. Cultivate Relationships and Be Culturally Responsive

No surprise here. A successful classroom, our educators agreed, is one in which students feel known, appreciated, and comfortable taking emotional and intellectual risks. That requires intentional planning and consistent messaging by the teacher.

Emily Francis, an ESL teacher in Concord, North Carolina, makes clear that she wants her students to "embrace their culture and their language as a foundation of who they are" and to consider their acquisition of a new culture and language "not as subtractive, but as additive." To help support students who may never have attended school before or may be coping with migration-based trauma, Francis emphasizes that little things make a big difference. "The first thing that I need to think about is, how is my student feeling in my classroom?" she says. "Are they sitting next to a buddy they can ask a question in their home language? Do they feel comfortable tapping me on the shoulder if they have to go to the bathroom?"

But creating a supportive environment is also about cultivating an appreciation of diversity-it's critical that both the curriculum and the classroom environment honor and reflect the lives of the students. For instance, Francis makes certain that her classroom library is reflective of her students' diverse backgrounds and identities.

ESL teacher Katie Toppel, who teaches near Portland, Oregon, champions the value of home visits to get to know students' families and takes care to incorporate the particulars of students' lives, such as pets' names and favorite sports, into lessons. Students are most engaged when they feel a personal connection to a lesson or unit, a connection that's created in part by a teacher's investment in culturally competent relationships.

2. Teach Language Skills Across the Curriculum

English language learners should not be learning the fundamentals of English in isolation; they should be applying their developing language skills to rich academic content in all subjects.

"It is key that in mainstream classrooms, teachers understand their role as language teachers," says Valentina Gonzalez, a district leader in Katy, Texas, suggesting that all teachers should be aware of the specialized idiom they work within. "If we teach math, then we teach the language of mathematics. If we teach science, then we teach the language of science." Math teachers, in other words, should take the time to teach the unfamiliar vocabulary of mathematics- add, subtract, calculator, solve -concurrently with the teaching of math skills.

3. Emphasize Productive Language

The educators I interviewed agreed that productive language skills-hard-to-master dimensions of language fluency like speaking and writing-should be front and center from day one, even if students feel hesitant about them.

Beginning ELLs often develop receptive language skills like listening and reading first. Educators who are unaware of the typical path to fluency may believe that students who can follow verbal or written directions will be able to produce oral or written language, but that's usually not the case.

To support reluctant speakers, Tan Huynh, an educator who blogs at Empowering ELLs, suggests using sentence frames. "For example, when a science teacher wants ELLs to produce a hypothesis, they might offer the sentence, 'If _____ was added, then _____ because _____.' This sentence frame provides clues that empower ELLs to sound and think like scientists," Huynh says.

Andrea Honigsfeld, a professor of education at Molloy College in Rockville, New York, suggests that all lessons touch on every letter of the acronym SWIRL, which stands for Speak, Write, Interact, Read, Listen. The approach intentionally privileges productive language skills "from the beginning," she says.

4. Speak Slowly-and Increase Your Wait Time

Easier said than done. Still, many of the teachers I spoke to said this simple change is vital. You can record yourself speaking in class to measure your cadence, and adjust.

"Adding in an extra three to five seconds after we pose a question offers all students time to think," explains Gonzalez. "However, for English learners, it also gives time to translate, process their thinking, translate back into English, and develop the courage to answer. If we call on students too quickly, many of our students will stop thinking about the answers-or trying to answer at all."

That means undoing some of our own habits, according to Larry Ferlazzo, a high school ESL teacher in Sacramento, California. "Researchers have found that typically most teachers give one to two seconds between asking a question and expecting a student response," he says. "The same researchers have shown that if you wait three to five seconds, the quality of responses is astronomically greater."

5. Differentiate-and Use Multiple Modalities

All kids learn better when they engage with material in multiple ways: Lessons that involve writing, speaking, drawing, and listening, for example, give students four opportunities to deepen their understanding of the work. For ELLs, those additional engagements also provide a little breathing room so they can work through the language barrier.

Helen Thorpe, a journalist who spent a year observing Eddie Williams's classroom in Denver in order to write a book about immigrants called The Newcomers, marveled at Williams's method of differentiation. "Eddie would enunciate very clearly in English multiple times, he would write it on the board, and he would go to the projector to give a visual. And, finally, he'd be asking the kids to verbalize aspects of the lesson themselves," she says, tracing Williams's efforts to move his students from receptive to productive language fluency.

Toppel uses a strategy called QSSSA to scaffold classroom discussions with ELLs. The letters stand for Question (the teacher poses a question, then gives ample think time); Signal (a designated motion like a thumbs-up, a finger on the nose-something that lets students indicate that they're ready to answer); Stem (the teacher provides a sentence starter for the question-for example, for "What is your favorite place to read a book?" the stem might be, "My favorite place to read a book is _____"); Share; and Assess.

6. Incorporate Students' Native Languages-and Don't Be Afraid of Technology

Bilingualism is the goal, of course, not replacement.

Ferlazzo uses a strategy called "preview, view, review," which leverages a student's native language skills as a foundation for learning the new language. He introduces a topic and encourages students to preview it in materials in their home language (often using multilingual videos and other online resources); he then teaches the topic in English, and then has students review the information in their home language.

Ferlazzo also encourages teachers to embrace technologies that students find helpful, like Google Translate. He stresses that the app can be a useful way for students to translate words quickly-but warns that it can quickly "become a dependency" if it's used as more than a handy dictionary.

Thorpe agrees that Translate can take pressure off teachers, who sometimes find that they "just stand at the front of the room and say things over and over. And if the kids didn't know what those words are, they're out of luck." Translation technology means you can say it once (or twice) and let the students use the technology to translate key words and phrases.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
6 Essential Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We interviewed educators with decades of experience in teaching ELLs and tapped a network of experts and observers to find the strategies that work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Learning a new language is an overwhelming experience for anyone - especially if you are supposed to be learning in that new language at the same time! Here are some ideas for helping students feel more comfortable in the mainstream classroom.

Create a welcoming environment.

You can do this by learning to pronounce students' names correctly, encouraging students to share their language and culture with the class, and adding books in students' languages (or about their native countries) to the classroom environment. Colorín Colorado offers a number of additional ideas in How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment.

Recruit "buddies" to help newcomers find their away around the school.

Students who speak the newcomers' first language will be especially helpful during the first few weeks, but English-speaking buddies are invaluable as well. Help your English-speaking students understand that newcomers may not be able to speak very much English at first, but that they will learn more as time goes on. Buddies may be able to help by:

taking newcomers on a tour the first day

showing students how to use lockers

sitting together at lunch

spending time together at recess

walking newcomers to their classes for the first few days

walking students to the bus.

Encourage your students to continue to use their first language.

Whether it's through speaking with family members at home, reading a book or an online newspaper in their native language, or listening to some of their favorite music, encourage students to keep their native language skills strong. Discuss the benefits of being bilingual, as well as some opportunities that students who are multilingual may have in the future.

There are academic benefits to maintaining native language skills as well. While students, parents, and teachers may feel pressure for students to learn English as quickly as possible, research strongly supports the positive effect of native language literacy on English literacy. Reading, academic, and content-area skills can often be transferred from one language to another, and it is generally easier to transfer those skills than to learn them while simultaneously learning English. Helping your students maintain their native language will in fact support their English language development.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Supporting ELLs in the Mainstream Classroom: Making Students Comfortable

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learning a new language is an overwhelming experience for anyone - especially if you are supposed to be learning in that new language at the same time! Here are some ideas for helping students feel more comfortable in the mainstream classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How science teachers can use ELL strategies to help students have a better grasp of the vocabulary of science.

Middle school science students filter into the classroom, gradually transitioning to speaking English as they finish conversations in their first language, Korean or Chinese. One of a series of slides is up on the board, each cuing an activity to get them talking about the subject in the target language, preparing them for the challenge of the vocabulary-dense content area of science.

The volume of science terms discourages many students early on, especially students who don't often see themselves reflected in the content, particularly girls and students of color. To address the needs of the large language learner population at our school, the two of us-English language learner teacher Kent and science teacher Gina-teamed up to create resources to support students as they grow as both scientists and English speakers.

While these resources were designed with language learners in mind, the activities have proven highly effective in increasing confidence with science vocabulary for native English speakers as well.

Teachers can easily modify each of the resources below to fit different science units or even different content areas and support learners as they transition away from figuring out what to do and instead focus on content, skills, and vocabulary, reducing the amount of time needed for instructions. For example, when students see a vocabulary puzzle in class, they discuss with a partner or small group (in English or their first language) the multiple ways to approach it and then immediately get to work.

Supporting English Language Learners in Science Classes

Interactive student-to-student talk: Using the target language for frequent student vocalizations and student-to-student interactions is a primary goal and the main area we focused on when we developed these resources. Each class starts with an opportunity for students to warm up their science vocabulary, activate schema relevant to the day's lesson, or retrieve previously learned content, all while practicing their academic interpersonal English skills. We have slides and activities to engage students in partner talk using unit vocabulary, and teachers can easily adapt them for a range of content.

Vocabulary puzzles: Vocabulary puzzles tap visual, kinesthetic, and interpersonal modalities and can be differentiated with little difficulty. Teachers can scaffold the puzzles for different linguistic levels by cutting them into fewer larger pieces before tackling all the pieces separately. Students can also lay pieces on top of the completed puzzle, using it as a key. Once students are confident with the vocabulary, they can use the cards in a dominoes-style game where students make connections between different terms to build an interconnecting board.

Student roles in jigsaw discussions: Dividing up content using a jigsaw strategy gives students the chance to dig in more deeply with a smaller amount of information and offers all learners the opportunity to feel more like an expert about specific content material. This also allows for the leveling of source material to give every student an entry point into the topic. Clear student roles in the discussion ensure that every student is contributing and is engaged during the interactive portion of the jigsaw.

These tools also support effective collaborative talk as students are tasked with asking questions, summarizing main ideas, and using a recording tool to offer a window into their conversations. The teacher can easily change the roles to meet the needs of the students, content, or task.

Fishbowl discussions: Once students feel comfortable with the content vocabulary, it's important that they get an opportunity to apply it. Fishbowl discussions consist of a small group of students conversing about a unit-related topic while another group of students observes the discussion. Topics are designed to prompt debate, deep thinking, and connections to student experiences, as well as promote the application of unit content and vocabulary.

Tailoring both the student preparation sheet and the observation sheet gives the teacher the opportunity to guide students toward the right content and discussion norms. For example, after noticing that girls were often excluded from discussions involving groups that had a majority of boys, we added an "invites quieter member to share" section to the observations sheet.

The fishbowl format facilitates high-level discussions in the target language and supports students in developing academic and collaborative discussion skills. In classroom reflections, students often point to fishbowl discussions as the activity that really pushes them and helps them learn.

Students thrive in learning spaces where they can be engaged and successful-where they can feel themselves learning. Integrating activities like those above into a science or other content class gives every student entry points for success and the tools to support them in making progress. We encourage teachers to give these strategies a try, measure how classroom interactions shift, and plan their next steps in supporting all learners in communicating about scientific topics.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Using ELL Strategies in the Science Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How science teachers can use ELL strategies to help students have a better grasp of the vocabulary of science.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Ways to Plan for the Success of Newcomer ELLs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
To help newly arrived English language learners feel welcome, teachers can represent their cultures and languages in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The new question-of-the-week is:
What is the single most effective instructional strategy you have used to teach English-language learners?
This series is part of a longer series of questions and answers inviting educators from various disciplines to share their "single most effective instructional strategy."

There are many more to come!

Today, Valentina Gonzalez, Denita Harris, Cindy Garcia, and Deedy Camarena offer their responses.

Before we get to today's guest, I'd like to share my own answer.

Two that contributors to this series don't mention and are ones I like to use often are the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and Total Physical Response (TPR).

Two particularly useful posts that have not yet made it into that summary collection (I update them every summer) are Thirteen Instructional Strategies for Supporting ELL Newcomers and Ten Strategies for Teaching English-Language Learners Online.

Now, to responses from today's guests:

Picture Word Inductive Model
Valentina Gonzalez is a former classroom teacher with over 20 years in education serving also as a district facilitator for English-learners, a professional-development specialist for ELs, and as an educational consultant. Valentina delivers professional development and coaches teachers on sheltered instruction strategies. Her work can be found on Seidlitz Education and on MiddleWeb. You can reach her through her website or on Twitter @ValentinaESL:
Shifting the way we approach teaching English-learners can have a positive effect on their success in our schools. When we see our English-learners' assets first, we recognize everything they come with and value not only their culture but also the content and literacy they bring to the table.

I've found the Picture Word Inductive Model (Calhoun, 1998) to be one of the most effective instructional techniques in my experience teaching ELs. The benefits of using PWIM with English-learners are many. This literacy technique is quite flexible and can be used cross-curricularly no matter the grade level, language level, or content. PWIM leverages students' funds of knowledge and builds upon them. Through the PWIM, ELs are engaged in thinking and in all language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing with scaffolds and supports such as visuals and sentence stems or frames. This method can be used in all grade levels and cross-curricularly.

These are the steps I use to implement an adapted version of PWIM with English-learners and how each step benefits ELs:

This engaging instructional strategy helps to lower students' anxiety levels, which increases participation. After using the PWIM with numerous student groups, these are some tips I can offer to educators who haven't tried it before:

Carefully select images that are compelling to your age group of students.

Try color coding or chunking labeled words (ex.: all verbs in orange, adjectives in blue, etc.).

Keep in mind students' language-proficiency levels when creating sentence stems and frames. Students with advanced English proficiency will benefit from more sophisticated sentence structures.

Don't stress about doing it all in one day. Gage your students and make adjustments as needed.

On a subsequent day, use the generated words as a sorting activity. Ask students to work with a partner to put the words in groups and label the groups.

Co-create a sentence-patterning chart with the class. Some groups of students may need this level of support during Step 7.

Below is an example of a PWIM and sentence-patterning chart mash up. Combining these two techniques enhances ELs' listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English.

Sentence Frames
Denita Harris is a curriculum coordinator for the MSD of Wayne Township, Indianapolis. She has over 20 years of experience as a teacher, assistant principal, and district-level administrator. Harris is the recipient of the 2019 INTESOL (Indiana Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Best of the Best in K-12 Education, and the 2017 and 2020 African American Excellence in Education Award. Find her on Twitter @HarrisLeads:
The single most effective strategy I have used and would highly recommend when teaching English-language learners is the use of sentence frames for writing and speaking, the productive skills, accompanied with a word bank, word phrases, and/or pictures.

English-languagelearners possess a wealth of knowledge, and it is our obligation, as educators, to tap into their knowledge and continue to build upon what our students already know and can do. We must remember our students are in the process of learning a new language and are not in the process of learning a language; therefore, we can provide the words and the grammatical structures of the new language to help guide them in speaking and writing.

Here is an analogy to consider. English-language learners have the tools (vocabulary in their native language). They come to us with these tools; however, while learning English, they may not yet know the names of all the tools or how to use them properly to accomplish a task completely (speaking or writing in English). Our responsibility is to provide our students with the names of each tool (vocabulary in English) and demonstrate to them, through sentence frames, how they might utilize these tools to accomplish a complete task (express a complete thought or sentence in English). A sentence frame can be made up of only one sentence or several sentences to assist students in structuring paragraphs.

The use of sentence frames for writing and speaking not only give English-language learners a framework to communicate through both oral and written language, sentence frames also help build students' self-efficacy. When students have the language to contribute to classroom discussions and are able to express their thoughts on paper, they begin to feel a part of the classroom community, and that makes all the difference.

Comprehensible Input
Cindy Garcia has been a bilingual educator for 14 years and is currently a district instructional specialist for PK-6 bilingual/ESL mathematics. She is active onTwitter @CindyGarciaTX and on her blog:
The single most effective strategy that I used to teach English-language learners is comprehensible input. Comprehensible input means that the teacher speaks in such a way that students are able to understand what is being said even when they do not know or understand all of the words being stated. Below are some strategies to make input comprehensible:

Slow down rate of speech and enunciate clearly. As students are listening, they are also working to process what is being said and how that fits with what they already know. At the same time, ELLs are translanguaging and making sense of teachers' academic language. ELLs are developing their English language, and it is very important that they hear those initial and ending sounds of words in order to add them to their vocabulary. Sometimes when we speak too quickly, we drop important sounds such as "ing".

Avoid figurative language and idioms. While these phrases might make sense to you and emphasize a point, to ELLs they might break down their comprehension. Students will probably end up with a literal translation that makes no sense. For example, saying it was a piece of cake will be translated to it was a portion of a dessert, not it was easy! Not only that, but ELLs might stop listening as they try to figure what that idiom means.

Use gestures and total physical response (TPR). Language can sometimes be abstract and not precise. There can also be words that exist in English that do not exist in other languages. For example, toes do not have a Spanish equivalent. In Spanish, we have hand fingers and feet fingers. Using exaggerated gestures can help make the meaning of new vocabulary more clear to students. Using TPR, students also learn to associate a movement with a word, and that will make it more likely that they internalize that new vocabulary.

Collaborative Summarizing
Deedy Camarena is the coordinator for English-language development (ELD), dual and world languages, at the Santa Clara County Office of Education in California:
Second, students find one partner to dialogue with and " create a negotiated list that reflects their combined agreement on the three to six most important ideas." Once students have discussed the most important ideas, they turn them into one, collaborative 15-word summary. Teachers can strategically pair up students, or students can choose. Students must first determine the negotiating rules they will follow. For example, act respectively, cite evidence to prove your opinion, or use academic-language sentence frames, such as Kate Kinsella's, for discussing and collaboration. Students use these sentence frames to support the function of negotiating and intentionally use academically language correctly. The purpose of negotiating with their partner is to "identify who or what is the most important in the section, [and] identify what the subject is doing,"( English Learner Toolkit of Strategies).

Third, have each pair meet with another pair. One student from each pair reads their summary. Then, they dive in and renegotiate a common summary for their new group of four and add it to their graphic organizer.

Fourth, each group of four chooses another group of four to repeat the renegotiating process. Once again, the group will add this new summary to their graphic organizer.

Fifth, ask groups to edit their summaries for meaning, language, and word choice. As the focus of Collaborative Summarizing is utilizing purposeful dialogue to practice oracy, this could be an optional step.

Sixth, chose one student from the group to present the summary to the class. As ELLs have varying comfort levels of reading in front of a class, give the students time to practice in their group. Once a sufficient amount of time has passed, bring the class together to listen to the summaries.

Thanks to Valentina, Denita, Cindy, and Deedy 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 (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones are not yet available). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Six Most Effective Instructional Strategies for ELLs-According to Teachers (Opinion)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Teachers share their "go-to" strategies for teaching English-language learners, including sentence starters and Total Physical Response.

# data[].attributes.headline
Whole Group Model-One Leads, One Teaches on Purpose

# data[].attributes.subject
Whole Group Model-One Leads, One Teaches on Purpose

# data[].attributes.headline
Two Group Model (Pre-Teaching, Alternative Teaching)

# data[].attributes.subject
Two Group Model (Pre-Teaching, Alternative Teaching)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A multimodal text conveys meaning th​​rough a combination of two or more modes, for example, a poster conveys meaning through a combination of written language, still image, and spatial design. Each mode has its own specific task and function (Kress, 2010, p.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
First Attempt at Integrating Multimodal Resources in a Push-In Setting

Setting

Second-Grade Collaborative Team Teaching Class that meets four times a week; two push-in, two pull-out periods.

Area of Study

Social Studies

Mode of Presentation

Images, Text, Websites

Modes of Student Output

Writing, Sketching

Description

Students were broken into five groups, based loosely on ability level. Each group was given a borough and 4-5 places (museums, famous restaurants, stadiums, or historic sites) in each borough to research. We created note-taking sheets for each group. In the end, each student independently wrote a short persuasive piece attempting to convince the reader to visit their selected borough. Students were asked to cite their research in their persuasive pieces.

Successes

Collaborative groups allowed for more engagement and oral language

Use of technology increased student engagement

Note-taking graphic organizer kept students organized and on track

Persuasive final piece made a direct connection to writing units

Student Work Sample

See more of this student's graphic organizer.

Challenges

Some groups worked at a much slower pace due to ability level and behavior issues

Texts and websites were very difficult for many students to read and comprehend in a meaningful way

Note-taking became more of copying

The writing was difficult for struggling students.

The final project was not collaborative so it created a big gap between students who were able to write well and students who needed support.

Many students were pulled out for services during the period, causing groups to be short members

Suggestions for the Future

Conduct more research on the topic ahead of time and prepare multi-level texts that will be accessible to all students

Find more modes of presentation including video and field trips

Allow for more modes of student output( not just writing) including art, theater, and writing

Collaborate more with other service providers and ask them to push in during this period

Plan with collaborating teachers and check in more frequently to assess student progress and tweak lessons.

Model note-taking skills in a whole group setting so expectations are clear

Resources

Second Attempt at Integrating Multimodal Resources in a Push-In Setting

Setting

Second-Grade Push-In Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) class with five English Language Learners (ELLs), with two push-in periods per week

Area of Studies

Social Studies; Iroquois Indians

Modes of Presentation

Text (read aloud, independent reading books, websites)

Visual (sketches and photographs)

1 field trip

Modes of Student Output

Written responses

3D representation (sculptures, dioramas, scale models)

Digital presentation (PowerPoint, VoiceThread)

Dramatic presentation

Description

Together with two ICT teachers and a push in Speech Pathologist, I planned a two-month thematic unit around the Iroquois in New York. During the first month, students would conduct research on 5-6 elements of Iroquois life (food, homes, gender roles, game, laws, etc.). In the second month, students would work in groups to "show what they know" by completing projects of their choosing on one element of daily Iroquois life. Groups were designed to have a mixture of abilities and learning styles.

For the first month, students received 15 minutes of whole group instruction where one of the ICT teachers or I presented material and explicitly modeled how to take notes and gather information. Then the students would work with group members to continue their research with texts or on the web. We provided graphic organizers to help students keep track of their notes.

At the end of the first months, groups were given a survey that asked them to choose an element of daily life they were most interested in presenting and a mode of presentation. Once group members were in agreement, they had to complete a project proposal and have it approved by one of the four teachers. Students could choose from a digital presentation, dramatic play, 3D representation, or written text. We chose these four modes based on the teacher's strengths and comfort level and on available resources. For the second month, each of the four teachers worked with 1-2 groups. Projects were completed and presented at a celebration with parents at the end of the month.

Successes

All students gained an in-depth knowledge of the content

All students were able to participate in some way in the final project

Student choice and voice was driving our planning

Engagement remained high

Challenges

Finding time to meet and plan

Meeting all learning objectives (ESL, Speech, Content)

Competing for management systems for difficult students

Limited resources

Resources
Teacher Created Resources: Sample Student Work: Websites: http://www.tolatsga.org/iro.html http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/northamerica/before1500/history/iroquois.htm http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/northamerica/after1500/history/iroquois.htm http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/northamerica/after1500/history/iroquois.htm http://www.bigorrin.org/iroquois_kids.htm
Multimodal Pullout

Setting

Second-Grade Pull-Out; four groups, 6-10 children in each group; meeting four times a week

Area of Study

Literacy: Informational Writing and Reading

Modes of Student Input and Output

Text (read aloud, independent reading books, websites)

Visual (sketches and photographs)

Video

Audio

Realia (actual frogs)

Description

As a pull-out teacher, I try to align my instruction as closely as I can to the classroom teacher's reading and writing units. This project was aligned with the second-grade non-fiction reading and writing units.

I wanted to purchase a class pet or something that students could watch grow. I had students choose from a list of topics including butterflies, hamsters, goldfish, and earthworms, and frogs. Frogs received the most votes. The project began by doing a lot of pre-thinking and prediction charts.

We utilized " stop and jot" and sticky notes to chart our work. We watched videos and listened to read aloud to build background knowledge. We practiced skills like listening for information, note-taking, and determining importance. Once the frogs were introduced, students would spend the first fifteen minutes of each class observing the frogs and jotting and sketching in their science journals. Students were asked to choose one type of frog from a list and needed to complete a final project. Almost all the students chose to write informational books. Some students created digital presentations.

Successes

All students gained an in-depth knowledge of the content

Engagement was high

Students of mixed ability were able to access information through video and audio recordings of books

Instruction mirrored classroom instruction

Students became more fluent with content vocabulary

The material seemed to engage students who have challenging behaviors and attention issues

Challenges

Almost all students chose writing projects. Students who were less fluent writers had difficulty producing

Limited opportunity to share with classroom teachers- so students didn't always make connections and transfer their knowledge

So many projects became difficult to manage

Suggestions for the Future

More planning time with classroom teachers

Have student work in partnerships or collaborative groups

Show more models of different methods of presentation

Resources
Some Texts: DK Readers: Tale of a Tadpole (Level 1: Beginning to Read) From Tadpole to Frog (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1) by Wendy Pfeffer Frogs, Toads & Turtles: Take Along Guide (Take Along Guides) by Diane L. Burns Websites and Videos:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Multimodal Approach to Push-in and Pull-out ESL Instruction - Inclusive Classrooms Project

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Setting Second-Grade Collaborative Team Teaching Class that meets four times a week; two push-in, two pull-out periods. Area of Study Social Studies Mode of Presentation Images, Text, Websites Modes of Student Output Writing, Sketching Description Students were broken into five groups, based loosely on ability level.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In a 1985 interview published in Language Arts, Paulo Freire claimed that if citizens are to be successful, they must learn to read their world as well as they read the word.

It's an idea I've always found fascinating, as well as one that I believe is increasingly important in our digitally driven culture. After all, in the age of smartphones and 5G, we carry "the world" in the palm of our hand and spend quite a bit of time staring at it.

This is especially true of teenagers. The latest research on the media habits and screen time of Generation Z shows just how integral a role technology plays in their day-to-day experiences.

Considering the amount of time spent on devices, the effects of technology on teens can't be overstated. It's not only how they communicate (or don't), but how they construct their sense of self -cultivating identity through their curation and creation of multimodal posts, designs, and content. More and more of teens' lives and experiences are mediated by online platforms amidst a churning flood of images.

Our conception of the world has also become inexorably bound up in the media in which it is presented. This has far-flung consequences that we're only just beginning to understand. Our students don't follow the news by reading the paper, but by watching YouTube, tracking Twitter, and scrolling through Instagram. They aren't alone either. Most Americans now prefer watching the news as opposed to reading it and a rising number of them get that content online. Like it or loathe it, the texts through which our culture communes and communicates are becoming increasingly visual.

Broadening Our Understanding

Frank Serafini, author of the fantastic "Reading the Visual," refers to these print, visual, and video combinations as "multimodal ensembles" to capture the fact we rarely encounter information in a single mode anymore.

Whether we're viewing a snapchat or reading an online article, most of the texts we engage with convey meaning across several modes that shape the meanings within.

As English teachers, this should give us pause. Should we broaden our understanding of literacy beyond a simple cognitive skill if that's the case? Should we begin to also regard it as a "set of cultural competencies for making socially recognizable meanings by the use of particular material technologies" (Lemke, 1998) to modernize our conception of literacy? Considering the prominent role these ensembles play in our culture and media, one could make a compelling case that they're deserving of more attention in our core literacy curriculum.

This case is strengthened by Bill Cope & Mary Kalantzis, two eminent experts in the intersecting fields of literacy, semiotics, and instructional design. It's their belief that we need to consider and integrate new forms of literacy that "will be essential in creating new or transformed forms of employment, new ways of participating as a citizen in public spaces, and new forms of community engagement."

There's a lot of empty rhetoric about 21st century skills but having read their 1,000-page multimodal manifesto, "Literacies," I believe their message is one with real substance and vision. I strongly subscribe to their assertion that "if our learners become good at navigating across different contexts of language use, they will be good at living in a highly interconnected, globalised, multicultural world" (Cope & Kalantzis, 2012).

They're not alone in that belief either. There's already been a shift in English language arts curriculum over the last decade or so to account for this expanded view of literacy.

Although the print-based goals of traditional literacy are still rightly front and center, English teachers are becoming responsible for a growing number of other tangentially related domains of knowledge-media literacy, cultural studies, art and film criticism, and so on.

Leveraging Multimodal Literacy

I understand how integrating insight from these new domains sounds daunting and time consuming, but it doesn't have to be.

Much the same way that understanding history and psychology can enrich our ability to identify themes and analyze characters, borrowing concepts from fields like semiotics can help us more effectively teach content already present in our curriculum. It's still early days, but there's some compelling scholarship exploring how multimodal literacy can be leveraged to both support and challenge students by affording them a broader set of meaning making tools.

Despite my enthusiasm, there are some clear challenges that are often ignored when it comes to multimodal literacy in the ELA classroom. For instance, Serafini believes that "teachers are rarely, if ever, exposed to these fields of study [art history, semiotics, media, culture studies, communication studies, graphic design, typography, photography, and advertising] in their certification coursework, graduate degree programs, or professional development workshops" (Serafini, 2013).

Obviously, this is a problem. Considering the prominence of multimodal targets and standards in modern curriculum (just check the new IB Diploma Program Subject Brief), this knowledge gap seems to be an area of critical need.

I believe this gap is one factor contributing to the ubiquity of what my buddy Dan Ryder refers to as "dumpster projects."

Without the knowledge necessary to make students' understanding of multimodality deep and transferable, we often fall prey to assigning watered down arts and crafts in the name of creativity, even in high school. It doesn't matter how flashy the final outcome is, creative busy work is still busy work. We need to give students agency to create texts, but we also must challenge them to critically engage with the design process, not mindlessly complete tasks and construct products.

Honing a Sense-Making Skillset

Multimodal literacy isn't about pretty pictures and popsicle sticks. It's not about Pinterest Pedagogy. It's about honing a sense-making skillset our students can use to navigate the complex times in which we live.

It's not just academic or theoretical either. I use it to plan units with my colleagues, design slide decks, and create manipulatives. My students use it to communicate complex ideas, plan essays, collaborate on group projects, take notes, and more. It's a tangible set of tools that can be leveraged in countless contexts.

To illustrate, here are examples of recent student work from this year's projects:

Visual Concepts: We begin the year by learning about and applying some baseline concepts.

Making Sense of Texts: Students are able to use visual thinking as a tool to organize and communicate their understanding of complex ideas and texts.

Taking Notes: Visual thinking provides students with a utility belt of knowledge and procedures they can use to be more effective note takers.

Student Covers: Students created a cover to accompany their short story in which they leveraged knowledge of design concepts.

If you're interested in exploring multimodal literacy in your classroom beyond the resources I've shared here, the New London Group's article "Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures" is a great jumping-off point.

References

Lemke, J. L. (1998). Metamedia literacy: Transforming meanings and media. In D. Reinking (Ed.), Literacy for the 21st century: Technological transformation in a post-typographic world (pp. 283-301). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Kalantzis, M., Cope, B., Chan, E., & Dalley-Trim, L. (2016). Literacies. Port Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Cambridge University Press.

Serafini, F. (2014). Reading the visual: an introduction to teaching multimodal literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.
Trevor Aleo is an English teacher in the DC suburbs. He received his MA in teaching from James Madison University in 2014. He has a passion for innovative teaching practices, finding the intersection between pop culture and pedagogy, and incessantly asking his students "Why?" You can find him pontificating on the state of American culture and education on Twitter @MrAleoSays.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reading the World: The Case for Multimodal Literacy - NCTE

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In a 1985 interview published in Language Arts, Paulo Freire claimed that if citizens are to be successful, they must learn to read their world as well as they read the word. It's an idea I've always found fascinating, as well as one that I believe is increasingly important in our digitally driven culture.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Is Multimodal Learning? 35 Strategies and Examples to Empower Your Teaching

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
All Posts Category Teacher Activities Teaching Strategies Even the most confident educational leaders can find themselves asking the same questions, over and over. Are students listening? Are they engaged? Are they learning the way they should? All kids learn differently, and sometimes it can feel nearly impossible to find a curriculum or plan that works for an entire school.

# data[].attributes.body
Vocabulary is important for EL students....