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Canadian-born ELLs do not reach the same achievement level as their domestic and immigrant counterparts.

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Everyday English ≠ Academic English, but should be developed simultaneously

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Everyday English ≠ Academic English, but should be developed simultaneously

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Over 25% of students in Ontario public schools are ELLs, and most of them are Canadian born. They may enter the school system in kindergarten or in later years from diverse circumstances. They arrive with some proficiency in their native language at home and some or no English language capability. Their ability to communicate orally in English (as they're accostomed to with exposure and practice) may dissguise their needs and they may not be easy to identify. It helps to create a holistic class profile and interview students ot get to know them and their needs at the start of the school better.

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“Identity texts are the products of students’ creative work or performances carried out within the pedagogical spaces orchestrated by teachers. Students invest their identities in the creation of these texts – which can be written, spoken, signed, visual, musical, dramatic or combinations in multimodal form. The identity text then holds up a mirror to students in which their identities are reflected back in a positive light.”

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“There may be a gap between what the schools expect and what students bring, but that does not mean that these students
do not bring anything. They each have a language, a culture, and background experiences. Effective teachers draw on these resources and build new concepts on this strong experiential base.”

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- As students progress through the grades, they come across language everywhere and in the content of each subject. Hence, support must be provided by all teachers. Intervention (short-term or not) doesn't help much if regular instruction doesn't support language learning.
- Explicit teaching exposes students to different academic texts and shows them how an expert navigates a text. Students can be supported in finding the words that are most
important for them through modeled/think-aloud, shared learning and guided reading of a variety of texts related to the content focus. Words chosen for emphasis should be of sufficient frequency to be useful but not of such high frequency that they are likely to be already known.
- Explicit instruction includes teaching word parts (base or root, prefixes, suffixes etc.) using words found in the text. For example, knowing that the prefix un- in unhappy means “not” helps students understand the meaning of unsure and unclear as well and gives a clue about what unkind might mean. Students can be supported by looking for smaller words inside a larger word that can help them understand new words. Mind maps of key vocabulary and related words can help expand their repertoire of strategies to understand unknown words.
- By equipping ELLs with the skills so that they can perform in all roles of a literate learner (Meaning Maker, Code User, Text User, Text Analyzer)  that facilitate word recognition and the learning of new words, teachers can begin to set them up to successfully navigate the texts they are sharing with their peers while exposing them to a broad array of new vocabulary.
- Text Walk: The teacher strategically uses key vocabulary/terms/constructions while students “scan” for them and record their use for later discussion and deconstruction. After a first quick reading, students work collaboratively to infer the meaning of the most important terms based on graphophonic structures, context clues and other
resources. Students may need additional word work to incorporate the new words and constructions into their repertoires
- Students learn by doing: Expose them to a diversity of texts and engage with them in different ways so that they get comfortable with consuming and producing texts for practice and assessment.

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Promoting English Language Practice: Tips

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Promoting English Language Practice: Tips

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1. Provide authentic and cognitively challenging learning tasks by following a 'reductionist curriculum' so that everyone can participate in the classroom community with low floor and high ceiling tasks, and differentiate based on the level of support needed. Such scaffolding and practice of tasks together would benefit all students.
Examples:
- State the instructions in more than one way and repeat in small groups to ensure understanding. Ask students to paraphrase instructions. Also, use simple vocabulary along with the new terms.
- Explicitly teach new sentence structures with simplified sentence structure. Provide a variety of contexts and modalities to practice the newly learned structures and support them to that they can practice those in their own oral and written communication.
- Don't use idiomatic expressions without first explaining them, don't assume understanding by all and explicitly rephrase and explain their meaning so that students can understand and use them appropriately.
2. Create a culturally responsive classroom deliberately by including students' experiences and background knowledge in resources used and activities/lessons. This way, students would feel valued, represented and included in the community to facilitate safe and positive engagement and promote further knowledge building in class.
- Engage students in rich/extensive dialogues and conversations about a topic or text in different contexts and modes in class (starting with in small groups to understand their needs better) for practice of language skills as some may not experience that at home.

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Activity: Steps for Learning about the Array of Languages in your Classroom

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Activity: Steps for Learning about the Array of Languages in your Classroom

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- Work with students to create a list of all the languages spoken by them.
- Engage students in a discussion and co-create meanings of the terms, 'first, second and additional language' as a class. Encourage them to generate questions such as, 'Where do you use this language? What is your second language? Where did you learn it?'
- Participate with the class in creating a chart to place everyone in the classroom under the following headings: Language; First; Second; Additional. Invite students to use some of the questions (above) to interview one another (in pairs) and the teacher to place everyone under a category. Beginner ELLs might be more comfortable to work with someone who shares their linguistic background, but more experienced ELLs should be paired someone with a linguistic background different from their own. Once finished, have students contribute data about their partner to the chart above.

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Teachers can't assume that ELL students' social language proficiency is the same as their academic one (for understanding content). Hence, they may need to assess/evaluate them alternatively.
- Build positive and collaborative relationships with students and get to know what and in which language they are being read to at home so that you can help them make connections  to any English language texts and anticipate any errors or misunderstandings in English due to differences in language rules between the two languages.
- Interpret miscues carefully to identify the underlying issue correctly. A student's reading capability may also not align with their ability to make meaning out of a text and we might need to help them develop and practice strategies for the latter. Dig beyond the surface to truly identify the issue and help them work through that with practice and patience.
- Explain exactly what is required of the students in formal complex assessments as they may not catch any subtle nuances or information in a text. Also, interpret the information from those tests holistically in light of your experiences while working with them, eg. interviews, portfolio, observations etc.
- Co-create learning goals and success criteria and include English language as a part of those for ELLs.
- Allow students to peer-assess and provide feedback to each other and teach them to revise their own work.
- Provide multiple opportunities and time for practice a skill or task in groups and individually before assessing students so that it's fair and they're ready.
- Allow them to express their thinking by using diverse methods (visual drawings, gestures etc.) and by using their first language. This would help to identify their needs, strengths and interests accurately so you can support them appropriately.

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“Culturally responsive teachers know their students well and build on students’ prior knowledge, stretching them beyond the familiar in a safe and encouraging classroom environment. They value the diverse knowledge and experiences students bring to class rather than seeing differences as problems to be overcome. They facilitate respect and empathy among students as members of a diverse society.”

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It's a framework for assessing ELLs'
language acquisition and literacy development
across the Ontario Curriculum. (http://www.edugains.ca)

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“We should see ELLs as full members of the school community, who have specific learning needs, rather than as a separate group who must prove themselves linguistically before they can claim their full entitlement.“