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Gives ways to advocate and support EBs with IEPs

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Making sure the emergent bilingual learners (EBLs) in your class receive the support they need can be challenging, particularly if they also require support for a specific learning need as indicated in an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This resource is designed to help you in your work with and advocacy for students who need support in language development and have additional learning needs.

The ideas and examples we will share in this resource draw on the expertise and years of experience of the CUNY-NYSIEB support team, whose members have guided dozens of schools across New York State to develop best practices for emergent bilingual students, including those with IEPs. We draw on our core principles in all the work we do, which view bilingualism as a resource in education and support a multilingual ecology for the whole school.

Before we start, a quick note about language: If you are new to CUNY-NYSIEB's work, you may be wondering why we refer to students as we do. Labeling so often characterizes emergent bilinguals' learning experiences in school: they are called ELLs (English Language Learners), and in the case of those IEPs, SWDs (Students with Disabilities) or SPEDs (Special Education Students), all terms that emphasize what they can't do or the services they receive. We refer to these students as emergent bilinguals to emphasize their skills (bilingualism) and their growth potential (emergence).

I. Background information on Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs

How do we get to know Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs?

Emergent Bilinguals with Individualized Education Plans (EBL-IEPs) receive both mandated English as a New Language (ENL) support as well as services for a documented learning need under an IEP.

We want to emphasize that these students are an incredibly diverse group in terms of language and cognition. Also, because students' performances fluctuate over time, they can actually be "decertified" as they move through the school system (that is, they stop needing ENL or IEP services). Therefore, it is crucial to emphasize the talents, literacies, and intelligences of emergent bilinguals with IEPs, even as we acknowledge their particular needs.

For more information on identifying, monitoring, and providing appropriate services for EBL-IEPs, check out Chapter 6 of the US Department of Education's frequently-updated English Learner Toolkit.

What can schools do for Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs?

Typically, an emergent bilingual will be referred for evaluation for special education services if his or her ENL teacher realizes that the student needs additional help that is not a function of English Language acquisition. However, providing an accurate diagnosis for EBL-IEPs can be a challenge; it is widely documented that EBLs are both over- and under-identified for special education services (Brown & Campbell-Ault, 2015). Because evaluations for special education are normed on monolingual populations, they can give an inaccurate picture of an emergent bilingual student (Hart, 2009). In all contexts, evaluating students for special education services must be done with the family's input and in a way that is culturally appropriate and recognizes the student's bilingualism. For more identification and support, this resource page on addressing EBL-IEP's linguistic and educational needs can help.

II. Using CUNY-NYSIEB Principles to Support Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs

In CUNY-NYSIEB's experience working with schools, a few strategies have stood out as particularly promising for emergent bilinguals with IEPs. We highlight classroom examples from cohort schools where these strategies have been successfully implemented. We present them here divided into "school based" and "classroom based" practices, to differentiate between what we have seen successfully implemented on a schoolwide level and what individual teachers have accomplished with these students.

A. Supporting Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs on a Schoolwide Level

Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs receive two different types of support: they get help developing English for academic purposes, as well as assistance for physical, cognitive, or other reasons under a documented IEP. It is critical not to assume, however, that because these students are receiving so much support their needs are always being met. On the contrary, because these supports can mean separate classes or instructional periods, it is critical to ensure these students do not feel isolated from "mainstream" populations as a result. It is just as critical to ensure they are not stigmatized among their peers or held to lower expectations by their teachers. Having a whole school culture of high expectations and inclusivity is key to the success of these students, and the following strategies adhere to this philosophy.

1. Building Community

Families are key members of students' support team. You can also tap into resources within your school community: bilingual staff members and parent volunteers can help in communicating with families, designing relevant curricula and resources, and conducting assessments in the home language.

Once you have identified key community members as collaborators, an important next step is creating an understanding of what community is. Help community members understand the school-community relationship as reciprocal, that is, the ways we help each other and why we do so. This includes students and their family members in the broader community and ensures all members are on the same page when it comes to learning goals. Additionally, positive peer and adult relationships are supported, which helps establish behavioral norms for social situations and helps educators understand behaviors that may be culturally informed.

2. Collaborative Decision Making

The collaborative team approach is crucial when it comes to making instructional decisions about Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs. In this approach, educators work together with administrators, parents, and specialists to create a unified vision of support for student needs, teachers collaborate across disciplines, and all teachers receive Professional Development (PD) in accessible pedagogy.

Collaborative decision making essentially extends the building community goal. Once you have established reciprocal relationships among all stakeholders, it is far easier to begin asking those involved with these students to help make decisions about their education. Additionally, this strategy asks all teachers - not just teachers of Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs - to become involved and join their community of support.

CUNY-NYSIEB Successful Strategies: Making Decisions Collaboratively

At one cohort elementary school, a recent shift in enrollment had increased the numbers of emergent bilingual students, many of whom additionally received services under an IEP. Many teachers were unsure how to best serve the needs of their students. With the support of the CUNY-NYSIEB team and the principal, teachers formed a leadership team that involved all stakeholders: mainstream teachers, special education teachers, and ENL support specialists. Through regular meeting and dialogue, the team was able to learn and implement school-wide and classroom supports that all teachers agreed upon and were grounded in the principles of inclusion and bilingualism as a resource. As the year progressed, teachers were able to implement and then workshop strategies with their colleagues, in order to decide which interventions were the most useful to their students. At the end of the year, teacher provided the feedback to CUNY-NYSIEB support staff that they felt more competent in meeting the needs of their emergent bilingual students with IEPs, as well as had grown more skilled in seeing their colleagues as resources and partners. Moreover, the teachers felt empowered using the strategies, because they had all decided on using them together.

3. Base Pedagogical Choices on Student Needs

Every student is an individual, with different learning needs, cultural and linguistic background, and talents. Thus, instruction for Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs needs to be accessible and leverage their diverse abilities and language practices. Moreover, when instruction is relevant to students, they and their families see learning experiences as valuable.

B. Supporting Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs in the Classroom

One big way you can support students is by opening up your classroom to translanguaging. The principles of inclusive education are all about removing barriers to participation so that all groups and individuals can have access to high quality education. Because translanguaging affirms students' diverse language practices and uses them as a resource in education, translanguaging does this for emergent bilingual students. That makes it a natural fit in a special education context!

When special educators plan supports and scaffolds for their students, they always keep in mind the idea that students learn through different modalities. When we look at students' language repertoires through this lens, we see the need to include multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement in our lessons. The ideas we present below explain how translanguaging can help create a more inclusive environment for Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs. These strategies also fit in very well across the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and are aligned to UDL principles of teaching and learning.

For more translanguaging strategies, click on the Guide above!

1. Activating Background Knowledge Across Languages

We must appreciate that Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs arrive in classrooms with considerable prior learning. This can help us design learning experiences that welcome and build on what students know, as well as intentionally teaching specific, relevant knowledge and skills that they need in order to access new content and tasks.

This can be done by providing materials and using instructional tools that give multilingual options for students to receive new information. Many curricular materials are English-only, and particularly in the case of these students, materials in the home language can provide an additional academic support.

CUNY-NYSIEB Successful Strategies: Activating Background Knowledge Across Languages

In an 8th grade integrated team teaching English Language Arts class, the teacher team planned to introduce their students to the idea of "taking a stand," a key theme in the unit they were starting that featured "To Kill a Mockingbird" as the class novel. Knowing the dense novel would be a challenge to their students, many of whom receive language and special education services, the teachers wanted to provide a low-stakes, high-interest entry point to engage their students in thinking about the book from the get go. They set up a multilingual and multicultural "gallery walk" of images and signage that represented individuals and groups from the students' linguistic and cultural communities "taking a stand" on important issues. Students rotated around the room with language partners, and had a "silent conversation" in English and the home language about what they saw. In a "silent conversation," students respond to each other in writing - in the case of this class, the teachers provided prompts in English and the home languages of the class to scaffold students' responses and teach them the language of building and questioning. After the activity, students read the posters together in mixed language groups, using each other as resources to make sense of the multilingual responses. They had meaningful conversations around what the images mean to them, as well as generated questions about what they might mean in connection to the unit they were starting. The teachers noticed that when students used their background knowledge (cultural context of the photographs) and home languages, students were able to successfully understand and engage in the activity and generate meaningful conversation and writing in English afterward.

Note: For more like this, see the CUNY-NYSIEB Translanguaging Pedagogy for Writing Guide

2. Using Multiple Entry Points for Task Completion

Students should be invited to demonstrate their learning using multiple modes and languages, including on assessments. When it comes to sharing what they know and have learned, the language students use is not critical unless that is what is being assessed. What does this mean? If you want students to demonstrate how well they have mastered writing a well-organized paragraph in English, the final product (the assessment or completed task) should be in English. However, if you are assessing how much they have learned about the life cycle of a butterfly and they are able to use gestures, home language, pantomime, or other modes to express this concept, it can be accepted as a completed task.

3. Support Planning and Strategy Development

Students can learn to monitor and support their own learning. You can support students in doing this by teaching them ways to develop executive functioning mechanisms such as reflection and self monitoring so they can learn to adjust their actions in ways that support their own learning.

4. Spotlight on Classroom Practices: Translanguaging and Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs

Translanguaging in Action for Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs: Special Educator Scaffolds Students' Writing:

A 6th grade Special Education teacher in an urban public school had a class of 12 students, some of whom were Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs with Haitian Creole, Bengali, Fulani, Arabic, and French as their home languages. The teacher asked the students to write 3-5 sentence narratives that described their daily lives. The teacher posted sentence stems such as, "On Saturdays, I like to ..." and "My favorite food is ... " The whole group listed different foods in English and in the students' home languages on the board and created a multilingual chart of terms. Afterward, students used the sentence starters to complete at least one sentence in English. The teacher further aided students' multi-literacy skills by having students write sentences in their home languages as well. Those who could explain more were challenged to write two or three sentences, but everyone was able to complete some type of authentic writing that served a real purpose and audience, and where students were able to make choices about topics and express their own voices. Even the most hesitant speakers were proud to share.

Successful uses of Translanguaging strategies in this lesson included:

Using students' home languages as a resource

Chunking what seemed to be a simple task into several steps

Brainstorming ideas before speaking and writing about them

Providing scaffolding in the form of English sentence starters and multilingual, student - generated vocabulary lists

Differentiating the task complexity according to student strengths

Allowing student choice of language use during the discussion

Spotlight on Students: Emergent Bilinguals with IEPs

Juan, 7, 2nd grade student from Puerto Rico

Juan is a 7-year-old student who arrived to the U.S. from Puerto Rico as a toddler. He speaks Spanish as a home language, and has been receiving ENL services since entering Kindergarten, and is additionally classified with another health impairment (OHI).

His class is a bilingual, co-teaching model, where his two teachers - the general education bilingual teacher and the special education teacher - work in consultation with the ENL teacher. Juan also receives pull-out resource room services to address his IEP goals in Spanish. Through the bilingual instruction in his classroom, Juan is developing good verbal English expressive and receptive abilities in addition to developing literacy skills in Spanish. He is below grade level in reading and writing in both languages, but is learning quickly and is really excited by his schoolwork.

Juan experiences academic successes when given the opportunity to express his learning in different ways. For instance, he likes to use a reading "app" on the classroom iPads to demonstrate his developing mastery of English phonics. He also benefits from reading texts in context and discussing them with his peers: On a recent class trip to the zoo, for instance, reading English and Spanish texts about the animals and talking about them with his peers helped him complete a detailed writing assignment about the trip.

However, Juan also faces some barriers to consistent success. The students in his class, half of whom receive one form of supplemental educational service or another, have a great deal of individual needs and Juan sometimes gets distracted or struggles when a teacher is assisting another student. Another challenge has been the medication Juan takes for his diagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). His doctors and parents are working to regulate the dosage, because when his medication is off, Juan is either lethargic or disruptive.

Héctor, 14, 8th grade student from Panama

Héctor is a 14-year old student originally from Panama who came to the U.S. in first grade. Since coming to the US he has been in three schools, in three different states.

Perhaps as a result of this inconsistency in schooling, Héctor was not identified as an EBL until 6th grade. In addition to the EBL label, he also receives services for a classified learning disability under an IEP. Héctor is placed in a general education classroom with pull-out ENL services and Special Education Teacher Support Services (SETSS).

Héctor is charming, likeable, and very social. While quiet in his classes, he likes to exchange secret messages or gestures with his peers. He loves basketball and plays for the school team. He seems to be well-integrated among his peers, although he can appear shy among adults. Where he thrives socially, Héctor's relationship with academics is more complex, particularly in regard to language use.

At home with his family, Héctor only uses Spanish. However, at school he only uses English. When other Spanish-English bilingual classmates communicate in both English and Spanish among themselves, Héctor does not participate. He doesn't feel comfortable providing Spanish translation to newcomer students who don't speak English and doesn't like to say that he was born in Panama. Also, though he can speak and understand Spanish he does not read or write it, possessing literacy skills in English only.

Héctor has been experiencing some academic successes recently, leading to notable improvements in his reading and writing proficiency in English (though he is still at below grade-level expectations). Héctor's teachers had been noticing he is often hesitant to begin a written task and is forgetful of steps, so this year they began supporting him with sentence starters and writing models. These graphic organizers have been helpful in teaching Héctor to structure his writing. When reminded of steps and presented with models, Héctor can now produce independent writing that fulfills the requirements of the task. Another area of strength is that he responds well to feedback from both his teachers and his peers.

Valentina, 17, 11th Grade Student from the U.S.

Valentina is a 17-year old student born in the U.S. of Mexican descent. She has been receiving ENL services for 11 consecutive years, so is classified as a Long Term English Language Learner. She also receives services under an IEP because of a classified learning disability. Valentina is in 11th grade at a high school in a large urban area, and receives language and special education services through integrated co-teaching with two or more teachers (general education, special education, and/or ENL teachers) in different subjects.

Valentina loves cooking and drawing, is social and polite, and gets along well with her peers. Valentina speaks both English and Spanish at home. She has strong Spanish literacy skills, having participated in one-way dual language programs as an elementary school student and "Spanish for Native Speakers" classes through middle and into high school, yet she prefers to speak and write in English. She demonstrates strong comprehension of written texts and the ability to retell or paraphrase what she has read. She is also a talented creative writer who enjoys crafting imaginative narratives and poetry.

Some areas of difficulty for Valentina include organization and applying appropriate mechanics in her writing. Specifically, she is inconsistent with distinguishing claims from counterclaims and using transitions to connect body paragraphs with claims. She also often has challenges remaining on task. Successful strategies her teachers have tried include giving her question prompts, using graphic organizers, applying annotation routines, and providing redirection. When her teacher gives her prompting with questions, Valentina can recognize and implement corrections on her own most of the time. For organization, her teacher has used T-charts to help her organize ideas for an essay and provided a pre-filled organizer for her to insert relevant information. Learning an annotation routine has also helped Valentina to improve her reading comprehension. Valentina is now able to apply the routine without prompting, and this has improved her overall proficiency in literacy-based skills.

Helpful Links: Further Reading and References:
Brown, J.E. & Campbell Ault, P. (2015). Disentangling language differences from disability: A case study of district-preservice collaboration. Journal of Multilingual Education Research, 6, 111-166. Retrieved from http://fordham.bepress.com/jmer/vol6/iss1/7

Celic, C. and Seltzer, K. (2012). Translanguaging: A CUNY-NYSIEB Guide for Educators. Available here: http://www.nysieb.ws.gc.cuny.edu/files/2012/06/FINAL-Translanguaging-Guide-With-Cover-1.pdf

Cheatham, G. A. & Hart Barnett, J.E. (2016). Overcoming common misunderstandings about students with disabilities who are English language learners. Intervention in School and Clinic, 1-6.

Ebe, A. (2010, Sept/Oct). Culturally Relevant Texts and Reading Assessment for English Language Learners. Reading Horizons, 50(3), 193-210. Retrieved from: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1016&context=reading_horizons

García, S. & Tyler, B. (2010). Meeting the needs of English language learners with learning disabilities in the general curriculum. Theory Into Practice, 49(2), 113-120.

Gordon, D., Meyer, A., and Rose, D. (2014). Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. Wakefield, MA: CAST Professional Publishing. Available here: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Design-Learning-Theory-Practice/dp/0989867404/

Hart, J. E. (2009). Strategies for culturally and linguistically diverse students with special needs. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 53(3), 197-208.

Wang, P., & Woolf, S. (2016). Trends and issues in bilingual special education teacher preparation: A literature review. Journal of Multilingual Education Research, 6(1), 35-59. Retrieved from http://fordham.bepress.com/jmer/vol6/iss1/4/

Acknowledgments

This CUNY-NYSIEB resource was created by Kathryn Fangsrud Carpenter, Kahdeidra Martin, and Louis Olander. María Cioè-Peña, Maite Sánchez and Kate Seltzer served as advisors to the authors. We would like to give special thanks to the teachers and administrators who provided feedback on this resource.

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Supporting Emergent Bilinguals with Individualized Education Plans: Tips from CUNY-NYSIEB

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Making sure the emergent bilingual learners (EBLs) in your class receive the support they need can be challenging, particularly if they also require support for a specific learning need as indicated in an Individualized Education Plan (IEP). This resource is designed to help you in your work with and advocacy for students who need support in language development and have additional learning needs.

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Talks about service training for pre service teachers to give them experience with emergent bilinguals outside of the classroom before becoming a teacher.

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LAWRENCE - The number of students who speak English as a second or an additional language is on the rise in the United States. Yet not all new teachers moving into their first classrooms have worked with diverse student populations. University of Kansas educators have found that when pre-service teachers get to know diverse students in and out of the classroom, they not only become better educators, they also become advocates for their students.

Education students typically join working teachers in their classrooms as part of a student teaching assignment. But in recent years, concerns have grown that the experience coupled with classes on a college campus isn't sufficiently preparing teachers. Three KU educators have documented the experiences of pre-service teachers who engaged in service learning with English language learners and their teachers. They found the experience reduced concerns and anxiety about working with diverse populations, provided opportunity for self-reflection, and promoted feelings of self-efficacy, professional competency and a "demystification" of working with diverse learners.

"Many of our education students haven't had a lot of chances to work with diverse populations, and we want them to have the experience of working with English language learners before they become teachers," said Hyesun Cho, associate professor of curriculum & teaching. "Because of the demographic change in this country, they will have English language learners in their future classroom and we, as teacher-educators, should prepare them for such a classroom."

Cho described her findings in a chapter co-written with Peter Johnson and Sylvia Somiari, both doctoral students in the Department of Curriculum & Teaching, in the book "Facilitating Authentic Practices in Teacher Education Through Pedagogies of Enactment," The book was edited by Chesla Ann Lenkaitis of Temple University and Shannon Hilliker of Binghamton University.

The preparation for working with linguistically diverse students is especially timely given the increase of such populations in American schools. And the growth is not confined to border states, as Kansas has shown with the nation's largest percentage point increase in English language learner enrollment between 2002-2003 and 2012-2013. The authors describe the process of pre-service teachers engaged in service learning with diverse populations as part of their early field experience before student teaching. In addition to working with students and teachers in the classroom, the pre-service teachers were required to spend time with an "emergent bilingual" student outside of the classroom, interview them and their teacher and write about their experiences. They shared their findings with their classmates in the teaching methods course and wrote reflective journals throughout the semester. The researchers also conducted focus group interviews with the preservice teachers to learn about their experience in service learning and professional growth over time.

They were required to prepare lesson plans informed by the time they spent with their young learners and the teaching methods they learned from the course. The authors recount how the future teachers reported their mindsets about linguistically diverse students changed from the beginning of the semester.

"At first, a lot of them had a deficit mindset about English-language learners because of the stereotypes about them. Many pre-service teachers thought ELLs just need support from the teacher because they lack the English language. What they found was these students bring a lot to the table, including their linguistic and cultural knowledge. Many of them are high-achieving students as well, including gifted students. Some thought they all scored low on their tests and learned that is not the case."

That breaking down of stereotypes was one of two major benefits the authors describe in their chapter. The second was learning to translate education theory into practice. The future teachers were better able to consider students' perspectives and how theory can be applied in ways diverse students understand. Furthermore, the participants turned around deficit mindsets and became advocates for students, instead of simply someone at the front of their classrooms. That advocacy, which was frequently alluded to in the data, is superior to a "savior mindset" that is common before such experiences, Cho said.

The chapter also details student teachers' experience working with practicing teachers. They learned about their day-to-day work, including challenges they face, such as finding enough time to do all that is required of them, lack of support from districts and lack of resources for their multilingual learners.

"This is the only TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) methods course required for pre-service teachers to work with emergent bilingual students and their teachers in the teacher education program at KU," Cho said. "They had authentic experiences and were able to work with students, paraeducators and teachers to learn what it takes to have positive outcomes for our diverse student populations in elementary schools."

The book includes chapters on authentic practices that can boost experiences of teaching candidates through pedagogies of enactment, or acquiring lessons through experience in addition to learning in the classroom. Other chapters address practices such as boosting vocabulary through games and technology, professional learning communities, critical thinking, audio description, using classroom assessment data and many others.

Cho said she will continue to have her students take part in service learning and work with active teachers to continue to refine the service-learning program.

"This is a mutually beneficial experience for our teacher candidates and English-language learners and their teachers. By investigating young learners' lived stories and working with them closely in and outside the classroom, our pre-service teachers became much more aware of the multifaceted nature of their identities as emergent bilinguals."

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LAWRENCE - The number of students who speak English as a second or an additional language is on the rise in the United States. Yet not all new teachers moving into their first classrooms have worked with diverse student populations.

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Provides online course and services for teachers of emergent bilinguals on how to advocate for them.

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Advocating for Emergent Bilinguals through Language and Literacy

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Welcome to Advocating for Emergent Bilinguals through Language and Literacy (AEBLL)! AEBLL.com is designed with teachers in mind, and provides information about the services I offer, as well as resources on emergent bilingual school children and their language and literacy needs.

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Discusses the importance of WHO we advocate with and advocating about WHAT?

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By: Maria Josefina Yanguas

This excerpt from English Language Learners at School: A Guide for Administrators, 2nd Edition ( Caslon, 2012) explores the question, "Regarding ELLs, whom do we advocate with, and about what?" Author Maria Josefina Yanguas provides a brief introduction to a chart that outlines the key issues that are appropriate for different stakeholders and audiences - all the way from PTA groups to the state governor, as well as key questions that will help guide preparation for these conversations.

With all the different stakeholder groups, one of the most important elements of advocacy begins with putting forth positive and accurate information about programs for English language learners (ELLs) in your school and district. All too often there are negative perceptions regarding programs for ELLs that can be countered with a school visit or a school report. Therefore, whenever there is an opportunity to showcase ELL students in a school, not only should notices be sent to the parents, school officials, and school board members, they should also go to other groups in the community, including the media, local elected officials, and local business and community groups.

Any follow-up reports about such events or additional documents that describe the academic progress and other accomplishments of ELL students (including those accomplishments not easily measured by standardized tests but that may be socio-affective in nature, e.g., outstanding parental involvement at different events, former ELLs becoming teachers in the school district,) should also be sent to these different stakeholder groups. Such reports need not be long and elaborate but rather brief and to the point.

Table 8.1 lists the various stakeholders and the most crucial information administrators need to obtain about them, as well as the information stakeholders might be most interested in.
Download advocacy chart as PDF >
Hamayan, E. and Freeman Field, R. (2012). English Language Learners at School: A Guide for Administrators, 2nd Edition. Excerpt from Chapter 8, "Advocacy." (pp. 228-231). ©Caslon Publishing. Printed with permission, all rights reserved.

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ELL Advocacy: Selecting the Right Issues and Audiences

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LD OnLine is the leading website on learning disabilities, learning disorders and differences. Parents and teachers of learning disabled children will find authoritative guidance on attention deficit disorder, ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, dysnomia, reading difficulties, speech and related disorders.

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Includes advocacy for Emergent Bilinguals after Grade 12.

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Talks about the dire need for advocacy from Emergent Bilingual teachers.

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From "The Professional Journal for Educators"

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Teacher leadership to support English language learners - kappanonline.org

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To improve instruction and services for all English language learners, teachers are stepping into leadership roles.

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2. Teach Your Students to Self-Advocate !!!!!! I find this so important even when you are already advocating for them because not every teacher will.

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7 Effective Ways Teachers Can Advocate for English Learners

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Many English language learners who enter our schools aren't welcomed into inclusive environments. Teachers of ELLs are in a key position to draw attention to inequalities they observe and to advocate for their students.

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A new ELL teacher shares her experience and what she does to appropriately advocate for her students.

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When I first began my role as an ESL teacher, I have to admit, I didn't know much about ELLs other than my own experiences. My experience growing up as an English learner helped me form my beliefs about language learning and helped me as I worked with ELs in my general education classroom.
But the year I left the general education classroom and moved into the role of an ESL teacher who supported all grades, co-taught, and pulled newcomer students out for intense English instruction, I realized that I needed to learn more and do more. I was seen as the ESL/ELL specialist on my campus. And that meant a lot to me. The students were counting on me to support their language development and to support their teachers. I had to step up my game and FAST!

1 KNOW THE LAWS
First and foremost, get to know your local policies and state laws regarding English learners. Understand them deeply and be prepared to share them with your colleagues in an effort to ensure that ELs are receiving equitable education. Attend educational meetings that involve ELL students. If an ELL is being considered for special education, speech or other services, ensure that you are included in the staffing/meeting to act as the voice for the student.
One thing I did as an ELL teacher is I set up a meeting with the principal before school started. I wanted to share with her my vision for our ESL team and our goals. And I wanted to ensure that we were valued and supported. This talk was super important. It set the tone for the year. We needed to make sure that our ESL teachers were valued as language specialists, seeing students regularly, co-teaching in classrooms and not being used at substitutes, making copies, or covering cafeteria duty.

Networking is more than important as an ELL educator. Often there are only a few of us on a campus, sometimes only one. There are some districts that have one ESL teacher that serve the entire campus. We need each other. We can help one another by collaborating, discussing, and sharing ideas.
Network with general education content teachers as well. If you are able to plan with content teachers in person, that is ideal! However, sometimes the most feasible way to plan and discuss is online. Set up a system to discuss and plan with general education teacher who serve ELLs. After all, ELLs spend a majority of their day with general Ed teachers. If you are luck enough to co-teach, then use that opportunity to model effective ELL teaching methods as you work in classrooms.
Network with parents and community members. Creating a team of supporters helps us realize that we are all working together to help OUR students achieve and succeed. Building relationships with families and community members can only benefit our students.

3 SPOTLIGHT
Shine a BRIGHT light on ELL success! Whether success is big or small, be sure to highlight it and make it known. If a student showed growth in reading, share that success with him/her and the parents. If a child make progress on state testing make a big deal of it! Celebrate success! Recently, we noticed that one of our students who entered as a junior high newcomer knowing no English graduated in the top 10 of the class! You better believe we celebrated this success!

4 KEEP GROWING
Never stop learning. No matter how long you've been in education, there's always room to grow. Seek out professional development opportunities and ask your administrator to fund you. There are multiple ways to grow in your profession. Nowadays, learning comes in many forms. You can attend state TESOL conferences, smaller local/district PD, or read a professional book (I can recommend a few if you need some help). You can even learn online! Twitter has the potential to keep learning at your fingertips. Simply type in a hashtag such as #ELLs or #ELLchat and you will see all types of tweets with information you can learn from. There's even a Twitter book chat called #ELLchat_BKclub (lead by educators Katie Toppel and Tan Huynh) that helps ELL teachers read and learn together.

No matter what, just remember that you are not alone and that you have the power to make change for the English Learners you serve. It's up to you!

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When I first began my role as an ESL teacher, I have to admit, I didn't know much about ELLs other than my own experiences. My experience growing up as an English learner helped me form my beliefs about language learning and helped me as I worked with ELs in my general education classroom.

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Gives resources for research on serving as an Emergent Bilingual teacher.

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Advocacy in multiple different circumstances:
in the classroom, in leadership, and in the community.

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Language Learning

Any educator today will probably agree on these key factors for a successful school environment:

Student engagement and academic achievement.

Strong and proactive leadership.

An invested school community.

Many schools have taken steps to encourage growth in these areas for the general student population. Such initiatives often include family and curriculum nights, field trips, volunteer opportunities, class newsletters and weekly messages from administration.

I began my work as an ESL educator in a public elementary school where these traditional outreach initiatives were in place, with overall positive results for the general school population. However, I still saw many teachers and school leaders who perceived English Language Learners (ELLs) and their families to be "uninvolved' or "disinterested" in school.

Research has long showed that increased family presence and involvement at school leads to academic growth and more positive attitudes toward education for students. Most educators know this, but not all families can become fully engaged in their school community using traditional outreach methods alone.

The growing population of English Language Learners in public schools presents a unique set of needs and strengths that educators must address. ELLs and their families require strong advocacy schools to foster truly inclusive and supportive educational environments for all students. At my school, we began a targeted effort to advocate for ELL students on multiple levels, and saw positive results almost immediately. We advocated for our students in the classroom, with the support of our school leadership and through our community.

At my school, we began a targeted effort to advocate for ELL students on multiple levels, and saw positive results almost immediately.

Advocacy in the classroom

Supporting students from diverse language backgrounds begins in the classroom. On a very basic level, teachers must make use of interpretation and translation services available to ensure that all families have equal access to information. This alone, however, does not amount to advocacy.

To truly advocate for ELL students, educators must incorporate Culturally Responsive Teaching into their daily practice. Students should see themselves and their cultures reflected in classroom lessons and activities. When students feel that their own experiences are valued, their self-confidence and achievements can increase as a result.

As a result, our students felt pride in their backgrounds and languages, encouraging higher participation rates and language growth.

This can be accomplished more simply than many teachers realize. At my school, for example, we prioritized the availability of books and focus texts that included characters who had culture, experiences and backgrounds similar to our ELL students. As a result, our students felt pride in their backgrounds and languages, encouraging higher participation rates and language growth. The general student population received more globally focused instruction that led to greater understanding of their peers.

Advocacy in leadership

All actions taken to promote a culturally responsive environment within classrooms must be supported and promoted by school leadership. With higher-level supports in place, a school environment that truly values all its diverse populations can take shape.

Small steps taken by principals and office staff create positive impact on the school culture. For example, administration should enable teachers to collaborate by designing a school schedule that allows co-planning. With proper planning, instruction can be aligned for ELLs and other students who may participate in small group work outside the grade-level classroom, promoting higher levels of academic achievement. Leadership must also model proper methods of outreach through school-wide communications that are available in multiple languages if needed, stressing the importance of inclusion.

Advocacy in the community

Perhaps the most important component of advocating for English language learners is facilitating community involvement and empowerment. While crucial, this component is often missing from otherwise inclusive school environments.

In my school, difficulties with community engagement and outreach with ELL families was the result of a mutual sense of discomfort. While rooted in language difference, this hesitance to interact and truly engage ran much deeper. Without the ability to communicate with the school in English, many families wondered: how could they contribute? Without understanding the cultures and values of language-learning families, teachers and school leaders wondered, how could they reach out and include them in a meaningful way?The answer for us, it turned out, was quite simple: put the families in charge.

We established a Latino Parent Committee that met regularly to discuss school issues, make suggestions and organize events that would allow them to showcase aspects of their background and cultures. With a more visible presence of Spanish-speaking families, our community of language learners felt emboldened to participate and access the school more fully, motivated by the appreciation of different cultures. English-speaking staff and families also took part in these meetings and events, facilitating open communication and cooperation.

Our students today are increasingly unique, and our duty as educators is to embrace and value the diverse perspectives they bring to our schools.

Our students today are increasingly unique, and our duty as educators is to embrace and value the diverse perspectives they bring to our schools. True advocacy fosters a sense of community that is attainable and necessary, with the proper efforts put in place.

By approaching advocacy from these three perspectives, our school culture shifted noticeably. While the process was by no means immediate, growth was noticeable in the areas most important to our educators and our families:

Advocacy in the classroom using culturally relevant materials increased student engagement and academic achievement.

Advocacy in leadership led to a stronger and more supportive administration.

Advocacy in the community led to a more invested group of families.

I felt proud of the growth we made in these areas. With involvement from many groups on multiple levels, we laid the groundwork for a successful and inclusive school environment that has continued to grow and address the needs of ELL students.
For classroom resources and advocacy tips for ELL students, check out these resources: This collection will help students understand immigration and identity. These resources give you ideas for parent and family engagement.

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Advocating for English Language Learners | Blog | Participate

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Language Learning Any educator today will probably agree on these key factors for a successful school environment: Student engagement and academic achievement. Strong and proactive leadership. An invested school community. Many schools have taken steps to encourage growth in these areas for the general student population.

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Pg.  20- gives specific ways to advocate for emergent bilinguals.
("Advocates must empower themselves to empower others.")

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"Lessons From Experienced Bilingual Educators"

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"Lessons From Experienced Bilingual Educators"

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Two educators of emergent bilinguals share their advocacy for bilingual programs.