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Citation:
colorincolorado. (2018, January 31). ELLs Belong to All of Us: The Role of ESOL Specialists in Collaboration. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R422RPysEBl.

Summary:
This resource focuses on the role of ESOL specialists, and how they collaborate with teachers across the entire school to make lessons more suitable for ELLs. In the video, the ESOL specialist attends all lesson planning meetings and makes suggestions and shares best practices for making lessons more inclusive for ELLs. At Mason Crest Elementary School, where the video takes place, nearly half the students are ELLs; therefore, teachers meet together to develop lesson plans in collaboration with the ESOL specialist in order to ensure that ELLs can participate fully in the lesson. The publisher of the video, colorincolorado, is an educational service of WETA, the leading public broadcasting station in Washington D.C. It also is sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association. Considering the credibility of the publisher as well as sponsoring organizations, this video can be deemed as a credible source.

Analysis:

The video focuses on how collaboration between ESOL specialists and other teachers can help develop lesson plans that address the needs of ELLs and Bilingual students in the classroom. The ESOL specialist participates in every lesson planning to make suggestions on how lesson plans can be more inclusive of ELLs. This shows how collaboration between classroom teachers and ESOL specialists can advance learning experience for ELL and Bilingual students.

The video is essentially a case study of how the role of ESOL specialist has improved ELL education at Mason Crest Elementary School. Given that more than half of the school’s student body are ELLs, making lesson plans inclusive and engaging to ELLs is extremely important. The Colorin colorado website also tells us that it conducts extensive research to create its content and the organization has been around for more than a decade to provide educational content to parents, schools, and communities across the country.

The point of view of the research is that having ESOL specialists participate in lesson plan meetings can bring in the perspective of ELLs to help them engage in class material. Collaboration between ESOL specialist and classroom teachers allow teachers to implement effective and inclusive lesson plans for all students, including ELLs and bilingual students in the classroom.

One of the most insightful points made in the video was in the small details that the ESOL specialist pointed out to make lessons more inclusive of ELLs. When introducing the “vascular system,” as a part of a science lesson, the original plan was to ask students where they have heard of the word. However, the ESOL specialist suggested that the question be changed to “if” the students have heard of the word. This is to ensure that ELLs that have limited knowledge of the language do not feel left out at the onset - asking “where” they have heard of the term essentially assumes that students have heard of the term before. These little details are extremely easy to miss, even for students who are highly keen to address ELLs’ needs in the classroom. This reinforces the importance of collaboration between teachers and ESOL specialists in lesson planning.

As mentioned, this video is essentially a case study of Mason Crest Elementary School. Given that it shows an example of one school, the information in the video might not necessarily be generalized to reflect school systems across the country. Furthermore, this particular school has a very high proportion of ELLs, which also may not be reflective of most other schools in the country, where ELLs are small minorities. These factors may lead to implicit biases that can overemphasize the need for and importance of ESOL specialists.

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ELLs Belong to All of Us: The Role of ESOL Specialists in Collaboration

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Citation:
Gonzalez, J. (2014, December 11). 12 ways to support English learners in the mainstream classroom. Cult of Pedagogy Podcast. Podcast retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/supporting-esl-students-mainstream-classroom/

Summary:
Jennifer Gonzalez, a former teacher who created the podcast Cult of Pedagogy in order to help other teachers be better and find more fulfillment in their job. This podcast gives ways in which a teacher can support English Learners in their classroom. Gonzalez asks the important question of how can someone be a good teacher to a student, if the student isn’t even able to understand them. She gathers ideas from three different ESL teachers on how to teach someone who doesn’t speak the language and shares them with us. This is a list of twelve different strategies which are simple ways in which student can learn.

Analysis:

All of this information is very relevant to our topic of research because the podcast gives ideas and ways in which a teacher can implement different strategies in order for their ELL students to be successful. However, a few of the strategies connect directly to the driving question. Those strategies are: #2 build in more group work, #3 communicate with ESL teachers, and #5 allow some scaffolding with the native language.

This information was gathered by having three ESL teachers tell Gonzalez what they know and ways in which regular classroom teachers can improve their teaching for ELL students.

The point of view of this research is to demonstrate that there are many ways in which teachers can help ELL students feel included in schoolwork and assignments. However, it is important to remember that scaffolding a lesson for these students is vital for their success. ELL students require more time to understand the material presented in class, so whenever possible a teacher should help the student out by giving him all the tools necessary to be successful. Another very important thing mentioned is that it is the teacher’s job to get to know more about the student and their culture. Students should be celebrated for their diversity and their native culture should be considered when teaching them a new language.

What was discovered in this research that is directly connected to our driving question is that students’ success depends on how well a regular teacher and an ESL teacher work together. Effective collaboration between these two teachers allows the ESL teacher to have the material in order to adjust the lesson plan for the ELL students. Not only is collaboration between the teachers important, but the podcast also talks about how group work is a great way to get students to be more engaged. By placing ELL students into groups, specifically small groups, it allows ELLs to practice their language in a much lower risk setting. Furthermore, if students are able to work with someone in their group where they can communicate in their native language it would be extremely helpful. Students should be allowed to use their first language in order to explain and understand class material more effectively.

The implication bias is that despite the fact that some of the information is backed up by research, most of what was said in this podcast is just information given by other teachers. As helpful as it may be to have teachers give their opinions on the subject it does not mean that the same information can be utilized in other classrooms. If ELL students are placed in a classroom where no one else speaks the same language as may not be as easy for them to share in groups and express themselves.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
A note on terminology: The acronym ESL is used less often now in schools than it used to be, because we recognize that many students who are learning English already speak several other languages, so English would not be a "second" language. I use it several times in the post because schools sometimes refer to the teachers as ESL teachers, and the term is still widely used as a search term for this topic. My intent in using the acronym is to make this post easier to find online.

You have a new student, and he speaks no English. His family has just moved to your town from Japan, and though he receives English as a Second Language (ESL) support, he will also be sitting in your room every day to give him more exposure to his new language. How can you be a good teacher to someone who barely understands you?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, an average of 9 percent of students in U.S. public schools are English Language Learners (ELLs); that number is closer to 14 percent in cities. Although many of these students start off in high-intensity, whole-day English programs, most are integrated into mainstream classrooms within a year, well before their English language skills would be considered proficient.

How prepared are you to teach these students? If you're like most classroom teachers, you have little to no training in the most effective methods for working with English language learners (Walker, Shafer, & Iiams, 2004). So that means we have a problem here: Lots of ELL kids in regular classrooms, and no teacher training to ensure the success of that placement.

Below, three ESL teachers tell us what they know about the things regular classroom teachers can do to improve instruction for ELL students. These 12 strategies are simple, they are not very time consuming, and best of all, they will help everyone in your class learn better:

1. Make it Visual

"Avoid giving instructions in the air," says Melissa Eddington, an Ohio-based ESL teacher. "ELL kids have a harder time processing spoken language." So instructions - even basic directions for classroom procedures - should be written on the board whenever possible. Challenging concepts should be diagrammed or supported with pictures. And modeling the steps of a process or showing students what a finished product should look like can go a long way toward helping students understand. "Sometimes showing our students what to do is all they need in order to do it," Eddington says. Not only will this kind of nonlinguistic representation improve comprehension for ELL students, it will help all of your students grasp concepts better.

2. Build in more group work.

"Kids aren't just empty glasses that we pour stuff into and then at the end of the day they dump it back onto a test," says Kim, an ESL teacher who was the subject of my very first podcast interview. "If you really want the kids to learn, they've got to be engaged." That means less teacher-led, whole-class instruction, and more small groups, where students can practice language with their peers in a more personal, lower-risk setting. And if ELL students attend your class with a resource teacher, make use of that person: In most cases the resource teacher doesn't have to work exclusively with the ESL students; they can work with smaller groups that happen to contain these students, helping to improve the teacher-student ratio and give kids more time to practice.

3. Communicate with the ESL teacher.

Mary Yurkosky, a former ESL teacher in Massachusetts, credits much of her students' success to the strong relationship she had with the regular classroom teachers. "The classroom teachers were always talking to me about what they were doing in their classes," she says. "They made it so easy for me to support them: If a teacher was going to be doing a unit on plants, I could make sure we used some of that same vocabulary in the ESL class."

Ideally, this could be systematized, where ESL teachers could regularly get copies of lesson plans or collaborate with regular classroom teachers to build solid back-and-forth support, but "it doesn't have to be that much work," Yurkosky insists. "Just talk to each other. Talk about what's going on in your classrooms, invite each other to special presentations, share what your students are learning, and the words will naturally find their way into the ESL class."

4. Honor the "silent period."

Many new language learners go through a silent period, during which they will speak very little, if at all. "Don't force them to talk if they don't want to," says Eddington, "A lot of students who come from cultures outside of America want to be perfect when they speak, so they will not share until they feel they are at a point where they're perfect." Just knowing that this is a normal stage in second language acquisition should help relieve any pressure you feel to move them toward talking too quickly.

5. Allow some scaffolding with the native language.

Although it has been a hotly debated topic in the language-learning community, allowing students some use of their first language (L1) in second-language (L2) classrooms is gaining acceptance. When a student is still very new to a language, it's okay to pair him with other students who speak his native language. "Some students are afraid to open their mouths at all for fear of sounding stupid or just not knowing the words to use," Yurkosky says. "Letting them explain things or ask questions in their first language gets them to relax and feel like a part of the class."

And this doesn't only apply to spoken language. If you give students a written assignment, but the ELL student doesn't yet have the proficiency to handle writing his response in English, "Don't make them just sit there and do nothing," Eddington says. "Allow them to write in their first language if they're able. This allows them to still participate in journal writing or a math extended response, even if you can't read what they write." There has even been some evidence that allowing second-language learners to pre-write and brainstorm in L1 results in higher-quality writing in L2 in later stages of the writing process (Yigzaw, 2012).

6. Look out for culturally unique vocabulary.

"For most of these kids, their background knowledge is lacking, especially with things that are unique to American or westernized culture," says Eddington. It's important to directly teach certain vocabulary words: "Show them videos of what it looks like to toss pizza dough, show pictures of a juke box or a clothing rack - things that are not common in their own language."

One way to differentiate for ELL students is to consider the whole list of terms you're going to teach for a unit, and if you think an ELL student may be overwhelmed by such a long list, omit those that are not essential to understanding the larger topic at hand.

7. Use sentence frames to give students practice with academic language.

All students, not just English language learners, need practice with academic conversations. Sentence frames - partially completed sentences like "I disagree with what _________ said because..." - show students how to structure language in a formal way. Keep these posted in a highly visible spot in your classroom and require students to refer to them during discussions and while they write.

For this kind of language to really sink in, though, Kim says it has to become a regular part of class. "They won't do it if it's not the norm in the class, because they'll be embarrassed to use it among their peers," she says. "But if they can put it off on the teacher and say, Oh, well, you know, Miss Kim makes me talk like this, then they don't look as hoity-toity as they would otherwise."

8. Pre-teach whenever possible.

If you're going to be reading a certain article next week, give ESL students a copy of it now. If you plan to show a YouTube video tomorrow, send a link to your ESL students today. Any chance you can give these students to preview material will increase the odds that they'll understand it on the day you present it to everyone else. "That kind of thing is wonderful," Yurkosky says. "The kids feel so empowered if they've had a chance to look at the material ahead of time."

9. Learn about the cultural background of your students...

Our second-language populations grow more diverse every year. Taking the time to learn the basics of where a child comes from - exactly, not 'somewhere in the Middle East/South America/Asia/Africa' - tells the student that you respect her enough to bother. Kim remembers one time when she had to set the record straight about the diverse South American population at her school: "I was listening to the teachers talking about the 'Mexican' kids in our building," she says, "and I was like, 'We don't have any Mexicans.'" Not taking the time to at least correctly identify a child's country of origin, much like not bothering to pronounce their name correctly, is a kind of microaggression, a small, subtle insult that communicates hostility toward people of color. Make a commitment to be someone who bothers to get it right.

Once you have the country straight, take things up a notch by learning about students' religious and cultural practices. If he is a practicing Muslim, he should be told if one of the pizzas you ordered for the class party has sausage on it. If she comes from a culture where eye contact with adults is viewed as disrespectful, you'll know not to force her to look you in the eye when she's talking.

10. ...but don't make a child speak for his entire culture.

In her podcast interview, Kim shared a story about watching a teacher ask a new Iraqi student how he felt about the war in his country, right in the middle of class. "That's not cultural inclusiveness," she explains. "I've seen teachers do this and then pat themselves on the back. The students' English is limited so they can't express themselves very well, and they don't want to 'represent'; they just want to be there." If you anticipate a theme coming up in your class that's going to be relevant to one of your students, have a conversation with them in advance, or check with your ESL teacher to see if they think it's appropriate for in-class discussion.

11. Show them how to take themselves less seriously...

By modeling the risk-taking that's required to learn a new language, you help students develop the courage to take their own risks, and to have a sense of humor about it. "I tried to say the word 'paint' ( pinta) in Portuguese and instead I said the word for 'penis' ( pinto). They all roared with laughter while I stood there with a What?? look on my face," Yurkosky says. "When they explained what I'd said, I laughed so hard! I told them that laughing was fine because sometimes mistakes are really funny, but ridicule is never okay."

12. ...but always take them seriously.

One of Kim's pet peeves about how teachers interact with English language learners is the way they often see students' efforts as 'cute,' missing the whole point of what the student is trying to say. "A student will be desperate to communicate, and the teacher will get distracted by the delivery and miss the message," she says. "That's painful for me to watch." It bothers her when teachers mistake a lack of language for a lack of intelligence or maturity. When a child can't express themselves as well as they would in their native language, it's far too easy to assume the concepts just aren't in their heads.

"It breaks my heart when I hear teachers say (ELL kids) don't know anything," says Eddington. "These are brilliant kids and they know a lot. They just can't tell us in English yet." Make a conscious effort to see past the accent and the mispronunciations and treat every interaction - every student - with the respect they deserve.

"They're doing twice the job of everybody else in the class," Kim adds, "even though the result looks like half as much." ♦

Further Reading

The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide is one of the highest-rated books on teaching English-language learners available. In addition to offering an overview of the research on second-language learners and best practices in teaching ESL, it also includes a whole section on teaching ESL in the content areas and another specifically geared toward teaching ELL students in mainstream classrooms.
References:
Walker, A., Shafer, J., & Iiams, M. (2004). "Not in my classroom": Teacher attitudes towards English language learners in the mainstream classroom. NABE Journal of Research and Practice, 2(1), 130-160.

Yigzaw, A. (2012). Impact of L1 use in L2 English writing classes. Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences, 8(1), 11-27.

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12 Ways to Support English Learners in the Mainstream Classroom

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Advice from three ESL teachers on the things regular classroom teachers can do to help English language learners thrive in mainstream classrooms.

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Citation:
Smithsonian Science Education Center. (2015, September 21). Teaching ELL Students–

Small Group Work. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLyxHqdudiw.

Supporting Materials:

Think-Pair-Share: Classroom Strategy. Reading Rockets. (2020, January 16). https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think-pair-share.

Cowling, T. K. (2017, April 4). How to Use the Think-Pair-Share Activity in Your Classroom. Hey Teach! https://www.wgu.edu/heyteach/article/how-think-pair-share-activity-can-improve-your-classroom-discussions1704.html.

Summary:
The video discusses the benefit of small group work in teaching ELL students. It suggests that teachers should pair up ELLs with either students who know both languages or with another ELL and a student who is strong in the English language in order to help students understand and retain concepts. The key strategy that the video discusses is known as “think-pair-share.” In this strategy, students are given a question to think about as a group and asked to discuss their thoughts and ideas as a group before assigning a leader to present their idea. The strategy helps students, and especially ELLs, gain the confidence to share their answers to the class. The video suggests that teachers pair ELL students with those that have strong verbal skills, and ensure that ELL students are actively participating in the talking during the activity.

Analysis:

This information is relevant to my driving question because it not only establishes that collaboration can help ELLs understand and retain concepts, but also provides a concrete strategy that can be applied in the classroom to promote collaboration. The think-pair-share can be applied to a wide variety of classroom activities, and can become a foundational strategy to create a more approachable classroom environment for ELLs.

“Think-pair-share” strategy is a widely known educational strategy that was first developed in 1981 by Frank Lyman, a professor at the University of Maryland (Cowling). Since then, the concept has been widely studied and applied across researchers and educators, and remains a key teaching strategy for ELLs and non-ELLs alike. The publisher of the video, Smithsonian Science Education Center, leverages knowledge of ELL and bilingual teachers to voice how the think-pair-share strategy looks like in the classroom and key considerations to help ensure that ELLs are engaged in discussion.

The key point of the video is to demonstrate how the think-pair-share strategy can be used to help ELLs learn and give them the confidence to participate in active discussions. The video helps the audience adapt the strategy in their own applications by providing important considerations, such as partnering up ELLs with students that have strong verbal skills and ensuring that ELLs are given the support to actively participate.

The point of view of the video is to establish how think-pair-share, a collaboration strategy, can help ELLs learn. This teaching strategy allows students to think about the topic, discuss their views with their partners and present to the class as a group. It allows ELLs to get support from their peers as they develop the language skills necessary to participate as a part of the class.

One of the implicit biases that the video may contain is that it does not address how strategies such as think-pair-share can affect different students. While it intends to give students confidence in ELLs and give them a chance to think and discuss with their peers, they may shy away from the discussion and refrain from participating. For these kinds of students, it may be better to provide them with exclusive guidance that can help them learn the language before participating in discussions. Directly speaking, the implicit bias would be an overconfidence in positive effects of collaboration, which may negatively affect some students less prepared to discuss.

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Citation:
Vierstra, G., (2017, November 3). Series the power of collaboration for ELLs: Peer teaching through expert groups. Teaching Channel. https://learn.teachingchannel.com/video/expert-groups

Summary:
The purpose of this research was to give a real-life example of how collaboration can be extremely beneficial for ELL students when a lesson is properly scaffolded by a teacher, or in this case a group of teachers. In the video, an ELL teacher and a literacy teacher work together in order to show students how to teach each other a specific topic with the use of peer teaching through expert groups. The resource clarifies just how successful it can be allowing students to collaborate with each other, and teach each other. The most important thing to keep in mind is that each topic and each article is differentiated for each student in order to ensure that the experts understand exactly what they will be teaching their classmates.

Analysis:

This information is relevant to my driving question because the video looks at Horning Middle School’s combined 8th grade Humanities classroom. In this class 20% of the students are ELLs. The two teachers, ELL and literacy, are working together in order to scaffold a lesson based around two standards: Social and Instructional Language and The Language of Social Studies. Most importantly, the students are working in groups in order to teach one another about a topic that they are experts in.

This information was collected by observing an 8th grade Humanities classroom in Horning Middle School. In this classroom two teachers are co-teaching their students in order to ensure that the expert students have a firm grasp on the topic the they will be teaching to their group. The topic was selected by a History teacher. Then the ELL and literacy teacher worked together to find information on the topic and rewrite articles based on their language proficiency of each student, so that each student can understand what the article is about.

The point of view of the research is that it is believed that each student can be an expert in a topic as long as the topic is broken down in a way in which they can understand the reading. The research also believes that the best way for students to learn this is by giving each one of them a voice, so that they can be the ones teaching the classmates in their group about the topic that they are assigned.

What is discovered in this research is that it can be very beneficial for students of varying degrees of English language to learn the same topic and to become experts in it. However, it is extremely important that each student has a firm understanding of what they will be teaching others. The way it is done in this classroom is by having experts of each topic sit in a group with a teacher and go through the reading in order to ensure that they understand what each word means and what the topic is about. To ensure understanding students are asked to annotate the reading and draw pictures of various words that they have a hard time understanding and remembering. These images are there in order to help the experts teach their teammates about what they read. The readings are combed through to ensure that everyone understands each and every word.

This lesson took a lot of planning on all parties involved. Each one of the three teachers had to ensure that they were all on the same page when it came to what they needed their students to learn and understand. Every topic needed to be researched and broken down so that each student has a firm understanding of what their assigned expert topic.

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ELA.SL.8.4

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

SL: Speaking and Listening Standards 6-\x80\x9312

8: 8th Grade

4:
Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient
points in a focused, coherent manner with relevant
evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosen
details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate
volume, and clear pronunciation.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

1. What are the benefits of this co-teaching model?

2. Why are the students not allowed to take notes as they listen to their expert?

3. How does this lesson build literacy skills and content knowledge simultaneously?

School Details

Horning Middle School
2000 Wolf Road
Waukesha WI 53186

Data Provided By:

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ELA.SL.8.4 Common core State Standards ELA: English Language Arts SL: Speaking and Listening Standards 6-\x80\x9312 8: 8th Grade 4: Present claims and findings, emphasizing salientpoints in a focused, coherent manner with relevantevidence, sound valid reasoning, and well-chosendetails; use appropriate eye contact, adequatevolume, and clear pronunciation.

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Citation:
William C. Zahner. (2012). ELLs and Group Work: It Can Be Done Well. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 18(3), 156–164. https://doi.org/10.5951/mathteacmiddscho.18.3.0156

Summary:
The purpose of this research article was to demonstrate that using group work in linguistically diverse classrooms is a powerful tool to engage ELL and Bilingual students in mathematics classes. William C. Zahner, an assistant professor at Boston University, incorporates his research and his professional experience in discussing how group work can extend learning beyond mathematical principles to help ELLs to learn academic language while absorbing content. Throughout the article, the author provides very specific activities, with focus on group norms and assessment to ensure that students are in an environment for effective discussion.

Analysis:

The information given in the article is relevant to my driving question because it demonstrates how collaboration can advance mathematical discussions for both students learning English and students learning both their native language and English. The author discusses how having a high-quality task in group work allows students to learn academic language while gaining practices to value contribution and respond to others’ ideas.

The information was collected through research and reference by the author, William C. Zahner, who is an assistant professor at Boston University. The article includes an extensive set of references - to name a few, the author references articles from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, New York: Teachers College Press, and Common Core State Standards Initiative. The ideas and insights presented in the journal are well supported by the references listed. The author also incorporates his own practical experience using an activity called Measure Twice to give examples of various situations he faced with his own students throughout the journal.

The point of view of the journal article is that incorporating group tasks can lead to discussions, which not only helps students learn the content, but also the language necessary to participate in the discussion. The author particularly focuses on the characteristics that make a group work setting effective. The author emphasizes the importance of providing effective tasks that gives students the opportunity to make connections, and also points out the critical importance of establishing group norms that encourage discussion and engagement.

The key findings in the article revolved around how group work and collaboration in mathematics classes can help ELLs and bilingual students develop content understanding while also building English fluency. The author emphasizes the role of the teacher and the nature of effective teams. For the teachers, they need to be thoroughly prepared with a set of important vocabulary and a clear set of instructions to help students successfully navigate through the task. The author tells us that all participants in group settings must value contribution and respond to different ideas. The article also provides concrete advice on what makes a group work best - it points out that a group of four offers flexibility and mixed-level groups are beneficial for maximizing student learning opportunities.

One factor that I recognized in the reference section of the article is that while there are other sources, a sizable portion of the references are from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Given that this article was a part of a journal that is published by this same organization, referencing the same organization several times in different parts of the article may indicate that it reflects the common opinion of the organization. This should not be a problem, as the council likely reflects a diversity of thought, but could certainly hold implicit biases if authors from similar backgrounds or those with similar schools of thought are referenced. Another bias in connecting this article to the driving question would be that this article focuses on one subject (mathematics) and middle school students. The particular focus on one subject and set range of grade level could lead to an implicit bias that does not fully represent the rest of the student population.

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ELLs and Group Work- It can be done well

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Citation:
Walqui, A. (2006). Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners: A Conceptual Framework. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9, 159–180.

Summary:
The purpose of this research is to show how Vygotsky’s theory, more specifically scaffolding, helps students that are learning academic material in a new language. In this research, specific type of scaffolding is used in order to promote development from both a linguistic and academic standpoint. Vygotsky’s learning theory sees learning from a sociocultural perspective. The theory states that language is the main tool for learning, and that mediation is in the center of that learning. Furthermore, the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the primary space where this learning occurs.

Analysis:

This information is relevant to my driving question because it proves how scaffolded, collaborative work helps students that are learning both a language and a subject matter simultaneously. The research gives ways in which instruction can be scaffolded specifically for these learners.

The study gives practical ways and examples of how otherwise challenging class material can be scaffolded in order for ELL students to learn. The study uses examples from other studies in order to demonstrate how having a novice and expert working together helps bridge the gap between the knowledge of the two.

The viewpoint of this research is that Vygotsky’s ZPD is a great way in which ELL students can learn simultaneously a new language and also challenging class material. However, the study is very clear on the fact that it is not possible to just place an expert learner with an ELL learner and expect them to benefit from one another. It is vital that a teacher scaffolds the lesson so that the expert learner know what to do.

The point of this research is to give solutions and ways in which teachers can be more successful in ensuring that ELLs are gaining the knowledge necessary in their classroom. One of the big solutions is to take advantage of the ZPD and place a more knowledgeable student together with one that has a lower level of understanding in order for their language and academic skills to grow. Most importantly, in order to have a successful learning experience it is the teacher’s job to guide the expert learners in a way which allows them to feel confident to guide the ELL student.

The implication is that if the teacher is not able to give support to the expert learner, the expert student will not know what to do in order to teach the other, especially since the other student’s language abilities are limited. Furthermore, teaching students like this breaks traditional molds, which requires teachers to create different type of curriculum for their students than the one they are used to creating. This can be very challenging for teachers.

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Scaffolding Instruction for English Language Learners- A Conceptual Framework

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Citation:
Martin-Beltrán, M., Tigert, J., Peercy, M., & Silverman, R. (2017). Using digital texts vs. paper texts to read together: Insights into engagement and mediation of literacy practices among linguistically diverse students. International Journal of Educational Research, 82, 135–146.

Summary:
The purpose of this research was to see how different media, digital vs. paper books, impacts language and literacy development when linguistically diverse students work collaboratively in a peer-learning literacy program. The Reading Buddies program in which kindergarteners “little buddies” and 4th grade “big buddies” participated in literacy activities such as: reading aloud, focus vocabulary, and question and answer games related to text comprehension. The study was done in culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools with up to 55% ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) students (p.137).

Analysis:

My driving question asks: How does collaboration improve learning for ELL & Bilingual Students? This research specifically studies how linguistically diverse students, little buddies and big buddies, when working together benefit linguistically.

This information was collected by studying culturally and linguistically diverse elementary school students from a mid-Atlantic school in the US. There was a total of 1,900 observations done which included watching videos of students reading and collaborating either by using digital or paper books.

The point of view of the research is that there is a different in how linguistically diverse student engage with each other during collaborative learning based on the media that they are using in order to learn. In this study paper books and digital books were used in order to see this difference.

Research found that little buddies paid far more attention and were much more linguistically engaged while using a paper book versus while using tablets when working in pairs. During digital lessons, despite all the colorful artwork, little buddies spent most of their time tapping on the tablet and less time engaging with their buddies. On the other hand, while using the paper book, little buddies spent 80% of the time verbally interacting with their big buddies by making comments on the text and asking and answering questions (p.140). Using paper books created much more quality engagement between little and big buddies.

What should be considered is that this school consisted of up to 55% ESOL students. It is difficult to tell if the same quality of engagement would occur in a school that only had a select few students that were English Language Learners. Perhaps, the students in this school have a better understanding on how to interact and better communicate with each other based on just how vastly diverse they are. The same rules may not apply for a school that predominately has native English speakers.

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Using digital texts vs. paper texts to read together- Insights into engagement and mediation of literacy practices among linguistically diverse students.

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Citation:

Case, A. F. (2015). Beyond the Language Barrier: Opening Spaces for ELL/Non-ELL Interaction. Research in the Teaching of English, 49(4), 361-382.

Summary:

The purpose of this research is to study methods in linguistic and ethical dimensions to “opening spaces,” which means to focus more on the engagement rather than definition. It prioritizes the interaction itself more than “making them understand,” which leads to a cultural and emotional understanding that goes beyond the language barrier. The research was conducted through observations and interviews to study the context of linguistic differences in a case of ELL and non-ELL interaction during a video making collaboration between culturally and linguistically diverse high-school students. The study involved eight ELLs and six non-ELLs in a high school located in a refugee resettlement community where approximately 15% of 1,500 students were ELLs. This research was published as a part of “Research in the Teaching of English” by an assistant professor at Gonzaga University.

Analysis:

This research is relevant to my driving question because it discusses how ELLs can better interact with non-ELLs and overcome the language barrier. Language itself is the biggest hurdle for ELLs in collaboration; therefore, understanding how to improve their experience in these interactions can show how collaboration can improve learning for the students.

The information was collected by observing eight ELLs and six non-ELLs participating in a project to create a welcome video for their school. The research was conducted over a 5 and ½ week period with eight sessions, which lasted 1.5 to 2 hours. All participants were divided into three groups to create the videos. They were individually interviewed before the interviews to understand the context of their school environment and to learn about the students. They were interviewed again as soon as the project was over to identify how they felt about the collaboration and to get their feedback on the project.

As mentioned in the summary, the main point of the research is to understand the struggles and opportunities in ELL/non-ELL interactions. At the conclusion of the journal, the author points out the difference between “closing the gap,” which focuses on clarifying the definitions and understanding, and “opening spaces,” which focuses more on the interaction itself and cultural/emotional connection between individuals.

The author shares a powerful quote at the close of the paper: “As we started working together, we built an understanding with each other...I don’t think that language was that big of a deal anymore at the end ’cuz of what we understood of the and how they communicated with us” (p.380). This shows how opening spaces can help lower language barriers and promote interactions and engagements that can lead to learning.

An implicit bias and a limitation to this study is that the sample size was limited. While it is understandable due to the extended length of the video project, it may not fully represent other populations and communities. Furthermore, the author seems to have a pre-existing opinion on opening spaces and how moving beyond the language barrier can lead to positive learning outcomes.

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Opening Spaces for ELL and Non-ELL Interaction

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Citation:
MARTIN-BELTRÁN, M. (2010). The Two-Way Language Bridge: Co-Constructing Bilingual Language Learning Opportunities. The Modern Language Journal (Boulder, Colo.), 94(2), 254–277. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2010.01020.x

Summary:
The purpose of this research is to study the nature of students interaction in an immersion school. With the use of recorded interactions between students who used both languages which increases of language learning that classrooms can implement collaborative activities that encourages learners. This study sheds light on the expansion of learning for bilingual learners or first language/second language users. But this study also makes the connection between the sociocultural perspective and how languages are useful tools in bilingual interactional spaces.

Analysis:
-  The relevance of this research to the driving question goes back to the discussion of how designing an environment that interaction between learners is a process
- Studies show the sociocultural framework focuses on the development of the individual learners social activity and when in group work results increase the expansion of language education
- dual immersion education goal is to provide minority language and majority language as tools for students to encourage academic growth
- Studies have shown that analyzing students interaction in collaborative dialogue among one another they can view the processes of the language learning to unfold
- A study was shown where within a student body 90% Latino (including recent immigrants and U.S.-born children), 10% white and mixed heritage students, 75% English language learners,  The school used a 90/10 dual-language program whereby students began with 90% of their instruction in Spanish in kindergarten and reached a 50/50 balance in Spanish and English instruction by the fifth grade...This following study depicts the wide range of language experiences students have and how teachers had their years of  experience and demonstrated great commitment to the bilingual program  as cooperative partners open to reflecting on their teaching and discussing new ideas for their classroom within their classroom for their student to implement that as well through their communication

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Citation:  Huynh, T. K. (2017, August 18). 50. Rethinking Push-In Pull-Out (PIPO): The Cause for Sheltered Co-Teaching: ELL Strategies. Empowering ELLs. https://www.empoweringells.com/push-in-pull-out/.
Summary:
This resource  discusses the do's and dont's to do in a classroom. This infographic focuses on the alternative form of co-teaching rather than the push-in and pull-out methodology  within an instructional classroom of ELL's. The infographic demonstrates the mistakes that occur within an ELL classroom and the ways teachers collaborate, then it shows the correct form of teaching for students. These are ways that become opportunities to assist in instructional methods for teaches to help empower ELL's in there academic language skills. These methods include inclusion, immersion and scaffolding. Reinforcing forms of instruction that brings out the best for all students results in productive planning and effective teaching.
Analysis:
1. The push-in model isn't inclusive,  which doesnt promote the development for ELL's :

pulling ELs out of content classes to provide extra language support and

pushing ELs into content teachers’ classes to scaffold content learning or

pulling out to provide scaffolded content instruction.

This isn't welcoming, bot does it help the content to be received. The teacher is looked as an aid, and there isn't much support for the learner. While the correct form of doing so is welcoming rather the pushing the students. Teachers should provide an environment as an equal partner for students because the more teachers the more learning for these students.

2.  The students feel different by being taken out of the classroom and feeling isolated. This automatically makes them feel like they aren't ready for engaging with other students or the standards given. Content will be missed out on and the co-teaching isn't existing. Language teachers are both both ELL's and and for non- el's to help with the academic progress for students. The best way to support learners is to provide access to both teachers and to also provide context for both language learners and non-language learners.
3.  Removing students from content classes will imply there inability to be part of the class. Content class provides the means of perfecting the language alongside their peers.
Scaffolding that occurs outside of class can be offered in class.  Also, because ELTs don’t have niched content expertise, remaining in class is academically more appropriate for ELs. The correct from is to provide for both learns and have the abundance of both the content teacher and language teacher in the classroom.
- Research suggests that Sheltered Immersion is effective at developing students’ academic language skills because it builds a context that allows ELs to use language authentically and intentionally (García & Hamayan, 2006; Kramsch, 2003; Halliday & Hasan, 1989, Short, Echevarria, & Richards-Tutor, 2011; Yore & Treagust, 2006; Yore, 2000).
- The nature of Sheltered Immersion intrinsically supports interdisciplinary learning, which provides ELs with a greater chance to make connections and cultivate critical thinking skills.  Honigsfeld and Dove (2010) add that, “When teachers collaborate and co-teach, the content and language become interconnected in a way that is not possible when students receive content instruction in one class and language instruction in another” (Kindle location 210-211).

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Citation:
Huynh, T. K. (2019, December 6). 51. The Models of Co-Teaching: ELL Strategies. Empowering ELLs. https://www.empoweringells.com/co-teaching-models/.
Summary:
In this non-traditional research I picked an infographic that discusses what co-planning is along with the research of the positive and negative influence it has within a classroom. Co-planning means jointly making decisions about the curriculum, designing and planning lessons and prioritizing the standards. While Co-teaching is how this content is being delivered by clarifying the roles each teacher play, along with ways of differentiate  and scaffolding at the same time. This infographic discusses the the 6 forms of co-teaching: Lead-Support, Team Teaching, Parallel Teaching, Alternative Teaching, Station Teaching and Circuit teaching.

Analysis:
- Co-Teaching comes in different forms, shapes and sizes
- It is a approach that can be adjustable and highly adaptable based off the needs of the students

-  Honigsfeld and Dove, authors  of collaboration and co-teaching: strategies for english learners, state that the main goal of co-teaching is, "[to] merge ESL and general-education instruction to increase the time ELLs are exposed to general education curriculum and thereby strengthen their overall academic achievement"                     ( 2010,Kindle location 2489-2490)

-  The greatest chance of academic success is when their is teacher goes forward with their expertise  which maximizes student engagement with content

-Lead Support : A saying, " one teaches, one support" this occurs when one teacher leads while the other provides support. This ca be in the form of working with an EL and making notes, identifying terminology and understanding.

- Team Teaching:  occurs when two or more leading forms of instruction are occurring at the same time to the same group of students, yet this causes less differentiation.

- Parallel Teaching: is the first model that sets the students up into groups to receive instruction, ELT are valued for their literacy and language development so they are put with ELS. This is a perfect example of receiving scaffolded instruction based on needs.

- Alt. Teaching: Occurs when students are put into two groups and the content teacher deepens the understanding with one group while the ELT teaches the small group to help them access additional support and reinforce concepts.

- Station Teaching: another form where students are broken into groups, where the homogenous is mixed with the Els. There is rotation that occurs between the two teachers teaching the different contents this is when the two groups work together focusing on different things.

- Circuit Teaching: a form that best engages students in Project Based Learning activities along with differentiating instruction, yet it groups EL rather than combining them with English- proficient learners

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Citation:
Zhang, J., Niu, C., Munawar, S., & Anderson, R. (2016). What Makes a More Proficient Discussion Group in English Language Learners' Classrooms? Influence of Teacher Talk and Student Backgrounds. Research in the Teaching of English, 51(2), 183-208. Retrieved June 9, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24889914
Summary:
The purpose of this research is to investigate the proficiency of groups of 5th grades mainly speaking Spanish and ELL, approaches in a natural way to see the influence of teachers talking towards their students with different backgrounds. This study is examined between the relationship in small group discussions and students language and literacy outcomes
- Results showed greater group variation in discussion proficiency in the mainstream class than in the bilingual class. The two teachers differed in their ways of facilitating CR discussions. Group discussion proficiency was associated with oral English skills (sentence grammar) and reading comprehension, as well as student English language use at home and parental assistance with homework
-These findings contribute to the understanding of sources of variations in discussion proficiency among groups composed predominantly of ELLs and provide implications for teacher scaffolding strategies to facilitate ELLs' learning and participation in classroom discussions.

Analysis:
- The results indicate that teachers' interactions with the ELLs varied and that the teachers' different approaches were connected to the ELLs' differing levels of participation in group discussions
- The current study aimed to understand how teachers'
language use or scaffolding moves affect the discussion proficiency of various groups composed mainly of ELL'S.
- Home language and literacy background play a significant part in ELL's skills, due to the lack of english it impacts the collaborative response in group works in class
- important questions addressed:
Specifically, do ELLs who use English more and are exposed to English more at home participate
in CR discussions more actively? Are home literacy resources, parent-child reading
frequencies, and discussions more actively? Are home literacy resources, parent-child reading
frequencies, and parental literacy support associated with children's participation
in CR discussion