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Meeting the Needs of Long-Term English Learners
Who are our English Learners?
There are many types of English Learners in Roseville Joint Union High School District. Some of our English Learners are recent immigrants from other countries who have little background in the English language. Others are students who are born and raised in the United States, speak another language at home and have not yet met the legal criteria for being reclassified. There are many archetypes of English Learners, both born in the United States and born in other countries.
Long-Term English Learners
A Definition of Long-Term English Learners
Long-term English Learners are generally considered to be students who have been in U.S. schools for six or more years and are still classified as English Learners (Olsen 2010).
While ELL students are classified as a single subgroup, there are differing characteristics of students within this group. This poses specific instructional issues and challenges with regard to AYP. Mercuri, Freeman, & Freeman (2002) identify some of the differing characteristics by classifying ELLs in three groups: newly arrived with adequate schooling, newly arrived with limited formal schooling, and long-term English learners. (Cobb 2004, 4)
What do Long-Term English Learners Need?
According to Freeman and Freeman, long-term English Learners need schools that.. 1. Engage students in challenging, theme-based curriculum to develop academic concepts 2. Draw on students’ background - their experiences, cultures, and languages 3. Organize collaborative activities and scaffold instruction to build students’ academic English proficiency 4. Create confident students who value school and value themselves as learners (Freeman 2002)
Characteristics of three specific, research-based frameworks (Mercuri, Freeman, & Freeman, 2002; Dalton, 1998; & García & Beltrán, 2003) reveal some common features. Challenging instruction, collaboration, and recognition and validation of students' home and life experiences are identified across all three frameworks for all ELL students&emdash;from newly arrived to long-term learners. (Cobb 2004, 5)
How can schools address these needs?
Although all students need effective instruction to succeed, student's who lack academic language proficiency in their first language or in English need additional, long-term support if they are to gain adequate levels of academic English and subject matter knowledge. (Freeman 2009, 16)
Wells and Chang-Wells (1992) provide a number of similar examples of how teachers can help ELLs build academic language through collaborative classroom talk. They emphasize the important of engaging students in group work during which they need to use talk to solve problems. for example, one group Wells and Chang-Wells described attempted to explain why objects seem to bend when they are placed in water. The students look at a coin in a dish of water. With the teacher's help, the began to use terms like refracting and reflecting to describe how light appears to bend objects in the water.
Long-term English learners need: Information about the CELDT and why it is important Information about college entrance pathways opportunities for student leadership to develop the organizational skills and study skills needed for academic success (Olsen 2010a)
English Learners need to be mentored and listened to. It is important for all students to have an adult who listens to them, cares about them and mentors them.
Schools need to communicate with the families about CELDT scores and their meanings. Schools need to communicate with the students about the CELDT, its importance, and its consequences. Schools need to communicate with parents about test data nad help parents interpret the data. Schools need to communicate with parents about grades and credits. CELDT testing needs to be accorded the same level of seriousness as other state testing.
Classes with long-term English learners should include study skills, metacognition, learning strategies, AVID techniques, and College Board techniques. There should be additional support for English learners including after school tutoring and Saturday sessions (Olsen 2010)
Long-term English learners need a challenging, relevant curriculum that is taught with effective instructional strategies with academic support for them to succeed in rigorous courses. (Olsen 2010)
Long-term English learners need: Information about the CELDT and why it is important Information about college entrance pathways opportunities for student leadership, opportunities to develop the organizational skills and study skills needed for academic success
García understand that conversational English is not enough for ELLs and that they need very deliberate instruction in English to devote academic English. He lists four ways for teachers to promote academic English development in their classrooms. These include
- Providing students with ample exposure to academic English,
- Being sure that student attend closely to the features of academic English,
- Providing direct, explicit language instruction, and
- Using multiple measure to assess the academic language development of English language learners
In many classrooms, teachers do most of the talking. Research in classroom discourse has confirmed that the typical exchange between a teacher and student follows a predictable pattern (Cazden 2001). The teacher asks a question. The student gives a short response. Then the teacher evaluates the response. This pattern, referred to as an IRE sequence (initiation, response, evaluation)...
This pattern predominates in schools, but it doesn't help ELLs or other students develop academic language. In the first place, the question only elicits a short response. Secondly, the teacher's next comment does not extend the discussion, instead, the teacher evaluates the student response.
Conversational fluency is not enough for these students to read and write English at grade level using the academic vocabulary and structures required. Since these students have not yet achieved academic language proficiency, they often struggle to pass standardized tests and do not do well in classes taught in English. (Freeman 2009)
English Learners need to be mentored and listened to. It is important for all students to have an adult who listens to them, cares about them and mentors them.
Challenges
The challenges for long-term English Learners are many. Often a student speaks English easily and without a trace of an accent from another language. The student thus appears to be fully fluent in English. He or she may be fluent in conversational English, but may lack the depth of vocabulary and literacy that allows him/her to fully participate in academic settings. Long-Term English Learners thus need instruction that focuses on supporting the student's academic language development.
Key Strategies
In order to serve Long-Term English Learners, we are going to have to take on several internal challenges:
- Checking our own attitudes about LTELs to assure that we see them as challenged learners who need and deserve specialized support.
- Learning what the research is regarding LTELs.
- Being able to translate research into concrete models of academic support
Transforming the department will mean that there are program components that will be eliminated, components that will be modified and components that will be added. Other components will remain relatively unaltered.
Some possibiilities are presented below:
Research Recommendation |
Program Component |
Changes |
Specialized English Language Development course(s) (Olsen 2010) | ELD and SDAIE courses already exist at RHS. A CAHSEE prep class oriented towards ELs is operated each Fall term. | Keep classes as being operated. Add either a CAHSEE prep or an ALP class at Antelope High. |
Clustered placement in heterogeneous and rigorous grade-level content classes (including honors, A-G) mixed with English proficient students and taught with differentiated instructional strategies. (Olsen 2010) | Cluster long-term ELs in classes with mainstream students, including paraprofessional support. | Training teachers on SDAIE techniques, emphasizing techniques that are most easily applied to differentiation.
Clustered placement will be implemented in Spring 2011 term with paraprofessional support where possible at RHS. It is under consideration for AnHS and OHS. Training components for SDAIE strategies will begin Fall 2010 with Marzano training project (district) and SIOP training project (OHS and RHS)
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Differentiated instruction provided in classrooms. | Differentiated instruction should take place in all classrooms school wide. Differentiated instruction can accomodate the various learning needs of students. It can be provided more extensively in classrooms where there is a well-trained paraprofessional. | Need to define a differentiated instruction training project for teachers.
Paraprofessionals to be trained in differentiated instructional techniques.
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Explicit language and literacy development across the curriculum (Olsen 2010) | No systematic promotion of literacy across the curriculum. | Training for administrators in EL and SDAIE is a possible vehicle for expanding literacy development across the curriculum. |
Native speakers classes (articulated sequence through Advanced Placement levels) (Olsen 2010) | Program in place at Roseville High. Inconsistent placement in Native Spanish 1. Lack of significant continuity to upper levels of language study. | Improve program articulation at RHS. Consider adoption of Russian for Native Speakers at AnHS. |
Placement for accelerated progress and maximum rigor paired with formal systems for monitoring success (Olsen 2010) | Monitoring students is inconsistent | Create formal systems for monitoring student progress. |
Schoolwide focus on study skills, metacognition, and learning strategies (Olsen 2010) | As of August, 2011, these are not in place at any site. | Schoolwide emphasis is on Professional Learning Teams with staff development on study skills, metacognition and learning strategies. Continue with AVID training for its study skills. Develop a rubric for evalutiong textbooks for support of study skills, metacogntion, and learning strategies.
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Data Chats, CELDT preparation and support, and testing accommodations (Olsen 2010) | Some of this is occuring in PLCs. CELDT prepartion and support is not taking place. | Staffing needs to be stabilized. Professional development needs to be aligned with the goals. |
Inclusive, affirming school climate and relevant texts (Olsen 2010) | This applies to school buildings, classrooms and personnel. An inclusive school includes staffing where the cultural and ethnicity of the staff shows the same type of diversity as the student body. | English Learner training for administrators focusing on inclusive environments and culturally relevant education. |
Engage students in challenging, theme-based curriculum to develop academic concepts (Freeman 2002) | Theme based curriculum is seen more often at the elementary, but can also be implemented at the secondary level. For example, in the summer of 2009, the two teachers for the English learner program created a science and technology theme. | Curriculum as a whole needs to be examined for alignment with the state standards, as well as alignment with the common core. New curriculum materials should be examined for |
Draw on students’ background - their experiences, cultures, and languages (Freeman 2002) | Spanish for Native Speaker classes currently taught at Roseville High School. Cultural affirmation takes place in individual classrooms and with some curricular materials. | Professional development training for inclusive instruction for teachers and administrators. |
Organize collaborative activities and scaffold instruction to build students’ academic English proficiency (Freeman 2002) | This type of classroom instruction is not implemented consistently. | Professional development with ilmplementation as an end goal. Purchase curriculum materials that support scaffolding. Monitor for implementation. |
Create confident students who value school and value themselves as learners (Freeman 2002) | Success breeds confidence. Current program shows English learners failing and receiving Ds at approximately twice the rate as English-only students. | Improve on implementing recommended programs to foster success. |
References
Chang, Gordon and Gen L. Chang-Wells. Constructing Knowledge Together: Classrooms as Centers of Inquiry and Literacy. Heinemann/Cassell Language & Literacy. (16 November 1992)
Cobb, C. 2004. Improving Adequate Yearly Progress for English Language Learners. Naperville, IL: Learning Point Associates. www.learningpt.org/pdfs/literacy/aypell.pdf (accessed July 31, 2009).
Freeman, Yvonne S. and David E. Freeman, with Sandra Mercuri. Closing the Achievement Gap: How to Reach Limited-Formal-Schooling and Long-Term English Learners. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Howard, E. R., Sugarman, J., Christian, D., Lindholm-Leary, K. J., & Rogers, D. (2007). Guiding principles for dual language education (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. http://www.cal.org/twi/guidingprinciples.htm (accessed October 21, 2009).
Olsen, Dr. Laurie. Reparable Harm. Fulfilling the Unkept promise of Educational Opportunity for California's Long-Term English Learners. Californians Together (2010). Accessed 10 July 2010 Short, Deborah. Best Practices in Secondary Education. Structured Support for English Learners. Accessed 8 May 2009.