PLC+English+Language+Learner+Research

Let's give everyone on our team the opportunity to share their professional learning. A big part of a Professional Learning Community is that the members read and share research--we're learning, too. We all have a philosophy of how to teach English Language Learners. In order to share and learn, let's state our philosophy and then give links to peer-reviewed research that supports our philosophy. This way, everyone on our team has a chance to express their opinions and give valid, peer-reviewed research that supports our opinions. = =

Assignment guidelines:

 * 1) Articulate your philosophy: What is the best way to teach English Language Learners?
 * 2) Provide a link on the Research page to the study/studies on English Language Learners that you found that support your philosophy.

Some possible resources:
http://scholar.google.com http://www.thefreelibrary.com/ http://ergo.asu.edu/ejdirectory.html

In order to give everyone plenty of time to do this assignment, this is **due in one month (May 10th).**

Team Member: Scott Patton

What I believe about educating English Language Learners: ALL learners, in ANY subject, should be taught at a level a notch above their "zone of proximal development". Setting such a level provides realistically-attainable learning goals. Setting expectations too high above their zone of proximal development will result in frustrated learners and, most likely, negative behaviors such as cheating to "keep up", acting out in class, etc.

Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy: Zone of Proximal Development - Vygotsky www.learnnc.org/reference/1892 - [|Cached]

Team Member: Tara Egipto

What I believe about educating English Language Learners: English Language Learners can benefit from small class sizes on a very structured classroom schedule. Our 86 minute classes are ideal in implementing the instruction needed for success. Classes should have 20mins. of whole group instruction/reading and then students should break into three areas of the classroom. Each group spends 15-20 minutes in each of these areas (practice books, computer interaction, & audio headphones). When everyone has rotated through, the class should then come back together for a 10 minute wrap-up, or overview of what they have done that day. This rotation reaches each type of learning ability, in order to drive the lesson home.

Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy: READ 180- Hasselbring []

Team Member: Maxine Sagapolutele What I believe about educating English Language Learners: Having high expectations with support is the number one factor in teaching English Learners, especially at the high school level! Providing access to high school level ELA standards and teaching academic vocabulary is important. After that, there are so many necessary elements. That is why it is so important to collaborate with other teachers and to continue to read the latest research. I like the action research model of collective inquiry, where we can pose a question, create a plan, collect results, analyze those results and try again. We are doing this with our writing program. I also believe in on-going professional development to continue to sharpen skills and understanding of how to teach English Learners. I make it a point to attend EL trainings with the attitude that I have so much to learn, so that I will have an open mind. Purposeful planning with SDAIE scaffolds in mind is a must. When planning, I always ask myself these questions: “What language support am I offering for this lesson? “What scaffolds are needed?” “When is it time to remove the scaffold? “Am I allowing time for interaction?” The lesson plan should be balanced, with multiple opportunities for practice in reading, writing, listening and speaking that promote interaction. The teacher must have the willingness to change those plans to re-teach concepts and skills as necessary. Each student's language and culture should be valued. I believe that a student's primary language should be used as a learning tool. I would never enforce an English-only policy in my classroom. I use their primary languages to ​access prior knowledge, and to promote/check for understanding. I can say more, but I’ll start with this for now.

Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy:

[|Educating English Learners at the High School Level] [|Using L1 in the Classroom]

Team Member: Sophia Jacoub

What I believe about educating English Language Learners: Teaching English learners requires a conscious effort to support the students in their language development as well as their learning of grade level ELA standards. Modeling and scaffolding are primary tools in the EL classroom. I also believe that the use of Language 1 is essential in the development of L2. Students need to be able to access prior knowledge in L1 before applying it to L2. This also allows for more peer to peer support during collaborative learning. Furthermore, EL students should be held to the same grade level content standards as any class. They are just given more support. For example, EL students should be learning more academic vocabulary than functional English words. We can simply provide them with simple English synonyms and L1 translations rather than complex definitions. The ELD teacher should also be focusing on hitting the target areas of listening, speaking, reading, and writing throughout their lessons and using formative assessments to measure these targets.

Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy: []

Team Member: Vicki Gross


 * What I believe about educating English Language Learners:** After having time to study the EDGE curriculum, I believe that we should stick to the scope and sequence of this comprehensive program. My second belief is to use assessment and data to drive instruction. Upon entering an ELD program, students should be evaluated or tested in L1 and prove what level of schooling that they reached prior to coming to the U.S.A's ELD programs. It is important to find out if the student is literate in L1 since research claims that L1 transfers to L2. A student that is illiterate in L1 should be considered a newcomer. We should then assess L2. The student should then be placed in the correct level of instruction; be it ELD beginning, intermediate or sheltered instruction in the content areas, like college prep science, history and English. In the ELD classroom, I believe the teacher should address the needs or ELD standards discovered through assessment, develop them into strengths, and then move the student up through the levels of high beginning, intermediate, and advanced to continue to address the ELA state standards. I don't believe that the beginning level and newcomers should address the hard core ELA standards until some BICs has been developed. Deborah Short, a co-author of the EDGE, has research on students with under-developed L1. This is important because research argues that L1 transfers to L2 in reading, language acquisition, and content areas. Could someone with a college access to research articles print out Deborah Short's research for me? Thank you

[|5 Main Philosophies] [|humanistic] [|BICs and CALP] [|Hunter] [|EDGE] Could our school can be the first? Finally, Abedi & Dietel believe that performance goals for English language learners, as for all students, should meet what Robert Linn (2003) referred to as “existence proof.” For a goal to be within reach of all schools, at least one school should have already attained it. To date we have yet to see a school with a sizeable ELL population that meets the 2014 NCLB requirements. [|Abedi & Dietel, 2004]
 * Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy:**

Team Member: Anthony Devine

What I believe about educating English Language Learners: I believe that English language learners can develop high-level, academic English proficiency as they acquire English. What I mean is that because we are working with older students, they have high-level cognitive abilities and (for the most part) L1 literacy. Our job is to explicitly show our students how to use their high-level thinking abilities and their L1 literacy to develop high level, academic English proficiency. This approach assumes that we have high expectations for our students. However, high expectations are not enough. We must continually search for the best way to help our students meet our high expectations. We want to help our students achieve mastery of all content standards, so it only makes sense that we should be vigilant in our search to hold our teaching practices to the high standard of continual improvement for the sake of increased student achievement. I believe that our goal, helping students acquire academic English proficiency, is the constant that should guide our teaching. The variables are the practices that we implement as a team--the strategies, the scaffolds that we put in place to help our students reach our high expectations. Instead of basing our lessons on what is easy or comfortable for students, we should plan our daily lessons with some sense of urgency: we want to help our students acquire academic English proficiency! Having said that, I also understand that language acquisition takes years. I know that this takes time, but because of the cognitive abilities of our students, we can afford to maintain the high expectation that our students will demonstrate progress toward our overarching goal: acquisition of academic English proficiency. I believe that it is reasonable to expect continual, consistent progress from our students and ourselves.

How does this happen?
 * High Expectations: Focus on what students need at the next level (the next course, ELD and ELA standards, college). Review fundamental concepts as needed, but don't dwell on them.
 * Continual improvement
 * from students: Well designed assessments that provide meaningful feedback. Continual assessments to track learning progress.
 * from teachers: A willingness to continually learn and try new approaches to teaching if research shows it increases student learning. Reflection on practices--always look for a way to improve.
 * Best practices: Base activities/lessons on what works best, according to BOTH research and shared experience, for helping ELLs reach high expectations.

Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy: I am lucky enough that my wife is still going to SDSU, so I had easy access to peer reviewed articles through the SDSU library.

Brief article that asks a fundamental question: Can English Language Learners Acquire Academic English?
 * [|Can English Language Learners Acquire Academic English.pdf]
 * Summary: Yes, they can--when they are supported properly. The article offers several examples of what that support would look like. The article also stresses that this acquisition takes time. Some students will move faster than others (but they will all still //"move", progress//).

Good article about teaching ELLs generally--might be especially good for teachers outside of our program (although it does have several points that support my points above).
 * [|Misconceptions about teaching English Language Learners.pdf]
 * Don't stop at the subheadings of this article. The author does a good job at explaining why teaching language learners is just... different.

Team Member: Eric Jesperson

What I believe about educating English Language Learners stems from my own life in having the opportunity to learn a second language myself. I think it is extremely important for students to understand the basic concept of having the desire to grasp their L2. Using their L1 and drawing on their personal experiences is a crucial part of the language acquisition. As I began to learn my second language, I drew upon personal experiences that allowed me to more fully understand the concepts of the language I was seeking to learn. As I did this, the concepts grew clearer to me and I was able to have a higher level of retention than if I simply memorized something that I saw in a book or something that was given to me by a teacher. Our students are no different. As we relate the material to them, we can depend on their own personal experiences to solidify what is being presented to them in class. As we continually seek ways to do this, as we have raise our expectations while simultaneously rally them with support, students will have more “buy-in”, they will be engaged, and more importantly, I feel they will have more success in their acquisition of the new language.

Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy: **[|classroomstout.org]**

Team Member:Michelle Cadwell

What I believe about educating English Language Learners: In my limited experience working in a classroom with all EL students, I believe that accessing students' background and prior knowledge of the subject matter, discerning and defining imperative vocabulary, and providing multiple opportunities to practice speaking in L2 are significant factors in successfully facilitating proficiency for EL students in learning and acquiring L2. While maintaining high standards and academic language is very important, by focussing in on what students are bringing to the learning process from thier own experience enables them to make meaning of L2 and better bridge the gap between their own cultures and the L2 culture. Without this connection, learning L2 seems to become more tedious and less meaningful, therefore slowing the acquisition process. Defining key concepts and key vocabulary necessary to topics being discussed or taught is also necessary. I have found many instances in which I have had to stop, check for understanding, re-teach, or scaffold further, before moving forward. Finally, providing more opportunities to practice L2 in a structured manner seems to enable students to take more risks in using L2 both inside and outside of the classroom. While some students remain reluctant and slower to progress, consistantly providing opportunities to practice L2 is very necessary.

viewed research that supports my philosophy:

STRATEGIES USED IN SDAIEDAIE by Dr. [|**CARMEN SANCHEZ SADEK, Ph.D.**] []

Team Member: Matthew McGlenn

What I believe about educating English Language Learners: From what I have experienced teaching English Language Learners is about accessing prior knowledge, while being able to put it in context. In my limited experience working with English Language Learners I have had the most success in making progress when I able to allow for students to access information they understand in their L1. This allows for students to gain a connection between their L1 and L2, which will allow for understanding. In accessing this knowledge I have found that challenging students to make these connections creates a higher understanding, which in turn allows for a greater knowledge base. This knowledge base in turn creates an environment where high academic standards are able to exist and thrive. When allowing students to access knowledge from their L1 it is important to explain the context in which they are learning the new information. Allowing for students to put the information in context allows for the information to be stored in their long-term memory. This in turn creates a student that can recall much more information. Progressing to the point where students can use English in the classroom effectively is the goal; however, being able to allow for students to reach this goal seems to involve allowing for the access of information from their L1. English Language Learner’s L1 is certainly vital in being able to develop English. Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy: []

Team Member: Krystal Montalvo

What I believe about educating English Language Learners: In order to do so it is important that the classroom be an environment that: Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy: Best Practices and Research []
 * Expects students to meet high academic standards
 * Facilitates effective communication in English through reading, writing, speaking, and listening
 * Encourages risk taking and inquiry

Team Member: Jenn Bethe (finally!)

Assignment guidelines:
The best way to teach English Language Learners is by using the SIOP model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol**)**. I wasn’t sure what to call it until I started doing some research, but I believe this is the direction our team has been moving. The SIOP model was developed to combine language teaching with content area teaching, and is based heavily on SDAIE strategies __as well as__ language instruction. The most important part of SIOP is to use the strategies consistently, “Teachers must do more than simply implement a few strategies from ESL methodologies, such as showing visuals or slowing down the rate of speech” (Echeverria, 2006). Thankfully, ECV’s professional development has included solid instructional practices, including SDAIE strategies, so our team is becoming more adept at using them, but further training and accountability are necessary not only for the students, but to preserve the sanity of any ELD teacher trying to fit grade-level curriculum into the heads of less-than-grade-level-ability students. Towards that end, further training of our ELD teachers is highly necessary to combine the teaching of language skills with content instruction. (I don’t believe this is covered adequately in CLAD training.) In her study and description of the SIOP model, Echevarria explains that in addition to using SDAIE strategies, “explicit language instruction targeted to and slightly beyond students’ level of English proficiency also is [must be] presented in every lesson” (2006). The Edge curriculum IS a reading program, WITH modifications for ELL, but is not designed as //language// instruction, rather //reading// instruction. If students come first, then our first priority is to prepare ourselves as teachers with the latest, research-based strategies and training.
 * 1) Articulate your philosophy: What is the best way to teach English Language Learners?

2. Provide a link on the Research page to the study/studies on English Language Learners that you found that support your philosophy. Sources used: //School Reform and Standards-Based Education: A Model for English-Language Learners//: [] //Sheltered Content Instruction: Teaching English-Language Learners with Diverse Abilities// [] [|SIOP model.doc] Books that would be helpful: //Sheltered Content Instruction: Teaching English-Language Learners with Diverse Abilities// by Jana Echevarria and Anne Graves (1998) //Classroom Instruction that Works with English Language Learners// (based on Marzano’s book) by Jane D. Hill and Kathleen M. Flynn (2006) (available on Amazon.com or my classroom)

Team Member:

What I believe about educating English Language Learners:

Links to peer-reviewed research that supports my philosophy: