Author: jechevarria

With nearly 5 million English learners in U.S. schools, the academic progress of these students matters to all educators: administrators, teachers, and EL specialists alike. One of the most common questions about English learners is how quickly progress should be expected both in language acquisition and in reaching grade level standards.

Many students pick up a fair amount of conversational English in a short time and most become fluent in social English in 1-3 years. But the academic English found in texts, on tests, and in lessons is far more complex, less concrete, and more abstract than social language. Academic language is often referred to as the language of school because it exists almost exclusively in academic settings. It’s unlikely that many students experience high levels of academic language outside of school. For example, few students are expected to synthesize information or speak in passive voice in their everyday lives.

Research tells us that academic English proficiency can take, on average, 4 to 7 years to acquire. However, every individual learns in her or his own unique way and learner variability  is expected. So, some English learners will advance academically more rapidly than others, perhaps even making significant progress in fewer than 4 years, while others will need a full 7 years.  Our role as educators is to have high expectations for all English learners and to create a challenging yet supportive educational environment. In this way, we ensure that all students develop strong academic skills so that they are able to read, write, and access the content of disciplinary areas such as math and science. We need to keep our eye on the goal of academic success for English learners.

However, administrators and teachers may be tempted to fall back on the often cited “4 to 7 years” to justify poor academic progress of their English learners. It may be accepted when, for instance, English learners in elementary schools enter in kindergarten and still have not reached English proficiency by 4^thgrade because “we know it takes 4-7 years to develop proficiency.” This should not be the case – at any grade. Every day is an opportunity to nudge our English learners forward, to accelerate their learning. There is no time to be complacent. English learners need support, scaffolds, modeling and guidance as they navigate the developmental process of learning a new language, but the time involved in that process should not become an excuse for lack of sufficient academic and linguistic progress.

Emily Francis is a perfect example of why we should hold high expectations for English learners and provide the support they need. She came to the U.S. from Guatemala at age 15 with a 6^thgrade education. Although she was 15, she had gaps in her education because she sometimes missed school in Guatemala to work and help support her family. She was placed in high school when she arrived in the U.S. and achieved academic English proficiency in a year and a half. Today she is a dedicated, dynamic ESL teacher. To hear her tell her amazing story, please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNYdZuBlmKI&feature=youtu.be

In her interview, Emily cites two ways that teachers can help English learners succeed, including those with limited or interrupted education and long-term English learners. She says:

1. Tap into students’ potential. Recognize students’ assets and discover what they are passionate about. Highlight what they can do and build on what they bring.
2. Engage families. Honor their parenting styles and their values rather than signaling that something is inadequate or needs to change. When families are accepted for who they are, they will be willing participants in school.

In my experience, there is another obstacle that holds some English learners back from meeting their potential and that is the reclassification criteria for “testing out” of EL designation. English learners may meet the criteria for speaking and listening but get hung up on reading and/or writing. Here are some suggestions for accelerating students’ acquisition of academic English:

• Encourage students to take ownership of their learning by reviewing proficiency test results with each student individually. Let them know their profiles and explain which domains of language and literacy they need to work on to pass proficiency testing. For example, if a student knows that he needs to boost his writing score, he may be motivated to focus on improving his writing. By being clued in to their own performance and areas of need, students are more likely to take ownership of their learning.
• Inform parents. Many families of English learners aren’t aware of how they system works and that proficiency testing results impact their child’s educational program. Be explicit in the ways that families can assist at home. For example, if the student needs to improve in reading, ask parents for help at home. Also, notify parents of the testing dates to ensure attendance.
• Invite former English learners from high school to explain to upper elementary and middle grade students that they will have more electives and class choices if they test out of EL status, since required English language development classes are often taken in place of electives. Peers are tremendous motivators because they have credibility; they’ve been in the same situation as the younger English learners.
• Emphasize the importance of taking proficiency testing seriously. Some English learners become bored with testing year after year and don’t try their best. They don’t understand that it is a high-stakes test that can impact their educational career. Be honest about it and emphasize to students that they need to do their best.

Emily Francis demonstrates that English learners can attain academic English proficiency in fewer than 4-7 years. We don’t know how many of our students have the potential to reach proficiency more rapidly than the upper range of 4-7 years but we should have the expectation that all students may be able to, and commit to excellent teaching to get them there.

 

I’ve spent most of my career researching the impact of instruction on the achievement of English learners, most notably as a co-developer of the SIOP Model. The teaching-learning process is where it’s at as far as I’m concerned.

But it isn’t the only thing, especially when it comes to English learners.

In addition to carrying out well-planned, effective lessons, teachers need to pay attention to students’ social-emotional needs. English learners may feel ‘out of place’ and unsure of themselves in school. They may feel anxious, frustrated or confused by the language and/or teacher’s expectations. Teachers can mitigate these feelings by demonstrating in concrete ways that they value each student, including her culture, language, and background.

Here are some ways that teachers can show they value the diversity students bring to the classroom.

Create a Caring and Supportive Environment

The adage, Students don’t care what you know until they know that you care applies here.  Students want to know that their teachers care; nobody wants to feel invisible or unimportant. The relationship between a student and teacher is a pivot point that determines whether a student will thrive or fail. Further, teacher sensitively to student needs is a statistically significant measure of effective classrooms. A caring and supportive environment can be created in a number of ways:

• Set a tone of mutual respect with actions and attitude. Warmly greet each student by name as they enter class and ask a brief personal question or make a comment to demonstrate genuine interest. Speak to students with respect and kindness and encourage the same among the students. A caring teacher doesn’t necessarily need to call roll because she knows her students and a glance around the room reveals absences.
• Arrange the classroom environment in a way that promotes support. For example, cluster students’ desks so they sit in groups of four to facilitate optimal interaction and collaboration within each team. It’s hard to feel invisible when sitting across from a peer and working together on assignments.
• Display visuals that communicate high expectations. In middle school and high school classrooms, display and discuss college banners or college information. Inspirational quotes by diverse individuals and pictures of successful individuals from multicultural backgrounds encourages high achievement in any grade.
• Be encouraging. Caring and supportive teachers encourage students with comments such as, “I know you’ll do well on the test because you’re prepared. You’ve been working hard on these practice questions” or, “Good effort! I like the way your group is working together.” Comments are more effective when tied directly to student behaviors rather than a global, “Good job.”

Honor Student Experiences

It’s important that teachers integrate students’ own lives, experiences, beliefs and opinions into lessons so that they feel validated and are more engaged in learning. During a lesson, the teacher might pose a question about the lesson’s topic and ask the teams to discuss it for a specific period of time, then report their ideas or answers. English learners are encouraged to use their home language to clarify points or to express their ideas to a more proficient English speaker who scaffolds their participation in the group discussion.  Students link their own experiences to the topic. For example, as the class discusses an article about the conflict in the Middle East, the teacher asks students to think about their own neighborhood or family. “Are there always two sides to a story? In a conflict you’ve experienced, what issues did each side have? I know sometimes it’s hard to see the other person’s side but talk about that for six minutes, then I’ll signal time is up and we’ll think about how it relates to the article.” The teacher asks a group to share out and he makes a T-chart with points for each side. The teacher is prepared to moderate the discussion because sometimes students discuss difficult topics involving, for example, violence or racism. However, he recognizes that it is important for students to be able to openly discuss the realities of their own lives in class and use those experiences to better understand the topics they are studying.

Communicate Mutual Respect

Few would argue the benefits of a classroom atmosphere that promotes safety, openness, and reflection. In fact, research shows that it is crucial for the brain to effectively process and encode academic material, as opposed to being preoccupied with emotional concerns. Teachers set the tone in a classroom. The respect they show to students in the way they speak is mirrored in the regard students show for teachers, including the effort they expend in wanting to do well on assignments and the respectful way they speak.

Teachers must choose their words wisely and be conscious of the impact that tone, facial expressions, gestures, and body language have on students. The following comments taken from actual classrooms show the contrast between supportive language and insensitive remarks that impact students’ achievement and overall wellbeing.

Insensitive/Unacceptable Language	Supportive Language
I see a bunch of students who are doing poorly.	I think some of you may need help. Give me a hand signal if you want me to show you how to do this again.
Please don’t tell me you don’t know how to do this!	It looks like we need to pause a minute and review what we did last week.
You’re spelling these words wrong. There’s no “e” at the beginning of school and statement.	I see you’re borrowing from your home language by putting an “e” at the beginning of these words. In English, many words start with a consonant, like school and statement.
You’re going to have trouble on the test next week.	Let me model a few more of these problems, then you can give it another try.
Seriously? You didn’t even show your work!	That’s a good try but I need to see how you got the answer. Please show me your work.
Doesn’t anyone know the answer? C’mon guys!	Manolo, thanks for volunteering.

Today’s classrooms have students from many different ethnic, racial, linguistic and socio-economic backgrounds. The climate of a classroom can be felt immediately – whether it is one that values diversity or one that doesn’t.  I’ve experienced both types of classrooms, which is one of the reasons that I hope the suggestions in this post will assist in creating supportive learning environments for students in all classrooms.

 

Post adapted from: Echevarria, J., Fisher, D. & Frey, N. (2016). How to Reach the Hard to Teach: Excellent Instruction for Those Who Need It Most. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

 

 

In my last post, I discussed differentiated instruction and its importance for teaching English learners. A critical aspect of learning for English learners – and all students – is working productively in small groups. Whole group instruction has a place in classroom teaching but it is essential that teachers learn to manage small groups as well.

Teaching for Independence and Small Group Work. It is unlikely that students will naturally work well together. When we show SIOP video lessons during professional development sessions, teachers often say, “Well, my students can’t work together like that.” Most of our SIOP videos were filmed in classrooms in large urban districts with English learners who typically would be expected to underperform. The difference is that these students have been taught how to work well independently and in groups. Productive group work has been modeled for them and time has been invested in:

• Teaching students to work on their own.
• Teaching students to work with others.
• Teaching students appropriate behavior while working in groups.
• Teaching students the value of working with others.
• Teaching students to appreciate the contributions of others.

These important social skills can be taught through a series of steps. After initial learning, the steps will need to be reviewed, modeled and practiced, more frequently with younger students.

1. Organize the classroom for effective partner, small group, and independent work.  Effective classroom organization involves considering how to create a space where the teacher will teach a small group, where partners will work together, where small groups will work together, and where students will work independently.  What will not be effective is if students are all over the place completing assignments because most likely the teacher will have multiple interruptions and chaos will ensue. If the small groups are working across the room from the teacher’s table, and they know what to do and have the necessary materials close-by, the groups can learn to work together productively. Students working in pairs or independently can sit nearby, closer to the teacher, so there is a noise buffer between the working groups and the small group the teacher is teaching. This doesn’t require re-doing the classroom, just moving students around temporarily to accomplish your goals.
2. Determine who will work together in Instructional and Interactive groups.  Instructional groups are small groups (approximately 3-7 students), where the teacher is providing instruction.  They include reading groups, pre-teaching groups, reteach/review groups, and mini-lessons. Interactive groups involve students working on their own while the teacher is working with another small group. They include partners, triad, small groups, discussion circles, cooperative/jigsaw groups, research groups, and centers.

To form groups, the teacher uses assessment data, observation, and intuition about which students will work well with others, and which may need some help in learning to work well with others.  As students learn the skills necessary for working in groups, they may be grouped flexibly, moving from group to group as appropriate.

3. Teach students how to work with partners and in groups.  This step is critical to the process. Have students brainstorm the answer to this question: “When you’re working with a partner or in a small group, how do you know that you’re working well together?”  Even very young children can answer this question. The students’ list will look something like:

• 1. • We listen to each other.
     • We get along.
     • We take turns.
     • Everyone participates
     • We finish what we start

Take any relevant items on the list and complete a t-chart (“Looks Like, Sounds Like”) with the students’ ideas about each social skill that they need work on, e.g., listening, sharing, or taking turns. For secondary students, the t-chart would deal with more sophisticated group dynamic skills such as, one person not dominating, everyone pulling their weight, and disagreeing respectfully. These t-charts can be posted throughout the room and referred to as needed.

4. Establish routines. Transitions from whole group to small group, or from working with the teacher to moving to independent or group work can eat up valuable instructional time. Teach routines for gathering materials and moving to the next area quickly and quietly. Some teachers use a signal or other method for notifying students that it is time to transition. Roles may be assigned to students for distributing materials or leading a group. Practice is critical for making routines automatic.

5. Model how to work independently.  Provide students with tasks that can be completed in 15-20 minutes—the time needed for you to work with a small group.  These independent activities should not require a great deal of preparation or clean-up, and should be routines, as often as possible. Literacy centers can be used across grade levels, even in secondary classrooms. Specific examples of an independent activities are Word Study and Word Sorts. It only takes a bit of imagination to come up with other independent activities that students can complete individually, with partners and in small groups while the teacher is teaching a small group.  Of course, this time can also be used for completing assignments, reading, doing research, and working on computers or tablets.  The most important point is that students are taught how to work independently. Depending on the students, this may take considerable modeling and practice.

6. Assess the effectiveness of the groups. Along with your students, debrief how well small groups are working, referring back to the posted t-charts, discussing how students’ social skills are developing, and candidly talking about what’s working and what’s not.  Some teachers regularly ask students to complete a group evaluation sheet on which they determine how well the group members worked together to complete tasks.

Did you notice a recurring word in this process? Routine. It is critical that students know what they are supposed to do and how to do it – every time, every day. Which means that the teacher must be consistent in using routines. Creating routines leaves the guess work out. Expectations are clear. When students know the routines, they can work with each other independently so that their teacher can teach. In these classrooms, students are not only learning how to get along with each other and complete assignments independently, they also receive focused small group time with the teacher, time that is especially beneficial for English learners.

 

Based on: Echevarria, J. Short, D. & Vogt, M. (2008). Implementing the SIOPModel through Effective Professional Development and Coaching. New York: Pearson.

 

 

There is a lot of talk about differentiation but less of it actually happening in classrooms. Why? Well, one reason may be that most teachers have students with a variety of academic needs as well as levels of English language proficiency. In planning lessons they probably ask themselves, “How can I possibly meet all these individual needs?” Sometimes whole class teaching without differentiation results.

A one-size-fits-all approach is ineffective in today’s classrooms. But, learning to differentiate comes with challenges.

In our SIOP work, we met a veteran middle school math teacher who probably represents the position of other teachers. At the beginning, he was resistant to learning how to differentiate and believed that all students should “tow the line” and learn  — a one size approach. Here’s how his SIOP coach told the story:

I went into a middle school for a meeting and a math teacher stood up at this meeting and said, “Out of my 28 students, I have twelve ELLs and eleven of them are flunking, one has a D.

I replied, “There are a couple of things you can do to help them,” and it kind of changed his look. [She then worked with him and other teachers to make instruction meaningful for their English learners]

I saw him a couple of months ago and I ask him, “How’s it going?” And he said, “You know, you taught me a lot. The main thing I can say is that we weren’t ready for these kids [English learners] and we were doing these kids a disservice…that’s it.  We’ve got to be ready. The problem with our school district is that we were not ready.” 

This is a big jump for this guy.

 This story highlights that even the most resistant teachers can, with the right professional development, learn practices that will help students succeed.

While differentiated instruction may mean different things to different teachers, most agree that it has something to do with providing appropriate instruction for students with diverse needs, strengths, and abilities.  The challenge lies in determining what this looks like and how it works. Thorough our SIOP research, we have observed several elements of differentiation that are practical, doable, and effective.  These elements include:

How instructional tasks are designed.

• The teacher sets up the class so that a number of tasks occur at once, such as having some students work on computers, others may be writing in their journals, while a third group is working with the teacher.
• Students produce different products, some more scaffolded than others (see example below)
• Pacing of tasks is tailored to student need. Some students may be able to accomplish a task in three steps, while other students may need more modeling and guidance in five or more steps.
• The difficulty of tasks is adjusted. Learning needs to be appropriately complex for all students but the difficulty level may be adjusted. For example, comparing and contrasting the characteristics of land and marine mammals is a complex, higher order task but some students may write words on a Venn diagram while others may write an essay. The same concepts are learned but learning is expressed at different levels of proficiency.
• The amount of material covered varies.  Some English learners (and other students, as well), may not be able to independently read an entire chapter with comprehension.  However, if the key concepts, critical explanations, and key vocabulary are highlighted, and English learners are expected to only read the highlighted sections, they may cover less material but with greater understanding.

How instructional materials are used.  For many students, grade-level texts can be frustrating to try to navigate.  Some students may need significant scaffolding such as audible texts or reading with a partner or small group for support. The same applies to other tasks such as conducting experiments, creating a research project, and completing math assignments.

How students are grouped for instruction and practice.  In differentiated classrooms, students work with partners, small groups, independently, and as part of the whole class.  In order to promote interaction, a component of SIOP, teachers need to consider how they will group students during each lesson, and for what purpose.

• Instructional groups are small groups (approximately 3-7 students), where the teacher is providing instruction. They include reading groups, pre-teaching groups, reteach/review groups, and mini-lessons.
• Interactive groups involve students working on their own while the teacher is working with another small group. They include partners, triad, small groups, discussion circles, cooperative/jigsaw groups, research groups, and centers. For interactive groups to be effective, students must be taught how to participate appropriately, and they should practice the process often.

How teachers provide feedback and ask questions. Higher-performing students generally are on the receiving end of high-order thinking questions; lower-performing students are asked lower-level questions.  In differentiated classrooms, teachers ask higher-order questions of all students, and provide helpful, specific feedback, differentiating to account for language proficiency. English learners can address higher order questions when the teacher scaffolds how questions and feedback are worded.

Some examples of differentiation include the following, expressed as language objectives. 

Students will be able to:
Beginning/Emerging	Intermediate/Expanding	Advanced/Bridging
Use simple graphic organizers, maps, tables and timelines to process information.	Construct and present various graphic organizers, maps, tables and timelines to organize ideas and process information.	Construct, interpret and present various graphic organizers, maps, tables, and timelines to organize ideas and process information.
Use simple summaries and outlines to identify key information.	Create simple summaries and outlines to detail key information.	Create complete summaries and outlines to process and explore content information.
Recognize the need for assistance and begin to use assistance-seeking strategies (teacher, peers, reference sources)	Seek assistance when appropriate using a variety of strategies (teacher, reference sources, question box)	Seek assistance independent from the teacher as needed through a variety of strategies.

The bottom line is that there are a variety of ways for teachers to differentiate teaching to make sure that English learners receive the instruction they need and to have the opportunity to express their knowledge at their level of language proficiency.

 

Based on: Echevarria, J. Short, D. & Vogt, M. (2008). Implementing the SIOP Model through Effective Professional Development and Coaching. New York: Pearson.

 

Many well-meaning teachers lower expectations for English learners as a way to compensate for the disadvantages some of these students experience including poverty and level of English proficiency. Thought of as pobrecitos, or poor little ones, teachers might be reluctant to “push” students for fear that they don’t have what it takes to succeed, and they don’t want to set English learners up for failure. It is fine for teachers to empathize with some of the difficult situations many of our English learners face, but these students need to be challenged, not pitied.

How does a teacher know how much to push a student who is still acquiring English?

The answer begins with getting to know your students. Once a relationship has been established and you’ve gotten to know each student, then not only will you know how much to push and when to pull back, the student will be better able to communicate when they are feeling overwhelmed or ready to do more. It all starts with building relationships.

Celebrate success. Students typically don’t make huge gains at any one point; progress is made through incremental successes. Celebrate each success no matter how small. Let students know you’re proud of them: “I’m proud of you for sticking with that math problem until you figured it out” and “Way to go! You worked hard on that essay rewrite.”

Make learning goals clear and transparent to students. We encourage teachers to post the content and language objectives of each lesson and review them with students. Let them know what they are going to learn and why it is important. Transparency is one way of pushing student achievement by letting them in on what will be learned. That way it becomes a team effort with shared goals.

In a class I observed recently, the teacher really pushed her English learners — and inspired me to write this post. This third-grade class was in a high-poverty, urban school with nearly 50% English learners.  Nonetheless, the teacher’s attitude was one of high expectations for all students. The content objective posted on the board was, I am learning about early migration to the Americas.  Language objectives were, 1) I can explain details to others about Paleo Indians’ lives and 2) I can write sentences, correctly spelling new words.  Around the room were charts displaying word banks, sentence starters, and the alphabet for those newcomers who needed a model.

Students were working in composition books, editing their writing from the previous day. Each student’s book had a sticky note with comments from the teacher. For example, a student had written, They are going to eat a rabbit and throw the rabbit in a pot so it could be cooked and for them to wear the skin. It is cold there. On the sticky note, the teacher provided two possible connector words, she modeled correct sentences, and encouraged him to write more:

• because
• the……so it can be cooked. They can wear the rabbit skins to keep warm.
• Please explain more about what you see.

As students worked at tables, the teacher circulated amongst them offering suggestions and encouragement:

T: We’re correcting sentences. C’mon students, push ahead!

T: Why are we doing this?

S: We’re learning about what happened in the past, new words.

T: How do we use the new words? (A student responded by reading a sentence with a new word in it.)

T: You’ve got your commas in there. Good.

T: This sentence started with a capital. Great.

T: Students, push ahead. We don’t have time to waste.

At one point, when an English learner asked a question, the teacher went to the Verb Chart which had the following columns: Present, Gerund, Past, Future. Nine words from the unit were listed along with their various forms. She pointed out the past and future tenses of hunt for the student.

It was clear that the teacher knew her students, what they needed to work on, and how to challenge each one to do his/her best. Although she had a kind demeanor, there was no coddling of pobrecitos by this teacher. She set high standards and expected students to reach them. There was a palpable energy in the room as students worked diligently on their writing.

What a privilege it was to watch a teacher take on the work of educating English learners, not skipping over their errors but instead pushing them to reach their full academic potential.