Hinchman Chapter 19:
Assessments in the secondary classroom extend far beyond gauging basic comprehension. Assessment data should lead teachers to improve and support student learning and should lead students to self-reflect on their own learning. Assessments are also cumulative results of previous years of schooling, so teachers must meet students where they are and provide supports and challenges to foster growth.
Literacy development is a nonstop process that extends into adulthood, and it is ever-changing. Foci change as new perspectives and conditions emerge to address changing literacies and modalities. To address the diverse needs of adolescent readers, especially struggling readers, RTIs are typically used in some form or another.
Content-Area Reading Inventory (CARI):
CARI assesses reading, thinking, and study processes of students in content area texts, and its results are used to create more individualized lessons for students. CARI is teacher-made and should reveal potential issues students will have with a text as well as skills and strategies students will need in order to effectively utilize the text. CARI development consists of three steps: 1) identify essential skills (reading, writing, and thinking) needed to competently manipulate a text as well as produce an outcome; 2) select excerpt from the text that is complete in itself; 3) design 3-5 guiding questions and prompts to help students navigate through the text. CARI can focus on book parts, understanding visual information, understanding content vocabulary, determining and summarizing key ideas, and creating study reading aids.
Once students complete their CARI, teachers tally the results, they can tailor their instruction to fit individual needs through whole-class, small-group, or individual instruction.
Vocabulary Self-Awareness:
Vocabulary knowledge should be assessed prior to reading so deficiencies in needed academic vocabulary can be addressed. This is done through a Vocabulary Self-Awareness chart that lists key terms from the lesson. Students should use + or √ or - to indicate their level of knowledge and familiarity with each term and should write self-created definitions for words they mark with + or √. As the lesson progresses, students should be revising their charts to indicate a growing level of knowledge and familiarity, and teachers can monitor progress and offer additional support to students who are struggling.
Assessing Competencies with Academic Concepts Through Youth Media:
To help students become more successful, there should be a seamless transition between out-of-school texts and classroom practices. These out-of-school texts include everything from comic books and fan fiction to video games and music. Teachers can channel these outside interests to create connections between them and concepts and strategies being taught in class and to promote multimodal output.
Afflerbach:
Three Important Questions for the Assessment of Adolescent Reading:
1) Why? (establishes goal) 2) What? (connects what is taught with what is assessed) 3) How? (establishes type of assessment)
Defining Reading:
PISA's definition of reading ("understanding, using, and reflecting on written texts, in order to achieve one's goal, to develop one's knowledge and potential, and to participate in society") should be expanded to incorporate expected outcomes as well as the skills used while reading including fluency, decoding, vocabulary development, and comprehension. As students advance in school, the size and complexity of content area texts increases, so students must self-monitor and continue to develop content-specific strategies to help them be successful in describing, comparing, synthesizing, and evaluating what they read. There are two balances that must be met to ensure adequate literacy growth in students. One is between reading development and content learning, and the other is between summative and formative assessments.
Successful Assessment of Reading:
Cognition (strategies students use when they read/content they are expected to learn), observation (deepening knowledge of content-area concepts and reading), and interpretation (inferences drawn from assessment results) are all vital to the creation, implementation, and interpretation of assessments in the content area. Assessments must encourage and promote high levels of reading achievement and motivation as well as the creation of engaging curriculums.
Determining the Suitability of Reading Assessments:
CURRV framework helps evaluate reading assessments by examining its consequences, its usefulness, the roles and responsibilities related to it, and its reliability and validity.
Types of Assessments for Adolescent Reading:
-Performance Assessments: Complex tasks are required to gauge students' ability to use what they have learned. These tasks include: comparing and contrasting, accounting for differences, writing creatively or persuasively to synthesize information, or creating an artistic output. Performance assessments have rubrics to clearly communicate performance level expectations and to provide students a blueprint to an advanced level of work. Performance assessments to do provide information on the development of reading skills, and they lend themselves to be graded subjectively and consistently.
-Portfolio Assessments: Thinking and reflection are at the core of portfolio assessments. Portfolios come in many forms but are flexible so as to allow adjustments for audience and purpose, and they allow students to see their growth and development. Students should reflect on the work in their portfolio through self-assessments and discussions with teachers and parents.
-Teacher Observation and Questioning: At its most basic, questioning involves answering comprehensions questions at the end of a reading. However, it should be expanded to include questions not only about content and reading skills and strategies development but also questions that model how students should be thinking on their own. Allowing students to think aloud can produce a fluid assessment of knowledge.
-High Stakes Testing: Very little valid, usable information can be gleaned from the results of state testing because students become apathetic and complacent when testing and because so much time passes between the administration and the score reporting.
What We Need to Know Next:
Assessments must move past multiple choice and short answer and become a more holistic representation of content knowledge and literacy growth. Professional development and trainings are needed to help teachers understand the characteristics of effective assessments as well as how to create them.
Text-to-Text: Most texts I've read regarding assessments have pushed the use of assessments that extend past multiple choice and short answer as they do not help students engage the content knowledge they learned by manipulating and applying it in different ways.
Text-to-Self: I don't retain information for any significant length of time when I know the test is multiple choice. I remember it long enough to take the assessment, and then it's lost and takes a lot of relearning and patience to find it again.
Text-to-World: Being able to analyze and manipulate and apply new knowledge is an invaluable tool. We unconsciously use it throughout our day during tasks like driving. We need to teach students the importance of being able to synthesize information and extend themselves so that they'll be more productive citizens.
Questions:
1) What assessments do you use that demand higher-level thinking and produce useful data but that the students enjoy completing?
2) What do you use to create your assessments? Do you collaborate with other teachers, or do you typically create your own?
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Monday, December 1, 2014
Literacy Learning through Discourse, Multimodality, and Technology
Hinchman Ch 4: Discourse Study
As diversity increases in American society, teachers must take into account students' diverse literacy identities, and Discourse (defined here as thought, word, and action organization and constraint) can be a valuable tool in acknowledging and valuing these differences. Discourses that are acquired in childhood based on cultural upbringing at home are known as Primary Discourses, and they differ from Secondary Discourses that are learned outside the home. When they don't match up, literacies differ and must be explicitly taught and the learner has 4 options: 1) assume identity of Secondary Discourse (school & home identities remain separated), 2) reject identity of Secondary Discourse (Discourses still remain separated because learner does not learn or cannot understand Secondary Discourse), 3) learn enough of the Secondary Discourse to function (Secondary Discourse is learned and used enough to get by, but learner doesn't buy into it), or 4) force Secondary Discourse to acknowledge Primary Discourse causing Secondary Discourse to shift (borderland discourse occurs in which metacognition is used to influence literacy in both Discourses). Clearly, option 4 allows for the most growth opportunity as literacies are allowed and encouraged to feed off each other.
Benefits of Discourse Instruction:
A deeper knowledge and understanding of literacies (foreign and familiar) can be gained from Discourse through oral language, digital/pop culture texts, print-based texts, and other text forms. After explicit instruction in Secondary Discourses, students used cognitive dissonance and gained metacognitive abilities to analyze them on their own through the lenses of both Discourses and to appreciate and accept alternate Discourses. Mutual respect gained leads to greater sense of citizenship and has a positive effect on society.
Discourse in 21st Century Teaching & Learning:
CCSS, MLE, and PC are shaping literacy instructional practices and all three dictate what a 21st Century student must master in order to be literate and a positive, productive member of society who is able to critically think and effectively communicate and who values and embraces diversity.
Hinchman Ch 16: Multimodality and Literacy Learning
Multimodality is an intricate part adolescents' lives, so literacy in these diverse literacies is a must. Therefore, school cannot be strictly text and writing based. Students must be taught and required to not only interact with but also create various forms of texts and texts types.
The purpose of multimodal texts is to create more connections and provide more experiences and opportunities for interaction for students. Students are required to analyze and connect information across texts thereby increasing and deepening comprehension and understanding of the content.
Conceptual Understanding:
Conceptual understanding requires students to connect information across various types of texts ("new literacies") and must be inquiry-based whereby students are given a theme or question to guide them in their readings. Incorporating electronic and media texts requires a different type of thinking and promotes conceptual understanding because comprehension is interpretive and not literal.
Diverse Perspectives with Multiple Text Types:
There are 4 domains of practice in which multimodal meanings are made: 1) discourse, 2) design, 3) production, and 4) distribution, and these must be used to create layers of meanings by requiring students to analyze/create multiple forms of texts and media.
Design and Multimodality:
Design has a conceptual and expressive side, and the two sides can significantly change meanings when applied analytically. Using various medias to illustrate a concept allows students to comprehend the differences in viewpoints and emotions and appreciate significances of each side. It also forces students to more critically think and question the completeness and validity of information they are presented.
Multimodal Connections:
The layering of multimodal texts produces a deeper conceptual understanding allows deeper personal, popular culture, and current event connections. Students have more meaningful written products because they are able to actively connect the texts to events and experiences familiar to them.
Kim and Kamil Technology
There are 3 critical areas related technology and adolescent literacy: computerized literacy instruction, social technology's effect on literacy development, and influences on adolescents' attitudes toward technology.
Computerized Literacy Instruction:
Using the computer to aid instruction allows students to improve comprehension and learn at their own pace. It allows provides students the opportunity to expand their comprehension through the exploration of vocabulary and additional information. Computer-based guided reading, cloze activities, and context clue practice helps raise standardized test scores, but computer-based instruction should be used as a supplement not a replacement for whole-group, classroom-based instruction.
Computerized Instruction of Strategies:
Visuals are often ignored or passively observed by students in content-specific texts, but they are critical in overall comprehension. Students must be explicitly taught how to incorporate the visuals in their reading as well as how to process, analyze, and apply them. These visuals extend to multimedia documents which contain hypertexts, links, graphics, and other resources for obtaining additional information. Again, students must receive explicit instruction on how to navigate and successfully employe these resources.
Structured Computer Learning Environments:
Computers can quickly provide additional information in a controlled manner whereby restrictions are in place or students are guided through a lesson. The more guidance a student is given, the more successful they are, especially when they are explicitly taught how to navigate and utilize the resources they are given.
Computerized Writing Instruction:
The use of technology in writing leads to an increase in students' motivation to write not not necessarily an increase in quality of writing. Grade levels, technology proficiency levels, and instructional support are all variables in gauging the success of computer-based writing instruction.
Social Development of Literacy Skills:
Emails, chatrooms, and other forms of electronic communication help increase adolescent literacy and encourage participation from all students, especially ones who shy from face-to-face interactions. Technology also requires students to articulate their point more clearly as they must rely on words and not their tone and gestures.
Variables and Attitudes:
Not all students are comfortable utilizing technology, and gender and age play a role in attitudes toward technology as females and older students are typically less receptive to technology than males and younger students. Students of lower socioeconomic statuses typically show more interest in technology than those in higher statuses perhaps because of the novelty of technology.
Computerized Reading Instruction:
This should focus on vocabulary assistance and guided reading instruction where students are given help in developing strategies as well as on hyperlinks that promote metacognition through analysis of additional material.
Computers and Writing Instruction:
Computers are most effective at providing assistance, but technology can hinder the progress of students who are not as familiar with computers. Improvements can stem from the provision of detailed writing prompts as well as structured guidance of writing strategies.
Social Aspects:
Literacy and social skills improve when students are provided the opportunity to communicate with peers via technology. They also increase technological literacy by manipulating various aspects of programs.
Encouraging Positive Attitudes toward Computers:
Taking into consideration the ability to access computers, gender, and age, teachers can tailor software and activity choices to appeal to all students and make them feel more included. Ensuring that all students have access to a computer either at home or at school also improved attitudes toward technology.
Text-to-text: We have read several times about the benefits of incorporating many different texts in lessons as well as requiring students to produce works that incorporate multiple genres and modalities.
Text-to-world: Technology and multimodalities are a vital part of everyday life, and for students to be productive, critically-thinking citizens, they must learn to navigate, analyze, and manipulate various forms of media critically.
Text-to-self: In my lessons, I incorporate various genres and viewpoints related to the anchor piece so that students can not only experience different genres but also see how they are connected and interrelated to each other, and they can manipulate and coalesce their thoughts and connections into a written product.
Questions:
1) How do you incorporate computers and technology into your lessons?
2) What types of multimodality lessons do you find successful in your classroom?
As diversity increases in American society, teachers must take into account students' diverse literacy identities, and Discourse (defined here as thought, word, and action organization and constraint) can be a valuable tool in acknowledging and valuing these differences. Discourses that are acquired in childhood based on cultural upbringing at home are known as Primary Discourses, and they differ from Secondary Discourses that are learned outside the home. When they don't match up, literacies differ and must be explicitly taught and the learner has 4 options: 1) assume identity of Secondary Discourse (school & home identities remain separated), 2) reject identity of Secondary Discourse (Discourses still remain separated because learner does not learn or cannot understand Secondary Discourse), 3) learn enough of the Secondary Discourse to function (Secondary Discourse is learned and used enough to get by, but learner doesn't buy into it), or 4) force Secondary Discourse to acknowledge Primary Discourse causing Secondary Discourse to shift (borderland discourse occurs in which metacognition is used to influence literacy in both Discourses). Clearly, option 4 allows for the most growth opportunity as literacies are allowed and encouraged to feed off each other.
Benefits of Discourse Instruction:
A deeper knowledge and understanding of literacies (foreign and familiar) can be gained from Discourse through oral language, digital/pop culture texts, print-based texts, and other text forms. After explicit instruction in Secondary Discourses, students used cognitive dissonance and gained metacognitive abilities to analyze them on their own through the lenses of both Discourses and to appreciate and accept alternate Discourses. Mutual respect gained leads to greater sense of citizenship and has a positive effect on society.
Discourse in 21st Century Teaching & Learning:
CCSS, MLE, and PC are shaping literacy instructional practices and all three dictate what a 21st Century student must master in order to be literate and a positive, productive member of society who is able to critically think and effectively communicate and who values and embraces diversity.
Hinchman Ch 16: Multimodality and Literacy Learning
Multimodality is an intricate part adolescents' lives, so literacy in these diverse literacies is a must. Therefore, school cannot be strictly text and writing based. Students must be taught and required to not only interact with but also create various forms of texts and texts types.
The purpose of multimodal texts is to create more connections and provide more experiences and opportunities for interaction for students. Students are required to analyze and connect information across texts thereby increasing and deepening comprehension and understanding of the content.
Conceptual Understanding:
Conceptual understanding requires students to connect information across various types of texts ("new literacies") and must be inquiry-based whereby students are given a theme or question to guide them in their readings. Incorporating electronic and media texts requires a different type of thinking and promotes conceptual understanding because comprehension is interpretive and not literal.
Diverse Perspectives with Multiple Text Types:
There are 4 domains of practice in which multimodal meanings are made: 1) discourse, 2) design, 3) production, and 4) distribution, and these must be used to create layers of meanings by requiring students to analyze/create multiple forms of texts and media.
Design and Multimodality:
Design has a conceptual and expressive side, and the two sides can significantly change meanings when applied analytically. Using various medias to illustrate a concept allows students to comprehend the differences in viewpoints and emotions and appreciate significances of each side. It also forces students to more critically think and question the completeness and validity of information they are presented.
Multimodal Connections:
The layering of multimodal texts produces a deeper conceptual understanding allows deeper personal, popular culture, and current event connections. Students have more meaningful written products because they are able to actively connect the texts to events and experiences familiar to them.
Kim and Kamil Technology
There are 3 critical areas related technology and adolescent literacy: computerized literacy instruction, social technology's effect on literacy development, and influences on adolescents' attitudes toward technology.
Computerized Literacy Instruction:
Using the computer to aid instruction allows students to improve comprehension and learn at their own pace. It allows provides students the opportunity to expand their comprehension through the exploration of vocabulary and additional information. Computer-based guided reading, cloze activities, and context clue practice helps raise standardized test scores, but computer-based instruction should be used as a supplement not a replacement for whole-group, classroom-based instruction.
Computerized Instruction of Strategies:
Visuals are often ignored or passively observed by students in content-specific texts, but they are critical in overall comprehension. Students must be explicitly taught how to incorporate the visuals in their reading as well as how to process, analyze, and apply them. These visuals extend to multimedia documents which contain hypertexts, links, graphics, and other resources for obtaining additional information. Again, students must receive explicit instruction on how to navigate and successfully employe these resources.
Structured Computer Learning Environments:
Computers can quickly provide additional information in a controlled manner whereby restrictions are in place or students are guided through a lesson. The more guidance a student is given, the more successful they are, especially when they are explicitly taught how to navigate and utilize the resources they are given.
Computerized Writing Instruction:
The use of technology in writing leads to an increase in students' motivation to write not not necessarily an increase in quality of writing. Grade levels, technology proficiency levels, and instructional support are all variables in gauging the success of computer-based writing instruction.
Social Development of Literacy Skills:
Emails, chatrooms, and other forms of electronic communication help increase adolescent literacy and encourage participation from all students, especially ones who shy from face-to-face interactions. Technology also requires students to articulate their point more clearly as they must rely on words and not their tone and gestures.
Variables and Attitudes:
Not all students are comfortable utilizing technology, and gender and age play a role in attitudes toward technology as females and older students are typically less receptive to technology than males and younger students. Students of lower socioeconomic statuses typically show more interest in technology than those in higher statuses perhaps because of the novelty of technology.
Computerized Reading Instruction:
This should focus on vocabulary assistance and guided reading instruction where students are given help in developing strategies as well as on hyperlinks that promote metacognition through analysis of additional material.
Computers and Writing Instruction:
Computers are most effective at providing assistance, but technology can hinder the progress of students who are not as familiar with computers. Improvements can stem from the provision of detailed writing prompts as well as structured guidance of writing strategies.
Social Aspects:
Literacy and social skills improve when students are provided the opportunity to communicate with peers via technology. They also increase technological literacy by manipulating various aspects of programs.
Encouraging Positive Attitudes toward Computers:
Taking into consideration the ability to access computers, gender, and age, teachers can tailor software and activity choices to appeal to all students and make them feel more included. Ensuring that all students have access to a computer either at home or at school also improved attitudes toward technology.
Text-to-text: We have read several times about the benefits of incorporating many different texts in lessons as well as requiring students to produce works that incorporate multiple genres and modalities.
Text-to-world: Technology and multimodalities are a vital part of everyday life, and for students to be productive, critically-thinking citizens, they must learn to navigate, analyze, and manipulate various forms of media critically.
Text-to-self: In my lessons, I incorporate various genres and viewpoints related to the anchor piece so that students can not only experience different genres but also see how they are connected and interrelated to each other, and they can manipulate and coalesce their thoughts and connections into a written product.
Questions:
1) How do you incorporate computers and technology into your lessons?
2) What types of multimodality lessons do you find successful in your classroom?
Adolescent EAL/ELL Readers
Hinchman Ch 2:
Because being bilingual is seen as an advantage across the globe and because students learning English are not expected to forego their native language, there is a push for newcomers to be referred to as EALs (English as an additional language) instead of ELLs (English Language Learner). Hispanics make up the majority of ELAs in the United States, but they, like other nationalities, do not always share similar customs, traditions, and socioeconomic statuses, so we must respect each students' differences. Also, being labeled as EAL/ELL doesn't automatically mean that the student is an immigrant as several students are reared in a multi-language household.
DSL (discipline-specific language) is made of two parts: oral and written. DSL are domain specific vocabularies that students must master. Emphasizing DSL and explicit content instruction will help not only EALs but general ed students as well.
There are several strategies teachers can use to ensure all students, including EALs, are held to high standard and are able to complete complex tasks such as analyzing content-specific texts:
- deconstruction of juicy sentences: analyzing focal sentence(s) for linguistic and conceptual reasoning as well as structure so that scaffolding is firmly in place
-close reading through annotation: modeling is encouraged so that students know what they should focus on and have the opportunity to read/analyze same text 3 times with 3 purposes (verbal pronunciation/emphasis, comprehension, clarification).
-content-area conversations: emphasis of academic langauge through scaffolding and intentional planning where the teacher outlines which and how vocabulary and concepts will be targeted.
-explicit writing: topic sentences of paragraphs need to be explicit and students rely on notes to finish explanation so that students can focus on communicating content rather than figuring out which format is appropriate for which content.
Garcia & Godina:
ELL students come to the classroom with a wide variety of backgrounds, but it is clear that they face challenges greater than native speakers. Classroom support is vital to the success of ELLs, especially in grades 5-12.
-Literacy Performance of ELLs: high-level reading strategies such as accessing prior knowledge, inferencing, questioning and summarizing clearly help ELLs more than low-level strategies such as decoding, restating, and vocabulary identification. Also, emphasizing comprehension by encouraging the use of both languages simultaneously rather than keeping them separated also helps ELLs succeed. Physical interaction and manipulation of new concepts help ELLs learn content quicker than taking notes, reading the textbook, and listening to lectures.
-Literacy Instruction of English Language Learners: writing process approaches taught in the gen ed classroom can be more effective than those in an ESL classroom, but it does have its limitations. The ETR (experience-text relationship) was developed as an alternative to both and uses themes to make connections between texts and personal experiences and relies on literature logs and instructional conversations. The use of culturally-relevant texts also increases motivation and comprehension. Finally, CALLA (cognitive academic language learning approach) is effective as is teaches content through sheltered instruction and explicitly taught metacognitive strategies.
-Effective Schools for ELLs: academic goals and expectations are vital to effective instruction as well as direct, active academic involvement of teachers, administration, students, and parents. The focus on continuing native language development while emphasizing higher-order thinking skills also increases literacy in ELLs.
-Guidelines for Effective Literacy Instruction:
- backgrounds and development must be taken into consideration for all students
- native-language instruction as well as English-based instruction should work in tandem
- instruction in both settings must be coordinated whereby difficult topics are introduced in sheltered instruction before in gen-ed classroom
- teachers must shelter instruction for ELLs by emphasizing inquiry-based and small-group/cooperative learning as well as making sure the native language and English can be used interchangeably as needed to ensure comprehension and connection
- content instruction must be standards-based for all students with appropriate scaffolding in place
- ESL-ELA must be offered as an opportunity to interact with age-appropriate literature and make personal connections to text
- strategy instruction through modeling and guided practice of specific strategies such as questioning, summarizing, and inferencing will boost comprehension
- process writing must be combined with explicit and structured writing instruction
- process literacy approach with strategy/explicit instruction is vital especially when it comes to content that is unfamiliar
Connections:
Text-to-text: The scaffolding and connections that teachers must create for ELLs are no different than those used for struggling (and proficient) readers. The more relevant information can be made and the more connections to prior knowledge and experiences that can be made, the more success is ensured.
Text-to-self: I have taken several years of Spanish, and I know that I always did better when I could connect cognates in Spanish and English. Also, reading texts that were of interest led to a higher level of comprehension than with texts that were not interest-based.
Text-to-world: Explicit instruction leads to greatest success no matter what content area or field it is applied to. Showing students exactly how something works and exactly what is expected only guarantees success. It eliminates questioning and second-guessing and provides a model for them and future activities.
Questions:
1) What scaffolding techniques are most useful to you in your classroom?
2) What explicit writing strategies do you employ in your classroom?
Because being bilingual is seen as an advantage across the globe and because students learning English are not expected to forego their native language, there is a push for newcomers to be referred to as EALs (English as an additional language) instead of ELLs (English Language Learner). Hispanics make up the majority of ELAs in the United States, but they, like other nationalities, do not always share similar customs, traditions, and socioeconomic statuses, so we must respect each students' differences. Also, being labeled as EAL/ELL doesn't automatically mean that the student is an immigrant as several students are reared in a multi-language household.
DSL (discipline-specific language) is made of two parts: oral and written. DSL are domain specific vocabularies that students must master. Emphasizing DSL and explicit content instruction will help not only EALs but general ed students as well.
There are several strategies teachers can use to ensure all students, including EALs, are held to high standard and are able to complete complex tasks such as analyzing content-specific texts:
- deconstruction of juicy sentences: analyzing focal sentence(s) for linguistic and conceptual reasoning as well as structure so that scaffolding is firmly in place
-close reading through annotation: modeling is encouraged so that students know what they should focus on and have the opportunity to read/analyze same text 3 times with 3 purposes (verbal pronunciation/emphasis, comprehension, clarification).
-content-area conversations: emphasis of academic langauge through scaffolding and intentional planning where the teacher outlines which and how vocabulary and concepts will be targeted.
-explicit writing: topic sentences of paragraphs need to be explicit and students rely on notes to finish explanation so that students can focus on communicating content rather than figuring out which format is appropriate for which content.
Garcia & Godina:
ELL students come to the classroom with a wide variety of backgrounds, but it is clear that they face challenges greater than native speakers. Classroom support is vital to the success of ELLs, especially in grades 5-12.
-Literacy Performance of ELLs: high-level reading strategies such as accessing prior knowledge, inferencing, questioning and summarizing clearly help ELLs more than low-level strategies such as decoding, restating, and vocabulary identification. Also, emphasizing comprehension by encouraging the use of both languages simultaneously rather than keeping them separated also helps ELLs succeed. Physical interaction and manipulation of new concepts help ELLs learn content quicker than taking notes, reading the textbook, and listening to lectures.
-Literacy Instruction of English Language Learners: writing process approaches taught in the gen ed classroom can be more effective than those in an ESL classroom, but it does have its limitations. The ETR (experience-text relationship) was developed as an alternative to both and uses themes to make connections between texts and personal experiences and relies on literature logs and instructional conversations. The use of culturally-relevant texts also increases motivation and comprehension. Finally, CALLA (cognitive academic language learning approach) is effective as is teaches content through sheltered instruction and explicitly taught metacognitive strategies.
-Effective Schools for ELLs: academic goals and expectations are vital to effective instruction as well as direct, active academic involvement of teachers, administration, students, and parents. The focus on continuing native language development while emphasizing higher-order thinking skills also increases literacy in ELLs.
-Guidelines for Effective Literacy Instruction:
- backgrounds and development must be taken into consideration for all students
- native-language instruction as well as English-based instruction should work in tandem
- instruction in both settings must be coordinated whereby difficult topics are introduced in sheltered instruction before in gen-ed classroom
- teachers must shelter instruction for ELLs by emphasizing inquiry-based and small-group/cooperative learning as well as making sure the native language and English can be used interchangeably as needed to ensure comprehension and connection
- content instruction must be standards-based for all students with appropriate scaffolding in place
- ESL-ELA must be offered as an opportunity to interact with age-appropriate literature and make personal connections to text
- strategy instruction through modeling and guided practice of specific strategies such as questioning, summarizing, and inferencing will boost comprehension
- process writing must be combined with explicit and structured writing instruction
- process literacy approach with strategy/explicit instruction is vital especially when it comes to content that is unfamiliar
Connections:
Text-to-text: The scaffolding and connections that teachers must create for ELLs are no different than those used for struggling (and proficient) readers. The more relevant information can be made and the more connections to prior knowledge and experiences that can be made, the more success is ensured.
Text-to-self: I have taken several years of Spanish, and I know that I always did better when I could connect cognates in Spanish and English. Also, reading texts that were of interest led to a higher level of comprehension than with texts that were not interest-based.
Text-to-world: Explicit instruction leads to greatest success no matter what content area or field it is applied to. Showing students exactly how something works and exactly what is expected only guarantees success. It eliminates questioning and second-guessing and provides a model for them and future activities.
Questions:
1) What scaffolding techniques are most useful to you in your classroom?
2) What explicit writing strategies do you employ in your classroom?
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