Classroom instruction that works with english language learners

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS W e acknowledge the following K–6 content area teachers, who contributed to this book by sharing how the Classroom Instruction That Works strategies worked with English language learners in their classrooms: • Elisabeth Berry, Denise Hitchcock, and Lindsey Moses of North Elementary School, Brighton, Colorado; • Cecilia Bailey, William Gibson, and Jolene Smith of Kayenta Intermediate School, Kayenta, Arizona; and • Sheri Daigler, Sandra Drechsler, Kelly Gardner, Amy Libertini, Adam Schmucker, and Eliza Sorte of Berry Creek Middle School, Edwards, Colorado. We also thank Sylvia Torrez, senior consultant at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), who contributed classroom examples to illustrate how to ask tiered questions and stimulate language in various content areas. We extend our deep gratitude to McREL’s senior director of product development, Adrienne Schure, who guided the development process and was our cheerleader. Other McREL staff to whom we are grateful include Brian Lancaster, Doug Lockwood, Sally Grubb, and Susan Adams. x Acknowledgments xi We especially thank Barbara Barr and Liz Grassi for their valuable feedback on this book. * * * This book has been funded in part with federal funds from the Southwest Comprehensive Center, which is part of the national network of 15 centers funded by Title XIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by continuing legislation. PREFACE A fter analyzing demographic data from the 2000 census, demographer Harold Hodgkinson (2003) found that almost 9 million U.S. children between the ages of 5 and 17 speak a language other than English at home, and a full 2.6 million of them do not speak English well. Hodgkinson estimated that in 2000, almost half a million children under the age of 5 were being raised in homes where no English was spoken at all. At least 125,000 of these children were likely to need special help in preschool and kindergarten in order to learn to speak and read English. If they do not get that help in their early years (and often they do not), it will be up to our elementary school teachers to teach academic content as well as proficiency in English. As many of you already know, this is not an easy task. English language learners (ELLs) may once have been viewed as “belonging” to English as a second language (ESL) staff, but now, due to changing laws and policies, they are in every classroom in the school, making the job of teaching that much more challenging. Most elementary classroom teachers have not been trained to help students master content standards and language standards, as ELLs must do. Although many of you have probably already turned to colleagues, books, the Internet, and other resources for help, you are still essentially on your own in learning how to help your ELLs succeed. xii Preface xiii We have written this book to specifically provide you with strategies and tactics designed to address the needs of ELLs. Using the research from Classroom Instruction That Works (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001)—itself a summary of findings from over 100 studies—we review nine categories of research-based instructional strategies that strongly affect student achievement. We examine these strategies in depth, and also look at the existing research on modifying these strategies for use with ELLs. When no relevant research exists on a given strategy, we rely on the generalizations from the research and the classroom recommendations from Classroom Instruction That Works. To that we add professional wisdom that comes from our experiences as ESL teachers and trainers. This book has two goals. The first is to provide you, the mainstream classroom teacher, with background knowledge on instructional strategies and practices that have been positively linked to student achievement. The second is to show you how these strategies can be modified to help ELLs acquire content and language skills. We sincerely hope this book will help make the job of reaching and teaching your steadily increasing population of ELLs less difficult and more rewarding. INTRODUCTION L anguage is the air that we breathe and the water in which we swim. It comes as naturally to us as seeing the sky or digesting our food. It is as vital a part of us as our name and personality. But what if we suddenly had to breathe different air or swim in different waters? What if we consciously had to think about selecting the words we were going to say, getting them in the right order, applying the correct grammatical rules, and using the correct pronunciation? If we had to think about not only what we say but also how to say it, the language overload would be exhausting. Think about a time when you traveled to a place where English was not the dominant language. Remember how you felt when you returned home and heard English for the first time since you had left? What did you feel? Relief? Safety? Comfort? Friendship? We are our language. In addition, language has always been the medium of instruction: As teachers, our automatic use of English helps us to create or produce something new for students. We can create stories, produce explanations, construct meaning when we read, and help students make meaningful connections—all by just opening our mouths. Although we may have to deliberately concentrate on classroom 1