Planning for English Language Learners

Right now in my 10th grade math class I am teaching a unit on Probability and Statistics.  This unit has always presented problems for English language learners and therefore I would like to focus this discussion on that group.

After reviewing the TEACH-NOW literature there seems to be agreement that there are five or six.  Haynes (2005) discusses the five stages as being Pre-production, Early Production, Speech Emergent, Intermediate Fluency, and Advanced Fluency.  Robertson & Ford (2008), however add Beginning Fluency in between Haynes's Speech Emergent and Intermediate Fluency.  In looking over both Haynes as well as Robertson and Ford it appears that the biggest addition seems to be the idea that new contexts and academic language are challenging at the beginning fluency stage and that individual will have trouble expressing themselves.  Although, these characteristics are certainly evident within Haynes's five stages as well.  With that in mind, I would like to consider students that I teach with reference to the six stages offered by Robertson & Ford.

In reflecting in my math class the following four learners (names altered to protect privacy) come to mind:

1. Jay - a beginning fluency English language learner who has minor troubles expressing himself in social situations, but does have difficulty picking up new content specific language and understanding what he is being asked to do in certain questions.  He finds content specific directions to be a challenge and seeks clarification often.
2. Bill - a speech emergent English language learner who over the course of the unit has shown an increase in content specific vocabulary and decrease in errors as familiarity grows.  In challenging problems that are in an unfamiliar context, a requirement of MYP math, Bob continues to have difficulties and relies on context clues from others to tackle the problem.  
3. Yolanda - an intermediate fluency English language learner does especially well communicating in social settings.  Her academic language proficiency is very good and she has been doing well to express her opinion and offer solutions to complex problems.  There are, however, still some gaps in content specific vocabulary, though these are becoming less frequent.
4. Stella - an advanced fluency English language learner, she for all intents and purposes can do all things in math class like a native speaker.  One can only tell that she is not a native speaker by her very slight accent and misuse of common English expressions, which might actually be culturally based than language based.

When we think about English language learners we often think about those students that sit in the corner and are very quiet, trying to get through the class without being called upon by the teacher.  This is not the case for the four students I describe above.  In the case of Stella, she is just about there and all there is that separates her from native like English language use is her accent.  While most strategies call for continued support in content areas and writing (Haynes, 2005) this will not nip the problem.  In order to help Stella, the teacher needs to model correct speech in a natural voice so that Stella can hear it spoken in a neutral accent.  Allow for students like Stella to practice her pronunciation while preaching tolerance and the fact that just everyone has an accent (Rustbelt, 2011).  For Yolanda, Jay as well as Bill the use of graphic organizers, vocabulary and language development strategies and meaning-based context & universal themes would be helpful (Bongolan & Moir, 2005).  

What is interesting to think about is on the surface, two of the four students I refer to here would likely go unnoticed by many others.  In fact, all but one, Bill, is not considered an ESL student by the school and even Bill is scheduled to be taken off of ESL support at the end of this school year.

References:

Bongolan, RS. & Moir, E. (2005). Six Key Strategies for Teachers of English Language Learners.  retrieved from http://suu.edu/ed/fso/resources/esl-six-key-strategies.pdf

Haynes, J.  (2005).  Stages of Second Language Acquisition.  Retrieved from http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php

Robertson, K. & Ford, K. (2008). Language Acquisition: An Overview.  Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/26751/

Rusbult, C. (2011).  Improving Pronunciation with a Problem-Solving Strategy.  Retrieved from http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/think/esl-learning.htm

All the Things I Didn't Know About SEN

Recently for one of my TEACH-NOW assignments I was asked to interview our Special Educational Needs Coordinator as well as a couple of teachers who had experience working with students that had special needs.  Like many students going into an assignment my initial thought was to get it all done an over with.  However, what I found at the end of the interview was that I had learned so much and that there was so much more I had to learn to be an effective teacher.  My school only has the one SEN Coordinator, so the choice was obvious there, but there were many teachers to choose from and what I decided to do was, on the advice of the SEN Coordinator, interview two teachers that were on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of attitude and experience towards having to work with special needs students.

You can click here for the interview notes.

While I have had limited experience in working with students with special needs while I was at the school and the school's admissions policy indicated that only students with mild to moderate needs would be accepted, there was a lot to learn.  I knew all about the referral process - a Google Form that teachers submitted when they suspected a student with a need.  What I did not know was that if a teacher did not attempt to implement alternative educational experiences and document the result that the referral would be sent back and the teacher instructed to try some alternative educational experiences and report back at a later date.  At first when I heard this I was concerned that it was a waste of valuable time where the potential special needs student could, but having hear the rationale from the SEN Coordinator (often times teachers don't want to deal with SEN and want to put it on someone else's plate, and it is generally good data for the referral consideration process in general) I felt a lot better.  However, while one teacher (the one who was deemed to be "on top of things" by the SEN Coordinator as well as the SEN Coordinator could site ways to support students with learning needs, the other teacher was not very convincing.  

This, to me, pointed to a disconnect in the school about the services available and the knowledge and understanding of some teachers of the different learning styles of students and how to accommodate for them.

When considering the list of accommodations provided to me by the SEN Coordinator I could not help but wonder how overwhelming it must be for the teachers who all have 3 or 4 preps and 5 classes to teach.  It was at this point that I asked about the levels of stress and work that they have and how it plays a factor in how they deal with SEN students.  Of course, the answer was not surprising.  No teacher wants to let a student fail or struggle, but no teacher has the time to do everything for each student and still meet the general needs of the school.  While the first teacher I interviewed seemed very much on top of things (as the SEN Coordinator suggested), the second seemed to be overwhelmed.  And why not?  After further questioning, it was easy to see why: a father of two kids under the age of 5, he was teaching 6 classes (normal load is 5), he is the head of his department, coaching a sport, and the assistant athletic director for the school.  So, while one might praise the first teacher for taking the initiative to go get the information, the scorn given to the second might be without warrant.

When I look back at what I learning about the process here at my school it seems very systematic, which is great.  Students are referred, and, if the teacher has done all the necessary steps, the Student Resource Team (SRT) meets and goes over the referral and student files to make a determination of next steps.  Parents are notified of the referral and the process to follow (usually some sort of testing) and modifications and/or accommodations are implemented (with parent support).  This all seems very well and good, but to my point above, it seems that in the busy lives of teachers the extra step of carrying out some alternative methods is not look upon highly.  Once in place, however, the student's accommodations are done in the least restrictive way.  

Thinking about the learning from Finland's Formula for Education Success and The New York School of One it seems that we might be off the mark.  It seems from those two examples that the further of education, special or normal, is individualized for all learners regardless of ability and needs.  This, of course, would take a major shift in a school's thinking and approach to teaching, learning, and hiring.

Overall, though this was a very valuable learning experience and just goes to show that the teacher is always learning and should never stop thinking about how and why we do things.  I was able to learn a great deal about how the referral process works at my place of work as well as a lot about the perceptions of others of the process.