Six Key Strategies for Secondary Teachers of English

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Six Key Strategies for Secondary Teachers of
English Language Learners Achieving Parallel
Goals in Academic Literacy Instruction
Rain S. Bongolan Development Coordinator ELL
Adolescent Literacy Instruction New Teacher
Center _at_ UC Santa Cruz
Alliance for Excellent Education Adolescent
Literacy Breakfast Forum December 6th, 2005
Washington, D.C.
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Essential Questions

• What and how should secondary teachers learn to
  advance the academic literacy of secondary
  English Learners and former English Learners?

• What are the parallels between effective
  instruction for English Learners and strategies
  that ensure ALL secondary students acquire
  academic literacy?

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The New Teacher Center _at_ UCSC
MISSION
MISSION
To improve student learning by supporting the
development of an inspired, dedicated, and
highly-qualified teaching force.
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New Teacher Center Induction Model
Quality Teaching and Site Leadership
Observing and Giving Feedback
Student Achievement
Analyzing Student Work
Building School-wide Collaborative Practices
Ongoing Assessment of Teacher Practice
Collaboratively Reviewing Comprehensive Student
Data
Planning Standards-based and Academic Literacy
Instruction
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Who will teach our secondary students to reach
the highest levels of academic literacy?

• Within the next five years, districts across the
  country will need to hire enough beginning
  teachers to replace up to 50 of all current
  secondary teachers!
• Beginning principals are often hired to lead
  schools that are struggling to close the
  achievement gap.
• Few states currently require secondary credential
  candidates to take courses in literacy
  instruction methods needed to advance English
  Learners or struggling readers.

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What our ELL students tell us

• When I'm in school, I don't speak English only
  if teachers ask me something.  I'm scare of them
  to laugh at me when I don't pronouns a word
  right.  With my friends I speak Spanish because
  I'm more cofidence to talk in Spanish as I said
  before I'm not confidence talking in English
  because I could not have a conbersation with
  somebody because sometimes I got stock with words
  that I don't know how to said them in English. 
  I'm not confidence speaking English. But I do my
  best to learning English." 
• 10th grade Limited English Proficient (LEP)
  Student
• Early Advanced level

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Am I teaching content or language?
Students, please paraphrase the following If
cultures and civilizations are the tectonic
plates of world history, frontiers are the places
where they scrape against each other and cause
convulsive change. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (Qu
ote on the cover of a 10th grade World History
text)
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What do secondary students need to know and do so
they can read and respond to academic language?

• Example Academic language skills for
  understanding this quote
• Social science and physical science concepts,
  high-utility academic words and phrases,
  subject-specific vocabulary
• Impact on the meaning of a phrase based on
  recognizing markers for hypothesis statements
  If (then)
• Recognizing and interpreting phrasal verbs
  scrape against, causechange
• Interpreting analogous relationships across
  subject matter
• Interpreting figurative language metaphors
• Thinking processes specific to interpreting and
  paraphrasing

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NTCs synthesis What secondary teachers need to
know and do to advance students academic
language development
GUIDED INTERACTION
METACOGNITION and AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT
VOCABULARY and LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Accelerating Academic Language Development New
Teacher Centers Six Key Strategies for Teachers
of English Language Learners
MODELING, GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS, and VISUALS
EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION
MEANING-BASED CONTEXT and UNIVERSAL THEMES
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1 Vocabulary and Language Development (V/LD)

• Explains essential vocabulary prior to engaging
  students in text or task Clarifies unfamiliar
  phrases, idioms, cultural references, multiple
  meanings
• Provides appropriate support based on knowledge
  of students stage of English language development

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2 Guided Interaction (GI)

• Structures a variety of motivational tasks to
  promote speaking, listening, reading and writing
  academic language
• Flexibly groups students and provides resources
  that clarifies and guides students interaction
  and response to text

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3 Meta-cognition andAuthentic Assessment (M/AA)

• Teaches a variety of thinking processes for
  reading including identifying reading purpose,
  pre-reading and monitoring comprehension
• Facilitates multiple opportunities for students
  to demonstrate and assess their understanding of
  key concepts

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4 Explicit Instruction (EI)

• Clarifies key ideas, builds students background
  knowledge, and provides additional resources that
  facilitate comprehension and task completion
• Explains the processes for specific thinking
  skills e.g. summarizing, interpreting, writing
  applications

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5 Meaning-based Contexts and Universal Themes
(MBC/UT)

• Makes new concepts or language forms
  understandable by introducing them with
  culturally-responsive resources or activities
• Elicits students prior knowledge and builds
  motivation by connecting new concepts to high
  interest themes and authentic purposes for
  learning

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6 Modeling, Visuals, andGraphic Organizers
(M/V/GO)

• Demonstrates how to apply academic language
  skills e.g. word analysis, identifying text
  purpose, pre-writing
• Provides visuals and resources that graphically
  highlight essential concepts and clarify student
  tasks

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Multiple entry points Supporting teachers,
mentors, and administrators to improve the
quality of academic language instruction
New Teacher ProjectELL Workshops
NTC professional development models featuring
several language development resources
includingSix Key Strategies for Teachers of
English Learners
NTC Online Course ELL Success
Mentoring for English Language Learner
Success!MELLS
Secondary Content and Academic Literacy
EducationSCALE
NTCs Year Two Mentor TrainingFormative
Assessment System
Site Leadership Development trainingImproving
Student Achievement for English Learners
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Moving language instruction theory to teacher
practice

• Teachers receive comprehensive support from
  subject-alike mentors trained in language
  development methods!
• Beyond strategiesTeacher and mentor engage in
  structured inquiry Students, content,
  instruction, context

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Mentoring with the Six Key StrategiesObserved
Impact on Instructional Quality

• Increased
• Modeling and direct instruction of reading and
  writing processes
• Reference to students socio-cultural and
  linguistic backgrounds in planning tasks and
  selecting appropriate materials
• Opportunities and modalities by which students
  are able to demonstrate and self-assess learning
• Use of the breadth of language development
  strategies

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Teaching with the Six Key StrategiesObserved
Impact on English Learners

• Developmental Reading
• Increased motivation to persist with reading
  tasks fostered by links to compelling themes and
  texts
• Increased amount of time reading and persisting
  in written responses to text

• Algebra I, II
• Increased participation and homework completion
  with new skills for understanding directions and
  other text features
• Increased number of word problems attempted

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Teaching with the Six Key StrategiesObserved
Impact on English Learners

• History/Social Sciences
• Increased engagement using new skills for word
  analysis and reading comprehension
• Increased motivation and time reading fostered by
  development of background knowledge, link to
  culturally-responsive themes and resources

• Sciences
• Increased persistence in reading tasks with
  instruction for reading procedures, graphics
• Increased background knowledge w/ access to
  visuals plus developing vocabulary logs of key
  concepts procedural terms

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Current Challenges

• New secondary teachers teaching classes with
  higher numbers of English Learners or struggling
  readers
• Secondary mentors lack recent training or
  experience with language development instruction
• Many secondary contexts resistant to providing
  language-supportive instruction beyond ESL
  programs
• Identifying the specific impact of Six Key
  Strategies among NTCs array of mentoring and
  site leadership resources

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Possibilities

• Research grants examining secondary teacher
  development and the impact of mentoring with a
  language development focus
• Piloting series for Small Learning Communities
  with D.O.E. regional labs Differentiated
  Instruction for Academic Literacy Development

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RecommendationAdvance adolescent literacy via a
language development approach in all classes

• All secondary students need similar instruction
  to learn content-specific, grade level academic
  English A second language for most native
  speakers!

• ELL students need language-based instruction to
  learn academic English in specific content areas
  In actuality, a third language for non-native
  speakers!

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Recommendation Ensure high quality mentoring

• Every beginning secondary teacher should be
  supported by a well-trained mentor versed in
• Academic language and English language
  development methods (Reading instruction
  Plus!)
• Best practices recommended for theircontent
  area
• Standards-linked learning using methods for
  differentiated instruction
• Comprehensive mentoring skills provided
  one-on-one to advance literacy instruction and
  teacher development overall

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New Teacher Center University of California Santa
Cruz