Optimal Learning Environment

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Optimal Learning Environment

• Amanda and Stacey

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What is OLE?

• It serves as a scaffold for educators helping
  them to optimize teaching and assessment
  practices for their students from diverse
  linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
• The goal of OLE is to create lessons and
  classrooms that promote optimal learning
  environments for ELL students

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Development of OLE

• Problem incompatible lesson formats
• Originally the study looked at Latino children
  who had been labeled LD
• They organized lessons after reviewing what
  worked in Bilingual classrooms and special
  education classrooms and created Holistic
  Constructivism

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Holistic-Constructivism
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Student Choice

• Teachers plan for students choice provide
  information for students to make well-informed
  decisions
• Students Choose freely from information and
  opportunities provided by the teacher
• Classroom There is a lot of published writing,
  interactive journals, portfolio pieces that
  reflect choice of topic, students have chosen who
  they want to work with and there is choice of
  books for D.E.A.R.

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Student Centered

• Teacher Listen to student ideas
• Students inform teachers about who they are
  they employ prior knowledge and inform the
  teacher about what they want to find out
• Classroom There is student centered work and
  students life experiences are honoured

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Whole-Part-Whole Approach

• Teachers Initiate and center learning with the
  whole text
• Students Write, read and create meaning with the
  whole story, poem or project in mind before
  engaging in understanding how the pieces make up
  the whole.
• Classroom Begin with whole text but may work on
  different aspects of language.

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Active Student Participation

• Teachers Organize opportunities for students to
  collaborate with each other to construct
  knowledge.
• Students Actively listen, speak, write and read
  during lessons.
• Classroom Think-Pair Share, Four Corners, Heads
  Together.

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Focus on Ideas Before Mechanics

• Teachers Know that learners construct meaning
  prior to learning language forms
• Students Believe what they say had meaning and
  their ideas will be listened to.
• Classroom Includes many written pieces

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Authentic Purpose

• Teachers Ask students to write as real authors
  with an intended audience and function and to
  read for information, enjoyment and reflection
• Students Use literacy skills for a purpose
• Classroom lists, brainstorm webs, students
  books, context for purposeful reading, writing
  and speaking across the curriculum

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Immersion in Language and Print

• Teachers provide a wide variety of functional
  print, meaningful oral language
• Students read print from walls and a wide
  variety of books, talk and listen to others,
  construct knowledge from language rich and print
  saturated environments
• Classroom filled with a wide range of print

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Teacher and Peer Demonstrations

• Teachers demonstrate reading, writing and
  speaking
• Students demonstrate their competency across the
  curriculum
• Classroom provide space for students to
  demonstrate their learning

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Approximation

• Teachers accept successive approximations
• Students take risks and become authors, readers
  and experts and understand that their first
  attempt doesnt have to be perfect
• Classroom displays monthly writing samples,
  social organization that allows for approximate
  language and literacy by interacting with peers
  who are more linguistically competent

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Immediate Response

• Teachers respond to student work right away
• Students respond to peers
• Classroom allow for small groups and one on one
  interaction

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Classroom as Learning Communities

• Teachers act as members of the classroom
  community, creates context in which students can
  share
• Students participate as members of a community
• Classroom should reflect the community of
  learners

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High Expectations

• Teachers have high expectations for students to
  become literate
• Students expect that their learning environments
  provide them with what they need to make sense of
  the world, expect others to actively participate
  in the community
• Classroom demonstrates student learning

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• Researchers believe that at risk students,
  particularly those with limited English
  proficiency, are forgiven for mistakes based on
  language barriers or their progress is not
  properly assessed
• It is imperative to provide at risk learners with
  cognitively challenging instruction requiring
  them to think and analyze not only rote,
  repetitive detail level drills
• It requires careful levelling of tasks so that
  students are working within their zones of
  proximal development

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Instructional Strategies for OLEs

• Interactive Journals
• ABC wall chart or class book
• Shared Reading with predictable texts
• Pattern Writing with predictable texts
• D.E.A.R with reading log
• Literature study using graphic organizers
• Creating text for wordless books
• Writers Workshop

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Predictable Texts

• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
• Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
• Activity
• ________, ________ what do you see? I see a
  _________ looking at me.
• Each student fills in the sentence with new
  animals, the teacher can then have the students
  illustrate the sentence and create a class book.

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Authentic Assessment

• Idea that educators should assess students
  development while authentically engaged in
  focused activities

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• Any Questions?????

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References

• Ruiz, Nadeen T. (1989). An Optimal Learning
  Environment for Rosemary. Exceptional Children
  57, no. 2, 130-144.
• Ruiz, Nadeen T., Garcia, Erminda, Figueroa,
  Richard A. (1996). The OLE Curriculum Guide. CA
  California Department of Education Specialized
  Programs Branch.