Teachers who work with English as a Second Language learners will find ESL/ESOL/ELL/EFL reading/writing skill-building children's books, stories, activities, ideas, strategies to help PreK-3, 4-8, and 9-12 students learn to read.
Content Areas: Math
Accommodations for English Language Learner Students: The Effect of Linguistic Modification of Math Test Item Sets
Author: Edynn Sato, Stanley Rabinowitz, Carole Gallagher, Chun–Wei Huang; National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences; U.S. Department of Education
Summary: When students take a state achievement test in mathematics, test directions and test items typically are presented in English. Students with low English proficiency might not understand the test directions or the math problems. As a result, their test scores may be a measure of their limited English skills or other factors rather than an accurate measure of only their math knowledge and skills. Therefore, English language learners (ELs) may be constrained in showing what they know and can do because the test therefore measures factors other than students' content–related knowledge and skills. Research has shown that math test items can be linguistically modified to reduce language load without altering the construct being assessed. This study was designed to examine whether one type of accommodation, linguistic modification, when applied to math test items, improves the accessibility of assessed math content and increases the validity of items measuring math understanding, particularly for EL students with limited English proficiency and non–EL/non–English–proficient students.
Tags: Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Language of Instruction;
Target Population: All
Research Questions the Report Poses: Will linguistic modification of tests affect the performance on math varied of the three subgroups of students (EL, NEP, and EP students). If so, will the linguistic modification improve student math performance for the EL and NEP students relative to the EP students?
Findings:
- Linguistic modifications did produce an improvement on math tests among ELs (English learners) and NEPs (non–English learners non–English proficient students), while EP (English-proficient) scores remained the same (as expected).
To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Upon request, this report is available in alternate formats, such as Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette. For more information, please contact the Department's Alternate Format Center at 202-260-9895 or 202-205-8113.
Sato, E., Rabinowitz, S., Gallagher, C. Huang, C.W. (2010). Accommodations for English language learner students: the effect of linguistic modification of math test item sets. (NCEE 2009–4079). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth
Author: National Literacy Panel, Diane August, Timothy Shanahan
Summary: The National Literacy Panel on Language Minority Children and Youth systematically and rigorously examined the research on acquiring literacy in a second language. This is the executive summary of the full report, which is available for purchase through the Center for Applied Linguistics.
Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Content Areas: Science; Content Areas: Social Studies; Content Areas: The Arts; Curriculum; Differentiated Instruction; Fluency; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency; Phonics; Phonological Awareness; Placement; Vocabulary; Writing;
Target Population: Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High School
Research Questions the Report Poses: How do ELL students acquire literacy in a second language?
Findings:
- Instructional approaches that focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension-have clear benefits for ELLs. Like their native English speaking peers, ELLs benefit from these strategies as well as writing instruction.
- For students to become literate in English several instructional qualities need to be met including: content coverage, intensity and thorough instruction,
- ELL specific instruction, monitoring learning, and teacher preparation.
- Oral proficiency and literacy in the first language can be used to facilitate literacy development in English.
- Researchers have documented few sociocultural impacts on literacy achievement or development. However, researchers have found that home language experiences can have a positive impact on literacy achievement.
August, D. and Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Center for Applied Linguistics, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ.
How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners?
Author: Pew Hispanic Center / Rick Fry
Summary: Through the use of NAEP data, this Pew Hispanic Center study examines the achievement gaps between ELL students and White, Black, and Hispanic non-ELL students. The study looks specifically at math and reading scores at the 4th and 8th grade levels both nationally and on a statewide basis in the 10 states with the nation's highest ELL populations.
Tags: Content Areas: Math; Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Rights, Students;
Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School
Research Questions the Report Poses: How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners?
Findings:
- The ELL achievement gap widens at higher grades.
- Nationally, ELL students tend to trail further behind their peers in reading than in math.
Policy Recommendations:
None given
To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
n/a
Fry, R. (2007). How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners? Pew Hispanic Center: Washington, D.C.
Language Test
Author: National School Boards Association, Naomi Dillon
Summary: The article from the American School Board Journal examines the challenges that districts with high ELL populations face in meeting state and federal accountability requirements. The report focuses on the Coachella school district in California as a lens to examine ELL assessment, accommodations, and accountability formulas.
Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Content Areas: Science; Content Areas: Social Studies; Content Areas: The Arts; Curriculum; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency;
Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School
Research Questions the Report Poses: The report uses the example of Coachella school district's legal battle to examine whether state assessments are appropriate accountability measures for English language learners.
Findings:
N/A
Policy Recommendations:
N/A
Dillon, N. (2005). Language Test. American School Board Journal, 192(8). National School Boards Association.
Meeting the Literacy Development Needs of Adolescent English Language Learners Through Content Area Learning: Focus on Classroom Teaching and Learning Strategies (Part II)
Author: Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory (LAB), The Education Alliance at Brown University, Julie Meltzer and Edmund Hamann
Summary: As with part one of this publication, part two amounts to a literature review. Part two looks for congruous instructional practices that are good for secondary ELL and native English speakers alike. The article shifts through a series of discussions about a variety of domains related to teaching and arrives at a conclusion in support of strategies beneficial to ELL students and native English language students.
Tags: Content Areas: Math; Content Areas: Science; Content Areas: Social Studies; Differentiated Instruction; Intervention; Motivation; Placement; Reading; Struggling Readers; Transfer of Literacy Skills; Vocabulary; Writing;
Target Population: Middle, High School
Research Questions the Report Poses: What instructional practices dovetail in both the ELL adolescent literacy literature and non-ELL adolescent literacy literature?
Findings:
Eight instructional approaches are supported in both literatures (what's good for ELL adolescents and adolescent native English speakers):
- teacher modeling, strategy instruction, and using multiple forms of assessment;
- emphasis on reading and writing;
- emphasis on speaking and listening/viewing;
- emphasis on thinking;
- creating a learner-centered classroom;
- recognizing and analyzing content-area discourse features;
- understanding text structures within the content areas; and
- vocabulary development.
Policy Recommendations:
Any intervention aimed at ELLs should also benefit under–served learners generally.
To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The Education Alliance at Brown
222 Richmond Street, Suite 300
Providence, RI 02903-4226
Phone: 800.521.9550
Fax: 401.421.7650
E-mail: info@alliance.brown.edu
Meltzer, J. & Hamann, E. (2004). Meeting the literacy development needs of adolescent English language learners. Part two: Focus on classroom teaching and learning strategies. Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory .
Meeting the Literacy Development Needs of Adolescent English Language Learners Through Content Area Learning: Part One: Focus on Motivation and Engagement
Author: Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory (LAB), The Education Alliance at Brown University, Julie Meltzer and Edmund Hamann
Summary: This article reviews the major research findings as they relate to engagement and motivation of ELL adolescents. The highlighted research is meant to explore the confluence of two areas of study — literacy development and schooling practices for ELLs and native English speakers — and serve as a guide for professional development for secondary teachers. The literature review explores school and classroom contexts; instructional principles like relevance, choice, and student-centered classrooms; and instructional practices like scaffolding and activating prior knowledge as they relate to adolescent ELLs.
Tags: Content Areas: Math; Content Areas: Science; Content Areas: Social Studies; Motivation; Placement; Reading; Struggling Readers; Transfer of Literacy Skills; Vocabulary; Writing;
Target Population: Middle, High School
Research Questions the Report Poses: Review of the literature concerning student motivation and engagement on literacy development of adolescents and research on the schooling of adolescent ELLs.
Findings:
- literacy development and effective instruction for ELL and non-ELL adolescents alike share many commonalities;
- isolated ELL students are further negatively impacted as a result of these findings; and
- content-area teachers may benefit from research and practices designed for ELL teachers
Policy Recommendations:
- Teachers should use current secondary school ELL literature to create a blueprint of classroom contexts in which ELLs will be motivated and engaged to read and write across the content areas, and where reading and writing will contribute to their broader academic achievement.
- Schools should train all secondary–school teachers to promote content–area literacy for ELLs.
- To promote ELLs' or other students' continued development and application of literacy skills for academic learning, educators should plan opportunities that
- provide the environmental resources to support the work (i.e., various text materials);
- are grounded by high expectations that students can achieve or surpass the state standards and
- engage students-that they involve choice, are authentic, promote self–efficacy, and support autonomy.
To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The Education Alliance at Brown
222 Richmond Street, Suite 300
Providence, RI 02903-4226
Phone: 800.521.9550
Fax: 401.421.7650
E-mail: info@alliance.brown.edu
Meltzer, J. & Hamann, E. (2004). Meeting the literacy development needs of adolescent English language learners. Part one: Focus on motivation and engagement. Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory.
Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners: Research-based Recommendations for the Instruction and Academic Interventions
Author: David J. Francis and Mabel Rivera/Center on Instruction English Language Learners Strand, Nonie Lesaux and Michael Kieffer/Havard Graduate School of Education, Hector Rivera/Center on Instruction English Language Learners Strand
Summary: After briefly highlighting the characteristics of and how to best identify ELL students, this article shows the importance of effective instruction and intervention not only for academically struggling ELL students, but also for all ELL students including those individuals who are linguistically fluent in English. Before looking into the proposed recommendations the article also briefly looks into the importance of mastering academic language skills as key elements to academic success. The importance of academic language skills is revisited under the recommendations sections for both reading comprehension and mathematics.
Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Fluency; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Phonics; Phonological Awareness; Reading; Struggling Readers; Vocabulary; Writing;
Target Population: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
Research Questions the Report Poses: What students are classified as being English Language Learners? How are they best identified, and what recommendations should be made to more adequately instruct possible ELL students to prevent further learning difficulties?
Findings:
- Statistics for ELLs may be hard to obtain or may be inaccurate since many ELL students go without being properly identified
- ELL students can better from more individualized instruction
- Mastery of academic language is necessary for academic success, which can prove to be difficult even for English speaking proficient ELLs
- In order to provide effective support of reading comprehension to ELLs educators must have an understanding of the child's individual needs
- In addition to reading comprehension it is crucial for students to become proficient in mathematics
Policy Recommendations:
While the article did not have any specific policy recommendations the recommendations listed in the article could be taken as such and thus included in this section.
Recommendations for Reading Instruction and interventions:
- ELLs need early, explicit, and intensive instruction in phonological awareness and phonics in order to build decoding skills.
- K-12 classrooms across the nation must increase opportunities for ELLs to develop sophisticated vocabulary knowledge.
- Reading instruction in K-12 classrooms must equip ELLs with strategies and knowledge to comprehend and analyze challenging narrative and expository texts.
- Instruction and intervention to promote ELLs' reading fluency must focus on vocabulary and increased exposure to print.
- In all K-12 classrooms across the U.S., ELLs need significant opportunities to engage in structured, academic talk.
- Independent reading is only beneficial when it is structured and purposeful, and there is a good reader-text match.
- ELLs need early explicit and intensive instruction and intervention in basic mathematics concepts and skill.
- Academic language is as central to mathematics as it is to other academic areas. It is a significant source of difficulty for many ELLs who struggle with mathematics.
- ELLs need academic language support to understand and solve the word problems that are often used for mathematics assessment and instruction.
To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
N/A
Francis, David J., Mabel Rivera, Nonie Lesaux, and Hector Rivera. (2006). Research-Based Recommendations for Instruction and Academic Interventions. Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners, Retrieved April 11,2008, from http://www.centeroninstruction.org/files/ELL1-Interventions.pdf
The Role of Schools in the English Language Learner Achievement Gap
Author: Richard Fry. Pew Hispanic Center.
Summary: English language learners tend to be concentrated together in schools with low student achievement and low standardized test scores, comprising a large proportion of the student body. "The Role of Schools in the English Language Learner Achievement Gap," a new report by Rick Fry of the Pew Hispanic Center, describes the characteristics of these schools and discusses their ultimate impact on English language learners' academic achievement.
Tags: Content Areas: Math; Intervention; Language Proficiency;
Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School
Research Questions the Report Poses: What is the extent of ELL concentration in low-achieving public schools, and to what degree does this isolation contribute to the large achievement gap in math between ELLs and other student groups?
Findings:
- The achievement gap between ELLs and English-speakers is significantly larger in schools where the concentration (%) of ELLs is high, as opposed to narrower gaps in schools with a lower proportion of ELLs.
- Therefore lag in test score achievement of ELLs is attributable in part to the characteristics of the public schools they attend.
- White and black students who attend the public schools in which ELL students are concentrated are doing worse than their peers who attend public schools with few English language learner students. (for example, in California, 75% of white 3rd graders and 46% of black 3rd graders performed at or above state math proficiency, in schools below the "minimum threshold level" of ELLs, whereas only 67% white and 34% black achieved the same in schools with more ELLs (above that minimum threshold level).
- Nationally, the ELL student population is expected to grow rapidly, from 12.3 million in 2005 to a projected 17.9 million in 2020; a significant portion of these children of immigrants will likely require ELL services.
- In the 5 states with large ELL student populations, the proportion of ELL students scoring at or above math proficiency is often below that of black students. (e.g. 22% of 8th grade ELLs in Texas versus 44% of black 8th graders.)
- In both elementary and middle school grades in these states ELL students are much less likely than white students to score at or above math proficiency, with gaps in the double-digits.
- Common composition of the public schools with ELL concentrations: in central cities, higher enrollment than other public schools in the same state, higher student-to-teacher ratios, greater proportion of students qualifying for free or reduced-price school lunches, more likely designated a Title I school (large proportion of economically disadvantaged, receive federal funding).
Richard Fry. The Role of Schools in the English Language Learner Achievement Gap. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, June 2008. Retrieved from: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/89.pdf
The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding
Author: C. Galindo, B. Fuller, American Psychological Association
Summary: This report illustrates a study conducted by the authors in order to determine if a relationship exists between the social competence of Latino kindergarteners and growth in mathematical understanding. There have already been studies showing that social competence is a guide for cognitive learning within the classroom but there have been few studies on Latino competency.
Tags: Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Intervention; Latino ELL Students;
Target Population: Elementary
Research Questions the Report Poses:
- How do the two contrasting frameworks pertain to Latino children's social competencies?
- What is the role played by social class in shaping risks (which may vary by Latino subgroup) conditioned by cultural heritage and persistence of family strengths for Latinos?
- What is the relationship between social competence and growth in mathematical understanding?
Findings:
The authors write:
- "Latino children from low-income, but not middle-class, families display weaker social competencies vis-á-vis White children (all relationships p _ .05). Social competence levels contribute to Latino children's cognitive growth, which is shaped most strongly by positive approaches to learning.
- The disparities in competencies observed for Latino children from poor families, relative to White children, are significant yet much smaller than gaps in baseline levels of mathematical understanding. We discuss how the consonance or mismatch between competencies acquired at home and those valued by teachers must consider cultural differences, social-class position, and variation among diverse Latino subgroups.
Policy Recommendations:
The authors recommend that policy analysts and educators take "greater care in distinguishing between the social and cognitive domains of development," as well as in efforts to understand young Latinos' diversity and social competencies upon entering school.
Galindo, C., Fuller B. (2010). The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding. American Psychological Association. Retrieved January 14, 2011 from: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/dev-46-3-579.pdf
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