Teaching English learners with diverse abilities. PDF

Preview

Summary

ESL-433N...

Description

Teaching English learners with diverse abilities. Chapter 8 Ongoing professional development is widely recognized as an important part of professional growth and as a way to improve teaching. While professional development takes on many forms, for it to be effective and take root in practice, teachers need to think about their experience, consider students’ reaction to their teaching, and make adjustments. Reflective practitioners ask themselves what worked, what didn’t work, and what should be changed in the next lesson. Formative and summative assessments provide valuable information for reflection. Teacher reflection informs planning, which in turn “sculpts their practices and results in increased student achievement”. Although thinking about one’s teaching, reflecting on it, and making adjustments are part of effective instruction, having an understanding of what works with English learners is an important first step in the process. Many teachers find themselves unprepared to work effectively with English learners because they did not receive adequate training in their teacher education program. They are not sure what are the most effective techniques and practices to use with students who are learning in and through a new language. High- quality professional development: ● requires and fosters a norm of continuous improvement. ● entails long- term sustained involvement rather than brief, one- shot sessions. ● aligns with school and district content and performance standards ● requires adequate time during the work day for staff members to learn and work collaboratively. These conditions for changing and improving practice are part of a school’s commitment to sustained professional development. The content of professional development—that is, what teachers will learn, grapple with, discuss, implement, and reflect on—is based on the needs of the staff and students. One source for professional development topics is the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) standards for ESL teachers. These standards address many topics that are also pertinent for any teacher of English learners. The domains include the following: Language (Language as a system; Language acquisition and development), Culture (as it affects students’ learning), Planning, Implementing, and Managing Instruction (Standardsbased ESL and content instruction), Assessment (Issues of assessment for English learners; language proficiency assessment; classroom- based assessment for ESL), and Professionalism (ESL research and history; professional development, partnerships, and advocacy). As the number of English learners continues to increase, more districts offer in service programs to help teachers work effectively with these students. Often, general education and special education teachers lack either sufficient preparation in second- language teaching methodology or experience in supporting second- language development, while those teachers who are English as a second language (ESL) certified may not have the content background to meet the increasing demands of standards- based content area curricula. Typically, in service sessions are conducted by district staff with expertise on a topic or by outside consultants who are experts in an area or who may bring a fresh perspective to a topic.

The word research is sometimes intimidating to teachers and connotes a process involving statistics and formal writing. However, research is simply investigation, exploration, inquiry. In the context of teaching it is the ability to reflect on one’s own actions (e.g., lesson planning, interacting with students, explaining a concept) with intention. It is a mindset for teaching that involves being observant, thoughtful, and willing to think about one’s own actions with the students’ best interest and best teaching practices in mind. Action research also may be supported by other forms of professional development. For example, the issue or target of the investigation (Stage 1) might originate from in service sessions. The plan would include structured opportunities for students to work in small groups or pairs and discuss the lesson’s topic, and then monitor and assess their language production. The content of the in service provided the impetus for the action research. Further, the results of the action research may be shared in a PLC meeting. Action research can also be conducted collaboratively within a PLC. Professional learning communities are developed by the teachers themselves in an effort to improve their own instruction as well as to respond to learners and their families, particularly those students who are not thriving in school. An important feature of any successful learning community is the belief that problems can be solved and that all students can learn To prepare students to be college and career ready and to provide instruction that is responsive to the needs of English learners and struggling learners, teachers in professional learning communities: ● continue to learn more about the subject matter, deeply and flexibly thinking about the content to be taught. ● continue to gain knowledge about learning (teaching strategies, decision- making strategies about the content to cover and the best way to do so, assessment strategies, language acquisition theory). ● use skills in differentiating instruction, curriculum resources, and technologies. ● collaborate with parents, grade- level peers, special education teachers, and other teachers who have direct knowledge about the students. ● analyze and reflect on teaching practices. ● assess the effects of teaching practices through formative and summative assessments. ● continue to refine and improve teaching practices. Four features tend to enhance this process: meeting time with skilled consultants and tapping into existing knowledge and skills on the team, meetings organized around perceived needs or areas of concern, evaluations of lesson delivery and student achievement, and videotaping of lessons to allow for analysis and review. Mastery of the elements of sheltered instruction presented in this book requires systematic implementation and practice. Although many features of sheltered instruction are not necessarily new, they seem more complex when teachers are striving to achieve consistently effective lessons with a heterogeneous group of students. The collaborative group can share readings on sheltered instruction, garnering ideas to put into practice. The English learners in the classes ranged in English proficiency levels from beginning to advanced and represented a number of native- language groups. The teachers and researchers met monthly to discuss successes and challenges of implementing the SIOP, and each summer, a three- day summer institute was held. Also, teachers were videotaped three times per year, and the videotaped lessons were often used for reflection, analysis,

and discussion at meetings. The project helped teachers expand their knowledge base and refine their practice. A forum in which teachers can share areas of need and elicit ideas from one another has proven beneficial in sustaining ongoing movement toward change Videotaping teachers’ lessons and providing opportunities for them to review, reflect on and analyze their efforts is indispensable. It is one thing for teachers to plan to improve a particular aspect of their teaching, but it is quite another to see exactly how the lesson unfolds. Videotape allows teachers to monitor behaviors such as using gestures (frequency and timing), talking too fast, using idioms, and enunciation. Videotape can also yield valuable information regarding student behavior. It becomes clear when students are bored with an activity or when there is too much teacher talk— they disengage, talk among themselves, put their heads down, and so forth— as well as when they are particularly stimulated by an activity or discussion. Teachers can rate themselves on a scale of 1 to 5 on each item in the framework (5 = outstanding, 4 = very good, 3 = marginal, 2 = needs improvement, 1 = not being addressed). Teachers can use these ratings to set personal goals, focusing on areas that need improvement. This process provides teachers with an opportunity for reflective teaching. Teachers are able to continually extend their knowledge, work at perfecting their techniques, and analyze the merits of both older and newer pedagogical approaches.

Step 1 on the framework illustrates areas needing both assessment and instructional planning: native- language knowledge, English- language knowledge, school experience and academic background, and learning and behavior patterns. Step 2 on the framework is concluded in this chapter that teachers make instructional choices that reflect particular theoretical perspectives. In Step 2, we have listed some factors that are sometimes referred to as effective instruction. Theorists agree that students learn more if a teacher reviews previous work and relevant content before beginning a lesson. This includes assisting students in focusing on relevant background knowledge. After this, the teacher makes a goal statement in language understandable to the learners. As the teacher begins the lesson, new content and skills are at an appropriate grade level for learners and the teacher is careful to use many different approaches, including modeling, presenting concrete objects when possible, setting up group work, and encouraging opportunities for active learning. Practice takes place with the teacher present, and much independent practice in groups, with partners, or by individuals is important for maximum learning. Step 3 on the framework recommends sheltered instruction, which uses specific strategies and techniques for making the content understandable for English learners while developing their English language proficiency.

Step 4 encourages teachers to be conscious of the language demands of lessons. Teachers must explicitly teach the English skills needed to be successful in the lesson through language objectives and with opportunities to use and practice English, the target language. Interactive discussions between teacher and students and among students provides muchneeded practice with both content concepts and language. One model of interaction is instructional conversations (ICs). The crux of the instructional conversations approach is the teacher’s ability to elicit complex language from students, including the framing of postulates, arguments, elaborations, and dialogue. Step 5 encourages teachers to focus on culturally and affectively responsive teaching. Teachers can organize and manage their classrooms in such a way as to enhance the selfconcept and self- esteem of each learner. The infrastructure of all units of instruction must have a foundation in which these affective issues are consistently part of the way in which lessons are configured. This is a focus on affective issues. Other ways to facilitate high self- esteem and selfconcept as they relate to school are to focus on relevant background knowledge, actively involve learners, use alternative grouping, focus on content and activities that are meaningful to students, provide native- language support, create roles in the classroom for family and community members, hold high expectations for all learners, and be responsive to cultural and personal diversity. Step 6 calls on teachers to use learning- strategy instruction when students do not appear to generate necessary learning strategies on their own. This instruction should always be a supplementary segment during a class or period. Such instruction might continue across many days until students understand and can apply the strategy, but the instruction should not continue longer than 15 or 20 minutes on any one day. The teachers present the strategy in a concise format so that students are sure to learn it. Teachers are careful to embed the strategy into a meaningful lesson. Teachers move from a segment on teaching a learning strategy into an instructional segment in which students participate actively in problem solving, conversations, or learning- centered work. Step 7 calls for the teacher to use instruction that benefits all students with an emphasis on differentiated instruction using accommodations, adaptations, and modifications. When adapting instruction for English learners and struggling learners, the use of curriculum that is sensitive to cultural and linguistic diversity is critical. Language development as well as content vocabulary development should be part of most lessons including instruction in academic language. Texts and assignments can be modified. Resource guides can provide adaptations that have already been prepared to save teachers effort. Teachers are advised to delegate tasks because adaptations can be very time consuming. Step 8 encourages teachers to be reflective practitioners. Teachers rate each of the factors in the previous steps and decide which areas are strongest and which need improvement. Teachers select a lesson, think about which types of learners are in the class, and then rate each of the factors. Priority should be given to setting goals in the areas that received scores of 1, 2, or 3. This type of self- evaluation and reflection is much more powerful and effective when teachers share in the process and work together to bring about change. In addition, students benefit when teachers at a school engage in similar approaches and provide a common “culture” for learning.

In implementing the practices about which we have written, we encourage readers to engage in action research and become more reflective in practice, both individually and in collaboration with other school personnel. To underscore the importance of these efforts, research suggests that well- prepared teachers have a greater impact on student achievement than do the influences of student background factors such as poverty, language, and minority status....