proficiency. While students with limited English proficiency may be provided with help from an English as a second language (ESL) teacher, in most cases mainstream teachers teach both native English speakers and students whose home language is not English in the same class. Throughout this book, we provide teachers with practical and easy strategies they can use to provide equitable access for all students to the language arts curriculum.
Basals and supplemental language arts programs usually list a few additional ideas for teachers to use to support English learners (ELs) in their classes. However, the strategies we describe are not intended as add-ons for ELs. Instead, taken together, they constitute an approach that works effectively for all students. When teachers use this approach as they teach the units in their language arts program, all their students have equitable access to the academic content.
Required readings that are connected to Standards based units of study must be accessible to students who are not fully proficient in English. And ELs must be able to read, write about, and discuss these readings. For that reason, for each unit we identify specific, Standards based skills that students develop as they engage in the activity. We also list genres students develop during some activities that require them to write specific genres, such as letter writing or poetry.
In the first chapter, we engage readers in thinking about, analyzing, and discussing their language arts reading programs. We also discuss the importance of teaching emergent bilinguals through units of inquiry. The units of inquiry include activities that enable teachers to learn about their students, to create a multilingual, multicultural environment, to assess their students’ language proficiency, to use a gradual release model for reading and writing, to draw on students’ backgrounds and cultures, and to draw on students’ home languages by using translanguaging strategies.
Many of the activities to help readers reflect on their language arts programs that we describe in this chapter can also be applied while teaching a unit of study during language arts. So, for example, a variation on the following teacher reflection activities can be applied to analysis of characters in a story in the language arts program.
Positive/Negative Graph
On the graph that follows (Figure 0.1), place a letter (A–G) to evaluate how appropriate each of the components of your language arts materials is for your English learners. For example, if you feel that the Teacher’s Edition includes good suggestions for making the lessons accessible for English learners, you might place the letter A by +4 or +5 on the graph. Or if you believe the reading selections are too difficult for your English learners, place the letter B by –4 or –5.
1. Components
1 Teacher’s Edition
2 Reading selections
3 Phonics instruction
4 Comprehension activities
5 Workbooks
6 Assessments
7 Writing activities
Figure 0.1 Positive/Negative Graph
Standards based skills: create, infer/predict, evaluate, recall, explain, compare and contrast
2. Turn and talk
Turn and talk with a partner about your graphs. Where did you place each of your letters on the graph? Why? Do you ever worry about whether all your students understand the stories and activities in your language arts program? Do you think the students understand what they are reading? Do they have experiences that help them read, write about, and discuss the reading selections? Do the activities supplied in the program materials help English learners access the content?
Standards based skills: create, infer/predict, evaluate, recall, explain, compare and contrast
Classroom applications of positive/negative graph:1. Students list positive and negative events in their life. The vertical axis is numbered 1–5 to show how positive or negative the event was, and the horizontal axis reflects student’s age. Students use this graph to write an autobiographical essay.2. As applied to a novel, the horizontal axis could indicate events in a chapter or events in a character’s life. These would be rated 1–5 to show how positive or negative the event was.3. As applied to a text recounting history, the horizontal line could be a timeline and then events could be rated positive through negative along the timeline.
Chapter One Foundations for the equitable access approach for english learners
Mandated Language Arts Programs
Across the country, teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching multilingual, multicultural learners following state and district Standards. Elementary language arts teachers, in particular, are required to meet Standards that are aligned with standardized tests used to measure school and teacher effectiveness. School district administrators, pressured by their local communities to have exemplary schools, look for materials and programs that guarantee success.
Publishers have responded to these demands by producing language arts materials that claim to meet state Standards and claim to include everything teachers need to ensure that all their students will succeed when evaluated. Most programs used in schools are referred to as basal readers or core reading programs and are meant to provide a sequenced approach to reading instruction through textbooks and supplemental materials that include readings (often excerpts from children’s literature) and skills instruction.
Basal programs regularly include claims that they have research evidence showing their programs promote the success of all students. However, several studies have brought these claims into question. With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), expectations for all students, including emergent bilinguals, are much higher.
As Fu and her colleagues point out, the new Standards “put pressure on EB’s [emergent bilinguals] capabilities and prove more taxing for their long-term success” (Fu, Hadjioannou, & Zhou, 2019, p. 22). In California and New York, the two states with the highest numbers of English learners, only 25% and 29% of ELs met grade-level expectations. Further, “Emergent bilingual students scored markedly worse on the California Standardized Test where, in the 2nd grade, there was a 20% disparity between EBs and their English proficient counterparts (45% EB versus 64% English proficient passing rate)” (Fu, Hadjioannou, & Zhou, 2019, p. 22).
Although basal programs claim they contain all the components needed for every student to succeed, in his article “The Problem With Literacy Programs,” published in Education Week, Schmoker states:
We must reckon with the fact that even popular, highly praised commercial programs often lack a robust evidence base. That’s because they are deficient in precisely those aspects most critical to acquiring the ability to read, write, and speak well. Instead, they abound in busywork. (p. 18)
Schmoker points out that while programs may be well-designed, they are often poorly implemented and do not provide time for students to read, write, and discuss text. Rather, they engage students in many worksheets both on paper and in electronic form.
Several
