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Supporting Literacy & Critical Thinking Skills in English Language Development

Kimberly Boloven

TE 890 Dr. Kurf

MSU Summer 2017


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Question: How can English Language Development support literacy and critical thinking skills?

Rationale

All students are language learners, and all students learn language differently. This makes

English Language Development (ELD) instruction challenging for the teacher and their

classroom full of diverse students. Using traditional teaching methods of direct instruction may

not always produce language proficiency growth. ELD learners come into the classroom

equipped with different language proficiency skills, background, and experiences and therefore

may require varying degrees of instructional quantity and quality. Some English Language

Learners (ELLs) are recent immigrants to the United States, but others are students who were

born in the U.S. and grew up learning a language other than English at home. As those students

developed English language skills at school, their academic language proficiency tended to lag

behind their conversational proficiency. These students are “often orally bilingual and sound

like native English speakers. However, they typically have limited literacy skills in their native

language, and their academic literacy skills are not as developed as their oral skills are” (Menken

and Kleyn, 2009, p. 1). For these reasons, teaching and learning should focus on supporting

literacy and critical thinking skills in reading and writing in order to develop and strengthen

language domains that need additional attention and support. Embedded in these literacy skills

are social, cultural, and moral expectations that are held and carried throughout society. Those

who lack the ability to understand the direction that the global world is heading, driven by

technology and media, are automatically at a disadvantage when compared to those who have

greater English language proficiency in literacy and critical thinking. From this tremendous door

of opportunity that language holds, it is imperative that the development of literacy and critical
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thinking language skills for English Language Learners is made accessible and achievable, as

they are prioritized for all learners in a general education classroom.

Supporting and developing literacy and critical thinking skills has become my greatest

priority with English Language Learners. Their rich world experiences and their love for life

that they share with others in the classroom adds perspective and value that needs to be heard

and recognized by others in the school and the community. As much as this purpose is a priority,

it also comes with significant challenge. English Language Learners are not only expected to

learn the demands that literacy holds, but are also still in the process of learning English as a

language, and at times are still even learning the alphabet. Due to these challenges, English

Language Development should be given a special focus that allows students to learn in a visual,

multi-dimensional way, as opposed to a strict, linear trajectory of learning that will provide

opportunities for all students to engage, participate, and develop language that is appropriate,

accessible, and challenging for students at all levels of language proficiency. Students will be

able to better develop language at their own pace and grow in their language proficiency needs.

Language growth and development is something that takes place over time, and cannot be fully

expressed and understood in a single numerical score or letter grade. Students should be

instructed in language development in a multidimensional way.

Multidimensional learning supports language development and literacy skills by

implementing audio, visual, and digital sources into a lesson to support critical thinking and

extend language literacy that students may not be able to access through textual, or verbal

language alone. Throughout my journey teaching ELLs, I have found the importance of

incorporating as many multimodal language functions into my teaching and instruction in order

to support my students. An article was recently published that highlights a parallel between a
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new translating app that also uses multidimensional technology to translate text between two

different languages that connects to how multidimensional learning can be implemented in the

classroom.

The article describes how a news reporter traveled to China and was able to use a voice

translation app, Google Translate, that functions by allowing each user to speak into the app

which is translated to voice and text into the language that the other is speaking. Aarti Shahani

described how her experience using the app was “radically changed” and that she would never

have been able to receive such precise directions, or engage in such nuanced conversations trying

to translate the language on her own (Shahani, 2007). An app expert described the revolutionary

changes taking place with translation apps. Users are able to receive precise directions and

communications because of the way the app uses machine learning, algorithms, pattern

recognition, and mountains of data to learn, produce, and respond with translation, “that’s not

just phrase-by-phrase, but entire thoughts and sentences at a time” (Shahani, 2017). The

technology behind Google Translate allows one to communicate, “so that even if you (the user)

don’t quite know the words for what you want or can’t spell them, Google helps you figure it

out” (Shahani, 2017). Google Translation Chief, MacDuff Hughes describes how the translation

tool does not operate by decoding syntax and grammar, but instead it learns to understand

purpose and cultural differences. Hughes defines this translation skill as a multidimensional

analytical tool that could communicate and translate ideas more clearly by producing pictures to

substitute visual ideas instead of written explanations (Shahani, 2017). By encouraging students

to develop their multimodal language skills, students will strengthen and develop their media

literacy and critical thinking skills, too. These skill support visible thinking as students are

exposed to texts and ideas through images, words, sounds, audio, and video. By connecting
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students to real life examples, through image and technology, students are able to interact and

engage in increased discussion as well as make inferences to content learned in the classroom

and other events happening on the global stage. Students are supported in making these

connections through multidimensional, visible thinking, which can lead to deepening learning

and developing critical thinking skills across all levels of language proficiency.

Standards & Objectives

WIDA, a national organization that supports language development and academic

achievement through measurable standards, assessment tools, and research, created Can-Do

Descriptors that guide instruction for academic language by outlining language proficiency

measures by grade level (Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin, 2009). Analyzing

WIDA Can-Do Descriptors for Grade Level Cluster 9-12, one can identify parallels between

performance and proficiency standards in WIDA Can-Do Descriptors as well as literacy and

critical thinking skills that make up the building blocks of Common Core State Standards, both

of which are used as instruments to measure and assess achievement in learning for students

across inter-disciplinary subjects in English Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies.

Common Core State Standards “were developed based on international learning outcomes from

the highest performing countries; holding all students to the same expectations” (TESOL

International Association, 2013). WIDA’s Can-Do Descriptors and Common Core State

Standards are both performance indicating assessment tools that integrate a progression of

critical thinking action verbs into different tiers or levels of learning (Council of Chief State

School Officers & National Governors Association, 2010). WIDA’s proficiency levels combine

language standards and proficiency skills into tiered matrices that translate into measurable

goals. WIDA Standards outline a path of development to build language proficiency throughout
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all lessons by transferring student “Can Do” indicators into proficiency levels. This matrix

serves as an assessment rubric that can be used as a tool to identify and measure language

proficiency and acquisition that can be used while the students gradually increase their level and

use of literacy, critical thinking, and academic language that is required in a student’s language

performance.

A parallel connecting the mission behind both assessment tools is that their content

remains the same, but the difference driving up the skill level is the language, specifically

academic language, that is required of the student to use and produce. Academic language

extends beyond vocabulary words and grammar, and if the student is to be successful in their

critical thinking and literacy skills then they will be required to master such language so that they

can “successfully perform such CCSS-required tasks such as persuading, citing evidence, and

engaging with complex informational texts” (Fenner, 2013). Both ELLs and teachers face the

“challenge of teaching complex academic language simultaneously with challenging content

(Fenner, 2013).

Literacy and critical thinking skills are unquestionably challenging for teachers to

implement into instruction, but what ambitions my interest in engaging with these practices are

the relevance and utility they bring into and outside of the classroom. Teaching students to

question a source and challenge the viewpoint of an author is empowering to the individual

because it teaches students that they don’t need to “find the right answer” but instead, to look for

evidence that can prove or challenge the topic up for debate and discussion. This way of viewing

the world brings the student’s view and perspective in line with content objectives because it

encourages students to challenge what they are learning with their own background and
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experience. Critical thinking skills, like comparing, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing

invites students to see an idea from multiple perspectives, rather than memorize objective facts,

or the end result of a decision or the solution to an equation. Providing students with

opportunities to break down and dissect new ideas, and engage in discussion with peers will lead

to an increase in their ability to produce written language. Students need to read and speak about

text before they can comfortably and confidently write about what they have read or heard. Not

only will this provide students with practice using critical thinking skills like analyzation, but

students will be better able to fully express their comprehension as opposed to using traditional

forms of assessment like multiple-choice exams. “English Language Learners’ success in terms

of the Common Core State Standards requires a different kind of collaboration at all levels”

(TESOL International Association 2013). In order to achieve this success, the first focus should

be shifted towards implementing instructional strategies that support literacy and critical thinking

skills and that are conducive to language acquisition.

Instructional Strategies

Instructional strategies that support English Language Learners are essential to

implement into teaching and learning in order to foster language development in language

acquisition and can allow even the lowest proficiency students to engage in content and learning.

Instructional strategies can be easily aligned with linguistic accommodations for scaffolding

instruction that pair with student “Can Do” descriptors that combine to make teaching and

learning for ELL students accessible and transferable into classroom curriculum and content

objectives (Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin, 2009, p. 7).


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At times, it is hard to imagine that a student with limited, to non-verbal L2 abilities is

able to take in any decipherable input from a lesson. Teachers may ask themselves, if this

student isn’t even able to communicate, how can they possibly “understand” anything that I am

saying? These teachers are right in that these students with extremely low language proficiency

may not be able to take in much verbal input from a teacher, but that doesn’t mean the student

cannot take in visible input. This concept is beautifully illustrated in a series of professional

development videos I recently watched with colleagues. The videos show two lessons given in

Mandarin Chinese. The first video shows a teacher delivering a lesson in a lecture-style of

instruction without any comprehensible input or without any techniques or clues that would

enable a beginner Mandarin Chinese speaker to comprehend the lesson content. The lesson is

succeeded by a follow-up activity that instructs students to complete a sorting task, all spoken in

Mandarin Chinese (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2010). For a beginner Mandarin Chinese

speaker, or a native-English speaker like myself, this video is extremely challenging to

comprehend and impossible to decipher what the speaker is addressing, much like a beginner

ELL may feel in an English-speaking classroom. The second video shows the teacher delivering

the same lesson using techniques to make the lesson more comprehensible to beginning

Mandarin Chinese learners and includes visuals, gestures, realia, graphic organizers like a Venn

diagram, connections to background knowledge, and repetition (Center for Applied Linguistic,

2010). Without knowing any Mandarin Chinese, the learner is able to identity that the speaker is

describing a panda bear and a monkey, how they look, and what they eat. The teacher also

shows the audience a Venn diagram and models how to fill out the graphic organizer by pointing

to realia, a banana and bamboo, and writing down these words in opposite sections of the Venn

diagram to show that these animals are different based on what they eat and how they look.
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Without knowing any Mandarin Chinese, the learner is able to understand the subject, and the

task. The learner is also able to participate, be it nonverbally, by processing the information on

their own, and identifying similarities and differences between the animals. Even though the

learner is unable to participate verbally, the learner is able to engage and understand the main

idea of the lesson while being supported by visual representations of the language.

Visual thinking and learning funds English Language Development because it naturally

supports students who have a limited lexicon to draw from to explain their ideas from their

available input. Visual learning and visual thinking, provides a multimodal way to view teaching

and learning that can be applied to all leaners by affording a platform for students to draw from

content that is new or challenging for students to engage in independently. “Learning is a

consequence of thinking. Students’ understanding of content, and even their memory for

content, increases when they think through—and with—the concepts and information they are

studying” (Ritchhart and Perkins, 2008, p. 57). Visual stimulation influences how students

engage, understand, and learn with their environment. Providing visual clues, realia, scaffolds, or

graphic organizers, as done in the Mandarin lesson described above, allows the student to

generate new ideas to build from and incorporate targeted input to strengthen comprehension.

When learning new words, it is crucial that teachers support students with visual

representations to assist and extend students’ imaginative thinking to generate their own

understanding of language and words. Images, graphic organizers, and realia help students

brainstorm what words might mean if the students are unable to recognize or access the language

in their available lexicon. By using realia and other visual clues, like the Venn diagram, lower

proficiency students will be able to engage in a lesson by providing students with


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comprehensible input that allows them to participate and engage in the lesson by expressing

knowledge of attributes and other information they are able to record and identify (Fairbarin and

Jones-Vo, 2010). The images and visual thinking strategies provide students with input they are

able to comprehend and follow along in the lesson even if they are unable to rely on the spoken

language being used in instruction. Incorporating visual thinking routines into lessons for

English language learners can provide students the opportunity to exercise both logical and

creative thinking and activate new growth in language output. By using language to reason and

imagine new ideas, students can stretch their thinking and develop new acquisition in their

second language (García and Wei, 2014). Teachers should incorporate relevant ways to use

visual thinking routines to create memorable experiences for students in order to increase their

language acquisition and output. Students will learn better when provided the opportunity to

understand how new language is applied and used to make sense of the world around them and

their physical environment.

An instructional strategy that will support and include even the lowest proficiency student

is to activate prior and/or content knowledge by making connections between content and world

issues and events that are relative to the students and their native cultures. Students will become

interested in the content and eager to share their opinion, this can promote authentic dialogue and

allow student voice to drive discussion. Mallory and Gambrell explain this connection between

motivation and success, and describe how if a student feels confident in their ability to be

successful, they are going to have a higher percentage of actually being successful and will more

likely try harder on this type of task, than with others task they associated less with less value

and importance” (2010, p. 157). The teacher can use this opportunity to incorporate critical

thinking skills by analyzing purpose, potential audience, and author bias in a text and use these
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questions and answers to synthesize and connect content objectives in the related lesson. By

relating the lesson to world events that are familiar to the students, their self-perceived

confidence will be high, and students will feel proud and empowered that they can offer their

own perspective to makes sense, explain, and even translate the related text.

Visual thinking routines bridge gaps in language and extend opportunities for new

learning. By incorporating visual thinking skills through a digitally enhanced lecture, adapted,

related current event article, and other supplemental, abridged texts, students will have an

increased engagement and awareness to the focus of the lesson. Access to such diverse texts,

especially those found on the Internet, are fluid, current, and easier for students to engage in and

“read,” making it more accessible for students to understand the significance of the message

behind the media (Johnson, 2014, p. 3). It is just as important to include visually stimulating

texts as much as it is to include a visible display or diverse texts as access to an increased variety

of texts can support student engagement and relevance as students are more likely to participate

in discussion when they can see how the content that occurred in the past, like in a history lesson,

is connected to their lives and the greater world today.

The classroom environment can greatly influence and direct how students interact with

and learn from their surroundings. Classroom environment is connected to the underlying

development of both habitus and sociocultural theory (Garcia and Wei, 2014). These theories

emphasize the foundation of knowledge comes from learned interactions with people and the

world. Translanguaging, accessing one’s full “linguistic repertoire,” uses that knowledge to

support metacognition and extend one’s zone of proximal development to acquire new

knowledge” (García and Wei, 2014). The physical environment strongly influences how
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individuals interact, form, and share their perspectives, and is strongly linked to language

acquisition. In order to allow students to continuously move across their zone of proximal

development, teacher focus should be on maintaining a positive classroom environment that

provides opportunities for students to engage with and be exposed to new language. Finding a

balance of incorporating a rigorous curriculum alongside instructional conversations that strike

the optimal amount of challenge and support for students to succeed and increase their

proficiency is a delicate and ever moving continuum. This is a challenging principle to

incorporate into the classroom and instruction because as students learn they continue to move

across their own zone, which can vary amongst their peers and throughout the room. In order to

reach all students, no matter their zone or language proficiency, it is important for teachers to not

“make sure children do it correctly or not at all” (Au, 2012, p. 135). Developing language

acquisition, and speaking in general for some individuals, can be intimidating, especially for

students who are lower proficiency speakers, or for students who have recently arrived in the

United States and have an accent. A classroom environment that is relaxed and supportive can

help the class progress and explore in new areas of knowledge even if not all of the students have

shown mastery.

By incorporating new, current, and visually supported texts into the lesson, students will

be supported in their critical thinking and develop new vocabulary that is essential for

understanding the main idea of the lesson as well as solidifying new areas of language

development through increased literacy exposure (Neuman and Wright, 2014). This

development can only occur when students are challenged with new, unknown information that

they need to process to understand. The teacher’s support is essential for students to be able to

learn how to process this information at the instructional level. There is difficulty as well for the
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teacher that has to incorporate challenging and varied texts that appropriately balances an equal

amount of student and teacher support. In order to strike this balance with a room full of learners

with varying proficiencies, it is best to provide students with opportunities to engage in

cooperative learning activities that can provide students the ability to interact with language

throughout the learning process that is spoken and heard at a level that is conducive to their level

of learning (McIntyre, 2010). Providing scaffolds are a great way to increase output and to help

students create writing pieces that are near or at grade-level. Teachers should provide sentence

structures to help students create complete sentences as early as students are able to write

(Fairbairn & Jones-Vo, 2010). Through practice and support, students will learn to develop

these skills on their own and become more autonomous as they develop their own independence

and become more accustomed to the task.

Implementing visible thinking strategies, incorporating using visual aids and digital texts,

creating an opportune-filled environment, and demonstrating how to apply graphic organizers to

assist in critical thinking and comparative analysis enables English Language Learners to engage

and communicate using language to discuss complex ideas because they are provided with

increasingly comprehensible, multidimensional input. It is important to note that the whole is

greater than the sum of its parts, and the success of each instructional strategy will be maximized

by including as many mentioned into a lesson as appropriately possible. Teachers should make

sure that content is accessible and prior background knowledge is used and attributed to the

lesson, scaffolds should be provided to increase language output, and students should be afforded

many multidimensional opportunities to engage in content and experience increased interaction

with peers to share and exchange language in order to increase comprehension and language

acquisition.
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Performance Assessments

Academic content tests are linguistically complex, using words likely unknown by an

ELL, which clarifies why testing poses unique challenges for this student population” (Menken,

2010, p. 121). “Nationally, ELLs score an average of 20-50 percentage points below native

English speakers on state assessments of English language arts and other content-area subjects,

and thus the majority of ELLs fail to achieve a score of proficient or meet adequate yearly

progress goals (Abedi & Dietal, 2004; Government Accountability Office, 2006; Sullivan et all.,

2005, as cited in Menken, 2010, p. 125). This data affirms that language is posing a barrier

reflected in student test performance. Additionally, if a teacher focuses on using multiple-choice

assessments to measure learning and growth, it is possible that this could “lead to narrower

curriculum and teaching to the test” (Miller & Linn, 2000, as cited in Abedi, 2010, p. 6). English

language learners compose a special population of students with diverse language learning

needs. ELLs should be given assessments that can adjust to maximize their strengths and

support their weaknesses. Teachers should focus on accommodating their individual differences

to try to find new assessment strategies to help their students succeed (McMillan, 2003, as cited

in McKay, 2006). Performance assessments are a powerful alternative to traditional, multiple-

choice assessments because they engage English Language Learners in cognitively stimulating

activities that “more comprehensively demonstrate their knowledge in content-based areas” by

focusing on what students can broadly express and achieve, as opposed to assessing students

with questions that are narrowly defined (Abedi, 2010).

An alternative summative assessment option that is more conducive to ELLs other than

traditional, multiple-choice tests is a portfolio. Portfolios are collections of student work

prepared over time that become “an assessment strategy when there are plans to select tasks for
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assessment and collection, and when materials are systematically collected” (McKay, 2006, p.

159). Portfolios support student teaching and learning by providing a “basis by which teachers

can accumulate a record of children’s achievement over time, motivate learning and discuss

progress with others” (McKay, 2006, p. 159). Portfolio assessments support performance and

proficiency standards outlined in WIDA’s Can-Do Descriptors because both emphasize student

ability, and can be modified to fit an individual’s level of language proficiency placing student

progress, achievement, and strengths ahead of language limitations and deficiencies. Portfolios

can be used to administer both formative and summative assessments, as well as align teaching

and assessment in order to facilitate productive learning (Huot 2002; Klenowski 2002, as cited in

Lam & Lee, 2009). Process portfolios track student growth on a regular basis, include evidence

of short-term, formative goals, and provide a picture of a student’s current performance (McKay,

2006). Process portfolios also provide teachers comparable data to use and reflect upon, as well

as in deciding whether and how to modify instruction in order to best support individual student

learning and development needs. Archival portfolios are composed of selected pieces that

highlight student ability (McKay, 2006). Portfolio assessments can also afford opportunities to

include formative assessments within the summative portfolio by “including (1) ongoing teacher

feedback, (2) conferencing, and (3) peer reviews” all of which provide opportunities for daily,

routine check-ins that allow the teacher and student to collaborate and work through the portfolio

at a pace that is modified and manageable for students of various language proficiency levels

(Lam & Lee, 2009). Where portfolios as summative assessments “can provide students with an

idea of where they are in their writing development, the formative aspects of the portfolio… can

render summative grades more meaningful by making students understand their strengths and

weaknesses and what they need to do to improve their writing” (Lam & Lee, 2009, pp. 9-10).
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Portfolios assessments also lead to increased student motivation. In a study done in Hong

Kong by Lam & Lee (2009) students expressed their support for portfolio assessments as they

allow for more autonomy to choose their best work to be graded, an improvement in writing

through conferencing, and a supportive environment for enhancing writing. Student survey data

also highlighted a significant difference between writing for a timed exam, and writing for a

portfolio. Students commented how because of the portfolio assessment, their writing is better

due to being provided more time, and support through “multiple drafting, peer feedback and

conferences” as opposed to writing “for the sake of passing the exam” and only having “an hour

to write it” (Lam & Lee, 2009, p. 6). Portfolio assessments change the focus of teaching and

learning from analyzing collective data dependent on “teaching to the test,” to individual student

growth, progress, and mastery that leads towards independence in written language proficiency

skills.

Another example of an alternative assessment that supports varying levels of student

ability, language proficiency, and collaboration are project-based assessments. These

assessments are conducive to English Language Learners because they can be modified to

support multiple disciplines and content expectations, and include assessment opportunities for

all language proficiency domains to be incorporated into the process as well as the presentation

of the project. A large focus of preparing students to be leaders and doers in the twenty-first

century is preparing students to present their knowledge and learning in creative ways. Project-

based assessments not only provide opportunities for students to showcase their unique abilities,

but also incorporates content and critical thinking skills into reading and writing instruction and

performance assessments, all of which are foundational elements of Common Core State

Standards, in addition to comprising the academic language that WIDA Can-Do Descriptors are
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centered. Project-based learning shares similarities with elements of process and archival

portfolios as the project requires learning to develop over time (process), with a summative

presentation at the conclusion (archival). The project also provides multiple opportunities for

students to practice and display many skills that require the activation of critical thinking and

literacy in every stage of the project from using research strategies, to identifying and solving

problems through teamwork, to synthesizing information and applying ideas learned to real

issues that are larger and more relative to the unit of focus that the project is presented (Duke,

2014). Project-based assessments also provide an opportunity for students to exercise choice in

the focus of their project, in addition to providing teachers with an opportunity to maximize the

celebration of student diversity by using project-based learning assessments to center around

student background and heritage. Duke (2014) presents a motivating platform to present

project-based learning to students, and to encourage educators to incorporate this model of

assessment into instruction, by focusing on incorporating a local, school, or community focus to

the project that will take students outside of the classroom and into a greater dimension to pursue

their goal of presenting their overall project or solution to an issue or question that the project is

centered around. This focus will also require the presentation to be for a larger audience than the

student’s classroom, which can include family, community members, school board and

administrators, among other important individuals. If students lack motivation to complete a

reading or writing assignment in class, then knowing that the project has deeper meaning may

encourage the student to see how their research and effort can have a greater impact for the

greater good of a community issue or cause that is meaningful to the student. As all formative

and summative assessments, project-based learning assessments should maintain active support

of the needs of English Language Learners. Teachers should make sure to review how to
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incorporate research, and go over reading and writing skills necessary to complete the

assignment(s), as well as support student autonomy or small group instruction with gradual

release of teacher support from modeling, to small groups, to individual student production

(Duke, 2014).

Performance assessments, like portfolios and project-based assessments, can be

embedded with peer and self-assessments to promote reflection and metacognition, as well as

language proficiency growth. Raphael and Hiebert highlight the necessity to engage in

metacognitive strategies provided to students by incorporating self-reflection into instruction and

assessment. In order to better support written language development, peer and self-assessments

provide a reading log where “students maintain a written record of their thoughts, feelings,

questions, reaction and evaluation of what they are reading” (1996, p. 233). Students can

evaluate their own work as well as the work of their peers using a writing rubric modified from

WIDA, an educational consortium that supports academic language development, that assess

language proficiency. This assessment practice will help students track their progress throughout

the year and become more conscious, reflective students that are aware of their areas of strength,

their potential for growth, and most importantly how far they have developed since the beginning

of the school year. In addition, peer-reviews help to provide extended opportunities for students

to engage in discussion with one another and relate and reflect over academic tasks. Peer

interaction and discussion in the classroom naturally promotes translanguaging. This practice

ensures that emergent bilinguals are exposed to challenging content and ideas, engaged in deep

thinking about language, and most importantly, are able to use their full range of expression

(Garcia and Wei, 2014). This process can occur when two students of varying proficiency

engage in conversation and translation which supports language acquisition across proficiencies.
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Furthermore, students who have the opportunity to access and engage in their native language in

school are likely to outperform their counterparts in English-only environments and to

experience academic success (Baker, 2006; Krashen & McField, 2005; Thomas Collier, 1997, as

cited in Menken and Kleyn, 2009). Allowing students to use translanguaging when they share an

L1 with peers supports language proficiency and literacy growth as literacy skills that students

learn in their native languages are able to transfer to English (Cummins, 2000 as cited in Menken

and Kleyn, 2009). Student collaboration and opportunities to engage in conversation will lead to

increased knowledge, awareness, confidence, and ability in producing more written output,

which will positively impact academic and analytical language literacy skills. Teachers can also

use performance assessments as a reflection tool as they “supply more in-depth information on

academic needs” and help teachers “understand the nature of the performance gap between ELL

and non-ELL students” and whether or not “such a contrast is due to lack of content knowledge

or inadequacy in language proficiency” (Abedi, 2010).

Conclusion

English Language Learners are the future for teaching and learning as these students

make up the fastest growing population of PreK-12 students in the United States (TESOL

International Association, 2013). Teachers and students must be prepared for the challenges and

rewards that comes with English Language Development in order to make gains in language

proficiency, increase literacy and critical thinking, and change the conversation from focusing on

what students are limited in doing to what students are able to achieve. For such growth to

occur, teachers and students must not be afraid to take on big goals, and realize that every action

has an equal and opposite reaction. Teachers and students can only make sufficient gains in

language and literacy if students are supported in their language acquisition by focusing on
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reading and writing language proficiencies and simultaneously supporting literacy and critical

thinking. Because English Language Development goals and expectations needs to

simultaneously incorporate both language and critical thinking skills, instruction must also be

given a special focus that allows students to learn in a visual, multi-dimensional way, that

provides opportunities for all students to participate and engage in acquire academic language

that is both accessible and stimulating for students at all levels of language proficiency. Students

will be able to better develop language at their own pace and grow in their language proficiency

needs if instruction and assessments are focused on student ability, choice, and progress as

opposed to written objectives that only allow one right answer for students to achieve mastery.

Such accommodations in instructional strategies and opportunities for performance assessments

will also provide English Language Learners with a more equitable educational experience as

compared to traditional methods of teaching and learning that assume all students have been

exposed to and are aware of academic language and the cultural context that it carries.

The goal for all English Language Learners is for students to experience growth in their

ability to use what it is they know. By streamlining and incrementally increasing the level of

language complexity students and teachers will connect to and deepen their level of thinking.

Teachers must develop relationships with their students and be able to predict what level of

questioning is appropriate to ask students to respond to that allows students to think critically and

direct the conversation back to the lesson or to their own interpretation of how that concept looks

in the present day. This success is contingent on the teacher’s ability to support student

curiosity, instill encouragement, and work collectively with students towards successful,

sustainable, and progressive growth in language and learning. This network of learning will

provide opportunity, growth, and development of a rigorous curriculum that is built around
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critical thinking skills and prepares students to become twenty-first century learners and doers

that will successfully compete amongst and strengthen within the network of global citizens that

English Language Learners compose. I am confident in supporting ELD with literacy and

critical thinking skills because of the success both my students and I have experienced in the

classroom. Throughout my journey in teaching and learning alongside English Language

Learners, I have seen my students prove their ability to adapt to new environments on their way

to the future.
22

References

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Johnson, D. (2014). Reading, Writing, and Literacy, Teaching with Online Texts, Tools, and

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Theory Into Practice, 49, 121-128.

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Shahani, A. (2017). Finding a pedicure in China, using cutting-edge technology. Retrieved from

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