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for this week requires students to watch an interview with a teacher who has experience working with English language learners (ELLs). For this assignment, watch the videos below and read the resources. Then, follow the instructions below. Respond to the K-12.

Children or Students in a K-12 Learning Context

Read from your primary text:

· Chapter 8: Differentiating for Diversity

· Chapter 10: Putting It All Together

Watch Allen’s 2014 video

Interview With ELL Teacher

Address the following items in your original post.

· Identify how this teacher promotes comprehensible input.

· Explain some of the complications of teaching ELLs that are presented by this teacher.

o What ideas would you have for a teacher to overcome those challenges, based on what we have been learning?

· Infer some cultural challenges that teachers should be aware of.

o How can this be impacted by Culture Shock?

· Distinguish the strategies this teacher recommends.

· After listening to the teacher, outline strategies you would recommend.

· Infer and describe how this teacher utilizes BICS, CALP, comprehensible input, silent period, language proficiency, total physical response, assessment, affective filter, scaffolding/differentiation.

197

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter you will be able to accomplish the following objectives:

• Argue, providing supporting evidence, for the need for differentiated instruction with ELLs.

• Evaluate the importance of finding and using high-impact strategies with ELLs.

• Assess the usefulness and possible applications of three categories of research based high-impact strategies
for ELLs.

• Define action research and propose ways in which teachers can use it to identify highly effective strategies
for use with ELLs.

8Differentiating for Diversity

Mikanaka/iStock/Thinkstock

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Introduction

Introduction
In previous chapters we discussed the characteristics of learners, how to assess them, and
the content and language they need to learn. We have looked at curricula, at objectives, at
materials, and the kinds of lessons that align with all these. Now that we have learned some-
thing about the who, the what, and the why of teaching, it is time to take a closer look at the
how. We do this with caution. The most effective teacher is not the one with the biggest bag
of teaching tricks, even if those tricks are comprised of well-established techniques; the most
effective teachers are those who have many techniques upon which to draw, but who know
the importance of using them within a thoughtful, well-organized plan for learning and for
monitoring learning. ELL teachers are constantly seeking strategies that will help LTELLs, and
indeed, all ELLs, to progress linguistically and academically. The purpose of this chapter is to
examine some of the strategies that research has shown to be effective and how they can be
adapted for a variety of learners and circumstances.

Experienced teachers know that there is no such thing as a truly homogenous class, and that
they will need to take into account the differences among the children they teach. But when
the class represents such a wide range of abilities as Candace Marin’s fourth graders, (see A
Teacher’s Story: Overwhelmed!), developing a plan and mapping onto it the best methods or
strategies for each of them requires even more planning and forethought. Fortunately, as we
will see in this chapter, there are many sources and resources to which teachers can turn,
based in research, based in practice, and based in experience.

A Teacher’s Story: Overwhelmed!

At the end of my first month of full time teaching, I went home and told my husband that I
felt like I had to do everything for everybody when none of those “bodies” needed the same
“things”. I had been so excited to get this assignment, a fourth grade class in a well-resourced
school in an affluent suburb. As a student intern, I had been in classes as large as 31 in badly
maintained schools with few resources in the inner city. So when I found out that I had only 18
children in my class, I was thrilled.

Just four weeks later, I was overwhelmed.

I had six ELLs, one with special needs, and the other five with different levels of language pro-
ficiency and different skills. One had amazing spoken English, but he was reading at first-grade
level, barely. Another girl had good reading and writing skills, but she wouldn’t read aloud and
barely spoke. The native speakers were almost as varied as the ELLs—one appeared to be
gifted and another appeared to be dyslexic, although neither had been formally assessed. Still
another had attention and behavior problems.

Because I had a relatively small class, I did not have another adult in the room to assist, and
the only additional support for the ELLs was an itinerant ESL teacher who came twice a week
for 45 minutes.

And then there was the Common Core. Before the start of the school year, the district had held
a series of professional development workshops to prepare us, but after a month, I felt less
prepared than I had on my first day as an intern.

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Section 8.1 Differentiation for ELLs

8.1 Differentiation for ELLs
Today’s pluralistic, inclusive classrooms demand a sharp lens of understand-
ing and awareness from our teachers to reach and teach all students. This lens
must serve as a microscope to magnify teachers’ understanding of individual
student’s talents and skills as well as a stethoscope to listen deeply to their
students’ daily experiences, unique interests, and individual dreams.
(Oberg, 2010, p. 2)

We know that ELLs learn at different speeds and in different ways, but what do we do with that
information? Teaching diverse students is not a “one size fits all” endeavor. On the other hand,
no teacher has the time to teach each student individually. Finding an optimal zone between
the two extremes that allows us to maximize instructional impact is a daunting task. This sec-
tion describes tested strategies that have worked for other teachers coping with classrooms
of diverse learners, concentrating on literacy “power standards” (Gregory & Burkman, 2012).

Knowing the Learners
In previous chapters we learned a great deal about English language learners. Knowing about
our learners, however, is not the same as knowing our learners. We can get some indication
of what learners know by using performance assessment tools such as those described in
Chapter 4. We can speculate about
how learners might learn by revisiting
what we discovered about differences
in learning styles in Chapter 2. We can
further study the research described
in Chapter 3 on how the brain learns
to refine our ideas about teaching
bilingual learners, but ultimately, teach-
ers will have to discover how all these
factors—and many others such as
differences in maturity—interact and
help to shape each individual learner.
Getting to know a learner takes time
and it takes continuous effort. It also
takes deliberate actions.

Teachers Need to Be Observant
There are tests and exercises that can be administered to learners to find out their preferred
learning styles, but the best indicator may well come from observation. To differentiate
instruction meaningfully, teachers need a clear understanding of how learning progresses.
Observing where learners appear to fall along different dimensions and recording those
observations helps teachers to find effective strategies and also to assess progress.

Teachers Need to Know how Learning Progresses
Remembering that ELLs learn best when the material is just beyond their current level of
competence and comfort, the goal of differentiated instruction is to find the “propellers” for

Monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Thinkstock

This teacher knows that getting to know her
learners will make it easier to plan for their
individual needs.

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Section 8.1 Differentiation for ELLs

each learner—what moves them to the next stage in which the new material is no longer new
and they are ready for the next challenge. According to Tomlinson (2001), learning is a pro-
gression of development along eight dimensions that can be thought of as the tracks on which
breakthroughs may occur:

1. Foundational to transformational. This dimension refers to information, ideas, mate-
rials, and applications. At the foundational end of the continuum, learners are able to
relate to key ideas contained in text or to classify animals or objects on the basis of
visible physical similarities and differences, for example. Those who are nearer the
transformational stage can handle ideas that are removed from the text or immedi-
ate experience and can generalize ideas or skills to different materials or settings.

2. Concrete to abstract. This dimension refers to representations, ideas, issues, prob-
lems, skills, and goals. At the concrete stage, learners fare best with tangible objects,
hands-on activities, and literal rather than analogic or metaphorical examples. As
they progress toward the abstract stage of thinking and learning, they are increas-
ingly able to hold images and ideas in their minds, cope with intangible ideas, and
with metaphors, analogies, and symbols. They can understand principles indepen-
dent of specific events.

3. Simple to complex. Moving along this dimension, learners proceed from a basic
vocabulary of common words in texts that are easy to read to a more advanced,
academic (and therefore abstract) vocabulary in advanced texts. They progress from
being able to work with few if any abstractions to being able to work with multiple
abstractions, and from dealing with the idea or skill being taught to the ability to
incorporate newly learned ideas and skills into those previously learned.

4. Single facet to multi-facet. Processes or procedures with fewer parts, fewer steps, or
stages, characterize the lower end of this dimension, while multiple parts, steps, and
stages, characterize the higher end.

5. Small leap to great leap. Early in their learning, learners are able to deal with few
unknowns, relate best to familiar elements, and are not likely to be flexible in their
thinking. As they progress they are able to tolerate more unknowns and unfamiliar-
ity is no longer a barrier. They are capable of more flexible thought and are more
revolutionary than evolutionary in their thinking.

6. Structured to open-ended. For learners at the early stages, teachers will need to
provide more directions, more precise directions, and more modeling of expected
behaviors. As learners grow in their abilities, teachers will need to give fewer direc-
tions, do less modeling, and allow learners more choice in how they approach a
problem.

7. Dependent to independent. As learners move from dependent to independent learn-
ers, they require less guidance and monitoring in order to identify problems, set
goals, establish timelines, or to find appropriate resources. They will require more
scaffolding in the early stages but will gradually require less as they gain and dem-
onstrate their independence as learners.

8. Slow to fast. ELL teachers are admonished always to allow adequate time. In the early
stages especially, learners will need more time for almost everything—to read, to
practice, to review, to process. As they become more efficient learners, however, they
will need less time for all of these; it is as though they gain momentum.

Observant teachers make note of what strengths learners have and what motivates and
excites them to participate and to learn. They can do so throughout the day, at the end of the

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Section 8.1 Differentiation for ELLs

day, or whenever they have an opportunity to make a notation of a success, failure, or source
of frustration. Observing learners on the playground can also give valuable insights into their
social language competency that can be built on in the classroom.

Teachers Need to Build Profiles Over Time
These observations should be kept as part of the learner profiles that teachers create to guide
them toward providing the best support they can. Teachers who make good notes and collate
those notes at regular intervals will find those accounts invaluable as a profile of the learner
starts to take shape. For example, a teacher who has observed repeatedly that a learner likes
to draw or likes poetry or nursery rhymes will be able to use that knowledge in future work
with that learner.

Teachers Can Get Help From ELLs
There are two ways of getting help from the learners themselves. Saying something as simple
as “Tell me if this seems too hard for you” provides a useful starting place. Asking learners
to reflect in writing on tasks, lessons, or assignments, not only provides teachers with useful
feedback but also gives learners valuable experience in writing. It is an authentic language
experience!

Teachers Can Collect Data From Many Sources
Teachers can supplement their own observations with data from a variety of other sources:
other teachers, whether previous or concurrent, parents, test scores, the school bus driver,
principal, counselor, or even social media sites. There are many sources of information about
learners that a teacher can mine to get a better idea of what will work with individual learners.

Setting the Stage for Learning
Obviously, teachers do not have time to identify and cater to every learner’s particular mix
of experience, skills, abilities, and learning styles for every lesson. Differentiating instruction
does not require that. Rather, the starting place is for teachers to:

• Concentrate first on language skills because English, and especially literacy, as we
have seen, is the core competency that makes all content learning possible.

• Focus on creating a learning environment in which all ELLs feel comfortable and
competent. Finding a way to make each learner feel competent gets to the heart of
differentiated instruction.

Gregory & Burkman (2012) offer five suggestions for helping teachers to plan for “multiple
modalities in each lesson while incorporating strategies for English language learners” that
are based on who, why, what, how, and so what. Letting learners know who they can turn to
for information or support tells them that they are not alone and gives them a sense of control
over their own learning. Resources might be a bilingual friend, a resource teacher or librarian,
or even a website. Letting them know why they are learning a particular skill or why they are
engaged in a particular reading or writing task helps them to see relevance. By connecting
the lesson or assignment to something they already know or need to know, teachers make the
experience more meaningful.

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Section 8.1 Differentiation for ELLs

Giving learners the what by providing them with advance organizers (such as those we saw
in earlier chapters) prepares them to focus on what is important and to improve their predic-
tion skills. Advance organizers can be tweaked for learners of different skills levels, with more
information provided for those who need more help. Telling them the how means giving the
learners adequate time for practice and for application—for actually using the literacy skills
they are acquiring. Again, making the connection with their existing knowledge helps them to
integrate and remember new information and skills. Finally, the so what relates once more to
relevance by providing learners with “outlets for creativity and dynamic interaction with the
material and skills” (Gregory & Burkman, 2012, Ch. 3), which may involve using their home
language or finding their own culturally specific applications. These five general recommen-
dations help teachers to set the stage for making adjustments that benefit all learners. To
implement any of these recommendations, however, it is useful to have tools. There are three
that are particularly versatile.

Three Power Tools for
Differentiated Instruction
Whether teaching English language or any
of the content areas, teachers will find that
manipulatives and technology are multi-
purpose tools that can be used to adjust
instruction for English language learn-
ers. Equally important is the power of
collaboration.

Manipulatives
One of the major benefits of manipula-
tives is that the amount and type of lan-
guage needed to use them is adjustable;
they reduce the significance of language
for less advanced learners but can also
serve as prompts for more sophisti-

cated language use with intermediate or advanced learners. Objects that can be handled,
arranged, and rearranged, can be used to teach colors, shapes, sizes, and also be used to
illustrate prepositions such as above, below, around, beside, and so on. Interlocking blocks
can be used to build objects around which stories are told and written, and more advanced
learners can write or speak directions to less advanced learners on how to build or accom-
plish something with objects. Manipulatives also help to make math and science content
comprehensible. They give learners a way to test and confirm their mathematical reasoning
and help them to solve problems. They also make learning more fun.

Technology
Children in school today have never known a world without computers, cell phones, elec-
tronic readers, and tablets. Today’s young people are familiar with and like technology, and it
can be one of the most valuable tools in a teacher’s kit if it is used wisely. Schools vary greatly
in terms of what technology is available, and technology itself changes so rapidly, (hardware

RPedrosa/iStock/Thinkstock

Both the calculator and abacus require less
language or language-based thought to use, but
the abacus has the advantage over the calculator
as an instructional manipulative for ELL
teachers. Why?

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Section 8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies

and applications), making it difficult to provide specific recommendations. Nevertheless,
there are a few basic directives that apply:

• For math, teach ELLs to use a calculator, if they don’t already know, and have them
practice using it.

• Take advantage of the school’s available technology by staying up to date on soft-
ware available through the school and at the many online sites for teachers, some of
which are listed at the end of this chapter.

• Engage native speakers in recording stories or other passages for ELLs to follow as
they read.

• Teach learners to use electronic dictionaries, bilingual if necessary, and to do inter-
net research. The CCSS demands high levels of research, analytical, and synthesizing
skills in the upper grades, and teaching ELLs to take advantage of all the resources
available furthers their content knowledge, language skills, and reasoning abilities.

Collaboration
Many program options for ELLs involve more than one teacher for at least part of the day—the
classroom teacher and possibly a specialist ESL teacher, or an art, music, or physical education
teacher. For example, art can play a very important role in language development (Chapter 7). We
have seen that the organization of the CCSS provides incentive and opportunity for teachers to
think holistically about the curriculum. The interdisciplinary approach “reflects the crucial role
ELA teachers play in developing students’ literacy skills while at the same time acknowledging
the impact other subject matter teachers have in students’ literacy development” (Bunch, Kibler,
& Pimentel, 2012, p. 1). English language teachers will need to collaborate with other teach-
ers and school personnel on teaching ELLs to read and comprehend nonfiction, to use language
proficiency standards to support instruction, and to design appropriate assessment instruments
to get a fair assessment of ELLs’ knowledge and skills. Just as language proficiency forms the
foundation for other learning, so does language arts provide the curricular basis for teaching the
other core subjects. Perhaps most importantly, teachers who work together, pooling their obser-
vations as well as their skills and knowledge, reach a better understanding of their students and
increase the likelihood of finding high-impact strategies that work for every learner.

In the next sections we will see opportunities for applying the five recommendations for
diversifying instruction and for applying the three tools described here. Before we turn to our
discussion of high-impact strategies that can be adapted for use with English language learn-
ers, let’s remind ourselves why it is so important that teachers find highly effective strategies
for these learners.

8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies
In Chapter 5 we saw the grim statistics for LTELLs: We know that too many ELLs become
LTELLs because educational interventions are delayed, ineffective, or even absent. With every
year and grade level that passes without ELLs reaching grade-level proficiency in language
and content, their chances diminish for ever catching up. The result is an achievement gap
between ELLs and non-ELLs. The evidence is abundant that even when other factors are con-
trolled for, the ELL population fall behind the mainstream population in achievement, and the
gap gets wider throughout the school years unless the ELLs are able to exit developmental
English class in a timely manner. The evidence comes in a variety of forms:

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Section 8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies

1. “In 2013, the achievement gap between non-ELL and ELL students [in the NAEP
(National Assessment of Educational Progress) reading assessment] was 38 points
at the 4th-grade level and 45 points at the 8th-grade level.” (Institute of Education
Sciences, 2013).

2. Researchers studying the educational trajectories of ELL learners in Texas collected
data for the years 1990–2009. Their findings tell a similar story: “Whereas 86% of
students who exited an ELL program in three years ‘met the standard’ in math in the
11th grade, only 59% of long-term ELLs ‘met the standard.’” Those ELLs “who had
been in the program for seven or more years were even less likely to meet standards
(44%)” (Flores, Batalova, & Fix, 2012, p. 13).

3. Analyzing graduation data as well as post-graduation trajectories for Texas students
in this same period, the researchers’ results showed “that ELL students who started
in first grade and progressed ‘on time’ to grade twelve and who exited ELL programs
within three years had much better outcomes than other ELL students as well as
their non-ELL counterparts” (Flores, Batalova, & Fix, 2012, p. 20). Also, “the data
raise serious doubts about the academic success of students whose parents opt out
of English language development classes” (p. 21).

Table 8.1: Achievement levels among ELL students, white students, and
Hispanic students

Math Reading

Achievement level Grade four Grade eight Grade four Grade eight

ELL students % % % %

Advanced <1 1 1 0

Proficient 11 5 6 4

Basic 43 23 21 24

Below basic 46 71 73 71

White students

Advanced 7 7 10 3

Proficient 40 30 30 34

Basic 42 42 35 43

Below basic 11 21 25 19

Hispanic students*

Advanced 1 1 2 1

Proficient 18 12 13 13

Basic 48 38 29 41

Below basic 33 50 56 45

*Both ELL and non-ELL students are counted in this category.

Source: NAEP, 2005 data

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Below Basic Basic Proficient/Advances

Grade 12 – NAEP Reading (2013)
10

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

45%

21%

32%

47%

22% 26%

39%

35%

18%

36%

46%

40%

37%

40%

30%

20%

10%

15%

P
e
rc

e
n
ta

g
e

o
f
st

u
d
e
n
ts

African
American

Asian Latino Native
American

White

Below Basic Basic Proficient/Advanced

Section 8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies

4. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2005 rated fourth and
eighth graders’ proficiency levels in math and reading as advanced, proficient, basic,
or below basic. Table 8.1 shows the percentages of ELLs, Hispanic (ELL and non-
ELL), and white non-ELLs in each category.

5. According to the Education Trust, the 2013 assessment of educational progress as
measured at grade 12 showed the following:

• One in four public high school seniors demonstrated reading skills below the
basic level.

• African American, Latino, and Native American students are about one-third
to one-half as likely as white or Asian students to be proficient in reading.
See Figure 8.1.

• Over the past two decades there has been little change in overall reading scores.
• Since 1992, reading scores have risen for Asian students but remained flat for

other groups. See Figure 8.2.
• Only one in four seniors demonstrated proficient or advanced math skills (NSF,

2004).
• Approximately one in ten African American, Native American, and Latino students

demonstrate proficient or advanced math skills.
• Nationwide, math scores have risen only slightly since 2005.
• Math scores for Asian and Latino students have risen more than other groups, but

Latinos still lag far behind. See Figure 8.3.

Below Basic Basic Proficient/Advances

Grade 12 – NAEP Reading (2013)
100%

90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
45%
21%
32%
47%
22% 26%
39%
35%
18%
36%
46%
40%
37%
40%
30%
20%
10%
15%
0%
P
e
rc
e
n
ta
g
e
o
f
st
u
d
e
n
ts
African
American
Asian Latino Native
American
White
Below Basic Basic Proficient/Advanced

Figure 8.1: Reading proficiency rates for diverse 12th graders, 2013

A higher percentage of African American, Latino, and Native American students have below basic
levels of reading proficiency.

The Education Trust, (2014, May 7), Statement From The Education Trust on 12th Grade Reading and Mathematics Results From
the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Retrieved from http://edtrust.org/press_release/statement-from-the-
education-trust-on-12th-grade-reading-and-mathematics-results-from-the-2013-national-assessment-of-educational-progress/

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 205 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Grade 12 – NAEP Reading
330

320

310

300

290

280

270

260

250

240

230

A
ve

ra
g
e
S

ca
le

S
co

1992* 1994* 1998 2002

2005 2009 2013

White Latino

Asian/Pacific
Islander

American
Indian

African
American

*Accommodations for students with disabilities and English language learners not permitted

Grade 12 – NAEP Reading
330
320
310
300
290
280
270
260
250
240
230
A
ve
ra
g
e
S
ca
le
S
co
re
1992* 1994* 1998 2002 2005 2009 2013
White Latino Asian/Pacific
Islander
American
Indian
African
American
*Accommodations for students with disabilities and English language learners not permitted
Section 8.2 The Importance of High-Impact Strategies

Perhaps the most succinct statement of the issue comes from the Texas study in which
researchers concluded, based on their data, those ELLs “who had been in the program for
seven or more years were even less likely to meet standards (44%)” than other ELLs (Flores,
Batalova, & Fix, 2012, p. 13). It seems to come down to time and how we use it.

Throughout our discussions, time has been a recurring theme; ELLs are already at higher risk
in the school system because of their more limited English, and the dual demands of language
and content-area learning mean that teachers cannot waste time with teaching strategies that
don’t work. And yet, there is so much diversity. Every child is different from the one sitting at
the next desk; every class is different from the one next door and from the one that sat in the
same room the year before. Only the curriculum and the content are constant. Or are they?
The goals and objectives are the same for all learners, but the path for attaining them can
vary greatly as we have seen in discussing ELLs in previous chapters. The purpose of the right
high-impact strategies is to make the path for ELLs straighter and easier to travel. It is cru-
cial that education professionals find ways of more effectively serving the ELL population to
prevent their becoming LTELLs and putting at risk their opportunities for career and higher
education. Hispanic learners are at particular risk, and as we have seen, they make up the
majority of ELLs in the public school system. High-yield or high-impact strategies are, thus,
especially important.

Figure 8.2: Reading scores for diverse twelfth graders, 1992–2013

Reading scores of Asian/Pacific Islander students improved beginning in 2005, while the scores of
other twelfth-grade students remained constant.

The Education Trust, (2014, May 7), Statement From The Education Trust on 12th Grade Reading and Mathematics Results
From the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Retrieved from http://edtrust.org/press_release/statement-from-
the-education-trust-on-12th-grade-reading-and-mathematics-results-from-the-2013-national-assessment-of-educational-
progress/

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 206 6/30/15 12:16 PM

WhiteLatino American Indian
Alaska Native

African
American
Asian/Pacific
Islander

Grade 12 – NAEP Math
200

190

180

170

160

150

140

130

120

110

100

A
ve
ra
g
e
S
ca
le
S
co
re
2005 2009 2013

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

8.3 High-Impact Strategies
Learn, achieve, and do it fast! That appears to be the take-away for ELLs. The teacher’s job is
to make it happen. The education literature abounds with books and articles on high-impact
instructional strategies, many of them based on research conducted by Robert Marzano and
his colleagues. Titles such as “Nine High-Impact Strategies that Work” or “High-Yield Strate-
gies that Get Results” imply that there are easy fixes for complicated situations. Marzano
himself recognizes the fallacies implicit in some of the ways these strategies have been
implemented. One of the major problems has been to assume that instructional strategies
are the only ones that work, when in fact, strategies for classroom management and assess-
ment are also important. Marzano has identified high-impact strategies in all three areas
(Marzano, R. J., 2009) that have been widely adopted in this country. His strategies do not
specifically address ELLs, but they are well-aligned with the achievement goals that ELLs
are expected to reach, and so we examine here the applicability of several of these strate-
gies for ELLs.

There is a tendency among educators to apply Marzano’s strategies too literally, to assume
they are the only strategies that work, or to attempt to apply one set independent of the oth-
ers. For example, some educators will adopt the Marzano instructional strategies without

Figure 8.3: Math scores for diverse twelfth graders, 2005–2013

Math scores for Asian/Pacific Islander and Latino students indicate larger gains between 2005
and 2013.

WhiteLatino American Indian
Alaska Native
African
American
Asian/Pacific
Islander
Grade 12 – NAEP Math
200
190
180
170
160
150
140
130
120
110
100
A
ve
ra
g
e
S
ca
le
S
co
re
2005 2009 2013
The Education Trust, (2014, May 7), Statement From The Education Trust on 12th Grade Reading and Mathematics Results
From the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Retrieved from http://edtrust.org/press_release/statement-from-
the-education-trust-on-12th-grade-reading-and-mathematics-results-from-the-2013-national-assessment-of-educational-
progress/

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 207 7/1/15 12:32 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

reference to the assessment or classroom management strategies. But ELL teachers need to
understand how the three areas work together and to have in their arsenal techniques or
applications for all three. They interact with and support one another, as we see in Figure 8.4
which is based on the categorization in Marzano (2009) and serves as an advance organizer
for this section of the chapter. Given the limitations of time and space, not all the strategies
will be discussed in this chapter; while they are all applicable to one degree or another, the
only ones to be discussed here are those in which the application may not be obvious, or may
differ slightly for ELLs, and those which clearly exemplify the communicative approach to
teaching discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. The nine strategies are summarized in Robert
Marzano’s Nine High-impact Instructional Strategies.

Content Strategies
These are the strategies that help students to understand content. More specifically, for ELLs,
they include strategies for dealing with the academic language necessary to further their
understanding. Strategies in this general category are useful for introducing new content, for

Marzano’s Nine High-Impact Instructional Strategies
1. Identifying similarities and differences. Breaking down problems by creating charts or

by comparing, classifying, and creating analogies helps students to understand complex
problems.

2. Summarizing and note taking. Activities that force students to analyze and state what is
important and what is not in their own words promotes comprehension.

3. Reinforcing effort and providing recognition helps learners to see the importance of
effort and allows them to make the connection between effort and achievement.

4. Homework and practice. Providing opportunities to extend learning outside the class-
room in assignments targeted to help with difficult concepts, and with a purpose that
students can identify, maximizes learning.

5. Nonlinguistic representations. Providing learners with images, graphics, objects, move-
ment, or realia, that support the material being learned helps to create additional neural
pathways that assist both learning and recall. (Carey, 2014).

6. Cooperative learning. Groups that are formed according to interests and experiences
and are not too large allow learners to develop social skills and to learn with peers, thus
fostering independence.

7. Setting objectives and providing feedback. Students need direction and they need feed-
back in order to learn. Teachers can help students to personalize the goals set to maxi-
mize their own learning.

8. Generating and testing hypotheses. Higher-order thinking skills can be developed
through using deductive reasoning in all subject areas.

9. Cues, questions, and advance organizers. When students can use what they already
know in the learning of a new task, they learn and remember better. Different kinds of
advance organizers can help, as described in the fifth strategy above.

Source: Marzano, 2009; Carey, 2014

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 208 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Content

Spontaneous
Behaviors

New

Practice/deeper
understanding

Cognitively Complex
Tasks

Goals/Progress/Success

Classroom routines/
procedures

Engaging students

Adherence or non-
adherence to classroom

rules

Maintaining relationship
with students

Communicating high
expectations

1–8

1–7

1–3

1–3
1–3
1–3
1–3

1–2

1–9

RoutinesStrategy Type

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

practicing, integrating and deepening understanding of previously learned content, and for
helping ELLs to engage in cognitively complex learning activities.

Introducing New Content
How we prepare ELLs for new information, whether linguistic or content-based, sets them up
either for success or for frustration and possibly failure. Useful strategies include:

1. Identify critical information. ELLs need a head start on content-area learning.
They need to know ahead of time which information is most important in what
they are about to read or hear. They also need to be prepared for the new words
and the kinds of sentence and text structures used in academic texts, not only so
that they can understand what they read and hear, but so that they can speak
and write appropriately. For them, then, an important application of this
strategy is to explicitly teach the academic language needed to understand
the content.

Figure 8.4: High-impact strategies and applications

Though not specifically designed for ELLs, Robert Marzano’s high-impact strategies align well with
the achievement goals ELLs are expected to reach.

Content
Spontaneous
Behaviors
New
Practice/deeper
understanding
Cognitively Complex
Tasks
Goals/Progress/Success
Classroom routines/
procedures
Engaging students
Adherence or non-
adherence to classroom
rules
Maintaining relationship
with students
Communicating high
expectations
1–8
1–7
1–3
1–3
1–3
1–3
1–3
1–2
1–9
RoutinesStrategy Type

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 209 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

Younger learners will likely have had more exposure to and will understand the
structural properties of stories better than they will nonfiction. They will need to
have simplified materials while they are being introduced to informational text. For
example, a starting point for kindergarten or first grade ELLs would be step-by-step
directions for making muffins or constructing a kite, accompanied by illustrations or
pictures. Teachers point out the sequencing words, then, next, after, and so on, and
help them to write directions for another simple task. Sentence frames with high-
lighted signal words are useful for teaching other relationships such as cause-effect
or compare-contrast: “The snow is melting because _____________________,” and “The
sun is shining, but _____________________.”

Another difficulty with academic language is the vocabulary. If learners don’t under-
stand key words, they won’t be able to figure out the main ideas. Depending on the
subject matter and the level of difficulty, there may be a large number of unfamiliar
words in informational text. While a large number of unfamiliar words in a text can
increase the reading difficulty initially, they also represent good teaching opportu-
nity, precisely because they are contextualized. ELLs can benefit from vocabulary
maps such as the one shown in Figure 8.5 which serve to make connections with
known words, to introduce new and specialized meanings for familiar words, and to
introduce synonyms, related words, and antonyms.

If ELLs are to become proficient independent readers, it is important to teach them
strategies for guessing words from context. Remember that reading has been char-
acterized as a psycholinguistic “guessing game,” and as learners begin to read less
narrative and more informational text, it will be critical for them to have strategies
for figuring out word meanings. While useful, dictionaries (preferably English only)
should be used only for highly technical vocabulary or if other strategies fail. Over
reliance on dictionaries is counterproductive for learners because they need to
develop the ability to determine meaning from context in order to become proficient
readers.

2. Organize ELLs to interact with new knowledge. ELLs can benefit from working in small
groups or dyads when they are learning new content.

Cooperative learning activities promote peer interaction, which helps the
development of language and the learning of concepts and content. It is
important to assign ELLs to different teams so that they can benefit from
English language role models. ELLs learn to express themselves with greater
confidence when working in small teams. In addition to ‘picking up’ vocabu-
lary, ELLs benefit from observing how their peers learn and solve problems.
(ColorínColorado, 2007)

Recall in Chapter 5 (Figure 5.1) that some seating arrangements are more
conducive to language learning than others. No one arrangement works for every
situation; sometimes a dyad is effective, and other times a task calls for a larger
group; sometimes a homogenous group is desirable, while other times more
advanced learners can help less proficient learners while gaining meaningful prac-
tice. Many teachers, however, find that groups of four work well for many lessons
because they allow learners to break into dyads for some tasks and return to the
larger group for others.

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 210 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Name:

My Sentences

My brother got lost
in the crowd.

My sentences

We tried to crowd
too many people

into the car.

Date:

Crowd

Noun: a large
group of people

Verb: to pack or
fill to capacity

My sentences My sentences

Synonyms

mass, throng,
hoarde,

multitude, swarm

Synonyms

pack, fill, jam

Words I need to
look up:

capacity, horde

Antonyms
small group,

sparse
gathering,

few people

Antonyms
scatter,

spread out,
separate

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

3. Preview new content. Remember the passage on Olympic curling in Chapter 6?
Although the primary objective is to rely on text, some background knowledge is
essential to understanding the text. The language used in social studies might not be
as difficult for ELLs as the concepts themselves, since they may have little familiar-
ity with some of the topics covered—for example, the different levels of government
and how they are structured and chosen—or with the U.S. perspective on the world
in general, (for example, the notion of the Far East will have a different meaning to
Asians than to North or South Americans). Another kind of background that it is
helpful to build for ELLs is the structure of academic texts. Language arts curriculum

Figure 8.5: Vocabulary map for the word crowd

A vocabulary map can help ELLs make connections among known words, synonyms, and antonyms.

Name:
My Sentences
My brother got lost
in the crowd.
My sentences
We tried to crowd
too many people
into the car.
Date:
Crowd
Noun: a large
group of people
Verb: to pack or
fill to capacity
My sentences My sentences
Synonyms
mass, throng,
hoarde,
multitude, swarm
Synonyms
pack, fill, jam
Words I need to
look up:
capacity, horde
Antonyms
small group,
sparse
gathering,
few people
Antonyms
scatter,
spread out,
separate

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 211 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

has typically focused on stories, especially in elementary school, and the shift to
nonfiction will likely require some advance work with learners on how those texts
are structured.

Informational text and literary text have different structures. For younger ELLs who
are mostly familiar with story structure, it is helpful to teach the structural differ-
ences between literary and informational text. Informational text often involves the
development of an argument or line of reasoning. Therefore, teachers need to be
able to show how to identify the word cues or signals. (See Signal Words for Five Text
Structures.) Although the goal, ultimately, is for ELLs to acquire the ability to extrap-
olate meaning from text by learning the structural, linguistic, and mechanical con-
ventions, and the vocabulary used in academic writing, the starting place must be
with what they already know. By identifying cultural differences that might interfere
with comprehension and eliciting what learners already know about a given subject,
teachers eliminate some of the barriers and open the doors to understanding infor-
mational texts.

4. Chunk content into smaller, manageable “bites.” One of the purposes of advance
organizers is to show the major points and the relationships among them. One of the
purposes of organizing books into chapters and chapters into sections under mean-
ingful headings is to break the content into more easily “digestible” pieces. What is
overwhelming in the whole can be made very accessible when reduced to coherent
parts.

Signal Words for Five Text Structures
Description: above, below, under, beside, down, up, across; color words: blue, green, red, yellow;
adjectives: tall, old, short, squat, round, young

Chronological: next, before, then, first, second, third, finally, during

Comparison/contrast: on the one hand, on the other hand, in contrast, similarly, however, but,
compared with, different from, similar to

Cause/effect: because, for this reason, since, as a result, therefore, then, in order to, due to, as a
consequence

Problem/solution: because, since, consequently, as a result, therefore, solve, solution, resolve, as
a consequence

Notice that many of the signal words for cause/effect and problem/solution structures are
the same. Although they will have one main organizational structure, many informational
texts will also have other logical structures embedded in them. For example, a problem
may be stated (“The country of Haiti faces grave economic challenges”), the causes and
their effects described (“Its geography makes it vulnerable to major weather events such
as hurricanes, its history as a French colony [may involve chronology], its lack of natural
resources”), and the solution, or inability to reach one, stated in terms of addressing the
causes.
Source: Adapted from McLaughlin, & Overturf, 2014.

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 212 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

5. Process new information as a group. There is great value in “talking through” each
“chunk” of information. The teacher helps learners to summarize what they have
covered so far. It is also good practice to ask questions in order to gauge ELLs’ under-
standing, to identify the source and correct any misunderstandings or fill in any
gaps before moving on. Five Ideas for Cooperative Learning lists other ways of using
cooperative learning for processing new content information.

6. Elaborate on new information. As we learned in Chapter 6, technical and scientific
writing may employ words that look familiar but are used in precise ways. A valu-
able way of elaborating and expanding on the new information that is contained in
science or other content-area texts is to expand upon the meanings of these special-
ized words. Ideally, readers learn to find the meanings of unfamiliar words in the
text itself. This is an opportunity to make use of prior knowledge of a subject, where
it exists, or if not, to show students how to use textual information to figure out the
meanings of technical terms.

Most English words have more than one meaning, some of which are idiomatic.
Idioms are words or groups of words used in such a way that the meaning cannot
be deduced from the conventional meanings. The English language also abounds
with homophones and homographs. As discussed in Chapters 6 and 7, ELL teachers
should exploit every opportunity to expand their learners’ receptive and productive

Five Ideas for Cooperative Learning
1. Round robin. Introduce a category such as “state capitols” and have learners take turns

naming the state and its capitol. The category could be birds, mammals, fictional heroes,
words that start with “p,” and so on.

2. Writearound. This can be used for summarizing or for creative writing. Begin by pro-
viding each learner in each group with the start of a sentence and ask everybody in
the group to finish it. They then pass the paper to the right (or left), read the sentence,
and add one of their own. Two or three rounds should complete the story or summary.
Learners then read each story to the class or “publish” it in other ways.

3. Team puzzle. The teacher divides a text into four sections and gives each person in
the group one-quarter of the text. Each learner reads the section and then teaches the
others. They collectively put the piece together again and summarize its main ideas and
purpose.

4. Literature circle. The teacher makes sets of four books available. Learners choose their
own books and groups form on that basis. Learners read the books individually, but the
groups are responsible for analyzing and discussing what they read. Learners will need
different amounts of guidance, depending on the complexity of the content and their
language proficiency levels.

5. Math teams. Pairs of learners can work together on math worksheets. One learner does
the first problem while the other acts as “coach”. Roles are reversed for the next prob-
lem. After completing the first two (or four) problems, they confer with another group
to check their answers and talk through any errors.

Source: Adapted from http://www.colorincolorado.org/educators/content/cooperative/

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 213 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

vocabulary by teaching the full range of possible meanings, so that learners are
not surprised or confused when they encounter what they thought was a familiar
word which doesn’t make sense in the context. If, for example, they have learned
the meaning of clear in the context of “It’s a clear day,” they might not understand
“I cleared my calendar” or “There are clear reasons for believing in climate change.”

In general, ELL teachers should make use of any opportunity they can to elaborate
on new information in a way that helps ELLs to integrate it into their existing knowl-
edge and experience. Asking questions that elicit opinions or judgments or that
require them to make and defend inferences is a good way of expanding knowledge.

7. Record and represent knowledge. One of the Common Core standards related to
key ideas and details requires that learners from third grade onward be capable
of summarizing what they read. Teaching ELLs to take notes on which they can
base their summaries helps them to develop better listening skills and to become
more adept and efficient readers. One of the ways that teachers can assist is to
identify the number of key ideas to listen (or read) for, and list one or two of
them, leaving the others blank. Similarly, they can provide one or two support-
ing details. It is also helpful to show ELLs that notes need not be in sentence
form but can be organized numerically or graphically using arrows or whatever
mechanism works, then later they can be written into summary statements in
sentence form.

8. Reflect on learning. Once a lesson is completed,
it is useful for teachers to reflect with learners
on what they have learned. For young learn-
ers, the exercise can be as simple as “What
new things have we learned about giraffes
today?” For older learners, the exercise can be
more complex. For example, the teacher might
ask each learner before reading a passage to
list everything they think they know about a
topic—world population growth or the effects
of fossil fuels on the planet. After each lesson,
the teacher can ask what they have learned,
to confirm, raise doubt, or refute each belief.
For learners at all ability levels, it is an oppor-
tunity for their teachers to do comprehen-
sion checks and to probe the source of any
misunderstanding.

Practicing and Deepening Understanding
of Content
Most of the content presented in schools comes from
written text, but some of the “standard issue” texts
used in school may be too difficult for ELLs. Texts writ-
ten for native speakers may need to be supplemented
or adapted to make the language easier to understand,
while preserving the content. Teachers may look for
texts presenting the same material in simpler language

Goodluz/iStock/Thinkstock

This boy is writing a summary
based on notes he has taken. Taking
notes also involves the ability to
summarize ideas, though, because
few people can write down every
word they hear.

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 214 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

before introducing the more complex texts, or they may find it useful to provide advance orga-
nizers for the more complex texts:

1. Review content. Reviewing previously learned material is always good teaching prac-
tice, but for ELLs it helps to solidify the integration of the content and also provides
an opportunity to expand vocabulary within familiar content by introducing syn-
onyms, antonyms, or other related words and phrases within the review.

2. Organize students to engage in authentic practice. In order to learn to use language,
ELLs need ample opportunity to speak it and authentic settings and reasons for
using it. Small group work helps ELLs to negotiate meaning with classmates, and
they also benefit from the feedback of peers, which may be less formal and more
comprehensible than teacher feedback.

3. Practice skills, strategies, and processes. Provide practice by creating text-dependent
questions appropriate to grade and language proficiency levels. Learners need prac-
tice in finding the answers within the text, and so structuring questions that cannot
be answered on the basis of prior knowledge without having read the text provides
valuable support. Questions such as “What is the capital of Montana?” or “What is
the most populous state in the United States?” require little or no dependence on
text. Either the learner already knows the answer or can scan the text quickly for
words that match those in the question. On the other hand, questions such as “What
are the main factors contributing to poverty in the United States?” require the reader
to extrapolate and summarize information from text.

4. Examine similarities and differences. Teaching ELLs to analyze what they read and
hear involves the ability to:

• Compare and contrast
• Understand and generate metaphors and analogies
• Classify and categorize

Very simple exercises such as the one shown in Figure 8.6 begins to teach the obser-
vational skills and the language that will be needed later for more complex analysis in
academic text.

5. Explore errors in reasoning. Having ELLs retell a story or to outline the argument from
something they have heard or read achieves two purposes: It helps to develop their
note-taking and summarizing skills, and it helps the teacher to discover any errors in
comprehension or reasoning and address the source of those errors. Another dimen-
sion of this strategy is to ensure that learners can distinguish fact from opinion. Recall
7 Billion and Counting! from Chapter 7? This is an excellent example of a text that can
be used to help ELLs to determine what is fact and what is opinion. Teachers can build
this understanding through the use of advance organizers such as the one shown in
Figure 8.7 and by incremental questioning such as in the following example:

a. What is the population of the world?
b. How many people are born each minute?
c. How do we know? Or, who reported it?
d. What will the population of the world be in 2030?
e. Is the statement “the world is jam-packed” a fact or an opinion?
f. How do you know?
g. Can you find other opinions in the piece?

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 215 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Name: Date:

1. Make a list of all the properties shared by each shape in Set A
2. Make a list of all the properties shared by each shape in Set B.
3. Use the following words in at least one of your lists:
a. Monochromatic
b. Curve or Curved
c. Angle or angular
d. Outlined
4. Begin one or more sentences with All of the shapes in Set A
5. Begin one or more sentences with None of the shapes in Set B
6. This shape fits best in Set but could also fit in Set because
but it could also fit in Set because

Set A Set B

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

Some topics that might be used include:

a. Do you think there are too many people on Earth?
b. What might cause the population of the Earth to grow faster? Or slower?
c. What do people need to live that there might not be enough of if the population

grew too fast?

These techniques can be adapted for use for learners in the upper grades who also
need additional content and language support.

6. Use homework productively. Homework is an opportunity for learners to engage
with material on their own time and to find its “place” in their own “catalog” of
learning. Encourage ELLs not only to complete additional tasks related to what they

Figure 8.6: Categorizing by comparing and contrasting

This type of exercise allows learners to practice observation and language skills that will be required
to complete more complex analyses of academic texts.

Name: Date:
1. Make a list of all the properties shared by each shape in Set A
2. Make a list of all the properties shared by each shape in Set B.
3. Use the following words in at least one of your lists:
a. Monochromatic
b. Curve or Curved
c. Angle or angular
d. Outlined
4. Begin one or more sentences with All of the shapes in Set A
5. Begin one or more sentences with None of the shapes in Set B
6. This shape fits best in Set but could also fit in Set because
but it could also fit in Set because
Set A Set B

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 216 6/30/15 12:16 PM

“big” news

Earth is
jam packed

Name: Date:

7 Billion and Counting!

7 billion
people on

earth

Population
continues to

grow

261 people
born each

minute

Population
doubled

since 1960

Other? World Population

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

have learned but to come back with questions about anything they may not have
understood or things they would like to know more about. Homework assignments
are ideally suited for teachers to provide targeted assistance to individual learners,
whether through specific questions or supplemental reading or listening activities.

Homework is a good place in which to take advantage of technology. One of the
advantages of the computer for ELLs is that some of the materials intended for

Figure 8.7: Advanced organizer for discriminating between fact and opinion

Teachers can use this type of advanced organizer to help ensure learners comprehend a story by
encouraging them to summarize the story, prompting them to distinguish fact from opinion.

“big” news
Earth is
jam packed
Name: Date:
7 Billion and Counting!
7 billion
people on
earth
Population
continues to
grow
261 people
born each
minute
Population
doubled
since 1960
Other? World Population

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 217 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

Kerry Kangaroo Hops
Kerry Kangaroo was growing up. Mama Kangaroo let him out of her pouch.

“You are getting big,” said Mama. “Big Kangaroo kids need to learn to hop.”

Kerry tried out his strong legs and big feet. He hopped a few times. He hopped and hopped.
He hopped away from Mama. He hopped here and there. He even hopped with his eyes closed.

Splash!

(continued)

native speakers are more accessible to ELLs when they can proceed at their own
pace, repeat and review as necessary, look up further information, and so on. That
they can do all these things away from the judgment and scrutiny of peers and
teacher empowers them to become independent learners.

7. Revise and clarify information. Learning is an evolutionary and transformational
process. As we learn new things, we figure out how our new knowledge fits into
what we already knew. We revise what we previously believed to be true, or we
form new opinions. When teachers clarify new information or help ELLs to revise
their own understandings, they expand knowledge. Helping ELLs to add to or
expand their definitions of words or learn how they are used idiomatically is a
very easy but effective way for teachers to build content and language knowledge
simultaneously.

Cognitively Complex Tasks
The focus of the Common Core standards is for learners to develop abilities to read, under-
stand, and undertake progressively more complex academic tasks, and, ultimately, to gener-
ate and test hypotheses, especially in science (Chapter 7). For ELLs, the complexity resides
both in the language and in the content, and so it is especially important to prepare them in
to engage with more complex academic material. Useful strategies for teaching cognitively
complex tasks include the following:

1. Organize learners for cognitively complex tasks. Learners may benefit from working
in groups to “pool” their knowledge and skills to complete cognitively complex tasks.
Students who are linguistically more advanced are often able to help those less pro-
ficient, explaining or describing using language that is closer to their comprehension
levels. Before group work can be effective, however, teachers may need to analyze
texts and ensure that ELLs are knowledgeable about the structure and vocabulary
found in complex academic writing.

2. Engage learners in complex tasks. What ELLs find complex may differ from what
native speakers find complex because of gaps in language. An activity that works well
for young ELLs is to engage them in a discussion of whether a story is true, possibly
true, or fantasy, and make them defend their decisions about each. Even first graders
can take part in an activity such as the one in Kerry Kangaroo Hops.

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 218 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

Older and more advanced learners need to engage in problem-solving, decision mak-
ing, and experimental inquiry. Math, social studies, and science are all well-suited to
these tasks. One math example is shown in Five Ideas for Cooperative Learning, but
other subjects also lend themselves to problem-solving and decision making. One
effective technique for use in any subject area is to use scenarios. Teachers con-
struct in advance scenarios that involve problems to be solved. In A Courtroom in the
Classroom (Chapter 7), we can see that this article sets the stage for many problem-
solving and decision making activities. It is an ideal vehicle for scenario-based
activities that learners could work on cooperatively. Two examples are provided in
Classroom Courtroom: Two Scenarios.

Classroom Courtroom: Two Scenarios
Chris Crosser has been charged with jay-walking and endangerment of life. His trial begins today.

1. First, be sure that you understand each word in italics and how it is used by explaining
what crime has been committed.

2. Define the job of each of the following participants:

• Defendant
• Defense attorney
• Prosecutor

(continued)

Kerry Kangaroo Hops (continued)
Kerry hopped right into a water hole! Mama Kangaroo helped Kerry out.

“That is too much hopping for one day!” cried Kerry.

He hopped back into his cozy pouch. He was tired. He fell fast asleep.

What is true? What could be true? What is not true?

Baby kangaroos sleep in their
mothers’ pouches.

The baby Kangaroo might be
named Kerry.

Kangaroos do not speak.

Baby Kangaroos grow up. Kerry might hop into the
water.

They get big.

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 219 6/30/15 12:16 PM

Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

The second scenario requires learners to think inferentially, to posit and test hypoth-
eses, to consider the difference between fact and opinion, and to reach a conclusion.
What other judgment, problem-solving, decision making, or hypothesis testing will
be required in the two scenarios? Using scenarios for problem-solving and decision
making encourages independent learning and also allows the teacher to adopt the
role of resource provider and guide.

3. Provide resources and guidance. Perhaps the most important aspect of guidance is to
provide scaffolding support so that ELLs at different levels of language proficiency
can participate in meaningful conversation and writing using complex text.

We learned in the last chapter that instructional scaffolding builds on existing skills
and provides support to move learners to the next level of competency. Because
the demands of academic language in the content areas are progressively greater
through the grade levels, the kinds of support will vary from learner to learner as
well as from year to year. Some learners in the lower elementary years will need
highly structured questions to guide them through the text, some will require
additional vocabulary support, and others may need the background information
mentioned above. Scaffolding activities “include modeling the use of academic or
technical language; contextualizing academic or technical language through the use
of visuals, gestures, graphic organizers, and demonstrations; and using hands-on
learning activities that involve the use of academic or technical language” (Arizona
Department of Education, 2011, p. 3).

Classroom Courtroom: Two Scenarios (continued)
• Judge
• Clerk
• Police officer (witness) who wrote the ticket.

3. Choose classmates to play each of the roles. Others in the class will be in the jury pool.

You have heard the case against Chris Crosser, a 21-year-old man accused of endangering him-
self and others by crossing the street against the light in busy traffic. Both sides have presented
their case, and the case has gone to you, the jury. Please select a foreman and then examine the
following evidence:

1. The crime was crossing the street against the light in busy traffic.
2. It occurred at 6:30 p.m. on a Friday in November.
3. Two eyewitnesses testified that the defendant was having dinner with them at their

home six miles away at the time of the crime.
4. One of these witnesses is the defendant’s cousin and the other is the cousin’s girlfriend.
5. One eyewitness, a 45-year-old woman, testified that she saw the defendant commit the

crime.
6. This witness was approximately 25 feet away from the defendant at the time.
7. Security cameras at a nearby restaurant caught images of a man who bore strong resem-

blance to the defendant as he stepped onto the sidewalk and entered the restaurant.

How would you proceed? The fate of this defendant is in your hands! (Additional prompts
could be provided if needed.)

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Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

Hongqi Zhang/iStock/Thinkstock

A trophy is one way of
recognizing achievement, but
success can be celebrated in
more subtle but equally effective
ways every day.

Establishing and Maintaining Routines
Routines are not only of the “housekeeping” variety. The routines that ELL teachers need to
concern themselves with relate not only to how they establish and maintain a classroom that
is conducive to learning but to how they communicate learning goals and track and celebrate
learners’ progress.

Communicate Learning Goals, Track Progress, and Celebrate Success
It is easier to get somewhere if we know where we’re going. It is also easier to stay motivated
if we can see that we are making progress on the route and if we mark milestones along the
way. The three strategies in this category are about setting objectives and indicators for meet-
ing them.

1. Provide clear learning goals and scales or rubrics to measure those goals. Effective
teachers are those who set high expectations for their students, even those who
are traditionally “underachievers”. This music teacher explains his frustration in
dealing with misconceptions about innate ability and the low expectations they
can cause:

As a music educator, this author battled constantly with student and par-
ent misconceptions such as “music is a gift” or “either you’ve got it or you
don’t”. Music, like so many other human endeavors, is learned, and the
expectations that the teacher holds for each and every student are not
only important, but perhaps determinant of out-
comes. Teachers must develop their own teach-
ing skills (also learned!), believe both in their
own effectiveness and in a student’s potential to
learn, and act to foster the learning they expect.
(Miller, 2001)

2. Track learner progress. Design appropriate
assessments for ELLs at each grade and language
proficiency level. As we saw in Chapter 5, ELLs
require some accommodation when it comes
to assessing their content-area knowledge. The
language arts teacher needs not only to have an
accurate indication of learners’ language ability,
but also be able to provide advice to content-area
teachers about how to assess learners’ con-
tent knowledge independent of their language
proficiency.

3. Acknowledge and celebrate student success. One
of the exciting things about teaching young ELLs
is being witness to the progress they make daily.
Acknowledging this progress is both motivating
and affirming. Some successes will be celebrated
by the entire class or even the school, but others

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Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

will be more private—the quiet acknowledgement to the learner of the progress a
learner has made in reading or math, or in a note on a returned assignment that can
be taken home for parents to see. Learners who receive positive feedback for their
accomplishments are more likely to accept constructive criticism or error correc-
tion in the helpful spirit in which they are intended.

Establish and Maintain Classroom Rules and Expectations
While it is important to motivate learners with interesting and even fun activities and to wel-
come some spontaneity, a classroom that is orderly, without being oppressive, and where
learners know what to expect, is more conducive to teaching and learning.

1. Establish classroom routines. Elementary students are more free to concentrate
on language and learning when classroom routines are familiar. Knowing what to
expect in the science curriculum and being able to see in advance how it is orga-
nized will help learners make connections between topics, relate to prior knowl-
edge, and reinforce the sense of familiarity; it also helps parents or others who may
help with homework to understand what broader objectives are being served by a
particular lesson.

At the lesson level, outlines or graphic organizers provide an overview or roadmap
of the lesson’s objectives and key concepts. Effective lessons are planned and have
structure and flow that make them easier to follow. They also make the class more
predictable (in a good way!) and comfortable for learners. Lesson flow maps may
vary in some details from teacher to teacher, but the one shown in Figure 8.8 has
the main elements of a lesson and is adaptable for different teachers and subject
areas.

2. Organize the classroom layout for learning. A classroom that is organized for learn-
ing is rich in resources, visually engaging, and inviting. Furnishings should be
easily moveable to allow different size groups to work on different kinds of proj-
ects, and there should be ample space for displaying student work. Traffic patterns
should be established for ease in movement without distracting or interfering with
work.

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Statement
of Title

or Topic

What We Know
(active Background

Knowledge)

What We Think We’re
Going to Learn

(Prediction)

Presentation
(Chunk of
Material)

Summarize

What we learned
(Review)

Facts Opinions

Follow-up
(Practice)

Homework
(Individualized

Instruction, authentic
practice…)

What we want
to find out

Discussion

Comprehension Check

How? (Sources)

Name: Date:
Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

Figure 8.8: Sample lesson flow diagram

This type of flow diagram can be adapted according to the specific subject area and lesson the teacher
wants to cover.

Statement
of Title
or Topic
What We Know
(active Background
Knowledge)
What We Think We’re
Going to Learn
(Prediction)
Presentation
(Chunk of
Material)
Presentation
(Chunk of
Material)
Summarize
What we learned
(Review)
Facts Opinions
Follow-up
(Practice)
Homework
(Individualized
Instruction, authentic
practice…)
What we want
to find out
Discussion
Discussion
Comprehension Check
Comprehension Check
How? (Sources)
Name: Date:

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Section 8.3 High-Impact Strategies

Table 8.2: Strategies and applications for dealing with
spontaneous behaviors

Engage learners. Deal with learners
who adhere and
do not adhere to
classroom rules.

Maintain
relationships
with students.

Communicate high
expectations.

Monitor attention and
participation.
Notice and react when
learners are inattentive
or not participating.

Demonstrate
awareness of
variations in learner
behavior.
Marzano calls this
“with-it-ness.”

Understand stu-
dents’ interests and
backgrounds.

Demonstrate value
and respect for “low-
expectancy” learners.
Low expectations
can be a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Respect
learners who struggle
and set high yet attain-
able goals for them.

Use academic “games”
to re-engage learners.

Apply consequences. Use behaviors that
indicate regard for
learners.
Respect for ELLs as
individuals and for their
cultures makes them
more comfortable and
willing to take linguistic
risks.

Ask questions of “low-
expectancy” learners.
Tiered questions
allow these learners to
participate actively in
lower-level questions
and passively in higher-
level questions.

Manage response rates.
Give ELLs adequate time
but do not allow time for
attention to wane.

Acknowledge com-
pliance with rules
and procedures.
Positive feedback
serves not only to
motivate but to rein-
force the rules.

Display objectivity
and control.
Teachers, like parents,
have a role other than
“friend”.

Probe incorrect
answers to determine
the source.
It is easier for teachers
to correct a misunder-
standing or fix a prob-
lem if they understand
why it occurred.

Use physical
movement.
Having ELLs move to
different groups or
learning centers or using
activities that require
some movement helps
to maintain interest and
focus.

(continued)

Responding Spontaneously
Careful planning does not require that every moment of classroom time be scripted; in fact, it
would not be possible to have much authentic language use if it were. Students do not always
respond in the way that would be ideal for moving the lesson forward; sometimes students
are slow to respond or do not respond at all. Other times, students may not follow classroom
rules or may even be disruptive. Teachers need to be able to respond to whatever happens in
the classroom to maintain focus on the learning outcomes they are trying to achieve. Table 8.2
summarizes the strategies involved in this category.

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Section 8.4 Action Research: Learning from Practice

8.4 Action Research: Learning from Practice
The strategies we have examined so far have been research based, relying extensively on
the work of Robert Marzano and his colleagues. Their own research was synthesized with
the work of countless other researchers who have investigated effective practice for many
decades. Adapting and using strategies that research and practice have shown to have a high
impact is an excellent starting place for ELL teachers, but ultimately, every teacher needs to
adapt those strategies to learners’ particular needs. As much as we rely on the experience
of others, we also know that our own practice and experience as teachers is also a valuable
resource.

Beginning teachers sometimes despair when a lesson doesn’t work or when learners seem
confused; more experienced teachers know that not every strategy works with every learner,
that many instructional ideas need just a little tweaking to make them more effective, and that
some should just be discarded. Even though they may not document what they have learned
in their own classrooms, throughout the years, teachers learn from experience what works
and what doesn’t. They adapt, improve, and expand what works, and abandon what doesn’t.
They are, in a very real sense, action researchers.

Action research is “a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the
action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the actor in improving
or refining his or her actions” (Sagor, 2000, Ch. 1). Why is it important? Much of the literature
on action research focuses on school improvement as the ultimate goal, but it is also appli-
cable for individual teachers because “no group of people are more emotional and passionate

Engage learners. Deal with learners
who adhere and
do not adhere to
classroom rules.

Maintain relation-
ships with students.

Communicate high
expectations.

Present unusual infor-
mation (or information
in an unusual way).

Maintain a lively
rhythm.
ELLs are less likely to
get bored or lose focus
when a lively pace is
maintained.

Demonstrate enthusi-
asm and intensity.

Encourage and use
friendly controversy.

Provide opportunities
for learners to talk
about themselves.

Table 8.2: Strategies and applications for dealing with
spontaneous behaviors (continued)

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Section 8.4 Action Research: Learning from Practice

about promoting universal student success than classroom teachers” (Sagor, 2011, Ch. 1).
Action research, as its name suggests, leads to strategic actions, but before teachers can
engage in research leading to actions, they need to determine a focus, and in order to do that,
they need to reflect. Reflection is, thus, a very useful precursor to action research. What sets
action research apart from other kinds of research is that it has immediate applicability to the
person conducting it.

Sagor suggests using written narratives as a means of reflection and has found that the out-
comes teachers usually envision in their narratives fall into three categories: performance tar-
gets, process targets, and program targets. Performance targets focus on the learners—what
they know, what they can do, what they choose to do, and how they feel about themselves and
the situations they are in. Program targets are school-level outcomes (2011, Ch. 1) affected
by factors such as the accountability movement. As we have seen in the past seven chapters,
the high performance targets for ELLs and the expectations set for school performance put a
great deal of pressure on teachers. Process targets focus on the teacher and especially those
techniques and strategies that are “keepers” because they have been found to be successful.
Succinctly put, every day, the ELL teacher is confronted with the task of figuring out, not only
for each class, but for each learner, what the most appropriate strategy is for teaching the
content in order to meet the learning objectives.

Action research is conducted by practising language teachers because they
themselves are valuable sources of knowledge regarding their own classroom
situations, and as a result change can be implemented more credibly because
practising teachers will find the results more credible and valid for their
needs. (Farrel, 2007, p. 94)

The literature on the use of action research by ELL/ESL teachers indicates the following
characteristics:

• it involves collecting information about classroom events (in the classroom), through
observation or through collecting information in other ways, such as through inter-
views, questionnaires, or recordings of lessons;

• it involves careful and systematic collecting of that information;
• the research involves some kind of follow-up action;
• this action involves some change in practice, and monitoring the effects of such

change;
• the results are owned by teachers, rather than the research community;
• the results of the research can be reported at a staff meeting or through a written

report;
• it seeks to build up a knowledge base about teaching based on practitioner’s knowl-

edge, rather than expand the knowledge base developed by academics and theoreti-
cians outside of the school context;

• it develops research skills useful for classroom inquiry;
• it brings about changes in classroom teaching and learning;
• it develops a deeper understanding of teaching and learning processes; and
• it empowers teachers by giving them the tools which they can use to further impact

changes within the profession in that they work.
(Farrel, 2007, p. 95)

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Section 8.4 Action Research: Learning from Practice

Action research is not a teaching approach or method; rather, it is a philosophical and psy-
chological mindset that characterizes how teachers reflect upon their work and engage in the
building of learning communities. It is empowering for teachers because they are identifying
and working on problems that are immediate and relevant and because they are participating
in their solutions. It is empowering for learners because it engages them as active partici-
pants in their own learning. In contrast to teachers who view research as something done by
others, evaluated for its relevance and applicability, and then used in the classroom, teach-
ers engaging in action research are always pursuing a relevant question that has immediate
applicability and which can be evaluated and modified continuously.

Figuring out what works best with ELLs is usually left to the individual teachers, although
there is much to read on the subject. “Although there is no question that teacher instincts and
judgment play a significant role in instructional decisions, research has shown that they’re
not enough.” (Syrja, 2012). We all know intuitively, and research confirms, that some practices
simply work better than others. Teachers who are adapting mainstream strategies for use
with ELLs need to be able to evaluate the effect of their adaptations—this is action research.
Keeping a record of what has worked, what hasn’t, and what adaptations have been made, is
part of the process, but it is also just good practice.

We conclude the chapter with the words of a teacher. In her second year of teaching, Martina
Fernandez discovered the power of action research and collaboration.

Why I Teach: Martina Fernandez
Very little about my first year of teaching was easy. I had a third grade class in my small Ari-
zona town. Although all of my 22 children spoke some English, there were only four or five
who were at or near grade level in reading. Every day with every lesson, I struggled to find the
middle, that place where I thought most of them would be able to keep up and to learn. By the
end of the first quarter, I could see that was working for five or six of them, but I wasn’t reach-
ing three-quarters of the class—several were just bored and starting to act out and the others
were really struggling. One day in the staff room, the art teacher was talking about a course
she had taken on using art to teach other subjects. I asked her, begged her really, to come and
work with my kids. She spent a morning in my class, and I learned more from watching her
than I had learned in college about dealing with diversity. She spent a few minutes talking
with the whole group about what kinds of art they liked to create, and then she divided them
into groups. With one group, she used her few words of Spanish to get them to teach her, and
I watched fascinated as together they negotiated a drawing of a scene inspired by a story she
told them. I worked with her and another group on a project that had one child look at a pic-
ture and then use words to direct another child to draw it. Fortunately, I had the presence of
mind to make notes of what she did and, at the end of the day, to reflect on why it had worked.
The note-taking habit was one that I continued through the year as I built on the half-day les-
son I had learned from my colleague. The year improved, and as I began my second year of
teaching, I did so with more confidence, having started to build my own tool kit of ideas and
techniques that worked for me. That kit and the colleagues who help me add to it are the rea-
son I keep teaching.

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Summary & Resources

Summary
The key take-away of this chapter is simply this: When it comes to teaching, one size does
not fit all. Diversity in a classroom requires differentiation. Differentiation is, by definition,
impossible to codify in advance for every teacher, class, or learner. Instead, teachers must
find their own way based on knowledge about learners and the multitude of factors that
influence how they learn and on knowledge of each individual learner. Fortunately, there are
principles to guide teachers and tools for them to use in finding the high-impact strategies
that help to move ELLs to succeed academically. We have seen that the strategies that work
for mainstream learners can also work for ELLs if we take care to consider and adjust for
their particular needs. As important as they are as a starting place for teachers, high-impact
strategies have to be tweaked, tuned, and incorporated into teachers’ own repertoire of
teaching skills through reflection and action research. Differentiation for diversity and good
practice require it.

Key Ideas

1. Teaching diverse students is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor.
2. In order to differentiate instruction effectively, teachers need to get to know their

learners through formal assessment, observation of a number of dimensions of
learning, and by collecting data from a variety of sources.

3. For differentiating instruction, manipulatives, technology, and collaboration are the
three most essential tools in an ELL teacher’s “kit”.

4. For ELL learners, time is of the essence. With every year and grade level that passes
without ELLs reaching grade-level proficiency in language and content, their
chances diminish for ever catching up.

5. It is essential that teachers use high-impact strategies for teaching ELLs, to keep
them from becoming LTELLs, for whom the prognosis for academic success is poor.

6. High-impact strategies address how teachers approach content, classroom routines,
and spontaneous behaviors.

7. How we prepare ELLs for new information, whether linguistic or content-based, sets
them up either for success or for frustration that might result in failure.

8. Adapting and using strategies that research and practice have shown to have a high
impact is an excellent starting place for ELL teachers, but, ultimately, every teacher
needs to adapt those strategies to learners’ particular needs.

9. Teachers are empowered when they are identifying and working on problems that
are immediate and relevant and when they are participating in their solutions.

Key Terms
achievement gap Any significant and persistent disparity in academic performance or edu-
cational attainment between different groups of students.

action research “A disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the
action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the actor in improving
or refining his or her actions” (Sagor, 2000, Ch. 1).

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Summary & Resources

cooperative learning A teaching strategy in which small teams comprised of students with
different levels of ability use a variety of learning activities to increase their understanding
of a subject.

tiered questions Questions organized in a progression that begins with an easy-to-answer
question and in which each subsequent question builds on the answer to the previous one.

Critical Thinking Questions

1. How does the notion of communicative competence relate to the need for differenti-
ated instruction?

2. What is the relationship between differentiated instruction and the action research
that ELL teachers are encouraged to do?

3. Why is predictability and structure important for ELLs?
4. Why are advance organizers important for ELLs? How might they differ for beginner

and advanced learners?
5. Read Classroom Courtroom: Two Scenarios again and suggest a follow-up lesson

using another scenario.
6. Why is it important for ELLs to be able to summarize what they read (or hear)?

What transferable cognitive skills will they build?
7. What does the label “overachiever” imply about expectations that others may have

of the learner labeled in that way?
8. Why is practice important and how can it be made consistent with authentic lan-

guage use?

Additional Resources
For greater detail about teaching in a standards-based environment and about differentiated
classrooms, see
http://www.nycteachingfellows.org/fellows/June%202004%20Guidebook

An excellent article on differentiating instruction for middle school ELLs can be found at
http://www.amle.org/BrowsebyTopic/WhatsNew/WNDet/TabId/270/ArtMID/888/
ArticleID/350/Differentiating-Instruction-for-ELLs.aspx

For further information on action research, see
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/100047/chapters/What-Is-Action-
Research%C2%A2.aspx

An excellent discussion of the importance of teachers having high expectations for learners,
supported by research findings, is available at
http://www.greaterexpectations.org/briefing_papers/improvestudentlearning.html

pip82223_08_c08_197-230.indd 229 6/30/15 12:16 PM

http://www.nycteachingfellows.org/fellows/June 2004 Guidebook

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/100047/chapters/What-Is-Action-Research%C2%A2.aspx

http://www.greaterexpectations.org/briefing_papers/improvestudentlearning.html

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265

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter you will be able to accomplish the following objectives:

• Articulate the major themes that influence the teaching of English language learners.

• Apply the themes to a lesson plan in social studies for a class of diverse learners.

• Describe how emergent digital media can be used in the planning and delivery of curriculum and instruction.

• Compare traditional assessment tools with those made possible by digital media and evaluate their useful-
ness for the classroom teacher.

• Explain why professional learning communities are valuable to teachers, especially teachers of dual language
learners.

Putting It All Together 10

Oki_SwanOmurphy_/iStock/Thinkstock

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Section 10.1 The Synthesis: Twelve Takeaways for Teaching ELLs

Introduction
This chapter has three purposes. The first is to synthesize the key ideas that shaped the last
nine chapters into the dozen major themes that best capture the information and discus-
sions that have emerged. The second is to apply that synthesis by examining how the 12 ideas
are represented in practice by peeking over the shoulder of one practicing teacher. The third
purpose is to examine how teaching practice can be enhanced by two emergent trends: the
growing use of digital technologies and the establishment of professional learning communi-
ties (PLCs).

We begin by identifying the topics that have recurred again and again as we examined them
from a variety of perspectives, and then we see how these topics relate to an ELL teacher’s
classroom practice. More precisely, we will work through a real exercise—a teacher’s intro-
ductory lesson plan for a social studies unit for his diverse sixth grade class. Actually, you
will see only part of the teacher’s plan, a skeleton that provides you with the opportunity to
add flesh by applying what you have learned by completing and supplementing the plan with
ideas of your own. In completing the plan, it is likely that you will look for ideas. Where you
look and how you plan will likely mirror what highly effective teachers do regularly—look for
digital resources and find out what others are doing. The last two sections of the chapter rec-
ognize the fact that the demands placed on teachers today necessitate a greater and broader
pool of resources. Being able to adapt to and to use newer technologies effectively to plan,
teach, and evaluate is part of a teacher’s professional skill set, and particularly, as schools
commit to meeting the high standards set by the Common Core, the ability to work coopera-
tively and collaboratively with other educators is also an essential tool.

10.1 The Synthesis: Twelve Takeaways for Teaching ELLs
We have covered a great deal of material in the previous nine chapters, and as we have seen,
certain topics recurred again and again as we examined many of the same issues from differ-
ent perspectives or through different lenses. For example, we first visited the topic of culture
in Chapter 1 in a description of the demographics of the United States and how an increas-
ingly diverse population is impacting our classrooms. But culture was also a dominant topic
for discussion in Chapter 2 in our discussion of the relationship between language, learning,
and culture. Because this relationship underlies every decision we make about ELLs, whether
in placement, program and curriculum planning, instruction, or assessment, we revisited cul-
ture multiple times. Culture emerges, then, as the first of 12 themes that emerge from the
previous chapters:

1. Culture shapes how we see the world, and culture shock, which occurs when a
person moves from one culture to another, can affect ELLs’ adjustment to school-
ing as well as their success in learning the language and making progress in school.
Teachers must be open to learning about new cultures and sensitive to the different
perspectives ELLs have on the world.

2. Learners commonly referred to as ELLs are an extremely diverse group. These
learners don’t all arrive conveniently in kindergarten, learn English in two years,
and continue in mainstream classes until graduation. They arrive at different ages
speaking different languages, (although according to the Center for Public Education,

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http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Instruction/What-research-says-about-English-language-learners-At-a-glance/Preparing-English-language-learners-for-academic-success.html

Section 10.1 The Synthesis: Twelve Takeaways for Teaching ELLs

79% of ELLs in the United States speak Spanish), and take different lengths of time to
become proficient in English. Some will have language or learning impairments and
others will be gifted. They will arrive with different levels of education, first language
literacy, and with different attitudes toward Americans and schooling. This diversity
is what makes teaching ELLs such a challenge and such a joy.

3. The four language domains (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are inextrica-
bly linked in the school context. In an informal setting, it is perfectly possible for a
person to learn to speak the language without learning to read and write it—infants
do it, as do the nearly 800 million illiterate people in the world, 67 million of them
children, who do not have access to schooling (Cree, Kay, & Steward, 2012). We have
also seen that it is possible to acquire a “reading” knowledge of a language without
having much oral proficiency. Neither condition is ideal, of course, and in the school
setting it is impossible. All four skills can and should be taught together, although
some degree of oral language usually comes first.

4. Background knowledge and linguistic and educational experience profoundly affect
success in both language and content learning. No learner of any age is a tabula rasa.
What ELLs bring in terms of prior education and literacy not only influences the
speed with which they will learn English, it affects the program options available,
and teaching methods and techniques used, and can ultimately influence their suc-
cess in school.

5. The goal of language teaching and learning is communicative competence, which
must include both social and academic language facility. To help their ELLs to
achieve communicative competence, teachers need to ensure that the language they
hear and see (in print or other visual forms) is challenging but comprehensible, but
they also have to take into account the affective variables of motivation, attitude,
anxiety and self-confidence. The quality of interaction is extremely important for
achieving comprehensible input and for lowering the barriers that may be pres-
ent due to learners’ uncertainty or anxiety. The result should be communicative
language teaching that is learner-centered, does not focus on errors, emphasizes
listening and speaking, and does not rely (heavily, if at all) on any use of the home
language.

6. English should be viewed as an additional language, not a replacement for the home
language. This is an extremely important viewpoint for teachers of ELLs to hold and
to embody in everything they do. Everything an ELL has learned in the past is impor-
tant to the learning that will occur. Moreover, as we saw in Chapter 3, there is strong
research evidence that bilingualism may confer significant cognitive advantages. Any
indication on the school’s part that English is somehow more important or is meant
to replace the home language is not only ill-conceived; it is counterproductive to
learners’ motivation and adaptation.

7. The interdisciplinary focus and organization of the Common Core standards accords
with communicative language teaching (CLT) because CLT emphasizes authentic,
purposeful language use and practice.

8. Literacy is at the heart of learning English and content simultaneously. All content
learning in school is dependent on the ability to read and the ability to demonstrate
that learning is dependent on the ability to write. In order for ELLs to succeed in
acquiring all the curricular content and to demonstrate their understanding, they
have to be able to read and write at progressively higher levels of proficiency. The
Common Core State Standards focus primarily on literacy precisely because it is
foundational to all content learning.

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Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

9. In Chapter 7, we saw that the CCSS are centered on reading and math skills, with
the expectation that reasoning and comprehension skills advance each year. Care-
ful planning is needed to build language and content skills incrementally, and it is
important to know the abilities and skills of each learner in order to know when and
how to adapt reading or writing tasks to the appropriate level without compromis-
ing the content. One way of accomplishing this is the use of educational scaffolding.

10. ELLs are overrepresented on the rolls of special education programs and are under-
represented in gifted programs. One of the reasons for this disproportionality is the
fact that few measures exist that can assess language or learning impairments both
in English and the ELL’s home language.

11. The entire issue of assessment is problematic for ELLs. Standardized tests, school
or district tests, classroom tests, are all language dependent and thus run the risk of
not truly representing what ELLs know. Accommodations need to be made to ensure
fairness and accuracy of results.

12. Diverse learners require diversified instruction (one size does not fit all). Based
on the information they gather from a variety of sources, teachers use knowledge
about learners and the multitude of factors that influence how they learn to create
high-impact strategies or adapt strategies for mainstream learners in order to help
ELLs to succeed linguistically and
academically.

These 12 points summarize the breadth
of the business of teaching English to dual
language learners. Developing depth as a
teacher, however, requires experience, but
it also requires ongoing effort. Teaching
ELLs is a joy but it is also a huge challenge,
and so it is incumbent on us as teachers to
keep current through ongoing professional
development (PD), and to exploit all avail-
able resources. In the remainder of this
chapter, as we continue to synthesize what
we have learned so far, we will also discuss
the use of those resources from the per-
spective of one teacher, Alejandro Sanchez,
a sixth grade teacher in a suburban school.

10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques
Just as the four language domains, or skills, are not acquired independently. nor independent
of critical thinking skills, the techniques used in teaching should not be one-dimensional. They
must be varied and tailored to the task and to the learner. We know that there are many differ-
ent ways in which students learn and that certain learning styles, or preferences, respond better
to certain kinds of input than to others—some learners need to see print or other visual forms,
while others are able to recall well after hearing the material once or twice. Some people learn
more readily on their own, but others learn more effectively in groups, and there are several
other dimensions along which learners may vary. The teacher’s goal is to make input compre-
hensible to all.

Monkeybusinessimages/iStock/Thinkstock
Diverse children require diversified
instruction. Computer-based technologies
make it easier for teachers to individualize
learning plans.

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Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

To make input comprehensible to diverse learners, teachers must take advantage of the wide range
of media available to them. For many years, teachers have used realia, gestures, pictures, drama,
captioned video, and a whole host of other media, in addition to print. In recent years, they have
also been able to take advantage of content available electronically and accessible by computer or
other electronic devices. Although the term multimedia is often used with particular reference to
information that is created, played, displayed, or accessed by computer or other electronic devices,
here we use the term in its original meaning: content that uses different forms of media.

We have seen throughout this book that it is possible to work on all four language skills even
when the focus is on content and one particular skill, such as social studies content and read-
ing comprehension. Rather than reiterate what we have already seen, let’s look instead at
how one teacher integrated the four language skills content using a variety of media for ELLs
and native English speakers in the same class.

An Extended Example: Mr. Sanchez’s Sixth Grade Lesson
Alejandro Sanchez is in his third year of teaching in a suburban elementary-middle school. At
the beginning of the school year, his roster of sixth grade students included 13 native speak-
ers of English and 10 English language learners. He knew that most of the ELLs were Spanish
speakers because he had supervised them in lunch room and recess the previous year. Two
ELLs were new to the school according to the notes the principal had attached to the roster.
One was a newly arrived Argentinian boy named David and the other was Elena, a Russian girl
who had been adopted a few months earlier by a U.S. family. The principal noted that Elena
appeared to understand some English and that it was likely that she had had limited educa-
tion in Russia; she had attended school “in the orphanage.” Mr. Sanchez had done sufficient
reading to know that was code for very basic or no formal education. The other eight ELLs
were Spanish speakers, and although Mr. Sanchez hoped that in sixth grade they would be
fully bilingual, he knew that was not always the case.

Even before he met the class, Mr. Sanchez was concerned about Elena. He knew that she
would likely need an intensive English language program of some kind if she were to have
any hope of catching up with her classmates. Unfortunately, the school did not have many
options, but before he could consider what might be available, he needed a clear picture of
her language proficiency in English. He also needed to know more about her literacy level in
Russian, how much schooling she had had and what deficiencies she might have. He decided
to test David and Elena together on English language proficiency using the instrument that
the district approved for ELLs, the LAS Links, a test intended to test proficiency in all four
language domains in order to determine the correct placement of newly arrived ELLs, (see
Chapter 4). Unfortunately, this test would not be given for several weeks and he would be
meeting his class in ten days. What would he do?

He wasn’t too worried about David. Bilingual himself, Mr. Sanchez was confident of his abili-
ties to learn a great deal about David’s abilities by talking with him and his family and by
administering an informal reading inventory (IRI), which he could administer in both Spanish
and English, if necessary. He was more concerned about Elena because he knew less about
her background and nothing at all about the Russian language. He called the district office and
talked to the consultant who said that they had no resources in Russian, but that she would
consult with her colleague in another district. A few days before students were to begin, when
he still had not heard from the district office, he decided to proceed with Elena in the same
way as with David. If he later had reason to suspect any kind of learning disability or language

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Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

impairment, he would worry about finding a way to assess her in Russian then. In the mean-
time, he called the families of the two children and learned as much as he could about them.

Planning for Diversity
After much thought, Mr. Sanchez decided to begin by conducting an informal reading assess-
ment. For the IRI, Mr. Sanchez chose this passage from ReadWorks that was appropriate for
fifth graders in content and at a reading level that would be accessible to many third and most
fifth graders:

Earth Science: Earthquakes

One summer I was in Las Vegas with my family. Our hotel room was on one
of the top floors of a high-rise building. There was a morning of that vacation
I will never forget. We woke up around 6:00 a.m. The building was shaking and
swaying back and forth like a pendulum. It was an earthquake. Las Vegas is in
the western state of Nevada, which is right next to California. The epicenter
was actually in California, but we still felt it over 100 miles away.

Earthquakes occur when plates in the Earth’s crust rub together. This friction
causes the surface to shift back and forth. It also makes huge cracks in the
ground, sometimes miles long and several feet deep.

Luckily, that summer in Las Vegas, my family got out of the building safely. I was
never so scared in all my life. Others in history have not been so fortunate.
On Jan. 17, 1995, an earthquake struck in Kobe, Japan. It caused over 6,000
deaths. In 1906, a huge earthquake hit San Francisco, killing over 3,000 peo-
ple and destroying over 25,000 buildings. (Grade 5, 185 words, Lexile 710)

The boldfaced words had definitions provided (in English) at the bot-
tom of the page. Working with each student separately, Mr. Sanchez
gave them as much time as they needed to read the brief passage, and
then asked them a series of questions orally. His assessment of David
confirmed what the boy’s parents had told him, that he was a good
student and a fast learner. David’s answers were brief and awkwardly
phrased, and he resorted to Spanish occasionally to make himself
understood, but it was clear that he had been able to understand the
passage. He had understood, for example, the inference that being on
a high floor in a hotel was scarier than being on a lower floor, although
he had to explain it in Spanish.

Elena was a different matter. Mr. Sanchez knew that Russian has a different alphabet, but her
adopted family had assured him that she had learned the English alphabet already and could
“read a little.” When he gave her the passage, she stared at the paper for two or three minutes
before looking up. When Mr. Sanchez asked “Where is Las Vegas?” she shrugged her shoul-
ders. When he pointed to the paper and asked her “What is this about?” she replied, “Story.”
“What is the story about?” he asked. She looked at the page again and then said, “Family,” and
then continued, “Family go trip.” “Where?” he asked. “Japan,” she responded. At this point,
Mr. Sanchez realized that she had some decoding and word recognition skills (Chapter 6) but
she was a long way from being able to cope with the sixth grade curriculum. He called the

What questions would you ask?

Should this concern
Mr. Sanchez?

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Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

district office and insisted that they send either an ELL teacher or a reading specialist to work
with Elena. The district office agreed to send an ESL specialist to work with Elena for an hour
a day, four days a week (Chapter 4). Ms. Davison would work with Elena on her language skills
but she would integrate her work with whatever content the class was working on. It would
be a team effort, the ESL specialist explained on her first day. Beginning in the second week of
school, Elena spent one hour a day with Ms. Davison, except on Wednesdays, and the remain-
der of the time she was in class with Mr. Sanchez and 22 other sixth graders.

To see how Mr. Sanchez planned for his very diverse class—besides the ELLs, the 13 native
speakers represented a wide range of abilities including one student who was likely gifted
and one who had a mild learning disability—we skip ahead to the end of the beginning of
the second quarter. The social studies lesson he planned to introduce—a unit on home-
lessness—demonstrates integrated content, language objectives and activities, a variety of
teaching techniques, and multimedia materials. As you read the following lesson plan and
participate in expanding it, think about what additional themes are applied from the previ-
ous nine chapters.

Teacher(s): Mr. Sanchez

Subject: Social Studies

Grade: Six_________ Time allotted: 1.5—2.5 hours

Part 1: Setting Objectives

Content
objectives

Relevance/
rationale

Language objectives
(ELL modifications indicated in italics.)

CCSS
alignment

To state the
main causes of
homelessness

To raise aware-
ness about the
plight of the
homeless

Key vocabulary
(in boldface in passage)

RI.6.1
RI.6.2
RI.6.10
RI.6.4
L.6.4.A
L.6.4.B
L.6.4.C
L.6.4.D

To explain
the relation-
ship between
poverty and
homelessness

To understand
that people do
not choose to
be homeless

Reading
To read with sufficient comprehension to answer
the following:

1. What social issue is the focus of the passage?
2. What are homeless shelters?
3. What are the two main reasons that people

are homeless?
4. Why don’t all homeless people live in govern-

ment housing?
5. What is the link between homelessness and

poverty?
6. Why does homelessness cause stress on

families?
7. What kind of stress?
8. Why do you think the author wrote this

article?

RI.6.1
RI.6.3
RI.6.6

(continued)

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Grade 6

Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

Part 1: Setting Objectives (continued)

Content
objectives
Relevance/
rationale
Language objectives
(ELL modifications indicated in italics.)
CCSS
alignment

The ESL teacher recommended working with Elena
on a simplified passage and simplified wording of
the comprehension questions before it was intro-
duced in class.

To differentiate between claims supported by fact,
and evidence from claims that are not supported
by fact

To compare
and differenti-
ate between
three kinds of
homelessness

To avoid mak-
ing negative
judgments
about the
homeless
To articulate
why unin-
formed judg-
ments about
people are
often wrong

Listening
To demonstrate comprehension by taking of
notes prior to reading passage
To demonstrate comprehension by following all
directions and responding to questions.

To describe the
choices that
poverty forces
people to make
and explain why
they are difficult

Speaking
To answer the eight questions in sentences flu-
ently and with appropriate detail
To ask questions arising from the text
To ask appropriate questions seeking clarification

SL6.1.A
SL6.1.B
SL6.1.D
SL6.1.C

To explain what
is meant by pub-
lic assistance
and why it may
be needed

Writing
To take notes on the pre-reading vocabulary
activity
To use idioms from the passage in original
sentences

To answer the eight comprehension questions in
well-formed sentences
To produce a 250-word paper on a subject related
to passage

SLW.6.4
SLW.6.5
SLW.6.6
SLW.6.7
SLW.6.8

Grammar
To correctly use the relative clause formation
(There are also homeless people who . . .) using
who and which

Text structure
To explain the writer’s point of view or purpose
for writing the text
To explain what a chosen sentence fits into the
structure of the paragraph or text

RI.6.6
RI.6.5

Which CCSS
standard
aligns with
this goal?
What activi-
ties would
you add to
the delivery
plan to help
students
meet this
standard?

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Grade 6

Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

Part 2: Delivery

Lesson sequence Technique
(ELL modifications indicated in italics.)

Materials

Introduction/
orientation
Show pictures of
homeless people
beginning with
most obvious (i.e.,
“street people”
and concluding
with a child going
to school with a
backpack), mak-
ing the point that
these people all
have something in
common that we
can’t see.
Elicit possibilities
and list on board.

Elicit what all the people shown
in the photos have in common.
Multiple paraphrases:

How are they all alike?

What is the same about all these people?

What could they have in common that you
might not see?

Ask additional questions (e.g., if student
says “they are sad,” ask Why do you think
they are sad? Or What makes them sad?
How do you know they are sad?

Provide advance organizer for the passage
and sentence frames for the questions

Provide simplified passage for ELLs who
are reading significantly below fifth grade
level or below Lexile 700

Pictures

Teacher
presentation/
modeling

Read the text aloud.
Present simplified version of text first for
ELLs with lower literacy skills (see below).

Text (See Homelessness)
Simplified version of text

Student
participation/
practice

Rephrase some comprehension questions
(#5: Why are poor people more likely to be
homeless? And #8, Why can we not ignore
homelessness?)

ELLs use simplified text as prompts for
answering comprehension questions.

Others?

*Reader participation especially
encouraged in this area

Independent
practice

Group discussion: Small groups discuss
“What can we do to help eliminate home-
lessness?” Take notes and be prepared to
report back to class
Pair less proficient ELLs with academically
strong native speakers.

Other ideas?

*Reader participation especially
encouraged in this area

Synthesis/
summary
Introduce new
vocabulary and
idioms before
viewing video

Ask learners to put up their hands if there is
a part they do not understand. Teacher does
not stop the viewing but makes note of the
part to address later with ELLs.

Make video available for students to view
later.

Related reading

See NBC reporter Ann Curry’s
Employed but Still Homeless video at

https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=MdbHEZp0WPA
Students could make their own video
about homelessness in their town or
city.
Sarah Lean’s book A Dog Called Home-
less (Lexile 660)

Other ideas?
*Reader participation especially
encouraged in this area

Why would
Mr. S. use
fifth grade
and 700
Lexile as cut
off for sixth
graders?

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Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

Part 3: Formative assessment

Content objectives Language
objectives

What defines success? How measured?
(ELL modifications indicated
in italics.)

To state the
main causes of
homelessness

Answers in accord with text
Answers that could be extrapo-
lated from text

Less proficient ELLs complete
statement: Poor people might be
homeless because . . . .

Correct answers to quiz ques-
tions (written)
Accept oral answers or provide
prompts for written answers
(the words, transitional, chronic,
episodic).

To explain the rela-
tionship between
poverty and
homelessness

Response, orally or in writ-
ing, that poor people have
little money and fewer choices
about how to spend it, and
housing is expensive

To compare and dif-
ferentiate between
three kinds of
homelessness

Ability to differentiate

To describe the
choices that
poverty forces
people to make and
explain why they
are difficult

*Reader participation espe-
cially encouraged in this area

*Reader participation especially
encouraged in this area

To explain what is
meant by public
assistance and why
it may be needed

Understanding of
key vocabulary

Ability to use correctly in
speech and writing
Ability to identify and use
alternative forms (e.g., epi-
sodic/episode or transient/
transition/transitional)
Ability to use in other contexts

Key words used in oral and
written responses
Quiz at end of lesson:
______________ refers to something
that happens occasionally and
at irregular intervals.
Matching exercise with words on
one side of the paper and defini-
tions on the other

Others?

*Reader partici-
pation especially
encouraged in
this area

The Passage: “About Homelessness”
Homelessness is an issue that affects people of every age and from every country. If you walk
down the street in many big cities in the United States, you might notice people sleeping on
the sidewalk or begging for food or money. These individuals are very visible to passersby,
and it is difficult to ignore them. But there are also homeless people who do not sleep on the
streets. They are not as visible to the public eye, but they are also homeless. These people
often spend their nights sleeping in shelters, which provide food, rooms, and often a variety

Why is it
fair to use
these terms
as prompts?

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Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

of social services (like daycare). We might not see these people on the streets, but it does not
mean that they aren’t suffering.

When thinking about homelessness, one of the first questions that might come to mind is: why
are people homeless? People become homeless for a variety of reasons, often outside of their
own personal control. Two key reasons have been identified on why people become homeless.
The first is a lack of affordable housing. The second is poverty, or the condition of being poor.
The government is usually responsible for providing affordable housing to people and families
in need. It builds large apartment buildings or housing developments for people who cannot
afford to live elsewhere. Sometimes there is not enough affordable housing for all the people
who need it. Those who are unable to secure housing may become homeless.

Homelessness and poverty are quite clearly linked. Poor people must often choose between
such important things as buying food or paying for medical care versus paying the rent. When
poor people are faced with these difficult decisions, housing is often the first expense to be
dropped because it generally requires the most amount of money. Many of the homeless in
the United States are simply unable to find jobs due to a lack of opportunity. Others are men-
tally ill or addicted to drugs. Still others who are homeless have previously relied on public
assistance but have lost that assistance for one reason or another. An example of a public
assistance program is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides help
for people who struggle to afford healthy and nutritious food.

There are three distinct kinds of homelessness. The first is called chronic homelessness, and it
represents the group of people who move from shelter to shelter in a seemingly never-ending
cycle. Often, the chronically homeless are older, and often suffer from disabilities or addiction.
The second type of homelessness is called transitional homelessness, and it describes people
who must enter a shelter for a short period of time. For example, if they are evicted from their
homes for not being able to pay the rent, they might go into a shelter or enter government-based
transitional housing. They may live there for up to two years until they are able to get back on
their feet. The third kind of homeless is called episodic homelessness, which accounts for peo-
ple who move in and out of shelters at various points throughout their life. Those who experience
episodic homelessness usually have difficulty maintaining steady employment. People who
are considered transitionally homeless and those who are episodically homeless are often young.

Homelessness rises when people are unable to find or keep jobs. But it also affects people who
are not even employed in the first place—children under sixteen years old. As minors, they are
not legally allowed to work. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, one in
every 45 children experiences homelessness each year. Most families that experience homeless-
ness are made up of a mother and her children. The National Center on Family Homelessness
reports that 29% of adults in homeless families in the United States are working. Yet the wages
are often not enough to support the various needs of a family, like healthcare, food, and shel-
ter. Furthermore, many families try to stay out of shelters. Shelters can be noisy, overcrowded,
and stressful places for both children and parents. These families would often rather stay at the
homes of friends or relatives, or even sleep in their cars. Families that experience homelessness
in any situation are under a ton of stress, due to the lack of stability and privacy.

There are no simple solutions to this major social issue. But homelessness affects too many
people around the world to be ignored. (Grade 4, 731 words, Lexile 1120)

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Section 10.2 Applying ELL Teaching Techniques

The Modified Passage
Homelessness affects people of every age and every country. In many cities, you might see
people sleeping on the sidewalk or begging for food or money. It is easy to see these people
but hard to ignore them. Not all homeless people sleep outside, and we do not see them.
These people often sleep in shelters that provide food, rooms, and often some social services
(like daycare). We might not see these people on the streets, but they are suffering.

Why are people homeless? There are two main reasons that people become homeless. One is
that housing costs too much where they live. The second is poverty. The government some-
times builds large apartment buildings or housing developments for people who cannot afford
to live elsewhere. Sometimes there is not enough of this housing for everybody who needs it.
When people cannot find a place to live that they can afford, they may become homeless.

Homelessness and poverty are clearly related. Sometimes poor people must choose between
buying food, or healthcare, and paying the rent. When poor people are forced to choose, they
may not choose housing because it costs more. Many homeless people in the United States
cannot find jobs because there are no jobs nearby or because they do not have the skills to do
the jobs. Others may be mentally ill or addicted to drugs. Still others once received govern-
ment assistance but lost that assistance. An example of a government assistance program is
one that provides help for buying food.

There are three different kinds of homelessness. The first is chronic homelessness and describes
people who move from shelter to shelter over a long period of time. Often, the chronically
homeless are older, and often suffer from disabilities or addiction.

The second type of homelessness is, transitional homelessness and it describes people who
are homeless for a short period of time. For example, if they are evicted from their homes
because they cannot pay the rent, they might go to a shelter or enter government housing.
They may live there for up to two years until they are able to afford other housing.

The third kind of homelessness, episodic homelessness, describes people who move in and
out of shelters at various points throughout their lives. These homeless people usually have
a hard time keeping a job. They are often young. More people are homeless when people are
unable to find or keep jobs. Some are children under sixteen years old who are not legally
allowed to work. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, one in every
45 children is homeless. Most homeless families are made up of a mother and her children.
The National Center on Family Homelessness reports that 29% of adults in homeless families
have jobs but do not earn enough to pay for the things their families need. Also, many families
try to avoid shelters. Shelters can be noisy, overcrowded, and stressful places for everyone.
These families would often rather stay at the homes of friends or relatives, or even sleep in
their cars. Homeless families are under a lot of stress because they have no privacy and their
future is uncertain.

There are no simple solutions to this major social issue. But homelessness affects too many
people around the world to be ignored. (555 words, Lexile 970)

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Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology

10.3 Using Digital Technology
Mr. Sanchez’s lesson on homelessness utilized a number
of different media, but because of the rapid increase in
the availability and use of electronic devices and applica-
tions, we should take a closer look at some of the ways
in which electronic media can be used to support learn-
ing inside and outside the classroom to realize learning
objectives and to foster independence. We also need to
consider how teachers can make use of newer technolo-
gies for assessing, tracking, and reporting student prog-
ress. Our discussion will not be exhaustive because new
applications appear with such speed that they are hard
to track and evaluate. The point of this section is to exam-
ine some of the possibilities and to encourage teachers
to stay abreast of developments in technology for educa-
tional use.

Classroom Applications
Students need to be “self-directed learners,
effectively seeking out and using resources
to assist them, including teachers, peers, and
print and digital reference materials.” (CCSS,
ELA Anchor Standards)

One way to engage students actively in the process of learning is to use a variety of media,
especially those most familiar to them such as electronic notebooks and tablets. Using these
media helps to maintain interest while carefully chosen applications advance learning. More-
over, as we saw in Chapter 7, while the CCSS do not specify a separate set of standards for
technology, there is a clear expectation of technological proficiency in both the English lan-
guage arts/reading and the mathematical standards. As stated in the standards,

New technologies have broadened and expanded the role that speaking and
listening play in acquiring and sharing knowledge and have tightened their
link to other forms of communication. Digital texts confront students with
the potential for continually updated content and dynamically changing
combinations of words, graphics, images, hyperlinks, and embedded video and
audio. (Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2015)

Mathematically proficient students at various grade levels are able to identify
relevant external mathematical resources, such as digital content located on
a website, and use them to pose or solve problems. They are able to use tech-
nological tools to explore and deepen their understanding of concepts. (Com-
mon Core State Standards Initiative, 2015)

Digital media, and particularly the Internet, have accelerated the speed at which the connec-
tions can be made between speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students are required to

Zhekos/iStock/Thinkstock
Digital technology is
transforming the way that
children learn and teachers
teach. These boys are as
comfortable with digital tablets
as they are with coloring books.

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Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology

use all four modalities, often simultaneously and across all content areas. So while technologi-
cal savvy is in itself a goal, there is little need to treat it as a separate subject in the curriculum
because the need to use the tools of current technology is embedded into every aspect of the
curriculum from preschool through university. The challenge for teachers is that what is “cur-
rent” changes extremely rapidly, meaning that both teachers and learners need to be adapt-
able in response to that change. Ellen, the teacher we met in Chapter 1, puts the issue into
temporal context in A Teacher’s Story: Change and Challenge.

A Teacher’s Story: Change and Challenge

I remember in my third or fourth year of teaching, my colleagues and I were upset when the
district made the decision to change the math text book series for grades one through three.
I was comfortable with the old series and couldn’t see any reason for changing it. To make
matters worse, they also changed the social studies text to make it more accurate. Well, I was
very comfortable with the math and social studies books, and I was not happy about so much
change happening so fast. Can you imagine? I thought that was change!

In this last decade of my career, I’ve had to cope with NCLB, with the adoption of the Common
Core State Standards, with a new computer adaptive system for measuring student progress,
and with my school’s new tablet policy—this year, every third grader was issued an electronic
tablet and the school held a workshop for teachers that lasted for two full days on how to
integrate them into our teaching. When I started teaching, a tablet was made of cardboard and
paper, and we didn’t need professional development to learn how to use it. Now, a tablet looks
like a miniature television set, and even after the PD (personal development), it feels like I
spend most of my time online just trying to catch up with what the kids know how to do when
they took them out of the boxes. Now that is change!

But somehow, as I enter my final year in the classroom, I am beginning to see that technology
can be used to make concepts clearer. If a learner is struggling, I know it sooner and I am able
to search a number of source materials for an alternate way of illustrating the troublesome
concept and do it quickly. Digital libraries make many more stories and books available, and
it is easy to determine readability for individual learners. Homework has become easier to
customize to the needs of individual learners, and I’ve seen my ELLs benefit especially from
being able to listen to audio versions of text as they follow along. Interactive comprehension
questions allow them to work at their own pace, and there are some excellent games available
that really are educational. Every day, I see more potential for using these new technologies to
augment and supplement my teaching. When a bilingual boy suspected of having a learning
disability was assigned to my class, I not only had the school district’s resources to call on, I
also had an online community to consult. I was able to find excellent materials, a list of support
services in Spanish available in our community, and suggestions for adapting my teaching to
include Jake. I also found that it was easier to communicate with parents via email or text—I
could see whether they had read my messages or not, which was a great improvement over the
days when I could only hope that the note I sent home actually got there.

Last year, my colleague Jim’s fifth grade class built a class website they named “Our Space in
Cyberspace.” It is on the school’s intranet so everyone in the school can view it, and parents

(continued)

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Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology

We learn from Ellen and Mr. Sanchez that there are many applications for new technologies.

1. Communicating with parents. Parental involvement is important to learners’ success.
Setting up parent-teacher conferences, inviting them to school events such as con-
certs or plays, soliciting volunteers for field trips or class activities, notifying them
of upcoming educational or sports events—technology can play a role in all of these.
Many schools produce a regular electronic newsletter to keep parents informed
about and to try to engage them in classroom activities.

2. Engaging learners. Even experienced teachers face the task of getting learners
interested in and actively engaged in learning content that does not immediately
appeal to them. Solar energy, for example, might not be a compelling topic for study
for some fourth graders. Introducing it with key words or a list of facts about the sun
might be helpful, especially for ELLs’ comprehension, but will likely do little to excite
learners. One teacher, while doing an Internet search, found a website called What
If ? that gave him an idea. He began by taking a contrarian approach: By presenting
the case that the sun going out would have many benefits to humans, and then he
challenged the students to prove that the disadvantages would outweigh the advan-
tages. Before allowing the students to go searching for counterexamples, this teacher
led them to pose hypotheses about what might happen if the sun went out and why
they thought so and then to search for the evidence in support of their hypotheses.

Another way to engage learners is with electronic interactive textbooks. The text-
books of today go well beyond pictures to supplement text with hyperlinks to web
sites that may include assignments, assessments, animations, supplemental materi-
als, video and audio files.

3. Publishing and celebrating learners’ work. Poster board displays are becoming a
thing of the past as software takes over the job of displaying information, illustrat-
ing relationships, and generally demonstrating what learners know about a subject.
There are Web tools available that allow learners to create a multimedia presenta-
tion to illustrate what they know. More traditional formats are also made easier.
Using students’ contributions to create class books, publishing individual students’
stories or portfolios of work can be quickly and inexpensively done with readily

A Teacher’s Story: Change and Challenge (continued)

can access it with a password. It provides an excellent place to publish students’ writing, to cel-
ebrate accomplishments, and to showcase art work. There is also a message board and a space for
blogs. They documented the experience of building and maintaining the site in print and also in
video. At the end of the year, they put together a three-minute video collage capturing their year
of intense learning about the net and on the net. I was amazed by what these kids accomplished,
but I had heard about the dangers of the Internet and I was skeptical. But Jim told me that the stu-
dents policed the content very responsibly, with his oversight, and so far he had had no problems
with inappropriate content or with unwanted visitors to the site. I may try it myself this year.

I used to worry that technology would replace teachers, but I now know that is not the case
and never will be. It’s a very powerful tool, and used appropriately it has the potential to make
good teachers great, which means that all students will benefit. It is so exciting that some days
I almost regret my decision to retire.

pip82223_10_c10_265-298.indd 279 6/30/15 2:13 PM

https://what-if.xkcd.com/49/

Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology

available word processing and publication software. Online publication on class or
school websites is another way to share work within the school or with parents, but
paper publication is also possible. One caution: Web publication provides the pos-
sibility of a much wider audience, and so teachers must carefully monitor the sites
on which learners comment about their work or their lives. Most schools have safety
measures built into their intranet or portal to the Internet, but once children leave
the school, dangers exist, and so it is useful each year, or even more often, to conduct
a reminder lesson on Internet safety. There are several available free, including one
at GCF LearnFree for older learners and one from Brainpop Educators for younger
children.

4. Research. As we saw in Chapter 7, the Common Core State Standards require that
students be able to conduct research and evaluate source materials. Research used
to be so labor intensive that teachers specified a minimum number of source materi-
als just to ensure that students spent time learning how to search for relevant evi-
dence. The long hours in the library have been replaced by a few mouse clicks as the
Internet has made research easier and faster for both teachers and students. While
care must be taken to ensure that students understand that not all source materials
on the Internet are accurate, the problem of unfiltered search results is becoming
easier to manage. One reason is that, increasingly, peer reviewed journals are mak-
ing their content available via digital media, and these journals may be accessed
directly or through membership in a library that holds the digital subscription. Nev-
ertheless, teaching students how to filter and use quality information is necessary to
ensure that they are able to meet the rigorous standards for evidence-based reason-
ing that the CCSS establish.

5. Communication. An elementary teacher with several years’ experience recently com-
mented that “note-passing is a thing of the past.” It isn’t, of course, but now the notes
are text or email messages. Web logs (blogs) dedicated to particular subjects of
interest are a great way to build learning communities, of teachers and of students.

6. Organization. Past generations of teachers, especially English teachers, risked back
injury with all the paper and books that they carried home with them most nights.
Books, three ring binders with lesson plans, grade books, student papers and port-
folios—the mountain of paper
was overwhelming. Their desks
were covered with stacks of
assignments to mark, assign-
ments to return, lesson plans,
grade books, appointment books,
attendance sheets, permission
forms, and any number of other
kinds of paper. Today, teachers
have many technological tools at
their disposal to eliminate most
paper and to speed up all the
processes that all that paper
represented. Parent-teacher
conferences are more produc-
tive because parents can track
their children’s progress on
line and communicate with

Lisa F. Young/iStock/Thinkstock
The Internet has given teachers many more
resources to call upon as they work together
to meet the learning goals they collaboratively
established.

pip82223_10_c10_265-298.indd 280 6/30/15 2:13 PM

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/internetsafety/1.2

http://www.brainpop.com/educators/community/bp-jr-topic/internet-safety/

Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology

teachers more readily. Organization has been simplified by technology and as more
integrative applications are developed, it will become even easier for teachers to
deal with the administrative functions more easily and free them to spend time on
the things that more directly impact learning.

7. Professional development for teachers. New technologies offer a plethora of opportu-
nities and options for teachers to find ideas for teaching, discover new techniques,
discuss possible solutions for classroom problems, stay up to date with district,
state, and national regulations, seek information about how others are implement-
ing CCSS, and share best practices. There are many different types of media, and
those listed below include a few examples as illustrations of what is available; for
each medium, there are many more:

• Podcasts are digital audio, video, PDF, or ePub files made available on the Internet
to be downloaded onto a computer or portable media player—iTunes, for example,
has a subscription to podcasts for ELS learners including several short grammar les-
sons. Many of the podcasts on iTunes are interactive as well as free.

• Blogs or weblogs—such as Edublogs, Sciencefix, and Mrs. Cassidy’s Classroom Blog to
name but a few—invite observers to witness experienced teachers in action and, in Mrs.
Cassidy’s case, to watch students as they progress in their learning. They serve as online
communities where teachers can learn from each other and share ideas that work.

• Websites of professional organizations such as the American Speech-Language-
Hearing Association (ASHA), the National Education Association (NEA), Teachers of
English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and the National Council of Teach-
ers of English (NCTE), among many others, provide useful information for teachers
on their sites and often provide links to other resources.

• Other professionally focused websites such as Colorín Colorado, which offers
resources and tips for parents and educators on almost everything related to bilin-
gual learners, and Edudemic, which focuses on making connections between tech-
nology and education, provide a wealth of information.

• Common Core State Standards website.
• Websites and information posted by other school districts. New York State,

for example, produces some excellent resources for teachers including one on
Technology-Enhanced Instruction for ESL and Bilingual Learners.

• Social media used to connect with other professionals.

These few examples illustrate the potential of technology to change the way teachers plan,
teach, assess, and organize their professional lives. But the bigger question is whether tech-
nology affects the way that people learn? In other words, does technology just make the
learning mechanisms and processes that we already have faster and more efficient? Or does
it change the way in which we learn? As we see in Figure 10.1 technology has facilitated four
major changes in how we learn.

pip82223_10_c10_265-298.indd 281 6/30/15 2:13 PM

Home

http://www.sciencefix.com/

http://mscassidysclass.edublogs.org

http://www.asha.org/

http://www.tesol.org/

http://www.ncte.org/

http://www.colorincolorado.org/

http://www.edudemic.com/

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/biling/docs/TechProjectFinal

Passive Active

Ease of differentiated and individualized instruction

Multitasking

Individual Collaborative

Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology

Figure 10.1: How technology is changing learning

Technology has changed and will continue to change the way teachers teach and learners learn.

Adapted from Lepi, K. (2014, August 6). 4 Ways Technology is Changing How People Learn.

Passive Active
Ease of differentiated and individualized instruction
Multitasking
Individual Collaborative

Some of the shifts that are taking place in how we experience learning may not answer the
question, but they suggest that we need to pay attention. As J. S. Brown states, one aspect of
the Web

is that it is the first medium that honors the notion of multiple intelligences.
This past century’s concept of “literacy” grew out of our intense belief in text,
a focus enhanced by the power of one particular technology—the typewriter.
It became a great tool for writers but a terrible one for other creative activities
such as sketching, painting, notating music, or even mathematics. The type-
writer prized one particular kind of intelligence, but with the Web, we sud-
denly have a medium that honors multiple forms of intelligence—abstract,
textual, visual, musical, social, and kinesthetic. As educators, we now have
a chance to construct a medium that enables all young people to become
engaged in their ideal way of learning. (Brown, J. S., 2000, p. 12)

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Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology

Another popular concern is that digital media are turning children into passive learners,
when in fact the opposite appears to be the case. There are two powerful arguments: First,
the definition of literacy has broadened beyond text to include image and screen literacy as
well as information navigation. As Brown states, “The real literacy of tomorrow entails the
ability to be your own personal reference librarian—to know how to navigate through con-
fusing, complex informational spaces and feel comfortable doing so” (Brown, J. S., 2000, p. 4).
The ability to navigate the Internet may well be the main form of literacy for the 21st century.

Brown goes on to point out that one of the concerns that teachers and parents often express
about digital impact on children—that they seem to have shorter attention spans—may not be
so troubling as it appears. He suggests that “the short attention spans of today’s kids may turn
out to be far from dysfunctional for future work worlds” that require exactly the kind of rapid
shifts in attention and multitasking that they are learning as users of digital devices (p. 13).
Moreover, as Prensky points out, today’s learners may have shorter attention spans for
the old ways of learning, but “their attention spans are not short for games . . . or for anything else
that actually interests them” (Prensky, M., 2001, p. 4). For the past several hundred years, the
main function of schools has been to retrain our speech-oriented brains to be able to read. Read-
ing doesn’t just happen; it almost always has to be taught (Chapters 2 and 6). With the advent of
television, the human brain once again had to be recalibrated or reprogrammed to process tele-
vision viewing. It is, thus, highly likely that the human brain is changing once more to accommo-
date the highly varied and very fast digital media. (See Digital Media and Brain Change).

Digital Media and Brain Change
Does extensive use of digital media change the way the brain learns? Probably. Based on
research in neurobiology, we know that the input can actually change brain structure and
affect the way people think and that these transformations continue through life. Here is some
of the evidence:

1. Experiments have shown that when blind people are taught braille the “visual” areas of
their brains have “lit up,” showing increased activity, even though they could not see.

2. Similarly, nonhearing people use their auditory cortex to read signs.
3. An experiment in which people were taught a complicated sequence of finger tapping

over several weeks, and then had their brains scanned, showed a larger area of the
motor cortex becoming activated than when they performed sequences they had not
practiced.

4. Researchers have found that an additional language learned later in life is stored in a
different place from the languages they learned as children.

5. A comparison of the brains of musicians and nonmusicians showed 5% greater volume
in the cerebellum of the musicians, believed to be a result of intensive musical training
and practice.

6. If the brain is not static, that is, if it reorganizes itself and changes itself based on input,
as evidence is beginning to show, then digital media has undoubtedly changed the way
in which children learn.

Source: Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants, part 2: Do they really think differently?
On the Horizon, 9(6), pp. 1–6.

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Section 10.3 Using Digital Technology

The second argument that digital learning is active rather than passive is that young people
today do not approach the learning of something new in the way previous generations did.
Today, computers and other digital media rarely come with manuals. Hand a six year old a
new cell phone or electronic tablet and it is unlikely that she will ask how it works. She cer-
tainly won’t ask to see the user’s guide. Rather, she will turn it on and get busy figuring out
how it works based on what she has already learned about how similar devices might work.

Technology is here to stay, and it has tremendous potential to have a profound effect on how
we teach and learn. Nevertheless, a word of caution is in order. As we move deeper and deeper
into technology, we have to do so with the most information available to us. Just as the Com-
mon Core State Standards are rooted in evidence, so should the methods and techniques used
to realize the standards be grounded in evidence. Before adopting a significant innovation,
whether for teaching or testing, it is important to see what the evidence tells us. Fortunately,
the very technology we need to be cautious about has also given us the means by which to
gather relevant evidence quickly and in increasingly large quantities.

Evidence Matters
In its report Expanding Evidence Approaches for Learning in a Digital World (2013), the U.S.
Department of Education advises educators to embrace big data for its capacity to provide
information not only about student outcomes but on student progress that shines light on the
learning process. Warning that the first consideration in evaluating an innovation is whether
it will align with deeper learning objectives and incorporate sound principles of learning, the
report goes on to describe “how big data and an evidence framework can align across five
contexts of educational improvement” (U.S. Department of Education, 2013, p. ix):

1. To guide improvement. By uncovering patterns of learner behavior, educational data
mining can be used to guide improvement. If, for example, a significant number of
students struggle with questions related to earth science, educators may want to
dig deeper and find out what texts are being used and whether the curriculum is
adequate.

2. To individualize teaching and learning. Adaptive learning systems adapt the presen-
tation of educational material according to individual students’ needs. By comparing

Antonio_Diaz/iStock/Thinkstock
Critics who argue that digital media are turning children into passive learners have not paid
close attention to children using digital media. Which activity appears to be more engaging to
this girl?

pip82223_10_c10_265-298.indd 284 6/30/15 2:13 PM

Section 10.4 Assessment and Record Keeping

a learner’s response to materials against a large data base of other learners’
responses, these digital resources can personalize learning by altering the pace, the
level of difficulty, or the content.

3. To guide intervention for struggling students. Increasingly, states are using statewide
data systems to track information about students, such as when they move between
schools. There is also the capability and potential, using big data, to link other
social services such as foster care, juvenile justice, or family services with school
information.

4. To shift the focus of assessment to new outcomes and to provide more timely informa-
tion to educators and learners. Newer adaptive assessment systems make it possible
to measure the types of outcomes defined by the CCSS, something that traditional
standardized tests rarely captured. Moreover, traditional norm-based standardized
tests were usually given near the end of the school year when the results were of
little value to the classroom teacher. Further, the current generation of high-stakes
tests are mostly given at year’s end. The MAP (Measures of Academic Progress)
tests described later in this chapter are a good example of how an adaptive system
can gather better data that helps teachers to individualize instruction earlier in the
school year.

5. To allow educators to make informed choices about learning resources. Ideally, educa-
tors always make their decisions based on evidence of what works and what does not,
but that evidence is not always easy to acquire. Big data is changing that, and, increas-
ingly, educators are able to choose materials and approaches based on the successes
(or failures) of other educators.

10.4 Assessment and Record Keeping
Throughout the previous chapters, we have discussed the importance of appropriate assess-
ment. Not only do teachers and schools need the information provided by summative assess-
ments done at or near the end of the school year, but teachers need to find out what students
know or don’t know, what concepts are causing them difficulty, and what they can and can-
not do in order to hone their instructional plans while there is still time to make a difference
(Chapter 4).

The Common Core State Standards established a set of objectives for each grade level, but
they did not establish a set of tests for determining whether students are on track for college
and career readiness. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education established a competitive
grant program for state consortia of 15 or more states to develop new assessment systems
aligned with the following criteria:

1. prompt return of student-level results,
2. information that helps teachers refine instruction,
3. results that measure student performance over time (to enable evaluation of teacher

and principal effectiveness), and
4. the incorporation of fair and reasonable accommodations for students with dis-

abilities and English language learners. (Center for K–12 Assessment & Performance
Management at ETS, 2012 http://www.k12center.org/rsc/pdf/Coming_Together_
April_2012_Final.PDF)

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http://www.k12center.org/rsc/pdf/Coming_Together_April_2012_Final.PDF

Section 10.4 Assessment and Record Keeping

Accountability and Progress Assessments
Two consortia were funded, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Colleges and
Careers (PARCC) and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), with 45 states and the
District of Columbia as members of one or both consortia. The member states committed to
implementing the common assessments in the 2014–15 school year to replace the NCLB assess-
ments in grades three through eight and for high school ELA and mathematics. Since 2010, some
states have withdrawn as a result of political pressure, but the consortia remain largely intact.

There are many similarities between PARCC and SBAC—both offer summative assessments
and both have optional formative (interim) tests in development. Both utilize computer tech-
nology, but PARCC uses a fixed-form delivery, meaning that students are assessed on one of
several fixed, equated sets of items or tasks. SBAC, on the other hand, uses computer adap-
tive testing (CAT), meaning that students see an individually tailored set of items or tasks.

Computer adaptive technology is also being used in the assessments developed by a third
consortium, the North West Education Association (NWEA). Unlike PARCC and SBAC, their
formative tests—Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), MAP for Primary Grades (MPG), and
Children’s Progress Academic Assessment (CPAA) for pre-K through second grade—are not
intended as mandated accountability measures. Rather, they can be given three or four times
per year and are intended to provide personalized data in a timely manner so that teachers
can adapt their teaching strategies, individualize instruction, or even change direction.

The way CAT works is straightforward: If a test taker is able to answer an intermediate level
question, the next question selected will be more difficult. If the student cannot answer an
intermediate level question, the program will select an easier one next. In that way, a truer
measure of the student’s knowledge or skill level can be attained. There is much potential in
this technology for ELL teachers because it corresponds with what we know about compre-
hensible input—in order to advance their language learning, learners need to be presented
with material that is just slightly beyond their level of competence. Table 10.1 summarizes
the similarities and differences among the three assessments.

Alternate Testing
Whatever format they take, general summative and formative tests are not suitable for all
learners (Chapter 4). No Child Left Behind mandated that states develop appropriate accom-
modations for testing reading and mathematics for learners with significant cognitive dis-
abilities, and although the states met this requirement by 2005, the type and quality of the
tests used varied from state to state. In 2010, the Obama administration offered competitive
incentive grants to spur the development of new alternative assessments to be jointly devel-
oped by state consortia.

Two consortia were funded, the Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment Consortium
(DLM) and the National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC). Aligned to the Common Core
State Standards, the instruments being developed by both consortia will be aligned with
both PARCC and SBAC. It is the objective of both DLM and NCSC to provide timely diagnostic
information along with instructional support for teachers through a system of “instruction-
ally embedded and end-of-year assessments” (Center for K–12 Assessment & Performance
Management at ETS, 2012).

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Section 10.4 Assessment and Record Keeping

Both consortia took a broader view of assessment, and the suite of tools they offer in their
assessment package includes guidance and support materials for teachers as well as profes-
sional development resources. In order to develop these assessment tools, DLM began by
defining the essential elements and achievement descriptors of the CCSS for students who
take the alternative assessment. They also developed learning maps based on the assumption
that there are multiple learning pathways to the same objective or standard. The defining fea-
ture of these learning maps is that they provide support for multiple pathways. A significant
feature of the DLM learning maps

is that they not only include the definitions of the subject specific skills that
students will acquire—such as being able to add a series of three-digit num-
bers or define a vocabulary word—but also provide useful delineation of the:

• precursor academic skills needed to master the tested skill;
• communication skills required to communicate answers through speech,

pointing, or other means; and
• attention skills needed to focus on the task or item (Center for K–12

Assessment & Performance Management at ETS, 2012, p. 35).

The DLM system utilizes a variation of CAT called dynamic delivery. Unlike CAT, which
selects items based on their difficulty, dynamic delivery relies on several pieces of informa-
tion—for example, the learner’s success with the previous item and the item’s position in the
learning map and the amount of support or prompting required. More significantly for the
learner and the teacher, the system provides immediate corrective feedback, meaning that it

Table 10.1: Properties of three consortium-created summative
and formative tests

Assessment Diagnostic Summative
(EOY)

Formative
(interim)

Standards/
content tested

Computer
adaptive

Number
of states/
students (in
millions)
using

PARCC Yes Yes In
development/
optional
component

Reading, ELA,
mathematics

No 23/25m

SBAC No Yes In
development/
optional
component

Reading, ELA,
mathematics

Yes 37/21m

NWEA MAP No Reading,
language usage,
mathematics

Yes varies/50m

NWEA
CPAA

Pre-K-3
English/
pre-K-2
Spanish

No Yes Early literacy
and math skills

Yes, with
instructional
scaffolding

pip82223_10_c10_265-298.indd 287 6/30/15 2:13 PM

Section 10.4 Assessment and Record Keeping

integrates assessment and instruction—or such is the intent. The system was scheduled to
begin in the 2014–15 school year and has not yet been used with a significant number of
learners.

The assessment system developed by NCSC is similar in its goals, if not in its method. Like
DLM, this consortium is developing formative tools along with the summative assessments
so that teachers can monitor student progress throughout the year. Instead of learning maps,
NCSC bases their tools on Learning Progression Frameworks (LPF) that describe the cur-
ricular sequence that typical students follow as they develop and demonstrate greater under-
standing in each of the content areas:

From these LPFs for mathematics and English language arts (ELA), NCSC is
developing grade-level assessment content targets and alternate achievement
standards, linked to the CCSS, for students with the most significant cognitive
disabilities. The system of assessments, curricular materials, and professional
development materials will address these grade-level learning targets in the
context of the broader curriculum for all students. (Center for K-12 Assess-
ment & Performance Management at ETS, 2012, p. 39)

Like their PARCC counterpart, NCSC is given in an essentially fixed-delivery mode, but there
are some differences. NCSC claims to have “a mechanism to determine the appropriate
parameters for each student’s assessment participation and teachers will then be given flex-
ibility to select appropriate items within those parameters” (Center for K-12 Assessment &
Performance Management at ETS, 2012, p. 39). As is the case with DLM, the NCSC consortium
assessment has not yet had extensive use and it is too early to judge how user-friendly or
effective it is.

ELLs’ Language Proficiency Testing
Since the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2001, all states have assessed K–12 English
language learners annually until they are deemed to be proficient in English. States are also
required to participate in the state academic assessments of mathematics and English lan-
guage arts. As we learned in Chapter 4, it is sometimes necessary to make accommodations
for ELLs. In 2011, the U.S. Department of Education offered a competitive grant to develop
new assessments for ELLs who met the following criteria:

• consortium members would agree on a common definition of English language
learner;

• the test would include both diagnostic and summative assessments;
• the test would assess all four domains of English language proficiency from kinder-

garten through 12th grade;
• the assessment would produce results that indicated whether individuals had

attained a level and complexity of English proficiency necessary to participate fully
in academic instruction entirely in English;

• the assessment tools would be accessible to all English language learners except
those who were eligible for alternative assessment, such as those with severe cogni-
tive disabilities; and

• technology would be used to the maximum extent appropriate to develop, adminis-
ter, and score the tests.

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Section 10.5 Building Learning Communities

Only one grant was awarded, to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction in collabo-
ration with the World-Class Instructional and Design Consortium. The 29 state consortium
is developing a system called Assessment Services Supporting ELLs through Technology
Systems (ASSETS), and they are creating a diagnostic/placement instrument, interim prog-
ress tests, and an annual summative measure of English language proficiency. Expected to
be available for the 2015–16 school year, ASSETS will test all four skill areas from K–12
using computer delivery. The first iteration of the test will not utilize computer adaptive
technology, but the consortia are considering developing an adaptive version at a later time.
In the meantime, the English language assessment of MAP is used by some schools for ELLs
and may be particularly useful for teachers with ELLs in a mainstream class. St. Paul school
district recommends that ELLs be allowed to attempt the MAP at the appropriate grade
level. The computer adaptive function will select lower grade levels if the items are too
difficult and will generate no scores if learners are guessing. Very preliminary research
indicates that MAP can provide a fair assessment of academic progress in English for ELLs
(Bohlman, 2012).

10.5 Building Learning Communities
Although elementary school teachers are usually responsible for the entire curricu-
lum, it is frequently the case that individual teachers excel at one or two particular sub-
jects. Back in the first chapter, we recognized the fact that today’s teachers have heavy
demands placed on them, whether there are ELLs in their classes or not. When we add
the particular needs of ELLs to the heavy emphasis that the CCSS puts on informational
text and the integration of science and social studies into the ELA curriculum, not to
mention accountability testing, we can see that collaboration can lead to better teaching
and outcomes.

As we saw in Chapter 1, teachers are held accountable for their pupils’ test scores and there is
often pressure from the district or school administrative personnel to “prepare for the test.”
Collaborative professional development can go a long way toward demystifying the testing
process for teachers and increasing understanding of what skills the test is evaluating and
how the skills are evaluated. In particular, when teachers work together, reading a sample text
and completing sample tasks or answering questions, they

begin to wrap their heads around the cognitive demands of the prompt. This
simple but very important step helps teachers clarify expectations of profi-
cient work, and builds a common understanding of proficient work within a
team and across a building. Additionally it supports the teacher in creating
a coherent plan that delivers content instruction clearly. Teachers, working
in collaborative teams, talk about instruction, and sometimes these poignant
moments unearth content or pedagogy deficiencies that can be quickly
addressed. (Krehbiel, 2012, p. 9)

By understanding how to take advantage of each other’s individual interests, teachers can
maximize their instructional effectiveness. Teachers with different skills and interests can
work together to plan lessons—for example, a teacher with a particular interest in or gift for
science can work with a language arts teacher to ensure that the goals of language learning

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Section 10.5 Building Learning Communities

and content learning are met and that the standards are met. Or a teacher who has had extra
professional development on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards can
help colleagues to see that a particular standard should receive greater focus or be discon-
nected from a particular lesson.

Another way for teachers to collaborate is a kind of bartering system—teachers can “trade”
their own strengths and interests with those of another teacher. A gifted art teacher, for exam-
ple, can exchange her time with the gifted math teacher of another class. Some of the program
options available for ELLs require collaboration between teachers. For example, with the
pull-out program (Chapter 4), cooperation between the mainstream classroom teacher and
the ESL teacher can take many forms. Ideally, it begins with planning. Mr. Sanchez had only a
part-time ESL teacher available to assist with Elena, but getting her input and advice before
beginning the unit on homelessness helped him to make his plan more inclusive of Elena and
the other ELLs. He conferred regularly with the ESL teacher who was able to identify prob-
lematic areas in Elena’s comprehension and to recommend activities for her that Mr. Sanchez
could carry out in the classroom or in homework assignments.

All the examples so far have shown the impact of collaboration for addressing particular
issues or situations. Situational collaboration is very effective, and it is a wise school leader
who facilitates strong working relationships among teachers so that they can help each other,
not only after a problem or issue arises, but before. The professional learning community
(PLC) is not a “one of ” but a framework for ongoing professional development. There are two
basic models, although each can be implemented in slightly different ways.

School-based Professional Learning Communities
Professional learning communities provide a structure in which teachers can collaboratively
engage in ongoing professional development that is targeted to the goals and objectives of
the school. Professional development that is embedded into the expectations, organization,
and schedule of the school is likely to have a more enduring impact than onetime workshops
or webinars. The point of a PLC is to foster collaboration, but not collaboration for collabo-
ration’s sake. Rather, the purpose is “to make an impact on classroom practice in order to
achieve better results. Participation in a PLC allows teachers to engage in ongoing dialogue
around their repertoire of effective instructional strategies and build a sense of community”
(Linton, 2011, para. 3).

For schools with ELL learners, the PLC can be an extremely effective tool. Broadly based
conversations and discussions about bilingualism, about the nature of second language
learning and teaching, analyzing student data, and tracking the progress of individual
learners can all be facilitated in this environment. But the true value of the PLC lies in
the opportunities for teachers to create plans to meet the needs of diverse learners, espe-
cially in the context of the CCSS. Teachers can deconstruct lesson plans and rebuild them
to align with CCSS standards that they collectively identify, while providing the individual-
ized adaptations that ELLs—and other learners—may require. They can talk about upcom-
ing units and how subjects can be integrated—how, for example, can the art teacher or
music teacher contribute to the theme of homelessness in Mr. Sanchez’s lesson? Is there
a CCSS aligned math lesson in there somewhere? These conversations allow teachers to
gain hands-on skills while simultaneously drawing on the knowledge and skill set of every
teacher in the school.

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Section 10.5 Building Learning Communities

An Extended Example: Deer Park Elementary Builds CommunityLearn
The teachers at Deer Park Elementary School had all been experiencing some uncertainty and
frustration about the Common Core when they attended a one day participatory conference
on collaborative teaching and learning. From that experience, they could see some of the ben-
efits to taking a more collaborative approach, but like many experienced teachers, they knew
that the impact of a one-day conference would fade away unless they acted deliberatively. So
the teachers of Deer Park Elementary School organized themselves into a learning commu-
nity. They decided that taking a collaborative approach to teaching would help to reduce their
anxiety, and more importantly, help them to be more effective in planning and implementing
curriculum and instruction for the new standards. Once the teachers had decided to organize
a PLC, the principal, Mr. Hayes, worked with the district office to adjust the schedule at Deer
Park to accommodate half-day working sessions every two weeks. Figure 10.2, The Commu-
nity Calendar, shows the first two months of their schedule for the 2014–15 academic year.

As the Deer Park PLC schedule shows, the teachers recognized that their community could
be expanded. Parents and community associations could play important roles in the learning
community.

Deer Park Elementary School’s CommunityLearn is a new community, and it is too soon to
judge its success. Its chances for success are good, however, because the participants built into
their organization and plan most of the elements others have found successful. Specifically,

1. They spent time learning how to collaborate. By planning their workshops as partici-
patory collaborative sessions, they were able to do small scale collaborative exer-
cises that will benefit them as they move into larger collaborative activities. Some
PLCs have a trained PLC facilitator, but the Deer Park teachers decided that their
small group would rely on their principal if they needed a facilitator. As the schedule
shows, however, they did not often call on him but took charge of their own learning.

2. They worked within an atmosphere of trust. Only one of the teachers at Deer Park was
new to the school and so they entered into the community building project trusting
one another. It takes trust for a teacher to admit to not understanding or knowing
how to do something, and CommunityLearn had that from the outset.

3. Sufficient time. The teachers were wise to build the PLC into the regular schedule
of the school year and to commit to it over the course of the year. The adjustments
needed to the student schedules were minimal, and all that was required by the dis-
trict office was to change the order of the school bus drop-off to allow the school day
to start eight minutes earlier.

4. A broad and inclusive attitude.

Although many PLCs consist only of teachers, a broader population can
be brought in, such as administrators, parents, and community mem-
bers who support their school. The objective is to align everyone’s
interests and expertise with the school’s vision and goals (Ullman,
2009). As the November 7 schedule for CommunityLearn shows, these
teachers recognized that there are others in the community who have a
stake in the school, its students, and their outcomes. One of the groups
they identified was a local community center that served a mostly His-
panic population. This center offered translation services, among oth-
ers, for recently arrived Spanish speakers. Bringing their director into
the PLC would, they believed, help them to be more effective in plan-
ning inclusive practice for their growing number of Hispanic ELLs.

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Deer Park Elementary School
CommunityLearn

2014–15 Schedule

August 20, All
Day

Implementing the CCSS: Overview Assessing the
Standards

Practice test exercises RTI (response
to intervention) benchmarking

Information about
new students and their needs

Principal Hayes
Ms. Canfield,
Special Ed

Principal Hayes &

Ms. Canfield

Ms. Jacobs, Asst.
Principal

August 21,
Morning

Planning for diverse learners (gifted,
special ed, ELL)

August 25 SCHOOL STARTS!!!!

September 19,
Afternoon

Interpreting RTI results: Where do we go
from here?

Ms. Jacobs & Mr.
Acevedo

October 3,
Afternoon

Preparing quarterly reports: How has CCSS
changed what is reported to parents? How
should they change reporting to parents?

Mr. Wilson, 5th
grade

Group
exercise

October 17,
Morning &
Afternoon

Interim progress monitoring: The new system
Collaboration at all stages:
• Planning
• Teaching
• Evaluating

District personnel
Mr. Acevedo & Ms.
Saab,

2nd grade
Mr. Wilson & Ms.
Richards,

Art
Ms. Canfield & Ms.
Reyes, 4th grade

November 7 Expanding our Community
• via parents
• via local community associations
• via the Web

Ms. Acevedo

Ms. Canfield

Ms. Charles, 1st
grade & Mr. Levine,
3rd grade

Ms. Canfield & Mr.
Acevedo (ELL/ESL)

Date Topics Leaders

Section 10.5 Building Learning Communities
Deer Park Elementary School
CommunityLearn
2014–15 Schedule
August 20, All
Day
Implementing the CCSS: Overview Assessing the
Standards
Practice test exercises RTI (response
to intervention) benchmarking
Information about
new students and their needs
Principal Hayes
Ms. Canfield,
Special Ed

Principal Hayes &
Ms. Canfield

Ms. Jacobs, Asst.
Principal
August 21,
Morning
Planning for diverse learners (gifted,
special ed, ELL)
August 25 SCHOOL STARTS!!!!
September 19,
Afternoon
Interpreting RTI results: Where do we go
from here?
Ms. Jacobs & Mr.
Acevedo
October 3,
Afternoon
Preparing quarterly reports: How has CCSS
changed what is reported to parents? How
should they change reporting to parents?
Mr. Wilson, 5th
grade
Group
exercise
October 17,
Morning &
Afternoon
Interim progress monitoring: The new system
Collaboration at all stages:
• Planning
• Teaching
• Evaluating
District personnel
Mr. Acevedo & Ms.
Saab,
2nd grade
Mr. Wilson & Ms.
Richards,
Art
Ms. Canfield & Ms.
Reyes, 4th grade
November 7 Expanding our Community
• via parents
• via local community associations
• via the Web
Ms. Acevedo
Ms. Canfield
Ms. Charles, 1st
grade & Mr. Levine,
3rd grade
Ms. Canfield & Mr.
Acevedo (ELL/ESL)
Date Topics Leaders

Figure 10.2: The Community Calendar

In this example, educators at Deer Park Elementary School decide to take a collaborative, long-term
approach to help ensure their curriculum and instruction satisfy Common Core standards.

pip82223_10_c10_265-298.indd 292 6/30/15 2:13 PM

E
xc

ng
e Collaboration

Teach
Le

ar
n

District and
community
resources

School
colleagues

Teacher

National and
international colleagues

via the internet

Section 10.5 Building Learning Communities

The Deer Park teachers had all called on Internet resources from time to time and recog-
nized the Web as the powerful tool it can be. They had no desire to create an exclusively
online PLC, however, but rather sought to use it as a means to include the wider professional
community in their community. The model they envisioned for their PLC was the one shown
in Figure 10.3.

Ellen Rodriguez, the teacher we met in Chapter 1, has now retired. Her reflections on a career
spent teaching dual language learners give us some perspective on how the future of teaching
looks to someone who remembers so much of the past. This reflection is excerpted from the
speech she gave at a banquet given in her honor by her colleagues.

Figure 10.3: Communities within communities: The PLC

A professional learning community can extend beyond a single school and include educators in
different districts, neighboring states, or even other countries.

E
xc
ha
ng
e Collaboration
Teach
Le
ar
n
District and
community
resources
School
colleagues
Teacher
National and
international colleagues
via the internet

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Summary & Resources

Summary
We identified in this chapter the 12 major themes that emerged throughout the book and
examined how they are realized in the planning, teaching, and evaluating of learners. The
implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the adaptations that need to be
made for individual learners, and especially English language learners, means that teachers
need to be able to call on a wider range of resources. Fortunately, the digital age has made
it easy for teachers to visit or even join a much larger community of professionals, draw-
ing from their experiences to grow their own repertoire of techniques and tools. The digital
age also reminds us of the value of our colleagues, and somewhat paradoxically, the value
of face-to-face contact. We see in the establishment of professional learning communities
much hope for an approach to teaching practice that is as integrated as the content areas
are in the Common Core standards. Collaboration with colleagues in cyberspace or in the
classroom down the hall adds a richness to the experience of teaching that makes helping
ELLs to succeed in school and to realize their potential as members of the community a truly
fulfilling undertaking.

A Teacher’s Story: A Life of Love and Laughter

Can you imagine spending 7,200 of your days doing the same thing? Those of you who have
just begun your careers can’t imagine how this is possible, and when I began, neither could
I—which is okay because as it turned out, I didn’t. Yes, I taught for roughly 7,200 days, more
than that if you count the weekends spent chaperoning, grading papers, tutoring, or just turn-
ing up to watch a young boy play soccer because he didn’t have anybody else in his life who
would bother, but I wasn’t doing the same thing. There were days when I wished I had some
old standby to fall back on, and like all of you, I did have my tried-and-true bag of tricks, but
no two classes ever needed the same things or responded in the same way, and so even when I
tried, I couldn’t do the same thing. I’m grateful for that. For that and so much more . . . .

One of the reasons that teaching kept me so engaged for so long is that early in my career I was
assigned a class with mostly second language learners. I wasn’t so grateful for that at first. In fact,
I was petrified, but what kept me working so hard was the progress I could see almost daily. For
the most part, teachers have to be patient—we don’t often see immediate progress, except in
baby steps. But I found, and have often said, that if you are not a patient person, if you need to see
results right away, get yourself assigned to a first grade class filled with second language learners.
You don’t have to wait to the end of a quarter to test them to see what they’ve learned—you can
see and hear it every day. And soon, they are teaching you! The year I had a fifth grade class that
was made up of kids from five different countries, it was like I was able to go on a world tour. They
also taught me enough to keep me from embarrassing myself with new technologies. When the
school put in its first computer lab, I traded math tutoring for one of my fourth graders for lessons
on how to use the desktops, and when the school put two of the things in my room, I watched
over their shoulders as my third graders took turns using the publishing software. It was a first
grader who showed me a few years ago how to turn on my smart phone and a fifth grader who
set it up to send and receive email. Just as I’m finally learning to leave the 20th century behind
and embrace the new ways of teaching and learning, it is time to pass the challenge on to another
generation. It is a generation in which I have a great deal of faith, and if you find in teaching even
a small measure of the joy that I have found, you will live a very rich and fulfilling life.

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Summary & Resources

Critical Thinking Questions

1. When Mr. Sanchez was unable to get a formal assessment of Elena and David, his
first step was to call their families and arrange a meeting. Why was this an important
component of his assessment of the learners?

2. For his initial assessment of the new ELLs, why did Mr. Sanchez focus on reading?

Key Ideas

1. ELLs are not a homogeneous group but are as possessed of the full range of variabil-
ity as native speakers, in addition to all the diversity attributable to being bicultural
and bilingual.

2. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are equally important for achieving com-
municative competence, but reading and writing dominate the school agenda.

3. Educators must take the view that English is an additional language for dual lan-
guage learners; it is not a replacement language!

4. Implementing the Common Core State Standards for ELLs requires adaptation at the
planning, instructional, and assessment stages.

5. In evaluating an innovation, an educator’s first concern must be that it aligns with
deeper learning objectives and incorporates sound learning principles.

Effective teaching requires cooperation and collaboration among colleagues in the school,
other community members, and beyond —to national and international colleagues via the
Web.

Key Terms

big data Data sets that are too large to
manipulate and use with standard meth-
ods or tools but are accessible with digital
technology.

blogs/weblog A personal website on which
an individual records opinions and informa-
tion, such as links to other websites.

computer adaptive testing (CAT) The use
of computers to select test items based on a
learner’s response to previous items.

data mining The practice of examin-
ing large databases to generate new
information.

dynamic delivery A kind of CAT that relies
on several pieces of information, such as
the learner’s success with the previous item
and the item’s position in the learning map

and the amount of support or prompting
required.

fixed-form delivery Computer-delivered
tests for which students are assessed on
one of several fixed, equated sets of items or
tasks.

podcast Digital audio or video files (in
various digital formats) available through
subscription and downloaded or streamed
onto a computer or mobile device.

professional learning communities
(PLC) Groups of educators who meet regu-
larly, in person or virtually, and work col-
laboratively to improve teaching skills and
academic performance of students.

webinar A seminar conducted live over the
Internet.

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21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems

Life and
Career

Skills

Core Subjects—3Rs
and 21st Century Themes Information,

Media, and
Technology

Skills

Learning and
Innovation Skills—4Cs

Critical thinking * Communication
Collaboration * Creativity

Standards and
Assessments

Curriculum and Instruction

Professional Development

Learning Environments

Summary & Resources

3. During the informal reading inventory Mr. Sanchez administered, David sometimes
resorted to Spanish to make himself understood. Should this concern Mr. Sanchez?
Why?

4. Can you suggest an alternate introductory activity using a new technology for
Mr. Sanchez’s unit on homelessness?

5. Why do you think Mr. Sanchez chose Lexile 700, fifth grade, as a cut-off point?
6. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills produced a toolkit that includes a guide for

aligning their framework with the CCSS, entitled P21 Common Core Toolkit: A Guide
to Aligning the Common Core State Standards with the Framework for 21st Cen-
tury Skills. The document includes the following graphic (Figure 10.4). Examine it
carefully, and then, using the information and insights you have gained in this book,
explain what the graphic means and how its parts relate to one another.

Figure 10.4: 21st century student outcomes and support systems

Source: P21, Framework for 21st Century Learning. Used with permission from Partnership for 21st Century Skills, www.p21.org.

21st Century Student Outcomes and Support Systems

Life and
Career Skills

Core Subjects—3Rs
and 21st Century Themes Information,
Media, and
Technology
Skills
Learning and
Innovation Skills—4Cs
Critical thinking * Communication
Collaboration * Creativity
Standards and
Assessments
Curriculum and Instruction
Professional Development
Learning Environments

pip82223_10_c10_265-298.indd 296 6/30/15 2:13 PM

https://www.facebook.com/#!/terry.piper.16/posts/749364185123877?comment_id=749689991757963&notif_t=like

http://www.p21.org

Summary & Resources

Additional Resources
For ideas on how to use technology with ELLs, see
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/04/07/the-best-sources-for-ideas-on-how-to-use-
technology-with-english-language-learners/

The Teaching Channel has a good example of how collaboration is used for planning a CCSS
aligned lesson for ELLs at
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teacher-collaboration-for-ccss-ells-nea

Dennis Van Roekel helps to ease the concerns of teachers fearing the Common Core in his
article Getting to the Core of Common Core on the National Education Association website at
http://www.nea.org/home/53977.htm

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The Best Sources For Ideas On How To Use Technology With English Language Learners

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teacher-collaboration-for-ccss-ells-nea

http://www.nea.org/home/53977.htm

pip82223_10_c10_265-298.indd 298 6/30/15 2:13 PM

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