Introduction

An important component regarding the acquisition of language is recognizing the diverse backgrounds of students. Like in all areas of education, it is important for educators to be aware of the different abilities and skills students arrive at school with and recognize that all students are not in the same place. This is true when teaching students to be literacy proficient. Being aware that English is not all students’ first, or primary, language is an important component in educating students in literacy. This chapter will help to give an overview and exposure to working with English language learners (ELLs).

Key terms and helpful statistics

Let’s start with providing a definition, and some statistics, of ELLs, also known as English learners, ELs, that are commonly used when working with this population. English language learners (ELLs) are defined as “students who are in the process of learning English. While many ELLs are immigrants, the majority are born in the U.S.” (Colorin Colorado, 2019) There has been a large increase in the ELL population in the United States. The National Center for Educational Statistics states:

“The percentage of public school students in the United States who were English learners (ELs) was higher in fall 2019 (10.4 percent, or 5.1 million students) than in fall 2010 (9.2 percent, or 4.5 million students). In fall 2019, the percentage of public school students who were ELs ranged from 0.8 percent in West Virginia to 19.6 percent in Texas.” (NCES, 2022)

Although there has been an increase in the number of ELL students in the United States,  there is a wide range of percentages of ELLs living in each of the states. Regardless of how many ELLS are in your state or school, it is important that educators have a strong understanding of ELLs and how to best serve them in their education. The Department of Education indicated that in 2014-2015, over 4,800,000 ELL students were in United States schools, which is over 10% of K-12 schools. Of the 4.8 million ELL students, 75% of these students were Hispanic or Latino. (Department of Education, 2017) Recognizing who these students are and their cultural backgrounds can help educators determine the languages and cultures that they are a part of, better aiding them in their literacy skills in English. Another important aspect to consider is what grade most ELLs are in. The National Center for Educational Statistics states:

“In general, a higher percentage of public school students in lower grades than of those in upper grades were EL students in fall 2019. For example, 15.0 percent of kindergarteners were EL students, compared with 9.6 percent of 6th-graders and 7.7 percent of 8th-graders. Among 12th-graders, only 5.5 percent of students were ELs. This pattern was driven, in part, by students who are identified as ELs when they enter elementary school but obtain English language proficiency before reaching the upper grades.” (NCES, 2022)

When creating teacher education programs, developing professional development, and providing trained educators, it is important to recognize where the most need is for ELLs. Though every school is different and therefore should determine what its specific school’s needs are, it is helpful to have statistics that indicate where schools might find ELLs to ensure they have the personnel and programs to provide support to them. Being aware of some of these national statistics can help schools properly address the needs of all of their students.

When addressing working with ELLs it is helpful to be familiar with words, phrases, and definitions that can or have been used when discussing this population. Here are a few:

English as a Second Language (ESL): ESL, English as a Second Language, is defined by the US Department of Education as a program of techniques, methods, and special curriculum to teach English language learners (ELL students), English language skills which include listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This might also be known as ESOL, English for speakers of other languages. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

Limited English Proficient (LEP): The term, limited English proficient (LEP), is used to identify students who have an insufficient comprehension of the English language and are unable to be successful in an English-only classroom. Though used, it is more common to refer to these students as ELL or EL. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD): Martha Villegas-Gutierrez defines culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students as having a language other than English in their background and who live in an environment where a language other than English is dominant. (Villegas-Gutierrez, 2015)

Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL): “TEFL is specially designed for those who want to teach overseas or at an intensive English language program in the U.S., in classes where students are always in classes with other non-native speakers of English.” (UC San Diego, 2023)

Non-English Proficient (NEP):  “Students who come from another language background and are not fluent in English (speaking, listening, reading and/ or writing).” (Colorado Department of Education, 2019)

Oral Language Development

As you’ve read previously, oral language is the foundation of literacy.  ELLs need to develop robust expressive and receptive language skills that will provide a base for learning English.

Educators must be purposeful and intentional, as well as explicit, in creating a multitude of opportunities to develop oral language, particularly for prekindergarten ELL students. Educators must create and foster an environment where students feel safe to take risks and make mistakes, especially when working with ELLs. ELL prekindergartners should have numerous social interaction opportunities to talk with peers, as well as adults. Having predictable classroom routines and activities, like greeting peers and morning meeting shares can help ELLs have time to plan out, ahead of time, what they might want to share. By pairing students with strong English oral language skills with ELLs, it creates authentic opportunities for rich conversation. Adult conversations allow children with limited English proficiency to get appropriate and immediate feedback to further their oral language. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

Another way to promote the development of oral language for ELLs in PreK is to provide rich language input. This can be achieved through read alouds, where words are introduced and then reinforced through subsequent exposures. Another strategy is for the teacher to use a voiceover of what is happening at the moment to develop oral language based on happenings in the classroom. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

Free play also builds oral language skills of preschool English language learners. One study found that bilingual preschoolers had more social interaction and conversation when engaged in free play, rather than academic-related activities led by a teacher. (Markova, 2016) Another suggestion for developing oral language in ELLs is to create culturally responsive centers. Culturally responsive centers are rooted in children’s everyday experiences and are therefore relevant to them. With real-world, authentic places represented with props in pretend play, ELL students can act out and have meaningful opportunities to develop their language skills (Salinas-Gonzalez, Arreguín, & Alanís, 2018).

Young children can increase their English oral language skills through the incorporation of performing arts activities. Using theater or dance curriculums that include the use of intentional gestures, movements, and facial expression is beneficial to ELLs’ oral language development. Performing arts activities, such as miming a specific emotion for students to show and identify, builds ELL students’ vocabulary (Greenfader, Brouillette, & Farkas, 2014).

You can also reference chapter 4 to see more specifics regarding oral language development for general early childhood education that might be applicable and helpful to ELLs.

Best Literacy Practices

The following section addresses many literacy practices that teachers use to help elementary students.  Leslie MacKenzie, a 1st-grade teacher, contributed many examples that she has used when working with ELLs in primary grades. When asked for a comment, she stated: “It has been a great joy teaching students in kindergarten and 1st grade. I often speak of the magic, that sometimes resembles a miracle, watching primary students transform and grow as readers and writers. Particularly, I find many of the strategies I use with English language learners are beneficial for all students. I hope some of the examples, techniques, and overall contributions and insights I have shared are helpful to other teachers. I appreciate the opportunity to be able to share my classroom experiences in relationship to the content of this work.”

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate speech sounds and is the foundation of literacy. Without strong phonemic awareness, students are likely to encounter difficulty reading and writing. ELL students with mastery of phonemic awareness skills in their first language will not need to relearn these skills in English (Colorin Colorado, 2019).  Therefore, it is ideal to see if the student has solid phoneme awareness in their first language before beginning direct instruction in English, if possible.

It is not unusual for ELLs to have difficulty hearing and manipulating certain sounds. Often times these English sounds are not found in the student’s home language. A good practice to promote phonemic awareness for ELLs is to have more practice with those phonemes that do not appear in the student’s home language. Teachers also need to explicitly model what it looks like to produce different sounds. One idea is to have students use a mirror to see how their mouth looks and where their tongue placement is to produce different sounds. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

Phonemic awareness activities are quick and teachers can use classroom objects to develop phoneme awareness and oral language. For example, Leslie MacKenzie shared how easy and manageable ways she has incorporated phonemic awareness into her classroom. When thinking about the beginning sounds of words, the teacher can point to an object, say its name, and ask the ELL student to isolate the beginning sound. Another suggestion for incorporating phonemic awareness instruction for ELL students is to point to a set of pictures and ask students to point out which of the three pictures has a different ending sound – this can be substituted for a beginning or medial sound as well (Colorin Colorado, 2019).

Phonics

Phonics is the mapping of sounds to letters in order to read written text. ELLs who are able to read in their home language typically have an advantage over ELLs with limited reading skills in their home language. For emergent readers who have limited phonics skills, decodable texts and sentences allow for students to be successful decoders.

Decodable books consist of simple language patterns with many high-frequency words that focus on targeted and intentional phonics patterns that have been taught. (Colorin Colorado, 2019) In consultation with 1st-grade teacher Leslie MacKenzie, she suggested the following as an example. ELLs in the primary grades may be practicing the /ch/ sound and short vowels and an appropriate text might have a sentence such as “Chad likes to pet the chick on the bench” with a corresponding illustration. Although these decodables are often not complex, students are able to apply their new knowledge of letters and sounds to reading books.

Another way to develop ELL students’ phonics skills in early elementary is to give them hands-on opportunities to build and change words. Magnetic letters and tiles give students kinesthetic experiences making words or using sound boxes to segment and blend words. Also, having ELL students match words to pictures or sentences to pictures can reinforce language and vocabulary, while further reinforcing phonics knowledge. There are also a variety of phonics-related games and poems that provide additional practice. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

Fluency

Targeted fluency work can actually improve the oral language of ELL students. (Colorin Colorado, 2022). Fluency is the students’ accuracy of reading rate or how fast the student is reading, and prosody, which involves appropriate expression, phrasing, and intonation. The bridge to fluent reading is at the intersection of decoding and comprehension. (Colorin Colorado, 2019) Teachers must be cognizant not to overstress reading rates to students working on fluency. Rather, especially for ELL students, who are encountering new words in texts and working hard to comprehend, fluency instruction should focus on correct phrasing, having appropriate expression, and the right intonation. These indications of strong prosody also indicate strong comprehension.

One way to develop reading fluency for ELLs is to use partnerships where the ELL student can take turns with a student with strong English language skills to read a passage and practice alternating or rereading with a focus on fluency. (Colorin Colorado, 2019) Leslie MacKenzie also suggested using digital texts that have a read aloud feature that tracks the text can help ELLs hear what fluent reading with an appropriate rate, expression, and prosody sounds like. Epic! is a digital library that many schools subscribe to and it  provides hundreds of read aloud texts (https://www.getepic.com/)

Students can record themselves reading aloud and then replay the recording to see what they can work on to read more fluently on the same passage.  Students should continue to reread and record themselves to practice fluent reading habits. The video-based platform, Flip (https://info.flip.com/) can be a useful tool for fluency practice.  Reader’s theaters help students improve their fluency in a collaborative and fun way (Colorin Colorado, 2019).

Vocabulary

All children will encounter new words that they do not understand in texts. Pre-teaching vocabulary to students and giving them opportunities to practice using new words is important to increasing the vocabulary of ELL students. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

It is important to consider the different types of words. As you’ve read previously, there are three tiers of vocabulary that correspond with the frequency of use, the complexity of the word, and the word’s meaning. Tier one are the most common and basic words in the English language, such as door, cat, and happy. Tier two vocabulary consists of more mature words that come up in conversations and books and can have multiple meanings. (Colorin Colorado, 2019) Examples of tier two words for elementary students might include haunting and responsible. Content-specific words that are not as frequently used fall under tier three vocabulary and might include metronome and photosynthesis.

It can be helpful to highlight cognates between a student’s native language and English. Cognates are words that are similarly spelled and have the same meaning in two different languages. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)  Examples of Spanish-English cognates include family/familia and airport/aeropuerto. When introducing new vocabulary, it is helpful to provide a visual reference or the object itself when possible to make the abstract word more concrete. However, some common tier one words like stepsister might be hard to visually represent and have to be defined and explained. Highlighting false cognates such as sopa/soap, where sopa means soup in Spanish serve as strong nonexamples and address common misconceptions.

Additionally, ELLs can benefit when vocabulary instruction is thematic and connect to topics already known. This method is valuable when focusing on tier two words. Another recommendation for explicitly teaching tier two words is to pre-teach content-related words for different units. For tier two words with more than one meaning, like crane, using visuals, like of a crane that is construction equipment and a crane the bird is recommended (Colorin Colorado, 2019).

In the primary grades, students are not as likely to encounter tier three words that are extremely content-specific. However, if a student encounters an unknown tier three word, the teacher can explain it or utilize an online translator or bilingual dictionary to further explain the more complicated word (Colorin Colorado, 2019).

Comprehension

Comprehension is a complex process and there is both literal and inferential comprehension. Gesturing or acting out the story when reading can help ELL students better comprehend what is happening. With primary learners, big books are a great way to help all students, especially ELL students see the words and illustrations clearly and therefore be able to follow along better. Big books also emphasize concepts of print, such as the directionality of reading from left to right, which can differ in other languages, such as Arabic. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

Wordless picture books can also build the comprehension skills of ELLs. Students must focus on the illustrations only in wordless picture books and have to create their own meaning of the text by carefully analyzing and interpreting the text. Repeated readings of the same wordless picture book can help students see new details and extend their thinking. Discussion about the wordless picture book can help ELLs grow their oral language skills and better understand the structure of English (Louie & Sierschynski, 2015).

Being read to at home in a student’s home language and discussing the book in English or another language builds reading comprehension. Listening comprehension is the basis of reading and comprehending independently. Research shows that students are able to simultaneously develop oral language and reading skills. When reading independently, students need to be able to accurately read at least ninety percent of the words if the reader is to comprehend what they have read. Rereading texts out loud to students and explicit vocabulary instruction aids comprehension (Colorin Colorado, 2019).

Previewing texts with ELL students and building their background knowledge prior to reading improves comprehension. Students are able to share what they already know about a topic, place, or idea before reading and can make predictions and confirm or revise their predictions while reading. Also, looking at the illustrations across the text before reading allows students to visualize what might happen in the story (Colorin Colorado, 2019).

Providing students with picture cards to sequence key events of a story helps scaffold literal comprehension practice for students with limited English skills. Also, allowing students to draw a story’s events can be used to develop listening comprehension in ELLs. Providing ELLs with graphic organizers or sentence frame starters also helps with comprehension. (Colorin Colorado, 2019)

Teachers or reading partners of ELLs should pause throughout a book to discuss what is happening and check for comprehension, rather than waiting till the end. Students can keep track of what is happening at different points in a text in different ways, such as turn-and-talks, stop and jots, or marking key parts with post-its (Colorin Colorado, 2019).

Programming in Schools

There are many ways ELL programming might look in schools. Reading intervention programs that work on foundational readings skills, fluency, and comprehension, have a strong potential to benefit ELLs reading outcomes. (Roberts, et. all, 2021) ELL students can receive support in different settings depending on student needs and district resources. The U.S. Department of Education requires programs to be based on proven educational theory, supported with the appropriate resources to be implemented successfully, and be regularly reviewed and revised as needed. (U.S. Department of Education: English Learner Tool Kit, 2016) Some of the common models backed by the U.S. State Department of Education include:

English as a Second Language (ESL) or English Language Development (ELD)
ESL involves pulling the ELL student out of the regular education classroom to work on increasing English proficiency for part of the day. The instruction is provided in English with little to no use of the student’s primary language and aims to explicitly teach non-native speakers the English language. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all addressed, as well as appropriate academic language (U.S. Department of Education: English Learner Tool Kit, 2016).

Structured English Immersion (SEI)
In this model, students with limited English proficiency receive support in English nearly or all of the time. A trained ELL teacher will often use gestures, drawings, simple words, and phrases to help students understand core concepts. The teacher supports learners within the mainstream classroom, increasing their English skills, while accessing grade-level content(Colorin Colorado, 2019).

Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) or Early Exit Bilingual Education
There are also bilingual instructional programs where students’ primary language skills are practiced, while simultaneously providing English instruction. TBE programming aims to eventually transition students into an entirely English classroom. Challenges for having bilingual classrooms are that the students must have the same home language and the teacher must know both languages well or have two teachers. (U.S. Department of Education: English Learner Tool Kit, 2016) Transitional bilingual programs are intended for students with limited English proficiency and seek to help students, usually in the younger grades, to receive instruction in their home language for reading purposes and for other subjects as needed.

Dual Language or Two-Way Immersion
Some schools have classrooms where students are instructed in English, as well as another language like Spanish or Chinese, across the entire day. These bilingual programs are often found at magnet schools. In dual language programs, half of the students are primary-English speakers and the other half of the students are primary speakers of the second language used in the classroom (U.S. Department of Education: English Learner Tool Kit, 2016).

Newcomer Program
Some schools have specialized classrooms for students with extremely limited English proficiency. Students are usually placed in this type of programming, which might be labeled as a newcomer classroom, for no more than a year before transitioning to another type of English language support. This specialized programming is often for students who recently arrived in the United States or students who have a long gap without formal schooling. Newcomer programming supports students who recently moved to the United States, helps them adjust to American schools, and teaches basic skills (U.S. Department of Education: English Learner Tool Kit, 2016).

Long Term English Learners
There is also more attention being given to students with limited English proficiency who are not English proficient after receiving services for a long period of time. These students are often referred to as long term English learners (LTELs) and should be monitored closely by administration and staff to ensure appropriate programming and services are in place. (U.S. Department of Education: English Learner Tool Kit, 2016)

Reading Intervention for ELL Students

Below are a few reading specific interventions that have been used with ELLs to increase reading comprehension.

Proactive Reading programs, which provide a scripted curriculum to teachers and allows for instruction in phonemic awareness, word recognition, and comprehension strategies, is an effective method of programming that benefits ELLs who need additional reading support. Word identification is a key component of this program, so students spend a large amount of time reviewing letter-sound correspondences,  sounding out words, and reading decodable texts (Roberts, et. all, 2021).

Another program that can be used is Reading Rescue. Reading Rescue provides instruction to students based on a certain set of skills and students’ performances on assessments. It seeks to provide phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (Roberts, et. all, 2021). This program is designed to be one-on-one.

Sound Partners is another reading intervention program that can be used for ELLs. In this model, students receive 30-minute, one-on-one, instruction in foundational reading skills, including phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling. The lesson begins with an introduction of a new grapheme-phoneme, followed by a review of previously taught correspondences, and then phoneme decoding, where students orally blend phonemes to graphemes. Lastly, irregular words are introduced and practiced by reading, spelling, and rereading (Roberts, et. all, 2021).

Another program that can be used in a group, or individual setting is Early Vocabulary Connections. This approach focuses on vocabulary knowledge development, targeting word meaning, phonology, and orthography. This program allows for activities to teach word meaning while reinforcing decoding skills. Some of the activities that are used are defining, blending, and spelling words; reading decodable texts; and matching word meaning to pictures (Roberts, et. all, 2021).

In a whole class model, K-PALS can be used in a peer-tutoring format. The program builds phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondences, decoding, and fluency. The program consists of teacher-direction, as well as activities that are completed in pairs. The pairs include a higher and lower performer and allows for peer learning through a shared reader-coach model where students take turns (Roberts, et. all, 2021). This model is a helpful model that allows full class participation and can be done in a large group.

These are just a few examples of specific literacy intervention programs that have been used to help ELLs. With all things, it is important to note that a combination of approaches or recognition of specific approaches that work best with the student population you are specifically working with should be considered.

Intersection of ELLs and Leadership

It is worth noting that to have strong ELL programs, schools need leadership, both formally and informally, to help ELL programs. McGee, Haworth, and MacIntyre (2015) suggest that with strong leadership, there is a better sense of teaching and learning that occurs when working with ELLs and it is important for school leadership to establish goals and directives around ESOL – making it a part of the whole school’s focus. They also suggest that leaders need to be role models, and have knowledge of ESOL programming. It is necessary to provide professional learning opportunities surrounding ESOL to teachers and administrators, ensuring that all are aware of needs specific to ELLs and have the training and resources to meet those needs. (McGee, Haworth, & MacIntyre, 2015)

Russell and Soo Von Esch (2018) discuss the role that teachers have in both formal and informal leadership positions. They suggest that effective teacher leaders leverage their position and expertise for ELL programming. These instructors who work with ELLs need to build trust with colleagues, share knowledge with teachers and leadership personnel, and encourage principals, and individuals in leadership positions to value ELLs to ensure successful ELL programming. Russell and Soo Von Esch also suggest that effective teacher leaders work on a variety of levels. They must work directly with ELLs, both in their own classrooms, as well as by providing support to students in content-area classes. Effective ELL teachers must also work with their colleagues, collaboratively approaching instruction with content-area teachers, as well as the literacy team. Lastly, they need to make sure that they have good working relationships and interactions with the principal and other school staff, providing insight into ELL-specific programs and ensuring ELL programming concerns are a part of the administration’s conversations (Russell & Soo Von Esch, 2018).

Recognizing that ELL instructors and teachers who work with ELL students have a responsibility to be strong leaders in schools is important. It ensures that the administration of schools are remaining committed, aware, and supportive of ELL programming.

A Word on Technology

Technology has been an ever-evolving tool used in education. Especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, technology has been even more of a resource educators have needed to rely on. With respect to ELLs, it is important to note how technology can impact these students. Jennifer Altavilla provides some insight into the struggles that ELLs can face regarding technology. She indicates that there can often be a gap in access and use. Altavilla suggests that ELLs are often cut off from rich technology-based experiences, because of access, and teachers often do not have the resources or training to use technology in meaningful ways with ELLs. She also suggests that there are biases in technology and that not all programs and applications are created with ELLs in mind.(Altavilla, 2020). Some programs are not designed for ELLs and therefore might not be beneficial to these students.  In light of the pandemic, it is important to remember that ELLs need, like all children, social interactions. When using technology is it important to provide that social interaction piece so students can practice skills, such as oral communication (Altavilla, 2020). With the pandemic in mind as well as the overall increase of technology in schooling, it is important for teachers of ELLs to be aware of how best to use technology to benefit students.

Assessment

Many ELL specific assessments come from World-Class Instructional Diverse and Assessment (WIDA), which is linked to the University of Wisconsin and looks to support culturally and linguistically diverse students (https://wida.wisc.edu/) . WIDA also has an educational consortium of over forty states’ departments of education and seeks to provide support and assessments for students with limited English proficiency, which makes it assessments prevalently used across the United States (WIDA, 2022).

WIDA assessments include the WIDA Screener, WIDA MODEL, and ACCESS for ELLs. The WIDA Screener is primarily used to identify if an incoming student, whether in kindergarten or twelfth grade, has a need for language support based on their present level of English proficiency. The Screener addresses the key components of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These individual components are then combined into composite scores for oral language, literacy, and overall, which are used to determine a student’s eligibility for ELL support. The WIDA MODEL (Measure of Developing English Language) is used to track students’ progress towards English proficiency, can predict WIDA ACCESS performance, and can be given flexibility at any point of the year to inform teachers about instructional next tests. ACCESS is used as a formal, yearly assessment for ELL students in kindergarten all the way through twelfth grade and is used to track students’ progress and current performance related to English proficiency across multiple years. (WIDA, 2022)

Aside from WIDA assessments, another assessment used to measure students’ English proficiency is the LAS Links test (https://laslinks.com/placement-test/). This test measures students’ overall proficiency on a scale of one to five. The levels are as follows: level 1: beginning, level 2: early intermediate, level 3: intermediate, level 4: proficient, level 5: above proficient. Students are assessed across different categories including listening, speaking, reading, writing, and comprehension. Different categories are combined to create scores for students’ overall comprehension, oral, literacy, and productive scores as well. Students who score in levels one, two, or three are considered to have limited English proficiency, which is often used to determine eligibility for support as a language learner (LAS, 2022).

A few states use their own assessment measures to determine a student’s level of English proficiency. For example, California uses The English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC, 2022). This online assessment is given yearly to ELL students to determine their current level of English proficiency and is also given as an initial assessment to see if a student whose primary language is not English qualifies for services. (ELPAC, 2022) New York also has their own assessment, The New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners (NYSITELL) to identify English language learners. (New York State Education Department, 2019)

Biography-Driven Instruction

Dr. Socorro G. Herrera, professor of curriculum and instruction at Kansas State University, developed Biography-Driven Instruction (BDI), which is a communicative and cognitive method of instruction for providing culturally responsive pedagogy. BDI guides teachers in a way that maximizes each student’s ability for language acquisition and content understanding by drawing on students’ sociocultural, linguistic cognitive, and academic resources. In their article regarding the effectiveness of BDI, Murry, Holmes, and Herrera (2017) state:

The “biography” of the learner reflects a holistic view of a student’s sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic dimensions. Attention to the biography, including pre-assessment of a student’s background knowledge relevant to a given lesson, provides the teacher with foundational information about the student’s assets that the teacher then uses to maximize teaching and learning throughout the lesson (pg. 13).

The Biography-Driven Instruction method creates a lesson plan in three phases: activation, connection, and affirmation. In the first phase, the teacher allows students the space to share what they know or think they might know about a given topic. Allowing students the space to share their ideas and conceptions about a topic allows an initial association to be made between their background knowledge and the targeted concepts. In the next phase, connection, the teacher tries to make connections from what students shared to the new content information being shared with them. The teacher uses various strategies and activities to work with students, ensuring that students are progressing, while ensuring there are connections made to individual and collective ideas shared on behalf of the students. This allows the teacher to scaffold, helping students expand their understanding between their preconceived ideas on a topic and the new information being shared. The last phase, affirmation, allows students to share in some way the new information they have just been taught, individually demonstrating their learning. (Murry, Holmes, & Herrera, 2017).

Questions to Ponder

1. What best strategies might work with the ELL population you are working with?
2. What other strategies have not been listed in this chapter that you have found helpful?
3. What challenges come with educating ELL students?
4. How can we create inclusive classrooms with ELL students and English-speaking students? How might this be a challenge to the instructor?

References

Altavilla, J. (2020). How technology affects instruction for English learners. Phi Delta Kappan, 102(1), 18–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0031721720956841

California Department of Education. (2022). About the ELPAC.  English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC). https://www.elpac.org/about

Colorado Department of Education. (2019). English learners definitions. https://www.cde.state.co.us/postsecondary/englishlearnersdefinitions

Colorin Colorado! (2019). Glossary.  https://www.colorincolorado.org/ell-basics/ell-glossary

Department of Education. (2017). Our nation’s English learners. https://www2.ed.gov/datastory/el-characteristics/index.html

Greenfader, C. M., Brouillette, L., & Farkas, G. (2014). Effect of a performing arts program on the oral language skills of young English learners. Reading Research Quarterly, 50(2), 185–203. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.90

Louie, B., & Sierschynski, J. (2015). Enhancing English Learners’ Language Development Using Wordless Picture Books. The Reading Teacher, 69(1), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1376

Markova, I. (2016). Effects of academic and non-academic instructional approaches on preschool English language learners’ classroom engagement and English language development. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 15(4), 339–358. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718×15609390

McGee, A., Haworth, P., & MacIntyre, L. (2015). Leadership practices to support teaching and learning for English language learners. TESOL Quarterly, 49 (1), 92–114.

Murry, K., Holmes, M.A., & Herrera, S. (2017). Transforming Ecuadorian EFL teacher practices through biography-driven instruction. Texas Foreign Language Association Journal, 62(1), 13-25.

National Center for Educational Statistics. (2022). English learners in public schools. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgf/english-learners#:~:text=The%20percentage%20of%20public%20school,%2C%20or%204.5%20million%20students 

New York State Education Department. (2019). New York state identification test for English language learners (NYSITELL). http://www.nysed.gov/state-assessment/new-york-state-identification-test-english-language-learners-nysitell#:%7E:text=The%20New%20York%20State%20Identification,Learners%20in%20New%20York%20State

Roberts, G., Hall, C., Cho, E., Coté, B., Lee, J., Qi, B., & Van Ooyik, J. (2021). The state of current reading intervention research for English learners in grades K–2: A best-evidence synthesis. Educational Psychology Review, 34 (1), 335–361.           https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09629-2

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