Promoting

Academic

Literacy

through

Level-

Appropriate

Resources

A Module for Full-Staff Professional Development

Presented by the MPS ELL Department

Why

Aca

dem

ic L

itera

cy?

AYP Graduation RatePercent of students

ELL Drop-

Out Rate= 28%

THERE IS A GROWING “GRADUATION GAP” BETWEEN ELL STUDENTS AND ALL MPS STUDENTS: ELL GRADUATION RATE LAGGED BY 18 POINTS IN 2008*

* District data includes MPS’ contract alternative high schools; counting only 7 traditional high schools, 2008 AYP grad rate was 72% for ELL vs. 88% for all = gap of 16 pointsSource: REA

C. ELL student achievement

3

Percent of Students Meet or Exceed the Standards on 2007 & 2008 MCA-II Reading by Ethnicity & ELL Status (MPS)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Per

cent

of S

tude

nts

MPS 2007 33% 17% 68% 24% 63% 22%

MPS 2008 33% 14% 73% 27% 63% 22%

African Am. - Non-ELL

African Am. - ELL

Asian - Non-ELL

Asian - ELLHispanic - Non-ELL

Hispanic - ELL

MPS’ ELL STUDENTS SIGNIFICANTLY UNDER-PERFORM THEIR NON-ELL ETHNIC COUNTERPARTS IN READING

Source: REA (Strategic Plan For English Language Learners, 12/08/2008, MPS Office of Strategic Planning)

Length of Time that MPS ELLs Have Been Enrolled in a Minnesota School - Spring 2008 TEAE Reading

8%

20%

27%

45% Less than 1 year

1.0-2.99 years

3.0-4.99 years

5+ years

NEARLY ½ OF MPS’ 3-12TH GRADE ELL STUDENTS HAVE BEEN IN A SCHOOL FOR MORE THAN 5 YEARS; ONLY 8% ARE NEW

Source: REA

A DISPROPORTIONATELY LOW PERCENTAGE OF ELL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE PARTICIPATING IN ADVANCED COURSES AND PRE-COLLEGE OPPORTUNITIES

* Includes Honors, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Level 3 or 4 world language classes, College-in-the-Schools courses

Sources: Student Accounting; REA6

ONLY 1 PERCENT OF MPS’ ELL STUDENTS TAKING THE ACT/PLAN SCORE A 21 OR ABOVE, THE NATIONAL AVERAGE AND THRESHOLD SCORE FOR ADMITTANCE TO MNSCU

7

1%30%

ELL students MPS average

College-ready score on ACT/PLAN (>20)

Our

Job

– To

Cha

nge

This

…

& W

e Kn

ow H

ow

Academic Literacy

To succeed in school, [ELLs]must acquire not just a conversational fluency but

a deeper type of academic language that continues to develop long after many ELLs have been formally exited from ESL programs.

Academic Literacy

Academic language is the language of books.

It is the type of language necessary to successfully participate in, comprehend, and communicate in cognitively demanding and context-reduced, age-appropriate activities.

Academic Literacy &

The Matthew Effect

[For ELL students], the time spent on actual reading during reading instruction may be significantly less for those students who struggle the most with reading.

Gambrell, Wilson, and Gantt (2001) found that during reading instruction, good readers spent more time actually reading in school, whereas poor readers spent more time learning about how to read and practicingisolated sounds and words outside the context of meaningful stories.

SO… SO… WHAT WHAT DO WE DO WE

DO?DO?

Provide Level-Appropriate

Books

HuH? That’s It?!?

You’re all thinking you already do that. In fact, you might feel buried in books trying to differentiate your reading materials.

And that’s true … but the point today is that we still might not be doing it enough.

If… “Academic language is the language of books.”

It’s easier to …… talk about books,

… listen to others talk about books,

… write about books,

… learn from books …

… when you’re working with books you can read.

Readable vs. Unreadable (Technical Definitions)

Now it’s clearthat we routinely require ELL students to work at or above their frustration level …

It’s part of the bind that ELL students are in …part of

their need to

catch up.

But … we should keep this in mind …

… we might be asking ELL kids

to do the (near) impossible … or at least really, really hard

Promoting Academic Literacy through Level-

Appropriate Resources

Which brings us back to …

My Goal: To Share FOUR Resources To Help You Support ELL Academic Language Development

by Developing Resource Expertise

Resource 1: ReadingA-Z.com

We have a District license for this!

We paid $2,798 for the year (so you might as well use it all you can).

Click on “All Books”

Use a Correlation Chart

Find a related book at an appropriate reading level.

For example,

•imagine you’ve got a kid in a Human Geography class.

•the class is reading from a grade-level textbook about the environments humans live in…

•the kid’s ELL Level 2, reading at around a 2nd (or even 3rd-grade) reading level …

Question: Could a scenario like this happen in MPS District?

You support the student with a level-appropriate related reading.

And so on …

So … Is this ideal?

Is the kid participating in the lesson?

Is the kid doing school-type (informational) reading related to the lesson?

Is the kid reading at an i or i+1 reading level?

If he’s involved in constructing meaning from an information text, is the kid developing his academic literacy?

Can you follow-up with all the activating strategies?

From Language-Rich Classroom, Ch. 6

Pair share?

Quick write?

Quick draw?

Hold ups?

Networking session?

4 Corners?

Likert Scale?

Explain it to your neighbor?

Transparencies?

Does this text lend itself to a healthy range of mental

processes described in Bloom’s Taxonomy?

johnwolfepiqir458

1:30-1:40

Resource 2: www.edhelper.comThis costs either $20 a year or about $40 a year

… depending on whether you want the super-deluxe access (cp., the VIP Lounge)

or the pretty-good-but-every-so-often-you-feel-excluded-from-the-cool-stuff membership (cp., the Cinnabon counter)

Same Deal …

2.6 grade level

Information embedded in story format … so easier

Resource 3: Buy Books.

Ask your school/

librarian/ department

to order books to

support the content taught.

http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do

Subject: Electricity

Resource 4: Your Librarian/Media Specialist

My Goal: To Share FOUR Resources To Help You Support ELL Academic Language Development

by Developing Resource Expertise

How do you know what’s going to be taught at each grade level?

Someday … but for now …

… you have to talk to

your colleagues.

My Goal: To Share FOUR Resources To Help You Support ELL Academic Language Development

by Developing Resource Expertise

Balance

You could start doing this now …

To make your staff more receptive in February

Because everyone should do this.Because

supporting ELLs’

language development is everyone’s

job.

Our

Job

– To

Cha

nge

This

…

& W

e Kn

ow H

ow

The Presentation:What needs to change?

For example