Page 406 - EL Grade Teacher Guide - Module 1

Schools and Community
Salvador, in Grade 5, has similar challenges as Andrés. Although Salvador can speak English to his teachers and classmates, he has di culty comprehending both the spoken and written English used in grade-level academic texts. Salvador was born in the United States, and he and his family live in a Spanish-English bilingual community. The adults in this community speak only enough English to get by. However, Salvador and those in his age range mostly speak Eng- lish because they have never had the opportunity to study in Spanish. Moreover, Salvador has not had access to a coherent and consistent English as a second language program; nor have his teachers known how to assist him in further developing his abilities in English. They have mistakenly diagnosed him as a “struggling reader” and placed him in remedial reading pull-out classes. The simple, short sentences and words in the remedial readers have further curtailed his access to the kinds of language used in di erent genres and content areas, thus stunting his English language development.
Salvador is like the majority of ELLs across the country and in many school districts: “Stuck” in the middle ranges of English language development, too many of them are assigned to remedial programs with little to no access to rich, varied, complex and compelling material that ulti- mately would help them become uent readers and writers. EL Education attempts to disrupt this pattern for this large population of students by targeting instruction to these “long-term English learners” (LTELs). At the same time, the curriculum attempts to honor and serve all ELLs, from newcomers to the more pro cient speakers, by incorporating a degree of heavier and lighter support.
These ve students represent the great variation in background, languages, and academic abili- ties found in ELLs. Not all ELLs are new to English like Marco or Zaineb; some, like Bing-Shan, Andrés, and Salvador, have heard English at home from older siblings or in their communities. Some ELLs have had some schooling in their home countries; others have only attended U.S. schools. This great variation makes it di cult to use a single set of strategies to help ELLs learn English (Bunch, Kibler, & Pimentel, 2012). For this reason, EL Education has built in consistent instruction and support for ELLs at the lesson level that will help them gain access to the cur- riculum and, depending on student need, suggestions to the teacher for those students needing heavier or lighter support.
Eight High-Leverage Approaches to Supporting ELLs
To get started, what follows are eight high leverage moves, including three of the four founda- tional approaches used in the curriculum: Language Dives, Conversation Cues, and Diversity and Inclusion. The fourth foundational approach, Levels of Support, is embodied by the pro - ciency level examples under each approach below. We also highlight six more of the curricu- lum’s most powerful approaches.
Taken together, these eight approaches serve as a critical entry point into ELL instruction for educators who are new to serving ELLs, and to help illustrate the EL Education philosophy for educators who are more experienced working with ELLs. Teachers may choose to use this table as a desktop reference in the classroom as a way to begin or ground their approach to English language learning. Note that these eight approaches do not represent a comprehensive approach to educating ELLs and are not intended as a substitution for careful consideration of the customized ELL instruction built into each lesson of the curriculum.
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