Reading Interventions for English Learners. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan

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1 Reading Interventions for English Learners Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan PLAIN TALK ABOUT LITERACY AND LEARNING New Orleans, LA February 17-19, 2016

2 About the Presenter Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, Ph.D., is a bilingual speech language pathologist and a certified academic language therapist. She is the director of Valley Speech Language and Learning Center in Brownsville, Texas and works with Texas Institute for Measurement Evaluation and Statistics at the University of Houston. Elsa is the author of Esperanza (HOPE), a Spanish language program designed to assist students who struggle with learning to read. Her research interests include the development of early reading assessments for Spanish speaking students and the development of reading interventions for bilingual students. She was the co-principal investigator of a longitudinal study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Institute for Education Science that examined the oracy and literacy development in English and Spanish of Spanish speaking children. She serves as the Vice President for the International Dyslexia Association and has authored curricular programs, book chapters, and journal articles related to oracy and literacy development for English language learners. About CDL CDL is a results-driven, nonprofit organization. Our singular focus is to improve the life chances of all children, especially those at high risk, by increasing school success. We provide professional learning that is specific and relevant to the needs of your students and your teachers. We tackle real-time issues such as critical thinking and metacognition, remediating struggling readers, and building and sustaining collective capacity of students and teachers. Our professional learning is designed, facilitated, evaluated, and adjusted to meet your needs. In collaboration with school and district leaders, we examine student and teacher data and build professional learning in response to student and teacher performance. We examine progress frequently and adjust accordingly. Our specialists excel in the areas of reading, writing, leadership, critical thinking, early childhood development, how students learn, intervention and remediation, and learner-specific instruction. We have experts at all levels from early childhood through high school. Give us a call - we are ready to travel to you. learn@cdl.org (504)

3 Reading Interventions for English Learners Elsa Cárdenas- Hagan, Ed.D. The Need English learners are fastest growing school population Represent 400 different home languages Significant achievement gap between English learners and monolingual English speakers Must meet Common Core State Standards College and Career Readiness Educated Workforce Second Language Literacy Developing oracy and literacy in a second language is not a simple task. Students are often required to: develop conversational and basic reading skills at the same time, and then quickly develop oral and written academic language skills to facilitate learning in all content areas. Students use knowledge of their first language when learning a second language. However, this knowledge can both facilitate and hinder second language and literacy acquisition. Degree of Transferability Depends upon: The proficiency of native language skills. The degree of overlap in the oral and written characteristics of the native and second language. Type of language (Alphabetic, Logographic, etc.) Similar orthographies. Overlap in sound- symbol correspondence. Alphabe:c Languages Use symbols (i.e., an alphabet) to represent sounds in speech and print. Alphabe:c Language Orthographies Alphabetic languages differ in the number of ways to present a single sound in print. Individual sounds, when printed, are represented by individual letters, combinations of letters. Examples: English, Spanish, Russian Transparent Languages that allow for fewer such mappings. More one to one mapping of symbols to sounds. Example: Spanish, Russian Opaque One sound can be represented in many ways. One letter or letter combination can be used to represent several sounds. Example: (English) ee, ei and ea in need, receive, and read letter a father, apple, name, banana ). 1

4 Connec&ons from Spanish to English 60% of the English language is derived from Latin. 30% of these words share cognates 29 sounds in Spanish 44 sounds in English 19 letter/sound correlations are direct transfers 6 letter/sound correlations are partial transfers Students need explicit instruction in the connections Teachers should have knowledge of the transfer points Interventions should match language of instruction model Five Core Areas of Literacy Instruc:on The five core areas of literacy instruction that have been identified as being important for monolingual English- speaking students are also important for English Learners: Phonological Awareness Phonics (Graphophonemic Knowledge) Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension What we know ELLs need explicit, early and intensive instruction in phonological awareness to build decoding skills. Roughly equal numbers of native and non- native English speakers encounter difficulties with word- decoding. Many ELLs develop word decoding skills equal to those of their with their peers in early elementary years. What we know ELLs early graphophonemic skills (i.e., letter- sound correspondence and word reading) are often more developed than higher order skills such as spelling. Students who have difficulty developing phonics skills, require extra instruction and support in this area. ELLs with very early English language skills will benefit from phonics instruction. Francis, 2006 Fi@ng Pieces to the Puzzle Capitalize on familiar letter- sound associations (e.g., complete overlap and those with partial overlap that are the same in English and Spanish). Explicitly teach unfamiliar letter- sound associations Explicitly teach unfamiliar letter based phonemes Explicitly teach phonemes that do not exist in Spanish Instruc:onal Considera:ons Specific sounds and sound placement in words differ for different languages. Helping students hear English sounds that don t exist or are not salient in their native language is beneficial. Unfamiliar phonemes and graphemes make decoding and spelling difficult. Important to familiarize students with those patterns that do not exist in native language but will be encountered in English. 2

5 Background Some Spanish speaking children will struggle to become readers, regardless of the language of instruction (English or Spanish) Much of what we know about teaching reading to native English speaking struggling readers applies to teaching native Spanish speaking struggling readers Thus, interventions designed to teach reading should be effective in either Spanish or English Oracy development and ESL strategies are critical additions to reading interventions for Spanish speaking students The Interven&ons Primary focus on reading Parallel in Spanish and English English version previously validated as effective 50 minutes per day October- May 1:4 Teacher to Student ratio Provided in addition to normal language arts instruction Lesson Cycle Story Retell 10 minutes) Reading Lesson 35 minutes) Embedded Language Support 5 minutes) Daily Lessons Includes multiple strands Amount of new information is kept to a minimum so that children can assimilate it Review and generalization included in every lesson Instruc&onal Design: Integrated Strands Vocabulary and Concept Knowledge Phonemic Awareness Letter-Sound Recognition Word Recognition Encoding Repeated Connected Text Reading What we learned about instruc&on for at- risk readers (cont.) ü Best Practices for ELLs ü All new information is modeled (Model Lead Test) ü Repetitive language and instructional routines ü Students read, write and practice new skills ü Students develop oral language and literacy ü Time to dialog with teachers and each other ü Modeling and mentoring Comprehension Strategies 3

6 Oracy Development for English- Learners: Read Aloud/Story Retell Procedure Elements of the Procedure Introduce the story and three or four new words. Read a passage from a narrative or informational text out loud, followed by literal and inferential questions. Reread the passage, focusing on the three or four vocabulary words. Extend comprehension by deeply processing vocabulary knowledge. Summarize what was read or learned. Selec:on of Vocabulary Words Select 3-4 words of high utility that can be used in varied contexts. Tier 2 words go beyond basic, familiar concepts (Tier 1) but are not so vague and technical (Tier 3) that they would be confined to specified content knowledge. Define words in terms that readily understood by students, helping students to make connections between world knowledge and new knowledge. Ques:ons that guide vocabulary selec:on: Will learning the words make students better able to describe their own life experiences because the words or knowledge gained can be linked to known words or concepts? Will learning the words result in a deeper understanding of a specific context within a story that can also be linked to student knowledge or life experiences? Selec:on of Text and Read Aloud Passages Select text that is one to two grade levels above the student s grade. Select stories and informational text based on student interest. Arrange texts into thematic groups (3-4) that will allow students to gain more depth in content knowledge. Divide book into passages of words so that it can be completely read within three to five days. Professional Development Model Initial Training On- going Coaching/Feedback Team Approach Formal Curriculum Fidelity (Beginning, Middle, End- of- the- Year) 4

7 Resources The National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCREST) CEC Division for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners Office English Language Acquisition Addi&onal Resources Center for Applied Linguistics Center on Instruction for ELLs IES Practice Guide Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades Colorin Colorado 5