Building Consensus on Effective Instructional Strategies for English Language Learners with Disabilities

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Building Consensus on Effective Instructional
Strategies for English Language Learners with
Disabilities

• July, 2007
• Martha Thurlow and Kristi Liu

N C E O
National Center on Educational Outcomes
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NCLB State Assessments

• State assessments must provide for the
  participation of all students, including students
  with disabilities or limited English proficiency

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No mention of English language learners with
disabilities!
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What Do We Know About ELLs with Disabilities?

• Population 357,325 in 2002-2003 (9 of ELLs)
• Numbers increasing with rapidly growing
  population
• More ELLs instructed in mainstream courses taught
  in English -- tendency increased for students
  with disabilities

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Simply putting ELLs with disabilities in the
mainstream classroom with standards-based content
does not guarantee they learn the material!
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Test scores show limited achievement for these
students
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NCLBInstructional Strategies

• Teachers must use scientifically based
  instructional strategies to teach challenging
  academic content to all students.

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LEP/IEP Strategies Project

• PROJECT PURPOSE
• To provide research-based knowledge to
  educators on the topic of instructional
  strategies that help middle school ELLs with
  disabilities achieve in standards-based content
  classrooms

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CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Adapted from Iowa Area
Education Agency 267, 2004
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Study Phases

• Phase I Review of instructional strategies
  described in state standards and supporting
  documents
• Phase II (1) Educator consensus-building to
  develop lists of recommended strategies (2)
  Validation of recommended strategies via Delphi
  review (3) interviews online surveys with
  principals
• Phase III Dissemination

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Phase I 50 State Standards Review

• RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• Do states recommend instructional strategies in
  reading, mathematics, or science for ELLs with
  disabilities?
• What is the nature of the instructional
  strategies being recommended in general, and for
  ELLs with disabilities?
• How are the strategies communicated to educators?
  

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Definition of Strategy

• A set of systematic activities used by a teacher
  that contains explicit steps to achieve a
  specific student outcome. This set of steps must
  be replicable by another individual in order to
  be considered a strategy.

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For further clarification

• In this study a strategy is not
• A student generated strategy that requires no
  instruction
• A student learning strategy acquired through
  instruction
• An approach (i.e., a combination of
  teaching/learning strategies)
• An assessment activity used to determine
  placement in or progress through curriculum
  (e.g., curriculum based measurement)
• A principle of good teaching (e.g., planning
  activities before instruction, during
  instruction, after instruction)
• Spur of the moment spontaneous activities
  suggested by a "teachable moment"(Barrera Liu,
  2005)

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Process

• Collected standards and supplementary
  instructional documents on Internet (e.g.,
  frameworks, teaching resources)
• Verified accuracy and completeness with state
  directors
• Coded documents analyzed results

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Phase I Findings

• 69 total strategies 48 directly connected to a
  standard
• 1 strategy for ELLs with disabilities
  (neurological impress method)
• 11 strategies for ELLs
• 36 strategies for students with disabilities
• 21 strategies for general education students

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Findings cont.

• Limited research base on ELLs with disabilities
  reflected in lack of references in state
  documents
• Existing studies and articles on topic not cited
• Most strategies cited related to reading
  strategies for students with disabilities
• Some strategy descriptions varied across states
  (e.g., KWL)

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Phase 2 Teacher Consensus Building

• Research Question
• In schools throughout the U.S. that are making
  greater than average progress with English
  language learners, what instructional strategies
  do teachers recommend for improving the academic
  achievement of middle and junior high school
  English language learners with disabilities in
  standards-based content instruction?

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Multi-Attribute Consensus Building (MACB)
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Participants (n67)
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10 Schools Making AYP
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Phase II Importance of Content Areas
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Reading Strategies

• Chunking and questioning aloud (11)
• Relating reading to student experiences (11)
• Using visuals (5)
• Teacher modeling (3)
• Checking background knowledge (2)
• Choral reading (2)
• Literature circles (2)
• Multiple reading (2)
• Predictions (2)
• Pre-reading survey of text (2)
• Vocabulary building (2)

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Curriculum-based Probe

• Proponent
• I think its very important that you need to
  know where the child is at in order to keep
  going. You cannot keep going unless you know
  where the child is. So you have to constantly
  assess, even if its informal, it works.
• Opponent
• I remember doing these as a child, kind of
  being tested like this in such a quick time
  frame. And then you know, it even says reach
  frustration level. And I, I just It frustrates
  me and it hurts me, and it makes me sad to just
  think that you have to test them to the point of
  frustration that such a time limit. Imagine being
  ELL and Special Ed at the same time trying to do
  this.

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Math Strategies

• Daily re-looping of previously learned material
  (11)
• A student-developed glossary (11)
• Teacher think-alouds (11)
• Using manipulatives (8)
• Relating mathematics to real life (7)
• Using visuals (4)
• Drill and practice (2)
• Hands-on participation (2)
• Teacher modeling (2)
• Simplifying problems (2)

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Science Strategies

• Modeling/teacher demonstration (11)
• Using pre-reading strategies in science (11)
• Using pictures to demonstrate steps (11)
• Hands-on participation (6)
• Graphic organizers (4)
• Student-made models (4)
• Vocabulary development (3)
• Personal interest research (2)

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Phase II findings

• No common understanding of what a strategy is.
• In general teachers were neutral or positive
  about all strategies.
• Use of the native language was not mentioned
  frequently

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• The top three strategies varied little across
  types of teachers.
• Curriculum-based probes or Curriculum based
  measurement was the most variable
•  

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Phase III Principal Interviews

• Research Question
• How and to what degree are state standards that
  specify instructional strategies translated into
  practice by educational leaders at the school
  level?

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Procedure

• Semi-structured interviews with 10 principals
• 5 in high ELL states
• 5 in low ELL states
• stratified random sample
• Schools that made AYP in 2003-2004 with ELLs
• Four geographic areas
• Same schools where teacher groups took place

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Interview Questions

• Questions covered the following issues for ELLs
  with disabilities
• Instructional issues
• Teacher use of strategies contained in state
  standards other documents
• Sources of teacher information on instructional
  strategies
• School or district-provided information on
  strategies
• School needs related to instructional strategies

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Instructional Issues Listed by Principals
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Many principals believe state standards and
supporting documents provide no information on
instructional strategies for this population

• State documents and strategies are not
  connected

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What do principals and teachers rely on for
instructional strategy information?
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Teaching models with packaged materials

• Our school has just adopted the SIOP Model for
  teaching ESL kids.It has all the strategies for
  reading and writing and they are research based.
  Our ESL teachers use them for lesson planning and
  designing many other class activitiesWe have the
  SIOP Model book

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• We take an interest in differentiated
  instruction and that really takes on the aspect
  of all students and different types of
  learningone of the strategies is to make a
  menu-type of assignment where they will have like
  an appetizer, and they will have a main course
  and a dessert and under each of those categories
  there are different assignmentsThe ESL students
  have been doing things like bringing in food and
  clothing and that could be a part of their
  assignment

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Locally developed curriculum maps

• We look at the state standards and those are
  ourwe have curriculum maps that are taught
  around thoseThe curriculum maps were then
  developed based upon the state standards, so the
  teachersits been dictated, its not a choice,
  you have to follow these curriculum maps. And
  the curriculum maps have a pacing scale to
  themThe teachers are refer to the curriculum
  maps, not to state standards.

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ESL or Bilingual Specialists

• P1 We rely heavily on name, District
  Specialist, and she has provided various
  trainingsShe is very thorough, professional, and
  efficient
• P2 Our ELL teacher as well as our reading
  teacher, they spent a lot of time training the
  staff

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Locally Provided Professional Development

• P1 We had a five year grant in the district for
  professional development for regular teachers.
  During thatgrant, we did the training with staff
  across the district
• P2 Teachers are always getting trained, we have
  professional development programs, money, and
  incentives, ESL Summer Institutefor the teachers
  who could not attend it we have a back up
  program, we have good college connections and
  good relationships with curriculum people in the
  district

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District Resources

• Our district provides specific strategies for
  ELL and special ed students and our teaching
  staff follow them and adapt them

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Mixture

• We do a lot of strategies. That is just a given
  with our school. We go through many different
  areas that have been highlighted, especially in
  the area of sheltered instruction for our
  students, scaffolding, we do a lot with
  techniques that the state sees very important for
  us to work withIll say that our school here
  pretty much across the board implements many
  different strategies to help ELL students
  outanywhere from brain-based learning to
  Renaissance to reading strategies

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Phase III Findings

• Most principals in our study were relatively
  uninvolved in directly translating instructional
  strategies to practice.
• Much of the strategy guidance came from packaged
  curricula or professional development programs,
  from district specialists, or from building
  specialists.

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Preliminary Project Findings

• State documents do not provide a great deal of
  guidance
• Teachers generated a list of untargeted
  strategies
• Principals often delegate instructional decisions
  for these students

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• Teachers may not have strong building-level
  leadership on teaching ELLs with disabilities
• Few information sources teachers rely on address
  the specific needs of ELLs with disabilities
• Its unclear how many of sources of information
  are research based.

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NCEO Resources
www.nceo.info Kristi Liu, (612.626.9061) kline010_at_
umn.edu Martha Thurlow, (612.624.4826)
thurl001_at_umn.edu