Improving the Achievement of ELLs in High Schools: Notes from Quality Teaching for English Learners

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Improving the Achievement of ELLs in High
Schools Notes from Quality Teaching for English
Learners in AustinBIRE MeetingAída Walqui,
Ph.D. Director, Teacher Professional Development
Program, WestEd Austin, Thursday, May 8
2008awalqui_at_wested.orgwww.wested.org/qtel
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Presentation themes

• QTEL views of learning and teaching
• Theory of action
• Goals for implementation in Austin high
  schools
• Goals for the first year, accomplishments
• Some taxing issues in high school reform to
  make quality education for ELLs and all
  students an every day reality
• Two examples

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QTEL premises

• Sociocultural approach to the education of
  English Language Learners, with deliberately
  constructed activity at the center of lessons
• Semiotic view of language
• Principled practice in ESL and disciplinary
  areas
• View of scaffolding as structure and as process
• Teacher apprenticeship processes mirror those
  of their students

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Theoretical model
Student Engagement
Teacher Knowledge
Classroom Experience Student-teacher
interactionAssignments Assessment Peer group
interaction
QTEL
Teacher Practice
Student Achievement
Teacher Collaboration
Student Motivation
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Figure 1 Ripples of impact on Teacher
professional Development, Year 1
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Whole School Improvement
All teachers
Informal teacher leaders
Formal teacher leaders
Figure 1 Ripples of impact on Teacher
professional Development, Year 1 Irvine Grant
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What have we accomplished in the first year of
work?

• Shared vision of what is possible with ELL and
  all other students
• Full support and participation from the
  leadership at the two schools
• Good relationships with key teachers in the two
  partner schools
• Awareness and varying levels of implementation
  of quality interactions in class
• An understanding of the importance of preparing
  learners before interacting with new texts
• Gains in teacher vision, reflection, subject
  matter pedagogical knowledge, motivation, and
  ability to translate these elements into
  practice

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TASKS REQUIRED TO BE IMPLEMENTED by all
teachers at International and Lanier High Schools
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What have we accomplished in the first year of
work?

• Understanding and implementation of 6-7 tasks by
  all teachers at the school sites (tasks
  foregrounded)
• Understanding and varying levels of
  implementation of lesson structure
  (backgrounded)
• Purposeful use of common planning periods and
  TLC scheduled times

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Example 1

• Teacher Stacia Crescenzi, Assistant
  Principal, Lanier High School
• Class Psychology
• Students Heterogeneous group, with several
  second generation English Language Learners

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Jigsaw Project
BASE GROUP
Students work in heterogeneous groups to prepare
for the main class reading
EXPERT GROUP
From victim to gun control activist
The man who survived brain injury
Effects of childhood brain injury
Mass murderer
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Jigsaw Project
BASE GROUP
Students work in heterogeneous groups to prepare
for the main class reading
EXPERT GROUP
From victim to gun control activist
The man who survived brain injury
Effects of childhood brain injury
Mass murderer
BASE GROUP
Students share their readings and prepare an
informational text
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Stacias Lesson From goals to the
determination and choice of tasks
Base group sharing, discussion, and third person
report
Expert group Focused Reading
Three-step interview
Base group discussion
Extended anticipatory guide
WRITING OF INFORMATIONAL TEXT
Anticipatory guide
Reading prediction
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Extended Anticipatory Guide
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Brain Structure and Function
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Brain Guide
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Damage to Lobes of the Brain
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Example 2

• Teacher Kelly Wroblewsky
• Class Tenth grade Geometry
• Students Heterogeneous group, some native
  speakers, many English Language Learners,
  some first, some second and third generation

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What the example illustrates

• Preparing learners for meaningful learning in
  geometry
• The construction of quality interactions a
  thoughtful prompt, teacher abdication of her
  role as absolute controller of what happens in
  the classroom, the building of student
  motivation and engagement

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Some challenges

• The pervasiveness of the apprenticeship of
  observation (Lortie, 1975)
• tension between the need to teach rigorously
  and in depth, and the pressures from external
  accountability systems (testing)
• underestimation of how long it takes to create
  significant and permanent changes in teacher
  expertise

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We are convinced that

• Over time this program will render good results
  not just for English Language Learners but for
  all students at implementation sites.
• We will continue problematizing ideas and
  implementation, refining it jointly with our
  partners so that the possibilities become a
  reality.