Essential Question

1. Essential Question By Kayla Knott April 6, 2009 TEAC 413B

2. The Question: How can we help students in an ESL classroom who have limited formal schooling (LFS), students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) and/or students who are illiterate in their native or primary language?

3. WHY? The reasons for lack of schooling in most situations is due to war, civil unrest, cultural customs, or children whose parents are migrant workers.

4. WHAT? The issue: students are entering as emigrants or refugees into a U.S. School system with a weak foundation for learning a second language, and have difficulty working at age-appropriate levels in required subjects, even when these subjects are taught in their native/primary languages. What are some problems this situation could pose?

5. WHO? • Limited Formal Schooling is seen mostly in students from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and some countries in Africa. • It is seen in both first generation newcomers as well as second generation immigrants.

6. Statistics • 20% of LEP’s (Limited English Performance) at High School level and 12% of LEP’s at Middle School Level have missed 2 years or more of school since they were six years old. • There are more than 4 million LEP students in the U.S. (2000)

7. Most upper level ESL and Bilingual education programs assume that children enter school with some foundation of native language literacy, and are not generally equipped to help students develop basic literacy that children usually acquire in elementary school. What does this mean for: Elementary students Middle-level students Secondary-level students? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? The issue:

8. Younger Students Kindergarten and 1st grade students, brought into an ESL classroom, will probably not face difficulties in terms of minimal formal education, since most native English speakers are in the same playing field of limited content knowledge. The main difficulty they could face is if they have never connected spoken/aural language with written language.

9. Elementary Students • There are sometimes questions of whether or not education, especially doing homework and having consistent attendance, is as high on a list of priorities for some ELL’s families. • Also, often times children are required to take on many family responsibilities, to allow the parents to have more jobs.

10. Middle Level • Think about the content level knowledge that was expected of you, even by 5th grade… • Now, imagine if you were entering an English speaking school, without having that content-knowledge foundation, AND without speaking the language… • How long do you imagine it would take for you to feel like giving up? How long would it take for you to truly “catch up”? Is it possible?

11. Secondary Level • The main issue with Limited Formal schooling comes toward the end of middle school and entering the secondary level of education in the United States. • Learning high school curriculum is a challenge for students struggling to learn English, but can be especially overwhelming for students working to bridge literacy gaps in secondary education.

12. Content Knowledge • Think about the content knowledge expected of an 8th grader in the following mainstream classrooms: social studiessciencemathenglishwhat are some words that might be difficult for an ELL to understand if they have never had formal education to explain those concepts?

13. Content vocabulary • area, square root, factor, pi • principles of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division • circumference • globalization • chemical reactions • ecology

14. Defining the issue When they start school, students are already significantly behind, and are categorized as “overage”, “pre-literate” or “low literacy LEP” with needs that are not generally met by the design of a regular ESL or bilingual classroom.

15. Definitions • Overage: need instruction generally given to elementary aged students • Pre-literates: they struggle with reading and writing in native language and in English • LFS: Limited Formal Schooling • SIFE: Students with Interrupted Formal Education

16. LFS/SIFE Students In order to be categorized as LFS or SIFE, students: • will have had little or no formal schooling • Exhibit pre- or semi-literacy • Be 2-3 grades behind peers their own age • Perform significantly below grade level • Lack awareness of organization and culture of school

17. General Issues associated with LFS • Connecting verbal/aural to written word • Developing study habits • Classroom behavior/organization • Reading comprehension strategies • Identifying main ideas • Comparison in texts • Basic writing skills • Formal sentence structure • Chronological narration • Summarization What are some other issues you could predict facing as a teacher when trying to help an LFS or SIFE student?

18. Literacy Transfer • Students who arrive without a native language foundation of reading, writing, and schooling lack the skills and academic knowledge that can be transferred to English Literacy development and school achievement. • Students who arrive well-prepared academically and highly literate in language other than English possess conceptual knowledge and skills that assist in their acquisition of English literacy

19. issues continued… All of these conceptual tasks listed are built into the elementary and middle level curriculum, but by secondary level schooling, it is assumed that all students have developed these skills to a level of competency. There is not time built into the secondary classroom schedule for teachers to teach reading comprehension, summarization, or formal sentence structures.

20. issues continued…. ….on top of that, it can take up to 4-7 years to learn Academic English in general, which is even more difficult to acquire when the student doesn’t have a prior foundation of even basic elementary schooling (it can then take up to 10 years.)

21. HOW? How can teachers even begin to address all of the issues and complications that come when working with students who have limited formal schooling, students with interrupted formal education, and those with low literacy LEP?

22. Teach Through Content • Teach content, as well as literacy and numeracy skills that are often many grade levels behind students peers • Develop a thematic approach to vocabulary and related skills • Emphasize the development of social skills and academic language, and development of literacy skills What might this look like in an ESL Classroom? What about in a mainstream classroom?

23. Critical and content based knowledge • Even when students might not have a vast foundation with material being taught, focus on content as well as critical thinking and study skills • Draw on background knowledge and experiences (migrant workers: planting, crops) • Organize group activities, peer scaffolding to help students learn from the accumulated knowledge that the class brings as a whole

24. “Big Question Themes” Themes should provide students with opportunities to investigate big questions • Connect curriculum to students lives and backgrounds • Draw on their language strengths • Students know what topic is, even though conversation is in 2nd language • Students can engage with topic, feeling of success and relevancy to classroom • Allow student to choose topics of interest, to encourage student to take language learning risks

25. Challenges • Finding reading materials relevant to older students that still support the development of basic literacy skills • Creating a community of learners when students might come from a vast spectrum of backgrounds and educational experiences • Supporting academic skills while promoting the “catching up” with content learning as well

26. SUPPORT THE TROOPS • Less than 3% of content teachers with low literacy LEP’s in their classroom have ESL experience or degrees • As ESL Teaches, it is imperative that we realize our role of supporting mainstream teachers and casting a vision of understanding the issue and reaching solutions together

27. Resources Assessment guidelines: http://www.rrcna.org/pdf/Freeman_Handouts.pdf Keys to success for bilingual students with limited formal schooling - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3722/is_200101/ai_n8950697/?tag=content;col1 Closing the achievement gap for ELL’s - http://www.rrcna.org/pdf/Freeman_Handouts.pdf Immigrant Students and Secondary School -http://eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/1b/a4/84.pdf

28. Sources/Bibliography • Keys to success for bilingual students with limited formal schooling-http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3722/is_200101/ai_n8950697/?tag=content;col1 • LFS: Learners with Limited Formal Schooling -http://suse-step.stanford.edu/resources/LanguageSite/LFS_Page.html • Closing the Achievement Gap for English Language Learners-http://www.rrcna.org/pdf/Freeman_Handouts.pdf • Establishing an Effective Newcomer Program-http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0312short.html • Interrupted Formal Schooling-www.ncela.gwu.edu/practice/itc/ifsinfo.html#EL • Literacy Characteristics of Hispanic Adolescent Immigrants with Limited Prior Education, by Anna Uhl Chamot