Designing Successful Projects for ELLs with

Limited/Interrupted Formal Education

TESOL Convention

New Orleans March 17, 2011

Andrea DeCapua and Helaine W. Marshall

Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal

Education

SLIFE

Needs of SLIFE

• Learn basic & grade-level subject area concepts

• Develop basic literacy skills

• Develop academic ways of thinking

• Adapt to cultural differences in

learning and teaching

U.S. teachers and learners assume that:

1. the goals of K-12 instruction are

a) to prepare that learner for life after schooling

b) to produce an independent learner

2. the learner brings along

a) an urge to compete and excel as an individual

b) age-appropriate preparation for

(i) literacy development

(ii) academic tasks (DeCapua & Marshall, 2011)

SLIFE

• Do not always see the immediate

relevance of school learning

• Generally come from collectivistic

cultures

• Do not have age-appropriate literacy

& academic skills preparation

(Ibarra, 2001)

Mutually Adaptive Learning

Paradigm – MALP©

• Instructional Model

• Elements from students’ learning paradigm

• Elements from U.S. learning paradigm

• Transitional approach to close achievement gap

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2011)

Interconnectedness Independence

Shared Responsibility

Individual Accountability

Pragmatic Tasks

Academic

Tasks

with

Bringing the two worlds together:

MALP©

and

Project-Based Learning

Mrs. Aquino

• Secondary ESL teacher of SLIFE

• Approached by social studies teacher concerned about SLIFE in her mainstream class

• Mrs. Aquino trained in MALP

• Develops Timelines project

Mrs. Aquino’s Timeline Project: Birthdays

• Importance placed on birthdays not universal

• SLIFE may

• be unaware of actual birthday and/or

• have been assigned approximate one for arrival in U.S.

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2011)

Steps in the Project

1. Background lessons

• months of the year

• cardinal and ordinal numbers from 1-31

2. Word wall

• birthday

• celebrate

Steps in the Project

Sentence Frames

My birthday is on the _______________ day of

_________________.

My birthday is __________ ___________.

3. Individual small poster with two

sentence frames; students work in pairs

to complete posters

Steps in the Project

4. Standing in a row

• Refer to individual posters

• Partners decide whose birthday comes first

• All students arrange themselves physically into class timeline

5. But teacher, 3 birthdays in November!”

“Whose birthday comes first? Check your posters.”

Reinforces:

• cardinal number recognition and practice

• comparing and contrasting

Steps in the Project

6. Oral timeline practice

• Students remain standing

• One-by-one say date of their birthday

• Mrs. Aquino enters each date on large blank timeline

Steps in the Project

7. Teacher’s birthday

• Mrs. Aquino tells students her birthday

• Students decide where she should stand in their timeline

8. Students say dates and months while

looking at & pointing to timeline on

board

Steps in the Project

Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm – MALP ©

Teacher Planning Checklist

A. Accept Conditions for Learning

A1. I am making this lesson/project immediately relevant to students.

A2. I am helping students develop and maintain interconnectedness.

B. Combine Processes for Learning

B1. I am incorporating shared responsibility and individual accountability.

B2. I am scaffolding the written word through oral interaction.

C. Focus on New Activities for Learning

C1. I am focusing on tasks requiring academic ways of thinking.

C2. I am making these tasks accessible with familiar language and content.

DeCapua, A. & Marshall. H. W. (2011). Breaking new ground: Teaching English learners

with limited or interrupted formal education in US secondary schools. Ann Arbor, MI:

University of Michigan Press.

More about MALP©?

Our wiki is http://malp.pbworks.com

Andrea DeCapua adecapua@cnr.edu

Helaine W. Marshall helaine.marshall@liu.edu

SlideShare Event: TESOL 2011

Selected References

• DeCapua, A. & Marshall. H. W. (2011). Breaking new ground: Teaching English learners with limited or interrupted formal education in US secondary schools. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

• DeCapua, A. & Marshall, H.W. (2011). Reaching ELLs at risk: Instruction for students with limited/interrupted formal education. Preventing School Failure, 55, 35-41.

• DeCapua, A., & Marshall, H. W. (2010a). Limited formally schooled English language learners in U.S. classrooms. Urban Review, 42, 159-173.

• DeCapua, A. & Marshall, H.W. (2010b). Serving ELLs with limited or interrupted education: Intervention that works. TESOL Journal, 1, 49-70.

References (cont’d) • DeCapua, A., Smathers, W. & Tang, F. (2007).

Addressing the challenges and needs of students with interrupted formal education (SIFE). Educational Policy & Leadership, 65, 40–46.

• Marshall, H.W. & DeCapua A. 2010). The newcomer booklet: A Project for limited formally schooled students. ELT Journal, 64. 396-404.

• Marshall, H.W., DeCapua, A., & Antolini, C. (2010) Building literacy for SIFE through social studies. Educator’s Voice, 3, 56-65.

• Marshall, H. W. (1998). A mutually adaptive learning paradigm (MALP) for Hmong students. Cultural Circles, 3, 134-141.