Modifying the Instruction and Grading ELL Students Shirley Barnés

Modifying the Instruction and “How to grade ELL students” are some of those topics that represent a challenge to most teachers and administrators. After reviewing the META Consent Decree and several sources who addresses this topics, I have summarized the main factors and recommendations based on the state mandates and research conclusions. Teachers who are facilitating the instruction to ELL students must understand and take into consideration the following aspects:

Stages of language acquisition

Strategies, accommodations, and modifications that can be implemented

Planning for Differentiated Instruction

How to grade in a realistic and fair way

Legal implications based on state mandates (META Consent Decree)

The Six Stages of Second-Language Acquisition

The first thing a teacher must take into consideration when is planning the instruction for ELL students (lesson plan including differentiated instruction), is the students’ level of English proficiency. It is imperative for an ESOL Teacher to understand the stages of language acquisition in order for her/him to identify what linguistic and academic performance to expect from the ELL students according to their language proficiency level. Here is a simple table explaining the different language acquisition stages:

Pre-production

This is also called "the silent period," when the student takes in the new language but does not speak it. This period often lasts six weeks or longer, depending on the individual.

Early production

The individual begins to speak using short words and sentences, but the emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language. There will be many errors in the early production stage.

Speech Emergent

Speech becomes more frequent, words and sentences are longer, but the individual still relies heavily on context clues and familiar topics. Vocabulary continues to increase and errors

The amount of time that will take for an ELL student to acquire the new language by going through the different stages will depend on:

1. student’s strength of first language skills 2. quality of instruction that the student receives

Language researchers such as Jim Cummins, Catherine Snow, Lily Wong Filmore and Stephen Krashen have studied this topic in a variety of ways for many years. The general consensus is:

It takes between five to seven years for an individual to achieve advanced fluency if that student has strong first language and literacy skills.

If the student has not fully developed first language and literacy skills, it may take between seven to ten years to reach advanced fluency.

It is very important to note that every ELL student comes with his or her own unique language and education background, and this will have an impact on their English learning process. A student may develop the fluency to speak the new language and perform satisfactory in a social environment because the BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) have been developed, but that does not mean that the

begin to decrease, especially in common or repeated interactions.

Beginning Fluency

Speech is fairly fluent in social situations with minimal errors. New contexts and academic language are challenging and the individual will struggle to express themselves due to gaps in vocabulary and appropriate phrases.

Intermediate Fluency

Communicating in the second language is fluent, especially in social language situations. The individual is able to speak almost fluently in new situations or in academic areas, but there will be gaps in vocabulary knowledge and some unknown expressions. There are very few errors, and the individual is able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills in the second language such as offering an opinion or analyzing a problem.

Advanced Fluency

The individual communicates fluently in all contexts and can maneuver successfully in new contexts and when exposed to new academic information. At this stage, the individual may still have an accent and use idiomatic expressions incorrectly at times, but the individual is essentially fluent and comfortable communicating in the second language.

student has fully acquired the new language. The student must also develop the CALPS (Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency Skills), which includes fluency in academic contexts. Teachers often get frustrated when ELL students appear to be fluent because they have strong social English skills, but then they do not participate well in academic projects and discussions. How To Identify the Language Stages of Your Students?

In order to facilitate instruction in a way that will address all the students’ academic/linguistic skills, the teacher must implement differentiated instruction. In a classroom of ELL students the teacher will have students at a variety of stages in the language acquisition process. First step for a teacher is to identify the students’ language stages. Aural/Oral IPT results, as well as CELLA are effective tools to help the teacher identify the students’ language stage. Using IPT and CELLA Results To Identify Students’ Language Level Depending upon the level of English proficiency, your ELL student will be able to manage a certain amount of material in your class. Remember...ELL students are on a temporary stage and are intelligent and really want to learn what you are teaching!

If the ELL student is new and has been identified as NES or very limited in EN proficiency, the teacher may use the IPT (language assessment) results to help her/he determine the student’s level of language proficiency.

Also interviewing the student and working one on one will help the teacher be more accurate on the identification of the student’s needs.

If the student has been in the program for more than a year, another tool that is helpful to determine the language acquisition level is the CELLA

The Aural/Oral IPT identifies the language levels as:

NES = Non English Speaker

LES= Limited English Speaker

FES = Fuent English Speaker The CELLA identify the language levels as:

Beginning

Low Intermediate

High Intermediate

Proficient

Here is a table to help you use the Aural/Oral IPT and CELLA results as a tool to identify the student’s language stages. Aural/Oral

IPT Results

Language Stages

CELLA Results NES

(Non English Speakers)

Pre-production Early production

Beginning Level

LES (Limited English

Speakers)

Speech Emergent Beginning Fluency

Low Intermediate Level

FES (Fluent English

Speakers)

Intermediate Fluency Advanced Fluency

High Intermediate Level Proficient Level

Once you identify the student’s language level, then the next step is to plan the lesson taking into consideration the student’s linguistic needs.

What Instructional Strategies Can Be used Based On Language Stages?

Based on the students’ level of language proficiency, the teacher must determine which strategies to use as part of the instruction (a more effective instruction planning). Here are some suggestions for appropriate instructional strategies according to stages of language acquisition.

Language Stage

Strategies

Pre-production

• Emphasize listening comprehension by using read-alouds and music.

• Use visuals and have students point to pictures or act out vocabulary.

• Speak slowly and use shorter words, but use correct English phrasing.

• Model "survival" language by saying and showing the

meaning. For example, say, "Open your book," and then open a book while the student observes.

• Gesture, point and show as much as possible.

• More advanced classmates who speak the same language can support new learning through interpretation.

• Avoid excessive error correction. Reinforce learning by modeling correct language usage when students make mistakes.

Early Production

• Continue the strategies listed above, but add opportunities for students to produce simple language.

• Ask students to point to pictures and say the new word.

• Ask yes/no and either/or questions.

• Have students work in pairs or small groups to discuss a problem. Have literate students write short sentences or words in graphic organizers.

• Model a phrase and have the student repeat it and add modifications. Teacher says, "This book is very interesting." The student repeats it and says, "This book is very boring." Continue with as many modifications as possible.

• Avoid excessive error correction. Reinforce learning by modeling correct usage.

Speech Emergent

• Introduce more academic language and skills by using the same techniques listed above, but beginning to use more academic vocabulary.

• Introduce new academic vocabulary and model how to use it in a sentence.

• Provide visuals and make connections with student's background knowledge as much as possible.

• Ask questions that require a short answer and are fairly literal.

• Introduce charts and graphs by using easily understood information such as a class survey of food preferences.

• Have students re-tell stories or experiences and have another student write them down. The ELL student can

bring these narratives home to read and reinforce learning.

• In writing activities, provide the student with a fill-in-the blank version of the assignment with the necessary vocabulary listed on the page.

• Provide minimal error correction. Focus only on correction that directly interferes with meaning. Reinforce learning by modeling the correct usage.

Beginning Fluency

• Have students work in pairs and groups to discuss content.

• During instruction, have students do a "Think, pair, share" to give the student an opportunity to process the new language and concept.

• Ask questions that require a full response with explanation. If you do not understand the student's explanation, ask for clarification by paraphrasing and asking the student if you heard them correctly.

• Ask questions that require inference and justification of the answer.

• Ask students if they agree or disagree with a statement and why.

• Model more advanced academic language structures such as, "I think," "In my opinion," and "When you compare." Have students repeat the phrases in context.

• Re-phrase incorrect statements in correct English, or ask the student if they know another way to say it.

• Introduce nuances of language such as when to use more formal English and how to interact in conversations.

• Have students make short presentations, providing them with the phrases and language used in presentations ("Today I will be talking about") and giving them opportunities to practice the presentation with partners before getting in front of the class.

• Continue to provide visual support and vocabulary development.

• Correct errors that interfere with meaning, and pre-identify errors that will be corrected in student writing, such as verb-tense agreement. Only correct the errors agreed upon.

• You may want to assist in improving pronunciation by asking a student to repeat key vocabulary and discussing how different languages have different sounds.

Intermediate Fluency

• Identify key academic vocabulary and phrases and model them. Ask students to produce the language in class activities.

• Use graphic organizers and thinking maps and check to make sure the student is filling them in with details. Challenge the student to add more.

• Help the student make connections with new vocabulary by instructing him or her in the etymology of words or word families such as, "important, importance, importantly."

• Create assessments that give students an opportunity to present in English after they have an opportunity to practice in pairs or small groups.

• Introduce more academic skills, such as brainstorming, prioritizing, categorization, summarizing and compare and contrast.

• Ask students to identify vocabulary by symbols that show whether the student "knows it really well, kind of knows it, or doesn't know it at all." Help students focus on strategies to get the meaning of new words.

• Have a "guessing time" during silent reading where they circle words they don't know and write down their guess of the meaning. Check the results as a class.

• Introduce idioms and give examples of how to use them appropriately. For example, "Let's wind up our work." What's another way you could use the phrase "wind up?"

• Starting at this level, students need more correction/feedback, even on errors that do not directly

affect meaning. They should be developing a more advanced command of syntax, pragmatics, pronunciation, and other elements that do not necessarily affect meaning but do contribute to oral fluency.

• It may also be helpful to discuss language goals with the student so you can assist in providing modeling and correction in specified areas.

Advanced Fluency

• Students at this level are close to native language fluency and can interact well in a variety of situations. Continue to develop language skills as gaps arise by using the strategies listed above. Although the student may seem completely fluent, he or she still benefit from visual support, building on background knowledge, pre-teaching vocabulary and making connections between content areas.

• Offer challenge activities to expand the student's vocabulary knowledge such as identifying antonyms, synonyms and the use of a thesaurus and dictionary.

• Demonstrate effective note-taking and provide a template.

• Offer error correction on academic work and on oral language. Because students at this stage have achieved near-native fluency, they benefit from support in fine-tuning their oral and written language skills.

How to modify the instruction?

The first thing must be to define the word “modification”. Modification means to change classroom materials that already exist into a simple way, not to create something totally new. Modifying instruction requires a strategic pre-planning time. If you modify the lesson, the ELL student will be able to actively participate during the instructional time and start showing some progress.

There are three components that can be modified for an ELL student:

Content (the curriculum, essential ideas, key understandings, vocabulary, terms, etc.)

Instruction (the method of presentation, class work expected of the student, and materials provided to the student)

Assessment (the manner in which student knowledge is evaluated and graded)

The three components must take into consideration in the lesson planning for ELL students. Here are some recommendations when planning your lessons:

Students at a Beginning level:

Teaching these students can be a challenge due to their limited communication skills.

Simplifying directions as much as possible will be helpful.

Provide graphic organizers to them.

Pre-copy the class notes and provides students the notes before the lesson.

Use highlighters and sticky notes to identify the material you expect them to focus on.

Use as many visual aids and manipulatives as possible

Provide realia (real objects)

Use gestures to convey meaning non-verbally

Use Basic vocabulary list- keep in mind that they are building the basic vocabulary in English.

Reduce the number of concepts introduced at any one time (identify two or three essential ideas/concepts for student to learn)

They will need additional time to complete task as well as significant assistance (one on one).

Students at a Low intermediate:

Identify the main ideas/goals for students to learn

Reduce the number of concepts introduced at any one time

Develop a shorter vocabulary list based on the unit to be instructed and according to their needs.

Use gestures to convey meaning non-verbally

In this level, visual aids are still very helpful and needed.

They will need additional time to complete task as well as some assistance.

Students at a High Intermediate (Advanced):

At this level the ELL students should be expected to learn the majority or all of the content that you teach to regular education students. However, they may:

Need more time to complete assignments, demonstrate their knowledge

Need more support and structure during lessons and assignments

The trick to working with these students is to continually monitor them regarding how much they understand. Because these students have strong social language skills, it is easy to assume that they understand much more than they do and/or that they have the background knowledge needed to make good progress. Since these students have spent the past few years learning English, they may not have the same background knowledge as your other students.

Modifying Assessments for ELL Students

How to fairly assess an ELL student is a “complicated” topic due to the state and district expectations for our students, but it is inaccurate and unfair to assess an ELL student (specially NES) the same way other students are evaluated to demonstrate academic progress. Using the same assessment for a student that is in the beginning stages of language acquisition will not be accurate because, the student may not be able to answer this kind of assessment, but that does not means that the student is not learning the content and not having any progress. The best practice is to identify the way you are going to assess the student, and it should be based on the student’s language proficiency level. Here are some basic guidelines to help you determine which kind of assessment to use for your ELL students:

Beginning: you may use Alternate assessments

Low Intermediate: Simplified and/or Modified assessments

High Intermediate: Modified and/or Accommodated assessments

All ELL students may receive extended time to complete assessments and also the Bilingual paraprofessional may assist with translation for core

subject assessments (for example math assessment).

Type of Assessments to Be Used According to the Student’s

Language Level:

Alternate: Allow the ELL student to demonstrate their knowledge in a completely different format. Generally, for beginning students with limited proficiency in English, pictures, drawing, and short verbal explanations work best. At this stage, the student is generally only graded on content, and not on spelling, grammar, or stylistics.

• Label a picture or diagram

• Draw a picture that demonstrates a key idea

• Explain an idea orally not evaluating the limitations in grammar

• Answer a few questions orally (yes - no questions)

• Draw lines between vocabulary terms and pictures

• Allow students to submit a project in lieu of an in-class test. The project might take a week or more for the student to complete.

Simplified: Develop a short assessment that evaluates only the essential ideas and core vocabulary that the ELL student was required to learn.

• True/false

• Multiple choice with only two possible answers

• Matching with a limited number of choices

Modified: Use the same test that you've prepared for regular education students, but shorten it and focus on essential ideas and core vocabulary.

• Cross out half the questions

• Require students to complete only certain portions of the test

• Provide a word bank (write it on the test)

• Allow students to choose to answer 5 of 10 questions

• Provide multiple choice answers for questions that would normally require students to create an answer

• Turn short answer into multiple choice

• Shorten the length of the required answer

• For multiple choice, cross out one or two of the incorrect answers

Accommodated: Use the same test as used for regular education students, but also allow ELL accommodations such as extended time and the use of bilingual translators/dictionaries.

How to Grade ELL Students

No grading policy or guidelines shall adversely affect a student based solely on language proficiency. As we previously established, teachers must take into consideration the student’s level of English proficiency when planning

assessments and assigning grades to their students because, the student’s level of English proficiency may affect his or her ability to communicate content knowledge. ELL students have a right to receive grades that represent an

accurate evaluation of achievement and that thoughtful, reflect the academic and linguistic progress.

ELL students will receive grades based on accommodations or alternative assignments appropriate to the student’s language proficiency level, and receive the same report card that is used in general education.

Please note that watering down the curriculum IS NOT an option. ELL students grading should therefore reflect daily instructional accommodations as well as testing accommodations, and should not penalize the student for not yet being fully fluent in English. Grading should be a “combination of process and product” for all students. Grades should reflect a variety of performances, such as participation, projects, portfolios, and oral explanations. Using only “product criteria” for grading would not recognize some of the students for their effort, and for things they do well, which are an equally legitimate and relevant part of the criteria for grading them.

The following is a summary of specific guidelines for teachers to follow when

grading ELL students:

Explain grading criteria and expectations to parents and provide them with samples of student work meeting these performance expectations.

Modify the curriculum by reducing the language demands of instruction, without compromising the content of instruction.

Provide comprehensible instruction to ELL student. This can be accomplished through the use of ESOL instructional strategies, supplementary materials and native language assistance.

Document the use of ESOL instructional strategies in the teacher plan-book.

Document other modifications, accommodations and parent contacts made for each ELL student. Interventions should be based on the student’s level of English proficiency.

WHEN GRADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS The teacher should not assign a student a lower grade based solely on lack of English proficiency, or use a single assessment to determine mastery of skills and concepts taught.

Make sure that the student’s report card indicates that the student is ELL, and write comments explaining how the student was graded. Comments should be used to explain that grades are based on instructional accommodations, modified materials, or alternative assessments (as applicable). Can a Teacher Gives Failing Grades to an ELL Student? It is illegal to give failing grades to or retain an ELL student if the student’s lack of mastery is due to limited English proficiency. (Refer to state mandate SBR 6-A-1.09421 (6) for details.) ELL students should only receive a failing grade if the contributing factor for failure is unrelated to second language acquisition, for example poor attendance, unwillingness to try or incomplete work (after implementing the needed accommodations and modifications).

The classroom teacher must document that content area materials and assignments have been modified to meet the needs of the ELL student (including classroom work and assessments).

If, after implementing the classroom modifications and accommodations according to the student’s language level, the student does not master the content concepts, then a failing grade may be justified.

An ELL student should not receive failing grades and even considered for retention, if the teacher has not implemented the ESOL strategies, accommodations and modifications on instruction and assessments as previously described. If the instruction and evaluation accommodations and modifications were not implemented during the school year, it means that the teacher did not provide the comprehensible instruction that is required based on the META Consent Decree and state mandates and the student should not be penalized for the teacher’s mistakes (lack of planning/facilitating differentiated instruction).

State Mandates

META Consent Decree:

Florida State has implemented state mandates based on the META Consent Decree to protect ELL students.

SBR 6-A-1.09421 (6), which states: “No promotion or retention decision may be made for any individual student classified as LEP based solely on a score on any single assessment instrument, whether such assessment instrument is part of the statewide assessment program or of a particular district’s formal assessment process. A formal retention recommendation regarding a LEP student may be made through action of a LEP Committee.”

Under no circumstances should lack of language proficiency determine whether a student should be retained.

“Comprehensible Instruction” is part of the state mandates:

On the META Consent Decree Agreement Section II of Equal Access to Appropriate Programming, section A1 states the following:

“Equal access to appropriate programming shall include both access to intensive English language instruction and instruction in basic subject matter areas of math, science, social studies, computer literacy which is

(1) understandable to the LEP student given his or her level of English language proficiency, and (2) equal and comparable in amount, scope, sequence and quality to that provided to English proficient students.”

No Child Left Behind:

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires states to increase English language proficiency and acquisition of academic content in reading, mathematics, and science for limited English proficient students. (NCLB, Section 1111(b), 3102)

ELL students are to be provided with comprehensible instruction through

the use of ESOL strategies and the implementation of accommodations

and modifications as part of the instruction and assessment procedures.

Comprehensible Instruction is instruction that reaches the level of

understanding for an individual.

ELL students who are limited in English need support with grade level

instruction in order to reach a level of understanding.

Why Do We Need to Implement All these Accommodations

and Modifications for ELL Students?

The first answer should be because, as educators, our goal is to help our

students be successful in the classroom and provide them the opportunity to

have a brighter future by offering high quality education.

A second answer is because the state mandates are very clear on what to expect

for the ELL students instruction in the classroom, and it is resumed in two

words: Comprehensible Instruction.