Planning for ELLs

Our next PYP unit in grade 4 is on rights and responsibilities.

 

 I've selected four 4th grade ELLs I work with regularly:

•  Henry (Pre-production) knows the alphabet and some isolated words and phrases. He is new to the school, and has presented with behavior problems so far. He is missing much social/instructional English, which has made it harder for him to follow directions and make friends. He reads by recognition only, not yet able to decode words.
• Wendy (Early Production)  communicates in short words and phrases. She came to APIS six weeks before Henry, is eager to learn, and makes excellent use of her limited vocabulary. She can read K-1 level texts with some attempts to decode and strong comprehension.
• Lulu (Beginning Fluency) has severe ADHD and is extremely creative and talkative. So far this year, her verbal fluency has exploded, but her reading level has not risen significantly (still about the same as Wendy). She loves writing, listening to reading, and speaking English, but seemingly finds it difficult to concentrate when reading.
• Kaw-Oat (Beginning Fluency) is my most advanced grade 4 ELL. He accesses content language more readily than his peers, and communicates handily in social situations, but currently falls short of fluency. He speaks and writes without tense and plurals, which suggests he relies heavily on his L1 lexicon. In other words he mentally translates everything from Thai to English before he speaks, ignoring the grammatical differences between the two.

I'll go through one by one and talk about how I can help each ELL participate in the mainstream classroom and access the same content as their peers.

HENRY

 

 For Henry, I'm going to use visuals related to the content vocabulary and ask his Chinese-speaking peers to translate some concepts to him. Images are also a good way of giving a pre-productive ELL an alternate way of responding. In my experience, these kids respond well to kinesthetic games, for example, a quiz game where kids run to different corners of a room to answer questions. I want him to gain confidence to start decoding unfamiliar words, so I'm going to be doing word-building phonics activities in ELL and ELA time, as well as helping him with social/instructional language, both of which could easily integrate with a rights and responsibilities unit.

 

WENDY

 

Teaching ELLs though student art

Wendy loves to draw and readily connects to prior knowledge given an image prompt, so visuals will be a big part of my approach with her as well. Further along than Henry, I would hope Wendy can connect the pictures to the words solidly enough that she can use some of the content vocabulary verbally and in writing. Typically, given 10-12  polysyllabic vocabulary words, I'll pick a few terms to focus on that especially are relevant to that particular student's unit work (eg. their final project). I will be able to find books at her level that connect to the concepts of rights and responsibilities (civics, chores, people's occupations and so forth).

 

LULU

 

Lulu does well with discussions guided by images or realia. Without some physical "anchor", she quickly loses focus. With a little bit of scaffolding, though , her curiosity about the content begins to show. I'll engage Lulu in discussions about the content, scaffolding along with images and picture books. as with Wendy, I'll focus on content vocabulary she will have the most opportunities to use in an authentic context. I may pair her with Wendy in a reading group, since their reading ability is comparable, and because Wendy benefits from exposure to Lulu's more advanced language production.

 

KAW-OAT

 

 Kaw-Oat is able to grasp most content vocabulary, but needs some help integrating it fluently in his work. For example, he may use a word in a way that demonstrates understanding, but misuse it as a part of speech: "People must be responsibility for their actions." He also ignores most English writing conventions unless specifically reminded. Many Thai ELLs struggle with these last two, because their own respective systems are so different. Kaw-Oat could benefit from completing syntax trees with relevant vocabulary and "name-the-part-of-speech" games.

 

 

 

 

Special Education at APIS vs. USA

I spoke with several staff members at American Pacific International School about Special Ed. Some shared their experience working with Special Needs students in US school districts, while others emphasized the referral process within APIS. Although we are an American-themed school, cultural/conceptual barriers and a related lack of resources prohibit us from making many of the provisions that would be required by IDEA in an actual US school.

 

This video provides a beautiful example of differentiation for intellectually disabled students at Rong Arun (School of Dawn). Ms. Muttamara also touches on Thai parents' reluctance to have their child assessed for SPED: they tend to believe learning difficulties can be overcome though hard work and may perceive  SPED referral as an admission of failure. Education and social status are culturally linked and parents want to see their children as "perfect".

I wasn't able to find further information on Rong Arun, but researching my Education in Thailand spreadsheet, I found that the Thai MOE licenses 51 public institutions for special education. So credit where it's due: the Thai government is apparently trying to move forward on this issue. Speculatively, the prejudice against SPED may be higher among wealthy international school parents and working-class Thais, because of the social pressures mentioned above.

Attitudes toward SPED have certainly changed in the US in recent decades, as the passage of legislation like IDEA shows.

APIS is a small (around 200 students) boarding school in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We do not have a Special Ed teacher or school psychologist on staff. All of our teachers are, however trained in differentiated instruction and we assess our students carefully, tailoring our instruction to meet their individual needs.In the US, children with mild special needs such as ADHD or dyslexia are sometimes put on something called a 504 plan, rather than an IEP. A 504 grants the student accommodations such as extra test time, having questions read aloud, special seating, or many others.

 In short, we cannot allow our lack of resources keep us from differentiating for students who may need it. This video discusses the positive effects of differentiation on a whole class:

The science behind ADHD, for one, is hardly a settled matter, nor is the US cultural norm for student behavior the only valuable one. If a teacher notices a student cannot sit still, doesn't write more than a few lines, and is overly physical with her peers, a referral and diagnosis may be less helpful than differentiated or alternate methods of instruction, such as:

• Small groups which are changed often
• Kinesthetic word/number games games: reading hopscotch, math tag, etc.
• Alternate seating
• Frequent "brain breaks"
• Scaffolding complex tasks
• Teaching self-regulation tools

Here, an educator teaches a student to express his symptoms. If the boy is able to identify when he is feeling tired or frustrated, he'll have the opportunity to raise his hand and ask for help or a break before he disrupts the class and gets in trouble.