Strategies for English Language Learners

Next term, I am likely to teach a Grade 4 science class on Magnets. Here’s a plan and some specific strategies on how I will teach this class. There are four English language learners at different levels in the class:

-          Rina: Early Production Stage

-          Zak:  Speech Emergence Stage.

-          Toni: Intermediate Fluency Stage

-          Rai: Advanced Fluency Stage

Unit: Magnetism

Lesson Objectives: The student will

-           Know vocabulary: magnet, magnetic, poles, repel, attract, and magnetic field.

-          Understand that magnets have poles

-          Understand the concept of attraction and repulsion

-          Understand that some materials are magnetic and some are not

-          Explore further: Uses of magnets

Video: Magnetism-The Dr. Binocs Show (3 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXCeuSiTOug

Learning Center Activities: Magnetism Fishing, magnetic car race, etc.

All students will be required to know and define vocabulary for this lesson, as vocabulary and language development are important at all levels. Students can use flashcards or an online app to work on vocabulary. To differentiate instruction, the needs, abilities and interests of all four students will have to be taken into consideration. It should also be ensured that all students achieve the lesson objectives while building their English language skills.

All students will watch the video, then take part in exploring how magnets work at learning stations. In this guided interaction, students will discuss the results and verbalize their observations. Students will use graphic organizers like K-W-L chart and note-taking templates as the use of graphic organizers and visuals help students to think about what they are learning. All students will participate in a ‘Share what you have learned’ session.

Rina, who is at the Speech Emergence level, is beginning to use simple and short sentences. Retelling what she has learned or using the magnets to show how they attract or repel, will demonstrate her understanding of the lesson.

At the Beginning Fluency level, Zak is able to speak fairly well in social situations. However, new contexts and academic language still pose a challenge for him. In this lesson, he will be asked to give full answers to some questions, work on a ‘fill in the blanks’ worksheet, (with answers provided) and give a short oral presentation on ‘How magnets attract and repel.’

Toni, at the Intermediate fluency Level communicates ideas and thoughts fairy well in social situations,  but vocabulary and new contexts can still be a challenge  for her. Writing down her observations and doing further research on uses of  magnets will help her to understand more about the topic. 

Rai, at the Advanced Fluency stage, communicates fluently and faces all tasks efficiently and confidently. He will do further research on the internet and create a poster on the topic: Uses of magnets and why they are useful.

All students will benefit from mixing freely, experimenting and talking to peers about the activities, and using the right vocabulary when sharing their thoughts and ideas. Thinking about how magnets are used in their everyday lives will help the students to connect what they are learning to their lives (meaning- based context). 


Resources

Hynes, Judy. (2005). Stages of Second Language Acquisition. http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php

Hill, Jane D. and Byork, Cynthia L. (2008). The Stages of Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108052/chapters/The-Stages-of-Second-Language-Acquisition.aspx

Six Key Strategies for Teachers of ELL. (December, 2005) New Teacher Center. Retrieved from

https://docs.google.com/gview?url=http://suu.edu/ed/fso/resources/esl-six-key-strategies.pdf

Special Education Referral Process

Mystery surrounds these special kids. First of all, many parents try to hide them - not willing to admit that their kids may be impaired or disabled in some way. When they get to school, their friends whisper about them, and their teachers don’t know what to do with them.

First, who are these special kids? They are kids with needs arising out of a learning disability or a physical impairment. Some are obvious, some are not. But they all need someone to understand them, encourage them, and give them an education plan they can follow to be successful in life. More than anything else, they need to be accepted and welcomed into our world. But before they get that plan, they have to be identified and referred to the program by people in their lives. In this blog, I am going to look into how that is done: the referral process and what it involves.

Different countries have different policies on special education, and some international organisations are working to enforce some of these policies to ensure that children with disabilities get the services they need. UNESCO reports that more than one billion people around the world, of whom nearly 93 million are children, live with some form of disability. The  United Nations works with member states to enforce laws that fight for the rights of persons with disabilities.

Countries, like the United States, have laws, one of which is the Individual with Disabilities Education ACT (IDEA) promoting the rights of disabled children to get an education. By this law, children with any of the disabilities specified by IDEA will receive services designed to meet their unique needs. To get funding, the child will need to go through a testing process to ensure that he/she has one or more of the disabilities. Once the child is identified as a deserving candidate, the child will receive total support that he/she needs to get an education. 

In Singapore, the government provides schools and special services for children with disabilities, but the procedure for referral is not quite so clear. A child with a disability can be referred for testing either by the parents or the school. If a teacher is concerned about the learning ability of a student, he/she can refer the child to the school learning support teacher, who will then present the case to the principal. The principal contacts the psychologist, and it is the psychologist who will test the student and make the final decision. Or, in some cases, parents can approach the class teacher for their child to be referred for testing. In either case, it is the psychologist who gives the final word.

It is evident that in Asian countries, not all kids with special needs get the support or services they need. One can think of many reasons for this. Due to stigma attached to disabilities, some parents would keep their children at home. Some parents, no doubt do it to protect their children from bullying and other forms of abuse. Moreover, special education is not compulsory, so some parents do not make the effort to avail these services for their children. Whatever the reason, these children do not get the education that is the right of every person.

Evidently, a lot more needs to be done to get all children with special needs into the right programs.  If it’s a physical disability, any parent would take steps to ensure that his/her child gets help, but what if it is a learning disability that is not obvious? As one special education commented: 'Many parents are not even aware that their child has a learning disability.' So, teachers have the responsibility of identifying these children in their classes and getting them the support they need. Many of these kids need an individualized educational plan (IEP).

How does a teacher identify a kid who needs learning support? According to a teacher from California, the signs are:

•  lack of comprehension
•  not being able to read, or struggling to read
• Writing below basic level, or not writing at all
• Lack of focus
• behaviour issues
• problems with peer relations
• Seeking too much attention
• trying to avoid all attention and tasks

She takes these steps in identifying kids with a learning disability:

•  Give a diagnostic test
• Pair with students more capable of grade level work
• if student continues to struggle in comprehending or performing required tasks, or consistently fails to turn in work
•  refer to special education department
• further tests by special education department
• put into special education program if found to be eligible

On the topic of special education, teachers in both the US and Singapore say that schools in their countries are moving toward inclusion. So it looks like tomorrow’s classroom will have a wide range of learning abilities, including children with learning and physical disabilities. Teachers will need to know their students well, and be able to deliver instruction that will meet the needs of each student. The next question that comes to mind is, how can teachers ensure that they are meeting the learning needs of all students? A special education teacher advises that all teachers should go through an orientation or training course to learn more about dealing with special needs kids.

In conclusion, if a child with a learning disability does not get the help he or she needs, the child struggles in school and everyone else involved in the child's life struggle along with the child. Life for the child becomes one of failures and frustrations and disappointments. For that child, a personalised learning plan will make all the difference, and this, I believe, is where a teacher can step in to be the link between the child and success. 

Educational Equity

“Two pens for 20 rupees,” she said, holding out the pens and looking at me with big, bright eyes that had a hint of desperation in them. She wasn’t alone. There were other children like her, clasping handfuls of pens and asking passers-by to buy them. This is not an isolated incident. There are many children like these kids on the streets of New Delhi, where I have lived for the past year. Not all of them sell pens. Some of them sell roses or beads or whatever their parents can get hold of for them to sell. Some of them just beg for money. It is very disturbing to see these kids roaming the streets when they should be in a classroom, learning along with other children of their age. Is anyone doing anything to improve the lot of these kids whose parents are too poor to provide a basic education, let alone quality education, for their children?

One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations is “to ensure that every boy and girl has access to inclusive, equitable and quality education by 2030.” And UNICEF claims that, “across the globe, UNICEF is committed to nothing less than full and complete access to free, quality education for every girl and boy.” How do these words on paper play out in the real world?

Birger Frediksen, Education Expert and Senior Adviser at the World Bank, is of the opinion that “the single most important factor excluding children from school is the cost of school fees.” This is definitely true of Indian children who are denied access to education. According to the National Survey on Estimation of Out-Of-School children (2014), “poverty/economic reason is cited by majority of households having out-of-school children.” Frediksen also believes that “the single most important policy measure to address this is to abolish school fees.”

One of the initiatives that UNICEF has come up with is the School Fees Abolition Initiative to enable countries to address the issue of “poverty preventing children from accessing basic education.” This initiative was launched in 2005 by UNICEF and the World Bank. Given that India has the greatest percentage of school-age out-of-school children in South Asia with 49% (UIS, 2015) one cannot help but wonder what is being done on the ground to implement this initiative by international and national organizations.

When the Right to Education policy was introduced in 2009, India already had a policy to universalize elementary education: National policy on Education, 1986. Article 5.12 of this policy states: “It shall be ensured that free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality is provided to all children up to 14 years of age before we enter the twenty-first century.”

According to the Department of School Education and Literacy, The Right to Education Act was put forward to provide free and compulsory education to all children in the age-group of 6-14 years as a fundamental right. The right of children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, came into effect on April 1, 2010. This RTE “provides for the right of children to free and compulsory education till completion of elementary education in a neighborhood school.” (MHRD, 2016) This act also gives the norms and standards regarding pupil-teacher ratios, building and infrastructure, school working days, and appointment of trained teachers.

According to the EFA Global Monitoring Report (2015), India’s Right to Education Act (2009), has helped to push school enrollment higher. India also has introduced a school feeding program, in which meals are provided to children in school. “Mid-day meals and school feeding programs in rural India have strongly increased girls’ enrollment.”

It is evident that specific steps have been put in place by the government to ensure that every child had access to free education. However, given the huge number of children who still roam the streets of cities and villages in India, more needs to be done. Rashbrooks (2014) comments: “A lack of educational opportunities creates a circle in which those unable to get a decent education are denied opportunities for social betterment, the socially disadvantaged then struggle to access education and so on.” He believes that "breaking this vicious circle not only improves the lives of individuals, but also helps maintain the social fabric."

Unless the world tackles inequity today, in 2030, 60 million children of primary school age will be out of school. (UNICEF, 2016). A warning that should be taken seriously by educators and policy makers around the world.

I would be interested in knowing more about how the UN, and UNICEF in particular, is working with the Indian Government to implement their initiatives in India, and the channels through which they operate. Perhaps, that should be the focus of my next blog.

References 

Benart, Aaron. Education for All 2000- 2015: Achievements and Challenges. (April 9, 2015). EFA Global Monitoring Report. Retrieved from 
http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/document-reports/PPT_GMR_2015.pdf

Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), (April 3, 2016). Retrieved from  www.mhrd.gov.in/rte

Educate All Girls and Boys in South Asia: The Global Out of School Initiative. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/education/files/EducateAllGirlsandBoys-UNICEF_ROSA.pdf.

National Policy on Education (1986). Retrieved from http://www.ncert.nic.in/oth_anoun/npe86.pdf.

National Sample Survey of Estimation of Out-Of-School Children in the Age 6-13 in India. (September, 2014). Draft Report. Retrieved from http://www.educationforallinindia.com/out_of_shool_survey_2014_india_mhrd_tsg_july_2015.pdf

Rashbrook, Max. (November 12, 2014). Excellence Through Equity. [blog post]. Retrieved from 

http://oecdeducationtoday.blogspot.in/2014/11/excellence-through-equity.html.

School fee abolition.(February 10, 2012). Retrieved from 

www.unicef.org/education/bege.61657.html

School Fees: A Major Barrier to Education Access.(n.d.) Retrieved from  

http://www.ungei.org/infobycountry/247_712.html 

The State of the World's Children. (2016)  Retrieved from  http://www.unicef.org/sowc2016/