Strategies+for+Overcoming+Barriers

Teaching English Language Learners: Strategies for Overcoming barriers

The article by Sara R. Helfrich and Amy J.Bosh, lays out four perceived barriers that beginning and veteran teachers encounter when instructing English Language Learners. The reality is that the number of ELL students in our classrooms are increasing and in order to meet their needs teachers need to overcome several challenges.

Barrier four is about assessments and how teachers may not feel confident using assessment and progress-monitoring tools with ELLs. Helfrich writes that teachers should not be hesitant to use assessment and progress-monitoring tools with ELLs. They should use oral questioning and discussion, as well as various forms of adapted assessment, with ELLs. The only risk in assessing that Helfriech addresses is the possibility that some may not be valid or reliable measures for use with these students. Some assessment measures may also be linguistically or culturally biased, which could negatively affect the result.

Assessment should be used as a tool to enhance a student's knowledge, skills, and understanding. The goal if for them to function at the highest possible level in the wider world. She writes that "Assessment has been widely used in ways that have steered students toward differentiated levels of functioning, levels closely associated with differences of race and class." The bottom line is that fear of assessing is not going to get us or our students anywhere. We need to prepare the best assessments that we can to meet our student's needs so that together we can help them grow as a student and individual. Teachers can build their own awareness that assessment of various literacy skills is necessary, but that there can be flexibility in the ways in which these skills are assessed. When individual student differences are identified and acknowledged, and the barriers to delivering appropriate instruction identified and discussed, teachers and students benefit.

Helfrich, S. R., & Bosh, A. J. (2011). Teaching English Language Learners: Strategies for Overcoming Barriers. //Educational Forum//, //75//(3), 260-270.

//Content Knowledge Question:// Describe what you learned about diagnostic and assessment strategies that fit your target population. The premise is that assessment should be used as a tool to enhance a student's knowledge, skills, and understanding.

The article talks about the importance of teachers to not be afraid to assess English learners. When individual student differences are identified and acknowledged, and the barriers to delivering appropriate instruction identified and discussed, teachers and students benefit. Thus by acknowledging differences and modifying content and assessment methods teachers can diagnose students comprehension through the instructions process. Discussions, oral assessments and group work are good strategies that can be used to assess ELL students.

//Pedagogical Knowledge Question:// Describe in what way/s assessment data would determine how you planned your curriculum and lessons for the specific special needs population?

The resulting data from a formal assessment would allow me to know both the fairness of a test as well as the level of student comprehension. In cases where language or cultural bias might become a challenge it might be necessary to change an assessment or the method of assessing certain students. If after administering such an assessment I see that there was a bias I can make and attempt to fill those gaps with improved instruction of future content. The bottom line is that a teacher must get to know their students and each of their special needs. Teachers should not be hesitant to use assessment and progress-monitoring tools with ELLs. They should use oral questioning and discussion, as well as various forms of adapted assessment, with ELLs. To begin, a word of caution: Teachers should be careful when choosing assessments for use with ELLs, as it is possible that some may not be valid or reliable measures for use with these students. Some assessment measures may also be linguistically or culturally biased, which could negatively affect the results (Kornhaber 2004; García, McKoon, and August 2006a). It is important that teachers discuss these concerns with specialists in their schools, such as the reading specialist or special education teacher; these individuals may have more knowledge of specific assessment measures, and can help teachers select appropriate ones for use with ELLs in their classroom. These practitioners should always be consulted when a teacher has a concern about a student's -- ELL and non-ELL alike -- possible eligibility for extended or special services. Kornhaber (2004, 91) stated: > There are many purposes and forms of assessment. However, there should be just one motivation: assessment should serve as a tool to enhance all students' knowledge, skills, and understanding so that they can function at the highest possible level in the wider world... However, from its inception, educational assessment has been intertwined with conflicting assumptions about the educability of people from different social groups. [Educational] assessment has been widely used in ways that have steered students toward differentiated levels of functioning, levels closely associated with differences of race and class. It is important that teachers do not use assessment outcomes to sort students based on such factors as race or ethnicity; rather, assessment results should drive instruction, helping to focus instruction on the individual needs of each student. Assessment should be ongoing and linked with instruction (Teale 2009), and should occur frequently to ensure that instruction is and remains effective and that students receive specific interventions as needed (Huebner 2009). Teachers may use self-developed assessments, such as cloze procedures and curriculum-based measures, when assessing ELLs in the classroom. García, McKoon, and August (2006b), in their review of research on assessment, found that teacher-developed cloze procedures -- where students are asked to supply missing words to complete sentences in a passage -- and curriculum-based assessments that require students to orally read aloud a passage while the teacher scores miscues, were effective in helping teachers better understand students' oral language proficiency and fluency, respectively. ELLs can be offered the opportunity to verbalize answers to comprehension questions, rather than writing them down; this allows the teacher to assess comprehension at a more basic level, whereas a written answer may place undue attention on the student's writing skills and not accurately reflect what has been learned. When informal verbal assessment is used, it can be done so in a format in which many students are encouraged to speak aloud so that the ELL is not singled out. For further monitoring, one-on-one conversations with the teacher should take place; this gives students individualized attention in a setting that does not present competition from classmates that may be more proficient speakers of English. Tompkins (2009, 60) described the Language Experience Approach (LEA) -- in which students dictate words and sentences about a personal experience to the teacher, and he or she writes them down, modeling the correct use of written language -- as "an effective way to help children emerge into reading because oral language is linked to written language." This approach has been shown to be successful in working with students since the mid-20th century through the work of researchers such as Lamoreaux and Lee in the 1940s and Ashton-Warner in the 1960s. This strategy can be used to scaffold the learning of ELLs by creating materials that they can read and are of high interest. One way in which this approach can be used with ELLs is by having the students choose pictures from magazines to include in a book; together, the students and teacher identify the pictures and write several words or sentences that correspond to each picture. As students build their vocabulary using this process, they may become more comfortable and proficient at participating in the LEA by dictating sentences to the teacher that represent experiences in their own lives, using spoken English, with the written English words being provided by the teacher.