Inquiry Topic #4

As the inquiry project is coming to a close, I'm going to once again look at factors defined by Lori Helman, because I feel that she does a thorough job of identifying different areas of difficulty for ELL literacy. She names categories of factors, some of which I have already looked at: linguistic, sociocultural, psychological, and educational. Here on my blog I've already looked a little bit at some of the linguistic factors, and two weeks ago I talked about the sociocultural factors. Today I want to spend some timing probing the depths of educational factors.

The first of these is opportunity to learn (OTL). OTLs depend on three other factors, teaching approaches, structures and programs, and professional development. Opportunities to learn basically means that the student has had quality teachers who are trained well and use excellent and effective instruction that is grade-level appropriate and challenging. The materials must be adequate and the teachers must be prepared.

A well-prepared teacher is the main character in the next two factors, teaching approaches and structures and programs. Studies show that interactive approaches should be used in the classroom. The teacher should be engaging with the learners and have 'instructional conversations' which are dialogues between the teacher and student to develop complex thinking skills. Some examples of effective teaching approaches and structures are: explicit teaching, sheltered English instruction, interactive teaching, vocabulary development, and phonemic awareness and decoding instruction. Additionally teachers should make it a goal to build on students' bilingual experiences (instruction in the students' language, use of cognates, etc.)

The last factor is professional development, which also pertains to the teacher. Teachers need to be aware of how the cognitive and affective processes of learning operate in the brain. Researchers and educators need to collaborate to provide the best education for teachers of ELLs. This will help the teachers develop quality lessons and involve the students' backgrounds. Professional development should be a process spread out over time.

Source: Helman, L. (Ed.). (2009). Literacy development with English learners: Research-based instruction in grades K-6. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.