Long-term English Learner (LTEL) is a bureaucratic categorization that indicates that an individual student originally identified as an EL has not passed the required state English proficiency and academic achievement tests to be reclassified as Fluent English Proficient. The intent behind the designation can be viewed as an important effort to identify ELs that have been in schools for 6 or more years and still are not redesignated and in some cases struggling academically. However, the LTEL designation fails to address the other reasons that LTEL students may be struggling academically and/or unable to pass state tests—namely issues with literacy. The LTEL label works to group students together and mask the great variability amongst this group of diverse learners. This can often result in a reductionist teaching approach that focuses on bits and pieces of language rather than the language and experience-rich experiences students need to actively engage in the demands of school and that are embodied in the SISL curriculum.
In this video, you’ll see how the intentional sequencing of activities supports the science learning and language development of Verenice, a student who is designated as a Long-term English learner. You will see how the SISL curriculum supports Verenice to build language through hands-on experiences to her being able to confidently share out her scientific claims and evidence whole class. This instructional sequence is important as it provides numerous experiences with writing and speaking that provide practice for the more high-stakes sharing whole class that comes at the end.
The titles below correspond to segments of the video (the approximate segment start time is given in parentheses). Select each title for additional commentary.
In this first video segment, Verenice and her peers have just spent some time observing a sample of rocks that include falling stars and earth rocks. They have been asked to make claims about which rocks are falling rocks based on evidence from their observations. During this segment, Verenice’s triad is talking about the evidence for their claims before writing them down. This segment shows that Verenice has strong productive and receptive language but her language is still developing and she needs intentional opportunities to practice her language and use it in purposeful ways. Without these intentional opportunities, Verenice would not get the essential practice that she needs to really grow her language.
It is clear from what Verenice has written that the opportunity to talk helped her form and construct her written ideas. This opportunity to share in her triad also gives her practice explaining her ideas before she is asked to do this in the whole class science talk.
In this segment of the video, we see an important part of the sequence of instructional activities. Verenice shares her writing with her triad. In essence, she is practicing sharing her ideas orally in a small familiar group before sharing these same ideas in a whole class setting.
In this segment, Luz brings the class together to share their claims and evidence. Luz knows Verenice well and knows that without sufficient support and practice, she will be reluctant to speak whole-class and share her ideas. Luz calls on Verenice to share her ideas with the class. Luz goes through all of the properties of the rocks that the students discovered and asks her to share her evidence. Verenice has had multiple opportunities to talk and write about her ideas so by the time she is asked to share whole-class, Verenice is very comfortable and confident with her ideas. Luz’s prompting to Verenice is often posed as a sentence or idea that she needs to complete (e.g. “They are magnetic because…“) and Verenice is able to complete the idea and demonstrate both to Luz and her peers her understanding. After Verenice shares, Luz is able to use Verenice’s responses to illustrate to the whole class what evidence for claims looks like. She refers to Verenice’s responses and ideas which serves to build her confidence and encourage her to remain engaged and actively participate.
In Luz’s commentary, she reflects on Verenice’s status as a” LTEL” and what she needs to take into consideration when creating a group for Verenice. She mentions that Verenice needs to hear an abundance of talk and that she always considers this when making small groups. Luz has learned that Verenice is a very good listener and therefore if placed with the right peers, small group work can be a very language rich experience for her. Luz also mentions that this strategic grouping works to expose Verenice to important models of English but to also to build her confidence to explore her own developing voice in English.