Literacj^

for English
Learners
and Regular
Students, Too
By Julie Meltzer and Edmund T. Hamann
From Principal Leaderstiip

ONSIDERthe plight of three

eral siblings. He is eager to do

very bright students tzJcing

math, science, cind history
classes in a school.
.
Luka has been enrolled in
schools for the past three years.
His English is poor, but at 16, he
knows that a U.S. high school
diploma is key to making it in the
United States. He feels responsible for providing for his family,
including a sick mother and sev-

well, but he is not always sure

what his teachers here want him
to do. He is also tired because he
works at night. In Croatia, he
was a very good student. Here,
he is barely passing his classes,
Maria is a seventh-grader
whose life and schooling in her
native country were disrupted
by civil war. After a year in refugee camps, she and her family

Julie Meltzer (jmeltzer@crminc.com) is Director of Adoiescent Literacy

Services, Cer)ter for Resource Management, Inc., Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Edmund T. Hamann (ehamann2@unl.edu) is an Assistant Professor,
Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education, University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588. Condensed from Principai Leadership, 6
(February 2006), 22-27. Published by the National Association of Secondary
School Principals, from which related educational materials are available by
contacting NASSP at 1904 Association Drive, Reston, VA 20191.

61

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Literacy for All Students

those who were able to come to

the United Statesare sharing
an apartment with relatives.
With her still-limited English, she
is the family translator for all
business transactions and
school information. She worries,
however, that she does not understand everything. At school,
she tries conscientiously to complete all her assignments, but
her writing in English is so difficult to interpret that her English
teacher suggested she be tested
for special education services.
Antonio Ccime to the meiinlcind
icist year. He grew up in Puerto
Rico, where English wsis an occasioned curriculcir focus. He peissed
the oral English placement test at
the end of lcist year. This yecU",
despite very limited academic
reading and writing skills, he must
take all of his classes in English
without support. His teachers, who
have had few other students with
a first lauiguc^e other thcin English,
view his performance as evidence
that he is not trying very hard.
Middle-level and high-school
educators faice a conundrum:
There are larger numbers of English language learners (ELLs)
enrolling in their schools than
ever before, and ready or not,
teachers are responsible for
their students' learning and academic literacy development.
A recent study found that 1.3
million teachers (43% of all
teachers) have at least one ELL
enrolled in their classes. Add to
this that all teachers must play a

role in bringing students'

content-area reading, writing,
and thinking skillsin English
up to speed, whether they are
monolingual, bilingual, or trilingual speakers.
Then, put into the mix limited
resources and time for quality
professional development in
content-area literacy, and it is
easy to see why middle-level and
high-school educators are concerned. It is daunting enough to
provide adequate professional
development in content-area literacy for content-area teachers.
To provide these teachers with
enough additional training to
serve ELLs means setting up a
whole other series of workshops.

Matching Up
Or does it? Over the past two
years, researchers at the Education Alliance/Lab at Brown University and the Center for Resource Management have been
examining how the research on
adolescent literacy matches up
with that on effective contentarea instruction for ELLs at the
middle- and high-school levels.
Their research was supported
by the Institute of Education Sciences, in the U.S. Department of
Education, under contract ED01-CO-OOlO.
It turns out that, with tweciking, many of the promising practices used to develop content- cirea
reading, writing, and thinking can
go a long way toward helping ELLs
improve their literacy and learn-

April 2006

33

theEDUCATIONDlGEST
ing. That's good news for students,
teachers, and principcds.
It mecins that focusing professional development on increeising content-area teachers' ability
to support students' academic literacy development will also help
them be more responsive to the
needs of ELLs. Or put another
way, training teachers in the most
promising practices for meeting
the needs of ELLs will help those
teachers promote content-area
literacy development cuid lecirning for all their students.

What to Include
So what does quality contentcirea literacy professioncd development need to include? It needs
to include much of what ELLs'
learning: explicit instruction and
modeling of before-, during-, and
after-reading strategies; relevance
and connections to students' lives;
and multiple opportunities for
reading, writing, and speaking
about content in all classes.
These practices fall into one of
three categories: clcissroom practices that increase student motivation cind engagement, generic
literacy and learning practices,
and content-specific literacy practices. We describe each of these
briefly here and comment on how
to specifically adapt each one to
better meet the needs of ELLs
who attend mciinstrecun contentarea classes.
The connection between students' engagement in literacy
tasks and their achievement in

34

literacy is becoming increasingly clear. The engagementenablement cycle is an important core concept for teachers
to understand: Engage students
with motivating and authentic academic literacy tasks,
strengthen their academic literacy habits and skills through
experience (practice) and learning strategies in context, and the
result is that their competence
and efficacy improve and they
are more motivated to engage in
academic literacy tasks.
This cycle is not about being
"warm and fuzzy." If students do
not engage with academic literacy tasks, they will not develop
the habits and skills they need
to be fully literate.
Key cispects of motivation and
engagement are setting up and
facilitating a safe, responsive
learning environment that
clearly supports and expects the
participation of all students and
ensuring that students interact
with texts and with one another
to learn. A supportive environment is necessary to encourage
the participation of ELLs who
may be shy or embarrassed
about speaking, writing, or reading in English and may not see
their lives or experiences reflected in typical classroom texts
or assignments.
Teachers must ensure that
the classroom climate supports
inclusive learning and that deliberate connections are made
between home experiences and

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Literacy for Ali Students

school expectations. Sensitivity
to students' cultural norms is
also necessary.
For excmple, generating questions, a vitcd learning strategy, is
not a comfortable action for students from cultures where questioning is not encouraged or permitted in school settings. Although questioning can ultimately
become a useful teaching strategy to use with students, it may
not be a good starting point.
Offering students choices of
writing topics, assessment
modes, reading selections, and
the like, can prompt a willingness and interest to complete
assignments. Authentic reasons
for doing reading, writing, or
presenting frequently inspire
adolescent ELLs to do the hard
work of practicing, revising, and
persevering through challenging
materials.

Exampies
For example, students might
present their findings on stream
pollution or traffic patterns to a
panel who will use that information to make decisions. Or they
might use their knowledge to create learning material or experiencessuch as books, websites,
manuals, and performances
for younger students.
Classroom assignments also
can be connected to an internship or a job shadowing experience. In general, clear expectations, responsiveness to student
interests and concerns, a vari-

ety of print materials in the classrooms, and a discussion format

that deliberately makes time for
people to "think-pair-share" or
practice responses are all helpful for ELLs and other students.
Adolescent literacy research
reveals five sets of sjniergistic
classroom practices that have
been found to improve academic
literacy development, including
reading comprehension and
content-area learning:
Emphasis on teacher modeling, giving explicit strategy instruction in context, and using
formative assessment to improve; reading comprehension;
More time spent reading
and writingmore reading and
writing assignments accompanied by more reading and writing instruction;
More speaking, listening,
and viewing related to the discussion, creation, and understanding of texts;
More attention paid to the
development of critical thinking
and metacognitive skills as key
parts of academic literacy tasks;
and
Flexible grouping and responsiveness to learner needs.
It turns out that these eire important practices for ELLs as well.
Teacher think-alouds that show
how the teacher approaches a
reading or writing task ceui yield
the insight students need to complete similar tasks. The gradual
release model of responsibility
provides explicit instruction and

April 2006

35

theEDUCATIONDIGEST
then guided practice, two key elements that cire also effective for
ELLs.
Using frequent formative assessments to gauge learning cmd
literacy strengths and challenges
is cdso importcint. But here, as
with the assessment of writing,
mainstream content-area teachers need some cissistance to ensure that assessments are not bicised or inherently unfair or unreliable pictures of what ELLs know.

Separate Evidence
As they would with other students who have below-gradelevel English literacy skills,
teachers should separate evidence related to students' content mastery from evidence that
indicates unfamiliarity or inexperience with the required format for demonstrating that
knowledge when they appraise
their students' work.
Often this task requires
checking content knowledge in
multiple ways. For example, if a
student can draw a picture showing a wing edge and why lift enables an airplane to fly but cannot write a paragraph explaining the same concept, then the
issue is not one of content acquisition. Responsive instruction in
this case may need to focus on
how to demonstrate content
mastery in writing.
Unlike discussion or instruction, which vanish quickly, written texts Ccui be reviewed and
thus are very important for ELLs

36

to read and create. Some teachers may be concerned that ELLs

cire not ready for rigorous instruction, but in fact, the research
shows that when those students
receive appropriate instructional
scaffolding, they often do as well
cis their monolingucil peers.
Flexible and responsive
grouping will enable students to
use their native languages when
helpful and expose them to English and academic content discourse. For example, if students
converse in Spanish about the
Civil Rights Movement after
viewing a short film and reading
newspaper articles in English, it
prepares them to successfully
engage in a related English language writing assignment.
The use of collaborative
text-based learningkey to literacy development for all adolescentsalso emerges as important for ELLs because it provides an authentic reason to listen, speak, and think about content that is presented in English.
To apprentice students into
the disciplinary demands of a
content area, teachers themselves must be cognizant of the
literacy demands that are specific to their discipline and the
range of strategies they tnight
use to teach others to meet those
demands. There are three important discipline-based practices that teachers can use to
support content-area reading
and learning:
Recognizing and analyzing

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Literacy for All Students

discipline-based discourse features. Content-area discourse refers to the speaking, listening/

viewing, reading, writing, and
thinking habits; skills; conventions; and formats used by experts within a content area.
Understanding text structures. Text structures refer to the
reading and writing conventions,
features, and logic of contentarea texts.
Developing vocabulary
knowledge. Vocabulary refers to
the essenticd words cind concepts
within a particular content cirea.
Explicit attention to these
practices contributes to the simultaneous aims of academic
literacy development and
content-area learning.
For ELLs, learning how to
"break the code" of how native
English speakers read, write,
talk, and think within a particular content area is substantial
work. If teachers truly want students to be able to think like
scientists and write like historians, they must explicitly make
students apprentices in the discourse of their particular discipline. This requires that teachers model, make applicable strategies explicit, assess for understanding, and give students the
tools to actively construct knowledge within each subject area.
Content-area discourse includes not only vocabulary development and understanding
text structures but also information about how the "big ideas"

within a discipline are organized

and connected; the kinds of resources, tools, and strategies
used to think about that discipline; the spoken and written
conventions of presentation in
that discipline; and the understanding of how to carry out inquiry in that content area.
For example, a typical ESL
assignment asks students to
share personal narratives about
their experience. Basing writing
on personal experience may be
an appropriate instructional
technique in several disciplines,
but ELLs and other students may
need explicit instruction that
personal narratives are not appropriate to include in a lab report or analytical essay.

Both Benefit
ELLs may also need help recognizing the text features and
structures of the reading in various content areahow reading
a play is different from reading a
business plan or a math textbook. Of course, many of their
monolingual English peers can
benefit from this type of instruction as well.
Finally, effective vocabulary
practices must give students multiple exposures to key terminology and help them learn cind use
academic vocabulary. In many
cases, these practices Ccin build
on ELLs' existing vocabulciry because many English scientific
terms shcire cognates with French,
Spcinish, cind other Latin-derived

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theEDUCATIONDIGEST
languages (e.g., photosynthesis is,
in Spanish, fotointesis).

"Assign, define, and test" is

an effective strategy for ELLs
who are attempting thexomplex
task of learning concepts and
content in a second language.
Teachers who deliberately help
their students learn these
discipline-specific literacy practices will see the benefit in content learning as well.

Affecting Them
In the context of learning about
. promising practices in eill of these
cu^ecismotivation and engagement, generic literacy practices,
and discipline-specific literacy
practices^teachers need to understand how each practice eiffects students at various levels of
second language acquisition.
For example, teachers may
have to differentiate how they
assess writing and vocabulary
depending on a student's level
of fluency in spoken and written
English. They must also understand the cultural and language
issues specific to the students
they work with and must know
how to apply differentiated instruction using literacy support
strategies.
To be able to regularly and
effectivelyintegrateliteracy strategies into instruction in core
content-area classrooms, teachers need support. Like their students, they need that support to
be offered in a variety of formats.
Teachers need sustained.

38

quality professional development that provides: content-area

examples of literacy integration,
modeling of literacy support
strategies, and time to use and
share literacy strategies in the
classroom within the context of
a school-based professional
learning community.
Some teachers need additional on-site coaching; for others, participating in a combination of online and in-person professional development communities of practice seems to work.
Professional development,
whatever the format which it
takes, should make effective use
of existing in-house literacy expertise and capacitybilingual
and ESL teachers, literacy
coaches, and content-area teachers who have experience with integrating literacy support and
contentas well as external resourcesbooks, consultants,
professors, emd online resources.
Here are four examples of professional development formats
that schools have found to be
effective. What will work best
for teachers in your school will
likely be a combination of these
and will depend on the culture
of the school, the availability of
released or common planning
time, the learning styles of teachers, and the history of past formats of professional development offered.
Those who know and use
literacy strategies get support
and encouragement to share

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Literacy for All Students

these strategies with others

through conversations, sharing
of materials, strategy sharing
groups, and at faculty or department meetings. These may be
core content-area teachers, bilingual or ESL teachers, special
education teachers, foreign language teachers, or unified or
applied arts teachers. Those who
attend conferences are expected
to share what they have learned
with others. Time is regularly
set aside for this.
Content-area teachers, bilingual and ESL teachers, special education teachers, and literacy support staff members
regularly meet and plan together
how to provide extra literacy
support for struggling learners
during and beyond their regular
courses. The school literacy
coach follows through with coplanning and with modeling and
coaching in classrooms.
A connected series of
teacher workshops facilitated by
outside literacy specialists occurs over the course of the
school year. These are customdesigned to meet school and district literacy development needs
in conjunction with an annual
selection of high-impact literacy
strategies for schoolwide focus.
The outside consultant sometimes works with the whole faculty and sometimes with grade
level or department teams and
integrates the literacy focus with
examples of how to use the strategies effectively with ELLs.

Teacher study groups work

with various literacy resource
texts, such as Tovani's I Read It
But I Don't Get It or Wilhelm's
Think Aloud Strategies and texts
focused on specific strategies for
working with ELLs, such as materials available through the
Center for Applied Linguistics.
Strategies that are suggested by
the books are tried in classrooms, and teachers participate
in active peer coaching. Each
group includes bilingual or ESL
teachers who work with mainstream content-area teachers to
determine modifications, applicability, and implications of the
suggested strategies for ELLs or
monolingual speakers. The
school provides copies of the
texts, and teachers get professional development credit for
participating. Learning and
implementing new literacy strategies are part of participating
teachers' annual professional
growth plan.

Doing It for Ail

Simply providing professional development opportunities is not enough. It is essential
to communicate that all contentarea teachers are responsible
for the academic literacy development and content-area learning of all their students, including those who are ELLs. The expectation must be made clear
that all teachers will participate
in some sort of professional development each year that will

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39

theEDUCATIONDIGEST
improve their capacity to fulfill
this responsibility.
Principals have multiple op)portunities which are available
to them for the purpose of demonstrating their own commitment to assisting and expecting
teachers to take on this responsibility seriously.

Clarify Connection
Among these multiple opportunities which can be utilized
are: conducting literacy walkthroughs, setting annual goals
with teachers, observing classrooms, making time for the sharing of successful strategies at
faculty meetings, ensuring that
there are adequate content-area
reading materials available for
use, engaging in professional development activity, and making
explicit connections between expectations for literacy support
and development and the
teacher evaluation cycle.
In spite of the fact that there
is no "one size fits all" kind of
program that will meet all ELLs'
needs, it is nevertheless noteworthy that the research about
adolescent literacy recommends
changes to typical middle-level
or high-school content-focused
classroom instruction that are
similar to the recommendations
which are made for effective
content-area instruction for
ELLs.
The reality of the situation
today is that most adolescent
ELLs are being placed in main-

40

stream content-area classrooms

where they and many of their
monolingual peers will require
proactive support for the purpose of developing the academic
literacy habits and skills which
they will need in order to succeed in school, in the workplace,
and as citizens in the 21st century.
Adolescent ELLs do not have
the luxury of time to first become fluent in English and then
attend to science, math, and history classes before they graduate. And it is not fair to allow the
instruction they encounter in
mainstream classes to not be
responsive to their learning skills
and needs.
By providing teachers with
quality professipnal development in content-area literacy, it
is possible for us to go a long
way toward helping our teachers to develop the repertoire of
strategies they will need in order to meet the needs of all of
their students, including ELLs.
Holding teachers accountable for implementing these
practices as a regular part of
content-area teaching and learning ensures that all students can
develop the skills they need in
order to meet challenging
content-area standards. Such
skills are essential for ELLs as
they negotiate coping with the
multifaceted challenges of U.S.
schooling while developing literacy skills in a second (or third)
language.
011

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