Project SAILL: Success through Academic Interventions in Language and Literacy

1. Project SAILL: Success through Academic Interventions in Language and Literacy University of Houston University of Texas at Austin Center for Applied Linguistics University of Miami Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

2. Acknowledgements • Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education • Brownsville Independent School District Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

3. Overview of Presentation • Topics Presented • Overview of the study (Diane August, Elsa Hagan) • SIOP (Ari Sherris) • Phonics and phonemic awareness (Elsa Hagan) • Reading and skills practice (Diane August) • Grammar and writing (Diane August) • Storybook reading (Diane August, María Díaz) • Process • Brief description • Video clip/demonstration • Discussion Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

4. Study Organizational Chart Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

5. Overview of Study Design • One district – Brownsville Independent School District • Two language of instruction models • Very early transition (VET) • Traditional bilingual education (TBE) • School continues to implement the general model that the school has adopted • Half the classrooms randomly assigned to teach as usual and half use research-enhanced curriculum and teaching practices • Study is implemented in one grade per year • Begin with K in 2004-2005 and continue through third grade • Currently in second grade classrooms Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

6. Very Early Transition- Emphasis in Kinder-garten on English language and literacy development with some Spanish oral language support - Emphasis in Grades 1–3 on English language and literacy development Traditional Bilingual - Emphasis in K– Grade 1 on Spanish language and literacy development with English oral language development- Emphasis in Grades 2-3 on Spanish and English language and literacy development Language of Instruction Models Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

7. Assessment and Observations • Students assessed in English and in Spanish • Student assessment in the beginning of the year and the end of the year in grades K-3 • Assessments • Phonological Awareness • Letter Names and Letter Sounds • Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery: Letter Word ID, Passage Comprehension • Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery: Picture Vocabulary, Listening Comprehension • Authentic measures of English proficiency (story retell) • Observations of classroom language and literacy practices in all classrooms • Observations for fidelity of implementation in research-enhanced classrooms Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

8. Ongoing Support • Professional Development • Prior to the school year • Every two months • Observations by mentors with feedback to teacher • In-class mentoring • Weekly planning meetings Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

9. 3-Tiers of Instruction • Tier 1 • Phonics (Language Enrichment/Esperanza/ Esperanza Transition) • Reading Practice and Skills • Modified MacMillan grammar and writing • Modified MacMillan reading • Oral language development (story book and expository text reading) • SIOP • Tiers 2 and 3 • Small group tutoring to build word reading, spelling, fluency, and vocabulary skills Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

10. Schedule: Bilingual Program/Grade 2 • Reading block (90 minutes) Spanish reading practice (modified MacMillan) Spanish grammar and writing (modified MacMillan) Transition phonics (Language Enrichment transition) • ESOL block (60 minutes) English oral language development (read-alouds) English reading practice (modified MacMillan) • SIOP • Tiers 2 and 3 Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

11. Schedule: English Program/grade 2 • 90 minute reading block English phonics (Language Enrichment) English reading and skills practice (modified MacMillan) Oral language development (read alouds) • ESOL block English grammar and writing (modified MacMillan) • SIOP • Tiers 2 and 3 Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

12. Project Benefits to Teachers • Effective research-based approach to delivering and organizing instruction for ELLs • Additional materials • Project tutors provide Tier 2 and Tier 3 intervention • Ongoing, long-term staff development and mentoring • Opportunities to collaborate with colleagues • Participation in a study of national significance Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

13. National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth: Research findings that support our approach • Instruction in the native language aids achievement • Meta-analysis of all acceptable studies that compared English-only instruction with instruction that used some native language • 15 acceptable studies that generated 71 effect sizes across 26 samples • Bilingual education has a statistically significant positive effect on reading in English (with an effect size of about .40) • These findings are consistent with other recent meta-analyses (Greene, 1997; Rolstad, Mahoney, & Glass, 2005) • To provide some perspective, the National Reading Panel estimated that the average effect size of phonics instruction to be 0.44 Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

14. National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth: Research findings that support our approach • Good instruction for English-language learners is similar to good instruction monolingual English students • English-language learners benefit from explicit instruction that builds phonological awareness, word reading skills, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and writing Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

15. National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth: Research findings that support our approach • Adjustments are important • Effect sizes for English-language learners are lower and more variable than those for native-English-speaking students, suggesting that such teaching is likely to be necessary but insufficient for improving literacy achievement among the English-language learners. It is possible that combining high-quality instruction in the literacy components with efforts to enhance English oral language development in the context of this literacy instruction would lead to higher effect sizes. Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

16. National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth: Research findings that support our approach • We work in a bilingual program where first language literacy development is encouraged while students acquire English literacy • We explicitly teach phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and writing • Build on effective methods used with monolingual speakers • Follow a format of introduce a concept, model and group practice, individual practice, and review • Develop skills systematically and sequentially • Differentiate instruction Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

17. National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth: Research findings that support our approach • We make accommodations to ‘standard’ instruction • Introduce read-alouds (both narrative and expository) to build oral language proficiency, including vocabulary and listening comprehension • Provide a lot more scaffolding (e.g., pre-teach some vocabulary, paraphrase text, ask ongoing questions to build comprehension, provide glossaries that include pictures as well as definitions) to ensure students understand the texts they are reading and listening to • Capitalize on students’ first language proficiency and literacy (e.g., cognate awareness; transition phonics) Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

18. Results for First Grade • No statistically significant differences between treatment and control group on early reading skills • Despite less time spent in reading practice for treatment groups • All students doing well on early reading skills • Significant differences between treatment and control groups on standardized measures of oral language proficiency • Vocabulary • Listening comprehension Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

19. The SIOP Model A means for making grade-level academic content (science, social studies, math) more accessible to second-language learners while at the same time promoting their English language development. Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

20. Preparation Building Background Comprehensible Input Strategies Interaction Practice & Application Lesson Delivery Review & Assessment The SIOP Model:Sheltered Instruction for Academic Achievement(Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004) Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

21. SIOP Model of Sheltered Math Instruction Strategies Background Information Structured Pairwork Spoken & Written Math Discourse Development Scaffolding Math Journaling Math Manipulatives Think Alouds Feedback Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

22. Grade 2 Math Lesson • Typical Gr. 2 math lesson from district • math presentation & practice • high on teacher talk, low on visuals • lacks systematic treatment of math language • Enhanced Gr. 2 math lesson in treatment classrooms • explicit content and language objectives • concept definition map • links to prior knowledge and learner background • goal directed oral pairwork (e.g., information gap activities in math) • math Journals Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

23. English Phonics Instruction for Students in all-English Program • Phonics review Review of previously learned reading concepts (e.g., ch, ng) Word study review (affixes) • New concept introduction Introduction of new reading concepts using four modalities- visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile • Reading and spelling practice Reading, spelling, and writing practice of new concepts • Review New day’s learning 2-3 previously learned concepts Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

24. Transition Phonics Instruction for Students in Bilingual Program • Phonics review Review of previously learned reading concepts (e.g., ch, ng) Word study review (affixes) • New concept introduction Introduction of new reading concepts using four modalities- visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile • Reading and spelling practice Reading, spelling, and writing practice of new concepts • Review New day’s learning 2-3 previously learned concepts Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

25. Phonics Instruction for Students • Alignment of phonics instruction and reading practice • In the transition program, explicit instruction in similarities and differences between English and Spanish word reading, spelling, and grammatical conventions Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

26. English Reading and Skills Practice for Students in English-only Program • Students learn second grade concepts • Second grade MacMillan reading program used to give students practice reading connected text and building skills • Schedule • Days 1-2: Whole class guided reading of decodable story • Days 3-4: Small group differentiated instruction using SAILL Safari/teacher choice of materials to reinforce reading concepts • Day 5: Skill instruction and assessment • Day 6: Flex day Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

27. English Reading and Skills Practice for Students in Bilingual Program • Bilingual Program • Students learn first and second grade concepts • First grade MacMillan reading program used to give students practice reading connected text and practice reading skills • Schedule • Day 1: Guided Reading of Decodable Story • Days 2-3: Teacher choice to reinforce reading concepts • Day 4: Skill • Day 5: Assessment • Day 6: Flex day Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

28. Spanish Reading and Skills Practice for Students in Bilingual Program • Very similar to English reading and skills practice • Days 1 - 2: Guided reading of decodable text, including pre-teaching of vocabulary • Days 3 - 4: Differentiated instruction to build decoding and comprehension and to learn reading skills • Day 5: Assessment and review in Spanish of concepts introduced in the English expository text • Day 6: Flex day Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

29. Grammar and Writing: English and Spanish • Day 1: new grammar concept or skill (e.g.,plural nouns) • Day 2: grammar mechanics (e.g., letter writing conventions) • Day 3: grammar assessment • Day 4: Writing • Day 5: Writing Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

30. Writing: English and Spanish • 5 week sequence for each genre (e.g. personal narrative, persuasive writing) • Week 1: Modeling: present genre, explore the structure of the genre • Week 2: Group drafting: group practice to develop ideas and structure, group drafting) • Week 3: Students draft composition • Week 4: Student revisions (genre and conventions) based on teacher feedback • Week 5: Students produce finished composition based on teacher feedback Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

31. Oral Language Development • Use of rich children’s literature and expository text to build oral language proficiency, literacy and content knowledge • Teacher’s guide • High quality children’s literature and expository text aligned with second grade science curriculum • Picture cards Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

32. Oral Language Development: Schedule • Days 1 and 2 • Pre-teach key words • Interactive Reading • Closing Discussion • Days 3 and 4 • Interactive Reading • Closing Discussion • Extending Word Meaning • Key Words • Basic Words • Other Words and Phrases • Day 5 • Assessment Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

33. Oral Language Development • Techniques • Pre-teaching of key words • use of visuals and act-outs (grade 1) • Interactive reading • Using pictures and demonstration to clarify meaning • Paraphrasing key vocabulary and complicated chunks of text • Building background knowledge • Questioning techniques that allow the teacher to model comprehension strategies and clarify text (visualizing, drawing inferences, making connections from text-to-text and text-to-self, summarizing, inferring word meaning Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

34. Oral Language Development • Techniques (cont.) • Closing discussion • Predictions and inferences • Compare/contrast • Summarization • Connect text to own experience • Evaluate the book • Extending word meanings • Basic words connected to theme (e.g. vehicles) • Other words and phrases (e.g., idioms and other words that are challenging such as phrasal verbs, words with multiple meanings, adverbs, prepositions) • Review • Use of glossary that includes pictures of all the words and games • Assessment • Vocabulary • Comprehension Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

35. Oral Language Development • Techniques (cont.) • Partner-talk • Repeat, elaborate, and rephrase Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”

36. Education is not the filling of a pail, but a lighting of a fire William Butler Yeats Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit V “Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap”