A little about the NCELA from their website:
"Authorized under Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs (NCELA) supports the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA) in its mission to respond to Title III educational needs, and implement NCLB as it applies to English language learners (ELLs)." (http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/about/).
This particular issue of AccELLerate! featured many informative articles for educators of ELLs with disabilities. Something that I found of particular interest was a bar graph of the 2006 Office for Civil Rights estimates on ELL students: Proportions of the population of ELL students with disabilities, by specific disability. The percentage of ELL students with learning disabilities (55%) was significantly higher than the percentage of ELL students with other disabilities, such as mental retardation (8%), emotional disturbance (2%), and developmental delay (2%). I had assumed the percentage would be lower due to the difficulties of distinguishing between actual learning disabilities and English language learning difficulties, but this graph suggests that my assumptions may have been mistaken. In fact, in the first article of this issue, "Promising Assessment Practices for English Language Learners with Suspected Disabilities," (Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D. & Cristina Sanchez-Lopez, M.S.), the authors discuss and provide a chart that outlines the different areas of assessment and measures students' abilities in both their first and second languages as a means to "ascertain the full complement of
students’ knowledge and skills in order to determine the extent and type of language support needed," (Gottlieb & Sanchez-Lopez). If it is determined that an ELL student has a disability, it is necessary to provide support for them from an ESL special education teacher, as well as targeted support for their specific disability.
Another article that I found interesting in this issue of AccELLerate! was "The Role of Professional Development in Helping English Learners with Disabilities Achieve High Standards," (Jana Echevarria, Ph.D.). In this article Echevarria discusses the necessity of general educators and special education teachers to participate in ongoing professional development that focuses on research-based strategies, interventions, and methods that will help students with disabilities achieve high standards. She goes on to describe a study conducted in one inclusion elementary school, using the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model of instruction, which is a "lesson planning and delivery system that shares many of the characteristics of effective instruction for general education and special education students alike, but also addresses the unique linguistic needs of English learners," (Echevarria). The SIOP Model consists of eight components that have been shown to increase student achievement when implemented correctly:
- Lesson Preparation – language and content objectives
- Building Background – vocabulary development, student connections
- Comprehensible Input – ESL techniques
- Strategies – metacognitive and cognitive strategies, scaffolding
- Interaction – develop oral language
- Practice & Application – practice all 4 language skills
- Lesson Delivery – meet objectives
- Review & Assessment – review lesson’s vocabulary and concepts
The best results for increased student achievement, both academically, and socially, occur when special education teachers and general educators work collaboratively to implement the SIOP Model. This makes sense to me, especially in an inclusive environment where the special education teacher is coming into the classroom to provide supports for identified students. This article is not the first time I have heard of the SIOP Model, but I still do not quite understand what it is, so I may have to look into this more in my next blog post.
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