English Language Development

(Elliott) #1

the necessary foundational skills? Some needs can
be addressed by the classroom teacher who provides
differentiated instruction; other needs require more
specialized attention. A multi-tiered system of supports
should be in place to serve all students. (See chapter 9 of
this ELA/ELD Framework.)
Motivation often becomes an issue with students
who are experiencing difficulty. These students need to
experience success in order to build their confidence.
Targeted, skillful instruction is crucial. They also need to
find the value in the written system. It is important to
expose them to texts that are relevant to their lives while
at the same time expanding their interests and knowledge.
See the discussions of motivation in chapter 2 of this ELA/
ELD Framework and in the overview of the span of this chapter.
In this section, research relevant to supporting students in this grade span who are experiencing
difficulty is provided:



  • Reading aloud to students and defining (using everyday language) unknown words, followed
    by oral language activities that present the words in multiple contexts facilitates vocabulary
    development (McKeown and Beck 2011).

  • Writing about text improves students’ understanding of a text; key for students experiencing
    difficulty is the provision of ongoing practice and explicit instruction in writing activities such
    as note taking, answering questions in writing, and responding to a text by writing a personal
    reaction or analyzing and interpreting it (Graham and Hebert 2010).

  • Spelling interventions should ensure students are using phonemic knowledge and morphological
    knowledge (such as spelling of common affixes), and progress toward drawing on knowledge or
    word roots (Gerber and Richards-Tutor 2011).

  • Effective spelling instruction coordinates reading and spelling words (Gerber and Richards-Tutor
    2011).

  • In terms of fluency, the cause of the difficulty should be determined so that targeted instruction
    can be provided. Student may lack fluency because they have difficulty with accurate decoding.
    These students may need support with phonemic awareness (especially blending) or decoding
    or both. Students may lack fluency because they have insufficient background knowledge and
    accompanying oral vocabulary to match their decoding attempts. They may lack automaticity
    and so need more practice with words and connected text to build up sight word reading
    vocabulary (Hudson 2011).

  • Explicit instruction in affixes and common syllable types is essential for students who experience
    difficulty decoding multisyllabic words (O’Connor 2007).


English Language Development in the Grade Span
The key content and instructional practices described previously in this chapter are important
for all students, but they are critical for EL students if they are to develop content knowledge and
academic English. As EL children enter into the later elementary grades, the language they encounter
in texts, both oral and written, becomes increasingly complex. Their continuing development of
academic uses of English depends on highly skilled teachers who understand how to identify and
address the particular language learning needs of their EL students. All teachers understand the
language demands of the texts students read and the academic tasks in which they engage. In order

Reading aloud to students
and defining (using everyday
language) unknown words,
followed by oral language
activities that present the
words in multiple contexts
facilitates vocabulary
development

422 | Chapter 5 Grades 4 and 5
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