Distinguishing between language acquisition and learning disabilities among English-language learners

Why do some English-language learners (ELLs) struggle with reading? Janette Klingner will help participants decide whether students’ difficulties are a sign of learning disabilities (LD) or most likely the result of second-language acquisition. In this presentation Janette will:

   • compare and contrast characteristics of LD and language acquisition and clarify
     misconceptions about the second-language-acquisition process

   • point out differences between simultaneous and sequential bilingual learners

   • discuss the construct of “opportunity to learn” and how it applies when deciding if
     English-language learners may have a disability

   • explain what we know from research about how literacy instruction differs for ELLs and describe some of the struggles
     ELLs face when learning to read in English.

To a large extent, determining whether an ELL has LD is a process of elimination. Many intrinsic and extrinsic factors must be considered and ruled out as possible reasons for a child’s struggles. Since there are no tests that can definitely tell us whether the student has LD, a variety of factors must be considered. Some ELLs are identified as having LD not because they have disabilities, but rather because they have not received an adequate opportunity to learn. Therefore, looking at the quality of instruction they receive is a necessary first step. Some ELLs are taught in “disabling contexts,” with too few opportunities to receive appropriate instruction matched to their needs and too few opportunities to develop their language/literacy skills. For example, in a recent study of a diverse school implementing RTI for the first time, Orosco and Klingner (2010) observed many of the teachers providing inadequate instruction to ELLs during classroom instruction as well as during intervention time. Teachers did not consider students’ language proficiency, they did not build on their background knowledge or connect instruction to their home lives, and much of the instruction was out of context and inaccessible for students. We cannot distinguish between LD and language acquisition without making sure that ELLs are receiving adequate opportunities to learn, and we cannot determine whether ELLs have LD without looking into their classrooms and comparing how they are doing with their peers. The presentation will include classroom examples (written vignettes).

Responding to diversity: personal and professional sustainability

This paper discusses the implications for Australian teachers and schools of policies,trends and challenges in the contemporary education context. The task of educating all students, and particularly those at the margins, is becoming more demanding so it is essential that we work in ways that are both effective and feasible. Successful learning for our students will be achieved in ways that are personally and professionally sustainable for us as teachers if we thoughtfully apply, evaluate and contextualise relevant research and good practice. The paper overviews research-based strategies for responding to diversity and shares examples of ways in which Australian teachers are adopting a ‘While I grow I live’ philosophy to improve their students’ learning and foster their own professional and personal development.

Students with additional reading needs: on the radar and moving

Catering for diverse reading abilities in mainstream classes requires teachers to collect evidence and data about all students’ understanding, knowledge and skills and to plan programs that engage them with meaningful and targeted instruction. When teachers identify students with reading difficulties they must become even more intentional about how they will intervene to hasten students’ learning while also keeping them part of the class. During this presentation Anne will give examples of how teachers can use one text with an entire class while addressing a range of abilities.

Literacy, numeracy and low-achieving students: cautious directions from cognitive neuroscience

New knowledge about the brain and cognitive processing applied to understandings of learning and teaching has the potential to drive transformational change in the education of students with learning difficulties. Increasingly there are calls for findings from neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience and education to be linked, and for practicing teachers to be involved as key stakeholders in this process. This presentation takes up this challenge by reviewing selected knowledge from cognitive neuroscience and relating it to classroom teaching practices which support low-achieving students’ improvement in literacy and numeracy. Key concepts to be explored include how synaptic plasticity can contribute to learning, the information processing framework, memory processes, the effects on learning of limitations in working memory, metacognition, and the importance of developing automaticity in basic academic skills. An understanding of the basic tenets of ‘the science of learning’ potentially enhances teacher effectiveness through the development of a deeper understanding of students’ learning difficulties, the role of working-memory, and how this may be implicated in the kinds of reading and mathematical problems students encounter in everyday classroom contexts.

Everybody’s selling it but what does a systematic, direct and explicit approach to early literacy instruction really look like?

Since the authors of the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Reading (2006) recommended ‘evidence based explicit phonics instruction’ these terms have become increasingly popular in the marketing of new literacy resources. For teachers, the choice of phonics programs is overwhelming and raises the question as to whether the ‘explicit phonics instruction’ described in resources is actually what the authors of the National Inquiry had in mind. In this session terms like ‘Gradual Release of Responsibility’, ‘Direct Instruction’ and ‘I do, You do, We do” will be clarified and one model of an early literacy program will be demonstrated that does comply with an evidence based approach to teaching literacy in the first two years of school, but that is not based on any one commercial program. Participants will learn the fundamental importance of task analysis, teacher knowledge and mastery learning to the attainment of early reading and spelling skills. Can your preschoolers tell you why the vowel sound in rain is spelt "ai" and not "ay"?

Implementing collaborative strategic reading in diverse classrooms

Collaborative strategic reading (CSR) is an evidence-based practice – an effective, feasible way to help students in diverse, heterogeneous classrooms to engage with text in meaningful ways. Students apply reading comprehension strategies while working in collaborative groups in their content classes. As one middle-school teacher said, “My students were starving for this. It’s an outstanding program!”

CSR combines reading comprehension strategy instruction (eg, Palincsar & Brown, 1984), elements of cooperative learning (eg, Kagan, 1986), and features designed to support the success of students with learning disabilities (LD), struggling readers, and English-language learners in content area classes (Klingner, Vaughn & Schumm, 1998). Each student performs a defined role as students collaboratively implement the strategies. CSR is not a curriculum per se, but a way to help students access the curriculum. Initially, the teacher teaches the CSR strategies (ie, Preview, Click and Clunk, Get the Gist, and Wrap Up) to students through modelling, think alouds, explicit instruction and guided practice. Once students can apply the strategies with proficiency, they learn about the different CSR roles used in CSR small groups (ie, Leader, Clunk Expert, Gist Expert and Question Expert). Cue cards help students learn their roles. Students write down what they are learning in CSR learning logs and work together to make sense of the day’s reading.

For CSR to support learning, peers must be able to assist one another while working collaboratively. Student learning depends on the nature and quality of student interactions, and on peers having the tools they need to help. The presenter will highlight the participation of students with LD who are using CSR to aid their comprehension in content area classrooms and draw attention to students’ strategy use as well as their content-focused discussions.

Rethinking the ‘what’ and ‘how’ in teaching reading in NSW schools

This session will present findings from a descriptive study conducted with more than 4700 children in Catholic and government schools in NSW. Student performance in reading was monitored longitudinally K–6 using the dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills (DIBELS). Data indicate a high prevalence of student difficulties with: word attack, word identification and oral reading fluency skills across the student population. Findings from this study indicate the need for a rethinking of how teachers approach the teaching of phonics and reading fluency in primary classrooms for all children, not just a small population. Practical implications for schools as systems, as well as individual classrooms will be discussed. Recommendations for the teaching of phonics will also be provided.

Every Student, Every School: recognising, respecting and responding to the diverse learning needs of students

The profile of students with disability is changing rapidly as are expectations for education in the broader community. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) estimates one in five Australians have a disability.

Every day in 2240 NSW public schools there are more than 90,000 students in regular and special-education classrooms with additional learning and support needs who require adjustments to their day-to-day learning. The level and support each student requires is different. Each teacher has obligations to directly address the learning and support needs of these students under the Commonwealth Disability Standards for Education 2005.

Every Student, Every School is an innovative strategy that will establish in each government school a learning and support framework to strengthen the:

• quality of the educational experience each student accesses

• capability of each teacher to recognise, respect and respond to the learning and support needs of these students.

Though this strategy teachers will be better placed to recognise the complexity of student difference, respect such differences and respond with ongoing high-quality learning and support.

What colour is a red kangaroo? Enhancing the reading comprehension skills for students with learning difficulties in the content-areas

The purpose of this session is to highlight a series of single-case and group design research-based strategies to enhance the reading comprehension skills for student with learning difficulties in the content-areas. Strategies such as mnemonic instruction, graphic organisers, peer-tutoring, collaborative strategic reading, cognitive strategies/meta-cognition, self-questioning, computer-assisted instruction and multicomponent instructional packages will be discussed (see Berkeley, Scruggs, & Mastropieri, 2010; Block & Pressley, 2002; Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001; Pearson & Hamm, 2005, for reviews). Specific emphasis within the session will be made to demonstrate how to integrate such reading comprehension strategies in a special school placement as well as in support/inclusive classrooms. Finally, limitations of the studies, implications for practice for both general and special education classroom teachers, and future research directions will be presented.