Current Research on ELLs
Pat Majors, Newsletter Editor
We share the desire to be effective in how we teach our students. Since many of us received our early training in literacy as teachers of native-English speakers then added pedagogy specific to ELLs, we often wonder if our teaching reflects what the research supports. Most of us do not have time to study the latest research in our fast-growing field unless we are satisfying the requirements of graduate courses in ESOL. Here are several inexpensive “quick reads” that can be particularly useful for new and veteran ESOL teachers alike.
Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners (2007).
Deborah Short and Shannon Fitzsimmons published their report to the Carnegie Foundation, and the good news us is that this document is available as a PDF download or at very low cost from Alliance for Excellent Education. Go to www.all4ed.org to download or order this and related publications. The first publication is free; additional publications cost about $3.00 each to cover shipping and handling.
Those of you who attended Deborah Short’s plenary at the Charleston conference are already aware of Double the Work and its ramifications for what we are teaching at the secondary level. If did not attend Dr. Short's plenary, though, you still have access to this major research!
Two other publications that focus on the reading and writing of struggling middle school and high school students. While these pertain to non-ESOL students, this research may have an impact on how we teach as well. Reading Next published in 2004 and written by Gina Biancarosa and Catherine E. Snow, and Writing Next, published in 2007 and written by Steve Graham and Dolores Perrin are both available at the www.all4ed.org website.
Teaching English Language Learners (2008).
Claude Goldenberg published a summary of two comprehensive studies on ESOL pedagogy in the American Educator. Dr. Goldenberg, a native of Argentina, is a Professor of Education at Stanford University. If you “Google” his name, you will have access to a number of his articles, in addition to the one cited here.
Go to www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/summer08/goldenberg.pdf to download this important article.
Invitation to Colleagues.
As you come across current research, please send a short review and access information to me at pmajors@bellsouth.net to include in upcoming issues. Colleagues like you recommended these publications. Like many of you, time to teach and manage administrative details is very short!