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The classroom is abuzz with the productive noise that emanates from students working together. Groups of 4 are huddled around chart paper on which they are writing a character analysis. The teacher circulates and points to the posters with adjectives and adverbs, providing a resource for their writing. The English learners who are working in the groups are supported through scaffolding, including interaction with other students and the teacher.
In a class across the hall, the teacher is reading a story with the class as they follow along. Some students have their heads down on their desks, a couple have their sweatshirt hoods pulled over their heads. A few students in the back are acting up. When the teacher gives instructions for the follow up task, the English learners seem lost, unsure what they are supposed to do. The teacher notices and repeats the explanation of how to complete the worksheet.
Teaching literacy skills to an increasingly diverse school population is a challenge in part because many students become disengaged from learning at an early age. They attend schools that have practices and expectations that they may not fully understand and that may not reflect the values of their home. English learners (ELs) are learning a new language at the same time they are learning literacy skills, how to express their ideas, understanding the ways of school, and so forth. Young students enter kindergarten without many of the pre-literacy skills and experiences schools expect them to have. Older English learners have often been passed along from grade to grade without achieving basic literacy skills or they are recent immigrants who do not speak the language of instruction. For older adolescents, there is a "literacy crisis" (Short & Fitzsimmons, 2006).
However, even with these realities, we have observed many classes where English learners are thriving. Some are urban classes with high numbers of ELs and others are in suburban schools with only a handful of ELs but the commonality is that these students are active participants in learning and are set up for success. Because of their limited English proficiency (and sometimes interrupted schooling) ELs require "scaffolds" or support to to able to comprehend, learn, and complete academic tasks.
For English learners it is critical...