EL Pedagogy

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EL Pedagogy
Overview of Differentiated Instruction Oscar
Medina
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Program Options for English Learners

• Structured English Immersion
• typically for ELs at CELDT levels 1 3
• less then reasonable fluency
• English Language Mainstream
• typically for ELs at CELDT levels 4 5
• reasonable fluency
• Alternative program (bilingual course of study)
• offered to all ELs, CELDT levels 1 5

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Frequently misunderstood facts

• SDAIE (specially designed academic instruction in
  English) was developed for use with English
  learners at INTERMEDIATE and above proficiency.
• Whole class SDAIE instruction is therefore not
  sufficient for all EL instruction in the content
  areas.
• EL instruction is not about remediation.

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How is SEI defined?

• Education Code 306
• (d) "Sheltered English immersion" or "structured
  English immersion" means an English language
  acquisition process for young children in which
  nearly all classroom instruction is in English
  but with the curriculum and presentation designed
  for children who are learning the language.

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What does this mean?

• The pedagogy informing our selection of
  instructional strategies must be based on
  language acquisition theory.
• ELD provides content areas with the foundation on
  which to design instruction for English learners.

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ELD relative to
Core Academic Language
Highly Proficient
Possible Reclassification
Advanced
Proficient
Early Advanced
Basic
Intermediate
Below Basic
Early Intermediate
Well Below Basic
Beginning
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The foci for EL instruction

• Content
• Standards
• Objectives
• Scaffolded instruction
• Language proficiency
• ELD standards
• Four domains of language (L,S,R,W)
• Current, valid assessment information

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The pathway
core
content area standards
content objectives/concepts
scaffolded instructional strategies
content area academic language
ELD
current English proficiency level
on-going ELD assessments
ELD standards-based instruction
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In other words

• Teachers of English learners should
• use current ELD proficiency information
• refer to the related ELD standards to determine
  how to address academic language
• select/develop appropriate instructional
  strategies that link linguistic ability to the
  academic language of the content objective