Content Teachers’ Perception of El Student Engagement Using the SIOP Model
Clarifying the Collaborative Role of ESL Teachers and Content Teachers (?)
Every school district shall provide a program for each student whose dominant language is not English for the purpose of facilitating the student’s achievement of English proficiency and the academic standards under § 4.12 (relating to academic standards). Programs under this section shall include appropriate bilingual-bicultural or English as a second language (ESL) instruction. (State regulation, 22 Pa. Code § 4.26)
There were over four million English language learners in U.S. public schools in 2015 which is a 1.5% increase from reported statistics in 2000 (Bialik, Scheller & Walker, 2015). According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, there were 5 million English language learners in US public schools in 2018 (NCES, 2021). By 2025, nearly one out of every four public school students will be an English language learner (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs [NCELA], 2007). This prompted some state education agencies to require teacher training related to linguistic-minority students (Meskill, 2005). However, language acquisition is complex and professional development efforts have overgeneralized the issue by excluding the intricacies of culture and deeply rooted misconceptions (Meskill, 2005). According to the most recent data from the US Department of Education, English learners (Els) make up 10% of the nation’s student population (US Department of Education).
General classroom teachers are required by federal law to be provided with professional development if they work with Els. 30 states do not require anything over what the federal law demands. In Pennsylvania, teacher coursework must include courses that address the needs of English learners. (Education Commission of the States, 2014). However, research shows that content teachers do not feel trained to teach this population, and they drop the responsibility on the ESL teacher (Reeves, 2006). Over 50% of Els in elementary and secondary schools are in schools where over 30% of the student population are Els and still many of those teachers are not trained to meet the needs of these learners (Echevarria, Vogt & Short, 2017). The content teachers and the ESL teachers work with Els in various ways, but the communication is inconsistent (Dove and Honigsfeld, 2010; Giles, 2018; Peercy, Ditter, & DeStefano, 2016). Els may spend a portion of their time with the ESL teacher but most of their day is spent in content classes. Many of content teachers are not comfortable with teaching this population and there is a breakdown in communication between the content teachers and the ESL teachers. This is a real problem when most of the students speak languages other than English (Conaway et. al., 2012, Gandara et.al., 2005). This study is meant to seek if ongoing ESL professional development for middle school content teachers in an urban district will empower them to engage their English learners in their classes.
Background of the Study
English Learner (El) and English Language Learner (Ell) have primarily the same meaning. Both terms are referring to those that speak a language other than English and are actively trying to learn English. There are many variations on the terms. Emergent Bilingual is a term that is meant to be positive in that the student already has one language and is learning a second but, for some, English is their third or fourth language so it may not be accurate. Some use First Language Not English (FLNE) but then it must be considered not all students are not learning English, it just means they learned another language first (Harder & Varga, 2017). The U.S. department of education uses El for English learner to be the most accurate terminology and so for the purposes of this study, the researcher will use El.
Els encompass an array of students with different needs. Immigrant students are those who have come to the U.S. willingly or unwillingly. “Immigrant students” refers to both individuals from highly educated families with significant educational experience as well as others who may have had sporadic or interrupted schooling, resulting in critical gaps in their educational knowledge base (Fix and Passel, 2003). Generation 1.5 students are U.S. children born of immigrants and speak a language other than English at home (Grantmakers for Education, 2013). All these students fall under the El umbrella and while their needs vary, they all have a language deficit that qualifies them for ESL services.
To further complicate the issue, ESL specialists are at a shortage nationwide (Mitchell, 2017). There has been a reported shortage of ESL teachers in Pennsylvania since 2010. And, many Els are placed in low performing urban school with poorly trained teachers (Sanchez, 2017). Moreover, this population is growing in rural and suburban areas, so the problem that was contained in urban districts is becoming an issue for rural and suburban school districts as well (Breiseth, 2015).
English language learning can be taught in two ways. The district can hire ESL teachers who teach in English using protocols to support students in language development and content knowledge. The role of the ESL teacher became defined when Common Core State Standards were adopted in 2009 (Staehr Fenner, 2013). ESL teachers transformed from indistinct roles to experts, advocates and consultants (Staehr Fenner, 2013). It was finally suggested ESL teachers and mainstream teachers collaborate and receive extensive professional development to ensure a strong working relationship (Staehr Fenner, 2013).
Bilingual education is another option (State regulation, 22 Pa. Code § 4.26). However, there are over 300 languages spoken in public schools across the United States. Even though, Spanish is the most popular by far, other popular languages include Arabic, Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Somali, Russian, Haitian (Ruiz Soto, Hooker & Batalova, 2015). Bilingual education will only work if content can be taught in the students’ native language and it can never work if the students’ language capabilities vary. It will only become more difficult to teach using the Bilingual Model as the languages of ELs diversify. Nonetheless, Pennsylvania state law requires English language learners to work with an ESL teacher for instruction (State regulation, 22 Pa. Code § 4.26).
Content teachers are pressured by the expectations to teach content in English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies to Els and implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that require teachers to ensure students are college and career ready in secondary classrooms (Rubinstein-Avila & Lee, 2014). They are also expected to support students’ content mastery on statewide achievement tests (Palmer, Henderson, Wall, Zúñiga, & Berthelsen, 2016).
Els traditionally do not participate in mainstream classrooms as often and as meaningfully compared to their English-speaking peers (Duff, 2001; Yoon, 2008). This is due to affective factors (Pappamihiel, 2002), content teachers’ student positionings (Yoon, 2008), and the classroom power dynamics in the mainstream content classrooms (Norton, 2002). This limited participation can constrain opportunities to learn and serves the ever-widening achievement gap between Els and their monolingual peers. In fact, Els consistently underperform their English only speaking peers in nearly every subject area (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2015b).
Without engaging in their learning, Els are not motivated for authentic learning or activating their cognitive processes. One way schools can work to increase student engagement is to increase teacher support. Students are more likely to engage in school if their teachers engage with them and the materials being taught (Bryson, 2007). Engagement becomes very important when the research shows students who are engaged in school performs better academically, have better attendance, better retention, and better school completion rates (Jimerson, Campos, & Greif, 2003; Sinclair, Christenson, Lehr, & Anderson, 2003).
Even though there is a large number of El students in mainstream classrooms, content teachers are underprepared to teach these learners (Rubinstein-Avila & Lee, 2014; Staehr Fenner, 2014). Learning opportunities to help support teachers may look a lot like the “sage on the stage” method where the sage, or expert, delivers information and the teachers are expected to become experts just by listening (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 7). But, that type of professional development does not change teachers’ pedagogical practices as itt does not consider how it will look in practice (Darling-Hammond, Hyler, Gardner, & Espinoza, 2017; Smith, 2017). Another problem is that teachers are not given the space to experiment and reflect on new information (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Effective PD includes collaboration, experimentation, and reflection where teachers are provided opportunities for discussion (Bocala, 2015, p. 349).
Statement of the Problem
El students’ participation in mainstream classrooms is underexplored (Martin Beltrán, 2010; Yoon, 2008). Some studies point out how the teacher can position El students as outsiders (Kayi-Aydar, 2014), which serve to exclude them from conversations and discussions that could lead to their increased learning opportunities (Martin-Beltrán, 2010; Yoon, 2008). The connection between El students’ limited participation and learning opportunities is evidenced by the fact that El students consistently underperform their monolingual peers on achievement tests (NCES, 2015a).
Content area teachers are underprepared and unequipped to teach ELs (Staehr Fenner, 2014; Rubinstein-Avila & Lee, 2014). Traditional PD is not the most effective form of teacher learning because it does not always change pedagogical practices (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017; Smith, 2017). Content and ESL teachers’ collaboration can potentially provide ESL students with increased content and language learning (Giles & Yazan, forthcoming 2019; Martin-Beltrán & Peercy, 2014); yet limited contact with the ESL teacher (Bell & Baecher, 2012) can constrain collaborative efforts (Peercy, 2018). This leads to Els limited participation in the mainstream classroom (Pappamihiel 2002, Martin-Beltrán, 2010, Norton, 2002).Ultimately, the content teacher plays a crucial role in influencing how students participate in the mainstream classrooms (Yoon, 2008).
Study’s Aim
In this proposed dissertation, the aim is to support content teachers at maximizing El student engagement using ongoing professional development for the content teachers. Ongoing professional development is key because educators need to be aware of the features of El teaching to implement it appropriately in their classes (Hansen- Thomas, 2008) but since directives without practical considerations are not inherent in “sage on the stage” PD (Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 7), ongoing PD including experimenting and reflecting will be given to content teachers throughout.
Following Guskey’s theoretical framework (2002), the order of the professional development is important. Unique to Guskey’s model, lasting change occurs through professional development, change in teacher practice, change in student outcomes, and then, change in teacher beliefs and self-efficacy in that order. So, ongoing support to content teachers will follow this same order.
Objectives of the Study
In alignment to the study’s aim, the key objectives of the proposed study will include the following:
– To examine the roles of the ESL teacher and content teacher in the classroom
– To reflect on the co-planning practices between the ESL teacher and content teacher
– To establish the most effective professional development that will enhance the collaboration between the ESL teacher’s and content teacher’s practice
Research questions
- To what degree do ESL and content teachers, having received professional development in SIOP, report implementing the components of the model in their daily instruction?
- How do ESL and content teachers’ collaboration influence ESL students’ classroom participation during the collaborative teaching sessions?
- To what extent are English Language Learners engaged using the SIOP model according to ESL and content teachers’ perception?
- How does ESL and content teachers’ collaboration influence content teachers’ learning to plan for and teach ESL students at an urban middle school in Northeastern PA?
Significance of Study
This study seeks to contribute to the field of ESOL in specific ways. First the study aims to contribute to the knowledge about how content teachers learn to plan and teach Els. Sociocultural learning theory posits that learning happens through interaction (Johnson and Golombek, 2016). It recognizes that teachers’ backgrounds shape their interactions, which affect their professional learning. Content teachers learn through collaboration in professional communities. Moreover, this study seeks to provide an understanding of secondary content teachers’ collaboration practices in 4 urban middle schools with a large population of Els. The four middle schools are part of a large urban school district that contains 3499 students, and all four schools serve at least a 15% to 20% Els. Students who are labels as Els receive ESL support from their ESL teacher who coteaches with content teachers. The ESL teacher provides language support while the content teacher provides support for the mainstream content whether it is math, science, social studies, and/or ELA.
Each family that enters the District must fill out a registration form that includes home language questions. If there is any indication that the student may need language support, then a parent interview is performed. Depending on the score from the parent interview, the student may qualify for the screener. The screener assesses the 4 domains of language: Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing. Once complete, the score will indicate the language level of the student. The ESL teacher and content teacher are expected to collaborate to ensure the needs of the student are met. This study adds to the research about how content teachers support El engagement in the mainstream classrooms. This study will provide insight that describes the perception of content teachers on how they support Els and offer to empower them with ongoing ESL professional development to enhance El engagement and their own understanding. There is a need to connect content teachers with practices that engage all students and there is a researched based protocol in place that all ESL teachers are taught but while this method is taught to ESL teachers, content teachers may not be aware of such protocols.
Summary
The numbers of Els is growing, not shrinking so what was once an issue for a few school districts could is now growing. Middle school Els spend most of their time with content teachers and have ESL teacher support in some of their classes. Content teachers do not feel confident in teaching this population but there is a protocol in place to support Els that are in content classes with content teachers. This study is meant to share that protocol with content teachers and support them while they implement the strategies and document the engagement of their Els.
