Vocabulary strategies to support reading development in middle school English learners
Date
2022
Authors
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Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The primary focus of this Education Leadership Portfolio was to enhance instruction of English Learners (ELs) in Cecil County Public Schools (CCPS) by providing professional development (PD) to teachers. PD focused on supporting teachers in using evidence-based practices with EL students, to improve academic language and literacy skills and support disciplinary learning and language acquisition simultaneously. The CCPS English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) department currently has four ESOL teachers who work with middle school ELs. ☐ To understand EL literacy achievement and growth, I examined the state assessment program for middle school ELs in English language proficiency and learned that only 77% of ELs in grades 6-8 were making progress according to the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) on the ACCESS for ELLs assessment. Through the creation of a vocabulary intervention for teachers and students, teachers supported ELs in vocabulary building activities that assisted with reading proficiency, language acquisition and content learning. ☐ To assist ESOL teachers with the intervention, I created a targeted PD seminar for them to gain an understanding of how to incorporate evidence-based practices in daily instruction, as well as the expectations and procedures of the intervention, and expectations of their ELs. I also shared the tools, lesson plans, and other materials they will be using during instruction to guide ELs with their vocabulary learning practices. Finally, I created a walkthrough tool for school-based and district-level administrators that they can use to look for evidence of deliberate vocabulary and academic language instruction to ELs in general education classrooms. ☐ During the intervention, there was evidence that many ELs engaged in the core activities and developed knowledge of the target vocabulary. Additionally, many of the writing samples showed evidence of students’ ability to use target vocabulary words in their writing. Teacher fidelity was moderate as seen through student work submission. ELs who were engaged in lessons completed and submitted their work. However, the COVID-19 pandemic led to increases in sporadic student attendance and decreases in school engagement, which substantially hindered fidelity of the intervention and my overall expectation of how the intervention was executed. ☐ In subsequent iterations of the intervention, I would like to implement changes that would allow ESOL teachers to capture richer writing samples. In addition, future implementations would be face-to-face enabling comparison of tradition and online administration. Additionally, future iterations with the incorporation of more teacher training and more targeted interventions of content area units should be developed and evaluated. Those enhancements will make the vocabulary intervention positioned for clear implementation for any ESOL teacher and for a variety of grade levels working towards literacy development.
Description
Keywords
English learners, Middle school, Vocabulary development