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English Language Leaners and New Immigrant Students: Solutions #1 |
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AND
NEW IMMIGRANT STUDENTS: SOLUTIONS #1
Instructional Programs and Curricula
With Links to Evidence
New in June 2009
Links to evidence of effectiveness are presented for your review to determine whether the evidence is convincing. Evidence in this category is not widespread.
Titles are presented in alphabetical order.
Achievement for Latinos through Academic Success (ALAS)
Developed by Katherine Larson,
Los Angeles Unified School District, California.
According to the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition, “ALAS was one of three projects that received funding in 1990 from the Office of Special Education Programs to address the problem of dropout for students with disabilities. . . . ALAS was developed to prevent high-risk Latino students with and without disabilities from dropping out of school. The model uses a collaborative approach involving the student, family, school, and community. Fundamental aspects of the program in each of four areas are: (a) students receive social problem-solving training, counseling, increased and specific recognition of academic excellence, and enhancement of school affiliation; (b) schools are responsible for providing frequent teacher feedback to students and parents and attendance monitoring; in addition, schools are expected to provide training for students in problem-solving and social skills; (c) parents of program participants receive training in school participation, accessing and using community resources, and how to guide and monitor adolescents; and (d) collaboration with the community is encouraged through increased interaction between community agencies and families. Efforts to enhance skills and methods for serving the youth and family are also implemented.”
Developer contact information.
A bilingual trainer is available who can provide on-site training to school and community personnel. Contact Magda Neil at 818-957-2481.
California Policy Research Center review with evidence -- Click on Capturing Latino Students in the Pipeline and see pages 2-11 in the PDF.
National Center on Secondary Education and Transition review
National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities review.
What Works Clearinghouse report.
AVANCE Parent-Child Education Program
AVANCE Inc, San Antonio, Texas.
“The AVANCE Parent-Child Education Program is considered a pioneer in the field of parent education. It focuses on parent education, early childhood development, brain development, literacy, and school readiness. The program serves predominantly poor Latino families in underserved communities/ AVANCE's mission is unlocking America's potential and the program accomplishes this one child, one family, one community at a time by teaching parents to be advocates and role models for their children. . . . The nine-month core program caters to parents with children from 0-3 years of age, operating in housing projects, community centers and schools. AVANCE instructors guide parents through the stages of emotional, physical, social and cognitive development of their children with special topics that range from the importance of reading and effective discipline to nutrition. Parents also attend classes in literacy, learning English and attaining a GED. . . . AVANCE reaches more than 20,000 individuals annually in centers and chapter sites throughout Texas and Los Angeles, California. . . . The AVANCE Program has been cited in the New York Times, ABC World News Tonight, McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, and numerous other programs and publications and is included in books by three first ladies: Hillary Rodham Clinton's It Takes A Village, Barbara Bush's First Teachers, and Rosylin Carter's Helping Someone with Mental Illness. . . . An extensive scientific evaluation funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York has provided strong evidence supporting the effectiveness of the AVANCE Parent Child Education Program. Two annual cohorts were followed for two years at two program sites. Control groups, which were randomly assigned at one site and matched at the second site, were also employed. Upon completion of the program and then again one year later, data were collected concerning maternal knowledge, behavior, attitudes and continuing education with both groups.” Results of seven studies of effects are summarized at the Avance website.
Home page.
To access seven studies of AVANCE effects.
Mexican Immigrant Youth and Resiliency: Research and Promising Programs (ERIC Digest) – Scroll to Promising Programs and see AVANCE.
Promising Practices for Improving School Readiness of English Language Learners– Annie E. Casey Foundation (see page 33 in the PDF).
What Works for Latino Students – Excelencia in Education: See page 6 in the PDF (page 1 in the manuscript).
Descubriendo La Lectura: Reading Recovery® for Spanish Literacy, Grade 1
Reading Recovery® Council of North America, Worthington, Ohio.
Descubriendo La Lectura (DLL) “is a reconstruction of Reading Recovery for Spanish-speaking children. . . . DLL serves the lowest-achieving first graders who are receiving their classroom instruction in Spanish. . . . Individual students receive a half-hour lesson each school day for 12 to 20 weeks with a specially trained DLL teacher. As soon as students can read within the average reading performance of their class and demonstrate that they can continue to achieve, their lessons are discontinued, and new students begin individual instruction. . . . (As a supplement) the DDL Book List is intended to be a helpful resource for DLL educators in North America. Titles and levels can be guides as teachers, teacher leaders, and university trainers engage in the daily decisions of selecting books for students participating in DLL. . . . (The developer describes DLL as) a highly effective short-term intervention of one-to-one tutoring for low-achieving first graders. . . . Outcomes for DLL students are comparable to outcomes for Reading Recovery students. . . . (The website shows that) in 1997, a national study of former DLL students in second and third grade revealed that Descubriendo La Lectura had positive impact on Spanish-speaking students: (a) 92 percent of second graders and 93 percent of third graders who completed their series of lessons met or exceeded the average band of Spanish Text Reading; and (b) 75 percent of second graders who completed their series of lessons, and 79 percent of third graders who completed their lessons, met or exceeded the average band on the standardized Spanish reading measure (SABE-2 and SABE-3). . . . Descubriendo La Lectura began in 1989 in Tucson, Arizona. It has since become a national initiative. . . . The Collaborative for Reading Recovery in Spanish/Descubriendo La Lectura . . . focuses on projects and issues that deal with the validation of procedures, monitoring implementation of Descubriendo La Lectura, and researching the effectiveness of the program.”
Home page – Reading Recovery Council of North America.
Basic Facts
Professional development – Full academic year, with subsequent followup.
Best Evidence Encyclopedia rating – Reading Recovery: One-to-one tutoring for struggling first graders – English or Spanish.
Center for American Progress/Institute for America’s Future review – Scroll to the 5th title (Evidence-Based Reform) and see pages 19-20 in the manuscript (pages 20-21 in the PDF).
CRESPAR review: Effective Programs for Latino Students – See Report 11 (pages 40-43 in the manuscript; pp. 44-47 in the PDF).
CRESPAR review: Effective Reading Programs for ELLs -- See Report 66 (pages 29-30 in the manuscript; pp. 40-41 in the PDF).
Foro Abierto Para la Lectura: Spanish Version of Open Court,
Grades K-6
Distributed by SRA, McGraw-Hill, DeSoto, Texas.
“Mirroring the design and content of Open Court Reading, Foro abierto para la lectura provides a variety of reading material, exposes students to a diverse body of literature, and presents a broad spectrum of writing styles, cultures, and dialects. Authentic literature, songs, and poetry support unit themes and content while allowing teachers to make an important cultural connections with their students. The literature in Foro abierto para la lectura includes novels, poems, plays, songs, realistic fiction, informational articles, short stories, essays, and fantasy. . . . Foro abierto para la lectura's systematic instruction supports comprehension, writing, inquiry and investigation, vocabulary, and spelling skills. Each literature selection in the program was carefully chosen so students will benefit from reading on different levels. Each selection in a unit adds a new concept or idea about the theme, encouraging students to make connections and practice higher-order thinking skills. . . . Fully Lexiled for Levels 1-6, Foro abierto para la Lectura allows teachers to use Lexile measures to evaluate students' reading levels and provide individualized instruction to meet individual needs without extra preparation time. With something for each student, Foro abierto para la lectura provides a complete reading package for any ESL or bilingual learner.”
Home page – Open Court.
Foro abierto para la lectura -- Click for purchase information.
Open Court research – McRae studies and other sources (includes a McRae study of Foro abierto para la lectura).
American Federation of Teachers review of Open Court -- Seven Promising Reading and Language Arts Programs: Summary of each program, and click at end of the page for full text.
Florida Center for Reading Research review of Open Court Pre-K.
Milken Family Foundation review of Open Court – Reading Programs That Work: See pp. 11-12 in the manuscript.
Success for All Spanish Bilingual Programs: K-6
Success for All Foundation, Baltimore, Maryland.
Success for All includes reading programs to support Spanish instruction from kindergarten through sixth grade, as well as a social problem-solving curriculum. “Descubre Conmigo is the Spanish version of KinderCorner. (This) is a full-day comprehensive kindergarten program to foster children’s language, cognitive, mathematical, emotional, interpersonal, creative, and physical development. . . . . (It) can be adapted for half-day implementations.” . . . Lee Conmigo is the Spanish version of Reading Roots. (This) is a 90-minute comprehensive program that targets the needs of beginning readers. It is a research-based beginning reading program that has proven its effectiveness in randomized experimental research. . . . Alas para Leer is the Spanish version of Reading Wings. (This) is a 90-minute daily comprehensive program that targets the needs of students reading at the 2nd through 6th grade levels to ensure their consistent growth as proficient readers. It is based on scientific principles and proven, through control-group research, to improve students’ reading comprehension. . . . Juntos Progresamos is the Spanish adaptation of the Getting Along Together program. (This) is a social problem-solving curriculum designed to teach children to think critically, solve problems non-violently, and work in teams effectively and cooperatively. Juntos Progresamos sets in place school-wide processes for preventing and resolving problems among students as well as between students and teachers. Links to papers on effectiveness studies of Success for All, and components on which Spanish instructional models are based, are shown at the website.
Home page.
Overview -- Descubre Conmigo.
Overview – Lee Conmigo.
Overview – Alas para Leer.
Overview – Juntos Progresamos.
Technical assistance with implementation – See items 3, 4, 5 in the FAQ.
Success for All research – And scroll down for research on English language learners.
Best Evidence Encyclopedia rating – Reading for English language learners.
What Works Clearinghouse report – Success for All: English language learners.
Vocabulary Improvement Program (VIP) for English Language Learners and Their Classmates: Grades 4-6
D. August, M. S. Carlo, B. McLaughlin, & C. Snow.
Distributed by Brookes Publishing Company, Baltimore, Maryland.
The What Works Clearinghouse describes the Vocabulary Improvement Program as “a 15-week program that includes vocabulary activities and related lessons. The program stresses targeted words from a weekly reading assignment. On Mondays, English language learner students are given the weekly reading assignment in their native language to preview before it is introduced in English on the following day. On Tuesdays, the teacher leads whole-group lessons to review the text and define the target vocabulary. On Wednesdays teachers divide the students into heterogeneous language groups to complete two cloze activities. On Thursdays teachers again divide the students into small groups to complete word association, synonym/antonym, and semantic feature analysis activities. Then, each Friday, teachers lead activities that cover a range of topics including analysis of root words and knowledge of multiple meanings of words. The curriculum includes detailed lesson plans, quasi-scripted lesson guides, overhead transparencies, worksheets, homework assignments, and all necessary reading assignment texts.” The published series for grades 4, 5, and 6 includes the curriculum with a teacher’s guide, activities, cooperative group work, vocabulary words defined in English and Spanish, and photocopy-ready pages of classwork, homework, and assessments.
Developer contact information.
Curriculum and materials– For purchase from Brookes Publishing.
Promising Practices Network review.
Report of a research study – Research Symposium on High Standards in Reading for Students from Diverse Language Groups, U.S. Department of Education.
What Works Clearinghouse report.
This information is an attempt to gather wide-ranging information in one place, to convey what others have accomplished, and to make valuable resources readily accessible. Information is presented in the language of the developer, publisher, distributor, or author. The Southeast Regional Resource Center has no ownership of anything described in this library.
Readers should review the copyright and distribution policies shown at the websites of the sources. SERRC is not the source of any document in this library, but simply conveys information to show the availability of these resources.
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position of policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and no endorsement of the U.S. Department of Education should be inferred. Information from sources funded by the U.S. Department of Education is likely to have been vetted by the Department; information from other sources is unlikely to have been vetted.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 08 June 2009 )
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