THe following brief is an excellent school and practitioner resource from NCCREST. The following link provides you the link directly to the page of practitioner briefs. My favorite:
Preventing Disproportionate Representation: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Prereferral Interventions
by:
Shernaz Garcia, The University of Texas at Austin
Alba Ortiz, The University of Texas at Austin
October 200
http://www.nccrest.org/publications/briefs.html
The following website has great links to research-based articles on English Language Learners. Topics include:
Assessment of LEP migrant Students for Special Education Services
Assessment of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students for Special Education
Five Strategies to reduce Overrepresentation of CLD
Hispanic Deaf Students in Rural Education Settings
Increasing Validity of Adapted tests
A Suggested guide to the Special Education Referral Process for Bilingual Learners
State and Distric Assessment for ELLs
When is it a Language Difficulty a Disability
It also has many links to other related areas of the website. Good luck browsing.
http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/resabout/sped/4_referral.html
I evaluated this afternoon a free 45 minute simultcast that discusses the assessment of English Language Learners and I was very pleased. This same theme of culturally competent practices were followed as the one of the video discussed in my previous blog entry and they even had a slide presentation to go along with it. Here is their offical description:
This 45-minute webcast is an introduction to assessment for teachers of English language learners. Dr. Lorraine Valdez Pierce will discuss performance-based and standardized assessments; assessment as a tool for informing instruction; use of assessment to reinforce reading comprehension; and student self-assessment and self-monitoring.
I would like to input from your own evaluations!!!
Reading Rockets Colorin Colorado Website
Also check out the research-based articles at the bottom of the page.
This is the information, cost, and description of the video presented. It can be found at the Council for Exceptional Children organization www.cec.sped.org under products or you can call the number below. The description was taken directly from the website as to not misrepresent its content.
Portraits of the Children: Culturally Competent Assessment Video and CD-ROM
This award-winning video and CD-ROM highlight case studies that involve challenging learning issues and the practices necessary to provide culturally competent assessments for special education eligibility. Interviews with leading psychological assessment experts and viewpoints from experienced general educators, related services personnel, ESL specialists, administrators, and parents create meaningful discussion on the use of interpreters, bilingual assessment, and the role of culture, race, and language on school performance. The CD-ROM includes the complete video, plus four case studies, guided pre- and post-viewing discussion questions, Web site links, resources, information builders, and reference materials designed to supplement training initiatives. 2003, 37 minutes. ISBN 0865869806.
#S5573 $99.00/CEC Member $79.00
To order call 1-888-232-7733
I would like to thank all of you who attended my session “Facilitating the Pre-referral and Special Education referral process for Hispanic Students Having Difficuties in Schools” at the MATSOL/MABE conference yesterday in Massachussetts. As promised, I would like to provide you with link to websites we discussed:
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. This website provides information for parents and families about the process of the full referral to special education services and as well as their rights. This website includes printable brochures in multiples languages in many topics of interest to teachers and parents of children experiencing diffculties in school.
Intervention in School and Clinic (practitioner journal) is a joint publication of the Council for Learning Disabilities and Pro-Ed, Inc. For subscription you can go to Pro-Ed, Inc. The issues last fall focused on English language learners (ELLs) and the current issue volume 41, Number 4 has the following article of interest “Using Dynamic Assessment to Evaluate Children with Suspected Learning Disabilities” by Barbara Moore-Brown, Maria Huerta, Yvana Uranga-Hernandez, and Elizabeth D. Pena. In addition Alfredo Artiles and Beth Harry are interviewed on “Issues of Overrepresentation and Education Equity for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students.
For the Discovering IDEA/Descubramos IDEA video go to the Council for Exceptional Children website products’ link or you can call1-888-232-7733.
Council for Learning Disabilities
The Council for Exceptional Children and their practitioner publication “Teaching Exceptional Children” can be found at http://journals.sped.org/. Access to this journal is free and the following link has 4 great articles on Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children and Language of Instruction is very informative the links are as follows:
Brice (2001) http://journals.sped.org/ec/archive_articles/VOL.33NO.4MARAPR2001_TEC_Article2.pdf
Articles (2005)
http://journals.sped.org/ec/archive_articles/VOLUME71NUMBER3Spring2005_EC_Artiles71-3.pdf
Salend and Salina (2003)
http://journals.sped.org/ec/archive_articles/VOL.35NO.4MARAPR2003_TEC_Article-6.pdf
Schoen and Schoen (2003)
http://journals.sped.org/ec/archive_articles/VOL.35NO.3JANFEB2003_TEC_Article%202.pdf
Montgomery (2001).
http://journals.sped.org/ec/archive_articles/VOL.33NO.4MARAPR2001_TEC_Article1.pdf
The also have a practitioner version of called Teaching Exceptional Children Plus which you might also enjoy.
I do hope you enjoy these resources and research articles on ELL students with academic difficulties. If you have any links to add or you would like to comment feel free to respond to this message. It is important to grow our community and the available resources. Again thank you and I hope you find these resources helpful.
I will be posting the presentation within a week or two so stay tune by registering with the RSS feed which will let you know when new postings are up and don’t forget to visit the other posting available.
Claudia
The following curriculum guide developed by Professor Maria Estela Brisk at Boton College provides an in depth primer for all school professionals on the ways to help ELL students. Some of the content of this guide include:
Our present national need
Generational differences of ELL students coming into your classoom
What can I do my first days in the classroom? How do I identify ELLs?
Determining levels of ELL (L2) development
Checking out the cumulative records of ELLs
How can I support ELLs language development in my class?
How does language affect the content areas?
How can I teach content, so ELL develop concepts?
What does effective teaching for ELLs look like?
Culturally responsive teaching
The SIOP model
Myths
What about Special Needs ELLs? Overrepresentation, Legal Precedents, and Evaluation
What about assessing ELLs? Federal Regulations
Assessing Academic Oral Language
Assessing ELL Content Knowledge
What about English only?
What if I don’t speak parents’ or students’ first language?
What should I do when students speak to each other in another language?
How can I find …….
To access information on this project go to www.bc.edu/title3all
To acces this document as a PDF files go to http://www.bc.edu/schools/lsoe/title-iii/resources/manuals/
Let me know your thoughts!
The National Association for Bilingual Education just launch their new practitioner journal “Language Learner”. You can access the whole issue at http://www.nabe.org/documents/NABENews/Introducing_LL.pdf
Articles titles include:
Improving Achievement for ELLs Through Sheltered Instruction and
Dual Language Essentials: Meeting the Goals of the Year of Languages
It looks very promising!!!
The following website- an effort of the the Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory at Brown University, the National Bilingual Association and Boston College provides a short listing of quality programs for bilingual learners with direct links to read more on their websites. It includes information from around the nation. Good resource!!!
If you have more schools help me increase the list by postingo n this blog
http://www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/pos/
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One other program here in Boston, MA is the Joseph Hurley School which is highly supported by a strong parent association http://www.discoverhurley.org/faq.php
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In Miami, FL the Coral Way Elementary School has also been idetified as a success story in Bilingualism and Biliteracy!
http://coralwayelementary.dadeschools.net/index2.html
This posting has to do with the recent article I wrote for the Council for Children with Behavior Disorders (CCBD) newsletter. The articles gives a brief explanation of what weblogs are and a summary of relevant weblogs in our field. I would really welcome responses of new weblogs you find relevant to mild disabilities, bilingual education, bilingual special education or any related topic.
You can find the CCBD newsletter at:
click here
Access Vol 18,No. 6 July 2005
Disability or language difference?
The purpose of this education blog is to create a forum for information, discussion, and projects on the evaluation and academic practices of school professionals serving Latino/Hispanic children having difficulties in school.