One of the biggest challenges that educators deal with today is serving students who are learning English and who may have a learning disability. In this interview I share some strategies that educators can use when addressing this concern– do this child have a disability or it just part of the process of learning English– read more
at http://www.edc.org/newsroom/articles/intersection_sped_and_ell
Hi Everyone here is information directly from the the national spelling bee organization on the bilingual spelling bee. Please share it with your schools:
Spelling Bee Goes Bilingual
CONTACT:
David Briseño
(505) 238 6812
nmabe@suddenlink.net
Albuquerque to Host Second Annual Santillana National Spanish Spelling Bee
ALBUQUERQUE, 7/17/2012:
The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will host the Second Annual Santillana National Spanish Spelling Bee on July 21, 2012.
The Second Annual National Spanish Spelling Bee is again being organized by the New Mexico Association for Bilingual Education (NMABE) and the Alliance for Multilingual Multicultural Education (AMME). The Bee is modeled after NMABE’s annual state Spanish Spelling Bee, which has been held in New Mexico since 1994. David Briseño, executive director of NMABE, is leading the effort with the assistance of a local planning group.
The event offers the opportunity for all Spanish-speaking kids across the nation, be they mother-tongue speakers or children who are learning the language, to showcase their command of Spanish spelling.
This year’s event will bring together 19 students from 7 states to compete for the honor of being the Santillana National Spanish Bee champion. “We have grown a little from last year’s event,” stated Briseño. “We have either more students participating this year from 7 states. That is up from the four states represented last year.” The 19 students will come from the states of California, Colorado, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Oregon.
Although Spanish is considered a “morphophonemic” language in which it is relatively easy to spell, the Spanish Bee challenges native and non-native speakers alike to excel in important academic arenas within the language arts. Beyond the act of actually spelling, Spanish diacritical marks are also a challenge for students. It is much more than just memorizing spellings.
As contestants prepare for the National Bee, they accrue valuable skills for academic learning. For example, they develop dictionary skills as they look up definitions, building greater understanding of the language. Word origins are also analyzed, and since thousands of Spanish words come from Greek, Latin and Arabic, the contestants increase their lexical repertoire which helps in many areas of study, such as math, science, literature, etc. Finally, Spelling Bees not only validate and give equity to the Spanish language, but also contribute greatly to the development of a positive self-image for the contestants.
For more information contact David Briseño at nmabe@suddenlink.net or visit www.nationalspanishspellingbee.com
This recent article by the National High Schools Center looked at Early Warning Indicators (EWI) of English language learners to identify graduation trends for these students. Edweek has published a recent article on this report and it highlights :
1. How well 9th graders perform in their courses predict whether they will graduate– more telling that their English language profiency.
2. Grade point average
3. Attendance
These 3 indicators can accurately predict the high likely of dropping out of high school. As part of a multi-tier system of support (MTSS) or an Response to Intervention (RTI) model we can used this information to provide a strong core that engages students and keep them coming and completing their work at Tier 1 level. It can also serve to identify Tier 2 and Tier 3 needs and interventions so that they can perform in their courses and be successful in 9th grade thus increasing the probability that will graduate. This is a great link between this two frameworks with promising practices for teachers and administrators.
Here is a link to the article in Ed Week
This week I would like to highlight two resources on Dual Language Education:
1. Ed Week’s Section on Dual Language Education by Leslie A. Maxwell. This webpage summarizes current research on dual language education programs better known as two-way bilingual education programs where 50% of students are English dominant and 50% are Spanish dominant (or other language) and the curriculum is provide equally in both languages. This webpage has videos, articles, and latest research on the benefits of this type of education programs that is on the rise in the US (it seems silly to say this part as Europe works very much this way and kids learn more than 2 language most of the time). In the latest post you can see a video of a program in CA where children experience literacy activities in Spanish and English. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning-the-language/2012/04/a_look_inside_a_dual_language.html
2. Diary of a Bilingual School is the second resource I am highlighting this week. The book is an account of a dual language program over a year. In their description, “the book focuses on Chicago’s Inter-American Magnet School, one of the nation’s most acclaimed dual immersion programs, where children thrive in an environment that unlocks their intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. Simultaneously, without conscious effort, they become proficient in two languages and at home in a culture that differs from their own”. Its free on Kindle this week -click here to access
This New York Times article by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee provides a summary of a variety of research evidence on the benefits of bilingualism. The author summarizes research benefits in young children and the elderly and provides a new way to see bilingualism as an edge! Benefits include:
Better cognitive skills in general
Better/improved executive functioning
Larger vocabulary
Shielding from Dementia and Alzheimers
Stimulating on the areas of the brains that improves functioning not seen in monolinguals
Speed in processing and shielding of distractions
Increased ability to monitor the environment
This is a great must read!
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html
In this post I would like to describe what is SMART RTI and the latest research from its authors as to how to continue improving RTI in school district and schools.
As I sat in my office this morning, I opened the most recent issue of the special education journal Exceptional Children and found SMART RTI!
According to the authors, SMART RTI is like SMART phones, cars or houses, which are using information oriented enhancements to make these tools work better and more efficiently–in Response to Intervention (RTI) this is an opportunity to look at the “Next Generation” approach to Multilevel prevention frameworks.
What is SMART RTI (or how I like to call it SmRTI?)
Fuchs, Fuchs, and Compton (2012) in their most recent article SMART RTI: A Next Generation Approach to Multilevel Prevention- explain that as districts and schools address the issue of RTI and the time and cost of resources for implementation they should also be thinking “out of the box” to improve the implementation of the model/framework. In their redesign of RTI their overall message recommends the following features:
1. Having multi- stage screening processed versus a 1 universal screening tool to determine the needed level of intervention (investment upfront with the hope of less false-positives).
2. Having Tier 3 or tertiary prevention that integrated data-based program modification with meaningful access to the curriculum, and clear explanation of movement across tiers inherent in student IEPs– for students with disabilities.
The authors make a great point in explaining the current limitations of RTI in districts and schools today, and offer new ideas that allow RTI to expand its ability to meet the needs of all students. The authors believe that primary (Tier 1) and secondary prevention (Tier 2) benefits from data-based problem solving and standard protocols practices but that we need “experimental” instruction in the tertiary interventions. Does this mean that Tier 3 is special education? No, I believe in their article the authors are talking about the unique needs of students with disabilities and how their needs will be met across the level of tiers recognizing that they will need tertiary interventions (Tier 3) that should be handled by special education teachers. At this point, special education teacher evaluate “meaningful” access to the general curriculum and wage it against the student’s current level of performance in designing instruction, but the authors don’t address the rest of the population of students who may at times need Tier 3 level of supports– students who are English language learners and low achievers in general, or students with emotional behavioral disorders.
The authors call for SMART RTI is welcome and critical at this point when districts and schools are hitting walls in time, resources, and the number of students who are not responding. We need to support this effort to move forward and to continue the current gains we have made to close the silos of education in practice. RTI has required by design that Offices of Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction, English Language Learners/Bilingual Education, and others collaborate; it has required that regular education, special education teachers and support personnel sit at the table and work together like never before to support all learners because of its ccles of progress monitoring, and its also made principals and headmasters become instructional leaders and consumers of data – we don’t want this to go away we want to make it more effective!
The article can be found at the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) in its premier publication Exceptional Children. Reference: Fuchs, D., Fuchs, L, Compton, D. (2012) SMART RTI: Next Generation Approach to Multilevel Prevention, Exceptional Children, 78(3), 23-279.
This newest article on how to keep a second language alive offers some good ideas for children and adults to engage in activities that will support and grow a second language that is not used very much—http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201202/keeping-language-alive
Coincidently, this week I had a conversation with one of the schools I work with on strategies to engage students who are learning in two languages to use the non-dominant language in this case monolingual English speakers learning Spanish in an English only dominant culture– and we came up with some great ideas with the help of our star intern Kelley!
1. Engage college students who studied abroad in the language in question to continue to develop their skills with students who know the language
2. Link with professionals or exchange students to read books to students via Skype in the language in question from the country that speaks the language itself
3. Identify schools in other countries that can build pen pals (epals.com- helpful website), if students don’t write yet, perhaps the teachers can do the Skypeing into each others classrooms
4. Identify volunteers, including parents, in the community where the children come from that can read or play board games in the language in question
DO YOU HAVE ANY ADDITIONAL IDEAS? Lets get this list growing– please share
The World Has Changed: Foreign Languages Make a Huge Difference
Is the title of the article in the Huff Post World online newspaper. It presents the perspective that because English is a global language is those who are monolingual really need to know another language– great concept and so true as I sat today in a meeting at work and I am 1 of 2 bilinguals in a group of 15 people and we are an international company. Support bilingualism!
There is also a great discussion at the end of the article that you can click on. The discussion board is entitled English is Global, So Why Learn Arabic?
Status Update
By White House Initiative on Education Excellence for Hispanics
Twitter Town Hall meeting with Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012, at 3 p.m. EST. We’ll be listening to you via @HispanicEd. You can also keep up with the webpage http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/list/hispanic-initiative/index.html
Advocate, participate, aks and support!
I wanted to highlight the following article from Education Week back on October 13, 2011 print issue. The article written by Anthony Rebora provides information on the issue of overrepresentation of students of color in special education and what we can do to address the issue. He interviews some leading researchers including
Janette Klingner a professor of education at the University of Colorado and co-author of Why Are So Many Minority Students in Special Education?: Understanding Race & Disability in Schools
Edward Fergus-Arcia, deputy director of New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Urban Education
Elizabeth Kozleski, a professor at Arizona State University and a principal investigator with the Equity Alliance
H. Richard Milner IV, an associate professor of education at Vanderbilt University and the author of Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There: Understanding Diversity, Opportunity Gaps, and Teaching in Today’s Classrooms
Amanda VanDerHeyden, an education consultant and researcher
Claudia Rinaldi(myself 
. Assistant Director of the Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative (www.urbancollaborative.org)
The author does a great job summarizing a variety of education fields working on this issue and provides solid recommendations to begin looking at the program. I hope he does a follow up article in the near future.
Here is the link:
http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2011/10/13/01disproportion.h05.html?