Understandings Why do some English language learners succeed while others struggle?

This is a question many teachers with a high percentage of English learners ask themselves. We can all give reasons based on experience and assumptions. Some students lack motivation, some lack basic skills to move forward with more complicated concepts, some lack sufficient parent involvement; the list goes on and on. The moment I stepped into a bilingual classroom twelve years ago to earn hours for a service-learning project, I became determined to do what I could to help students learning English as a second language succeed. The number of English language learners in elementary schools has been growing steadily over the past 25 years. According to the National Center for Education Services the number of students who speak a language other than English at home or who spoke English with difficulty grew by 124 percent between 1979 and 2003 (Flynn and Hill, 2005). This number is expected to grow to over 40 percent of elementary and secondary students by 2030 (Thomas & Collier 2001). California has one of the highest ELL populations in the country. With the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) ELL students make up their own subgroup, thereby affecting the annual yearly progress of individual schools (Flynn and Hill, 2005). The high stakes attached to test results have forced many districts to reexamine their ELD (English Language Development) curriculum and the qualifications of their staff to address the needs of this population of students. Despite the increasing focus on how to support English language learners, the achievement gap between Hispanic and White students persists. In a report on achievement gaps titled How Hispanic and White Students in Public Schools

Perform in Mathematics and Reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Hemphill and Vanneman found that, From 2007 to 2009, scores of Hispanic and White fourth graders in the nation did not change significantly, and there was also no significant change in the gap. (2011, p. iv) According to The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the national average for English Language Arts is a 35-point difference between White and Hispanic students (Hemphill and Vanneman, 2011). Statistics like these are what fuel my desire to change my current practice to one that allows all students to achieve. Clearly the traditional set-up of most elementary classrooms, with the teacher as the keeper of knowledge and the students as the receivers of that knowledge is not only outdated, but also flawed. Fuchs, Mathes, and Simmons in their article on peer-assisted learning strategies stated that, What is needed, we are told, is a decentering of the teaching and learning process: a restructuring, or a loosening of that straitjacketed nature of traditional classrooms (1997, p. 178). They go on to say that peer tutoring is one of the most effective and popular decentering strategies. Peer tutoring allows students to take greater responsibility for their learning instead of passively receiving information from the teacher. Students are allowed the opportunity to reconstruct knowledge and share what theyve learned with a partner. Advocates of this strategy report increased retention of material and improved reading comprehension. During my teaching career, in my own classroom practice and in observing peers, I have not seen this type of purposeful collaboration amongst students. Certainly students work with partners, but it doesnt appear to be a structured or reciprocal process.

Understanding Reciprocal Peer Tutoring Peer tutoring is not a new concept. Before public schools opened in the early 18th and 19th century, Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, British educators, created similar methods of peer tutoring. What came to be known as the BellLancaster method or Monitorial System consisted of a more advanced student teaching a less advanced student. The outcome of this popular method was that class sizes could be increased since the students could share the burden of instruction. As public schools began to open, this method lost its popularity as teaching became more professionalized. Interest in peer tutoring returned in the late 1960s in the United States, due to concerns of underachieving poor and minority students. Several different methods of peer tutoring have emerged, however they all have decidedly similar structures. Class Wide Peer Tutoring (CWPT) was developed during the early 1980s at the Juniper Gardens Children's Project at the University of Kansas. Students work in pairs to practice concepts previously taught by the teacher. They take turns in roles of tutor and tutee. Students read a passage and ask each other questions based on predetermined skills to be practiced. They receive immediate feedback form their peer tutor and earn points for correct answers (What Works Clearinghouse, 2007). PALS (Peer Assisted Learning Strategies) is a structured peer-tutoring program. Dr. Lynn Fuchs and Dr. Doug Fuchs developed it in 1989. PALS is meant to work alongside adopted curriculum, not as a stand-alone reading program. Students work in pairs with one student as the player

and one student as the coach. They earn points and trade off positions. Student pairs are made up of a higher-achieving student and a lowerachieving student. Students take turns reading and predicting text and earn points for correct answers (What Works Clearinghouse, 2012). Reciprocal Peer Tutoring is an intervention strategy combining selfmanagement methods, group interdependent reward contingencies, and reciprocal peer teaching to promote academic and social competency" (Fantuzzo & Rohrbeck, 1992, p. 3). Similar to PALS, students work in pairs and alternate between roles of tutor and tutee. The tutoring session is very structured, with prompts and answers that the students use to guide each other. For example, the tutor will ask the tutee a question from the text and if the answer is correct, they will praise the tutee. If the answer is incorrect, the tutor will read from a script to offer structured help to the tutee. The students switch roles after 10 minutes and continue working for another 10 minutes. Initially, I thought peer-tutoring strategies were the answer to my question of how to help close the achievement gap amongst my students. Now Im not sure thats the case. If I were to follow the scripts and prompts that the previously mentioned methods used, would they really encourage students to internalize collaboration techniques and begin to offer meaningful feedback? I need something more authentic, something that creates a culture of students working together in a symbiotic way. In addition, when I began researching peer-tutoring strategies, I had my fourth graders in mind. I was hoping to find something that would help me

manage many levels of learners and encourage cooperative learning during literacy. However, now that I am teaching in a Kindergarten DLI class, my focus has changed. I realized quickly after the first few weeks of school that the strategies I had hoped to use would likely be more appropriate later in the year. I really needed to lay the groundwork for behavior expectations and allow students to get used to being in a class where Spanish is the target language. Compaeros: My Experience with Peer Collaboration My first four years of teaching were in fourth grade at a bilingual visual and performing arts magnet school. Classes were made up of 50% native Spanish speakers and 50% native English speakers. This was an Alternative Bilingual program, meaning that the ultimate goal was for English learners to be transitioned into an English only class by fifth grade. In Kindergarten, non-native speakers received 90% of their instruction in Spanish and 10% in English. The percentages continued to shift by 10% until fourth grade when the curriculum was 50/50. After fourth grade, students who had not met the qualifications for transition, continued to receive ELD instruction, but no longer received native language support. Native English speaking students received all of their instruction in English, with the exception of two 45-minute SLD (Spanish language development) classes per week. The aim of these SLD classes was to introduce students to a foreign language and not for them to become biliterate. One of the things I liked best about the program, aside from the integration of the arts into the curriculum, was that students were partnered with a compaero. Theses pairs were made up of a native English speaker and a native Spanish speaker. They sat together in class and worked together when we went to our visual and performing arts classes. There was not a set structure to their

partnership, as in peer tutoring. As I look back, I realize that this was a missed opportunity. Students could have been working collaboratively and reflecting on their progress. This is what I hoped to achieve in my year of action research. I wanted to create time and space for this type of collaboration. As I researched reciprocal collaboration, I kept coming back to my experience in bilingual education as a possible way for students to benefit equally as they learn each others native language. Students in any type of bilingual program are exposed to a different language and culture to some extent. Conversely, mainstream English programs focus on proficiency in English and typically do little to maintain the English learners first language. My personal experience learning a second language has brought me to the conclusion that when all students are faced with a similar challenge, in this case learning each others native language, they start to see each other as resources. As bilingual educators we need to capitalize on this and create structures that allow for this to happen in a meaningful and sustainable way where both groups benefit. However, in the alternative bilingual program at my previous school, native English speaking students attended Spanish classes while English language learners attended ELD classes. They were not learning language together. The ultimate goal of the program was proficiency in English for native Spanish speakers, not biliteracy for all. Since my ultimate goal was to create opportunities for reciprocal learning amongst my students, I began to explore other programs. In the summer of 2012, I decided to take a Kindergarten position at Capri Elementary in their Dual Language Immersion program.

Capri is one of two schools in my school district with a Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program. In a DLI program, classes are made up of 50% native English speakers (NES) and 50% native Spanish speakers (NSS). Our program is whats known as a 90/10 program. Starting in Kindergarten 90% of the curriculum is taught in Spanish and 10% in English. The percentages shift by 10% until fourth through sixth grade when the curriculum is split 50/50 between both languages. In Kindergarten we keep a strict one teacher, one language policy, meaning I only speak Spanish in front of my students. Native Spanish speakers and native speakers of other languages, receive leveled ELD instruction four days a week. The native English speakers in the DLI program also receive four days a week of English instruction, where the focus is on reinforcing some of the concepts we are teaching in Spanish, but not on teaching reading and writing until second grade. The ultimate goal of the DLI program is for students to become bilingual and biliterate by the end of sixth grade. Creating Opportunities for Students to Work Collaboratively It has been my experience that native English speakers dominate class discussions. As I stated earlier, all of my teaching experience has been in classes with 50% native and 50% non-native English speakers. In their book titled, Content-Area Conversations, Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey and Carol Rothenberg, discuss the importance of classroom talk. They cited several research studies that found in classrooms with higher poverty levels, students were given less opportunity to talk. Also, in classrooms with a high percentage of low achieving students, teachers spoke 80% of the time. While in classrooms with more high achieving students, the number was more equal at 55%. In addition they observed that English language learners in many classrooms were asked easier

questions or no questions at all and thus rarely had to talk in the classroom (Fisher, Rothenberg, and Frey, 2008). I have been guilty of this in my own classroom. By trying to be helpful and understanding of my students individual language acquisition timeline, I have unintentionally fostered a community of English language learners that dont have a significant voice in our classroom. In order to create an opportunity for student voice to be more balanced in my classroom and for students to work collaboratively in a meaningful way, I have researched several protocols used to engage students in conversations that push their thinking. Response Protocol: This protocol is meant for teachers to extend English language learners classroom interactions. Initially, the protocol can be used whole group to encourage students to broaden and extend their responses with help from the teachers probing questions. The strategies can then be used in peer collaboration to help students push each others thinking. Some general guidelines for the Response Protocol help to ensure maximum participation: using a class roster to keep track of students contributions, practice and value behaviors that encourage students to participate (smile, nodding your head, move closer, eye contact), accept partial answers while modeling more elaborate grammatically correct answers, and use probing questions to follow-up and extend students thinking. Using the response protocol in my class helped encourage the use of Spanish by both groups of students. It also gave me a way to keep track of which students were speaking and how much Spanish was being spoken. I liked that it includes modeling of correct grammar and probing questions. Kathryn

Lindholm-Leary noted in her review of best practices in Dual Language Education Programs, promoting highly proficient oral language skills necessitates providing both structured and unstructured opportunities for oral production. It also necessitates establishing and enforcing a strong language policy in the classroom that encourages students to use the instructional language and discourages students from speaking the non-instructional language (2005, p. 17) Cooperative Learning: According to Johnson, Johnson and Holubec in their book Circles of Learning (1984), there are five essential components that make cooperative learning successful: Positive Interdependence - Students must feel a connection to the rest of the group or their partner, and a responsibility to do well. I tried to achieve this through friendship and community building activities. In our community meetings we discussed qualities of a good friend and brainstormed specific things we could do that helped encourage these qualities. Face-to-Face Promotive Interaction Students explain concepts learned to one another and share connections made. During interactive writing time students shared their work with their compaero as a way to slowly get them to begin to talk to each other in Spanish. Through more directed scripted talk they were eventually ready to share and explain concepts they learned.

Individual Accountability Students must take individual responsibility and not rely solely on their group or partner to contribute. Since my focus was on the reciprocity of the compaero relationship, it was essential that students realized they were an important part of our classroom community. Again during our class meetings, I emphasized the importance of working together with their compaero to solve problems and finish activities.

Social Skills Students must be taught explicitly how to work effectively with others, through trust-building activities, conflict resolution strategies and specific protocols for stepping up and stepping back. Many of the friendship building activities I planned helped students learn how to relate to each other in the classroom. Compaeros practiced phrases to use when asking for help or sharing materials.

Group Processing Students must give each other feedback on how they perceive each member is participating and offer suggestions for improvement. They need to check in with each other periodically to ensure that everyone is doing their part (Johnson, Johnson and Holubec 1984). After students finished an activity with their compaero, we reconvened as a class and reflected on what went well and where there was room for improvement. I also had students model correct behaviors and incorrect behaviors. For example, if we were working on pair reading, a correct example would be to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with your partner and lean in to listen. An incorrect example would be sitting far away or not following along as they read.

After reading about different protocols, I combined the best aspects of all of them into a hybrid of collaborative peer talk. Over the past year, I have been more tuned in to the needs of my students, how they interact with each other and how I respond to their struggles. I feel an immense sense of responsibility to create a classroom culture where students value each others opinions and one where they grow as collaborators. I found that students began to seek out help from their compaeros and they began to feel more comfortable offering help. Changing grade levels and programs prompted me to re-evaluate which collaboration protocols would be most effective and appropriate. Since the goal of the DLI program is biliteracy, an essential component of any protocol is the emphasis on using the target language, Spanish. While looking into best practices for Dual Language instruction, cooperative learning emerged as a recurrent theme. Through my research, I found when students with different backgrounds work together on common objectives their attitudes towards each other become more positive. However, research also showed that the social value of Spanish has the risk of diminishing as students progress through elementary school. This was surprising to me. I would have thought that the social value of Spanish would increase in a program that has a goal of biliteracy. In a research study about student attitudes towards biliteracy, Dr. Linda Gerena (2010) found that although most students had positive attitudes towards Spanish when they started school, English succeeded in becoming the more valued language by both native English speakers and native Spanish speakers. The study was conducted with first and second graders in a DLI program in a suburban school, where 55% of the students were Spanish dominant and 45% of the students were English

dominant. Gerena states that the results of the study seem to indicate that, The older and more cognizant of the larger educational community children are, the less social value they place on the use of Spanish(2010, p.68). I have felt the same thing throughout my career in education. When I taught fourth grade, I can remember numerous occasions where Spanishspeaking parents would come to me concerned that their son or daughter would no longer speak to them in Spanish. I recall having parent teacher conferences with Spanish speaking parents where I would have to translate into English for the student, because they were no longer as fluent in Spanish. I wondered if the problem of Spanish loosing its social value persists even in a DLI program that strives to promote equality for both languages and cultures. And if so, what can I do to help ensure this doesnt happen in my own classroom and at our school? Dual Language Immersion Benefits & Challenges While working on my action research I have kept in mind some of the common challenges unique to Dual Immersion Programs. Although the assumption is that having an even mix of native English speaking students and native Spanish speaking students will create a reciprocal learning environment where students act as language models for one another, this is not always the case. Delgado-Larocco (1998) found that while Spanish-speaking children were acting as translators for their English-speaking peers, thereby demonstrating knowledge of both languages, the teachers' response did not acknowledge this accomplishment. She wrote: "Translations had the possibility of placing the SNSs (Spanish native speakers) in leadership roles, yet they primarily served the functions of safeguarding ENSs' (English native speakers) participation in the lesson

and maintaining a smooth pace to the lessons...Although questions often placed SNSs in a modeling role, their function was not necessarily to boost the SNSs' self-concept, but one of providing a service for the English native speakers and/or the teacher" (1998, p. 319). In other words, although Spanish speakers were showing leadership by translating, the teachers focus was on ensuring the English native speakers understood the lesson and were able to participate. In my first few weeks of teaching Kindergarten in the DLI program, I often relied on Spanish speakers to translate for non-native speakers. As I read more, I realized it was important to allow native English speakers to acquire Spanish through authentic interactions with their classmates and not rely so much on translations. It is also important to acknowledge the accomplishments of the Spanish speakers to build their selfconcept. Delgado offers many suggestions for DLI teachers and administrators to help encourage an equal status of both languages. Educating parents about the overall goals of the DLI program is a first step. She goes on to suggest that perhaps English speaking parents could attend Spanish classes, so their children could see that they also value becoming bilingual themselves. Spanish speaking parents should be educated about the importance of maintaining Spanish and reading to their children in Spanish. Efforts should also be made to bring these two groups of parents together to discuss the goals they have in common for their children. Through my conversations with colleagues that teach in the DLI, working to maintain an equal status for both languages is something that teachers keep in mind as native English speakers begin to surpass their native Spanish speaking

peers academically as years go by. Teachers have told me that it is not uncommon for native English speakers to dominate classroom discussions as early as Kindergarten. As I worked towards creating situations where my students worked together cooperatively, I kept this information in mind and evaluated ways to encourage a more balanced classroom. In a study titled Effects of an Elementary Dual Language Immersion School Program on Junior High School Achievement(2005) the researchers sought out to measure how DLI programs influence the academic performance of native and non-native speakers of English. They hoped to find that both NES (native English speakers) and NSS (native Spanish speakers) whod attended DLI programs since Kindergarten would achieve better overall in sixth and seventh grade as compared to similar students in a traditional elementary school with an English as a Second Language program for English learners. The study found there was no negative impact academically of the DLI program and that the program was moderately beneficial for English language learners. An added benefit is that students overall felt that being bilingual helped them think better and challenged them more than a traditional elementary program. English speaking parents felt that exposing students to cultures different than their own was an important benefit. Spanish speaking parents were happy students were maintaining their native language and culture. After reading several studies by Dr. Lindholm-Leary, an expert in the field of bilingual education who has published the most comprehensive studies of bilingual programs in the United States, I found that an effective Dual Immersion program is the best model for English language learners to maintain their primary language, as well as the most effective second language immersion

model for native English speakers. Through a study conducted in 2003, Lindholm-Leary found that bilingual students reach higher levels of academic achievement and cognitive functioning than their monolingual counterparts. In an article titled, The Rich Promise of Two-Way Immersion(2004), she points out six factors for a successful DLI program. 1. School Environment: The staff and administration should share a common vision for the program and have specific goals for student achievement. In schools with a DLI program and a traditional program, it is important for non-DLI teachers to be supportive and knowledgeable about the bilingual program. This has been a challenge at my school. The DLI program has been the preferred program of parents, and this preference has created tension between the two groups of teachers. 2. Curriculum and Instruction: Language instruction should be integrated across the curriculum and should equally reflect the culture of the students. Students should have the opportunity to practice both languages academically and socially. In my own classroom it has been challenging to get to students to speak Spanish during unstructured time. In general, if a NSS and a NES are playing together, English is the dominant language. However, during structured activities most students will speak at least some Spanish. 3. Program Planning: A strong program-planning process should include proper scope, sequence, and alignment with developmentally appropriate practices and language proficiency in both languages. (Lindholm-Leary, 2004, p. 57) DLI programs are structured so that

during the first few years students are immersed in Spanish 90% of the time. Formal reading and writing instruction in English does not happen until second grade and even then its only 30% of the instructional time. Students should receive 50% of their instruction in Spanish and 50% in English by fourth grade and continue 50/50 through sixth grade. In order for students to become proficient in both languages, teachers must plan across grade levels to ensure that needed skills are being taught in order to prepare students for the next grade. 4. Assessment and Accountability: Multiple measures should be used in both languages to ensure that students are meeting grade level goals. At the first DLI teacher meeting I attended, we discussed the lack of a scope and sequence across grade levels in the bilingual program. We are at the beginning stages of creating grade level goals. The challenge has been a lack of across grade level collaboration and specific direction from past administration. Our school has had five principals over the past nine years, so the directives have varied substantially. 5. Teacher Quality and Familiarity with Bilingual Education: Teachers should understand instructional strategies specific to bilingual education, such as education equity and second language development. Teachers should be fluent in both English and Spanish. 6. Family Involvement: Parents from both groups of students should be involved in school activities and feel welcome at the school. Englishspeaking parents should not dominate parent advisory groups to the exclusion of non English-proficient parents. (Lindholm-Leary, 2004, p.

58) This has been a challenge at Capri. Our current DLI parent advisory group is overwhelmingly made up of native English speaking parents. The principal is aware of this inequity and is making strides towards creating a more equitable group. However, this type of inequity has been an issue since the program started. Keeping in mind the risk of students eventually devaluing the use of Spanish, I recalled the distinct difference between how students act at home and school. Last year, I had a native Spanish-speaking student in my fourth class who had been struggling academically for the past few years. I had given her all of the usual beginning of the year benchmark tests and she scored about one grade level behind. She was a shy student who got anxious about taking tests. Her mom wanted her to begin working with a tutor at home, so I recommended a friend who had worked as a special education teacher. The tutor administered similar assessments at the students home to check her fluency, comprehension and overall reading ability. I was surprised when the tutor shared the results with me. My student scored at grade level, was relaxed during the assessments and even said she enjoyed them! I have read about students in DLI programs, where the equality of both languages is stressed and students are provided positive role models within the school who value Spanish and the students cultures, yet still eventually the students began to devalue Spanish. I am left wondering how to create a space where students and parents maintain these values outside of school and through the grades.