Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services
ISBN: ISBN 0-9727507-9-7
Publication Date: February 2007
Do you worry about distinguishing between learning disabilities and language difficulties among ELLs who are having academic difficulties? Historically in the United States, there has been a tendency to refer English language learners (ELLs) inappropriately to special education.
This has led to the overidentification of ELLs as having special education needs and a disproportionate representation of ELLs in special education. With the growing popularity of Response to Intervention (RTI), unnecessary referrals to special education can be avoided.
This handbook helps you apply the principles of RTI to ELLs. It shows how to create school-based teams that include ESL/bilingual specialists, special education specialists, and other professionals who collectively have the expertise needed to explore factors that influence an ELL’s response to intervention, and then develop culturally and linguistically appropriate RTI systems. These factors include personal and family factors, physical and psychological factors, previous schooling, oral language and literacy development, academic achievement, and cultural differences. The authors provide tools and strategies that teams can use to assess the nature of the ELLs’ learning difficulty, collaborate in service provision, create a continuum of interventions, and measure the ELLs’ response to those interventions.
Price: $34.95
TABLE OF CONTENTS [ click to expand ]
2. A Collaborative Model of Information Gathering and Service Provision
3. Describing Before Diagnosing: Observation of Specific Difficulties that ELLs May Encounter
4. Delivering a Continuum of Services
5. The Learning Environment Created for ELLs
6. Personal and Family Factors
7. Physical and Psychological Factors
8. Previous Schooling Factors
9. Oral Language and Literacy Development Factors
10. Academic Achievement Factors
11. Cultural Difference Factors
12. Putting It All Together
WHAT REVIEWERS ARE SAYING [ click to expand ]
Nancy Cloud
From the Foreword
Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners is the true integration of best practice from the fields of bilingual, multicultural, second language and special education. It is a research-based approach that provides the reader with a step-by-step process for serving all English language learners effectively from minute one. Grounded in the paradigm of ecological assessment, the authors detail the essential information that needs to be gathered and the means of doing so that educators can accurately differentiate between second language development and learning difference. Yet, even more importantly, all the while practitioners will be able to deliver responsive interventions to their learners by following the instructive advice they provide.
Hamayan, Marler, Sanchez-Lopez & Damico’s deep knowledge of each of seven learner factors that must be addressed is evident throughout the book, and they truly break new ground in their rich discussions of physical and psychological factors, previous schooling factors, and cultural and linguistic factors that affect student performance. These chapters offer sound guidance about how to conduct comprehensive assessments as well as how to offer effective, research-based intervention to at-risk students. This is precisely what has been missing in the field—sound and comprehensive pedagogy for English Language Learners who experience learning difficulties.
I highly recommend this volume to school-based, collaborative decision-making and intervention-focused teams who wish to truly inform their practice and achieve the goal of serving learners fully and well. The many useful tools and resources offered for assessment and the templates and instructional guidelines offered to plan responsive interventions will produce satisfactory outcomes for learners. Each chapter of this welcome resource will engender productive and meaningful conversations among school-based practitioners and the actions teams will collectively take stemming from those discussions will lead naturally to the delivery of a rich continuum of services for all English Language Learners.
Adrienne Johnson
Retrieved from www.mabemi.org/eresources.html
For teachers and administrators who strive to meet the unique needs of English language learners (ELLs), Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services (2007) is an invaluable resource. Not only do the authors thoroughly examine the possible causes of academic difficulties for English language learners, they also identify and correct second language learner myths and provide examples of best practices in teaching these learners. The authors bring a variety of expertise to their book in order to highlight the importance of assessing ELLs using a variety of methods and information gathering techniques… Together, these authors have created a book that gives teachers and administrators the tools and strategies they need to assess ELL’s learning difficulties, implement and monitor effective interventions and create a school or district-based intervention team to assist in the information gathering process.
Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners is an essential resource for teachers and I would highly recommend it to both experienced bilingual educators and those who are interested in working with ELLs. As a literacy coach for a bilingual program who assists teachers in meeting the needs of their students, I must make informed decisions to help students who are experiencing academic difficulties. Unfortunately, there is often an uncertainty among educators involved in helping the students as to the causes of the academic difficulties. While there are a number of resources available for bilingual education in general, this book is among the first of its kind that specifically addresses the relationship between second language learning and special education. More importantly, it provides a strong reminder that student difficulties are often caused by programmatic, or system-wide faults, rather than deficits within the students themselves.
I highly recommend Hamayan, Marler, Sanchez Lopez and Damico’s book to any educator who wishes to be a well-informed about effective programming for English language learners, and believe it should be required reading for administrators, school psychologists and other members of special education evaluation teams.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS [ click to expand ]
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Else Hamayan Else Hamayan is a psychologist, language education consultant, and former Director of the Illinois Resource Center in Des Plaines. She advises teachers and administrators across the nation and internationally on issues of second language learning, special education, culture learning, biliteracy, and dual language instruction. She is co-author of Dual Language Instruction: A Handbook for Enriched Education (with Nancy Cloud and Fred Genesee), Limiting Bias in the Assessment of Bilingual Students (with Jack Damico), and co-editor of English Language Learners at School: A Guide for Administrators (with Rebecca Freeman). |
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Barbara Marler Barbara Marler is an education specialist for the Illinois Resource Center in Arlington Heights, IL. She has 26 years of experience as an administrator, teacher, trainer, and consultant. Barb has dedicated her career to developing appropriate interventions for ELLs experiencing difficulties at school. |
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Cristina Sanchez Lopez Cristina Sanchez-Lopez is an education specialist for the Illinois Resource Center in Arlington Heights, IL. She collaborates with educators in the US and Canada on the ELL/LD interface, middle school mathematics, literacy across the content areas, parent involvement, and supporting Pre-K educators who serve ELLs. Cristina has taught at the elementary, middle, and university levels in the US and Mexico. |
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Jack Damico Jack Damico is the Doris B. Hawthorne Eminent Scholar in Special Education and Comunication Disorders at the University of Lousiana-Lafayette where he teaches graduate level courses, conducts research, and writes in a number of areas related to language, social interaction, and learning in both children and adults. Dr. Damico, an ASHA Fellow, is author or editor of more than 90 publications. He has also received numerous awards for his scholarly and practical contributions to the field. |