home

=Technology Resources that Meets the Needs of Our Diverse Population=   This research briefly explains the knowledge base on reading and RTI for ELL’s and how it provides a preliminary support for the practices related to RTI with the ELL’s population.  In implementing RTI approaches with ELL’s, one of the challenges is determining the students knowledge in their native language and their understanding in the second language (English). These students demonstrate the capacity to acquire reading skills but also require additional support to apply these skills to the acquisition of English literacy. It also states that complicating the issues related to oral language development and literacy acquisition is the learning environment in which the students’ first language is not share by others students or the lack of a proper bilingual education teacher is not provided. It also mentions that many considerations has to be involve in the decision making about screening, assessment, and intervention for ELLs.  This research also provides a guideline to encourage educators to promote effective practices related to RTI with ELLs and to acquire further knowledge and skills so that educators and parents demonstrate an improved confidence in their decision making for these students.  Several questions this reseach raises are first; **what skills must educators have to effectively implement RTI for ELLs?** It states that it is essential that educators be provided with the resources needed to support them in this process. The research provides these specific guidelines to facilitate the decision-making and to design instructional support:
 * . Provide ongoing and research-based professional development to teachers and other school personnel.
 * . The more that personnel know about the development of oral language, early literacy, students' home language, contextual considerations, and the cultural background of students, the better informed they will be in making appropriate decisions about interpreting screening and assessment results and in designing appropriate interventions.
 *  . Fully credentialed bilingual education and ESL teachers must continuously acquire new knowledge regarding best practices in bilingual education and ESL.
 * General education teachers should regularly participate in professional development focused on meeting the needs of ELLs (e.g., information about bilingual education, ESL strategies, and the cultural and linguistic characteristics that serve as assets to the academic success of ELLs).

 Other questions it proposes are; 2. Universal screenings must be conducted using native language and/or English measures that have demonstrated high validity and reliability (see the Research Institute on Progress Monitoring Web site). 3. Consider the proficiency in the target areas in the L1 of ELLs. Students highly proficient in early reading skills in L1 and low in that proficiency in L2 can be considered instructionally different from students low in proficiency in L1 and L2. 4. Provide instructional support to ELLs with low performance in reading areas even when oral language skills in English are low. Interventions should simultaneously address development of language and literacy skills in English.  1. Monitor ELLs' progress as frequently as you monitor the progress of all other students—a minimum of three times per year for students at grade level or above and three to six times per year for students at risk for reading problems. 2. When ELLs demonstrate low abilities in grade-level target skills in reading, provide research-based instruction. 3. Consider students' accents and pronunciations when scoring English measures and provide appropriate interpretations when words are mispronounced. Do not penalize students for dialect features. 4. Consider that students may be acquiring word meaning while acquiring word reading and, thus, oral reading fluency may proceed at an expected rate early (while students are focusing on word reading) and then proceed at a lower than expected rate later when students are focusing more on word meaning. In implementing the RTI tier approaches this article states that first, that setting high but reasonable instructional expectation is important in supporting language comprehension. In addition, Tier I reading instructional program will scaffold the oral language and literacy instruction in their native language and / or English. In Tier II, providing an intensive reading intervention to ELL’s that demonstrate low reading skills immediately when needed and ensuring that these interventions are intense by maintaining small groups (3-6 students) for a minimum of 30 minutes daily. In Tier III, it states that ELL’s who are significantly behind in reading should be require to receive intensive and extensive reading interventions that begins immediately and will continuo until the student is adequately benefit from reading instruction in the core instructional program. In conclusion, the advantages in implementing the RTI approaches with ELL’s are realized when schools provide an universal approach in screening students to identify students who are at risk for reading difficulties and to provide the interventions that meets their needs. When schools use an ongoing progress monitoring as a source to make better decision in providing the instructional needs of the students. = = Source: Response to Intervention in Reading for English Language Learners by Sharon Vaughn, Ph.D., H. E. Hartfelder/Southland Corp. Regents Chair, University of Texas and Alba Ortiz, Ph.D., University of Texas   
 * How is Universal Screening Effectively Implemented with ELLs? **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"> <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;"> ELLs can be screened on the same early reading indicators as native English language speakers, including phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and word and text reading (Gersten et al., 2007).  **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial-BoldItalicMT; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">How Is Progress Monitoring Effectively Implemented With ELLs? **