During David’s planning period the following Monday, Donna, the school’s ELL Specialist, meets David in his classroom. “I got your email. How can I help?” she asks him. After David describes his students’ behaviors and their lack of understanding, Donna thinks she might be able to help.
“First,” she explains, “try not to describe the students by what they can’t do or what they don’t understand. Instead of focusing on their deficits, find ways to uncover their assets and abilities, through modifications in the way you present material.”
“Second,” she continues, “information needs to be presented in a supportive context. For example, anything you present to them verbally should be accompanied by pictures, demonstrations, and other contextual clues.”
“And third, the contextual clues need to make the instructional content comprehensible to your students.”
What does David need to consider?
How does tiered programming influence teachers’ expectations and practices and students’ perceptions of themselves?
Like many high schools in the US, David’s school offers tiered programming, such as Advanced Placement, Honors and “regular” classes. Placement in these classes is based on some combination of student preference, student’s grade point averages, teacher recommendation and guidance from school counselors. In many cases, students choose or are counseled into courses in the same “level.” As a result, tiered programming can lead to de facto tracking, deficit views of learners, and lowered expectations for students in the “lower” tracks.
- Archbald and Keleher discuss specific examples of useful analyses for measuring the conditions and consequences of tracking. They also address the “drilling down” approach for planning interventions for subsets of students.
In David’s case, he sees his students through a deficit lens—he seems to focus first on what his students can’t do. Instead, he should find ways to identify their assets.
- Al Tatum describes what kinds of thinking occurs when teachers hold deficit views of students.
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
- Kris Gutierrez suggests that deficit views are not helpful for teachers, and that they should rather think about students’ “repertoires of practice.”
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
- Marvin Lynn discusses how teachers can interrupt their negative views of students.
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
Deficit views can influence teachers’ expectations and practices, which, in turn, can begin to influence students’ perceptions of themselves.
- Elizabeth Moje explains how teachers sometimes retreat from establishing high expectations in diverse classrooms, because they are afraid of de-motivating students.
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
- David O’Brien describes how students can begin to view themselves based on testing performance and placement in tiered classes.
You are missing some Flash content that should appear here! Perhaps your browser cannot display it, or maybe it did not initialise correctly.
- Maika Watanabe explores teachers’ perceptions of the relationships among ability, intelligence, and tracking, and the importance of teachers’ perceptions on detracking reform.
What is “comprehensible input?”
In his attempt to make the material accessible to his students, David has to think in terms of comprehensible input.
- Read more about comprehensible input
- Neuman and Koskinen demonstrate that without direct teacher intervention, language input is not enough for students who are below a threshold of English competence. They argue that specific instructional strategies must be developed.
How do students acquire academic language in their second language?
Students learn a second language best when their first language is developed. How, then, should David react when his students speak to each other in their first languages?
- Guadalupe Valdes argues that limited understandings of bilingualism and of academic linguistic demands will lead to the continued segregation of linguistic minority children.
Next Step >Revisit the case
