Promoting Academic

Achievement for Students with

Limited or Interrupted Formal

Education

Helaine W. Marshall, Ph. D.

Long Island University

Andrea DeCapua, Ed. D.

Educational Consultant

Students with

Limited/Interrupted Formal

Education

• How do we refer to them?

– LFS (Freeman & Freeman, 2002)

– SIFE (NY State Department of Education)

– SLIFE (DeCapua, Smathers, & Tang, 2008)

Collectivistic vs. Individualistic

Cultures

Teachers and learners assume that:

1. the goals of K-12 instruction are

a) to produce an independent learner

b) to prepare that learner for life after schooling

2. the learner brings along

a) an urge to compete and excel as an individual

b) age-appropriate preparation for

i. literacy development

ii. academic tasks (Marshall, 1998; DeCapua & Marshall, 2011)

Pragmatic vs. Academic Tasks

• Definitions • What is a tree?

• True/False • Washington DC is the capital of the US

• NYC is the capital of NY state

• Classification • Categorize these objects (see next slide)

(Luria, 1976)

Sample Task

Teachers and learners assume that:

1. the goals of K-12 instruction are

a) to produce an independent learner

b) to prepare that learner for life after schooling

2. the learner brings along

a) an urge to compete and excel as an individual

b) age-appropriate preparation for

i. literacy development

ii. academic tasks

(Ibarra, 2001)

Mutually Adaptive Learning

Paradigm - MALP

• Instructional Model

• Elements from students’ learning paradigm

• Elements from U.S. learning paradigm

• Transitional approach to close achievement gap

(Marshall, 1998; DeCapua & Marshall, 2010)

Two Different Learning Paradigms

SLIFE U.S. Classrooms

Immediate Relevance

Future Relevance

Shared Responsibility

Individual Accountability

Pragmatic Tasks Academic Tasks

CONDITIONS

PROCESSES

ACTIVITIES

Interconnectedness

Oral Transmission

Independence

Written Word

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2009,2010; Marshall, 1994,1998)

Aspects of

Learning

Two Different Learning Paradigms

Familiar Cultural Paradigm

U.S. Mainstream Paradigm

Immediate Relevance

Future Relevance

Shared Responsibility

Pragmatic Tasks

CONDITIONS

PROCESSES

ACTIVITIES

Interconnectedness

Oral Transmission

Independence

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2009,2010; Marshall, 1994,1998)

Aspects of

Learning

Individual Accountability

Academic Tasks

Written Word

Standardized Testing!

Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm - MALP

Instructional Model

SLIFE

U.S. Classrooms

Interconnectedness Independence

Shared Responsibility

Individual Accountability

Pragmatic Tasks

Academic

Tasks

ACCEPT SLIFE CONDITIONS

COMBINE SLIFE & U.S. PROCESSES

FOCUS on U.S. ACTIVITIES with familiar language & content

Immediate

Relevance

Oral

Transmission

Future Relevance

Written Word

with

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2009, 2010; Marshall 1994, 1998)

Hallmarks/Deal Breakers of US Mainstream Classrooms

• Promise of future reward from education

• Individual hand raise

• Standardized testing

The “me” of culture

me

Marshall (2013) The farther a student is from the “me” of the culture, the less credible the promise of future reward from education will be for the student.

Marshall (2013) The farther a student is along the continuum of individualistic to collectivistic, the less invested the student will be in the individual hand raise.

Marshall (2013) The less comfortable a student is with mainstream processes of individual accountability and the written word and the less familiar a student is with academic tasks, the less successful the student will be on standardized testing.

Individual Accountability

Academic Tasks

Written Word

Standardized Testing!

Summary of Equity Pedagogy through Culturally Responsive Teaching with MALP – the Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm©

• Students who do not find the “promise of future reward” credible in their lives need immediate relevance

• Students who do not embrace the “individual hand raise” to

compete and excel need interconnectedness • Students who do not perform adequately on “standardized

tests” need the combination of: shared responsibility with built-in individual accountability oral transmission to scaffold the written word a clear focus on learning to execute academic tasks with familiar

language and content as scaffolds

Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm - MALP

Instructional Model

SLIFE

U.S. Classrooms

Interconnectedness Independence

Shared Responsibility

Individual Accountability

Pragmatic Tasks

Academic

Tasks

ACCEPT SLIFE CONDITIONS

COMBINE SLIFE & U.S. PROCESSES

FOCUS on U.S. ACTIVITIES with familiar language & content

Immediate

Relevance

Oral

Transmission

Future Relevance

Written Word

with

(DeCapua & Marshall, 2009, 2010; Marshall 1994, 1998)

Questions to ask about the Mystery Bag

• Do you know what it is?

• Do you know what it is called in your language?

• What do you do with it? What is it for?

• Do you like it?

• Give 4 words to describe it.

CHECKING ANSWERS

• One by one, check all the answers

• All participate in the checking

› Give answers - tabulate them

› Write answers up as others give them

› Copy down all descriptive words

And now………

Apple Collection

More about MALP?

Websites:

http://malp.pbworks.com

Http://malpeducation.com

Helaine W. Marshall helaine.marshall@liu.edu

Andrea DeCapua adecapua3@gmail.com