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SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHE NTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGU AGE L EARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREE N ESOL TEACH ER LAURENS 55

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Page 1: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

SONGS AND C

HANTS T

O DEV

ELOP

AUTHENTI

C LANGUAGE F

OR

ENGLIS

H LANGUAGE LE

ARNER (ELL

)

WRIT

ERS

ANGIE G

REEN

ESOL TEACHER

LAURENS 5

5

Page 2: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

Immigrant’s Dilemma

My English teacher assignsa descriptive paragraphto write everything we can remember aboutour last visit to the dentist.I look at my white sheet of papermy jaw throbs from pain the Tylenol wears off.I have no memories of a dentist. The pain in my back tooth remindsme that “dentist” is only a vocabulary word to me. Noun a health professional who specializes in caring for the teeth, gums, and other tissues in the mouth.

I look at my white sheet of papermy jaw throbs from pain the Tylenol wears off.

I have no memories of a dentist. Angela C. Green

Page 3: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

Until this assignment, “Write a poem about the prom,” I had never heard the word “prom.”Sitting silently in class pondering the word “prom”obviously understood by everyone except me.

Fear of facing humiliation prohibits my asking for further explanation.

I go ask my ESOL teacher who tries to explain--then gives up, and gently guides me to Googleto show me prom images on the Internet.

Girls in pink dresses like princesses look lovely accompanied by black tuxedoed boyswith bright smiles and handsome faces.Everyone celebrating their beautypretending to be Cinderella and the Prince,believing in happily ever after for one night.

I could never go to prom,Dressed up like that,Could never imagine myselfIn fancy gowns, shiny shoes, or pearls.

I don’t want to be that girl.

SENIOR ASSIGNMENT I Senior Assignment IIIn San Miguel,

we have no prom,

No time for dances, festivals, or celebrations.

Every day we work,

Every day, a regular work day.

Only sometimes at night

when the frogs start barking just after

the sun sinks behind the hills

sucking the thick hot air after it,

we gather to drink soda,

eat beef asada and rice

laugh, share stories, and sing traditional

Guatemalan folksongs.

It is not prom, but our

Rainbow dresses and music

from generations past

satisfy our souls

making us feel

like prom

on the inside. Angela C. Green

Page 4: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

INTRODUCTION

I walked into my first classroom August of 1982. That was 29 years ago. The 2011-12 school year will be my 30th year of teaching and I am just as excited to walk in the class room this year as I was way back then.

One of the reasons I continue to enjoy teaching is because there is never one day, one class period, or one year just like the one before it. The first 25 years of my career, I taught writing and literature, public speaking, and some education courses. I also taught social studies and language arts for three years in North Carolina.

But I had long grown weary of grading the papers of my students and not having the time to write my own stories and poems, so I decided to put my linguistics background to work and take the last course the SCSDE said I needed to be certified to teach ESOL. Four years ago, I moved back home and started teaching ESOL in Laurens, SC. I was responsible for the high school, one elementary school and one middle school.

Page 5: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

I was based at the high school and had to document the progress of approximately 50 ESOL students, with most of them scoring advanced on tests to determine their English skills. I also had to travel to a combined elementary and middle school with about 15 ESOL students.

The 2nd year the high school increased to about 80 some students. The 3rd year I had 90+ and I also had to begin going to another middle school. This past school year I was responsible for over 100 ESOL students. Another teacher was responsible for Ford Elementary school which has approximately 125 ELLs, and a third ESOL teacher serviced the other two middle schools and two elementary schools.

Thankfully, only a few come into the district without knowing any English at all.

The 2011-12 school year is going to be entirely different from anything I have ever done. I will be teaching K-5. There are many of them who do not speak English. They have been at home with their mamas speaking Spanish their entire lives. Others are in the early grades and are still considered pre-functional or beginning. I have my job cut out for me. But I am certainly not alone.

Page 6: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

“ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN CLASSROOMS: A BIG CHANGE FOR US SCHOOLS”

BLOG POSTED ON FEBRUARY 3, 2011 BY LETCTEACHERS (LANGUAGE ETC.)

A decade ago, about 3.5 million school children in the United States were “English language learners.” Now it’s over 5 million—almost 11 percent of all kids in US public schools. It’s a steep challenge for schools, and not just in the traditional gateway states like California, Texas, and New York. Teachers in small towns from Alabama to Kansas to South Dakota now find their classes include children speaking Korean, Hindi, Arabic, Hmong, and dozens of other languages.

Page 7: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

To help educators grapple with this change, the Migration Policy Institute has set up an online ELL Information Center with videos, fact sheets, and maps on the English language learner (ELL) student population across the United States.

I have a thing for interactive maps—well, maps in general—and I like the one that shows the percentage of ELL students by state. Roll the cursor over the map and see which states have the highest density of English language learners. Leading is Nevada, where a whopping 31 percent of schoolchildren are ELLs, followed by California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. At the other end of the scale is our neighbor West Virginia, where just 0.6 percent of kids are English learners.

Where has ELL enrollment grown fastest? That would be, if you can believe it, …

Page 8: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

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more than 800 percent in the last

decade….

Page 9: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

INSTRUCTIONAL ROADBLOCK

• The roadblock I face teaching pre-functional and beginning ELLs is their limited vocabulary and concept of sentence structures in English.

• When they come into the U.S. school system, they may have little to no knowledge of English and sometimes little to no literacy skills in their first language; however, the government still expects them to take standardized tests either in the spring or at the end of their courses.

• They also have to pass HSAP or they might pass all of their classes and still might not receive their high school diploma.

• There have not been a few times that I have had students come to the United States in the 7th or 8th grade without knowing any English at all– no understanding, speaking, reading, or writing.

Page 10: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE IN ACADEMIA?

Page 11: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

CLASSROOM CONTEXT: ELL STATISTICS

From the 1997-98 school year to the 2008-09 school year, the number of English-language learners enrolled in public schools increased from 3.5 million to 5.3 million, or by 51 percent (“English Language Learners”).

During the 2007-08 school year, only 11 states met their accountability goals for ELLs, according to an analysis of federal data by the Washington-based American Institutes for Research (Zehr, May 12, 2010).

12 percent of students with limited English scored “at or above proficient” in mathematics in the 4th grade on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared with 42 percent of students not classified as English-language learners (Slavin, Madden & Calderon, 2010).

The gap was considerably wider in 8th-grade math, where 5 percent of ELLs were proficient or above on the 2009 NAEP, compared with 35 percent of non-ELL students. The math assessment is available in Spanish as well as English(Slavin, Madden & Calderon, 2010).

Only 3 percent of ELLs met that standard in 8th grade reading in 2009, compared with 34 percent of non-ELLs (“English Language Learners”).

Page 12: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55
Page 13: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

A LITTLE BIT OF THEORY…

1. Silent/Receptive Stage 10 hours to 6 months, 500 receptive words

Point to objects, act, nod, or use gestures, say yes or no, speak hesitantly

2. Early Production Stage 6 months to 1 year, 1000 receptive/active words

Produce one- or two-word phrases, use short repetitive language, focus on key words and context clues

Krashen’s Stages of Language Acquisition (1982)

Page 14: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

STAGES OF ACQUISITION CONT.

3. Speech Emergence Stage 1-2 years, 3000 active words

Engage in basic dialogue, respond using simple sentences

4. Intermediate Fluency Stage 2-3 years, 6000 active words

Use complex statements, state opinions and original thoughts, ask questions, interact in more lengthy conversations

5. Advanced Fluency Stage * 5-7 years, content area vocabulary **

Converse fluently, understand grade-level classroom activities

Argue and defend academic points,

Read grade-level textbooks

Write organized and fluent essays

*Does not mean student is on grade level!

**More current research than Krashen says 7-11 years or more.

(Cummins 1979, 1984)

Page 15: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

NUMBER OF VOCABULARY WORDS NEEDED TO MASTER HIGH SCHOOL CONTENT?

ACADEMIC WORDS NEEDED

50,000

AVERAGE ELL LEARNS/YEAR?

3,000

ELLs who grow up in the US are often still behind… Why?

Hart and Risley estimated a 30-million word gap by age three between the average number of words heard by the children of parents on welfare and those whose parents are professionals (2003).

Page 16: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

DO YOU T

HINK T

HIS C

OULD

HAVE

ANYTHIN

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O

WIT

H THE A

CHIEVEM

ENT

GAP BET

WEE

N ELL

S AND

NATIV

E ENGLIS

H

SPEAKERS?

Page 17: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What are the quickest and most effective methods to help English Language Learners build the foundations, scaffolding, and ultimately, academic structures, to insure success in their reading, writing, math and other content area studies?

Page 18: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

SOME SOLUTIONS ALREADY USED TO DECREASE GAP:• Select a language development program (READ 180, Open Book,

Reading Recovery, etc.)

• Sheltered Content instruction

• Bilingual with content based ESL classes (not acceptable in SC) but students can translate content for other students.

• Newcomer program

--Often implemented at secondary level

--Introduce to American culture

--Fill in academic gaps

• Use Variety of Instructional strategies

• 1-6 semesters based on students needs of

ESOL Classes, Pull-out, Push-in, After school

programs, summer programs, etc.

Page 19: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

CHALLENGES TO REACHING GOALS

TO ELLS

•Becoming proficient in English while meeting high school content graduation requirements

•Takes 5-7 years to learn basic conversational vocabulary

•Takes 7-11 years to learn academic vocabulary

•Academic vocabulary alone is overwhelming

TO TEACHERS

•Accommodations will be different than previous pedagogical instruction

•Will take professional development

•Will need job-embedded practice and time

•Will need lots of support

•Will be a slow process

Page 20: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

HOW CAN THIS PROCESS BE SPED UP?

These students need to learn English as quickly as possible, and I want to show how teaching songs and chants is an excellent strategy for teaching new vocabulary, phrases, and sentence structures to students of all ages in all content areas.

Page 21: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

THE RESEARCH

Reasons to justify an increased and systematic use of songs and chants:

Using songs and chants

1. noticeably increases vocabulary bank of lexical items and multiword structures

2. includes a range of age appropriate sociolinguistic situations (greetings, leave takings, requests, basic classroom functions and routines, etc.)

3. improves English speech rhythms, intonation and pronunciation

4. increases memorization of longer word strings

5. allows music and rhythm to dovetail into grammar and language activities (fun and creative classroom time outside of “English” time)

(Forster 63)

Page 22: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

ADVICE FROM THE EXPERTSMarzano in Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement:

Research on What Works in Schools

Students should play with words through games, songs, poems and other fun activities.

Bear et al in Words Their Way with English Learners

There is a reciprocal relationship between reading and writing development. Reading informs writing and writing makes for better readers and spellers (4).

Forster in The Value of Songs and Chants for Young Learners

English is a stressed time language meaning some syllables are longer than others. This is hard to teach children. Chants and songs can help here. In chants, only a certain number of words can occur in the rhythmic framework. As a stressed timed language, only a certain number of syllables can fit into a specific time pattern. It is useful to teach where the stresses lie in a phrase and which syllables or words are unstressed (64). (My personal observation- this also helps when scanning poetry.)

Gill in Teaching Rimes with Shared Reading

Shared reading, poems, songs, chants, etc. builds students' sight words, vocabulary, fluency, and phonics knowledge during an enjoyable reading experience.

Allen in Real World Approaches to Reading

Another effective way to help readers interact with text is through the use of poetry and song. Poetry and songs are important elements in an effective literacy program.

Page 23: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

WHY MUSIC? ENLISTS BOTH LEFT & RIGHT BRAIN

LEFT BRAIN

•most language activity

•analytical

•more conscious process of learning

•attends to a particular aspect of a linguistic stimulus

RIGHT BRAIN

•prosody (stress and intonation)

•musicality

•rhythm (movement, beat)

•accent (stress)

•intonation (pattern of pitch in speech)

•semantics (meaning)

•does not analyze relationships between words

•implicit, unconscious learning

•learns the entire song but doesn’t focus on anything in particular

Forster (64)

Page 24: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC

RAP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6iYFUogpLw

CLASSICS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iifeL0JDVM0&feature=fvwrel

JAZZ CHANT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAYwoLZso7s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf2wfYBjELo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TkpWnjW1Fs

Page 25: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

WITH YOUR TABLE, CHOOSE A STYLE OF MUSIC AND WRITE A SONG ON ANY CONTENT AREA FOR ANY GRADE LEVEL.

BE PREPARED TO PERFORM AT LEAST A LINE OR TWO.

Page 26: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

CONCLUSION

Incorporating songs, chants, rap, poetry, choral reading, etc. into the classroom improves the literacy program by providing the foundation and scaffolding students need. They must know the vocabulary before they are able to think, speak, read or write in their second language. Songs and other forms of music are a fun and quicker method for learning the language than worksheets and drill.

Page 27: SONGS AND CHANTS TO DEVELOP AUTHENTIC LANGUAGE FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER (ELL) WRITERS ANGIE GREEN ESOL TEACHER LAURENS 55

REFERENCES

Allen, A. 2011. “Real World Approaches to Reading.” Learn NC. n.d. web. retrieved 6 June, 2011 <http://www.learnnc.org/ lp/pages/769>.

Bear, et al. 2007. Words Their Way with English Learners. Allyn and Bacon.

Cummins, J. 1984. Bilingualism and Special Education. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters.

Cummins, Jim.1979. Linguistic Interdependence and the Educational Development of Bilingual Children In Review of Educational Research 49 (2).

Echevarria, J., Vogt, M., Short, D. 2007. Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model (3rd Ed.) Pearson.

“English Language Learners.”2011. Education Week 15 June. web. retrieved 19 June 2011 <http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/english-language-learners/>.

“English Language Learners in Classrooms: A Big Change for US Schools.”2011. letcteachers 3 Feb. web. retrieved 15 June 2011 <letcteachers.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/english-language-learners>.

Forster, E. 2006. “The Values of Songs and Chants for Young Learners.” Encentro 16, 63-68. web. retrieved 6 June 2011 www.encuentrojournal.org/textos/16.7.pdf.

Hart, B., and T.R. Risley. 2003. “The Early Castrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap,” American

Educator, Spring .

Krashen, S. 1982. Principles and Practices in Second Language Acquisition. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press, Inc.

Marzano, R. J. 2004. Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in Schools. ACSD.

Slavin, R.E., Madden, N., Calderon, M., Chamberlain, A., & Hennessy, M. 2010. Reading and Language Outcomes of a Five-year Randomized Evaluation of Transitional Bilingual Education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University.

Zehr, M.A. 2010. “Few States Meet NCLB Goals for English-Learners,” Education Week, 12 May.