Identifying and Supporting Gifted English Language Learners
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Identifying and Supporting Gifted English Language Learners

Equitable Programs and Services for ELLs in Gifted Education

Mary Catharine Campbell

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eBook - ePub

Identifying and Supporting Gifted English Language Learners

Equitable Programs and Services for ELLs in Gifted Education

Mary Catharine Campbell

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About This Book

This book is a practical guide for identifying and supporting gifted English language learners (ELLs) based on research and firsthand teaching experience. This book:

  • Presents practical information and strategies for identifying gifted ELLs.
  • Helps readers understand more about potentially gifted behaviors and talents.
  • Supports the enrichment and social-emotional needs of these students.
  • Includes background information, teaching strategies, and methods.
  • Offers ideas for lessons and activities that can be used to support any learner.

Research from the last 2 decades shows that there is a considerable disparity between ELLs and native English speakers identified as gifted. This book will inspire action by key players in these students' lives, including English language and gifted educators, classroom teachers, school administrators, district and state leaders, families, and the greater community.

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Information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
2021
ISBN
9781000493511
Edition
1

CHAPTER 1
Support

Setting a Foundation to Support Gifted ELLs

DOI: 10.4324/9781003235668-2
ā€œYou canā€™t build the plane as you are trying to fly it.ā€
ā€”Melanie Ragin, District Talent Development Specialist
The most crucial part of reaching any goal is to make a plan. But before you can make a plan, you have to know your end goal. When Melanie Ragin and I began the work of supporting gifted ELLs, we didnā€™t have a clear end goal or a long-range plan. We started working together and, over time, learned more about the otherā€™s areas of expertise. As we continued to learn about each other, we planned more and began making goals. Through trial and error, Melanie and I shared resources, planned lessons, and did different activities with our students. Over the years, we saw continued success with our students, particularly with students in grades Kā€“2 because we fostered a culture to nurture possibly gifted learners. By my last year working with Melanie, we had become the first model site in our district for our work in collaboration to identify and support gifted English language learners. As a model site, classroom teachers, ELL teachers, and AIG teachers could visit to observe us teaching and explore our resources. We hosted panel discussions and offered guidance for other schools and districts to help them make similar achievements at their schools. By the end of my last year teaching in the classroom, we both felt proud of our work and commitment to gifted ELLs, and we are still good friends.
This is to say that it is hard to make a plan or goal without first building a strong team. In this chapter, you will learn how to build an AIG/ELL collaboration team, create a school culture of advocacy, and learn how to build parent relationships.

Setting the Stage for Effective Collaboration

ā€œThe single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.ā€
ā€”George Bernard Shaw

For ELL and AIG Teachers: Collaboration

The key to any good working relationship is communication. Not only is it useful in maintaining professionalism and getting day-to-day tasks completed efficiently, but it is also the backbone of the process of identifying gifted ELLs. This is especially true for ELL teachers and AIG teachers, as they receive little training about the otherā€™s field and rarely know what to look for to advocate for potentially gifted ELLs or to support identified gifted ELLs. For this reason, both teachers need to establish a strong working relationship to become knowledgeable about each otherā€™s field in order for (1) ELL teachers to advocate for possibly gifted ELLs and (2) gifted teachers to support certified gifted ELLs. Unfortunately, in many schools, ELL teachers are not advocating for gifted ELLs, and AIG teachers are not supporting identified gifted ELLs, not because they do not care, but because they do not know enough about each other, and therefore collaboration is not taking place. But that does not have to be the case. The following is an outline of how to start this collaboration process, signs of success, and guidance for you and your collaborating partner.
How to Start the ELL and AIG Collaboration Process. First and foremost, the AIG teacher and the ELL teacher should learn each otherā€™s names and where their rooms or offices are located. This may seem like an obvious first step, but over the years I have met countless teachers who have been working with the same AIG or ELL teacher and donā€™t know their name or where their room is located. This can be a simple introduction that takes place at the beginning of the school year where you take the initiative to pop in and introduce yourself. As a part of this introduction, it is always a good thing to get to know each other a little better. Some good conversation starters may include sharing a bit about yourself, such as:
  • ā–ŗ where you are from,
  • ā–ŗ how long youā€™ve been teaching,
  • ā–ŗ if youā€™ve always been an AIG or ELL teacher, and
  • ā–ŗ anything personal you would like to share (e.g., family, children, favorite pastimes, etc.).
After brief introductions, get to know each otherā€™s schedules, including if their time is shared with another school or if they work part-time. By knowing each otherā€™s schedules, collaboration will be easier. You will also want to know when their planning and lunchtime periods are. Sometimes it is not possible to plan before or after school, so finding a shared time for planning during the workday may be the best option. A guiding document to support the early stages of this collaboration process is located in the Appendix B.
Next, get to know a bit about each otherā€™s caseload and the nuts and bolts of your jobs. This may include your busiest times of year, number of students served, and any big dates or testing windows. By knowing a bit more about caseloads and key dates, it will be easier to discuss planning times and key topics for planning.
At this point, you may want to go ahead and hash out your planning schedule. It is best to create a set planning schedule for the year so that you donā€™t have to remember to send an email about scheduling planning time, and so that once the year gets going you both wonā€™t forget to plan. A good starting place for planning could be once a month with a set date, such as the first Tuesday of every month. That way, you both can add it this meeting to your schedule to avoid scheduling conflicts that may arise as the year takes off.
It is highly encouraged for the ELL and AIG teachers to have completed the guiding document ā€œSetting the Stage for Effective AIG and ELL Collaborationā€ (see Appendix B) before the school year starts. However, the beginning of the school year is always busy, and some things have to take the back burner. With this in mind, teachers should meet to complete this form no later than the third week of school to be most effective.
Additionally, both the ELL teacher and the AIG teacher need to plan a date and time for the ā€œGreat Exchange,ā€ a meeting in which each teacher provides the other with a crash course of what they do. The Great Exchange can take place right after completing the previous guiding document, or it can be scheduled for a different time. The Great Exchange meeting is the crucial next step for both educators to be most effective in advocating for and supporting gifted ELLs. Appendix B also includes a guiding document to make the Great Exchange easier for ELL and AIG teachers, even if it is their first year in the role.
During the Great Exchange meeting, both the ELL and AIG teachers should share important key information about their roles and any relevant information or resources about their positions. The purpose of this meeting is to educate both teachers on how to advocate for, identify, and support potentially gifted ELLs. Therefore, each teacher needs to walk away with a strong foundational understanding of the otherā€™s role and processes. If, after this meeting, one or both teachers need additional support in their role with the process of advocating for, identifying, or supporting gifted ELLs, it is encouraged to have follow-up meetings to continue learning more about the otherā€™s position and resources.
How to Know You Are Collaborating Effectively. At this point, the ELL and AIG teachers have moved past the introductory stage, completed the Great Exchange meeting, and established a regular meeting schedule. But now what? What should these regular meetings look like? Ideally, both teachers will come prepared but with different resources.
The first meeting could establish norms for how you would like to conduct or carry out these meetings. Norms should include 3ā€“5 key expectations that matter to you both and can be upheld for meetings to be productive, professional, and efficient. Some example norms may include: start and end on time, come prepared, keep the big picture in mind, bring solutions when presenting a problem, etc. Remember that these norms establish a positive professional learning community (PLC) or professional learning team (PLT) and should be geared to make these meetings easier, not add a layer of complication. So if you and your partner already have a strong PLC, you may not need to set up norms. Additional items to consider for this first meeting include answering/ sharing:
  • ā–ŗ How many current gifted ELLs are identified in your school?
  • ā–ŗ How does that number compare to the past 2 years?
  • ā–ŗ What affected that number?
  • ā–ŗ What do you think are the next steps to increase that number?
After discussing and answering these questions, the ELL and AIG teachers should cocreate a SMART goal for the school year to identify more gifted ELLs in the school building. A SMART goal is one that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. As a part of this SMART goal, both teachers should explain their role in this process, with clearly defined checkpoints and expectations for those checkpoints. A possible SMART goal could be:
This school year, 2021ā€”2022,_____________________, the ELL teacher, and ____________________, the AIG teacher, will increase the overall number of identified gifted ELLs in our school by 5%, or three students, by the end of the school year. We will reach this goal by meeting monthly to discuss potentially gifted ELLs and how we can collaboratively nurture their giftedness so that they may be properly identified, either through the Gifted Rating Scale, portfolio process, or CogAT.
After creating a shared SMART goal, the ELL teacher and AIG teacher may want to break down what items may need to be discussed at different meetings throughout the year because of certain deadlines or testing windows. That way, both teachers will know exactly what to bring to each meeting and how they can prepare beforehand. To learn more about what these monthly meetings could look like, refer to Chapters 2 and 3 regarding planning and listening.

Sings of Successful Collaboration

For ELL and AIG Teachers. Most teachers I talk to about identifying gifted ELLs want a clear-cut model that they can replicate at their school or district. A teacher once asked me, ā€œHow do you plan what you teach and when?ā€ I explained that I use multiple data points and then teach my students where they are, based on the data rather than on grade-level standards alone. I also explained how I scaffold and differentiate my lessons to reach students where they are and to teach them strategies to access grade-level texts, which I referred to as a happy balance. At this point, the teacher stopped listening. She responded, ā€œWell, that wonā€™t work at my school because I have to teach what the classroom teachers are teaching.ā€ I realized that she had completely missed the point. Once she believed that she couldnā€™t possibly support gifted ELLs because she has to teach to the standard, she gave up on the idea altogether. She thought that because she didnā€™t have as much choice in what or how she taught, she couldnā€™t possibly support gifted ELLs. Unfortunately, this line of thinking is not uncommon.
Success will look different from school to school, district to district, and state to state. Some schools have a push-in-only model for ESL or AIG. Some schools share multiple ELL and AIG teachers, so these educators may only be at a certain school for one day a week. Some ELL and AIG teachers get a lot of autonomy over what and how they teach. Others must only teach the standards in a coteaching model. The variations in these models and programs from school to school make it impossible to have a one-size-fits-all solution. Therefore, it is crucial to identify your schoolā€™s model and consider what success will look like for you. The most obvious sign of success will be an increase in the percentage of identified gifted ELLs, but this will not happen overnight.
One of the greatest determining factors of the success of this work, after creating a collaboration team, is administration support. It is possible to do this work without administration support, but it works faster and better if you have the support. I have worked with numerous administrators at multiple schools and across districts. Over this time, I have learned that no administrator is exactly the same as another. I have also learned that data is the one common language that all administrators understand. Fortunately for Melanie and me, our data always showed that we knew what we were doing and how to grow studentsā€™ abilities. This allowed us to have more autonomy over what we chose to do with our students. If you are an ELL or AIG teacher with limited autonomy, this work is still possible, especially with the support of your administrators. By including your administrator in this work, you gain another system of support for your team. You also gain insight into aspects of the entire school that you or your collaborating partner might have overlooked when creating your initial SMART goal. Some key questions to discuss with your administrator may include:
  • ā–ŗ What is your vision for identifying and supporting gifted learners at our school?
  • ā–ŗ How could you support us with this work?
  • ā–ŗ Do you think it would be beneficial for us to lead a training about this work with our staff?
  • ā–ŗ What additional information should we consider when planning this work?
Follow-up meetings throughout the year may include ā€œpulse checkinsā€ in which collaboration team members share their progress toward your goal and plans for any parent outreach events or key information for staff. The purpose of the pulse check-in is to make sure everyone involved is on the same page, is equally knowledgeable about potentially gifted students, and can share any relevant information.
Once your administration team is on board with this work, you can start moving toward creating a culture of advocacy. If your administration team is not on board or is passively on board, you can still do this work; it might just take more time. To learn more about the next steps, see the next section, Creating a Culture of Advocacy.
For Administrators and District/State Leaders. For this work to be as successful as possible, you must be willing to support this process as needed in your building, district, or state. School system leaders within the 15 states chosen for Project GOTCHA concluded that there are four criteria that must be present for the program to succeed (Aguirre, 2003; Castellano, 2003):
  1. ESL teachers who are also certified or knowledgeable about gifted characteristics and strategies,
  2. administrators and staff who are trained in how to assist students in reaching their maximum potential,
  3. a learning climate conducive for academic success, and
  4. a collective belief that the myths surrounding students who are gifted ELLs are false.
Project GOTCHA, originally a program from Florida, demonstrated evidence of success in supporting ELLs using this criteria for 7 years in a row and then received additional funding to carry out these findings across 15 more states.
Support may look different from school to school, but the most important detail for administrative support is staying informed and making this work a priority for everyone in the school. As an administrator, it is not enough to just send an email or tell your school abo...

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