by Catherine Blair, Amanda Brasfield, Karen Crenshaw and Amanda Mosedale, March 2011

Promoting reading as a “foundational skill for learning, personal growth, and enjoyment” is one of the teaching for learning guidelines discussed in Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (AASL 2009, 21-23). While school librarians have actively embraced this role, many of the textbooks on reading written for teachers do not specifically outline a role for the school librarian. Rather than waiting for others to define this role, I challenge my students to identify and take personal steps to move the literacy process forward in their schools and districts.

To prepare them to do this, I developed an assignment that requires them to create an appendix for school librarians for the literacy text Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners by Nancy Cloud, Fred Genesee, and Else Hamayan (2009). In the appendix I ask them to:

• Discuss the recurring themes and key messages found in the text,
• Identify the key questions the text raises for school librarians, and
• Specify specific strategies that school librarians can use to promote and support reading.

“School Librarians: Bridging the Language Gap for English Language Learners” is the result of this assignment. I believe it demonstrates the power of school librarians to be proactive, to play a central role in literacy instruction, and to transform school library programs to ensure that all children succeed.

—Sandra Hughes-Hassell, Ph.D., associate professor for the School of Information & Library Science at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC.

In recent years, English Language Learners (ELLs), students “who come to school speaking a language other than English and who have little or no profciency in English” have enrolled in U.S. schools in growing numbers (Cloud et al. 2009, 2). In the 2005-2006 school year, there were more than 5 million ELLs enrolled in grades pre-K through 12 (Bilingual Education Programs 2009). By 2007-2008, that number had increased to more than 5.3 million, and ELLs made up 11.3 percent of the K-12 student population (NCELA Frequently Asked Questions).

Judging by standardized test results, however, ELLs are not achieving at the same levels as native English speakers. In 2007, just 30% of fourth-grade ELLs demonstrated basic reading profciency, and only 7% demonstrated full proficiency. This is in stark contrast to the results for their non-ELL peers, 69% of whom demonstrated basic proficiency and 34% who demonstrated full proficiency. At the eighth-grade level, the results were similar, with 29% of ELLs demonstrating basic proficiency and 4% full proficiency, versus 75% and 31% for non-ELLs ( http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_124.asp ).

School librarians can play an important role in helping to close this achievement gap, but to do so, they must become familiar with the most effective ways of meeting the literacy needs of ELLs. The book Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners, by Nancy Cloud, Fred Genesee, and Else Hamayan, Offers K-8 teachers strategies and techniques to strengthen ELLs’ reading and writing skills. To be most effective, these techniques should be incorporated across the curriculum and implemented by all teachers, including the school librarian.

ELL Achievement Gap

Key Points

Cloud and her colleagues identify several key points that are critical to working effectively with ELLs. Three of these key points are as follows:

Key Point #1: Students make sense of new information and acquire new skills more quickly if they can relate it back to their prior experiences. In other words, it is easier to learn something new when it stems from something familiar. This affects literacy instruction for ELLs in two ways. First, one of the best predictors of literacy in English is whether or not students have previously had literacy instruction in their home languages. Students who have had prior home-language literacy instruction are able to fill the gaps in their knowledge of English by drawing on corresponding skills and knowledge from their home language. Using their home-language literacy strategies allows students to read and write English more easily than students without these strategies (Cloud et. al. 2009, 36-41).

Second, English language skills are easier to acquire if they are taught in a culturally familiar context. This means it is important to have reading materials available in all the home languages represented by the ELLs in the school. However, it is not enough to have home-language materials alone; schools must also have materials that reflect each ELL’s home culture. Learning English is difficult enough without having to make sense of a foreign culture at the same time. By offering learning resources that are culturally familiar, educators can help ELLs put new words into contexts they understand, thus making it easier for them to learn. While the ELLs are gaining literacy skills in a culturally familiar environment, they can also be taught how to use their new skills in socially appropriate and effective ways in their new and unfamiliar culture (Cloud et al. 2009, 36-41).

Key Point #2: It is important to remember that there is a difference between academic language and social language. Research indicates that in the lower grade levels, it may take up to five or six years of schooling for an ELL to reach academic fluency in the second language. Because ELLs are surrounded by social language in the hallways, lunchroom, and playground, it is often easier for them to learn and use social language appropriately. It is not uncommon for an ELL to appear fluent in a second language, yet continue to use their native language to describe novel academic concepts (Cloud et al. 2009, 125126).

Key Point #3: Assessment of ELLs should be both frequent and individualized. The purpose of classroom-level assessment, unlike high-stakes assessment, should be to provide continuing language support for both academic and social language learning. Furthermore, there should be a distinction made between assessment for language proficiency and assessment to determine understanding of content material. In content testing, care should be taken to pose questions in such a way that language does not interfere with the student’s ability to communicate their understanding of the academic material. This will help to provide optimal, non-redundant support in all aspects of the ELL’s school life (Cloud et al. 2009).

Strategies to Support ELLs and Their Teachers

The following is a list of strategies that school librarians can use to better support ELLs and their teachers in the library. Additional strategies are available on the wiki, Using Literacy Instruction for English Language Learners in School Libraries ( http://inls745ell.pbworks.com ).

Instruction

Support for ELLs can happen during all types of instruction:

• Model proper English with an eye towards speaking calmly, consistently, and with helpful gestures.
• Pair students with reading partners. Cloud and her colleagues note that the ideal reading partner will be a step more proficient in the target language than the student, so that the reading partner will be more proficient in the language but will still have empathy for the learning process (2009).
• Use graphic organizers to help ELLs understand nonfiction texts, including electronic resources such as Web sites or database articles.
• Collaborate with teachers to create vocabulary/concept inventories for lesson plans so that materials can be prepared that explain the concepts in terms that are easier for the ELL to understand. Teach these concepts to small groups of ELLs who can then teach other students the new concepts and vocabulary. This is especially important when students are researching topics that may be unfamiliar to them.

Collection Development

Support for ELLs in collection development can be challenging, but careful planning and data collection can help:

• Collect demographic data to determine the home languages spoken by ELLs in the school. Use this data to evaluate the current collection and to identify the materials that need to be collected. This data can also be used to support budget requests for additional library resources for ELLs.
• Purchase items in home languages that are written in that language and not translated. Books in another language should be evaluated in the same way books in English are, which may mean seeking outside assistance. Ask the ELL teacher, a second language teacher, or a local university department for help.
• Collect wordless picture books to help students who are just learning to read practice storytelling in their home language and English.
• Go beyond fiction. Poetry, magazines, newspapers, biographies, and nonfiction not only provide curricular support, but also promote reading for pleasure. Purchase DVDs in both the home language with English subtitles and in English with home-language subtitles. This encourages students to develop their literacy skills in one language while making connections to the other spoken language.
• Collect multicultural literature that reflects the home cultures of the ELL students. These books may be bilingual, written entirely in the home language, or written in English. They should be available in a wide range of reading levels. This will help students recognize that their home cultures are valued and will give them a chance to learn English through culturally familiar materials.
• Add books written by students in their home languages and English to the library’s collection. As the student authors create their books, they are able to draw on and practice many of their literacy skills.
• Display multicultural, bilingual, and home-language books prominently in the library. This will help ELLs feel that their home languages and cultures are valued and respected while exposing all students to new literature they may not have come across otherwise.

Programming

Support for ELLs in programming is another important way for school librarians to provide services beyond the school day, as well as to extend services to families and younger children not yet in school:

• Organize a book club or literature circle using home-language or English-language selections. Encourage students to bring prewritten notes to meetings. This will give students practice writing in English and may make them more comfortable when speaking.
• Host Family Literacy Nights. Open up the library in the evening for families to visit and check out books. Often ELLs’ parents are also trying to learn English. Encouraging them to borrow books with their children will not only improve the children’s literacy skills, but might also help the parents.
• Encourage family members who are literate in the home language to engage in literacy activities with the child in that language. These activities could include writing messages to the child, making to-do lists, or reading books at bedtime. To facilitate these interactions, the librarian could introduce new activity ideas at Literacy Night or put together activity kits for children to take home.

Assessment

Traditional testing methods may not be the best way for ELLs to demonstrate learning. The school librarian can help the classroom teacher differentiate assessment for any student:

• Provide a variety of picture books for intake assessments.
• Put together a list of resources ELL teachers can use in order to reduce the language load on student assessments, such as clip art, public domain photos, graphic organizers, audio books, alternative testing formats, headphones, note-taking sheets, and picture dictionaries.
• Assist teachers in setting evaluation goals at the beginning of a unit by asking, “How will we know when ELLs are successful?”
• Encourage teachers to bring assessment results with them when planning new units of study. Classroom assessment results can help guide instruction in the library.
• Assist teachers in obtaining and using dialogue journals, learning logs, or portfolios as alternatives to traditional testing.
• Provide professional materials for ELL teachers that deal with assessment of English Language Learners.

In Summary

These are ways that school librarians can support ELLs and embrace the teaching for learning guidelines outlined in Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs. These strategies and key concepts can be proactive and play a central role in literacy instruction for all students.

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