Language Diversity & Literacy Development:

Increasing Opportunities-to-Learn in Urban Middle Schools

Nonie K. Lesaux, PhDMichael J. Kieffer, EdD

Joan G. Kelley, EdMS. E. Faller, EdM

June 30, 2010

IES Annual MeetingNational Harbor, MD

Funders & Partners

San Diego Unified School District• Participating Schools, Teachers, & Students• Superintendent’s Office• Office of Language Acquisition• Curriculum & Instruction• Literacy Department• Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Division

Funding Sources• Institute of Education Sciences,

U.S. Department of Education• Eunice Kennedy Shriver

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

• Harvard Medical School• William and Flora Hewlett

Foundation• WT Grant Foundation

• Large numbers of struggling readers, often from low-income, diverse linguistic backgrounds

• In feeder high schools, the majority of incoming 9th graders read at or below the 7th grade level

– Biancarosa & Snow, 2004; Lutkus, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007 • With increasing grade levels, the sources of reading difficulties

become increasingly diverse – Catts et al., 2003; Lesaux & Kieffer, in press; Buly & Valencia, 2004

Literacy in the Urban Middle School

Developmental Factors

OrganizationalFactors

Research Framework• Two developmental studies to inform instruction:

– 5-year longitudinal study of ELLs in 4th - 8th grade– Comparative study of ELLs and native English speakers

who struggle with reading in 6th grade

• Design & evaluation of an approach to teach academic vocabulary– 2007-2008: Quasi-experimental evaluation in 21

classrooms, rich data and feedback from teachers on implementation (Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller, & Kelley, 2010)

– 2008-2009: Randomized controlled trial in 14 schools (~60 classrooms)

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30

40

50

60

70

80

90Pe

rcen

tile

Rank

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 6

Grade 7

Grade 8

Word Reading Fluency Oral Language Reading Comprehension

The Gap between Reading Words & Comprehending Text

Crosson & Lesaux, 2009; Lesaux, Crosson, Kieffer & Pierce, in press

Struggling Comprehenders in Middle School

Lesaux & Kieffer, in press

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-1,5

-1

-0,5

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1

1,5

2

Z-s

co

res

Automatic Word Callers (.18)

Slow Word Callers (0.60)

Globally Impaired Readers (.22)

General Vocabulary

(PPVT)

Academic Vocabulary

Working Memory (SCPT)

Passage Reading Fluency

(DIBELS)

Word Reading

Efficiency (TOWRE)

Pseudoword Reading Accuracy

(WLPB-R)

Skill Profiles of Struggling Readers: 3-Class Solution

Research-Practice Partnership: Guiding Goals

• To increase vocabulary and reading comprehension levels in mainstream, middle school classrooms

• large numbers of struggling readers from low-income, diverse linguistic backgrounds

• To simultaneously address issues of middle school literacy reform– Susceptibility to effective implementation of new programs– Supporting teachers to meet their students’ needs

Three Considerations

What the vocabulary & linguistics research indicatesWhat the vocabulary & linguistics research indicates+

What will engage studentsWhat will engage students +

What makes delivering the instruction clear What makes delivering the instruction clear and with easeand with ease

Framework

High utility High utility academic wordsacademic words

Targeting Targeting depthdepth of word knowledgeof word knowledge

Direct instruction & Direct instruction & word-learning word-learning

strategiesstrategies

Anchored Anchored in textin text

Multiple, Multiple, plannedplannedactive active encountersencounters

ALIAS Elements• Ecologically valid, engaging program for teachers to use in

mainstream ELA classrooms• 20-week curriculum, 45 minutes a day• 9 two-week units; 2 one-week review units

– Each unit built around 8-9 target words

• Starting with rich text• Building depth of word knowledge over time• Engaging students & encouraging word play• Increasing student talk in class • Gradually releasing responsibility to students

How to spell it

Building up Knowledge of a Word,Building up Knowledge of a Word,Piece by Piece…Piece by Piece…

What it looks like

What it sounds

like

What I alreadyknow about its

meaning

Its dictionary definition

Its meaning in the article

How to use it to talk about the article

Multiple meanings for the word

How to represent itsmeaning graphically

The different word partsinside the word & their

meanings

The differentforms of the word & how

they are used

The meaning of the wordin different contexts

How to use the word towrite & talk about other topics

How to use the word precisely in extended writing

Day 8 & 9Day 8 & 9

Day 7Day 7

Day 5 & 6Day 5 & 6

Day 4Day 4

Day 3Day 3

Day 2Day 2

Day 1Day 1

Platform for Discussion:Platform for Discussion:

•community service

•tolerance

Day 1:Day 1:Words in Context of Engaging TextWords in Context of Engaging Text

Target Words:Target Words:

affect, community, contribute, culture, establish, ethnic,

resident, welfare

Days 5 & 6:Days 5 & 6:MorphologyMorphology

Verbs(actions)

Nouns(person, place, thing, or idea)

Adjectives(words to describe nouns)

Adverbs(words to describe actions)

contribute contribution

organize organization

solve solution

decide decision

1. Introduce new word

part: “-tion”

2. Add target word to

chart: contribute/

contribution

3. Search article for

words with “-tion”

and add to chart.

Lesson Framework

Days 8 & 9:Days 8 & 9:WritingWriting

Lesson Framework

1. Read and discuss the pre-

writing discussion article.

2. Analyze the writing

prompt.

3. Model planning writing

using a graphic organizer.

4. Work on ideas for writing

with partners.

Intervention Research : The ALIAS Curriculum2008-09 Randomized Controlled Trial

• 14 participating middle schools• 51 teachers randomly assigned to treatment or control

– 26 Treatment (39 classes); 25 Control (41 classes)• approx. 2300 participating students• 70% language minority learners; 30% native English speakers

Data Sources:• Student assessments • Implementation logs; videotaped observations• Teacher survey, • Teacher interviews (end-of-study)• Student focus groups

Implementation• Reported fidelity = 93%• Observed fidelity = 85%

• ALIAS teachers differed from control teachers on techniques related to supporting reading & language development,

but not on overall instructional quality

• Observations in the control classrooms demonstrated that about 13% of time is spent on explicit vocabulary and comprehension instruction

Outcome Measures• Academic Words Taught • Depth of Word Knowledge• Morphological Skills• Understanding of Academic Words in Context• Comprehension of Passages with Words Taught

• Gates MacGinitie Reading Comprehension Test• Writing (Oral & Written Language Scales)• California Standards Test – English Language Arts

Analyses• 4-level Multilevel Modeling (aka HLM) to account

for nesting of students within class periods within teachers within schools

• Pretest covariates used to improve precision (i.e., statistical power) and to investigate if treatment effect differs by students’ pretest scores

• Effect sizes are robust, whether we include covariates and random effects at each of the four levels

• Student* treatment interaction– LM, EO; initial vocabulary level

Summary of Findings• Significant and meaningfully sized effects on

vocabulary, morphology, and comprehension of texts that included the words

• Larger effects on word-level knowledge than on text-level skills

• Significant and meaningful sized effects on standardized text-level measures for some students– Effects on writing for below-average students– Effects on state-level ELA for above-average students

• Larger effects for LM students on words taught

Effects on Vocabulary Knowledge

Effects on Vocabulary

*

Effec

t Siz

e (C

ohen

's d

)

Effects on Text-level Skills

*

Student by Treatment Interaction on Words-in-Context Comprehension

*

Effects on Text-level Skills

*

Student by Treatment Interaction on Writing

*

Effects on Morphological Awareness

*

*

Student by Treatment Interactionon Morphological Awareness

*

*

Effects on ELA California Standards Test

*

What helped teachers succeed?

• Program Materials“When it comes down to it, it’s you,

the classroom, and the curriculum”• Other Teachers in the School

Colleagues helped in “debugging” the program.• Program Specialist

Newer teachers and teachers with fewer colleagues using ALIAS found specialist especially helpful

(Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller & Kelley, 2010)

Next Steps•Delayed post-test to determine maintenance effects

•Analysis of classroom talk•How much natural variation in the quality of classroom talk exists in mainstream 6th grade classrooms in urban middle schools? •In what ways, if any, does the implementation of the ALIAS alter the quality of classroom talk over the course of the 20-week program?

•Influence on reading comprehension and vocabulary?

•Explaining variation in implementation•School demographics, school climate, classroom instruction characteristics

•Describing Standard Practice (CO, Tx baseline)•Quality of Classroom Relationships (CO, Tx)