by Lorna Collier
In their new book, Beyond “Teaching to the Test”: Rethinking Accountability and Assessment for English Language Learners, literacy specialists Betsy Gilliland and
Shannon Pella explore ways teachers can provide a more equitable education for
English language learners.
Using fewer鈥攂ut high-quality鈥攖exts can work better than using many texts, say Pella
and Gilliland. The benefits are varied:
Rather than having to struggle to keep up with the basic idea of many texts, ELLs聽only need to master the content of a few texts or even a single text before聽working on understanding the language structure and other textual elements.
鈥淚f聽you have one really good text, first they figure out what it means, but then they聽can access and start thinking about how it is constructed,鈥� says Gilliland.
鈥淜ids become experts on specific texts. They can tell you not just what it was about,
but how it was made and why it was made that way.鈥�
Grammar can be taught in terms of its functionality within the text being studied,
says Gilliland, as opposed to saying, ” 鈥榟ere’s a rule, memorize it and then we
hope it transfers into your writing.鈥� ”
“Teachers might be surprised how much farther you can go with a single text in
teaching a variety of different things,” says Pella, who taught secondary school
English for 15 years. 鈥淭hat was one of my biggest 鈥榓-has鈥� as a high school and
middle school teacher.鈥�
The pace of teaching slows when students go back again and again to just a handful of
texts, 鈥渢aking time to really unpack and analyze them,鈥� Pella says.
She believes this makes the learning experience 鈥渕uch more thoughtful, with more
depth,鈥� than what occurs when teachers use rigid pacing guides.
And when ELLs develop awareness of text features, they can access the same grade-
level material their mainstream peers are using, Pella and Gilliland point out鈥攚hich
provides equity.
Lorna Collier is a writer and editor based in northern Illinois.
Read more in the article “Flipping Accountability on Its Head” in the
.