Gicela

The purpose of the Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth is to report findings from previously conducted research and bring to light issues related to second –language learners. August, identified four purposes for this report. First, to develop an objective research review methodology for the report. Second, Identify the research literature on the development of literacy in language minority students. Third, analyze the research literature. Finally, develop a final report with recommendations for research and suggestions for practice. Through this process, August, researched five domains: development of literacy in language-minority children and youth; cross-linguistic and cross-modal relationships; social cultural contexts and literacy development; instruction and professional development; and student assessment. Catherine Snow was included in the panel. She wrote the summative of second language development and the need for further research. Her review was not to criticize the panel, but to bring to light the multidisciplinary nature of work on second-language literacy. Snow mentions the need to continue to research in the relationship of high-quality instruction to good outcome for second-language learners. The literature reviewed showed little about the effectiveness of different aspects of instruction. The report also provided few evaluations of programs that would help with comprehension for the second language readers. Snow’s recommendations for further research were a lot more specific than the panel had first mentioned in the introduction of the report. She mentions restrictions from the panel in areas of instruction, assessment, student achievement, and culture. Many of the issues brought up by Snow were due to lack of research in the areas and/or the lack of research due to the complexity of conducting such a study. In synthesizing and evaluating the introduction and research section of the NLP report there are some agreements and disagreements. Both state the importance of a student having a good foundation in their first language in order to facilitate second language development. The introduction of the NLP reports the need of phonemic awareness, decoding, oral reading fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing have a benefit for second language development. Snow reports that “instruction good enough to produce expected levels of second-language performance on word-level skills does not ensure expected levels of performance on text-level skills.” In my professional opinion, I strongly believe that I want my students to have a higher performance level in text-level, since all assessments are using a paper and pencil. Ultimately this is the assessments that classify them in their levels. Snow mentions that English language learners take longer to catch up on comprehension, which once again our state uses reading test to assess, CST and CELDT. From my recollection most of both (CST and CELDT) test are reading a passage and answering questions verbal or not it’s still comprehension. How fair are our state assessments to our second language learners? Not fair. “The Sorry State of Assessment” is a section from Snow’s report and she begins by mentioning that further work that needs to be done in the area of assessment. If assessment if done correctly can be and are very beneficial to teachers in monitoring and improving instruction that can benefit our second-language learners. The assessment currently given to our second language learners is the CELDT. From a previous course, I conducted further research on this test, concluding that the CELDT has low validity and reliability. In other words, the CELDT and the section on assessments from the NLP both have major work to be done in order for teachers to have a good assessment for our second language learners. Our school currently, groups our second language learners in one class. I think that our second language learners would and could benefit from our English language learners if they were combined in one class. Research supports interaction and group discussions to develop language and fluency. I normally have less than five second language learners in my class, but I allow them to discuss and communicate with their English only classmates to develop new vocabulary and practice speaking. Snow mentions the consistency with previous findings on staff development and second language learners, that their just not available. I would agree with Snow, teachers teaching here in the U.S. need to be given the support because we do teach second language learners. Second language learners are in our classrooms for that reason, we need to help them and provide the needed support they need for them to acquire the language of our country, English. Our job as teachers is to provide our country with good citizens, then lets teach them English. In order to do that we need staff development that works. Subject: Discussion