Storytelling

Storytelling is a powerful way to help immerse students in their first or second language.  It's also a great way to assess their progress in language proficiency.  Last year many of our teachers experimented with an approach that used the 5 point narrative retelling rubric from the Pre-LAS/LAS-Links exams throughout the year.  Several times a year the teachers chose a well known story (one they'd previously read several times in their classroom) and color copied several pictures that represent key plot events.  They then asked the students to use the pictures to tell them the book's story.  They then transcribed the story (as you do in the official test administration) and assigned them a rubric score based on their retelling.

This also reminded teachers that oral storytelling was something children needed lots of opportunities to engage in and receive support and feedback around throughout the year.  One great idea from a Spanish immersion preschool I visited a year or so ago: the teacher had a large train posted on the wall with 4 or 5 carriages.  This "story train" had a picture posted in each carriage from a favorite story they'd read together the week before.  Children had multiple opportunities to retell the story using these pictures as a guide (again, color copies of key plot points).  This provided opportunities for instruction and informal assessment around each student's use of a number of language structures, such as: verb tense & agreement (especially in the preterite), using adverbs & adjectives to describe and elaborate, using sequential "markers" (first, next, later, then, finally, etc), vocabulary depth & complexity--particularly with verbs & nouns, sense of story beginning, middle, end...etc.

By creating some sort of checklist or rubric, you can very easily track small degrees of progress in your students' oral language proficiency.  You could also use it when they tell oral stories from their own life--basically any time they're retelling anything!  You can, of course, use other language interactions beyond storytelling; this just seemed like good place to at least begin and experiment with the idea.  I recommend you use the oral retelling rubric from your end of year language proficiency exam (like the LAS, Woodcock-Muñoz, etck) as a place to start and then break language objectives down from there.

Here are a few resources I found online that could give you some things to think about as you engage students in lots of storytelling for language acquisition.  Be aware, however, that most storytelling/retelling rubrics focus only on the content, delivery, and story structure; they don't typically focus on the actual language structures second language learners should be using to tell the stories.  That's why I liked using our LAS rubric so much--it centers on using retelling as a way to develop and assess second language acquisition and really helps focus on specific language structures.  Regardless, here are some resources that might help you identify key language objectives to teach and assess in the context of storytelling:


Rubrics from StoryArts.com
Julie's Rubrics for Retelling
          Fiction Retelling Rubric
          Nonfiction Retelling Rubric
          Sequencing Rubric
          Summarizing Rubric
Oral Language Rubric
Fairfax County PALS Rubrics
Rubric Ideas & Rubric Generator
Oral Language Checklist for ELLs

Determining Students' Dominant Language

There's a lot of terminology flying around when talking about second language learning...native language, primary language, home language, mother tongue, L1, etc.  We decided that we would call a child's strongest and (usually) native language their dominant language.   This can be different from what's in our student information system as the home language or primary language, since those terms refer to what parents designate on the state required home language survey completed during initial registration.  Since some Spanish-speaking parents come in with negative perceptions of bilingual education, a few occasionally mark English as the home language even though their child is more proficient in Spanish.  We also have English-dominant parents who have marked Spanish as the home language (often because some Spanish is spoken in the home even though it's not spoken as often as English) because this can sometimes help qualify children for PK programs--while, in fact, it sometimes turns out that the child is stronger in English.  So, as you can see, if we went simply with the parent-reported home language, then we'd be doing some children a disservice and providing them with initial guided reading instruction in the wrong language.

So, at IDEA Mission we have a more thorough way of identifying childrens' dominant language.  When the child first enrolls, we administer the Pre-LAS (Kinder) or LAS Links (Grades 1 up) in both English and Spanish.  This is a standardized language assessment that gives both a raw (varies) and scale (1 - 5) score in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and overall proficiency (the Pre-LAS assesses listening and speaking only).  Some other districts use different state-approved language assessments such as the Woodcock-Muñoz.  Here's a list of all TEA approved tests.

We also ask each parent to complete a more extensive Family & Language Background Survey (English or Spanish).  If a child has transferred from another district, we also have information included in their previous records to help us make a decision.

During each student's initial LPAC (Language Proficiency Assessment Committee) meeting, we review their LAS scores in both languages, the parent responses on the Family & Language Background Survey, previous school records (if applicable), and any additional teacher observations.  About 90% of the time, this data alone makes it very clear which language is the child's dominant language.  We then assign their dominant language accordingly.  This helps us balance classrooms to have an equal (or as close as possible) number of English and Spanish dominant students, to provide initial small group guided reading instruction in their dominant language (Kinder & 1st Grades), to know which language they will take their district and state required K/1 benchmark literacy assessments in, etc.  If, after reviewing this data, it's unclear which language is the student's strongest, we'll gather more data--we'll call parents on the phone to ask additional questions, look at more student work, compare reading levels and other student achievement data in both languages.  We want to make sure we make the right dominant language assignment for every child, so we leave no stone unturned and we make no guesses.  It definitely takes some time initially, but it is well worth making the correct identification.  This does mean that we occasionally have a non-LEP student whose dominant language is actually Spanish and LEP students whose dominant language is actually English--not often, but it has happened in our unique bilingual community.

Now, the LPAC process is required by the state for every English Language Learner (LEP--Limited English Proficient student), but at IDEA Mission we go through the LPAC process for every single child since every student on our campus is a second language learner--either in English or in Spanish.  Every parent must sign a program acknowledgement form, verifying that they are aware that their child is in a two-way immersion bilingual program.  This also serves as the permission form required by the state for bilingual program placement, but notice that there is no parent denial option.  Every student who chooses to come to IDEA Mission chooses to be a part of our two-way program.

Just a side note...we sometimes hear people refer to a child's dominant language as his/her "language of instruction."  The language of instruction is actually whatever language they're being instructed in at a given time.  For example, one week the math language of instruction might be in English while the next week it could be in Spanish.  The language of instruction changes.  A child's dominant language does not, though the goal is for every student to eventually be fully proficient in both his/her dominant language as well as in their second language--this is true bilingualism and biliteracy!

Language Standards

I've been working on clear second-language development expectations that could be attached to our quarterly report card to show measurable progress toward second language acquisition. Right now we use the Pre-LAS (Kinder) and LAS-Links assessments (Grades 1 and up) to measure language acquisition, but those are only administered at the beginning and end of the year--we need to teach, assess, and track more "bite-sized" language objectives throughout the year.  Here's what we've got so far for English Language Development (have yet to tackle Spanish Language Development!)...

 Download: Language Development Report Card Standards