Page 38 - The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 11 and 12: The Arts, 2010

THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | The Arts
In a supportive learning environment, most students will develop oral language proficiency quite quickly. Teachers can sometimes be misled by the high degree of oral proficiency demonstrated by many English language learners in their use of everyday English and may mistakenly conclude that these students are equally proficient in their use of aca- demic English. Most English language learners who have developed oral proficiency in everyday English will nevertheless require instructional scaffolding to meet curriculum expectations. Research has shown that it takes five to seven years for most English lan- guage learners to catch up to their English-speaking peers in their ability to use English for academic purposes.
Responsibility for students’ English-language development is shared by the classroom teacher, the ESL/ELD teacher (where available), and other school staff. Volunteers and peers may also be helpful in supporting English language learners in the language class- room. Teachers must adapt the instructional program in order to facilitate the success of these students in their classrooms. Appropriate adaptations include:
• modification of some or all of the subject expectations so that they are challenging but attainable for the learner at his or her present level of English proficiency, given the necessary support from the teacher;
• use of a variety of instructional strategies (e.g., extensive use of visual cues, graphic organizers, and scaffolding; previewing of textbooks; pre-teaching of key vocabu- lary; peer tutoring; strategic use of students’ first languages);
• use of a variety of learning resources (e.g., visual material, simplified text, bilingual dictionaries, and materials that reflect cultural diversity);
• use of assessment accommodations (e.g., granting of extra time; use of oral interviews, demonstrations or visual representations, or tasks requiring completion of graphic organizers or cloze sentences instead of essay questions and other assessment tasks that depend heavily on proficiency in English).
When learning expectations in any course are modified for an English language learner (whether the student is enrolled in an ESL or ELD course or not), this information must be clearly indicated on the student’s report card.
Although the degree of program adaptation required will decrease over time, students who are no longer receiving ESL or ELD support may still need some program adapta- tions to be successful.
For further information on supporting English language learners, refer to The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9–12: English as a Second Language and English Literacy Development, 2007; English Language Learners – ESL and ELD Programs and Services: Policies and Procedures for Ontario Elementary and Secondary Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12, 2007; and the resource guides Supporting English Language Learners with Limited Prior Schooling: A Practical Guide for Ontario Educators, Grades 3 to 12, 2008 and Many Roots,
Many Voices: Supporting English Language Learners in Every Classroom, 2005.
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