What's a middle school teacher to do? Five evidence-based practices to support English learners and students with learning disabilities

Abstract

General education teachers are challenged with meeting the unique instructional needs of every learner in their classrooms, which increasingly include English learners (ELs) and students with learning disabilities (LD). This article uses vignettes to demonstrate how a middle school content teacher uses five strategies: building prior knowledge, building vocabulary, explicit instruction, visual representation, and opportunities to respond to support his students. Each strategy is evidence based for ELs and for students who have an identified LD. Research supports that ELs and students with LD benefit from specific instructional strategies that enhance the accessibility of course content and potentially improve learning outcomes.

Keywords:

• English learners
• evidence-based strategies
• instructional practices
• learning disabilities

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katrina A. Hovey

Katrina A. Hovey is an assistant professor of special education at Western Oregon University. Her current research interests focus on pre-service teacher preparation and in-service personnel coaching to improve outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional learners with special academic and behavioral needs through the use of multi-tiered systems of support, equitable assessment, and high-leverage practices.

Rhonda D. Miller

Rhonda D. Miller is an assistant professor of special education at Coastal Carolina University. Her current research interests are working memory in students with learning disabilities, interventions for English learners with and without learning disabilities, and culturally responsive practices.

Elisheba W. Kiru

Elisheba W. Kiru is a doctoral candidate in the Multicultural Special Education program at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests are on pedagogical innovations (e.g., using technology-mediated instruction), understanding mechanisms in learning environments that contribute to the development of student agency, and positive mathematics identities (affective and cognitive) for students with mathematics difficulties or disabilities.

Lydia Gerzel-Short

Lydia Gerzel-Short is a visiting assistant professor of special education at Northern Illinois University. Her research interests include family-school collaboration, family engagement in school-based problem solving, evidence-based practices for supporting diverse learners with learning disabilities, and tiered instructional supports.

Yan Wei

Yan Wei is an assistant professor of special education at Southern Connecticut State University. Her research interests focus on adolescent literacy instruction for students with LD, including motivation instruction, evidence-based literacy instruction, culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and remediate reading programs in Tier 3 intensified classrooms.

Jerae Kelly

Jerae H. Kelly is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her current research interests are building cultural competency in pre-service special education teachers and socio-cognitive literacy interventions for students with high-incidence disabilities.