EDVIEW360
Hosted by Pam Austin, these discussions will feature dialogues with experienced educators, inspiring thought leaders, social media influencers, and leading education innovators.
EDVIEW360
Intensive Intervention for Tier 2 & 3: Success for Multilinguals and all Students Who Struggle
Literacy is a human right. Every learner, regardless of the language spoken at home, deserves access to high-quality, evidence-based instruction that is both culturally and linguistically responsive. This is especially critical for the more than 5 million students in the United States whose heritage language is not English.
Welcome to Edview 360. I'm so hopeful because today I see the great intention and the focus on all students, but especially students from linguistically diverse backgrounds. And I see that leaders and school teachers and also families really want to do right. So they're sharing the data, knowing about what the skills are, working together as team members for the outcomes of our students, co-planning on foundational skills of literacy versus those important vocabulary that I mentioned in comprehension, but also taking the time to meet with each other and do a very interdisciplinary approach. And I say literacy is the bridge to equity. And every student has that right for literacy.
SPEAKER_00:You just heard from Dr. Elsa Cardenas Hagen, author and respected authority on literacy teaching and learning with English learners. Dr. Cardenas Hagen is our podcast guest on Edview360.
SPEAKER_03:Hello, this is Pam Austin. Welcome back to the Edview 360 podcast series. We are so excited to have you with us today for another fascinating literacy conversation. I'm conducting today's podcast for my native New Orleans, Louisiana. Today's episode, Intensive Intervention for Tier 2 and Tier III, Success for Multilinguals and All Students Who Struggle, features a distinguished guest whose work has shaped literacy instruction across the country. She serves as the president of the Valley Academic Language Education Center in Brownsville, Texas, and is a research associate at the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics at the University of Houston. With more than 25 years of experience in federally funded research, Dr. Cardenas Hagan has helped design assessments and interventions that support linguistically diverse students. She's also a leader in the field, chairperson of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, a board member of the Learning Disabilities Association of America, and a past vice chair of the International Dyslexia Association. Her book, Literacy Foundations for English Learners, offers educators a comprehensive guide to implementing structured literacy with multilingual students. In our conversation today, Dr. Cardenius Hagen will share insights on how intensive intervention at tiers two and three can be a game changer for students who struggle with literacy, including English learners and much more. Let's get started. Welcome, Elsa.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much for having me today.
SPEAKER_03:Tell us what initially drew you to the field of literacy learning.
SPEAKER_02:I was initially drawn as a speech and language pathologist, beginning to see students really struggle not only with language, but also with their literacy skills. And so I knew I had to become an expert in both language and literacy to service the students, especially with Spanish-speaking students who were learning English as an additional language.
SPEAKER_03:Well, how has your career progressed? When we think about the passion that you have, 25 years and just so much experience, how does that all stay intact?
SPEAKER_02:I initially thought I love working with students who struggle. But what we did with a foundation that we called Brownsville Reads, we started with working at the core, making sure that every general education teacher knew about the best evidence practices. And that way we would know exactly who needed intervention and then worked with that. And so that really in our work by year five, we had an 84% reduction in referrals to special education. So that told us very much that our teachers needed the tools to really meet the needs of all students, but especially students who are multilingual.
SPEAKER_03:That whole idea of success breeding more success. And that's where the excitement comes from. Oh, I absolutely love it. You said that literacy is a human right. Can you share what you mean by that thought?
SPEAKER_02:Well, what I mean by that is that every single learner out there, regardless of the language that they speak at home, they deserve that equitable access, access to the tools, access to the support, and the opportunities by highly qualified teachers who can make a difference and really recognize that we are working on language as we're working on literacy, and we must value that home language as an asset and not a barrier.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, so tying in those tools for teachers with success for students, right? That is right. Oh, I absolutely love that. Getting them exactly what they need. There are some misconceptions out there about tier two and tier three intervention for students who are struggling with learning how to read, right? What are some of those misconceptions? And tie it in a little bit with our multilingual learners.
SPEAKER_02:So, what the misconception is, is first of all, that delaying, waiting, this is what I often hear. We're gonna wait until their language develops before we ever intervene with anything to do with reading and writing, when in fact, we need to immediately work with students. We can tell if they're meeting the standards set forth by the schools and the school district, and also how they're doing in relationship to their peers. But we need to make sure, again, that we're building in those language foundations as we're teaching literacy, but also bring in the culturally and linguistically relevant principles. And what do I mean by that? What does it mean to be culturally and linguistically responsive to the students? Well, culturally, what we know about that and what the science tells us about that is that when students can see themselves or see something about their lives that are related to them in the instruction, they get very motivated and their attention increases. Now, does that change literacy outcomes? No, but it's the start, attention and motivation. The linguistic responsiveness that very clearly affects how well they'll do in learning to read and write. So bringing in those connections across languages. I like to share one of the websites that I used because there's 400 different languages spoken in the homes of the students that we serve here in the United States that come from linguistically diverse backgrounds. So I like to use something like mylanguages.org and I look up to see, okay, here's this language that I'm not very familiar with, but what are some of the connections that can be made? For example, on the sounds that already they know that exist in their language, how can we connect them to this new language of English? That is being linguistically responsive, and that's what we need every teacher to do.
SPEAKER_03:So those connections, that's the key word, right, connections in order to help students to become more excited and say, hey, I see myself there. So I want to think about the term structured literacy. It's out there in our world today. We know that's the collection of research that's out there. And you talked about the fact that we can do more than one thing at one time. How do we build the idea of foundational skills, an oral language that revolves around what the expectations are in structured literacy? What does that look like for our teachers, for English language learners?
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much. So, structured literacy was a term that was developed by the International Dyslexia Association in June of 2014 when we wanted to say, what is it that we really want? We want this comprehensive approach, both in language and in literacy. And so, what does that mean? You see in the infomap that has been published that at the foundation of the why, why do we do structured literacy? We do structured literacy because we have this body of evidence that supports certain strategies that must be included in language and literacy instruction. But in that infomap, what we include is oral language. And that means that every child in front of us, including students who are multilingual learners, that every child must have that opportunity to develop the sounds of the language, the words and their meaning, how they're used and the structures, you know, that syntax, how do words function in a sentence? How do we use them? And one of the best word learning strategies is morphology, knowing about these word parts. And I am such a believer in that. I, as an English learner, did not have that opportunity until I was in college. And that's when my whole world turned over. And I realized, you mean to tell me that these word parts exist and it's a good word learning strategy? From then on, I knew that I needed to promote these good word learning strategies and this cross-linguistic transfer as an approach. And so when we think about structured literacy, I need to be bringing in those components of language that I just described with the components of literacy that you all know when we think about foundational skills, phonological awareness, and phonics, building that fluency to get us to that wonderful vocabulary and deep understanding, right? But we can't forget writing either, Pam. A lot of times people think, oh, I don't have time for writing. Well, no, structured literacy includes written language. And so that we're going to do listening, speaking, reading, and writing, all integrated, not in isolation, not in a silo, right? All interconnected.
SPEAKER_03:I love the idea of the interconnectedness of it all. We do it all to practice it all, to make it relevant and to build those strong literacy skills for our students, right? Okay, got a lot of C words coming here. We have connections, we have comprehensive as well, and making sure that our students get everything they need. Those layers are just so inspiring. I do want to ask you about looking at data and responding to data and thinking about what adjustments teachers can make. Maybe there's a teacher in a tier one classroom who have students who are receiving tier two and tier three instruction. How can they take some of what we know that these students need and are getting in tier two and tier three instruction and incorporate and support the students during a tier one core curriculum?
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. This is what I say. Data informs instruction. And every day a child responds to us. That is data. Now, we also have in our schools available to us lots of progress monitoring tools to know where are the students today, and that tells us what we need to do tomorrow. But what I want to say is every day we collect data as they speak to us, as they read for us, as they answer our questions, as they write for us. That's all data in front of us. Now, how do we get this collaborative approach, this interdisciplinary approach? Because I might have, as a student who's receiving some extra support, whether that be in tier two or tier three instruction, my general education teacher needs to know what's going on in this intervention in tier two or tier three. And my tier two and tier three teacher need to know what's going on in that core instruction. And what we know from the science of reading is the more alignment we have, the more collaboration we have, the more coordination that we have, the better the outcomes for the students. And so that we're getting this opportunity to practice. We're finding out that students need more language practice, they need more reading practice, and they need more writing practice. But that all has to be, again, well designed and intentional. And so, how can we best do it? Let's all get together and let's take the time for that collaboration to really be consistent in the delivery of the concepts that we want our students to achieve.
SPEAKER_03:One thing you said, I just love the idea of every day we collect data and it's responding to that data that we collect. So it might not always be formal, but also taking a look at the data we collect, formal and informal, that responsive to it, and then we work together collaborately. That is just so important. That alignment that you're talking about, then that helps lead to the goal setting, which is what I was gonna ask you about, but you've answered that for me already.
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SPEAKER_03:So we set these goals with our core teacher and teachers who are providing that intervention, right? And then we are looking at an upward trajectory for students. Is that the idea, Elsa?
SPEAKER_02:What I want to say is I want to express this and tell you what I see in classrooms is I observe classrooms with multilingual learners and or even in their small group instruction. A lot of times what I see are these little helpers like sentence stems. Oh, well, we're gonna give you a sentence starter to help you because your language proficiency may not be the same as a monolingual English speaker. Okay, that makes sense to me. But what is problematic about that is that when I go in later in the middle of the year, the end of the year, those same sentence stems are being used. The sentence stem was meant, Pam, to get us started. But it wasn't meant for us to use. It's meant for us to ask ourselves as instructors, why did they need that sentence stem? What do I get from their language to where they will no longer need that? How do I build their language systematically and explicitly so they don't need a sentence stem to get this assignment done? Right. And what is it about the assignment that I'm giving that will be super challenging for the student? Can I front load with information and with practice so that I will gradually have that release, right, of those extra supports that they need? So that's the idea. Where are they today in language and literacy? Where am I going tomorrow? And how can I intentionally plan and practice with the students so they can achieve and I can release some of these extra helpers that they need.
SPEAKER_03:So that they can do some of the heavy lifting once we give them the supports.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, they need the supports, and we know visual supports help, verbal supports help, but direct instruction makes the difference on what is it that they need so that they can be successful in the task at hand.
SPEAKER_03:And again, that goes back to the interdisciplinary collaboration that you're making, setting a goal. So these goals that you're setting are consistently changing. Is that what you're saying, Elsa?
SPEAKER_02:That's right. They should be, and they should be very explicit too. And they should be well practiced. Well, lots of opportunities. We're finding that students aren't getting enough opportunities for language expression, whether that be orally or in written form, and for that understanding, right? And so I like to think about, I call this my four T's, like even for language, instead of waiting for everyone to respond, we use the four T's think, turn, talk, then come back and tell to me, right? So everybody had a chance for engagement. And that engagement, as an English learner, you are more willing to risk in a kind of smaller group setting than you are in the large group setting. But in this way, everyone got to respond, everyone got to think about and practice their response, and then they got to report out. And so we need more practice, practice with language, practice with literacy.
SPEAKER_03:All right, and this is a way because when you were speaking, I kept hearing inside my head practice. This is a perfect way for leveraging time and practice. I love that example that you gave us, Elsa. So helpful for teachers. How do we help our educators to move from what we know we need to do, the research as you laid out in structured literacy, to the actual practice? How do we support teachers to use what we've learned, especially when it comes to intensive intervention?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what I think too, that's just really amazing to me as I work with teachers. I really see that if we could really show them routines about just like we show routines to the students, our teachers need routines to get them started. Like this is how you can incorporate all the things that I'm saying, how you can incorporate language in those language components into your literacy components. And when you give them those routines about how to do this, then it's like, I got this. I don't need them anymore. I know exactly what to do now. And I'm watching how the students respond. And now, because you gave me this so explicitly and systematically, now I know how to scaffold that language, how to scaffold that literacy based upon how they're responding. It helps me to be more diagnostic and prescriptive in my teaching. So again, I'm looking for the specific responses so that I can kind of change, alter a little bit what I've given. And really it helps me to think on my feet, to think quickly, because we have to be ready, right, with those scaffolds, right? We either go up or we release them as they respond to us.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Refining that science of teaching, right? Being very diagnostic and prescriptive on the spot, because this is another way where we're getting. Gaining that data and responding to it. That's right. Absolutely love it. Thank you. What advice do you have for district leaders who want to build a more equitable literacy system for diverse learners? We've got all kinds of students in my school. How do I help and support the needs of my teachers and the needs of my students?
SPEAKER_02:So, what I want to say, Pam, what you've just brought up is so very important. There needs to be an infrastructure in place. And where does that infrastructure begin? It begins with the leadership. It begins with having the system in place that's going to support our teachers, right? To deliver this culturally and linguistically evidence-based practices to our students and also engaging our families. We often forget about our families as partners in this whole process. And that way, but first as a leader, I have to know about the evidence. I have to know about what I expect. And I say, like, what am I expecting from our teachers? And how can I give them that support? We have 10 years of work, and it was work sponsored by the Office of Special Education Programs. And it was really about bringing the science of our teaching and the science of language and literacy into the classrooms. And it's at a website called MTSS, the number four, lsel.org. And right there, if you're wanting leadership out there and we're wanting to look at how do we implement these multiple-tiered systems, right? Hey, let's look at how you are doing screeners from this lens of these students. How are you progress monitoring? How are you identifying for struggles? And how are you intervening for those struggles? And have you considered each of these variables? And at what level have you considered them? And so that's our rubric that we have on MTSS4Ls.org, all available, all sponsored by our United States government, and that still exists on a website. And so I really encourage not only the teachers to look at this, but all leaders to make sure that you have that infrastructure that will support our teachers, our students, and their families to be successful.
SPEAKER_03:Basically having a nice strong system to work with so you can build that success. That structure needs to be there. Right? All right, awesome. Well, finally, what gives you hope about the future of literacy instruction for students who struggle?
SPEAKER_02:What gives me hope, like today and every day forward, is I am starting to really realize, I think about, look today, Elsa, finally we've arrived at this topic being a national of national importance. And what gives me such excitement is when I get to meet with school leaders and teachers and community leaders, and everyone wants to do right by these students. Everyone believes in literacy for all. And what we see now is a more open-mindedness to what we've learned. I am so happy that after decades of work, that people are now listening to the science behind what we do, and that we are more increasing that shared language amongst all kinds of this interdisciplinary approaches. And that we are now seeing really districts and schools and teachers, leaders, school leaders really focused on improving the language and literacy outcomes of all students and willing to do the extra work that it takes for all children to succeed.
SPEAKER_03:Now I understand. This is how the passion for literacy learning is fed and grows and continues.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, it's wonderful for you to say that. So I say share what you know, what specific interventions, share your knowledge, co-plan, align your vocabulary and your comprehension strategies with maybe those foundational skills strategies, check in, take the time to collaborate and have those brief meetings that you need to review the data, to see where we are with the students, and really to meet their needs based upon how they're responding in every level of instruction and especially in that targeted instruction.
SPEAKER_03:Finally, what gives you hope about the future of literacy instruction for students who struggle?
SPEAKER_02:I'm so hopeful because today I see the great intention and the focus on all students, but especially students from linguistically diverse backgrounds. And I see that leaders and school teachers and also families really want to do right. So they're sharing the data, knowing about what the skills are, working together as team members for the outcomes of our students, co-planning on foundational skills of literacy versus those important vocabulary that I mentioned and comprehension, but also taking the time to meet with each other and do a very interdisciplinary approach. And I say literacy, it's the bridge to equity. And every student has that right for literacy.
SPEAKER_03:This has been such a wonderfully informative and insightful conversation. We thank you, Dr. Cardinius Hagen, for sharing your knowledge and experience with our audience today. And thank you to our listeners for joining us for this insightful conversation with Dr. Cardenas Hagen. Her experience and passion for literacy, equity reminds us that every student, especially those who are multilingual or struggling, deserves access to instruction that is explicit, systematic, and grounded in research. That's it for another great Edview 360 podcast. Please join us again next month and visit VoyagerSopris.com slash Edview to learn about our webinars, blogs, and other products. This has been Pam Austin, and we hope to see you all again soon.
SPEAKER_00:This has been an Edview 360 podcast. For additional thought-provoking discussions, sign up for our blog, webinar, and podcast series at VoyagerSopris.com slash Edview360. If you enjoyed the show, we'd love a five star review wherever you listen to podcasts and to help other people like you find our show. Thank you.
