As student diversity increases in public schools, teachers are exploring ways to differentiate their instruction to meet the academic, linguistic, and cultural needs of the students while simultaneously keeping every student constructively engaged in rigorous academic content. Teachers share a strong commitment to making a difference in the lives of their students. However, each teacher often maintains a different perspective about how to best meet the instructional needs of students to promote their academic growth. Such a variation in perspectives and approaches can sometimes create confusion and frustration or increase instructional gaps for students who work with multiple teachers. In order to create alignment of services, it is crucial to build a collaborative community of teachers to best provide instruction to students, including English learners. Data gathered from shadowing students can be utilized to help create this community of teachers.

The creation of an instructional gap partly due to a lack of alignment in services was the case for Usman. A third-grade English learner, Usman worked with content instructors, teachers in the program for English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), and reading teachers to increase his reading proficiency. As Usman’s progress reached a plateau, each teacher had vastly different views about what he needed to be more successful with comprehension and demonstrating this when speaking and writing. As a result, each teacher focused on a different objective related to reading and implemented incongruous instructional approaches.

Each teacher was committed to helping Usman reach his academic potential. As this team of teachers rallied around him to promote success in reading, they struggled to engage in productive dialogue about his areas of strength and areas in need of strengthening. Each teacher had a different perspective about Usman as a learner and how to create an instructional match that would improve his reading comprehension. Team members advocated for a myriad of changes to his instructional program. When consensus regarding how to best address Usman’s instructional needs was not reached, the team of teachers sought additional support.

ESOL resource staff met with the teachers and listened as the team shared information about Usman’s needs, about how such needs had already been addressed instructionally, and about the varying perspectives on accelerating his growth in reading. The teachers’ passion regarding the needs of the student was redirected, and the conversation shifted from advocacy of individual perspectives to inquiry related to an instructional match for the student in all classroom settings. The teachers were encouraged to be transparent about their assumptions and to be open to ideas and outcomes that challenged those assumptions. The team of teachers and resource staff focused the dialogue on the following questions:

1. Throughout the day, what opportunities did Usman have to engage in academic discourse to explain his thinking or ask questions?
2. What were the language demands imposed on Usman as he moved from class to class and received instruction in various content areas?
3. What balance existed between content and language instruction throughout Usman’s day?
4. How motivated was Usman and what, if anything, reinforced his effort?
5. What listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills did Usman implement consistently?
6. What instructional supports existed to facilitate Usman’s learning as he bridged the gap between what he could do and what he needed to do with language?

When these questions were discussed, much variation was evident and there was little consistency among the teachers’ responses. Each teacher expressed a view of Usman based on the specific time he spent in that one particular class and focused on one content area. The team inquired about the need for a more global understanding of Usman’s needs and learning preferences.

In order to get a peripheral perspective on Usman’s instructional experience, the team decided for a resource staff member to shadow him for an entire school day. Shadowing the English learner assisted in determining the application of academic language, listening comprehension skills, interaction, motivation, and so on. Shadowing was selected in order to gather data to inform instruction for positive student outcomes regarding Usman’s performance and needs across all school settings. The resource staff spent the day with him and followed him from class to class to observe instruction and interaction. Selective scripting was utilized to capture what Usman said and did as well as each teacher’s instruction that influenced his actions.

The information gleaned during shadowing revealed that Usman spoke only a few sentences for the first half of the day. He participated actively in a science experiment, engaged in problem solving during math, and played the cello in music class. During all of this time, he uttered only two or three phrases. Instruction throughout the day was content heavy, whereas instruction on language skills was very limited. At the same time, the linguistic complexity, vocabulary usage, and language control that Usman needed to access the content were well beyond his language proficiency level.

With regard to effort and motivation, Usman seemed eager to participate and to earn rewards and praise in the form of stickers, stamps, and prizes from all his teachers. He received targeted reading instruction in which strategies were modeled and vocabulary was scaffolded. However, the linguistic complexity of the text was beyond his reach due to his present level of control of language structures. Usman also was not able to actively apply language learning strategies such as mimicking or asking clarifying questions to help him access texts.

The team and resource staff met again to discuss the data gathered during the shadowing and to determine strategies for increasing Usman’s academic success. The selective scripting from the shadowing provided more information about Usman’s use of language and about his current instructional program. The meeting focused on the inquiry of using the data to provide a match between his present level and instruction and to better align services. The group began to lay out the desired state for instruction and made a plan outlining roles and responsibilities for implementing that plan. The team settled on the following priorities for Usman:

• Increase opportunities to use oral language
• Provide Usman with direct instruction on language control using a gradual release model
• Continue teaching targeted reading comprehension strategies while increasing his exposure to text in and out of school
• Support his effort and motivation by modeling language and self-correction strategies

The team of teachers transformed from having their diverse perspectives to having a more common instructional vision for the student. Collectively, this team had the skills and knowledge to address the challenge and to provide Usman with great instruction. Collaboratively, they created a shared instructional plan and identified roles and responsibilities for every team member to ensure that instructional practices were consistently in place to promote student growth. The instruction of all teachers was valued in the process and plan. Shadowing Usman helped generate the information that this team needed to engage in productive dialogue about increasing academic achievement through greater alignment of services and instruction.

Maha Abdelkader is a member of Maryland TESOL. She works as a resource teacher in the Howard County Public School System, designing and delivering professional development for staff working with English learners. She has taught elementary English learners in Howard County. Her other experiences include curriculum writing and serving on advisory councils for the Maryland State Department of Education to promote the academic achievement of English learners.

Laura Hook is the Maryland TESOL president. She serves the Howard County Public School System as the ESOL program coordinator. She taught students with special needs and English learners prior to becoming a resource teacher and coordinator of the ESOL Program.