Teachers of English Learners face a unique challenge—to quickly develop language and literacy skills in a differentiated manner. To address the needs of English Learners, teachers can add instruction that develops the imagery-language connection. English Learners can acquire the skills and knowledge they need, more quickly.

By addressing the skills that underlie reading and comprehension, teachers can boost language learning for all students, while providing specific instruction to address the needs of those students who have learning challenges—even in their first language.

Our programs support best practices in English Language development and have been shown to accelerate skill acquisition:

COMPREHENSION & VOCABULARY

Visualizing and Verbalizing and Talkies develop the underlying skills necessary for:

• Oral Language Development
• Acquiring Academic Vocabulary
• Reading Comprehension
• Critical Thinking

READING & SPELLING

Seeing Stars and Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing(LiPS) develop foundational decoding skills:

• Phonological Awareness
• Phonics and Word Recognition
• Reading Fluency
• Spelling

[CASE STUDY] Colorado School Implementing Lindamood-Bell Instruction Closes the Achievement Gap in Reading for English Learners

Background

Haskin Elementary School in Center, Colorado, serves a large percentage of English Learners who are at-risk of reading failure. From 2010-14, Haskin implemented Lindamood-Bell instruction to address the specific needs of this student population. The first three years of this project, 2010-11 through 2012-13, were funded through a federal School Improvement Grant (SIG). Haskin students received Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing instruction to develop symbol imagery and concept imagery for reading and comprehension. Instruction was delivered by Haskin teachers who were trained in the Lindamood-Bell programs. Gains for English Learners were measured with the reading portion of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program and the results were compared to gains made by non-English Learners.

Results

English Learners at Haskin achieved a 50-point increase in reading proficiency from 2010 to 2014. This was the largest change of all elementary schools in the state. Additionally, the achievement gap between non-English Learners and English Learners was closed by 20 points. Statewide, the gap was closed by 4 points over this same period of time. The results of this study illustrate that providing Lindamood-Bell instruction in the Seeing Stars and Visualizing and Verbalizing programs leads to improved reading and comprehension in English Learners, which is essential to achieving success with school curricula.

Profile

School Years: 2010–14

Number of Schools: 1

Grade Levels: 3rd–5th

Lindamood-Bell Programs Implemented:

• Seeing Stars®
• Visualizing and Verbalizing®

Focus of Lindamood-Bell Services:

• Teacher Workshops
• Coaching via Telepresence Robot
• Instructional Leadership Support

Lindamood-Bell instruction integrates and strengthens  RtI and EL services. Explore our professional development workshops and contact us with any questions or to discuss how your school can get started: 800-233-1819.

For information on how to address core standards learning for all students, watch our recent webinar,  Beyond Expectations: Language Comprehension and Thinking for State Standards Curriculum.