Habit 4

Support student access to challenging text.

Effective instructional input must be comprehensible, in context and for a real life purpose. Teachers need to understand the concept of “comprehensible input” and how to apply this in classroom instruction (Fresno, 2001; Florida State Department of Education, 2003; Tarone and Tedick, 2000; CARLA, 1998).

Often called differentiated instruction, this habit focuses on using a variety of teaching methods and strategies so that many learning modalities are accessed for students. Our schools are traditionally very focused on only two of Howard Gardner’s eight intelligences. (Gardner, 1993) Textbook companies, school districts and teachers do a good job of teaching to the verbal/linguistic and logical/mathematical intelligences. When your first language is not English, this presents a problem. While students may be very intelligent, the roadblock built for our students prevents them from learning as much or showing us what they know.

STELLAR asks that classrooms become vibrant places with active engagement of students individually, in small groups and in large groups. Students are asked to experience the content being taught and to apply their knowledge for greater understanding. There should be variety and surprise in a STELLAR classroom. There should be singing, and art, and technology used. A STELLAR classroom teacher could teach without a textbook.

Key elements of effective reading instruction for all students, including vocabulary, comprehension and phonics are also important to ELL students. Teachers need a solid grounding in the language learning and reading processes and strategies for effective instruction (Slavin & Cheung, 2004; Florida Department of Education, 2003; Fresno, 2001).  STELLAR strategies focus on teaching the students how to develop their own learning strategies and to make public the secret things that good readers do.