Bilingual Special education

The article I read was “Becoming a Reader and Writer in a Bilingual Special Education Classroom.”

The article introduced the OLE (Optimal Learning Environment) Program. This program was developed after researchers noticed that Latino students who were English language learners were often placed in special education classrooms where their acedemics scores saw little improvement. The OLE program is derived from a constructivist teaching framework which focuses on feeding off the language skills students already have.
The 12 main factors that the OLE program tries to incorporate into each classroom are
Student choice, student centered instruction, whole-part-whole approach, active participation, meaning followed by form, authentic purpose approximations, immersion in language and print, response, community of learners and high expectations.


The article broke these down by telling the story on how the OLE program transformed a student by the name of Diego when it was implemented into a Bilingual Special Education classroom.
When Diego entered kindergarten he neither knew English or Spanish because his mother spoke a Guatemalan dialect at home. It wasn’t until 4th grade that he was able to attend a school resource room that followed these OLE factors. At that time he was at a K-1 reading and writing level and a 3rd grade math level.

The resource room teachers set high expectations and implemented strategies such as shared reading, interactive journals, and literature study and writers workshop, while taping into students’ cultural experiences, and current skills in a authentic way. For Diego, tapping into the skills he had such as his verbal Spanish skills and his love for drawing, motivated him to engage more in his education. By the end of one year Diego had made about 3½ years worth of growth.

I strongly agree with the ideas of a constructivist form of teaching. Children’s cultural backgrounds and initial languages should be viewed as assets within the classroom instead of learning disabilities. In order for their initial language to be an asset in the classroom however that requires an educator who is able to tap in to the language. In order to use this in my classroom it seems I would need some more background with Spanish and other languages spoken among my students.

The list of 12 characteristics for optimal learning environments is helpful for me to keep in mind as I look at the characteristic of my own classroom community, so that each student with be able to reach their full potential and not just the bilingual one.