By: Stephanie

Dual Identified Marotto

English Language Learners Receiving

Special Education Support
All About Me:

My name is Stephanie and I am a Special Educator in Colorado

Springs, CO. I teach K 5 at a Title 1 Elementary School. Currently,
30% of our students have been identified as ELL. I am finishing up
my masters program in reading at the University of Kansas. I am also
a mom to three wonderful kids, who keep me very busy. When I
have a spare minute, I love hiking, reading and doing yoga.
Research Questions

What is the academic impact of English Language Learners who also need Special
Education support?
How can we better support dual identified students?

Reason for researching this: Before I started my position as a Special Education teacher, I
unfortunately did not have experience or the training to work with ELL students. I
currently work at a school with a substantial amount of ELL students, two of whom are on
my caseload. One of the students was identified as Special Education by a previous school,
but the other student Sarah was identified as Special Education by our SpEd team. It was
very difficult to identify her because we were not sure if her struggle with reading was
language or a learning disability. We now provide her both ELL support and Special
Education support, but it has been difficult providing her effective instruction.
Review of Resources

Ortiz , A. (2001). English language learners with special needs: Effective instructional
strategies . Retrieved February 2, 2017, from http://www.ldonline.org/article/5622 /.
- Hard to distinguish if students are failing due to limited English or Learning Disability.
- Provides tips for appropriate support and interventions.
Rubin, D. I. (2016). Growth in Oral Reading Fluency of Spanish ELL Students With
Learning Disabilities.Intervention in School and Clinic,52(1), 34-38.
doi:10.1177/1053451216630280
- Learning to read is even more difficult for dual identified students.
- Repeated reading has proven to increase students fluency.
- Always continue to progress monitor to see if there are improvements.
Review of Resources

Samson, J. F., & Lesaux, N. K. (2008). Language-Minority Learners in Special Education:

Rates and Predictors of Identification for Services.Journal of Learning
Disabilities,42(2), 148-162.
- Focused on kinders, 1st and 3rd grade students.
- Students in younger grades overlooked to having a LD because teachers assumed it
was due to LEP. By third grade, over-representation of ELL/SpEd students.
- Those in SpEd demonstrated struggle with phonological awareness.
Honnert, A. M., & Bozan, S. E. (2005). Summary Frames: Language Acquisition for
Special Education and ELL Students.Science Activities: Classroom Projects and
Curriculum Ideas,42(2), 19-29. doi:10.3200/sats.42.2.19-29
- Summarizing support for dual identified students.
- Provides strategies and resources.
Review of Resources

: Dodson, A. (Director). (2013, March 28).ELL students in special

education[Video file]. Retrieved February 15, 2017, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_8guIpSoGE&t=38s.
- Services must be provided simultaneously.
- Over and under representation of dual identified students.
- Reason for over identified students is because of how hard
testing is.
What is the Academic Impact of ELL Students
with a LD?
Limited Language or Learning Disability?
- Hard to determine if it is a language issue or learning disability.
- Districts with lower ELL population have more dual identified students. Districts with higher ELL
population have less dual identified students.
- Reason for over representation Low proficiency on assessments. They are very difficult for ELL
students.
- Schools MUST have effective ELL intervention programs that are used with fidelity to rule out
SpEd.
- Centers of Applied Linguistics outlines a phasing model for ELL students:
1. Look at school environment and make sure student is receiving appropriate ELL instruction.
2. Student is tested in both languages to determine dominancy. Modify instruction and progress monitor.
3. SpEd referral
What is the Academic Impact of ELL Students
with a LD?

- Students in younger grades tend to be overlooked for having a

learning disability, but older students tend to be overrepresented.
- Commonality between those who are dual identified Struggled
with phonology in younger grades.
- Process of learning to read is even more difficult for ELL students
with SpEd identification.
- Highest area of struggle is with vocabulary and comprehension
Low reading fluency impacts this.
How Can We Better Support Dual-Identified
Students?
Reading Fluency
Repeated reading Helps with vocabulary and sight word recognition.
Goal of repeated reading is to increase the speed of word recognition and make decoding of the words
automatic, thus enabling the students to concentrate on the meaning of the text.
Great Leaps Reading program
Effective for students grades 3 5
Takes 7 to 8 minutes to complete
Reading Comprehension
Extremely difficult skill for students
Teach as a reading strategy.
Use summary frames First identify main idea (highlight in the text), and then identify details (highlight
them as well). Finally, put information into summary frame.
Providing appropriate strategies will help enhance students self-esteem, build autonomy, and increased
social skills.
Moving Forward
Thank you!

Thank you for watching my presentation! I hope some of these tips

help you!
 References

Dodson, A. (Director). (2013, March 28).ELL students in special education[Video file].

Retrieved February 15, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_8guIpSoGE&t=38s .
Honnert, A. M., & Bozan, S. E. (2005). Summary Frames: Language Acquisition for Special
Education and ELL Students.Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas,42(2),
19-29.
Ortiz , A. (2001). English language learners with special needs: Effective instructional strategies .
Retrieved February 2, 2017, from http://www.ldonline.org/article/5622/.
Rubin, D. I. (2016). Growth in Oral Reading Fluency of Spanish ELL Students With Learning
Disabilities.Intervention in School and Clinic,52(1), 34-38.
Samson, J. F., & Lesaux, N. K. (2008). Language-Minority Learners in Special Education: Rates
and Predictors of Identification for Services.Journal of Learning Disabilities,42(2), 148-162.