May 21 / Mari McCarville

Using Language and Learning Profiles to Support Neurodivergent English Learners

The OCME Spotlight Series features guest blog posts that highlight the experiences, insights and practices of educators working with multilingual learners.

Have you seen the number of English learners receiving Special Education (SPED) services increase over the last few years? Do you ever talk about making sure these students do not fall through the cracks, or do you discuss ways to help them catch up to meet grade level expectations?

As an English language development (ELD) teacher at an international school, I answer these questions with a resounding, “Yes!” I have spent the last two years trying to find ways to better serve the English learners in my classes who not only take sheltered ELD courses but also receive specialized learning support for autism, ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, specific language disorders, or mood regulation disorders.  These neurodivergent English learners are often known as multilingual learners with exceptionalities or dually-identified learners. Although it is hard to find data on this population in international schools, these learners make up nearly 16% of the English learner population in the USA [1]. While in recent years notable legislative and social progress has been made for these students, significant improvements are still needed to support them in the USA and around the world. 

Identifying Neurodivergent English Learners 

At my current institution, students go through an admissions process in which they are placed into SPED and ELD courses according to multiple data points (e.g., interviews, documentation from prior schools, proficiency tests, etc.). If they are identified for both programs, then they receive ELD courses according to their language proficiency and a class called Study Skills, where they work with a SPED teacher to practice executive functioning skills and get caught up on missing assignments. In an ideal world, the ELD teacher would co-plan, co-teach, co-assess, and co-reflect with the SPED teacher as Andrea Hongisfeld and Audrey Cohan suggest [2]. However, in my current context, scheduling makes the full co-teaching cycle challenging, so the SPED teacher and I decided to start small with one component of Honigsfeld and Cohan’s book. That is, we created Language and Learning Profiles for all ELD students who receive SPED services and for those who are in the process of enrolling in the SPED program. In creating these documents, we hoped to support our neurodivergent English learners from the start of their studies at our school. 

Multilingual Pedagogies (Translanguaging)

Language and Learning Profiles 

Many educators and researchers have discussed the importance of getting to know English learners early in the school year by creating documents with information about students’ home languages, schooling histories, and language proficiencies [3]. These documents are sometimes called linguistic profiles, and they are traditionally separate from Individualized Education Plans that list neurodivergent students’ diagnoses, strengths, learning needs, accommodations, and goals. So, at the beginning of the year, I often receive many different documents about my neurodivergent English learners, and it has been difficult to organize the information that I need to create an intentional curriculum and provide targeted instruction. Therefore, my SPED colleagues and I combined our documents into one template that we are calling the Language and Learning Profile. 

Our template is based on ideas from Beth Skelton and Tan Huynh’s first book, Long-Term Success for Experienced Multilinguals. Each neurodivergent English learner receives their own profile that includes their home language(s), grade level, teacher names, score report from placement testing (e.g. EduSynch or Oxford Online Placement Test), language proficiency testing (e.g. WIDA model), a home language writing sample, an English writing sample, survey data about their prior school experiences, language goals, IEP information, behavior contract, and teachers’ notes. This information should be updated throughout the year so that every profile is a working document.

At the beginning and end of each marking period, during my writing conferences with each student, I ask them to review their progress and set a goal for the next quarter. I record their goals on their profiles so that all their other content teachers know what they are working toward. Then, the SPED teacher and I ask the students’ teachers to update the notes section with assets-based comments that report the students’ strengths and growth, along with any notable changes in behavior that could be cause for celebration or intervention. These data are then used during parent-teacher conferences and course-selection meetings to show students’ growth. 

Reflection 

Although we only started using these profiles this year, I am already seeing the benefits. Personally, I use the documents to advocate for the students whenever there is a question about their language level or their performance in a particular content class. I frequently receive emails from content teachers or administrators who are worried about a particular student. When the emails are emotionally charged, rather than writing countless emails back and forth, I can simply share the student’s Language and Learning Profile. Then, using this document, we can start a conversation based on data rather than emotions. We highlight students’ strengths, and we record and share teaching strategies or interventions we have tried in our own classes. In this way, the Language and Learning Profile serves dual purposes: professional development and asynchronous collaboration for teachers, as well as building a system of support for neurodivergent English learners. 

References

[1] U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights. Office for Civil Rights Fact Sheet: Equal Access to Elementary and Secondary Education for Students Who Are English Learners with Disabilities. Nov. 2024, Civil Rights Data Collection 2020–21.

[2] Honigsfeld, Andrea, and Audrey Cohan. Collaboration for Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: We Share the Students. Corwin Press, 2024.

[3] Grosjean, François. Bilingual: Life and Reality. Harvard UP, 2010.
BLOG AUTHOR

Mari McCarville

Mari McCarville teaches German and English Language Acquisition at Leysin American School in Switzerland. She holds a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Denver, a master’s degree in German Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder, and she is currently studying to earn a Doctor of Education at the University of Bath. In addition to teaching, Mari is particularly interested in educational research about second language acquisition and assessment for multilingual learners. Her current areas of study include developing oracy through debates and evaluating adaptive AI language proficiency assessments. 
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