Part IV: Implementing a Practical Approach to Instruction
I am not the teacher I was six years ago when I started my teaching profession. I am better. No, I'm not bragging! When I started teaching, I did the best I could with what I had learned. Not everything I did was good. Not everything I did helped my students...UNTIL...that is the key. As an educator, I do what I think is best for my students...UNTIL I know better. Learning and practicing what's best for my students IS what makes me a better teacher.
Over the years I have learned strategies and methods to better support, my students. I have built a professional learning network that is constantly providing ideas and fresh approaches to better serve my students. So because I know better, I DO better! By no means think that I have it all figured out...on the contrary...I continue learning so I can become the best I can be for my students.
When it comes to implementing practical and effective strategies to support language learners, you must know that what works for one student may not work for another. It is very important for you to know your student. Knowing their reading level is NOT enough. A level doesn't tell you about their personality. A level doesn't show you how they learn. In order to close any academic gap, there needs to be a specific target area to support. For our language learners...LANGUAGE is the target you need to focus on. If you are interested in how to support your language learners with language interventions, read this article by Kristina Robertson.
If you have students who are just beginning to acquire English, fear not. In Boosting Achievement we learn that newcomers can engage in certain tasks to be able to participate in the content provided in class. Your newcomers can:
If your student is a newcomer, the first thing you want to find out is the literacy level in native language because you'll use that to build second language acquisition. Read one of my recent post about a newcomer who grew almost two grade levels in reading just by allowing him to use their native language.
WIDA Consortium has this document that I know you'll find helpful. You'll gain tips about getting to know your newcomers and ways to support them not only in school but also in the community. I also encourage you to read "28. Comprehensible Output: What Students Can Do" by Tan Huynh (@TanELLclassroom). Tan provides tip and strategies to deliver lessons in a way that your students comprehend it as well as support students with output process.
My Flipgrid response was based on Boosting Achievement's section on balanced literacy. I believe it is imperative to teach our students the structures of the English language. Language learners need explicit phonological awareness lessons. These lessons could be quick daily interventions where students learn vowel teams, consonant blends, dominant -r, etc. They need to understand the many combinations of alphabet letters to make words and how words make sentences.
One great website to find "research proven" interventions for these type of foundations is: Florida Center for Reading Research. Here you'll find student centered activities by grade level along with teacher resource guides to focus on language foundations.
If you're more like me and want to provide a hands-on activity to develop your students' language acquisition, I recommend the interventions below. The lessons are designed for pre-K students but work well for students who are just developing language.
Since word-work and learning about the language are only part of the balanced literacy approach, the rest of it needs to be compelling text. As learned in Part III, students need to be exposed to text that is compelling and engaging for them to acquire language. Text must be relevant and must reflect who your students are so they can make connections and be motivated to learn even more.
So to finish up I want to thank you for all you do for your students. I have no doubt in my mind that to this day you have done everything in your power to support your students. However, there is always room for more learning. As you learn new methods and strategies, you'll gain better ways to serve your students and be an even greater teacher!
Thank you for reading!
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Part III - Accelerating Language Development
Ever since I began taking TESOL courses I have been intrigued with the concept of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Promoting Academic Success for ESL Students: Understanding Second Language Acquisition for School was the first book, I read (and still own) about this topic. In this book I learned that "SLA is best developed through contextual, meaningful activities that focus on language use combined with guidance along the way from teachers." Even though linguistic experts have been sharing this theory for several years, I am shocked at the misunderstanding and misconceptions among educators regarding SLA. As educators, we must have a clear understanding of how our language learners acquire language. Boosting Achievement calls this understanding, "Best practices" - Foundation of lessons we plan to provide effective opportunities for language development. Read more about this topic and learn about using the Prism Model.
Factors in Second Language Acquisition
Boosting Achievement targets two very important factors I see needing improvement in our schools. In my opinion, if we improve in these two areas, we could see achievement gaps closing among our language learners.
The reason these two factors are important is that they can make a good teacher into a GREAT teacher. This goes back to the questions in the image above; "Does your classroom cover content or cultivate curiosity?"
A Good Teacher: The Washington Post shared an article providing a pretty accurate list of qualities great teachers share. However, it doesn't highlight some of the teaching strategies and methods good teachers use. For example sight word list drills, amazing anchor charts, and content.
I do believe sight words are important; “sight words account for up to 75% of the words used in beginning children’s printed material”, read this post on Why are Sight Words Important.
I also believe how imperative anchor charts are in the classroom! Read more about why in this article: Anchor Charts: Making Thinking Visible. I also understand that as an educator, you are responsible for teaching "CONTENT". Believe me, I get it. I even use the High Noon Intervention program that provides word lists and word patterns for students to learn in my class. However, what I don't get is the need to kill students with word drills and memorizing a ton of words in isolation. What I don't get is the need to post gorgeous anchor charts already pre-made when students can't even read them. What I don't get is how we can just be happy sharing the content we are excited and knowledgeable about without engaging students' curiosity. If you do all this...GOOD! You are a GOOD teacher. You are doing your job. You are helping students "learn". However, when it comes to supporting English language learners, students need more than just "learn". Students need to acquire language. Students need YOU to be GREAT!
A Great Teacher:
A great teacher gains understanding regarding the concepts mentioned above, AND will also apply them as a foundation for lesson planning to provide language learners with the opportunities they need to acquire the targeted language. A great teacher will have all the qualities mentioned above and will also do the strategies mention above; however, "Comprehensible Input" and "Affective Filter" are visible. A great teacher understands that in order for students to acquire the language there needs to have "a focus on providing many opportunities for oral and written interaction rather than intensely focusing on vocabulary lists and finer points of grammar." (pg. 50) Great teachers also make it possible to provide a safe and comfortable environment where students feel free to make mistakes while learning the language. A great teacher also allows students to engage in creating anchor charts to they CAN read it when they need to refer to it. Remember, anchor charts are resources for students, not pretty wall paper for your classrooms. Here is a great post by Valentina Gonzalez about strategies to support ELs. One of her strategies is the proper use of anchor charts with our language learners.
Here are some examples of my students engaging in text and word-work and you be the judge; Am I a good teacher or a great teacher?!? Then, reflect on your profession. Are you a good or a GREAT teacher?!?
I am so grateful to see Boosting Achievement setting the expectation needed of all language and content teachers. Just like we have high expectations for our students, we need to have high expectations of ourselves. Let's continue learning and improving our pedagogy to better serve our language learners.
Thank you for reading!
If you know me, you'd know how much I LOVE my job. Teaching, is to me, more than a job, or a profession...teaching to me is a calling...my passion! That's why every summer for the past four years, I've signed up to work in my county's Summer Reading Camp.
This camp is only 3-4 weeks long and it's right in between summer break so it's just perfect. I get a break right after the end of the school year and a break before the beginning of the next school year. Families receive an invitation to register for Summer Reading Camp after EOG. Not all students are invited and/or admitted to camp. Our camp is mainly to support students who are not far below grade level in reading. Also for 3rd-grade students who did not pass the End of Grade Testing and did not meet the targeted reading level. Transportation and meals are provided to all students. Here's an idea of what their day looks like:
So basically students have rotation centers: Art integration, Science, Reading Rotation, and Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI). Each rotation is about 45 minutes. We take our group to lunch and recess. We also have a block for read-aloud, iReady (computer time), and brain breaks/bathroom breaks. It sounds confusing, but I promise it works out perfectly!
My Assignment:
My assignment has always been LLI. Leveled Literacy Intervention system is an intensive, small-group, supplementary literacy intervention for students who find reading and writing difficult.
I find this system fascinating because it provides a teachers guide and teaching ideas to make reading and writing very interactive promoting student engagement. Not to mention it also provides strong support for English language learning students. Small group instruction for reading and writing is by far my strength! So, even though I appreciate having a guided lesson plan for each book we read, I always end up adding my own twist. Lessons:
Learning about each other: In order to establish a safe and comfortable environment for all my students, we started with an activity where students learned about each other's likes. I placed a poster board sheet in the middle of the table and explained how we are different and similar in many ways. I wrote our group number in the middle and our names branching out from the center. I modeled writing around my name things I like doing or anything I like about me. I modeled sounding out words how it was ok if words were misspelled. Students immediately started brainstorming ideas and adding them to their name. The ending results were amazing!
Why do this activity?!?
Of course, first things first, I wanted to get to know my new students! But this activity turned out to be a great formative assessment. My intentions were to grasp an idea of their writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills. This was a very low anxiety activity where students felt comfortable making mistakes and taking risks in using English. Without my students knowing I was proving them with a scaffolding approach to write complete sentences about themselves. The Writing Process: A Scaffolding Approach is a process to organize writing to meet the needs of your struggling readers and writers.
Vowel Sounds, Word Patterns, and Word-List:
For students who are struggling with vowel sound discrimination, reading grade level text is a torture. Being able to recognize the sound a vowel or a team vowel makes is foundational for readers. Kindergarten through 2nd grade are the grades where students need to master recognizing team vowels sounds and their patterns for written purposes. A student in 3rd grade on should be reading to learn and not having to struggle with phonic foundations. Now for ELL students to achieve high levels of fluency in English, they need to receive sufficient amounts of oral and written input as well as opportunities to express themselves orally and/or in writing. Process:
After reading a story, students get a list of random words taken from the story read and they are to use all of the words to make sentences. The sentences are about what happened in the text so they are familiar with the vocabulary. They are also allowed to look in the text to make sentences. These students here made 5 different sentences! They take turns circling the words needed for each sentence. The final product looks very colorful and they feel very accomplished!
Writing about text:
Here is a great link for tips for using prewriting strategies. Here is another document with great ideas for prewriting strategies.
I had such a great time this summer learning along with my students. I am already looking forward to next summer camp!
Link to all tweets related to our summer school experience!
Thank you for reading!
Part One: Working with Students Who are SIFE
I don't know about you, but I want my students to remember me as their teacher for a life time. However, in order for this to happen, I need to make sure I strengthen my relationship with each and every one of my students. And relationship building starts by learning students background.
Let me start by emphasizing how important it is to know our students' background because each category of language learners is different and each requires a unique level of support. Here is an article I found very relevant to this topic: Good Teachers Embrace Their Students' Cultural Background. Here I learned that as teachers, we tend to use our own experiences when planning the lessons we teach, but then students cannot create connections because is not relevant for them. However, when we know students' background, their story, their struggles, their past, we would lean toward activities and materials that will support students in making connections.
Boosting Achievement does a fantastic job highlighting and providing awareness of the many different categories our language learners' background. Just take a close look at the chart below.
The point I want to bring up with this chart is that not all language learners in your class fall under one category. Our students come to us with a story, with a personal and unique background, and in order for them to be successful, they must receive the appropriate support.
Take my experience as a language learner high school student for example. When I first came to the United States my teacher needed to know that I was a 'Newcomer/Recent Immigrant' and a 'SIFE' student. Not only was I learning the language but I had also missed a lot of school years in my country which put me far behind classmates my age. When interested in supporting L1 (native language) it is imperative for teachers to know the student's educational background. And to find this information could be as simple as asking the parent. Build a relationship with parents and students to provide what is best for the student to be successful in school and in life.
I believe that ALL students need our support. However, I want you to think about English language learners who are struggling academically. Why? The answer is simple: Achievement Gap! I strongly believe that the achievement gap exists among our ELs because we are not targeting and/or providing the appropriate support.
Tips to support newcomers/SIFE students:
Boosting achievement does the following recommendations for SIFEs' needs:
I also have a few recommendations for newcomer students: here.
Watch the video below by Teaching Channel to see how newcomers and SIFE students interact through the use centers to accelerate reading development. This video clearly shows that our newcomers/SIFEs have the ability and "know how to" when the opportunities as presented.
Part I has a heavy focus on Cultural Responsive Teaching. This is super important and a very hot topic in education right now. I believe is due to the growing diversity found among students in our classrooms. Part of being culturally responsive is building a relationship with our students, so last week, our focus was on getting to know our students and building strong relationships by valuing our students' stories. However, I see it as taking a step further...When we know our students' background and care about who they are, it'll reflect in what our classrooms look like. What I mean is that knowing your students will make you want to provide a place where they feel safe, comfortable, and familiar to them. Making sure our classroom decor mirrors our students' culture and background.
Boosting achievement provides great tips such as desk arrangements, and labeling school items in multiple languages. Here is another article I found helpful on providing classroom setup strategies. It's imperative to consider these tips that facilitate learning ultimately optimizing language learning and academic achievement. Self-Advocacy
Carol shares a fascinating story of a SIFE student who had to advocate for himself when he noticed he was not getting what he needed. I believe it is necessary for our students, Kindergarten - 12th grade, be able to advocate for themselves. Students will at one point in their education encounter educators or school personnel who will instead of supporting students are obstacles for students' success. That is the point when students need to stand for what they believe it is best for themselves. I found this link very helpful on tips and steps to follow on teaching students to self- advocate.
Osama is now my hero! He taught me that as an educator, there should be a level of 'shame' when I don't take the time to listen to students' needs and advocate on their behalf. You see, as an educator, you can't be both; You either are supportive or an obstacle. Which are you? If you are reading this, is because you care about your students and want to support them. Thank you, #eduHero!
Accessing SIFEs' English Proficiency and Background Knowledge
This section really made think about ways I can gather my newcomers' background information to better serve them. In Cabarrus County, we are very fortunate to have the ELLevation platform that houses our ELs' demographic information as well as their language proficiency levels. This is a system with easily accessible data as well as targeted instructional language and content strategies.
However, I noticed that there is no place for us to flag if our student is a refugee student. While discussing his topic with our county's ESL counselor, I realized that the only way for teachers to know if a student is SIFE is to share it with the teacher. But what if the student moves to another school? Shouldn't this information be available as part of their demographic information for new teachers' easy access? This thought is just one of the thoughts Boosting Achievement is making me realize as a read through. Another idea I have after reading the "Refugee-Focused Intake Process" is to create a spreadsheet with some of the components Texas uses for their "Intake/Pre - Assessment Form". I am fascinated with the three focused components: Affective, Linguistic, and Cognitive. As an ESL teacher, my focused needs to go beyond whether students speak English or not. But also know their cognitive skills levels in math and reading, and/or issues that could affect them psychologically, mentally or emotionally. I can't wait to see what else I learn in the coming chapters. I am definitely betting my teaching pedagogy with Boosting Achievement!!
If you are interested in reading my previous blogs on Boosting Achievement book club notes, just follow this link!
Don't forget to check you Carol's blog. Here is her blog for Boosting Achievement Week 2
Thank you for reading!
This quote is core of what I am about. A personal story, especially a story filled with struggles and hardships beyond our imagination, can be the foundation for our students’ success.
As educators, we must be open-minded about the possibilities for SIFE students and begin to see their culture and language as an asset not as a deficit. Being SIFE doesn’t make them any inferior.
Now, Carol advised and modeled that just being aware of students’ stories and previous hardships, is not enough; we must also act, and to me, acting is finding ways to provide SIFE students the opportunities they need to be successful.
This thought led me to gather a few resources I found helpful on this topic: The Immigrant Learning Center offered two wonderful webinars on July 11th and 12th. Follow this link to access presentations and other resources.
Access Newcomer Tool Kit provided by the U.S. Department of Education: Who are our newcomers;
Welcoming newcomers to a safe and thriving school environment; How do we support newcomers’ social and emotional needs; Establishing partnerships with parents. https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oela/newcomers-toolkit/index.html Education Connection also offered interactive 3-part webinar series and provided resources on supporting newcomers: You must sign up to access their resources but its totally FREE!
We are learning so much from this book club already. Many of us have been challenged to do some things we never thought we would do. I, for example, learned how to create a 3D avatar and posted a bookSnap! Check it out!
Don't forget to check out Carol Salva's blog for more resources: Boosting Achievement Week 1
If you have the book and would like to go over the questions we used during week one for discussion, here they are! Thanks to Katie Toppel (@Toppel_ELD) for providing the questions.
All tweets under #ELLchat_BKclub are here so you haven't missed any:
Thank you for reading!
Notes and reflections posted here are about the newly released book;
Boosting Achievement: Reaching Students with Interrupted or Minimal Education by: Carol Salva (@MsSalvaC) and Anna Matis (@AnnaTeachesELLs).
There are several reasons why I am interested in this book:
Now, I started this post because I felt like I had to do more than just read this fabulous book. I needed a place to log and share my thoughts and notes about all the wonderful points gained from reading. Besides, the tweet below not only spoke volumes to me but it gave me the conviction I needed to find ways to better interact with my reading.
Carol Salva has a great blog that provides all the resources that go along with the 5 week virtual book study. Please check it out for weekly updates!
There is also a @bookSnapsREAL Gallery through Padlet to curate all the #ELLchat_BKclub #bookSnaps and a Flipgrid (platform where videos with responses are archived) created by Carlota Holder (@Carlota_Holder)
Blog Post: Boosting Achievement Book Study - Week 1
Blog Post: Boosting Achievement Book Study - Week 2
Blog Post: Boosting Achievement Book Study - Week 3
Blog Post: Boosting Achievement Book Study - Week 4
Blog Post: Boosting Achievement Book Study - Week 5
Thank you for reading!
A few days ago, this image was trending on my twitter feed and it immediately made me think of my newcomers. I hold a very special place in my heart for newcomers. I understand how they feel! As a newcomer student, I remember the fear very vividly! Fear of the unexpected. Fear of the new language. Fear of the what ifs...What if they make fun of me? What if they don't like me? What if I need something and I can't ask? What if they think I'm not smart because I don't speak English. What if...the list could go on and on! But what I also remember very vividly, are the smiles from the school staff as I entered the school building for the very first time.
You see, you don't need to speak you newcomers' native language in order to welcome them into your school or classroom. Your smile goes a long way! Read about providing a safe and affirming environment to lowering the affective filter for language learners. Now, the purpose of this post is not to provide tips for your newcomers in general. You can find that here! This post is to highlight a specific newcomer...Brayan! I posted this tweet about him and thought I would share more about his success!
Brayan was born in Mexico. He started with us in March of 2016. His age placed at a second-grade level and on his first day of school, I had to explain to him that I needed to administer not one, but two tests. I needed to administer the W-APT which is the assessment that determines the initial program placement for services, and the ACCESS (since he enrolled during testing window ?).
It didn't take me long to learn we had a lot in common: Love and passion for learning and a very similar childhood! It amazed me how quick he was to learn new information and how well he could read and write in Spanish. For the remainder of the school year, Brayan received double ESL services. He received one-on-one session for Newcomer foundations with Mrs. Tirado and pull-out services with me and the rest of his second grade ELL peers. In May of 2016, his teacher administered a state mandated assessment (Dibels Next Reading 3D) to determine his end of year reading level. He placed on PC (Print Concepts) which meant he had acquired enough English to demonstrate this list of skills at a proficiency level! In 2016-2017 school year, Brayan began 3rd-grade. This grade level to me is crucial because is when students make the leap from learning to read to reading to learn! Even though Brayan didn't speak English, I didn't want him to just sit in class and not learn a thing. Luckily, his 3rd-grade teacher, Ms. Sams, is a very supportive teacher. We discussed ways to support him so he could be part of core instruction. We decided to start taking advantage of his ability to read and write in Spanish. So he was granted the use of google translate, he was provided books in Spanish, he would complete retells in Spanish, he would do research in Spanish...he was even allowed to do presentations in Spanish!!! He would come to my ESL class time and say, "Mrs. Francis, can you help me translate this paper so I can turn it in?" See, he knew that google translate tool would translate the document for him...but he also knew that in many occasions, google doesn't translate correctly. He needed to make sure his translation was correct! Here is an example of a personal narrative he wrote in October and here is a retell about the book "Emmanuel's Dream". The reason we were allowing him to read and write using this native language was because we truly believe in studies focusing on L1 transfers to L2. By January 2017, when the middle of the year reading assessment was administered, he was a level D! Now, the only reason why he didn't score higher was because at a level 'F' is when the written component is required. For students to score a level 'F' or higher, they must accurately respond to a written prompt and they must do so in English. In order to develop his writing skills in English, he was encouraged to begin proving assignments in the targeted language! This is the first assignment he presented in English and he understood every single sentence! Watch this video as he courageously presents his research to his class!
Brayan was also a participant in our first Annual Spanish Spelling Bee! Not only he helped his peers learn the words but he was also a runner-up the day of the competition!
Brayan's motivation and passion for learning, coupled with the support and opportunities we were able to provide for him, empowered him to soar academically and linguistically.
So what is the result to all if this, you might ask?!? Well, just this month, his teacher administered his last reading level assessment of the year and he placed on a level 'J'!! THAT'S 10 READING LEVELS, my friends!! ? And I have no doubt he scored very well on his ACCESS too. I will be updating his information as soon as I get his scores. My objective in sharing Brayan's story of success with you is because he is proof that allowing students to use their native language to learn and show knowledge is imperative. If you want newcomer students to be part of their everyday learning, you must allow them to use the language they master. Research favors the use and development of native language to better and faster acquire the second language. If you teach newcomers and have a success story you'd like to share, please email me or posted on twitter using #ELs_CAN. We would love to highlight and share as many newcomers' stories as possible...because English language learners CAN!! Thank you for reading!
A couple of months ago I had a 4th-grade student stand in the middle of class and courageously said, "Mrs. Francis, what do I have to do to place out of ESL?" I went ahead and showed her the data and gave her step-by-step what she needed to do to place out of her ESL status.
Meanwhile, there were so many thoughts going through my head. I started to doubt myself as an educator...Does she not like me? Does she not like my class? What should I be doing differently? She preceded, "Mrs. Francis, I like you and I really like your class. Even if I place out of ESL, I still want to come to your class"; "Is just that being an ESL student makes me feel like a failure!" Her words hit me to the core of what I am about! In a matter of seconds, my life flashed before me. Her words made me relive how I felt for so many years as an ESL student and high school dropout. My students and I started discussing the reasons why being an ESL student would make us feel the way it does. Together we brainstormed the following:
This powerful discussion allowed me to share with my students my own experience as a language learner. My students needed to hear from me that I also felt the way they feel, and that having the sense of failure does not make you a failure. On the contrary, failures we face today are stepping stones and detours to greatness. Personally, this conversation opened my eyes to what my focus needed to be from that point on...start highlighting my students' strengths! Our ELs enrich our classroom culture with who they are and with the languages they speak. It is our job as educators to honor our students and empower them with tools and resources to shine...even if it's a little bit! Celebrate progress! Inspire them to dream, learn, and do more so they can become more. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs before Blooms! Reading Sarah Ottow's post: "ELL Achievement Gap or Opportunity Gap" helped me understand that the academic achievement gap that exists among our ELs is not a 'within child' underachievement issue! If our ELs are walking our school hallways repeating to themselves, "I can't", "I don't", "I won't", then it is our job as responsible adults and educators to enlighten them and empower them to aspire for more. We can see the 'big picture'...so why not support them where they are...provide OPPORTUNITIES for students to begin closing their academic achievement gap. So, inspired by Ms. Ottow's post, I began to look for ways to provide opportunities for my students to grow, and show that they CAN! I shared with them my personal narrative as an immigrant and as a newcomer student. I was transparent with them because I wanted to gain their trust. I wanted them to see me for who I am as a person and not as a teacher. I encouraged them to begin their own blog and narrate their personal lives. Oh, boy! The stories I learned! One student began writing about the time his mother left him in Mexico with his grandparents...he grew up thinking that his grandparents were his parents. He met his mother when he came to the U.S. at the age of 8. Another student began to write about being adopted because one day her dad came from Mexico and shot her mom and then shot himself! Her eyes were teary as she shared her story. Another student wanted to share his story but just couldn't get his thoughts down on paper. When I told him he should write his story in Spanish, his pencil wouldn't go fast enough to write his words!
I am taking the time to get to know my students and at the same time, I am highlighting and valuing who they are. Highlight their strengths and you'll see their weaknesses disappear! All it takes is to go the extra mile to cultivate a relationship with your students. When they know you care...they'll do anything for you! Thank you for reading! |
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