What a year!! In October 2021, I started meeting virtually with a group of teachers of newcomers who are interested in learning new strategies, and gain lessons ideas to serve and teach their  newcomers. I have a list of over 300 teachers who monthly receive an invitation to meet and learn together. Of course, not all teacher attend, but sessions are recorded and I know MANY go back and catch up on the recording.

Our monthly meeting routine is basically the same every time. We have an expert and guest speaker share for 30-40 minutes then we go into grade-level breakout rooms to discuss deeper about the topic.
In our breakout room, we have a shared document where we make notes of any ideas or resources we lean about from each other.

I am so grateful to amazing and superheroes in the field who have agreed to join us and share their expertise with us. We are better because of their teaching and guidance.

​A HUGE shoutout to these amazing #PLC4newcomers’ superstars who shared with us from November 2021 to December 2022.

If you are interested in watching our previous meetings, follow this link to my YouTube channel ===> https://bit.ly/PLCplaylist
​
We are continuing these meetings in 2023. If you'd like to joining our PLC email list, please enter your information HERE and I will make sure you're invited to our next meetings. 

November - Supporting Struggling Learners with Patricia Vitale-Reilly -- @pattyvreilly
December - Does This Work with English Learners? Holly Genova -- @GenovaHollyAnn
January - Language Lens with Sarah B. Ottow -- @SarahOttow
March - Re-Imagining Migration with Adam Strom -- @afstrom
March/April -- Ramadan with Abeer Ramadan-Shinnawi - @shinram1
May - Wild About WIDA with Courtney Morgan  -- @MrsMorganTeach
June - Celebrating Us with Lee Perez - @LanguagePerez
October 2022 -- Boosting Achievement with Carol Salva -- @DrCarolSalva
November 2022 - Engaging Families with Hannah Levister -- @HannahL_MLP
December 2022 - Sense of Belonging with Valentina Gonzalez --  @ValentinaESL

If you watch any of these fantastic presentations and find it helpful, please share a comment with me. I'd love to know how we're impacting YOU and your students.

Thank you for reading and watching! 

​I have to be transparent and share that poetry is not one of my favorite genres to read or to choose as a mentor text to teach my students. Of course, once in a while, I come across some amazing poems that shake me to my core - like "My Name is Jorge: on Both Sides of the River" by Jane Medina

I LOVE using this book towards the end of April to celebrate Poetry month but also to begin introducing our last unit of the school year - Moving Stories. I cannot remember how I came across this book, but what I do remember is turning every page and finding myself reflected in every word. I'd say that this is one of the first books I came across in my first year of teaching and it impacted so much in the material and resources I began using to teach my multilingual students.

What fascinates me about Jorge's story is that each poem is a window for the reader to learn about an event and experience in Jorge's life. Each poem is at a kid-friendly level that children can understand and learn from Jorge and his family. 

Unfortunately, I only own two copies of this book so I had to get creative to have students read the book.
I started by analyzing the book first and deciding which poems are the core of Jorge's story. Even though all the poems are fantastic, I knew that reading the whole book would've been overwhelming for my newcomers since there are 27 poems.  

The poems I chose are: 
My Name is Jorge
Invisible
Why Am I Dumb?
The Busy Street
Dirty Words 
Mexican Dummy Tine
The King of the United States
Ants-On-A-Log 
My Paper
Suspended
Men Don't Cry
The Test
Packing 
​
Once I had selected the poems I wanted to have students analyze, I made a list of themes I noticed were highlighted by each poem.
The themes I came up with were Language, Food, Representation, School, Immigration, Name, Family Divided, Unfairness, and Back to Mexico. 

I made a copy of the poems I selected (along with the Spanish translation) and I placed them all around our classroom. The idea was to have students get up and go around the room reading the poems. The assignment was to read each poem and think about what the poem was mostly about. Each student was given a sticky notepad to share how each poem is related to one of the themes listed by the teacher. I had placed the themes on chart paper on the board so students knew what each theme was. Many of the themes were topics we had discussed during previous lessons. I also left a chart paper with a question mark for students who wanted to brainstorm their theme.

After students created a cover for their story about Jorge, they were instructed to retell Jorge's story using the sentences they created from each poem and for each theme. 

We talked about how a story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end - so as they picked the order of their sentences, they were to consider what might've happened when and in what order.
For example, the poem about Jorge's name is. a great poem to introduce Jorge. Next, poems that share about this childhood, migration, school, family, etc. 
All books were different since everyone had a different perspective of the poems and added their perspective.
Each student's book about Jorge had at least 10 pages and was in chronological order. 

Once the story drafts were ready, students took turns to meet with me to make sure the book was in the correct order. We also discussed ways to make the book interesting and with our perspective and connections added to it to make it interesting. 

I am so excited to share with you the wonderful cover of my book:
​𝙄𝙛 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙊𝙣𝙡𝙮 𝙆𝙣𝙚𝙬: Letters from an Immigrant Teacher  - Published by Seidlitz Education
In my book, I share my immigrant story through letters written to my newcomer students

PLC - "A professional learning community is a team of educators who share ideas to enhance their teaching practice and create a learning environment where all students can reach their fullest potential."
 I love this definition of  what a PLC is all about because I've seen it and experienced it in action. For the past few months, the #PLC4newcomers team has been meeting weekly through Twitter space chat and once a month through Zoom. If you're not familiar with space chats, it is a new feature Twitter provides where a group of users can get together and share about a given topic. What I like about space chats is that you can hear participants share their thoughts and ideas.  Over the past four months, I've been the host of our space chat. Educators from across the country share ideas "...to enhance their teaching practice and create a learning environment where all students can reach their fullest potential."

Anyway, the actual purpose of this post is to share all the notes I have from our Jan. 20th chat. This chat was by far the most attended and the most engaging of all. Along with teachers sharing in our space chat, teachers were also using the hashtag to share tips, images, ideas, and resources. It was an amazing time encouraging one another.

The topic of conversation was "Starting a new Semester - Get to know you activities" - Listed below are all the activities shared. 

• "All About Me" mini-posters- I shared this activity I did with students as we started our second semester. Students received several sentences to choose from to share about themselves. Students choose between 5-7 questions and create a personalized poster. I created my poster right in front of students for them can see what was expected. (see Tweet below)​
• Social Contracts - Class norms - I shared a social contract activity I do with students. I provide them with an electronic copy (click HERE) so they can translate but I have them respond on sticky notes and place them on chart paper. Ms. Patty Vitale-Reilly shared an extension to this activity - After the contract is created, take random pictures of students following the contract and post them in the classroom. It will highlight them and will show the accountability of having a class contract. (see her Tweet below)
• Honoring Name - We discussed how important it is to acknowledge and honor students' names. Marta Garcia shared an amazing activity she does use the mentor text "Alma" (see tweet below) 
• Selfie Kahoots - Read more HERE for all detail on how to create a teacher selfie Kahoot and a class Kahoot. All credit goes to author Carol Salva. We also discussed revisiting our class Kahoots. I know many of us create these at the beginning of the school year BUT revisiting this activity would show so much about students' growth. 
• Identity Maps & I am Poems - Jennifer Frankowiak shared how she uses Jamboard to have students create identity maps by adding pictures as scaffolding. Jennifer uses the book "The Day You Begin" as a mentor text to get her students to share their stories. (see Tweet below)

         Elvira Ledezma shared her amazing "I am Poems" with a Flipgrid activity and an Inside-Outside perspective of who we are. It's an amazing activity you need to check out (see tweet                  below). 

• Timelines - Timeline students' stories...but you can timeline anything! Timeline students' hobbies, places, favorite music, family events, etc. I'm looking forward to exploring this more. 
• Pen-Pals and Google Earth - Kiki Xiraki-Tselios shared how she engages her students by joining pen pals and Google Earth. 

I was trying to balance all the information being shared on Twitter and the information our participants were sharing. I took notes and promised I was going to curate this information and sharing. 
Below you'll see a Wakelet with all the resources shared on Twitter. If you don't have a Twitter account and would like me to share these resources, please let me know.

If you're reading this and can share some ideas with us, please, add them to the comments. I'd be happy to add them to this blog post.
Also, if you can join our Twitter space chats, that would be amazing. We chat on Thursdays evening at 7:00 PM ET, just follow the hashtag #PLC4Newcomers and join. We also meet once a month via Zoom. Hope you join us! 

Thank you for reading!!

I
Do
Not
Like
Tests/Exams.

Students do not like tests/exams either.
They are, for the most part, created and administered with a "gotcha" in mind. For the most part, tests are to reflect what the student learned and can demonstrate. They cause so much anxiety in students and they're not accurate of the actual learning students acquired. 

As I created my newcomers' final exam for our ESL for Beginners course, I created it intending to reflect on my teaching abilities and my skills to help students understand and ability to re-tell what they've learned. Their scores will evaluate ME.
​
I also wanted our final exam to serve as an opportunity for my newcomers to show what they've learned over the past few weeks. 

After having my newcomers in class for roughly 14 weeks, I've decided to create an assignment where each student would work independently to demonstrate literacy skills in English.
​I showed students all the books in the "Welcome Newcomers - Fundamental" kit published by Saddleback Publishing (FREE sample in link), and had each student choose a book of choice. 

I told students that they were going to read the book "in English" and provide a book report. They were not too intimidated to do the work since we had been working with Saddleback books during small groups. They knew to use the following strategies to help them understand the book:

• Answer prediction questions using the book cover and using background knowledge.
• Intentionally look for cognates.
• Read the basic words they were familiar with within each page.
• Use the images to make inferences about what's happening.
• Use Google translate when needed.
• Ask peers for help.
• Ask the teacher for help.

I wholeheartedly agree with the quote above. Investing in our students' identities is so important, and it pays off.
To invest in our students' identities and create lessons around students' cultural interests, we must invest time to know our students.

I have a student who loves cooking. Every once in a while he'd send me videos and messages about what he is cooking. He loves telling me about the ingredients and the cooking processes. He knew it didn't bother me since I was always asking questions about his cooking.

This student was the influence for this lesson - Our first ESL Class' Recipe Book --

Lessons that don't work for me or my students are my rocks! I don't know about you, but every now and then there is a lesson that must be abandoned...whether is because of planning or because students are just not into it. 
But, just like the quote says - We can use these rocks in our way as stumbling rocks OR stepping stones to better our craft and better out students' learning. 

The last days of October, my lesson plans were around using Scholastic articles and having students present in groups. Well, this lesson went down the drain when school started that week and I noticed  my students were not into doing work --They looks very unmotivated since the first quarter was ending. I knew immediately that I needed to switch my plans and engage student in a fun activity. 

This is when the elementary teacher in me began planning a craft activity. Of course, because I'm teaching English as a second language and LOVE using content to develop language...I decided to use NEWSELA as a resource for our lessons. We were in the week of Halloween (spooky time) so I thought it would be appropriate to read about our skeleton!

You heard it say...and I'll say it again - Teachers, work smarter NOT harder!!!

After my newcomers finished creating sentences based on their sketches of the story "Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah", (SEE LESSON HERE), I wanted my students to do something with their hard work. 

THIS lesson here gave me a GREAT idea for our next lessons!

This lesson extension lead us to  discuss "Big Ideas" found in the story, analyze visible and invisible traits, and compare and contrast ourselves to Emmanuel. 

The "Big Ideas" were not a difficult process to explain since I presented them through a Jamboard, so my students quickly translated the ideas and were able to understand them. We sure practiced reading them in English and found sentences we had created to match each "Big Idea". 
The list of "Big Ideas is in the lessons shared above on page #4.  The handout is to compare and contrast, but I only had them complete the "Emmanuel" part. 
The matching details supporting each idea had to come from the sentences students had already created; so, there wasn't any extra work to do besides analyzing the sentences and placing them on the corresponding "Big Idea". 

One of my favorite and most impactful picture books I enjoy using to teach my newcomers is - "Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah" by Laurie Ann Thompson

Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah's inspiring true story and the fantastic illustrations in the book are a great tool to not only teach English as a second language but also encourage our students to embrace who they are and believe in their abilities and potential. 

The first thing I did was check with my public library to see how many books were available to check them out and use in our class. Eventually, I'll buy my own class set!!!

I LOVE highlighting and posting on Twitter and Instagram my students' work. Just like they are proud of their work, I'm proud of it too.  So, last week, right after posting about my newcomers' fantastic writing, I received a question from a follower. She asked: "How are you able to get newcomers to produce that much written language? I am super curious!" 
This question surprised me because I've worked with newcomers for years, and I don't have a problem getting my newcomers to produce written work - unless, the student is a SLIFE (students with limited formal education). -- But even like that, I've figured out ways for newcomers to produce written work that demonstrates their learning...see this lesson here.

Anyway, I thought I'd share here how my newcomers' written work was scaffolded so they demonstrate their full potential.

In my opinion, picture books are the best text we could use with newcomers that will provide the understanding and the language they need to be able to retell the story. 

I started by sharing with my newcomers a list of guiding questions we were to use to help us understand and retell the story. 

I had two class meeting days left with our newcomers, and I wanted to do something productive. As an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, when I think of rich lessons, I think of activities that will make my students think critically, move around, use all language domains (speaking, listening, reading, and writing), and learn!

At first, I thought about showing movie clips about mystery or suspense movies. I could have had them identify story elements like characters, settings, problems, solutions, and describing the plot - which is what we did using text. But, I didn't want my newcomers to get the idea that I wanted them to watch movies as we end our school year. I also didn't want my colleges to see my newcomers watching movies instead of doing productive work. 

So, what better than End-of-School Year reflection questions?!? Most of my students were face-to-face, but I had four student who were learning virtually. Hybrid teaching is challenging when you are trying to have an interactive and engaging lesson. But, technology comes to the rescue in times like this! I've taught my newcomers how to use google slides, Jamboard, and how to navigate our course Canvas page. 

For the most part, I agree when people say - "don't reinvent the wheel..." - Not reinventing the wheel has saved me so much time. I've learned a lot from other educators. However, when it comes to working with newcomers, you can't just use the wheels you find -- somehow, you must reinvent it to make it fit with the group of students you're teaching. You know - personalizing your lesson for a better outcome.
​So, if I wanted my students to answers great end-of-year reflection questions, I quickly began searching for what other educators have created.
These were the two web pages I found useful to do what I needed.

1. 50 Questions To Ask Middle and High School Students To Check in and Get To Know Them Better (Free Download!)
2. 10 Self-Reflection Questions for the End of the School Year

When looking at all of these questions, I carefully selected and tweaked them a little bit to fit the outcome I wanted to hear from my newcomers. I thought ten questions would be doable. My goal was for them to consider the quality of work versus quantity. 
I created a google slides presentation so it'd look presentable and colorful. Each slide had a question in big font to emphasize its importance.  You can access the slides below!

Two reasons why google slides are useful with this activity:

1. It allows newcomers to copy and paste the questions from the slide onto google translate.
2. Each slide can be downloaded as an image and add to a Jamboard for students' responses.

The slides were made available to all students. If your students have not learned how to take information from slides onto google translate, you want to teach that to them. It's a skill they can use in any class they go to - It's empowerment!
​
My face-to-face students received colorful sticky-note pads to answer each question.They placed their answers on a chart paper that had all the questions. 
My virtual students received a link to a Jamboard where they answered on a sticky note for each question.
​Here is the Jamboard if you'd like to make a copy and use it with your students. 

Students were all engaged. Not only were the questions open-ended so they could share their thoughts openly, but it created a stress-free time for students to share their voices. 

Several of their answers will serve to make some adjustments as the support they need for the next school year. A great educator should ALWAYS make room for improvements - especially when students are giving feedback.
I also learned a few new things about each student - especially the two newcomers who had only been with us for a week or two. The activity outcome made me happy. I almost cried when I saw a few of them mentioning me in their answers.

Needless to say, we wrapped our last day with a group picture and selfies. See pictures HERE.

Thank you for reading! 

When & Where:
July 21, 2021
10:00 am – 1:00 pm CDT
Zoom Conference
What it is:
Amplifying the Voices of Unaccompanied Minors is an opportunity for teachers and school leaders to hear from those who have lived the experience as an unaccompanied minor in the American school system. ​

As our newcomers' course comes to an end, I began thinking of ways to make time and space for students to demonstrate their full potential. One way students, regardless of their English proficiency, can be by creating something to demonstrate their ability to put together all the skills and elements we've learned for several weeks. 
When I think about students creating something, the first resource & platform that comes to mind is WriteReader. 
I've used WriteReader for years. I've used it with elementary students and now with high school students. It's a student-friendly platform and easy to use for teachers. Once you create your teacher account, you add students to your class list. 
So, as a culminating course project, my newcomers were to write their own mystery/suspense story after reading a couple of  stories from Saddleback - To read about the lessons that lead to this final project. You can read blog post #1 HERE and blog post #2 HERE. 

Students were encouraged to use an electronic translator or write in their home language. As I read each story, I provided feedback edit ideas.  All students published their work in English. I even had a couple of students whose stories were so long - They shared with me how excited they were about publishing their own stories and that once they started writing, they couldn't stop.

It was amazing to see how into writing they all were. Even my virtual students were super engaged!

I appreciate platforms like WriteReader that allow students to discover their love for reading and writing.
I also love having books like Saddleback books that not only helped developed my students' reading skills.

Have you used any of these resources? If so, share with me how you've used it. I'd love to add tools to my toolbox.

I cannot wait to show these books to my students next school year. I'm so proud of their hard work.


Thank you for reading!

This activity gave me a good idea of their text comprehension. By providing text evidence and placing them in the correct box, I can tell that comprehension took place therefore language acquisition happened too!

Be sure to check our next lesson when we create our own stories using the elements we learned in these two stories we read. 
If you have a different way to teach compare and contrast, please, share it in the comments. I'd love to learn from you and add tools to my toolbox.

​Click HERE to read Part 3

​Thank you for reading!

I cannot believe I am sharing our end-of-course lessons and project! This year, though like no other, went by so fast. So, here we are admiring how far our newcomers had come. 

This school year, I had a couple of ESL student teachers so I didn't plan as many lessons for our newcomers as I usually do.
Though there were so many challenges this school year - teaching with masks, social distancing, balancing hybrid teaching and learning, and so much more; I'm glad we made it through successfully. 
                                                                              ~~~~~~~~~~
I started taking over my newcomers class in mid-April and I was so excited to do so. Since one of my student teachers was still teaching my class, I'd one day teach students on campus and another day I'd teach students online.
Of course, my first go-to resource as I began planning was Saddleback books! We read two books that lead to our end-of-year project.

This post is featured on the Re-Imagening Migration website. Find article here: 

I was 15 years old when I was asked to pack-up a backpack with a couple of outfits and whatever else I could fit in and carry with me on a journey from Guatemala to the USA.
I remember looking around the room and packing a few photographs and recuerditos (keepsakes) I didn't want to leave behind.

I do not doubt that many immigrants experience this moment when they have to decide what to pack and bring along their migration journey. Besides packing the essentials, many of us pack something that will remind us of the world we are leaving behind, representing our country, homeland, and believes.
​
Just like we pack-up objects, we also pack-up our identity within us and hold on to it as tight as possible because we know it is what makes us who we are. The things we pack-up within us are experiences, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, family, foods, music, culture, heritage, and more. All this builds our individuality. 
​
Yuyi Morales narrates this personal experience perfectly in this image. We see how her backpack includes a jatana, a pencil, nature items, and Señor Calavera. If you follow Yuyi's Instagram account, you'd see how these objects represent her identity.  Objects that she carried with her as she crossed over the Mexican border to come to the USA. And just like we see in her book, the objects that represented her identity were kept safe and packed up because they were being protected or perhaps they stayed packed up because she didn't feel like her individuality would fit in the new culture.
In Dreamers, we see the characters trying to blend in and function in a new country and culture but with a substantial struggle to be who they are. 

I experienced this as well, and so do many immigrant students and individuals who come to the United States. While many of us love our home culture, our language, and everything about our heritage, society tells us that to function successfully, we must keep our background packed up and blend in the American culture and master the English language to be successful.
For many of us, it'll be years and years till we realize that our culture, language, and heritage are valuable and core to who we are. 
For others, this realization will never happen - and heritage, language, and culture will be lost. To me, this is a sad reality that will hinder many generations. 

Just wanted to make sure you knew about this fantastic (and FREE) webinar opportunity to learn how to support our immigrant and refugee students. 

This free webinar is hosted by Re-imagining Migration and The Immigrant Learning Center's (ILC) Public Education Institute.

It is a two-day online workshop featuring researchers, teacher trainers and pedagogical experts.
Participants will learn:

1. the impact of current events on immigrant and refugee students
2. strategies to improve distance learning
3. how to support students during times of crisis
4. how to bring the immigrant voice into focus across the curriculum

You can register HERE for the 2020 Immigrant Student Success: Strategies and Tools for K-12 and Adult Educators on July 8 and 9, 12:00 to 3:00 PM EDT, three hours each day

The Bilingual/ESL Department at Region 10  ESC in North TX holds an annual symposium for their 500+ educators. This year, due to the COVID pandemic, the event was help virtually.

I was honored and humbled to be invited as their 2020 Symposium 'Power Of Unity' keynote speaker. I was so excited to connect and meet so many passionate educators who are working hard to provide their very best for all students. 

The keynote presentation was on June 23rd and it was a way to kick-off the symposium - teachers had a long day of sessions to attend right after the keynote. 
My presentation title was 'Shifting from Statistics to Stories'

The presentation was streamed LIVE so you can find the recorded version on my YouTube channel below. 

Sometimes… is just the book we need right now. Ibarra and Seidlitz share with us a story in which immigrants’ experiences are legitimized, one that opens doors for connections and much-needed conversations. It is a story that made me think about how experiences and family stories don’t have to be forgotten. And about how significant it is when stories are shared, because they validate what is core in our existence and our hopes for what is to come.
Sometimes… is a story of hope. A story of courage and strength. A story of a family who worked together through difficult circumstances to make their dreams come true. And even though sometimes things don’t go as planned and changes need to happen along the way, we see the characters rising through it all. We see Andrés and Clara holding tight to the hope offered by their mother and teachers. A hope that helps them get through every situation that comes their way.
The International Children’s Book Day theme for 2020 was “A Hunger for Words”, and as much as I identify with this phrase, I also believe there’s a hunger for cultural understanding — a hunger for identity and individual acceptance. 

This post is a follow up to "Stories that Sparkle Powerful Conversations" - If you have not read it, I encourage you to read it since it provides the background you may need for this post. 

My advanced newcomer English learners were assigned the picture book 'Refugees and Migrants' by Ceri Roberts. This book covers migration from its causes to what we can do to aid refugees. It covers life in refugee camps, about the application process for asylum.

You can see their presentation below. They did an excellent job providing important details, their thoughts, and visuals. 
What you can't see in their presentation was the result of their presentation. As they were sharing their thoughts on the videos and the immigration topic, students began to cry all around the room.
You see, I have several students (including me) who immigrated to the USA just like the book and their videos showed. 
Their presentation stirred up in us so many feelings we keep inside. Our immigrant experiences, regardless of what you experienced, mark our lives forever. Some feelings are happy, some are painful feelings, and some you can't even talk about. 

When overwhelmed with emotions...tears help!

There was not a dry eye in the room. We all cried. We all hugged. We all shared. I even had a student share with me a video of him and his mother crossing the river to make it to the USA. THIS was when I lost it! I started thinking about how hard this particular student works EVERYDAY and how his teachers are only concern about his grades...when in his mind and heart THIS is what's going on. 
Students hugged me and said, "Mrs. Francis, don't cry". But how can you NOT cry when you know your students are dealing with so much in their personal life. 
 
We heard stories of concentration centers, stories of reasons why we left our home country. Stories of hope. Stories of resilience and strength.

In September 2019 - I shared a blog post on how I structure my ESL lessons for HS newcomer ELs. If you haven't read it, I encourage you to do so! Click here for the blog post.
The Scholastic Action magazine, which is one of the resources I use during guided reading,  always includes compelling topics my students find very interesting. The November issue includes an article very close to my heart - "an immigrant story"!
​
Running from Danger, Looking for Hope - is the story of Freddy, an immigrant young man from Honduras.  I was so excited about planning this lesson and looking forward to sharing it with my students.

To increase the understanding of the immigration topic, I assigned students' group projects on the same topic but using picture books as a resource for the information. 
The picture books we used were:

• My Shoes and I by René Colato (entering students)
• Dreamers/Soñadores by Yuyi Morales (for SIFE students)
• Marwan's Journey by Patricia de Arias (Developing students)
• Refugees and Migrants by Ceri Roberts (Advanced students)

This is the project assignment sheet each student received so they know what to do for the week: