Virtual Professional Learning Experience
English Language Learners Make Schools Stronger
Learning Module
- Creator(s):
English language learners (ELLs) are tasked with learning grade-level content while simultaneously learning the English language. In essence, these learners are working twice as hard as their English speaking counterparts who need only focus on attaining content. Strategic support and guidance must be provided to ELLs in order for them to have a fighting chance at keeping up with their peers. While ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers provide critical instruction in developing their students' English language development, they are not providing the instruction for the core content areas of language arts, math, social studies, and science. Those content areas, along with other disciplines such as music, art, and physical education, are taught to ELLs by general education teachers or content specialists.
As part of the teacher certification process, there is little to no exposure to second language acquisition theory or best practices for making content comprehensible to students who are acquiring English. Teachers often feel ill-equipped to meet the demands of English language acquisition while delivering quality content instruction. As a result of this disconnect in teacher preparation and student needs, ELLs are often under-educated and become long-term English language learners (LTELLs), i.e. students who have been in U.S. schools for more than six years without attaining academic English language proficiency. It is estimated that 60% of ELLs in grades 6-12 are long-term ELLs (Grantmakers in Education, 2013) To address this stark reality, teachers deserve support and guidance as they learn how to most effectively integrate their ELLs into their learning communities.
As owner of an educational consulting company, Up the Bar Consutling, I provide administrators and teachers with the professional development required to Up the Bar on the quality of education their students deserve. Through thoughtful teaching and coaching, I support teachers by teaching them methodologies and best practices during our classes, and then following up with them in their classrooms to provide them with real-time feedback on their implementation of lessons learned. I also provide administrators with support in terms of what the look-fors are, so that they can support and celebrate their teachers' efforts.
Until now, I have delivered in-person training as well as on-the-job coaching in teachers' classrooms. Now that we have shifted to remote learning, districts have asked me to create a virtual learning and support space for their teachers. So I created the Virtual Professional Learning Experience. This learning module is composed of the first half of the Experience, the asynchronous video series and accompanying tasks. I have taught this content many times over the past ten years, but this is the first time I am teaching the class in a virtual realm.
In order to have the teachers feel less isolated, I created the videos as if I was talking directly to a teacher, similar to how Drs. Kope and Kalantzis deliver their videos. I find that doing so adds a personal, human touch in the not-so-personal setting of videos. As I engage in the tremendously steep curve of video editing and production, I am determined to improve the videos, to make them even more mutlimodal by bringing in more graphics, other mini-videos, etc . In addition to the videos they watch at their leisure, I also challenge teachers with a Food for Thought reflection question that I ask them to consider after each video. These questions are designed for teachers to metacognitively reflect on the learning experience, how it is relevent to their work, and how it can help them improve their practices. Teachers are then given 'homework', three articles which they must read by the time we meet for our live class. Lastly, the website is set up as a blog, so I request that teachers write one comment, reflection, question as a blog post. I then encourage them to comment on each others' posts, again striving to create a community of learners who can support each other. The mutlimodality of this learning module provides teachers with multiple access points to learning and to thinking about their learning.
Effectively and strategically integrating a diversity of learners into the school community requires an understanding of and an appreciation for students' backgrounds. During this intensive Learning Module, you will learn how to KYS – Know Your Students. You will learn how to build strong relationships with your students, which will in turn allow for more precise differentiation of instruction, which will in turn lead to greater learning and academic success for ALL of your students.
KYS topics to be explored:
Materials: Learners need a computer and Internet access. Below is the Introductory video, which will give you an overview of what you can expect from this learning opportunity.
Target Audience: Teachers who have little to no experience with Sheltered English instructional methods and best practices for effectively integrating English language learners into the school community. Administrators who seek to better understand their population of English language learners, so that they can more effectively support their teachers and the vision of equity in the district.
Anticipated Duration: Taking into account the viewing of the videos, the contemplation of each Food for Thought reflection question, the reading of the articles, and the supportive blog comment posts, this module can take about 4-5 hours to complete.
Materials: Learners need a computer and Internet access.
Learner Objectives: Effectively and strategically integrating a diversity of learners into the school community requires an understanding of and an appreciation for students' backgrounds. During this intensive Learning Module, you will learn how to KYS – Know Your Students. You will learn how to build strong relationships with your students, which will in turn allow for more precise differentiation of instruction, which will in turn lead to greater learning and academic success for ALL of your students.
Standards Alignment: This learning module adheres to the New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers (N.J.A.C. 6A: 9C-3.3): Foundations of Effective Practice
Before we can teach our students, we must first understand who they are, what they know, and how they learn. This belief holds true especially for our English language learners (ELLs), because there are tremendous considerations that must be taken into account given their linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Learning Objective: You will gain an appreciation for the complexity of learning content while simultaneously developing the English language. You will also experience strategies designed to make content comprehensible.
View the following videos:
Teacher Toolkit: Total Physical Response (2016)
Food for Thought: Are your students hearing words like ’sesquipedalian’ and ‘volation’ throughout the day? What strategies are you implementing that allow your ELLs the opportunity to successfully access the content concepts being explored in your class? How do you know they are effective? Please share your thoughts on the blog post, and feel free to provide your peers with positive feedback on their posts.
Teachers, particularly monolingual teachers, may be unaware of the challenges associated with being immersed in a learning environment in another language. Even teachers who speak additional languages sometimes forget what it was like when they first acquired the additional language. This video provides teachers with an opportunity to experience the world of education through a completely different lens, and then to experience strategies that facilitate their learning.
Learning Objective: Learners will gain an appreciation for the complexity of learning content while simultaneously developing the English language. They will also experience strategies designed to make content comprehensible.
English language learners' level of engagement in the learning process is heavily determined by factors that can contribute to, or detract from, their dual goals of learning English while learning content concepts. As teachers, it behooves you to know which factors you can leverage and which factors you can mitigate so that your ELLs will be more successful in your class.
Learning Objective: You will explore a wide variety of factors that influence to what extent an ELL student can and will learn. You will think more deeply about your perceptions of your ELLs, and consider how you can serve them more equitably, after contemplating the factors.
View the following video:
Food for thought: Given the wide array of factors that affect additional language acquisition, what is your role in supporting your students (i.e. leveraging factors that help and mitigating factors that hinder) and in promoting their multilingualism and multiculturalism? Follow this link, https://flipgrid.com/1aaa76a2 to create a 1.5 minute Flipgrid to share your answer. Please respond to 2 other students' Flipgrids in support.
Raising awareness of the factors that contribute to or detract from acquiring English and content is critical. Teachers cannot create authentically equitable classrooms if they dont know what is working for or against their students. Knowing the factors places teachers in the powerful position of being able to intentionally affect change in a very meaningful way.
Learning Objective: Learners will explore a wide variety of factors that influence to what extent an ELL student can and will learn. They will think more deeply about their perceptions of their ELLs, and consider how they can serve them more equitably, after contemplating the factors.
This is a special update, based on so many misperceptions I have heard over the years. Everyone loves to hear a story, and this true story illustrates very clearly the point I am trying to make: Native language must be honored and respected and cultivated and allowed to flourish at home. In doing so, ELL students will acquire English much more efficiently and effectively.
Learning Objective: You will better understand and appreciate why it is critical for students to strengthen their native language and culture at home. You will become aware of the importance of the first language in relation to the second language.
View the following video:
Food for thought: How do you encourage your students and their families to take pride in their bilingualism and biculturalism? Do you encourage students to share with each other and with you?
Craft a letter that you could send to your students' families, a letter that is supportive of their native language and culture, and which encourages families to share their backgrounds with you and the class. Submit the letter to our Google Drive so that you can all see each others' letters, and get ides for how you can improve your own letter.
This update is in response to many teachers' assumptions that families are doing their children a disservice when they speak their native language at home. Many teachers are under the wrong impression, for many reasons, that ELLs are better served by their families if their families speak English to them, even if thier English langauage skills are still developing. To combat this misperception, this very true story clearly articulates how students will be better served by their teachers, and learn more, if teachers honored and respected the native language and culture at home.
Learning Objective: Learners will better understand and appreciate why it is critical for students to strengthen their native language and culture at home. Theywill become aware of the importance of the first language in relation to the second language.
English language learners are not all the same. The label is a very general one that requires more specificity. There are different kinds of ELLs that are attending our schools. It is important to know which type of ELL is in your classrooms, so that you can differentiate accordingly.
Learning Objective: You will investigate the four typologies of ELLs, along with their factors and a lens adjustment for you to perceive them more clearly for who they are and the strengths they bring to bear.
View the following video:
In this excerpt from Himmele and Himmele's book, Language-Rich Classroom, the authors explore characteristics and issues pertaining to ELLs, including the typologies, and they make recoemmendations for strategies that can be implemented.
Food for Thought: What are the typologies of each of your ELLs? What’s their story? What accommodations do you make in order to support such a diversity of learners in your class? Select a partner with whom to work, and compare notes on the typologies of your students, how you know to which typology they belong, and a few strategies that you implement to meet their varied needs.
It is easy to generalize and think that ELLs are all the same. After all, they are all acquiring the English langauge. While that is true, there are distinct typologies of ELLs that, once understood, will help teachers craft a more differentiated plan of action for them.
Learning Objective: Learners will investigate the four typologies of ELLs, along with their factors and a lens adjustment for teachers to perceive their ELLs more clearly for who they are and the strengths they bring to bear.
Additional language acquisition (historically called second language acquisition despite knowing that many ELLs often come to us with two languages already) is a process that must be understood in order for teachers to tailor instruction and corresponding expectations. If a student is at a Level 1 of English langauge proficiency, s/he is in a very different position to comprehend and complete work that is given to a student at a Level 4 of English. The kinds of tasks and the kinds of scaffolding that are provided are determined by the level of English language proficiency of the ELLs. Fair is fair. Furthermore, it is important for teachers in states like NJ to know that ELLs are exited from English language support services when they achieve a a 4.5 out of 6 score on an exam called the Access test; which means that students are being exited from services before they are fully proficient in English.So teachers may very well have students who are not identified as ELLs, but still require additional support and scaffolding.
Learning Objective: You will be introduced to the stages of additional language acquisition, as well as the related theories of Dr. J. Cummins. You will understand how different levels of ELLs require differentiated tasks while accessing the same rigor of content as their native English speaking peers.
View the following video:
Please read the article, BICS vs CALP, to get a better understanding of Dr. Cummins' theory that was intrroduced in the video.
Food for Thought: At which level of English language proficiency are your ELLs? Please refer to the WIDA can-do descriptors to identify the plethora of tasks in which your students can engage. Select one student, and correlate his/her scores on the ACCESS test with the Can-Do Descriptors. Share in the blog post how you will adjust the learning tasks for this student, based on your findings.
Teachers must be informed of their ELLs levels of English language proficiency. Oftentimes, this information is provided to teachers at the beginning of the year, along with all kinds of other information. It gets lost in the bureacracy of paperwork. Teachers proceed blindly through the year, doing the best they can with the limited information they can gleen from working with their students. Time needs to be accorded to teachers to meet with the EAL (English as an Additional Language) teachers, who can guide them in understanding the test scores and how they translate to learning opportunities in the classroom.
Learning Objective: You will be introduced to the stages of additional language acquisition, as well as the related theories of Dr. J. Cummins. You will understand how different levels of ELLs require differentiated tasks while accessing the same rigor of content as their native Englsih speaking peers.
While most people claim to embrace multiculturalism, and they point to their diversity posters prominently on display, many do not truly understand the breadth and depth of what it means to be truly culturally inclusive. Edward T. Hall's Cultural Iceberg and Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions explain how the values, norms, and traditions of a society manifest in behaviors that are observed. Once we understand the values system that lies beneath the iceberg, then we can better understand what we observe on the tip of the iceberg.
Learner Objective: You will learn about the Cultural Iceberg and Dimensions theories of intercultural communication, which will allow you to adjust your lens when perceiving the behaviors that are being manifested by your ELLs and their families.
View the following videos:
© iStockphoto takasuu
Click on this link to visit a website that explores Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions in more detail.
Food for thought: Have you had moments of cultural misunderstanding with your ELLs? What are the cultural factors that impacted the interaction? Where are you along the cultural spectrum? How does your perspective differ from the perspectives of your ELLs? Write you responses in a personal journal entry that you will revisit in 6 months. In 6 months, re-read the journal entry and consider how you have grown.
In order to ethically serve ELLs, teachers must come to terms with their own cultural biases and prejudices. But they can only truly do so once they understand what those biases and prejudices are. By exploring the cultural iceberg and dimensions of culture, teachers will more clearly comprehend where they lie on the cultural spectrum in relation to their diversity of students.
Learner Objective: Learner will learn about the Cultural Iceberg and Dimensions theories of intercultural communication, which will allow them to adjust their lens when perceiving the behaviors that are being manifested by their ELLs and their families.
Congratulations! You've made it to the finish line. Over the course of this video series, we explored a plethora of concepts related to KYS (Know Your Students). You have thoughtfully reflected upon your own perceptions and you have expanded your perception of your ELLs.
Learner Objective: As a summary, you will briefly revisit all of the concepts explored in this learning module, while considering their relevance to your students and your teaching.
View the following video:
Food for Thought:
Final Project: Please write a 3-5 page essay in which you respond to the above Food for Thought questions. Think critically about your current practices and how you can improve your craft based on what you have learned throughout this module. You will be asked to read and comment on 3 of your peers' essays, based on the following rubric:
The next step, which is outside the scope of this Learner Module, in the Virtual Professional Learning Experience process is for you to read and reflect upon three assigned articles, which you will further unpack in small groups in Zoom breakout rooms during our two-hour live session. The live session will be dedicated to continuing the conversation on KYS and answering any lingering questions that you may have. We will then move on to explore strategies for making input comprehensible, again allowing time for you to share ideas and problem solve together in small groups in the breakout rooms, which is your favorite part of class.
Teachers have completed the asynchronous video series. They have learned how to engage in KYS. The next step in the process is for the teachers to read three assigned articles, which they will further unpack in small groups in Zoom breakout rooms during our two-hour live session. The live session will be dedicated to continuing the conversation on KYS and answering any lingering questions that teachers inevitably have. We will then move on to explore strategies for making input comprehensible, again allowing time for teachers to share ideas and problem solve together in small groups in the breakout rooms, which is their favorite part of class.
Learner Objective: As a summary, you will briefly revisit all of the concepts explored in this learning module, while considering their relevance to your students and your teaching.
Grantmakers for Education Educating English Language Learners, Grantmaking Strategies for Closing America’s Other Achievement Gap, April 2013, pg 6
https://edfunders.org/sites/default/files/Educating%20English%20Language%20Learners_April%202013.pdf
Himmele, P., & Himmele, W. (2009). The language-rich classroom: A research-based framework for teaching English language learners. ASCD.
Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm
New Jersey Professional Standards for Teachers (N.J.A.C. 6A: 9C-3.3): Foundations of Effective Practice. Retrieved from: https://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev/profstand/teacherstandardsoverview.pdf
Second language acquisition - essential information. Retrieved from http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/cummin.htm
WIDA Can Do Descriptors. Retrieved from https://wida.wisc.edu/teach/can-do/descriptors
Media References:
Beneath the Tip of The Iceberg: Retrieved from https://www.upthebarconsulting.com/virtualpd.html
Crash Course: Retrieved from https://www.upthebarconsulting.com/virtualpd.html
Factors Affecting Additional Language Acquisition: Retrieved from https://www.upthebarconsulting.com/virtualpd.html
Finale!: Retrieved from https://www.upthebarconsulting.com/virtualpd.html
Hands on World: © iStockphoto takasuu: Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_66.htm
Introduction to the KYS Learning Module. Retrieved from https://www.upthebarconsulting.com/virtualpd.html
Teacher Toolkit: Total Physical Response (2016): Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIIVWLLFxEo
Tip of the Iceberg: Retrieved from https://www.upthebarconsulting.com/virtualpd.html
Walking a Few Steps in an ELL's Shoes: Retrieved from https://www.upthebarconsulting.com/virtualpd.html