Language acquisition for ELLs
Good professional development for teachers should include language acquisition, especially first and second language acquisition and how they interrelate. So, for example, if a student has very strong language skills in their first language, particularly literacy skills, that's going to have a direct impact on the ability to learn their second language and how quickly they will learn that.
Also, if they've had an opportunity to study academically in their first language. And then be able to use those concepts in the second language, English, that they're learning. So that's very important. And I find that once teachers understand language acquisition, they see language in their instruction and in their students work. And they're always aware of it as they're going into their instruction.
Professional development should also include explicit ways to teach academic English. And that goes beyond teaching vocabulary because that's basic. Everybody needs vocabulary. But what English language learners need is a structural framework. They need to understand how academic language works.
So they may learn an academic term, but they may not know how to use it effectively in a sentence. So when students give one word sentence replies, they're not using academic language. They need to know how that discourse works. So teachers need to learn how to teach that to their students.
Building on background knowledge
Teachers also need to know how to draw on the background knowledge that students bring. They need to first of all find out what knowledge the students have before they jump into a concept. Because if they're talking about U.S. history and the students have no prior knowledge of that, the concepts aren't to sink in.
But they may know some of the history of their students' countries. And they may be able to draw on that, some of the historical components like independence days or things like that, maybe similar to our own history. So drawing on that background knowledge to build from there is very effective.
It's very important that teachers find ways to increase students' academic language production in the classroom, especially as we get into the older grades, it becomes more common for the teacher to do some talking, have students do a little bit of talking. And then they'll do some individual work.
But what we need is for students to have opportunities to use their academic English in conversation in the classroom. Not just reading, not just writing. But actually using that. And I've had things in the classroom where the students were supposed to use certain phrases like, you know, "In my opinion," or "I understand your point, but I'd like to state that#&133;."
And when they use those things, they say, "Oh, I sound so smart." So they know what that sounds like. But they may not naturally know how to do that themselves. So when teachers reinforce that with students, it's very powerful. And they begin to understand how it all fits together.
The final thing I would say is that if teachers can learn how to scaffold better for their students. So, for example, when giving directions, modeling for the students, providing a visual of the directions, something that the students can work with. So that they understand what they're really supposed to do.
Sometimes like especially in writing you'll have students with different levels of ability. One student might be happy if they can give you a coherent paragraph on what you were talking about. Another student you may say, "I know that you could do five paragraphs on this. Or you could look something up on the web and add some further research to this." So looking at ways that you can make it, make every student successful in your class and give them an opportunity to show what they know with the language tools they have.
New ELL population
When principals receive word or maybe discover on the first day that they are getting a lot of new English language learner students into their building, they need to mobilize their resources and they need to draw on any district support that's available if there are people such as curriculum specialists or ELL coordinators.
Sometimes there's special funding available to support them when large numbers of ELLs will come into their building. They need to find out about the backgrounds of their students. Often, if you get a large group at once, they're from similar backgrounds, language or culture. And they should bring in people who can talk to all of their staff.
This includes custodians, secretaries, media center people, paraprofessionals, anyone who will be working with or around the students. So that they understand the background of the students and the language abilities and what that means for their understanding. And that is just so important.
Because you can see, for example, if a student hasn't attended school in the United States and they're going through their lunch line and they leave their tray on the table because they don't understand that you're supposed to take it and throw it away. And a custodian comes by and thinks what a selfish child. They're not taking care of their things. They don't understand what the student doesn't understand. So, everybody needs to be part of helping the child socialize and be comfortable in the school.
I would also look at getting professional development for teachers. So that they know what language needs the students will have that they can collaborate with ESL or bilingual teachers. So that they are able to support the needs of the students, connect with community agencies that might come in and talk about the cultural needs and backgrounds of the families that are coming into the school.
So basically, I'd say as a principal, you need to evaluate the child's whole needs and figure out who needs to do what and what that will look like throughout the year to provide the constant support. It's not enough to just do one stop shopping at the beginning of the year. Okay. We had somebody come in and talk about the culture. We had somebody come in and talk about language. And now we're done.
It's going to be a process where they're going to have to continue to touch base, ask teachers what do you need? What are you seeing? What do our families need? How can we work to address that?
When principals are considering the schedule to develop collaboration for their teachers in order to meet the needs of English language learners, they should probably, first of all, talk to the teachers about what they see as needs. Teachers are very in tuned with schedules and they can understand where things might work and where they might need more support. So that's first.
But secondly, I see a difference kind of in elementary and secondary. At the elementary level, we really encourage collaboration. But if teachers don't have a common prep time, it can be very difficult to find time to collaborate.
So, first I would say see what you can do to find a common prep time by grade level. So that way, your ESL teacher or your bilingual teachers may be able to come to that preparation time with first grade or second grade or whatever it is. And then they are able to discuss students and get the support they need.
If it's not possible to do a common prep time, then I think you need to look at creative ways to build in meetings before or after school which is still within the teacher's work day. But you have to get a commitment from all of the teachers to be there and to use that time effectively.
And in my experience, teachers who are committed to this, they'll just do it. I mean, they're just like it has to be done. We will do this. We'll meet every Tuesday after school and we will have format that we follow to discuss what needs to be done for kids.
So teachers are very creative and very dedicated in doing that. But the support of the principal is very helpful to get that done. At the secondary level, because of the scheduling, it's virtually impossible to have the collaboration with all the teachers that you need to have.
But many districts are doing professional learning communities where they are having one day after school or at some certain time during the day that is set aside for teachers to work in small learning communities together.
And I would recommend that if you have a team that has large number of ELLs, that you try to put those content teachers and ESL bilingual teachers together. So they are discussing the data on the same kinds of students. They're talking about the instructional models and things that need to happen to improve instruction for ELLs. So I would say that that's one way you could do that.
And if it's not possible to get teachers all in the same room at the same time, which sometimes happens, I would look at other communication vehicles. If you have a school intranet or something where teachers can lead communications about things that they've tried, that have worked, they want comments back from others. Or if they have even just notes in boxes that say this week I'm doing a unit on this. Do you have a way you could support this in the ESL class? Or something like that.
So, whatever you can figure out to keep the communication lines open is good. But really talk to the teachers about it and tell them the expectation and they'll work on it. And they'll come up with something.
New to working with ELLs
I think the first thing I would say for teachers who are new to working with ELLs is that they should get to know the students' backgrounds, their culture and language, spend a little time. There's so many ... so many resources available.
If you're looking online, take things with a grain of salt. But, you know, start to talk to people in the community, others who have worked with the population and start to get some information. But more than anything, get to know your students. As they develop their language, ask them questions. Find out what they like to do. Talk to their parents.
When I was an ESL teacher, I'd have classroom teachers call me and say could you please call this home and tell them that this child needs mittens or something like that. And I would say, well, I don't speak Cambodian. But you can call them. And I suggest you phrase it very simply or something. And the teachers would then do that.
They were nervous to do it, but they would do it. And they would call me and they'd say, oh. Actually, they spoke English. And they understood what I wanted. So it can be very powerful for teachers to actually make that direct connection with families.
If someone in the family doesn't speak English and they answer the home, they'll usually find someone who does. Or if you give your name, they'll call back. So just trying to make that connection with families is so important.
I guess another thing that teachers should keep in mind when they're new working with ELLs is really understanding how language affects content learning and exploring it in deeper ways and taking opportunities to learn about how to explicitly teach academic language to ELLs, going beyond teaching vocabulary that's in the book recommended for learning for all grade ... for the whole grade level.
But looking at ways to explicitly instruct English language learners in the content concepts while also modeling the language structures that they're going to need to use it effectively.
When teachers have refugee students arrived and they are going to be working with them, I think the first thing they need to do is get professional development to understand what the refugee lifestyle is, where their students have come from, what caused them to become refugees.
They should understand the historical components of where they've bone. And then I think just as they begin working with the refugee students, keep in mind that their life has been very chaotic. They've lived with a lot of anxiety.
So I say to teachers imagine that you were placed in a very remote camping area for two years. And you had to survive. Every day was about survival and learning what to do to take care of yourself. And there's a lot of anxiety involved. Then you're pulled from that, rescued from that place, put in an office. And in a week, you're supposed to be doing what everybody else is doing.
You'd be a little bit confused. You'd be anxious. There'd be a lot of things going on that people wouldn't see. And that's what a lot of our refugee students go through. So you need to give them the time to adjust and get to know what their needs are.
Also many of the refugee students won't have had the opportunity to learn in their first language. They will have had low level literacy skills often in their first language and especially in English. And teachers need to understand that that's not a cognitive issue. That's a skill issue.
The students can think and learn and do things just like any other student. They just haven't had the opportunity to be socialized to school and to learn those basic skills.
So I think of a student who came in second grade, Kevin. And he came from an African nation as a refugee. And he came to school and he was crawling on the floor. He was out of his seat. He would shout out things when he knew them. He was not socialized to school. He had not had that experience.
He couldn't write his alphabet. Couldn't write basic letters in either language. The teacher was very concerned because that was a big, you know, a big gap from the other second graders. And she wondered if perhaps he needed some special education support and that sort of thing.
So we talked about his refugee experience and what that might mean and what sort of things he would need to be more successful in the classroom, got some paraprofessional support. And now Kevin's in fourth grade and he's a great student. He's a delight to have in class. He raises his hand. He can write simple phrases. He's still not at grade level.
But he has come a long way since arriving two years ago. And so really we need to give the students the support to be successful in academic environments.
I guess one cute story I have from in the classroom was when I was teaching a group of kindergarten students and they were from a variety of backgrounds, Spanish speakers, Cambodian, Vietnamese, things like that. And so I was working on adjectives and descriptive words for animals, and we had done a lot of work with different kinds of animals. And it came time for them to draw their favorite animal, and then we were going to use descriptive words for them. And a little Cambodian boy was drawing this big yellow round thing that I could not figure out what he was trying to draw. And he kept saying Pikachu, Pikachu. And I thought it was a Cambodian word. I thought oh, this is some animal in Cambodia that I'm not familiar with. And then about six months later I somehow discovered the Pokemon, and I realized then what he had actually been drawing. So maybe the animal concept was a little lost on him, but he did describe it as yellow and round, so in the end it was successful.
A memorable teacher
A teacher who made a difference for me was fifth grade Mrs. Shostad. And she had -- was known as a tough teacher. Lots of kids were like, "Oh you don't want to be in her class, she's so tough and she's so mean." And so of course I got her, and there was a lot of anxiety in starting the year. She had also had some medical concerns, and there was a lot of mystery around that, what would happen, what happened to her, that sort of thing. So on the first day of school she brought us all over and sat us down on the floor.
And she had a scarf on her head, and she said, "I want you to know that I had surgery this summer. I had a brain tumor, and that they had to do surgery on my brain, and I want you to understand what it was." And she took her scarf off, and she had shaved head right here and a big scar. And -- and she said, "They took the tumor out, I am okay. It's gonna take me some time to heal, that's why I'm wearing this scarf. This is what's underneath the scarf." And I just remember being so impressed with her honesty and her courage to just talk to us about that. And I just thought that's the kind of teacher I want to be, that can really have honest conversations with kids. And I think -- I hope she's healthy and that she's doing well, 'cause she made a big difference for me by sharing her -- her life with me.
Words of encouragement
I would encourage teachers who are working with English language learners to keep trying, and be good to themselves. Because they're trying to do something that has never been done in the history of our nation, which is to educate first generation English language learners to the level of the ability to go to college. In the past it's usually taken two or probably three generations before someone was able to have the language ability and the education level to -- to get there. So teachers are doing something really dramatic. And it's hard work. And they have lots of other students in their class who need them too. So I -- I appreciate everything that teachers do to learn about their ELLs, to try new things, to make mistakes, and to try something new again. Because that's what teaching is about, we're modeling for students how to learn, and that we never give up.
For ESL and bilingual teachers who are working closely with ELLs and see how much need there is in their life and in their academic environment, I would say choose your battles, think about where you can have the biggest impact, and what the students really need. Everybody is learning, so you have to start where they're at. You may see things when you walk into a classroom where you think why don't they just do it this way? It would make so much more sense for ELLs. But what you need to do is develop a relationship with the teacher, you need to build trust, you need to find ways to -- to connect and collaborate to better meet the needs of ELLs. Every single person in the classroom is doing their best and working their hardest to meet the needs of all kids, and we don't know what that's like until we walk in their shoes. So that's one reason I think collaboration is so effective and -- and powerful, because we are there when things are happening, and we do see what decisions go into every single step. And so I guess I would just say start -- start where you can, be happy with small steps because every small step still takes you toward the goal. But, you know, recognize that you're doing important work, and even though people may not always see that, you know you made a difference for the -- for the student.
Using Colorín Colorado
I use Colorin Colorado with teacher training in a lot of ways. The webcasts have been very effective. It's an opportunity for my teachers to see experts in the field and have real exposure to good dialogue around many topics that are interesting to them, ELLs and special education, high school, literacy, comprehension, just a wide variety of webcasts with questions and guides which is very useful in teacher training.
And I also like to use the reading tip sheets that are by grade level to share with teachers. They are in Spanish and English. So teachers can use them as a guide when they're having conversations with families that want to support their children's learning at home.
Kristina Robertson is the current Titles Coordinator and Teacher on Special Assignment for the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District in Minnesota. Kristina has 20 years of education experience as a teacher and leader in English language instruction, with licenses in ESL, Administration, and Reading. She started her career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sri Lanka and then returned to Minnesota, where she has taught many language and cultural backgrounds in the K-12 setting, as well as ESL teacher preparation courses at the college level.