If students don't verbalize...

If students don't verbalize, students don't internalize.

 

I attended the Michigan Association for Bilingual Education, MABE event last week along with some of our fantastic colleagues across our NHA Michigan schools. As always, talking with our team served to refresh and renew my spirit!

 

 

Like any conference, there were hits and misses. Two break out sessions really spoke to me. I'll share some highlights and encourage you to follow the links to learn more.

 

"Improving English Language Learners' Writing: Focus on Accuracy and Fluency"- Dr. Zuzana Tomas http://supportingwriters.webs.com/apps/documents/

- I loved how she opened this session up: she had all participants respond to a prompt either a) in a language other than English (if known) or b) by writing from left to right. It was a great framing exercise for us. We immediately felt the struggle of a non-native English writer.

- she gave concrete examples on how to improve and develop students' accuracy and fluency

- she recommended a pretty great resource here http://www.brainfriendly.co.uk/ which I'm excited to explore further

- and to top it off she gave us a new and exciting EL-related blog to read http://eslcarissa.blogspot.com/2012/09/5-fun-ways-to-use-dictagloss-in-efl.html

 

"Language and Literacy for ELLs Creating Systematic Change for Academic Achievement"- Melissa Castillo  https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B62A1VcJ6ws3TWRoZDU4OWhrYWs&usp=sharing 

- here's a video clip showing Melissa's ideas for Building Academic Vocabulary

- Melissa works as an EL coach on a national level. I actually sat by a team of EL teachers from Montcalm that are currently working with her.

- I used her phrase 'if students don't verbalize, students don't internalize', a great reminder that we, and all teachers of ELs, need to speak less and listen more. Get our students talking purposefully!

- she addressed the Brick and Mortar word concept

 

These are some great resources! I encourage you to dive into these links and see what takeaways you can find and apply to your own teaching!

 



Get the Party Started!

It's only right to talk about parties on cinco de mayo. Am I right? :)

So many of our schools take time to celebrate our kids, families and cultures they represent. This is more than a day of fun, its a great example of how schools show they want to know about our kids.

At the most recent Service Center meeting, one of our very own success stories was mentioned by a proud parent. A parent/colleague that works here at the Service Center talked about the great cultural night held at Excel Charter Academy this past week. Please join me in applauding Heidi at Excel for initiating this event, a first for the school.

That's a whole lot of happiness!

 

I think any school that has similar events will say that for all the work it takes to plan and coordinate the event it is completely worth it.

 Many of our schools that do a cultural night have classrooms choose a country to research and present on. They'll usually have cultural ambassadors, either kids or parents, that talk to the class about the country.

 

And the food...have we mentioned the food?!

 

So if you haven't tried this at your school and want to I encourage you to start planning! Start by forming a group of teachers/admin that share your vision. Pick a date and commit. We want to see your pictures and pass on the inspiration to the next school!







The Silver Lining of an Audit

 

You might be aware, if you're a Michigan school that receives Title III dollars, that occasionally Federal programs are audited :)

Auditors like to see a lot of evidence that things are being done well. I was so happy to receive some examples of such events happening in the EL community.

Many of our schools actively seek to engage EL families, and this week I was able to see some examples of that. Is your school doing something similar? Want to join the bragging wall (by my desk!)? Send me an example of what great parent engagement strategy you do!

Newsletters- EL teachers fill in their colorful form on a monthly basis highlighting school-wide activities, EL activities and upcoming events.
Literacy Nights- EL families are invited to attend these events to learn strategies and win academic supplies to use at home.
Cultural Celebrations- Many of our schools strive to foster cross-cultural communication by hosting potlucks, dessert nights and morning coffee dates.

An NYC Student study

After a long hiatus from this blog I came back re inspired after attending TESOL two weeks ago.

If you ever have the opportunity to attend this international meeting of the minds I highly recommend it. There is a wealth of knowledge and creativity in our field. Not only do PhD and researchers speak, but teachers like you do as well. It has been my experience that the teacher-led sessions are often the most passionate, valuable and well-attended ones at the conference.

If you have pursued a Masters of TESOL, or any other MA really, you probably wrote a thesis or participated in action research. My own thesis had a mouthful of a title 'How does a student's ability in L2 shape their social well-being in a school whose population shares a similar L1?'

I wanted to explore the how and why students self-grouped in relation to their first (LI) and second (L2) languages.

Here's some background:
I taught self-contained 8th grade ESL classes in New York City. My school was set in upper Manhattan, just south of the Bronx. 95% of the school population was from the Dominican Republic, the staff too. Spanish was the L1 for the majority of people within a 10-block radius of the school. My school operated a TBE, transitional bilingual education. Basically, the students received 60% of content in Spanish and 40% in English. The school grouped their ELs as classes by their proficiency levels. 8BL1, 8BL2 and 8BL3. General ed students and FLEPS (former ELs) were grouped in their own classes, 8A1-8A5. Kids mixed at Specials, lunchtime and in the hallways.

Do you see any potential issues here yet?

My 8BL2's and 3's were new to the country, students that traveled back and forth from the DR for extended periods of time and students who struggled or plateaued in their acquisition of English. Basically, these students were not near proficient in English. They knew it, 8BL1 knew it and the general ed knew it. They moved through the school in defensive packs, spoke mostly Spanish to their friends, had heavy accents and received most of their content in Spanish.

8BL1 on the other hand were nearing proficiency in English. These students were caught in a limbo world. They generally spoke English with their peers, used DR slang, struggled in Spanish-language classes (as they were not fully literate in Spanish) and generally rejected their 8BL2 and 3 peers. They in turn, were rejected by their general ed and FLEP peers.

Keep in mind, 95% of these students could speak and understand Spanish and a good majority vacationed in the DR during the summers. But they would not intentionally mix at school.

Interested? Intrigued? Yes! Start looking at your own teaching world like a researcher. What are some interesting trends that exist there?

I think our own EL teacher colleagues might benefit from hearing different scenarios like mine. There is so much more going on when students are learning English. The more we can understand how those outside levers affect student's language learning the better we can adapt our instruction.

Feel free to ask me to read the rest of my thesis if you're intrigued!