Cultivating Belonging in the Classroom: 2 Practical Activities

As someone who researches identity and belonging, I have spent many hours talking to people about how they feel about their place in school and society and how they position themselves in relation to others. One adolescent girl from Samoa described how she felt on her first day of school in New Zealand: “I felt uncomfortable. It was my first time sitting in class and everyone around me spoke English. It was weird. Like watching a TV programme. I was just watching, and not part of what was happening.”

Fiafia’s experience is not uncommon among immigrant students and those who come from refugee backgrounds. An OECD (2020) report suggests that one in three students around the world do not feel a sense of belonging to their school. What is important is how we deal with these experiences, and work toward helping students to connect better to the school.

Students’ sense of belonging refers to the feelings of being accepted by teachers, peers, and any other individuals at school, and feeling like they are part of the school community. When students feel that they are a part of a school community, they are more likely to perform better academically and are more motivated to learn. Studies also show that the feelings of security, identity, and community associated with a sense of belonging affects students’ psychological well-being and social development.

While a sense of belonging is necessary for all students to succeed in school, students from immigrant and refugee backgrounds are particularly affected. Here are two classroom activities, adapted from Allen and Kern (2020), through which teachers can begin to cultivate a sense of belonging in the classroom.

Connecting With Teachers

Undoubtedly, student-teacher relationships form the backbone of students’ connections to the school. A trait that students appreciate in teachers is a strong sense of justice and fairness. This activity may help students understand that equality is not the same as equity. That is, teachers may treat students differently in order to be fair.

Activity 1: Band-Aid Solution

Begin by asking students to share a time when they felt that they were unfairly treated. Students may share these anecdotes with peers or with the whole class. Acknowledge their experiences. Explain that not every experience of being treated differently is unfair. Demonstrate this by showing pictures of different people (for example, a toddler, a person in a wheelchair, a physically fit adult) and a mountain. If we wanted to treat everyone equally, we would provide each individual with the same hiking gear and ask them to climb the mountain. Ask students to predict what would happen.

Explain that to reach the same outcome, we must adjust the support we provide.

Next, invite students to imagine that they have accidentally cut themselves and need a Band-Aid. Ask one student where they cut themselves. Place a band-aid where they indicate this imaginary cut to be. Move to the next student, and ask them the same question. But place the Band-Aid over the same place as the first student, regardless of what the second student says. Continue this for some time. Bring students back together and ask them to consider how or whether their Band-Aid helped with the cut they imagined. Just as a band-aid on the arm when the cut was on the knee will not help, explain that teachers sometimes treat students differently because their needs are different.

Connecting With Peers

Friendships play an important function in school belonging and help young people feel satisfied with life in general.

Activity 2: Changing Perspectives

Begin by telling the parable of the blind men and an elephant. Encourage a discussion based on the moral of the story before highlighting that our perspectives are informed by past experiences and other individual and social factors. Emphasise that there is value in discovering other people’s perspectives rather than assuming they are wrong.

Introduce the Johari window and explain the four quadrants (Public, Blind, Hidden, and Unknown). You may wish to create worksheets with a simple Johari window, or ask students to do this on a sheet of paper.

Ask students to work in twos or fours. Students will first complete Quadrant 1 (Open Area, or public) individually, writing down traits, values, or behaviours about themselves that they believe are known to themselves and to others. Allow about 5 minutes for this. Next, ask students to pass the worksheet clockwise. Allow 3-5 minutes for the students to now write in the Blind quadrant, listing one to two traits, values, or behaviours the owner of the original worksheet may be unaware of.* Rotate the worksheet again and allow everyone in the group to write one trait, value, or behaviour in the Blind quadrant for all group members. When the owner receives their worksheet with others’ comments, allow 5 minutes for students to read and reflect on the comments from their peers. They should then complete Quadrant 3 (Hidden), listing traits, values, and behaviours only known to themselves. Encourage students to leave the last quadrant blank, but to reflect on what that might look like in the future.

End with a class discussion on what they learned from the activity.

*NOTE: You may want to preface this part of the activity with a discussion on the kinds of traits, values, and behaviours that should be listed: Everything should have a foundation of kindness, respect, and goodwill.

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In my conversation with Fiafia, I found that once she felt a better sense of connection with her teachers and peers, she felt happier and more valued, and she enjoyed learning more. It took time, but by the end of her final year at school, Fiafia felt that she was a valued part of her school community.

Finding ways to help young people is an ongoing journey. Share in the comments below what activities and/or strategies you have found to be helpful in this journey.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/cultivating-belonging-in-the-classroom-2-practical-activities/

4 Android Features That Can Help ELs

Last month, we talked about how English learners (ELs) can use a number of features built into the iPhone to help them on their language learning journey. This month, as promised, we’re going to look at ways to help language learners who are part of the other 70+% of people in the world: Android users. That’s right, the vast majority of people using mobile operating systems are on some variation of Android.

One frequent problem with talking about Android is that devices are by no means uniform, so what works one way on one device might be totally different on another. Still, with a little digging or flexibility, most of the following features or apps should be available to you or your students. For reference, I’m basing the info here on a Samsung Galaxy Tab on Android 11.

Let’s take a look at some features you can share with students to help them out:

TalkBack

Talkback is designed for low-vision and blind people, but the deep options for customization make it a useful boon to ELs who want to practice English while using their phone or for those who have higher spoken and listening skills than they do reading skills.

Talkback allows ELs to tap on their screen and have the phone read out the section they have selected. This may take a little getting used to as the design is meant to talk people with low-vision through the screen, but if a user adds TalkBack as a custom accessibility button, they can turn it on and off quickly as needed.

Where to find it: Settings > Accessibility > TalkBack

How to make a custom button: Settings > Accessibility > Advanced Settings > Accessibility button

Live Transcribe

Live Transcribe in Action

Much like TalkBack is built for the blind and low-vision communities, Live Transcribe is built for the deaf and hearing-impaired communities. But some quick creativity can show how useful it is for language learners, too.

Live Transcribe is a simple app that does exactly what you’d expect it to do: Transcribe your words as you speak. Over the years, Google’s transcription engine has gotten quite strong, but as we talked about in “4 Promising Programs to Practice Pronunciation in Private,” it’s not flawless. Still, live transcriptions can be very useful to ELs who want to check what they think they’re saying against what the computer interprets. This can help customize accents as needed for learners focusing on specific pronunciation goals.

Where to find it: After a user downloads Live Transcribe from the Google Play store, it will show up under Settings > Accessibility > Installed Services

Live Caption

Last month, I mentioned that subtitles are invaluable for following along with videos, understanding fine details, or simply picking up unusual vocabulary words. This is true on any device, so activating captions by default can be very useful to ELs. While the captions are pretty easy to find for most people in YouTube, they can create more problems in other apps, like Twitter or Instagram, or with videos embedded in websites.

Activating Live Caption across the entire device can make it much easier on students who want to read what people are saying without searching out the custom menus of every video each time they come up. Turn it on once, and then never worry about it again!

Where to find it: Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Enhancements > Google subtitles (CC) [Note that Live Caption varies wildly across different devices, so some searching may be in order]

Google Lens

Google Lens in action, recognizing not only that this is a pair of scissors, but also the brand and where to buy them.

I don’t always save the best for last, but I definitely saved the best for last here. Google Lens is nothing short of magic, allowing users to identify objects (and buy them), copy text from the photo of a typed or handwritten page, translate text from multiple languages, tell them what plant or animal they’re looking at, and even help with homework. In other words, it’s Computer from Star Trek—it can tell people just about anything they’d want to know.

For ELs, this can be as simple as trying to learn the name of something they’re not aware of or as complicated as trying to understanding complex documents they need to fill out to survive in a new country. For those of us who learned a second language without all of this tech, it’s hard to imagine just how much this could have helped. Google Lens basically puts a tutor in every student’s pocket, guiding them through their daily life without interrupting.

The truth is that Google Lens deserves its own post (or book), but a brief examination will show how valuable and versatile it can be. If you’re going to share any one resource here with your students, make it Google Lens.

Where to find it: Download from the Google Play Store or access features in the Google Photos or default Google app.

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Services like these change, update, and are moved around by software engineers regularly, so keep an eye on them to make sure you know how to use and access them. Sharing resources like these with students may seem like a small move on your part, but can change the learning trajectory of a student. Be generous in letting them know about services that can help!

Did I miss anything? There are far more resources than I could possibly cover, so please feel free to share your favorites in the comments below!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/4-android-features-that-can-help-els/

10 Dead Ideas in Professional Development

Because October ushers in the Day of the Dead celebration, it seems fitting to take a moment to honor some of the cherished ancestors of modern-day professional development (PD).  We would not be where we are without them, but it is perhaps time to put some of those historic approaches to rest.

“Day of the Dead Colour” by Hello Angel Creative is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I came across the term “dead ideas” in a roundabout way—first through an eponymous podcast about higher education, Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning, and then by following the sources back to Miller’s book The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity via Pike’s article “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning.” Pike (2011, p. 2) explains why these assumptions about education are “tyrannical”:

Ideas are dead because they are no longer correct, if they ever were. They are tyranny because we cling to them despite the evidence. Thus, we fail to act as we should. Seemingly logical actions, in fact, are counterproductive. Political leaders, media pundits, and business executives all become trapped (think C. Wright Mills [1959]) by these “tacit assumptions and ingrained instincts broadly shared” (Miller 2009:2). Critical social forces provide the context within which these ideas linger. They must be understood if we are to identify the destined ideas of the future that will lead us in the right direction.

PD approaches are not exempt from dead ideas, and should, in fact, be particularly scrutinized for holding on to them. Examining PD for dead (tyrannically held) ideas is especially important in that the modeling of teaching and learning they provide can reinforce practices that teachers then take up and use (perhaps unknowingly), with their own students. In other words, if we experience a PD session that is liberating, energizing, and inclusive (whatever the topic of that PD was), we are able to implement many of the moves when we return to our classrooms. The reverse may also (dangerously) be true.

Before we can envision PD that we believe is more powerful, engaging, and relevant to teachers, we must take a moment to challenge a few “dead ideas” that have had a long run of popularity, widespread use, and unquestioned application. The following 10 are some of the dead ideas in PD that come to my mind. How many of you are still seeing these being implemented? (My hand is raised too!)

1. Herding everyone into a room to listen to an outside speaker.

(Who is this person?)

2. Providing intensive training with no follow up.

(How am I to apply these ideas?)

3, Sending educators to a conference with no space to share back their learning.

(I wanted to share but no one gave me time!)

4. Ignoring expertise, even when it’s offered, of internal employees.

(I could have presented this workshop!)

5. Being offered no choice in the topic of the PD event.

(Ugh, I already know about this!)

6. Thinking that food is the only reason educators participate in PD.

(Please don’t waste our time!)

7. Believing that the best PD has to be delivered in English (by native speakers).

(I want to see local teachers present and I want to deeply discuss using our home language!)

8. Focusing on clocking a certain number of hours of PD.

(I have racked up the hours and have learned nothing.)

9. Packing the PD agenda so that educators have no down time.

(When are we able to talk through these ideas?)

10. Giving the PD only to teachers, without supervisors participating.

(If I try to implement this, my supervisor will disapprove!)

We are poised at a radical moment in education to bid farewell to these and other dead ideas in professional development, as the global upheaval of education due to COVID-19 provides the spark to fuel new directions. Even before this current sea change to education, PD has too often been seen as an experience to dread rather than look forward to. As Walport-Gawron (2018) states:

Any great school leader understands that providing PD is vital to teaching practice, but it’s important to note that not all professional development is equally effective, and a good number of teachers complain that some mandated PD crosses over into wasted time.

Next month, I will provide some planning guidelines if you are in the role of suggesting, designing, or conceptualizing PD at your institution that can get us headed toward a new, dynamic era of PD!

In the comments, share any ideas in professional development you think should be “dead”!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/10-dead-ideas-in-professional-development/

4 Ways Teachers of ELs Differ From Reading Teachers

“Are you teaching them to read?” asked the custodian as she unlocked the door to my classroom. I had forgotten my key and needed to get ready for my before-school class with English learners (ELs). I didn’t have time to go in to detail so I simply replied, “I’m teaching them English!” Unlike the helpful custodian, we TESOLers know that English language development for ELs is so much more than reading. In fact, the best way to help ELs learn to read better in English is to help their overall English language development.

So what do teachers of ELs do differently compared to reading teachers for native speakers? Last month’s blog with Pat Lathers discussed the differences when teaching adults; this month. let’s focus on how teachers of younger ELs may differ from their reading teacher counterparts:

1. EL Teachers Are More Likely to Think Long Term

Teachers of ELs may teach students over a period of years, and they also monitor former ELs’ progress after they’ve reached proficiency. Often in meetings about ELs, I was the only professional who had taught the students being considered for several years. This long-term perspective is powerful because it’s rare.

2. EL Teachers Tend to Look at Language More Holistically

EL teachers also teach reading, but they are more likely to consider all four domains of English language development. One simple explanation for this is English proficiency tests report out scores on each domain. Teachers who do reading intervention focus on one domain—reading. My impression is that general education teachers don’t think about all four domains very often either, especially speaking and listening. That’s unfortunate.

When I interviewed EL teacher Shuxin Chen for July’s blog, she described a disagreement over an EL’s reading level she’d had with a literacy coach and noted, “She was just looking at the reading part.” We EL teachers know that “looking at all the other parts” and teaching through all four domains produces the best results for each domain, reading included.

3. EL Teachers Tend to Focus More on Teaching for Meaning

Of course, we want our ELs to learn to decode, but we also realize that’s just the beginning. Unlike native speakers of English who have a larger oral vocabulary, an EL who can sound out the word mat in a decodable book may still not understand what it means. That’s why even ELs who can skillfully decode may still need support to improve their reading comprehension. In a book with predictable text, a picture of an egg won’t help if the student doesn’t know the English word for egg. With ELs, comprehension is critical.

4. Teachers of ELs see English Language Development as a Progression

It’s a long one to be sure, but still a progression. In contrast, others often view EL teachers as reading intervention teachers—but for ELs. That focus is deficit oriented. There’s nothing especially wrong with ELs; they’re just still learning English. Reading intervention teachers are trying to diagnose and remedy a reading problem. There’s nothing wrong with this perspective, either, but it’s an important distinction.

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Many educators, like the custodian who asked whether I was teaching reading, view language development too narrowly. It’s far more than that, and it’s also different from that. I hope thinking about the things that distinguish you as an EL teacher can help you better understand the different perspective of reading intervention teachers. It should also help you be a better reading teacher for your ELs.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/4-ways-teachers-of-els-differ-from-reading-teachers/

What Language Should Multilingual Learners Speak in the ESL Classroom? 6 Strategies

During a recent Twitter chat, a teacher of multilingual learners (MLLs) wrote that she was struggling with a class of fifth and sixth graders who persisted in speaking their home language (Spanish) in class. The teacher explained that her goal was to have students practice speaking English.

I remembered that I had a similar problem teaching a group of fourth- and fifth-grade Japanese-speaking students. Although I was a seasoned teacher of MLLs, it was my first experience with Japanese students and with having all my students from the same language background. It took me months to figure out how to to guide my students to appropriately use both their home language and English in school. Here are six ideas to help students focus on using all of their language resources in the classroom.

1. Set a Policy About Language Use in Your Classroom

In 2019, I wrote a blog for TESOL entitled “Should ELs Be Allowed to Speak Their L1 in School?” In this blog, I quoted Fred Genesee in an article he wrote titled “The Home Language: An English Language Learner’s Most Valuable Resource.” According to Genesee, there is indisputable evidence that the L1, or home language, of multilingual learners is of considerable benefit to their academic success. I personally believe that we need to allow MLLs to speak their home language in school and that using L1 in school helps them acquire English. There are circumstances, however, where MLLs need to focus on speaking English to complete assignments.

Teachers need to set fluid policies that specify the situations where home language should be spoken and other situations where English should be spoken. When MLLs are discussing something they read in English, for example, they should certainly be allowed to speak their home language.

2. Have Students Brainstorm the Value of Learning English

Write their responses on a chart so that all students can see them. You want students to see the real-world benefits of learning English. You also want them to take pride in their home language and culture. I’ve used a Venn diagram to have MLLs compare and contrast the reasons to learn English and the value of maintaining their first language.

3. Provide Multilingual Learners With Comprehensible Input

One of the reasons that students may be speaking their home language throughout their ESL class period is that the material being presented may not be adequately scaffolded. MLLs must be able to comprehend the material that they are learning. Teachers need to provide comprehensible input using visuals, realia, and multimedia as well as link new information to prior knowledge. To get ideas for scaffolds, see my TESOL blog, “10 Scaffolds for Supporting EL Learning.” You may want to encourage students to discuss difficult vocabulary or key ideas in their home language.

4. Have MLLs Work in Small Groups

Encourage MLLs to speak their home language in order to understand directions for an activity and to learn key concepts. Once students are in groups, give directions for the activity you want them to complete in English and then allow students to discuss the directions in their home language. Give MLLs real reasons to speak English. You can get much more productive student talk if you base those discussion on something that is meaningful to your students. Find activities that touch your MLLs’ lives. Give them a goal that needs to be reached. The task should be at the MLLs’ English language development levels.

5. Set Very Specific Tasks for Practicing English

A lesson plan that has the goal that “MLLs will practice speaking English” is not a good plan. It’s important to set very specific tasks for MLLs to complete in their groups. Before having students begin their group work, teachers need to preteach the necessary vocabulary and be sure that MLLs understand the key concept, and then give a specific assignment.

For example, if you’re studying “The growth of cities in the 1800s,” ask students to make a drawing of one of the items people could find in the cities in the 1800s that was not found in the countryside. Have them find three facts about that item. These might include tall buildings, elevators, trolley cars, and tenements.

6. Remember to Respect the Process of Translanguaging in the Classroom

Research has shown that multilingual students do not have two or more separate languages. They have one linguistic repertoire that consists of features of the languages they speak. They pull information from all the languages as they work in school. This translanguaging is normal in multilingual communities. Also, MLLs use their home language to learn English. Guide students to use all of their linguistic abilities in academic classrooms throughout the day.

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So, the answer to the question posed in the title—”what language should multilingual learners speak in the ESL classroom?”—is that MLLs should be encouraged to use all of their linguistic repertoire to complete academic work in school.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/what-language-should-multilingual-learners-speak-in-the-esl-classroom-6-strategies/

Exploring the World of Walking Simulators: Using Games as Narrative Text

Welcome to another edition of the TESOL Games and Learning Blog. In this month’s blog, I wanted to dive into the genre of video games commonly referred to as “walking simulators.” These games are first-person narrative games that task players with exploring the clues to a mystery or event after the fact. These games forgo typical video game activities, such as fighting, crafting, or racing in favor of the player exploring an environment to solve a puzzle. In many ways, these games are more akin to short stories or novellas and can be used in classroom practice in much the same way.

One of the more invigorating aspects of walking simulator games is the focus on a more diverse array of stories and ideas while featuring more diversity of characters. These features provide a compelling case for their classroom use as players are provided an experience and worldview that may differ from their own. Over the course of an unfolding story, the players get to learn about the lives of others and to walk in a character’s shoes.

With that in mind for this month’s edition of the blog, I wanted to highlight three walking simulation games. The goal this month is to provide a brief synopsis of each game for those not familiar with the genre of walking simulators and encourage you to try them out with your language learners and brainstorm ways they may be brought into your classroom practice.

Gone Home

Gone Home: After a year abroad, Katie returns home to find her house abandoned. As players explore the mid-1990s home, they piece together the events that led to members of the Greenbriar family going their separate ways. The story’s main focus is the events that led to the disappearance of Sam, Katie’s younger sister. What unfolds is a story that gives players the time to learn about Sam and her journey through life in ways that allow for a powerful sense of empathy for the character. Paul Darvasi writes about his experiences using it in an English class: “It exemplified the literary strategy of revealing character through setting.”

Gone Home, like most walking simulators, is filled with both written and spoken language that students can engage with to find clues and discover what happens to the Greenbriar family, but more than that, it is effective and touching storytelling on par with any traditional novel or short story.

Blackhaven

Blackhaven is a recent free-to-play entry in edutainment style video games. Blackhaven positions the player in the role of Kendra Turner, an intern working at the (fictional) historical site of Blackhaven plantation. Working alone on a holiday, Kendra is free to explore the grounds of Blackhaven and discovers how the lives of the plantation’s slaves are effectively erased from the historical narrative. As the game progresses, Kendra learns how even her own internship is viewed as a token of diversity by the caretakers of the estate.

It is a game rich in both written and spoken language that supports players as they begin to unpack the history of the location alongside Kendra’s exploration of how historical landmarks are commemorated. Players may begin the game with accepting the historical documentation as fact, but over time they can begin to see how what is left unsaid shapes our understanding of history in crucial ways.

Blackhaven stumbles a bit with the typical constraints of an educational game where player agency is limited, and an early scene in the museum is really just a graphical multiple-choice reading test. Still, for language learners, this controlled experience is a benefit and provides an access point to America’s continuing struggle to represent the history and lived experiences of everyone.

The Stanley Parable

The Stanley Parable is one of the most unique walking simulators and could provide the foundation for an interesting class discussion, as the experiences of each student are likely to be wildly different. It is a game rich with audio and provides the players with an overwhelming amount of choice…or does it?

The Stanley Parable subverts the all-knowing narrator device used in so many books, movies, and games. It does this by having the game narrated and then giving the player the choice to ignore the story told via narration. For example, when the player reaches two doors, the narrator remarks “When Stanley reached a room with two doors, he went through the door on the left.” Should the player choose the right door, the narrator adapts—with what can only be described as an increasing level of frustration.

The Stanley Parable is best used in a class with more advanced learners as it features some complex grammar and subverts many standard storytelling devices.

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I hope this month encourages you to check out some of the many great games in the walking simulator genre and consider ways you could introduce them into your classroom practice in ways similar to novels or movies.

Until next month, play more games!

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/exploring-the-world-of-walking-simulators-using-games-as-narrative-text/

4 Steps to Get Started With Translanguaging

It can be challenging to move from a mostly monolingual English classroom to a more multilingual, inclusive one. However, the lasting impact is well worth the changes in classroom practice. Last month, Naashia Mohamed wrote a compelling case to incorporate translanguaging in the classroom in her post, “3 Ways to Harness the Power of Translanguaging.” Mohamed’s post contains a clear explanation of translanguaging along with a strong rationale for its use in the classroom with some handy classroom tips. To recap, translanguaging is the practice of using all the language resources available to you, integrating two or more languages in order to communicate and learn.

In the classroom, translanguaging often happens naturally as the learning occurs, but you can also create planned translanguaging opportunities for your students. This article focuses on some practical ways on how to create a translanguaging friendly classroom environment. Here are four steps you can take:

1. Promote Benefits of Translanguaging With Your Students

The first step to translanguaging in the classroom is to explicitly set a positive and inclusive tone in your classroom. Show videos or read articles on the benefits of bilingualism—and there are so many benefits! If you are bilingual, share some of your language with your class. If you are not bilingual, try learning some of your students’ language; show your students that you can also learn and make mistakes.

One important thing to remember when changing your practice to incorporate translanguaging is to respect students’ own language choices, and that means being allowed to choose when and if they use their first language. This should especially be the case in classroom environments where you are making a dramatic shift in policy or practice or in environments where students are taking a social risk in using their first languages. Once this groundwork is laid, finding opportunities to build in translanguaging in writing is more effective.

2. Choose a Writing Task That Can Be Easily Multilingual

Certain writing tasks, where the purpose of using two or more languages is clear, may make it easier for your students to start translanguaging in your classroom. Here are some ideas for writing tasks that lend themselves to multilingualism.

• Poetry has many styles and structures to play with that are easily made multilingual, such as poems in two voices, which are poems written as dialogue or a back and forth between two people, animals, or objects. For example, if a poem is a dialogue that takes place between a person and an object, place, or animal with cultural significance. Students could consider if they would like to incorporate other languages into this dialogue and how they might do that. Other poetry might include biographical poetry (“I Am” poems) or simply freestyle poetry where students are encouraged to experiment with language.
• Awareness campaign materials, such as brochures and social media material, can be useful. When discussing the task, support the students in understanding the purpose of the text and the language choices a writer might make. For example, if students want to make a social media poster to help their South Asian community understand the Black Lives Matter movement, what language choices might best help accomplish this task? What would be the benefits of using some Hindi in my poster?
• Advertisements are very similar to awareness campaigns in terms of students needing to understand the audience that the advertisements are aimed at.
• Personal narratives are a wonderful tool for self-expression that can be used at any age level. There are many excellent models of multilingual personal narratives out there.

3. Create Opportunities for Translanguaging in the Writing Process

In the brainstorming and planning phase of writing a text, ask students to brainstorm and write ideas in any language. This could be in the form of a mind map, outline, planning guide, and so on.

Before writing their text in English, nonfiction or fiction, ask students partner up and retell their text orally in their first languages.

4. Provide Real-World Models

Literary texts that blend languages can be a beautiful insight into other people’s multilingual experiences. These texts help young, multilingual writers view themselves in literature, and by reading these stories, they can see that translanguaging can exist in a final product as well as in a process.

The following texts are great engaging models of translanguaging in fiction that I’ve used with my own middle and high school classes.

• The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, a novel written in vignettes that tells a coming-of-age story of a young Mexican-American girl
• American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, a satirical and poignant graphic novel that explores the theme of cultural identity
• “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu, a heart-wrenching, magical short story of a bicultural man discovering a piece of his past
• “Search for My Tongue” by Sujata Bhatt, a powerful poem about her bilingual identity and her first language
• “Names/Nombres” by Julia Alvarez, a personal essay about the author’s immigration and the importance of names

Do you have more ideas for diverse texts in your classroom? What other ideas do you have for translanguaging in writing? Please share your ideas in the comments below.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/4-steps-to-get-started-with-translanguaging/

STEM and ELT: 9 Strategies to Help ELs Learn Science (Part 1)

I am very excited about the topics for the next two months because I will be focusing on strategies that all teachers can use to help English learners (ELs) be successful contributors in the science classroom no matter their level of language proficiency. This blog will cover four of the nine strategies, and the remaining five strategies will be covered in my November blog post.

Science constitutes one of the best subjects for ELs to practice reading, writing, listening and speaking English if the science is taught as inquiry based and using hands-on activities, links to prior knowledge, and allows time allowed for student collaboration. All of these characteristics enhance and give depth to the EL experiences in science. Because science content and language can be learned simultaneously, science has a distinct place in the development of academic language.

In their chapter titled “Strategies for Teaching Science to English Learners” in the 2008 book Science for English Language Learners: K-12 Classroom Strategies (edited by Fathman and Crowther), Maatta, Dobb, and Ostlund explain the nine strategies to help ELs learn science:

1. Connecting With Students
2. Teacher Talk
3. Student Talk
4. Academic Vocabulary
5. Reading Skills
6. Writing Skills
7. Collaborative Learning
8. Scientific Language
9. Process Skills of Inquiry

Although these strategies are listed and explained individually, for ELs to gain a better understanding of the science content and the English language, the strategies should be used in combination.

1. Connecting to Students

Before a student can be successful in class, they have to believe that the teacher cares for them. The brain is a social brain and thrives with positive interactions. When students are in an environment where they feel valued, respected, and relevant, the brain’s alert systems (amygdala and reticular activating systems) stay relaxed—and so does the student. We cannot ignore the power of the affective domain, and making positive connections with ELs.

Some suggestions for ways to connect to your ELs:

• Create a “Welcome Sign” in their language
• Label science equipment in the room in the languages of the students
• Make an effort to find real-world examples of scientists and researchers who are either from that student’s country or who were former ELs themselves.

These things demonstrate to ELs that they are important enough that you took the time to make an effort.

2. Teacher Talk

Teacher talk is not so much about what you say as about how you say it. To use teacher talk correctly, you must know your ELs’ levels of language acquisition…each one of them! Here are some ways to adapt your speech and make your teacher talk more understandable for your ELs:

• Enunciate your words
• Use simpler sentences and sentence structure
• Repeat and rephrase frequently

By doing these things, you provide ELs better chances of understanding you and the ability to follow along and participate. When you do them while including visual aids, graphic organizers, and realia, ELs’ comprehension grossly improves. When assigning tasks, it is best to do so step by step, ask students to summarize, and include comprehension checks. These actions will increase the level of understanding for ELs.

3. Student Talk

ELs must be provided as many opportunities as possible to practice new language and to hear that new language in context in as many modalities as possible: peer to peer, small group, large group, and whole group. Each of these modalities use different ways to express the information.

For example, when working with a peer or in a small group, an EL can point to help them communicate, they can use words or phrases like here, this one, and move this, all while pointing. But when presenting in front of class, they must find the proper words in place of pointing, and a different level of language is required. This is important because this is how ELs learn the new language, including the academic language…in context!

Another great strategy for student talk is to allow ELs to use their primary language, and you don’t need to know the language for this to occur. Primary language support is acceptable for ELs at various levels of language proficiency development, especially those who are at the preproduction and early production stages. According to Hakuta and August (1998), primary language support facilitates cognitive and academic development. The short explanation is that students must talk to learn the language and listen to learn how to use the language.

4. Academic Vocabulary

Building academic vocabulary is the difference between basic everyday talk and cognitive talk. Quite often, teachers think that when they hear an EL speaking very well with their friends, the EL can therefore be successful in the content classroom. This is not true. There is a huge difference between what is called BICS and CALP talk, as defined by Professor Jim Cummins. BICS stands for Basic Interpersonal Communication (everyday talk) and CALP stands for cognitive academic language proficiency (academic talk).

ELs need to learn academic talk to be successful in content classes, but it is no easy task. Academic talk requires building a strong vocabulary in the content area. There are many views on how to best teach vocabulary, but I agree with the view of linguist Stephen Krashen, who stated, more or less, that vocabulary should be taught after the student has been presented with the meaning of the word in a variety of modalities, not first due to lack of schema in the new language or due to lack of education in their primary language.

This opinion is also shared by one of the creators of STMath, Nigel Nisbet, whom I had the honor of interviewing this summer. Mr. Nisbet explained to me the concept behind STMath, a math program that builds conceptual understanding without the barriers of language. The program is built on the brain science of how we learn. The basis is that we learn by doing, thus activating the perception-action cycle. He explained that our brain makes sense of the world around us by creating and testing hypotheses about the way the world works. When presented with new situations, our brain makes predictions based on past experiences, takes action based on those hypotheses, perceives the results, and adjusts its hypotheses.

So, consider how this impacts learning vocabulary using manipulatives and visuals prior to definitions. Game-changer! Why? Because the perception-action cycle is also critical to learning with visual and symbolic representations of actions (think equations, chemistry, physics, etc.). Research shows that using mental pictures or motions to simulate new vocabulary words engages the perception-action cycle and improves student learning. We learn best when we interact with the world. So, put away the dictionary and find other ways to introduce vocabulary—visuals, videos, and demonstrations to name a few!

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We cannot continue to deprive ELs the opportunities to engage in STEM content classes because of language. We must continually discover ways to teach the content and the language. We need to focus on what they can do, and use that to expand their knowledge!

How do you teach vocabulary to your ELs?

References

Byrd, C. (n.d.). What the perception-action cycle tells us about how the brain learns. MIND Research Institute Blog. Retrieved September 29, 2021, from https://blog.mindresearch.org/blog/perception-action-cycle.

American Federation of Teachers. (n.d.). Teaching English-language learners: What does the research say? Teaching English-Language Learners: What Does the Research Say? | LD Topics | LD OnLine. Retrieved September 29, 2021, from http://www.ldonline.org/article/12932/.

from TESOL Blog http://blog.tesol.org/stem-and-elt-9-strategies-to-help-els-learn-science-part-1/