Deborah J. Short outlines a plan to invest and engage in English Learner education
In the past six months, we have heard the cry “DEFUND” in varied contexts, often as a call for social justice, always engendering public controversy. But when the action is the gradual defunding of one area of education, we hear nothing: no controversy, no public outcry. In the past decade, the slow disinvestment in English language teaching and learning has relegated and disempowered our profession and set back the diverse communities that represent the future of our country. Although English learners are the fastest growing subset of the PK-12 student population in the nation, federal funding for them has remained flat or with minimal increase since 2015.
Besides the decrease in funding of programs for teachers and learners, the federal government has implemented hostile policies against immigrants, such as reducing refugee admissions, restructuring the asylum process, and enacting restrictive visa rules. Communities where English learners live suffer when society veers towards an anti-immigrant stance.
English learners bring relevant native language skills and multicultural perspectives critically important for the 21st century to the schoolhouse doors. But too often those skills and knowledge are denied entry into the classroom. Teachers and administrators in our schools may misguidedly believe English-only is the right policy because they lack the training in best practices for language development to know otherwise. They may also struggle with teaching content to English learners, or view the students’ initial lack of English as a deficiency or disability. But in reality, it is simply that the students don’t know English yet.
The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the inequities that English learners have encountered for years. Report after report show the clear lack of resources for remote learning. Many English learners have fewer online devices, less access to reliable Internet service and learning platforms, and limited support in their homes for help with assignments and technology. Even in some of the nation’s wealthiest school districts, we have seen these inequities persist, resulting in a dramatic rise in failing grades among English learners as well as sharp drops in other academic performance measures of English and mathematics in the first quarter of this school year..
In this context, and despite clear evidence of the benefits those who learn English as a new language bring to our economy and culture, the most dedicated and qualified professionals serving this population have largely been ignored and left out of key education policy discussions and decisions. It has been long overdue for the United States to acknowledge its past shortcomings and strengthen this critical sector of education. It is now time for strong educational programs for English learners with high expectations and support systems focused on student and teacher success.
In order to achieve such goals, we highlight the following areas for attention:
· Funding for schools to remedy the learning loss during the COVID-19 school shutdowns and correct historic inequities in funding for English learners. With tight budgets we need smart investments – in extra instructional time for English learners to catch up in both academic English and subject area learning and in professional development opportunities for teachers and paraprofessionals to support them using research-based practices.
· Recommended changes to state teacher certification requirements. Pre-service teachers must learn how best to teach the current and former English learners they will have in their classrooms. These requirements include coursework in the latest research on developing a second or additional language, methods for integrating language and content instruction, and cross-cultural communication and culturally responsive teaching.
· Policies and opportunities to promote bilingualism. Knowing more than one language is an asset to our national economy and security. Dual language education programs, heritage language programs, and the Seal of Biliteracy are well-tested options that all learners, no matter their native language, can participate in.
· Engagement of English language teachers in key policy decisions. Whether they are being made at the local, state, or federal level, policies impacting English learners should be discussed with the experts who teach them and are at the forefront of the latest research-based practices for learning a new language.
We know that overcoming decades of indifference won’t be an easy task, but after a tumultuous year, let’s take this opportunity to build language education back better.
As the United States has begun distributing the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against Covid-19, communities across the country have grappled with fairly and effectively administering the vaccine to vulnerable sectors of the population.
For the Cherokee Nation in eastern Oklahoma, the Covid-19 vaccines aren’t merely a means of beating the virus. As the community works out the intricacies of vaccine distribution, fluent speakers of the Cherokee language are prioritized to receive the vaccine, in order to help preserve the language and culture, according to an article in Tulsa World.
In August 2020, the CDC released a report that noted that Native Americans were one of the racial and ethnic minority groups at highest risk from Covid-19, due to racial inequities which have historically led to disparate socioeconomic factors and health outcomes within their communities. As of December 2020, at least 20 fluent speakers of Cherokee had died after contracting the virus, as Tulsa World reported.
“We wanted to get some of our Cherokee elders and speakers, people that know the language, in on [the vaccine],” Tim King, a fluent Cherokee speaker and teacher, told Tulsa World in December.
Out of nearly 400,000 Cherokee, only about 2,500 speak the language fluently, and that number has been in decline—in 2019, Cherokee leaders declared the language’s decline a state of emergency and announced efforts at revitalizing the language.
The majority of fluent Cherokee speakers are older than 70, and as a result, many are at even more risk from the pandemic. According to National Public Radio, vaccines are being given primarily to elderly individuals and healthcare workers during the first phase of distribution, however they’re also being given to fluent speakers of the language in order to quell any further linguistic decline caused by the pandemic. At least 600 Cherokee speakers have received the vaccine so far.
“I think it’s important that we take care of our speakers, because once we’re gone we won’t have the same language,” John Ross, a Cherokee translator, said to Tulsa World. “It’s going to be different. The language is evolving, and when all of us first-language speakers are gone, it’s going to be gone.”
According to a new study published in Scientific Reports, New Zealanders acquire a sort of passive understanding of Māori phonology and phonotactics, despite actively speaking little to none of the language. “Most New Zealanders do not speak Māori, yet are exposed to it throughout their lifetime,” the paper reads. “This exposure leads to a large proto-lexicon—implicit knowledge of the existence of words and sub-word units without any associated meaning.” Māori is a Polynesian language indigenous to New Zealand, where it serves as one of the nation’s official languages alongside English and New Zealand Sign Language; approximately 150,000 people in the country speak it at a conversational level.
Children who are acquiring their first language develop what linguists call a proto-lexicon, a series of sounds and words that they recognize but do not necessarily attach any meaning to. Researchers at the New Zealand Institute of Language, Brain, and Behaviour wanted to figure out if ambient exposure to another language throughout an individual’s lifetime (as is the experience most New Zealanders have with Māori) triggered the development of a proto-lexicon in adults. The study consisted of two experiments—in the first experiment, non-Māori-speaking New Zealanders were asked to distinguish between real Māori words and nonwords that shared many phonological characteristics with actual Māori words.
Across the board, the participants were able to tell which stimuli were actual Māori words versus those that simply sounded like Māori words. In the second experiment, the researchers also used participants from Māori-speaking backgrounds, as well as U.S. residents with no Māori exposure. Participants were given a series of Māori-like words and were asked to judge how similar they were to actual Māori words in terms of their phonotactic structure—i.e., whether or not they had a Māori-like “sound,” or cadence, to them. The non-Māori-speaking New Zealanders’ ability to judge this was nearly identical to that of the Māori speakers, whereas U.S. residents were less sensitive in their judgements of the words.
All in all, the researchers determined that the Māori proto-lexicon of non-Māori-speaking New Zealanders could consist of more than 1,000 words in some speakers. The researchers believe speakers who have developed such a proto-lexicon will likely have a significant edge if they choose to actively learn the language.
“Without effort or awareness, listeners build a proto-lexicon based on what they hear around them. For many individuals, it may permanently remain a proto-lexicon,” the paper reads. “For those who are motivated to learn the second language to which they have been exposed, we expect that there is potential for ‘awakening’ the proto-lexicon to more readily attach meanings to the words they already ‘know.’”
On Feb. 3–5, 2021, advocates from all over the U.S. will gather virtually to celebrate 40 years of the Joint National Committee on Languages and National Council for Languages and International Studies (JNCL-NCLIS) during Virtual Language Advocacy Days 2021.
As the leading language advocacy organization, JNCL-NCLIS is at the forefront of language policy, engaging in public advocacy and directing lobbying on behalf of its coalition members. The organization’s success is predicated on providing training to empower individuals to use their voices and raise awareness of the importance of languages in an increasingly globalized world.
JNCL-NCLIS was established in response to the final report of President Carter’s Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies, “Strength through Wisdom: A Critique of U.S. Capability.” The findings of the report called attention to the necessity for language professionals to work together under a united voice with the purpose of continuing the movement to improve and enhance the learning and teaching of world language and international studies. In 1981, the articles of association were signed, bringing the following 40 years of language advocacy to fruition.
Today, JNCL-NCLIS has grown to serve over 130 member organizations at the national, state, and regional levels, representing an all-inclusive network encompassing more than 300,000 language educators and professionals. While the landscape of language policy has shifted over the years through various administration changes and history-shaping events, JNCL-NCLIS remains an agile and proactive constant, committed to bringing language and international education into broader policy conversations. Most recently, JNCL-NCLIS represented the language and international education community during a key stakeholder meeting with members of the Biden–Harris Department of Education transition team and representatives from several other education organizations, articulating the need for a departmental shift to an asset-based approach to multilingualism.
JNCL-NCLIS works year-round to ensure language policy is on the agendas of legislative decision makers, and the organization’s annual Language Advocacy Day is an opportunity for coalition members and advocates across the nation to experience firsthand the power of advocacy as they participate in policy discussions with leaders in the field and attend meetings with their congressional representatives.The event serves as a launch pad, a space of collaboration, coordination, and preparation for language advocacy in the year ahead.
Advocates are invited to take part in the next chapter of language advocacy by joining JNCL-NCLIS in celebration of 40 years of advocacy and renewed commitment to the future of language advocacy. The three-day advocacy event will take place Feb. 3–5, 2021, and will consist of both live, interactive sessions and panels and prerecorded events.
During the first-ever Virtual Languages Advocacy Days event, attendees will join hundreds of language educators, professionals, and students already registered for the organization’s largest event to date for the unique opportunity to learn about the federal programs that impact the language community, understand the role of advocacy in advancing collective policy priorities, and receive specialized training for successful virtual advocacy.
This year’s event will focus on preparing advocates to create virtual pathways to legislative impact and will explore themes of empathy and connection through language. Each day will feature engaging keynotes and remarks from special guest speakers with connections to the past, present, and future of language advocacy.
The constituent voice is an essential component to successfully advancing the policy priorities of our professional community. JNCL-NCLIS sets advocates up for success by scheduling virtual meetings with their members of Congress, preparing briefing materials for discussion, and providing coaching and insight to help amplify their stories. Each voice will make a difference at Virtual Language Advocacy Days 2021. If each person doesn’t tell their story, who will?
More than 70 countries have officially incorporated Chinese language teaching into their national education systems, including the UK, Russia, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, and Australia, according to Tian Xuejun, China’s vice minister of education.
Speaking at last month’s opening ceremony of the International Chinese Language Education Week 2020, Tian said that over 4,000 colleges across the globe have added Chinese language courses to their curriculums and estimated that 25 million people were currently learning Chinese as a second language and that over 200 million people outside China had learned Chinese.
Most overseas Chinese-language learners are from Southeast Asia, according to Wu Yinghui, a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University, who explained that more than 30 million people of Chinese heritage live in Southeast Asia, accounting for about 6% of the region’s population, which provides a solid basis for Chinese language education in the region. Chinese-speaking talent is now in great demand in countries that have joined the Belt and Road Initiative, especially in Southeast Asian and African countries where Confucius Institutes have attracted many young people by integrating Chinese learning with e-commerce, agricultural, and IT technologies. A 2017 survey by American Councils for International Education (ACIE) found that 227,086 students were enrolled in Chinese language courses and that Chinese ranked as the fourth most widely taught foreign language in the K–12 system. Dr. Dan Davidson, president of ACIE, told the Xinhua news agency that the soaring popularity of Chinese language learning across the U.S. was “remarkable.”
However, in the U.S., despite growth in the number of Chinese language programs for younger learners, enrollments in Chinese language programs at universities have been falling since their peak of 60,000 in 2013. Chinese programs in the UK and Australia have also seen decreases in enrollment at the higher education level.
As debilitating as many of the events of 2020 have been, as we end the year, more recent events have proved that we have persevered and are moving in a positive direction despite these obstacles. The senseless killings of Black and Brown men and women in the U.S. led to a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the search for equity in all arenas, from the corporate boardroom to our classrooms. The demand for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion professionals has increased tenfold to ensure that organizations begin to meet all stakeholders’ needs. The spread of COVID-19 kept many of us close to home and provided the time and space to connect with and initiate change in our immediate communities. The move to hybrid models of instruction or full distance learning in many districts across the nation has led us to rethink how we educate all students and the inherent inequities in our school structures. Equity conversations in education have centered around access to technology, quality curriculum, and how to provide a meaningful education to all students regardless of their race, gender, language, or ability in a face-to-face, hybrid or online environment.
As we continue the pursuit of equity across the country, no more salient example of the shift to inclusion and representation has occurred than the nomination and election of Kamala Harris. She is the first female, first Black, and first South Asian vice president-elect of the United States. The daughter of two Jamaican and Indian immigrants will become the highest-ranking woman in the nation. As she walked out to Mary J. Blige’s, Work That on the evening of November 7, 2020, to accept the nomination as Vice president-elect, lyrics that mirror our 2020 experiences were transmitted from that Delaware stage through our television speakers, “There’s so many-a girls/I hear you been running/From the beautiful queen/That you could be becoming/You can look at my palm/And see the storm coming/Read the book of my life/And see I’ve overcome it. To get to this stage, Harris has overcome and contributed so much. Collectively, to get to the end of 2020, we have all dealt with and overcome so much. Harris’s words to young girls across the nation were loud and clear, “Our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourself in a way that others might not see you, simply because they’ve never seen it before. And we will applaud you every step of the way” (Prakash, 2020).
Women at the Forefront of Educational Equity Harris is one of the many women who should also be applauded for the steps she has taken to ensure equity and inclusion while in the roles she has taken throughout her career as a District Attorney, Attorney General, and a United States Senator. The foundation of equal access to opportunities is equity in education. Whether it be through their scholarship, direct work in districts, or collaboration with educational organizations, there are countless women of color who have dedicated their careers to educational equity.
• Gloria Ladson-Billings, Ph.D.: Since the 1990s, Gloria Ladson-Billings has been a leading scholar, contributing to the research behind the development and implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy. Her work has led to millions of K-12 educators realizing their students’ needs while ensuring that they make content come alive by connecting it to their experiences and cultures.
• Janice Jackson, Ed.D.: In a school district that services over 350,000 students, 85% of whom are children of color with over 60,000 English Learners, Janice Jackson, Chicago Public Schools CEO, has been a champion for educational equity throughout her 20-year career in education. As CEO, she hired the district’s first Diversity Officer to focus on a high-quality public education for every child and prioritizing ongoing training for teachers to minimize achievement and opportunity gaps.
• Crystal Gonzalez: Throughout her career as an educator and program officer, Crystal Gonzalez, now founder and executive director of the English Learner Success Forum, has spent her career elevating the needs of English Learners. Through her collaboration with content developers and organizations, she ensures that K-12 instructional materials provide appropriate language supports for students. Her work has also led her to engage with professional learning providers to develop training frameworks for teachers that ensure ELs access to the grade-level curriculum, which has often been ignored until students reached higher proficiency levels.
Coupled with current events, the ongoing work of these women and others like them has caused school districts to revitalize professional development efforts to ensure that teachers and specialists meet the needs of the increasingly diverse populations of students they serve. Educators must serve as the ambassadors to continue the groundwork we began in 2020 to ensure that true equity and inclusion occur. Professional development focused on the essential elements of Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Practices, Implicit Bias, and Evaluation of Representation in Curricular Materials helps teachers implement these practices.
Culturally Relevant and Sustaining Practices Ladson-Billings developed culturally relevant pedagogy in response to her research with educators who successfully taught African-American students. Teachers who implement culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) are known to (a) have positive perceptions of themselves, their work, and others (b) have positive interaction with all students, parents, and the community, (c) believe that knowledge is shared, recycled, and created and (d) be passionate about their work as an educator (Ladson-Billings, 1995; McDaniel, 2017). Ladson-Billings (1995) also identified outcomes for students who are recipients of culturally relevant pedagogy; they achieve academically and can identify, examine, and critique social inequities.
Simply adding books from various multicultural perspectives, celebrating holidays from non-dominant cultures, or using diverse images does not change the type of instruction students from marginalized groups receive. The introduction of the theoretical tenets of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy picks up where CRP left off (Alim & Paris, 2014; Ladson-Billings, 2014; Paris, 2012). Culturally relevant pedagogy laid the foundation for culturally sustaining pedagogy, whose goal is to maintain students’ and families’ heritage and community practices (Paris, 2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy challenges educators to implement instructional practices that are sustained and valued in the academic environment. Students do not have to lose or deny their languages, literacies, cultures, and histories in order to achieve in school (Paris, 2012). Paris and Salim (2014) argue that CSP embraces cultural pluralism and cultural equality, allowing students to sustain their current culture while also gaining access to the “dominant language, literacies, and other cultural practices.”
Implicit Bias Training The Kirwan Institute defines implicit bias as “the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner (2015).” These biases can affect how educators interact with one another, their students, and the school community. Establishing ongoing opportunities for educators to participate in professional development that examines their own implicit bias while establishing protocols for identifying and correcting bias in the opportunities, experiences, and realities students encounter will be the first step to full equity and inclusion. If your district does not yet offer training, consider exploring Project Implicit (http://implicit.harvard.edu/). Project Implicit is a research project between researchers at Harvard University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Washington that offers several Implicit Association Tests (IATs) to uncover unconscious biases and provide steps to eliminate these biases.
Evaluation of Representation in Curricular Materials Whether it be the textbooks utilized, lesson plans designed, or the novels embedded in the curriculum, educators across the country are receiving explicit training in how to locate resources that represent the culture, experiences, and realities of their students. In an increasingly diverse society, students must interact with various texts and resources representing different ideologies and cultures. The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools developed the Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard (Bryan-Gooden, et al., 2019) to assist teachers, curriculum review teams, and districts in identifying the barriers, opportunities, and supports within curricular materials used to deliver content. In this Pass the Mic series, we have explored various barriers to systemic equality; racism (dismantling), the weaponization of English, and communication. In this final installment of the year, I am now passing the mic to each reader as I challenge you to make the conscious decision to be the voice, face, and champion of equity in your space. Take time to pause and reflect daily on how you can impact change as you plan and deliver your lessons, write curriculum, and engage with your students.
References J. Bryan-Gooden, M. Hester, & L. Q. Peoples (2019). Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard. New York: Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, New York University.
Ladson‐Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory into practice, 34(3), 159-165.
Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: Aka the remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74-84.
McDaniel, K. M. (2017). Beyond compliance: Supporting the transition of English learners with special needs. In A. Ellis (Ed.), Transitioning children with disabilities (pp. 43-57). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93-97.
Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2014). What are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining pedagogy? A loving critique forward. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 85-100.
Kia Myrick McDaniel, Ed.D., has dedicated her career to supporting and developing equitable educational opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. She is currently a district leader, adjunct professor, and consultant.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rules Committee chair James P. McGovern (D-MA) have unveiled the rules for the 117th Congress, including changes to the Standing Rules (Section 2, subsection e), which “modernize the use of pronouns, familial relationship terminology, and other references to gender in order to be inclusive of all Members, Delegates, Resident Commissioners, employees of the House, and their families.”
The proposals include specific examples where the wording of rules will be changed, starting with the switch from “seamen” to “seafarers” and “Chairman” to “Chair,” and continues by replacing a whole host of gender-specific words including “mother,” “father,” brother,” “sister,” “himself’” and “herself.”
“As House Speaker, I am pleased to join Chairman Jim McGovern in introducing this visionary rules package, which reflects the views and values of the full range of our historically diverse House Democratic Majority,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “Thanks to the leadership of Chairman McGovern and our Members, Democrats have crafted a package of unprecedented, bold reforms, which will make the House more accountable, transparent and effective in our work to meet the needs of the American people. These future-focused proposals reflect our priorities as a Caucus and as a Country – including crushing the coronavirus, addressing economic disparity, combating the climate crisis, advancing inclusion, and promoting integrity in government.”
“Through months of consultation across our caucus and Congress, we have developed a rules package that makes the People’s House more accountable and responsive to all Americans. This proposal doesn’t tinker around the edges of ethics reform. It contains historic ideas to protect whistleblowers and prevent everything from the undue influence of lawbreakers on the House Floor to the dissemination of deepfakes on government accounts. This proposal also shines a light on those struggling to get ahead in America today and ensures we remain focused on the most pressing issues facing our nation. I want to thank my colleagues, outside stakeholders, and all those who helped us develop these transformative ideas,” said Chair McGovern.
The push for gender-inclusive language drew ire from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who simply commented “This is stupid,” signing his tweet, “A father, son, and brother.”
Politicians in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu have been raising concerns over the country’s National Education Policy, arguing that the policy could be used as a way to impose the Hindi language, according to the New Indian Express. While the policy emphasizes that instruction will be given in students’ mother tongues or the local language, the policy also places additional emphasis on Sanskrit and other foreign languages.
Tamil inscriptions carved 1000 years ago on the wall of the Brihadeeswarar temple.
The debate has been ongoing since the policy, first introduced in the summer of 2019, encouraged a three-language educational system in which students would be required to learn Hindi and English alongside their mother tongues. The state of Tamil Nadu has opposed similar three-language systems in the past, only giving official status to Tamil and emphasizing both Tamil and English language education.
At the time, Congress Leader Shashi Tharoor noted that this was unfair because most students in South Indian states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka would be required to learn Hindi, but students whose native language is Hindi wouldn’t have to learn Tamil or other Dravidian languages spoken in the southern states.
Supporters of the most recent version of the policy, which was officially approved this July and aims to reshape the Indian education system throughout 2021, have stated that it is unlikely that the new policy would impose Hindi, and even argued that it would do the opposite, however some politicians remain skeptical.
This isn’t the first time tensions have risen in India over Hindi language imposition. India’s linguistic diversity has often been a point of pride throughout the nation’s history, but has also been a source of unease for some. Tamil Nadu in particular has been especially opposed to giving Hindi official status at the local level, with numerous anti-Hindi protests occurring in both the country’s pre- and post-Independence periods. Around 90% of the state’s population speaks Tamil natively, with relatively few using Hindi as a second language.
The most recent anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu occurred in 2014, when the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered government officials to prioritize using Hindi, rather than English, in external communications such as social media postings. Activists suggested that this might cut off Tamil-speaking and other non-Hindi-speaking users from accessing such communication; as a result of the objection, the order was rescinded.
Dan: What is one of the most common barriers to facilitating the shift from silence to oracy for multilingual learners, and how can we work to overcome it?
Tonya: This shift is about changing habits, collectively, so that every student has opportunities to engage in peer conversations in every lesson, every day. This shift is imperative to ensure multilingual multicultural learners, especially English learners (EL), have voice in classroom communities and access to intellectually rich content and language learning.
One common barrier with this shift is human habit—as structuring peer-to-peer conversations in every lesson requires, for many of us, doing things differently than how we were taught. Many of us learned in classrooms where lecture was the norm, and students only spoke occasionally one-at-a-time if they raised a hand to speak. Even in our adult lives, we often experience the same traditional discourse default in lectures (e.g. Ted Talks) and meetings.
It takes awareness of our discourse default, and an intention to change inherited habits to make our teaching more interactive. The good news is we can do this with intention and practice—through planning peer conversation strategies into our lessons and making conversations routine.
Committing to changing habits is easiest when we collaborate with a shared vision and a compelling reason to change. Across schools and systems, this change requires ALL educators, not just the language specialists, to transform teaching from traditional to interactive, from student silence to student conversation.
Start with the why to build buy-in and collective commitment to increasing equitable student engagement in peer conversations across all classrooms and schools. The many benefits of this shift include:
• Increasing the percent of students who engage.
• Increasing the opportunities for all kids to talk.
• Creating low-risk opportunities for students to make meaning, problem-solve or engage in productive struggle.
• Accelerate academic language development connected to content.
• Increase opportunities to gather formative data—about both content and language goals—during your teaching. Deepen active engagement of multilingual learners in every classroom and content area, all day long.
• Keep the “why” of this shift front and center, and take actions individually, and collectively to realize the vision of interactive, equitable classrooms in which all students engage, and all voices are heard.
Dan: Can you provide teachers with some strategies for enacting peer conversations in distance and blended learning environments?
Ivannia: As I work with teachers, I recommend the 15-minute rule, where teacher talk is organized in 15-minute segments of time throughout a class period or an hour. This is not to say that teachers would only talk during the first 15-minutes of class, but that they would “chunk” or organize their teaching in 15-minute segments in order to plan for student engagement. In the book Tools for Teaching, Davis (1993) found that “…student attention during lectures tends to wane after approximately 10–15 minutes.” Researchers Wankat (2002) and Benjamin (2002) also suggest that attention is highest at the beginning of a lecture. Such research about student attention during direct instruction or lectures remind us that the person talking the most, is learning the most. In that way, we must intentionally plan for student talk, or it will not happen.
The 15-minute rule has become even more important in a distance or blended learning environment where it can be easier for students to become passive learners, or for Zoom fatigue to take effect. In addition to distance or blended learning constraints, it is important to remember what it’s like to stay focused on teacher talk in a language in which we are not fully proficient. Moments of pausing and checking for understanding become especially essential for multilingual learners in a virtual setting. For all of these reasons, the 15-minute rule assists teachers with organizing their teaching in 15-minute segments and intentionally planning for student talk or engagement opportunities after those 15-minutes.
With face-to-face instruction, I typically recommend two partner talks at each of the first two 15-minute intervals and ending with a more structured Think-Write-Pair-Share (see 15-minute rule diagram above). In a blended or distance learning environment, after the first two 15-minute segments of time, teachers allow for processing time with a chat box response or allow students to unmute themselves to respond to open-ended questions. For the last 15-minute segment, I recommend a breakout for a longer discussion. As with face-to-face instruction, for both chat box or breakout discussions, it is essential for teachers to pre-plan questions that are open-ended (Depth of Knowledge Levels 3 and 4), thus requiring use of more detailed and longer stretches of language.
Dan: Chapter 5 of Breaking Down the Wall proposes that EL Shadowing can be an effective catalyst for shifting from Silence to Conversation. How can the Shadowing protocol be implemented in distance learning settings and what have been the results?
Ivannia: EL Shadowing (second edition of the book to be published by Corwin Press in Spring 2021 and titled Shadowing Multilingual Learners) is a way to spend a day in the life of a multilingual learner with a specific lens on their speaking and listening experiences. As such, shadowing multilingual learners in a virtual setting has become even more essential, in order to understand and meet their specific linguistic and cultural needs from a distance. At a time when educators are also concerned about learning loss and whether the needs of specific groups of students are being met virtually, it is essential to continue observing multilingual learners in virtual settings. Additionally, when schools return to instruction in a face-to-face setting, shadowing multilingual learners can reaffirm the importance of prioritizing the needs of multilingual learners.
That being said, there are also several ways that educators can continue to shadow multilingual learners in a virtual setting, described below.
• Record your own lesson in Zoom or your own learning management system (note: please make sure that you have necessary permissions to record first). Then, select one of your own multilingual learners, review the video at a later time, and complete the shadowing protocol at every 5-minute interval.
• Shadow one of your own multilingual learners during a breakout or group session. Please note that it can be difficult to shadow in real time while also addressing student needs in groups. For this option, you may also want to record the breakout, review the video later, and then complete the shadowing protocol at every 5-minute interval.
• Request permission for a substitute teacher and permission to observe in a colleague’s virtual classroom. Shadow a multilingual learner in that colleague’s virtual classroom.
• Shadow using the Jeff Zwiers videos (all nine videos, and take down activity at the beginning and end of each video). Keep in mind that these videos are exemplary classroom situations, which can also be helpful in terms of the possibilities for classroom talk with multilingual students. https://www.jeffzwiers.org/videos
Dan: How can school leaders play an active role in implementing the shift from silence to conversation both schoolwide and systemwide?
Tonya: At the system level, collaborate across roles and departments to align professional learning initiatives so your focus on equitable classroom conversations doesn’t feel like “one more thing” but is deeply connected to your priority change-leadership goals. Alignment is necessary to go deep, and leverage your resources including precious professional learning time and the focus of instructional coaches, learning communities, and administrator walk-throughs, in support of realizing success.
Build capacity of all teachers to structure and scaffold conversations in the context of what they teach every day. Go beyond strategy workshops and support the job-embedded professional learning that is foundational to transforming classroom practice for student impact. At the site level, engage job-alike teacher teams (e.g. department or grade-level) in building clarity together with respect to what effective student conversations in their disciplines look like, in co-planning high-level conversations aligned to local curriculum, and in collaborating to make student conversations routine.
Lead a culture of learning in which taking risks, gathering data and reflecting on data to change practice is the norm. Teacher inquiry cycles are important to go beyond simply implementing strategies, to actually refining the ways we teach in response to the unique and varied assets and needs of the students we serve. Help educators collectively and individually use conversation data to get honest about who is speaking and who is silent, and to use conversation data as powerful, real-time formative data about student successes and challenges with content and language learning goals (Singer & Zwiers, 2016).
Be a leader who leads for a compelling vision of student impact, not simply implementation of adopted strategies. A focus on strategies as the end goal communicates the idea that “we did the strategy and thus did our jobs,” and removes our collective responsibility to adapt business as usual until we realize equitable classrooms and schools.
Leading with a vision on impact, by contrast, ensures we focus on a shared vision of equitable classroom discourse—and have the humility and courage to use data to adapt our approaches until we realize our goal.
References Benjamin LT, Jr. Lecturing. In: The Teaching of Psychology: Essays in Honor of Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer, edited by Davis SF and Buskist W. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002, p. 57–67.
Davis BG. Tools for Teaching. San Franciso, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1993.
Wankat PC. The Effective Efficient Professor: Scholarship and Service. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2002.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate Connecticut Education Commissioner Dr. Miguel A. Cardona to replace Betsy DeVos as the next Education Secretary. Cardona, whose heritage is Puerto Rican, reportedly spoke very little English when he started school, but went on to earn an MA Ed. in Bilingual Bicultural Education before moving on to educational leadership.
Cardona spent the first five years of his career teaching elementary students before serving as an elementary principal for ten years, while being the Meriden District’s art curriculum supervisor and graduating summa cum laude in his Bilingual Ed MA and his Doctorate in Educational Leadership. He went on to become the district’s assistant superintendent, adjunct professor of educational leadership at University of Connecticut, and then became the state’s Commissioner of Education in August 2019.
“Like many first generation Latinos whose parents came from another country, I had to learn how to code-switch early. At first it was with language, but it soon became necessary for other nuances of the cultures in which I was immersed.,” he wrote in a 2018 article. “Navigating the dominant cultural norms in dress, idiomatic expressions and music, among other things, I was always reminded to stay proud and celebrate my Puerto Rican roots.”
“After several years of teaching, I was fortunate to receive a master’s fellowship in Bilingual Bicultural Education at the University of Connecticut. There I met some mentors and models in education who motivated me to continue my passion for learning and teaching in ways that students enjoy,” continues Cardona in the article. “After graduating, I made the choice not to teach in Bilingual Education, simply because I felt non-Bilingual Education students also need to see Latinos in professional capacities. Like many, I remember what it felt like to be on the wrong side of a stereotype, and I felt it was my purpose in education to evolve the thinking of the next generation. Equity became a foundation for my passion around this time.”
During his 2019 state confirmation hearing, he said, “Education is the great equalizer. It was for me. Our success as a state will be dependent upon how we support students who are learning English as a second language.”
His doctoral dissertation, entitled “Sharpening the Focus of Political Will to Address Achievement Disparities,” suggests solutions to improve the education received by English learners, criticizes the limited opportunities for ELs to participate in extracurricular activities and access to reading materials in Spanish, and contains the telling line, “..it seems that the normalization of failure of the ELL students continues to influence practices.”
Cardona supports the promotion of heritage languages and has encouraged districts to set up dual-language programs. “I think the key thing is making sure we provide support in their native language. We don’t want kids to come in and lose their first language while learning a second language,” Cardona told the CT Mirror in 2017. “It’s really crucial as a state we recognize the assets our English learners have.”
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