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How to Best Support English Learners at Home

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, English learners (ELs), like many students, already faced challenges at school. How to engage and teach ELs when they’re learning from home is another new challenge educators are facing. Beginning with factors that affect all students, here are some ideas to help.

Maslow Before Bloom
In a time of widespread job losses and economic uncertainty, we must put Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy when it comes to thinking about the social and emotional needs of our youth. If students don’t have their basic needs met, we can’t expect them to show up and perform to academically high standards or to do well on standardized tests. More than ever, we want to make sure kids are emotionally healthy. The experience of having school buildings closed, of being removed from their routine and their teachers and their friends, has been traumatic for many children. In addition, many parents work in industries that provide essential services, which means these parents are still expected to work during the pandemic, leaving their children home alone. Consider the benefit of providing families with resources—such as books or websites—that support social-emotional learning as a means of lessening the anxiety faced by both parent and child during these challenging times. Now let’s turn to the issue of distance learning itself. According to Benjamin Herold, “the messy transition to distance learning in America’s K–12 education system as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has been marked by glaring disparities among schools. Among the most significant are gaps between the country’s poorest and wealthiest schools around access to basic technology and live remote instruction, as well as the percentages of students who teachers report are not logging in or making contact” [The Disparities in Remote Learning Under Coronavirus (in Charts), Education Week, April 10, 2020]. Distance learning requires access both to high-speed internet and adequate devices at home. It should be no surprise that both are less available in lower socio-economic communities, affecting synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities. However, access to remote learning opportunities depends on technology not only within the home but within the district as well. Rural schools, for example, often suffer from not only poor connectivity but limited staff and technical expertise. Even in the best of situations, where technology is accessible both at home and at school, providing resources to families is important for two reasons: 1) for general communication, and 2) to help families whose children have not previously experienced distance learning.

Support the Parents, Support the Child
Whatever the language proficiency in the home, supporting ELs during COVID-19 means finding a way to communicate with parents or guardians in a language they understand. This can often be best accomplished by anchoring to what is already familiar to them: community organizations, migrant centers, acculturating centers, centers with adult ESOL classes, etc. There are two benefits to this approach: 1) centers and organizations such as these are used to working with speakers of many languages, and 2) adults are used to working with these centers and organizations. In both instances, not only have relationships been developed but also adults know how to engage in the process of obtaining information and/or support. Supporting an English learner academically brings us back to the challenge every EL faces: learning a new language, learning about a new language, and learning through a new language. This means finding a way to support their learning of English and in English. In such a situation, the importance of synchronous learning becomes clear. Students learning a language need interaction with others speaking the language.

Reassessing Expectations
We must also continue to set goals while reassessing expectations. For example, for young EL students, the specific benchmarks preschoolers must meet to move into kindergarten involve socializing with their peers, which is not happening right now. Three months is a long time for a preschooler to be away from their group setting. Those three months are a large percentage of their life, and if they are not developing those social skills now, those benchmarks for kindergarten can set them back. Older students face different challenges. High schoolers may have time limits to meet specific expectations to graduate. They may still be working on learning English or may have been doing intensive work in class knowing they could graduate on time. Now they’re going to be behind six months or a whole year, and they might not be able to catch up and finish. What does that mean for policy and expectations dealing with students who are graduating? And what does it mean for their future?

Funding and the Future
A lot of funding to support ELs comes from the federal and state government.1 Funding is based on meeting expectations for third, sixth, and eighth grades, but those assessments haven’t happened this year. Schools will have to think about the formulas they’re going to use to receive the money they need to continue supporting the learning of every child. ELs are already trying to learn English. No matter what program they’re in, they have extra stressors put upon them as they go through school. Adding the pandemic-related strains on top of a more challenging educational path is going to be stressful. All students deserve an education filled with academic rigor, as well as understanding and compassion—especially now.

Carol Johnson is a bilingual educator and national education officer at Renaissance. She holds a PhD in second-language acquisition and teaching, specializing in how people learn second languages.
Doris Chavez-Linville, MSEd, is the director of English learner innovations at Renaissance. A former migrant education teacher, she is an advocate of equity in education through making technology resources of high rigor and high quality for all learners.

Renaissance has resources to support parents in multiple languages available at https://www.renaissance.com/renaissance-at-home/.
Links
1. https://www.renaissance.com/resources/funding/

No-Cost Access to BeeLine Reader

In response to widespread school shutdowns, BeeLine has launched a program to give free access to affected teachers and students. Click here to learn more about their program and to sign up.

BeeLine Reader is designed to make reading on-screen easier, faster, and more enjoyable. It uses a simple cognitive trick — an eye-guiding color gradient — to pull your eyes through long blocks of text. This helps you read more effectively and maintain your focus better.

BeeLine’s technology has won social impact awards from The United Nations and Stanford University, and their tools have been adopted by colleges and universities.

City Schools Offer Guidance on English Learners

A new report from the Council of the Great City Schools suggests a wide range of actions that schools and districts can take to help English learners (ELs) make up for the educational opportunities lost during the first few months of school closures due to the pandemic. Supporting English Learners in the COVID-19 Crisis makes recommendations on all sorts of crucial decisions such as which technology to use when, how to assess what ELs missed during shutdown, how specific professional development for all educators who work with ELs can help, how to encourage family engagement, and how to deploy aides and English-learner specialists to help afford students one-to-one or small-group learning support during remote classes.

The Council of the Great City Schools is a membership organization of the country’s large, urban school systems, which not only educate a higher percentage of the nation’s ELs but also are more reliant on remote education this semester than smaller districts.

Among the recommendations to address the heightened needs of English learners, the report calls for school districts to adopt a systems-oriented approach to EL services that is supported by all departments:

Schools and educators need district guidance on how to plan instruction, even in the absence of annual English-proficiency assessment scores, to continue progress in developing English proficiency.

Schools require clear guidance on how to determine needed levels of support in content-area instruction, the number of periods and delivery of English language development, and necessary monitoring and supports for recently redesignated ELs.

Districts need to determine how stand-alone ELD classes are delivered during remote or hybrid instruction, particularly with high school courses that may be credit bearing and in districts that have strict ELD time allocations delineated in state law, in state regulation, or in compliance agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice or the Office for Civil Rights.

Teachers need long-term, hands-on professional development and ongoing coaching to build capacity to meet the needs of ELs, especially in using technology to deliver remote or hybrid instruction.

The report continues with recommendations on “greater use of well-designed and universally understood graphics and carefully curated information” during enrollment, screening, and placement; making learning for ELs accelerated rather than remedial; ensuring that every district’s EL program includes attention to the development of English proficiency; including dedicated time for targeted English language development (focused language study) regardless of instructional modality—remote, hybrid, or in person; and providing instruction that emphasizes language through content, or discipline-specific academic language enrichment (DALE).

The full report is available at https://www.cgcs.org/cms/lib/DC00001581/Centricity/domain/35/publication%20docs/CGCS_ELL%20and%20COVID_web_v2.pdf.

Facilitating Sustainable Virtual PD

Whether teachers are instructing entirely online, face-to-face, or in a hybrid capacity, the one constant this school year will be instructional technology.

Even in a classroom setting, health guidelines will dictate that students not sit side-by-side sharing math manipulatives, creating posters, or handling science lab equipment. Instead, students will be collaborating through online platforms and may even be interacting asynchronously through tools such as Google Jamboard or Flipgrid.

Here’s the good news: you can do it!

After a summer of facilitating online professional development for educators across the U.S., Canada, and in international schools, I have learned that figuring out online teaching tools is akin to the language learning experience itself. With enough practice, you gain confidence, proficiency, and get to interact with people you otherwise might not meet at home.

Fortunately for educators of linguistically and culturally diverse students, students can practice and apply all four language domains—reading, writing, listening, and speaking–using online technology.

On the other hand, many aspects of online learning and instruction also have heightened linguistic demands, for both students and educators.

What we have here is an idea for effective professional development that models how to meet these challenges in the classroom and leverage the online tools to create effective and engaging PD that will be sustained beyond the current global pandemic we are facing.

Just as for online student instruction, the core principles of effective PD remain the same in the virtual environment.

We have modified these standards for your online and hybrid model learning environments:

Standard 1: Professional Development is Research-Based Content Driven and Relevant

  • Online PD facilitators should:
    • include research on virtual instruction and learning for multilingual learners
    • highlight research on multilingual learners’ access to technology and online learning skills
    • share research-based online tools and resources that teachers can directly apply with students
    • draw on research on interrupted schooling, social-emotional health, and resilience
    • model a variety of online tools to enable students to practice and apply reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills

Standard 2: Professional Development is Meaningful and Intellectually Stimulating

  • Online PD facilitators should:
    • Provide opportunities for collaboration and engaging activities
    • Model digital learning tools, particularly those that teachers will use directly with students
    • align to district technology plans and subscriptions
    • Provide opportunities to create materials, lesson plans, and modify virtual tools during PD sessions
    • include bridges for educators to connect virtual instruction to any potential face-to-face instruction and vice versa
    • include step-by-step instruction
    • select and implement in-depth online tools, using all the functionality possible
    • allow time for practice and application with tech, so that teachers are confident with the tools

Standard 3: Professional Development is Engaging, Interactive, and Collaborative

  • Online PD facilitators should:
    • provide opportunities for online collaboration and discussion with colleagues
    • create activities that are interactive and appealing through an online format
    • allow for moderated and non-moderated discussions with colleagues
    • promote virtual follow-ups after synchronous workshops
    • foster communication through discussion boards, blog posts, shared lesson plans, and write-up of practices and materials

Standard 4:  Professional Development is Well Organized and Facilitated

  • Online PD facilitators should:
    • develop and assign roles and checklists of tasks
    • prepare links in advance
    • familiarize themselves with the online platform’s functionality
    • have test runs and back-up plans!
    • list and provide all required materials needed for online workshops give and what needs to be printed
    • Include a handout with links/area for teachers to add in login/password info for any new platforms used in PD

Standard 5:  Professional Development is Positively Framed, Respectful, and Inclusive

  • Online PD facilitators should:
    • use online images that reflect diversity
    • provide additional wait time to allow more voices on both the chat box and sharing out
    • express grace for the uniquely stressful times of a global pandemic
    • have patience with their own wifi, technology and the tech access of individual’s homes
    • Be patient with the tech skills of participants–also model how to be patient with students
    • create norms around netiquette for respectful online conversation
    • model and provide modifications for various levels of virtual access (i.e., recordings of sessions, off-line/low-tech alternatives, only using phone etc.)
    • have an IT rep or designated co-facilitator to help with tech questions or issues that arise

Standard 6: Professional Development is Supportive of Future Learning and Growth

  • Online PD facilitators should:
    • offer online coaching, guided practice, lesson study and other job-embedded PD
    • model working in a blended and online only environment
    • provide resources for best practices with online learning
    • reference modifications for face-to-face, asynchronous or synchronous instruction as circumstances change during the next year
    • provide ongoing opportunities to explore and showcase different platforms, apps, and technology with colleagues

These standards were adapted from the Center for Applied Linguistics’ previously published Six Standards of Effective, Engaging, and Sustained Professional Development for Educators of Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students.

Annie Laurie Duguay is the director of Language and Literacy at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC, where she has participated in research projects and led the PreK-12 English Learner Professional Development area. She has taught EFL/ESL in France, China, and in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Schoolzilla by Renaissance

Today’s districts put student data at the forefront of decisions from the choice of curriculum to determining the need for intervention. Educators can now paint a holistic picture of student groups or individual students by identifying achievement gaps, patterns in student behavior and engagement, and chronic absenteeism. Schoolzilla by Renaissance is a data platform that makes education data easy to find, understand, and act on.

With the ability to integrate data from more than 135 different sources, including Star Assessments, student information systems, and state tests, Schoolzilla offers educators at-a-glance access to information about grades, attendance, behavior, assessment growth, college readiness, and more.

To make all that data accessible and actionable, Schoolzilla offers customizable dashboards that are easily tailored to any level, from the student to the classroom to the district. Users can also set and track progress toward a range of goals, from reducing chronic absences to improving assessment results.

Teachers can choose to examine data from individuals or a group of students, while administrators can “zoom out” to the district level for a bird’s-eye perspective on progress toward organizational goals. Schoolzilla supports data-driven education by offering the ability to isolate data from a current term or compare numbers across years for a longitudinal perspective. To learn more, visit Schoolzilla.com.

ST Math by MIND Research Institute

Based on 20 years of neuroscientific research and the belief that every student has the potential to deeply understand and love math, ST Math® uses spatial-temporal games to present math concepts visually for students in grades pre-K–8. This patented approach leverages the brain’s innate reasoning abilities to solve math problems.

MIND Research Institute, an award-winning neuroscience and education social impact organization dedicated to ensuring that all students are mathematically equipped to solve the world’s most challenging problems, developed the mastery-based and standards-aligned ST Math to offer an equitable solution to learning through challenging puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and informative feedback. By manipulating objects in space and time, helping JiJi the penguin cross the screen, students develop strong conceptual understanding of key math skills while bypassing language barriers and other common roadblocks.

Through ST Math, MIND has proven that a game can change how students feel about math and be highly effective. Independent education research firm WestEd recently published the largest ever cross-state study evaluating a math edtech program on multiple state assessments. The results were especially significant at the 239 schools that used ST Math consistently. These high-fidelity schools outgrew similar schools in statewide rank by an average of 14 percentile points. Learn more at mindresearch.org and stmath.com.

Without Active Listening, Students Fall on Deaf Ears

Rumi in the Language Classroom Series Vol 2

See Vol 1 of the series here.

See Vol 3 of the series here.

One of the Rumi’s poems in ‘Masnavi-e-Manavi’ tells a story of a deaf man who planned to pay a visit to his sick neighbor. Since he was deaf, he decided to prefabricate a potential conversation and imagine what would go on in it. The conversation in the deaf man’s head went as follows:

I would say, “How are you?” He would reply, “Fine. Thank God.”

I would say, “Thank God. What have you eaten?” He would reply, “Soup or cooling sherbet.”

I would say, “Bon appétit. Who is your physician?” He would reply, “Such and such a person.”

I would say, “He is most welcome. He cures all patients.”

After getting this conversation ready, he went to visit the neighbor and asked “How are you?” The neighbor replied, “I’m dying in agony.” The deaf man then replied, “Thank God,” (as he already prepared). The neighbor felt bad and said to himself this man is my enemy. The deaf man asked “What have you eaten?” and the neighbor replied, “lethal poison.” The deaf man responded with his already-planned “Bon appétit.” The neighbor became absolutely furious. The deaf man asked, “Who is your physician?” The neighbor answered, “Azrael (the angel of death in Islam).” The deaf man said, “He is most welcome.” The deaf man went out of the house satisfied with making the neighbor feel better. However, the neighbor was writhing in agony murmuring “He is my enemy.” Thus, their friendship ended.

This story details a lack of active listening. Active listening, in contrast to passive listening, means listening attentively to what is said, acting appropriately both verbally and non-verbally and providing proper response (Newman, Cohen & Danziger, 1987).

I have observed a number of English classes where the teachers do not really listen to their students’ answers. They only do back-channeling instead of listening attentively to them. This is an excerpt from a classroom I have observed:

Teacher: Ok Mina, what did you do on the weekend?

Student: Nothing really. I had to go to hospital because my father is sick.

Teacher: Oh, good [looking into the course book] thanks.

It is evident from this excerpt that the teacher did not listen carefully to what the student said, otherwise, they would not answer in such a manner. Not only is this type of teachers’ reactions to students’ contributions very discouraging, but it can also reinforce negative feelings within the students.

What I can conclude about this poem and its implication for the language classrooms is that teachers should always be attentive in the class, and not distracted by other burdens on their shoulders such as topics they want to teach or classroom management issues. To do so, having detailed lesson plans with all components can be a great help (see Spratt, Pulverness, & Williams, 2005 for lesson planning). We have to bear in mind that as teachers we deal with humans within whom emotions come first. Therefore, listening to what the learners say, providing sufficient verbal and non-verbal reactions, and responding accordingly should be some of the most prominent responsibilities of teachers.

References 

Newman, R. G., Cohen, M., & Danziger, M. A. (1987). Communicating in business today. DC Heath.

Rumi, M. J. M, (2017). The Masnavi I Ma’navi of Rumi. )E. H. Whinfield, Trans(.. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2005). The TKT course. Cambridge University Press.

Spanish-Speaking Announcer Sues Over Discrimination in New York

Luis Grandison, a Black Spanish-language horse-racing announcer who worked for the New York Racing Association was paid half the salary his English-speaking white counterparts received before he was fired in June, a new lawsuit charges. Grandison worked as an announcer at Belmont Park and two other New York state racetracks for six years, and sued the New York Racing Association claiming he was discriminated against. Grandison earned $60,000 a year, while his English-speaking white counterparts were paid more than double that amount for doing less work, the federal lawsuit alleges.

According to the Times Union in Albany, New York, Tom Durkin, a white English-language announcer, was paid $440,000 before retiring in 2014, and Larry Collmus, also a white English-language announcer, was paid over $200,000 before leaving the job earlier this year, according to the lawsuit.

John Imbriale, Collmus’ replacement, also earns over $200,000 to call thoroughbred races, according to the lawsuit.

One of Grandison’s attorneys noted that the horse racing heavily relies on a Latino workforce. “Latinos are a significant part of the racing industry, both as track workers and as racing fans,” Gianfranco Cuadra told the Times Union Wednesday. “This race discrimination lawsuit is important for the Latino community.”

Grandison was born and raised in Panama, and he was a horse race caller there before moving to the United States in 2009. He became a NYRA announcer in 2014, earning around $32,000 a year, the court papers state.

Jumpstart Launches New Online Math and English Assessments

Jumpstart Test Prep announced the launch of their new online Math and English assessments that are included with their ACT Math and English subject area purchases. Each student gets one attempt for the new online Math (80 questions) and English (60 questions) timed assessments that link students back to their weakness areas reviewed in the Jumpstart module content. 

Review modules are provided online, on-demand via streaming video, the average module time for Math is 35 minutes and for English 41 minutes in length, and the students must complete the student workbook as they watch lessons.

All subject area products review the content that will be tested, includes tips and test-taking strategies, and provide realistic practice under time constraints so that students make the most improvement in the least amount of prep time. The Math and English ACT review products will now include these assessments at no additional charge.

“We designed these online assessments to be completed after our Math and English review modules, allowing students to focus remaining study time for better understanding of their weak content areas,” said Sha Walker, Co-Founder & CEO. “However, if time is limited before test day, the assessment will allow our students to minimize the time needed to prepare.”

Co-founder Dot McClendon added that introducing these new online Math and English timed assessments will allow students even more score improvement while minimizing the time needed to prepare. The assessment score converts to a predicted ACT score and provides guidance on time management based on average time spent per question. ACT subject areas can be purchased a-la-cart at http://www.jumpstarttestprep.com

The company’s website describes their program as a review utilizing streaming video modules that are delivered on-demand. The program is designed for classroom integration or individual study and proven to help students of all ability levels stay fully engaged and gain the most improvement in the shortest time by explaining difficult content in a way that every student can follow and understand. Students follow and complete the accompanying workbook as the review proceeds. Modules review the must-know content, include testing strategies specific to the exam, and conclude with realistic question practice modeled from actual “retired” exams that are provided under time constraint. According to student reviews of the program on the website, the program helps students with time management, allowing them to work faster on test day.

The company has found that when students are coached step-by-step, they can quickly secure significant gains, regardless of their initial proficiency in the subject area.

Walker and McClendon cite the top three competitive distinctions:

1.       Proven exam prep expertise honed over a lifetime of successful results. The content review is delivered on-demand. It is highly visual and animated. Students respond to the ACT-style practice questions.

2.      The prep is engaging. Presented by a group of fun, young, diverse people, and presented in short 30-minute segments. Students must actively engage as they follow along in their workbook to build flashcards by completing the blanks and work ACT-style practice problems as the online review progresses.

3.      Improved time management. The test prep reviews content step-by-step, and then shows how to apply that content with follow-up examples. The examples are followed with challenge questions allowing a clock timer countdown. Time is critical on the ACT and by the end of the review, students know the average amount of time they can allocate per question and what to do when too much time has lapsed.

Research Reveals Children’s Linguistic Superpower

The top row shows the left hemisphere brain activity by age with the bottom row showing right hemisphere activity at the same age. Orange/yellow patches are the areas of activity when listening to sentences.

Infants and young children have brains with a linguistic superpower, according to Georgetown University Medical Center neuroscientists, who found that unlike adults who use a specific areas in one or the other of their brain’s two hemispheres to process most discrete neural tasks, young children use both the right and left hemispheres to do the same task. This may explain why children generally recover from neural injury much better than adults.

“The neural basis of language development: Changes in lateralization over age” published this month in PNAS, finds that to understand language (more specifically, processing spoken sentences), children use both hemispheres, which ties in with previous and ongoing research led by Georgetown neurology professor Elissa L. Newport, PhD, a former postdoctoral fellow Olumide Olulade, MD, PhD, and neurology assistant professor Anna Greenwald, PhD.

“This is very good news for young children who experience a neural injury,” says Newport, director of the Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery, a joint enterprise of Georgetown University and MedStar National Rehabilitation Network. “Use of both hemispheres provides a mechanism to compensate after a neural injury. For example, if the left hemisphere is damaged from a perinatal stroke—one that occurs right after birth—a child will learn language using the right hemisphere. A child born with cerebral palsy that damages only one hemisphere can develop needed cognitive abilities in the other hemisphere. Our study demonstrates how that is possible.”

Their study solves a mystery that has puzzled clinicians and neuroscientists for a long time, says Newport.

In almost all adults, sentence processing is possible only in the left hemisphere, according to both brain scanning research and clinical findings of language loss in patients who suffered a left hemisphere stroke.

However in young children, damage to either hemisphere is much less likely to result in language deficits; language can be recovered in many patients even if the left hemisphere is severely damaged. These facts suggest that language is distributed to both hemispheres early in life, Newport says. However, traditional scanning had not revealed the details of these phenomena until now. “It was unclear whether strong left dominance for language is present at birth or appears gradually during development,” explains Newport.

Now, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analyzed in a more complex way, the researchers have shown that the adult lateralization pattern is not established in young children and that both hemispheres participate in language during early development.

Brain networks that localize specific tasks to one or the other hemisphere start during childhood but are not complete until a child is about 10 or 11, she says. “We now have a better platform upon which to understand brain injury and recovery.”

Researchers found that, at the group level, even young children show left-lateralized language activation. However, a large proportion of the youngest children also show significant activation in the corresponding right-hemisphere areas. (In adults, the corresponding area in the right hemisphere is activated in quite different tasks, for example, processing emotions expressed with the voice. In young children, areas in both hemispheres are each engaged in comprehending the meaning of sentences, as well as recognizing the emotional affect.)

Newport believes that the “higher levels of right hemisphere activation in a sentence processing task and the slow decline in this activation over development are reflections of changes in the neural distribution of language functions and not merely developmental changes in sentence comprehension strategies.”

She also says that, if the team were able to do the same analysis in even younger children, “it is likely we would see even greater functional involvement of the right hemisphere in language processing than we see in our youngest participants (ages four to six years old).

“Our findings suggest that the normal involvement of the right hemisphere in language processing during very early childhood may permit the maintenance and enhancement of right hemisphere development if the left hemisphere is injured,” Newport says.

The investigators are now examining language activation in teenagers and young adults who have had a major left hemisphere stroke at birth. Maybe, young multilinguals should also be  researched to see if they retain language activity in the right hemisphere.

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