Professor Edmund Adjapong, program director in the Department of Educational Studies at Seton Hall University, has published the second volume in a series on what has come to be known as “Hip-Hop Education.”
The series is entitled HipHopEd: The Compilation on Hip-Hop Education and is intended to provide new practical and strategic insights for scholars, practitioners, students, community members and policymakers as it relates to working with groups who have faced systemic oppression.
In Volume 2: Hip-Hop as Praxis & Social Justice, Adjapong and his co-editor, Ian Levy, a professor of school counseling at Manhattan College and vice president of Counselor Educators for the New York State School Counselor’s association, have primarily addressed “knowledge of self.” The editors contend that knowledge of self is a critical element of hip hop culture – and education – for both students and educators.
Hip Hop Education is a burgeoning movement within teaching that seeks to recognize and affirm the cultural identity of what has come to be known as “The Hip-Hop generation.” Hip-hop educators approach their practice and research using a framework anchored in hip-hop culture, key elements of which are defined within the culture as graffiti, the MC (Master of Ceremonies), the DJ, breakdancing and knowledge of self.
In the first volume of the series, Hip-hop as Education, Philosophy, and Practice, the authors showed how each of the first four elements of Hip-Hop culture could be broken down into guiding principles for educators. For example, Adjapong points out that MCs are generally accompanied by a “Hype Man,” who needs to know the underlying content of the presentation thoroughly in order to function as a complement to the MC. In the Hip Hop Ed model, educators are encouraged to think of themselves as MCs and to empower their students to function as “HypeMen” and women, cultivating a thorough command of the underlying materials in a way that allows them to essentially co-teach the class, which aligns well with research that shows students learn more from their peers.
In this second volume, published by Peter Lang, a leading academic publisher based in Switzerland, Hip-Hop as Praxis & Social Justice compiles the scholarship and narratives of veteran scholars, emerging scholars, and teachers who identify as hip-hop educators and highlights the realities of these educators who grapple with cultivating and displaying themselves authentically in practice. The book also offers examples of how hip-hop can be utilized in educational spaces to promote social justice.
“Institutions that do not see the power of hip-hop in educational spaces have a clear misunderstanding of the realities of youth,” said Professor Adjapong. “And institutions that fail to recognize and affirm hip-hop as a cultural identity in their educators and scholars perpetuate a duplicity that fails to connect with the validity of lived experience. When educators and education itself are cut off from the reality of lived experience, experience tells us that failure is almost certain.”
Citing Professor Christopher Emdin of Teachers College, Columbia University (who is a general editor of the series and considered by many to be the grandfather of #HipHopEd), the editors argue that for the hip-hop generation, survival in all levels of the educational system has often been contingent upon one’s ability to forgo displaying their real self (and the journey towards self-actualization all together), to publicly embrace an ideal self, that is defined by White American values.
Adjapong and Levy conclude that “In a sense, education systems, across the lifespan, promote incongruence. This is a problem.”
“Across America people are toppling statues and lowering flags that symbolize and honor racism,” said Adjapong. “But the real edifice of structural racism in this country is the education system – and that has to change. We need to decolonize the classroom.”
En Español The Canoa project to promote culture in Spanish was launched with the signing of its creation agreement by the heads of four large institutions (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México–UNAM, Spain’s Instituto Cervantes, Centro Cultural Inca Garcilaso, Peru, and Instituto Caro y Cuervo, Colombia) whose home countries account for more than half of the Spanish-speaking world.
The main objective of this Pan-Hispanic network is the internationalization of Spanish and its culture, and the plan is that other institutions such as universities—the first is likely to be that of Buenos Aires—and countries like the U.S. or Canada will join. “We will try to win the support of national and international organizations whose objective is to strengthen Ibero-American states,” said the Instituto Cervantes’ Luis García Montero.
Canoa is being created to widen the sphere of Spanish (a language used by 577 million people, 480 million as native speakers) and its culture, so that the Spanish-speaking community becomes “increasingly influential and relevant as a pole of civilization in the multipolar world that characterizes the 21st century.” According to the agreement, “the expansion of the Spanish language and its cultural diversity will allow the group of countries that make up the Pan-Hispanic pole to strengthen their shared values, affirm their language as a language of international communication and, therefore, as a vehicle and instrument for economic, social, scientific, technical, and cultural development.”
This October, UNAM will host representatives from the four founding partners in Mexico to discuss priorities, among which are making Spanish a scientific and technological language, reflecting on the role of culture in the digital age, and debating the role of women’s creativity in Hispanic culture.
Canoa was the first Native American word to be adopted into Spanish. It’s a symbol of integration and unity, because “the language belongs to everyone and we’re coming together while respecting diversity,” explained García Montero, who stressed the “Pan-Hispanic perspective” of the institution.
In the same vein, Carlos Herrera Rodríguez (Inca Garcilaso, Peru) highlighted the “federal value” of the Spanish language and the importance of this “exciting” project. Carmen Millán (Caro y Cuervo, Colombia) added, “Canoa will allow us to reach unexpected places” once Spanish-speaking countries “have overcome the paradigm of the mother country.”
The rector of UNAM, Enrique Graue, called the agreement “a culminating moment” of the growing collaboration among the community that shares Spanish and promised to work “with all intensity” to reinforce and expand the project.
The signing ceremony included recorded video messages from Nobel Prize–winning Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, Colombian writer Piedad Bonnett, director of the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua Gonzalo Celorio, and the president of CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), Rosa María Menéndez López.
America is crying everyone’s tears. Crying because of all she stands for—the freedom, liberty, and opportunity that has not been genuinely extended to all. The recent senseless killings of Rayshard Brooks, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, by police officers, one by a retired officer, have stoked the flames of protests and calls for immediate action.
The world watched as protesters flooded the streets in various cities across the U.S. and in other countries. I remember in 2015 when Freddie Gray died while in police custody, which also led to civil unrest and protest in Baltimore, Maryland. The following year, my colleagues and I presented at the TESOL International Association Convention a session entitled All Lives Matter: The Language of Oppression, Resistance, and Recovery, not only as a way to acknowledge the horrific event but also as an attempt to put language to what often leaves us speechless with sadness, frustration, and justifiable rage.
As educators, how do we make sense of the inhumanity? How can we teach lessons about equity and justice for all when the actions of society are in stark contrast to these ideals? How are we best preparing ourselves to model healthy citizenry for future generations? There is no single path or step-by-step guide with all of the answers. It will take a multipronged approach.Fundamentally, we must start with ourselves before we can teach and authentically engage others in this necessary work. Similar to the directions explained by flight attendants, should the cabin lose air pressure, please place the oxygen mask on yourself before assisting others. This article serves as an extension to support several conversations that have been had for decades, conversations centered around not only why racism and other -isms continue to exist but also how to eradicate them.Just as Gholdy Muhammad’s article “Rethinking What Matters: Incorporating Anti-Racism into Teaching” (Language Magazine, May 2020) affirmed, “If we are sincere in our desire to create a better world for all and help youth become empathic, humanizing beings, we must focus on identity and sociopolitical consciousness in schools.” We must start with ourselves and our spheres of influence.
The following is a list of just a few resources and organizations that can help to elevate our own understanding of how to dismantle racism while at the same time moving the work forward. This is by no means an exhaustive nor prescriptive list but one that highlights some of the voices from the movement in which we all must take part:
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem. From a therapist’s perspective, Menakem examines the effects of systemic racism in the U.S. Its effect on our bodies and psychology is not isolated to Black and White relations. He also offers an alternative perspective for what we can do to bridge the racial divide.
Equity Literacy Institute, www.equityliteracy.org, offers services in professional learning, equity coaching and leadership support, and equity strategic planning.
Black Lives Matter, https://blacklivesmatter.com, was founded in 2013 in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Color of Change, https://colorofchange.org, is an online racial justice organization that has been in existence for ten years. This organization works to support and empower Black communities while holding corporate and elected officials accountable. Some of the reforms they advocate for include criminal justice, voter rights, an end to White nationalism, and economic justice.
Courageous Conversations about Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools by Glenn Singleton. This book, designed to facilitate candid conversations about race between educators, has served as a support for over two decades. Explanations are offered as to why students are disengaged and why achievement gaps persist. Additional learning opportunities are offered throughout the year, such as an Annual National Summit for Courageous Conversation and a Latinx Summit, both planned for fall of 2020.
Teaching Tolerance, www.tolerance.org, provides resources for K–12 educators geared toward supplementing curriculum that supports civil and inclusive communities. In addition to classroom resources, they offer professional development, publications, webinars, and podcasts. Of particular interest is the framework they offer for teaching “hard history” in grades K–5.
Take it Down!, https://takeitdown.org, supports the removal of Confederate statues. These statues are symbols of White supremacy and are funded by and preserved by public tax dollars. In recent events, statues of Confederate soldiers and Christopher Columbus have been defaced, beheaded, and torn down. Helping students understand the historic relevance and preservation of such artifacts from U.S. history is a part of building the future and inclusive communities we aspire to create.
UndocuBlack Network, http://undocublack.org. Founded in 2016, 65 Black undocumented people participated in the first Undocumented and Black Convening, which spearheaded the development of the UndocuBlack Network. This national organization with regional chapters in Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, and Washington, DC, advocates for the development of stronger communities, immigration protection policies, racial justice, and access to resources for Black immigrants, especially those who are undocumented, living in the U.S.
Also noteworthy are these books:
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education by Paul C. Gorski and Seema G. Pothini
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy by April Bell-Baker
Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique W. Morris
Last month, we witnessed a widespread interest, from large and small corporations, cities, and states across the U.S., in the observance of Juneteenth (June 19). Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Texas learned they were, in fact, free—two months after Robert E. Lee surrendered and ended the Civil War, and two and a half years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (tolerance.org).
Juneteenth has long been celebrated in Black communities by spending time with friends and family, cookouts, parades, and the like. It embodies themes of the culture of resistance, deeply understanding emancipation, and American ideals around freedom and liberation.
What it has not been is typically taught as part of standard school curriculum. What will be interesting is how this acknowledgement of freedom for all will be further understood, highlighted, and celebrated as part of U.S. history. Like the lyrics sung by Sade Adu, “Somewhere in my sadness, I know I won’t fall apart completely,” I am optimistic that we will rise, recognize, strategize, and mobilize as part of rebuilding the communities we were meant to be. Only if we do the work from inside out. The world is watching.
Ayanna Cooper, EdD, is an advocate, writer, and owner of A. Cooper Consulting. She is author of And Justice for ELs: A Leader’s Guide to Creating and Sustaining Equitable Schools (Corwin). She is a frequent contributor to Language Magazine and highlights experiences of traditionally marginalized educators and the students they serve.
On Wednesday, the North American Scrabble Players Association announced that derogatory language would be removed from the game’s official word list. The decision comes after an online poll was conducted by the North American Scrabble Players Association, the organization’s CEO, John Chew, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Some members threatened to leave the association if a single word were removed; others threatened to leave the association if any offensive words remained. There were a lot of good and bad arguments on both sides,” said Chew. “I know that if the Advisory Board does not vote in favour of my proposal to remove the offensive slurs from our lexicon, and the Executive Committee has to overturn their decision, then at least a quarter of our members will hold me personally responsible for autocratically damaging their beloved game. I understand, and accept the responsibility and the blame. On the other hand, I know that at least another quarter, who would otherwise have blamed me for not standing up for what is right, will instead at least momentarily rejoice. Either way, please let me know how you feel, so that I know where we stand.”
The NASPA list differs from the the Merriam-Webster Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. While Hasbro has no say over NASPA’s list, and the organization’s members do not use Scrabble’s dictionary in competition, the company said Wednesday that it was amending the rules that appear in every Scrabble box “to make clear that slurs are not permissible in any form of the game.”
After the online poll, the NASPA’s advisory board ultimately voted to remove 236 words from the list, Chew said.
The federal government has rescinded its new policy that would have forced international students to leave the U.S. amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs who was hearing the case in Boston, Massachusetts.
Universities, including Harvard and MIT in Massachusetts and the University of California system, were suing the federal government over the Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy before they reached an agreement.
“I have been informed by the parties that they have come to a resolution,” said the U.S. District judge. “The government has agreed to rescind the July 6, 2020 policy directive” and will “return to the status quo as established by the March 9, 2020 policy directive,” which allows international students to remain in the U.S. if they are enrolled at a U.S. institution that has moved all of its classes online.
It remains to be seen if new international students attending 100% virtual institutions will be refused visas or entry to the U.S.
Schools in California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles Unified and San Diego Unified — will not reopen for in-person classes on August 18. The districts announced Monday that classes will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. The two school districts enroll around 825,000 students, and are the largest to reject even partial in-person classroom attendance for students.
“Those countries that have managed to safely reopen schools have done so with declining infection rates and on-demand testing available. California has neither. The skyrocketing infection rates of the past few weeks make it clear the pandemic is not under control,” the two districts said in a joint statement.
The union representing teachers in L.A. Unified last week also called for school facilities to remain closed at the start of the school year, declaring it would not be safe to open them. A poll of the union’s members found that 83% of them were against reopening school campuses.
“Reopening schools will significantly increase the interaction between children and adults from different families. A 10 year old student might have a 30 year old teacher, a 50 year old bus driver or live with a 70 year old grandmother. All need to be protected. There’s a public health imperative to keep schools from becoming a petri dish,” Los Angeles school district superintendent Austin Beutner said.
The announcement of going fully virtual came as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos continued to press the Trump administration’s case to quickly reopen public schools.
“I think the go-to needs to be kids in school, in person, in the classroom, because we know for most kids, that’s the best environment for them,” Ms. DeVos said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
President Trump also threatened last week to cut off federal funding to schools that did not reopen their campuses.
The recommendations from the president and Ms. DeVos have been disputed by many public health officials and teachers. On Friday, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association and AASA, the School Superintendents Association issued a statement saying that reopening recommendations should be “based on evidence, not politics.”
Aida Walqui, the director of WestEd’s Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) initiative will lead a dozen conversations over six weeks with renowned linguists and experts from around the world that will highlight scholarly perspectives on the education of English Learners across a wide variety of settings. The hour-long discussions, starting Tuesday, July 14, will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays for six weeks at 9 am PT except for 3 pm on Aug. 6 and 8.
Representing a wide variety of interests in the field, guest speakers will share their perspectives from American universities as well as research and development institutions from four different countries. All sessions will have a different, but complementary focus on research advances in the education of English Learners. The sessions are organized thematically (see more information below) and are free to attend.
All registered participants will receive a list of readings and biographies of the guests. Registered participants will also have an opportunity to submit questions for the interviewee up to one week prior to the day of the session.
Who Should Attend?
Teachers
Education leaders
Teacher educators
Teacher professional developers
Researchers in the United States and abroad
Dates & Times
Sessions will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET (interviews with Australian scholars will be at 3 pm PT / 8 am AU). Each session will run for 60 minutes.
Registration for all sessions is free.
Theme: Theories and Labels in the Education of English Learners
1/ What’s in a Name? The Terms We Use to Talk About English Learners, the Theories They Reflect, and Why Labels Matter Date: Tues., July 14, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Guadalupe Valdés, Stanford University
2/ Multilingualism in the United States and Around the World: Current Issues and Tensions Date: Thurs., July 16, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Ofelia García, CUNY
Theme: English Learners in the United States: History and Civic Participation
3/ English Learners in the United States: A Historical, Policy, and Educational Trajectory Date: Tues., July 21, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Kenji Hakuta, Stanford University
4/ English Learners and Civic Life: The Imperative, the Reality, and the Potential Date: Thurs., July 23, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Joel Westheimer, University of Ottawa
Theme: The Education English Learners Need and Deserve
5/ Robust Learning Opportunities for English Learners: Even MORE Important Now Date: Tues., July 28, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: George Bunch, University of California, Santa Cruz
Theme: The Education of English Learners in Other Countries
6/ Oracy in the UK for All Students: Current Research Date: Thurs., July 30, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Alice Stott, Voice 21, London
7/ The Role of Talk in Learning: Implications for Recently Arrived EAL and Refugee Background Students in Mainstream Classes Date: Tues., August 4, 2020 Time: 3:00 pm PT / 8:00 am AU Featured Speakers: Jenny Hammond, University of Technology, Sydney & Beverly Derewianka, University of Wollongong, Australia
8/ A Meaning-Oriented Model of Language for the Classroom Date: Thurs., August 6, 2020 Time: 3:00 pm PT / 8:00 am AU Featured Speakers: Beverly Derewianka, University of Wollongong, Australia & Jenny Hammond, University of Technology, Sydney
Theme: Rethinking and Strengthening the Work on English Learners
9/ Policy and Equity in the Education of English Learners: The Struggle Continues Date: Tues., August 11, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Magaly Lavadenz, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
10/ Reconceptualizing the Role of Critical Dialogue in the Education of English Learners Date: Thurs., August 13, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Amanda Kibler, Oregon State University
11/ Teaching Disciplinary Literacies in Hard Times that Just Got Harder Date: Tues., August 18, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Meg Gebhard, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
12/ From Acquisition to Development: Reconceptualizing Educators’ Work with English Learners Date: Thurs., August 20, 2020 Time: 9:00 am PT / 12:00 pm ET Featured Speaker: Diane Larsen-Freeman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Hands down, reading is one of the most powerful tools for facilitating acquisition of vocabulary—whether it is vocabulary from a first, second, or third language. Most educators acknowledge the power of reading to enhance one’s first (already-established) language (i.e., expand vocabulary, develop writing skills, and improve spelling), but many overlook the power of reading for facilitating acquisition of a second language (L2), particularly as it pertains to novice-level learners who have not yet developed strong listening-comprehension skills.
Reading in and of itself is a language skill; it is simply oral language in a written format. Comprehension of a written text is dependent upon language development—listening comprehension in particular. Although oral/aural language and reading acquisition are linked, they do not necessarily develop in alignment. It is possible to have acute listening-comprehension skills and minimal to no reading-comprehension or literacy skills. The opposite, however, is not possible. One cannot comprehend written text without also having a minimal level of comprehension of spoken language.
If novice-level language learners have minimal listening-comprehension skills, it may not seem plausible that that they would be able to successfully decode a text in L2 (recognize that each group of letters represents a specific spoken word) and derive meaning from it. Without meaning, there is no comprehension, and without comprehension (or comprehended input), second-language acquisition (SLA) is not possible. Comprehensible input (CI) is a critical element for second-language acquisition. Not a single research study has been able to counter the claim that for SLA to take place, an extraordinary amount of CI must be present. How, then, is it possible for a novice-level language learner with minimal listening-comprehension skill to acquire language from reading?
The answer is quite simple: comprehension-based (CB) readers. Comprehension-based readers have been transformative in helping language educators provide the right conditions for SLA. Vastly different from traditional texts/novellas, comprehension-based readers are strategically written with an exceptionally low unique word count and an unusually high frequency factor (the number of times core words and phrases are repeated within a text), which makes them highly comprehensible—even to novice-level learners and/or weak readers. Each story is strategically woven together using very few unique words and numerous cognates (words that are similar in two languages). They provide a powerful context in a rich tapestry of comprehensible language.
The goal of every CB reader is to mesmerize learners, lulling them into a story world that inconspicuously provides repeated exposure to high-frequency words and phrases. SLA takes place through repeated exposure to comprehended linguistic data (words and phrases). Each encounter with a word or phrase—whether in oral or written language—initially results in processing for meaning and the development of mental representation. Mental representation is what language looks like in the mind. Words and phrases may have specific meanings/definitions, yet humans rarely have definitions readily available. They simply know what words mean based on the mental representations that they have implicitly developed in their linguistic systems. Take the word circle, for example. Everyone knows what a circle is, but very few people can easily articulate a formal definition. That is because we have a mental representation of what a circle is, not a formal definition. “The mental representation of language in a speaker’s mind/brain consists of abstract properties of language that exist outside the speaker’s ability to describe” (VanPatten, “The Two Faces of SLA: Mental Representation and Skill”).
Dr. Bill VanPatten, a leading expert on SLA processes, has written over 120 articles and at least a dozen books on the topic of language acquisition and its implications for classroom practices. In his newest book, While We’re on the Topic (a must-read published by and available from ACTFL.org), Dr. VanPatten describes language and mental representation as follows: “Language is an abstract, implicit, and complex mental representation. Language as mental representation is too abstract and complex to teach and learn explicitly [consciously]; it cannot be taught and learned explicitly, as happens with regular ‘subject matter.’”
The implication for language learners and teachers is that memorization, conjugation, and examination do not result in fluency. To develop mental representation (language), one must be in the language and understand messages. Just as it is impossible to learn to swim without being in water, it is impossible to acquire language (develop communicative competence) without being in the language. Comprehension-based readers provide a portal to being in the language in a compelling, contextualized, and highly comprehensible format that is conducive to language acquisition.
In spite of being written in easy-to-understand language, comprehension-based readers feel like authentic literary works. They easily engage learners due to their comprehensible and compelling nature and inherently carry readers into a state of “flow.” Flow, also known as “the zone,” is a state of consciousness in which one is fully immersed in performing an activity with energized focus, full engagement, and complete enjoyment. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does and a resulting loss of one’s sense of space and time. According to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, an “optimal experience” is one that is genuinely satisfying and results in lasting enjoyment. A large-scale study in Germany revealed that the more often people report reading books, the more flow experiences they claim to have, while the opposite trend was found for watching television.
Dr. Stephen Krashen referenced flow and the pleasure one derives from reading in his paper “The Compelling (Not Just Interesting) Input Hypothesis”: “[Compelling input is] input that is so interesting you forget that it is in another language. It means you are in a state of ‘flow’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). In flow, the concerns of everyday life and even the sense of self disappear—our sense of time is altered and nothing but the activity itself seems to matter. Flow occurs during reading when readers are ‘lost in the book’ (Nell, 1988) or in the ‘Reading Zone’ (Atwell, 2007).”
Being lost in a comprehensible, compelling book creates an optimal condition for acquiring language. The more compelling the story, the more likely learners are to tolerate a bit of “noise” in the text and the more likely they are to stay engaged in the language. Humans love stories. They are powerful tools for sustaining engagement and for providing CI in a cohesive, contextualized, and compelling way. “We do not experience language in isolation… but always in relation to a scenario, some background or person and actions and events from which the things that are said derive their meaning” (Halliday, Language as a Social Semiotic).
The caveat to using stories to facilitate SLA is that they must be comprehensible enough to feel effortless, compelling enough to sustain attention, and robust enough to provide adequate exposure to linguistic data. In other words, stories must contain quality input to be conducive to SLA. Ironically, the caveat to stories is the power of comprehension-based readers. CB readers are full of quality level-appropriate input, as recommended by VanPatten. “Instructors and materials should provide appropriate level input (and interaction). We should take the fundamental roles of input and communication as the fundamental centerpieces of the language learning/teaching enterprise and create curricula reflective of them” (VanPatten, “CLT Principle 4,” While We’re on the Topic, pg. 57). Not only are language learners who frequently and consistently have access to quality input likely to achieve communicative competence, they are likely to reach a minimum threshold in the L2 to put them on a trajectory to becoming life-long learners (acquirers) of language.
There are two facets to comprehension-based readers as they pertain to the language classroom, and both consistently demonstrate strong correlation between reading and language growth. The first is SSR (sustained silent reading) or FVR (free voluntary reading). SSR refers to class time (usually ten to 20 minutes) that is dedicated to reading, while FVR is reading that can be done in or out of class time and is self-selected and completely voluntary. During FVR/SSR, students (and their teachers) read a book, a magazine, or any text and spend an allotted amount (or any amount) of time with the intent of reading for pleasure. The relationship between FVR and literacy, writing, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary acquisition is remarkably consistent. The more students read for pleasure, the greater the gains (Krashen, The Power of Reading).
When dealing with beginners in the language and/or weak readers, many teachers opt to use CB readers as a shared reading experience. As a whole-class read, the teacher uses various guided reading strategies to help learners decode text, develop an ear for the language, and deepen comprehension. While strong readers are capable of creating powerful mental images and often unconsciously engage in a written story to the point of laughter, tears, and/or fear, weak readers rarely connect to the text enough to visualize or feel the story. Weak readers rejoice over the movie version of a book, while strong readers are generally left disappointed—movies rarely depict the characters and places as vividly and creatively as they had pictured them in the mind’s eye. A shared reading experience gives the teacher an opportunity to train readers (learners) to actively construct meaning, visualize events, and emotionally connect to the text.
Sharing the reading experience has the added benefit of providing a cohesive theme and numerous interrelated topics that naturally inspire relevant and comprehensible discussion. “Narrow” input derived from the rich context of each CB reader naturally provides repeated exposure to high-frequency words and continuously recycled, topically driven vocabulary (Krashen, “The Case for Narrow Reading”). In addition to providing a framework for guiding ongoing comprehensible discourse with learners, CB readers are also powerful tools for teaching content in the context of a story. Fiction and nonfiction stories provide a natural backdrop to teaching and discussing current events, history, and culture. Like communicative competence, intercultural competence is best achieved by being in the target language and in the culture simultaneously. CB readers provide a virtual cultural environment that cultivates a deeper understanding of the target culture’s products, practices, and perspectives, which is the first step toward intercultural competence.
Although reading culturally rich and/or nonfiction stories is powerful, reading fiction can be just as powerful in terms of SLA. Universally, there is a strong correlation between any type of reading and improved vocabulary, language skills, and spelling. Studies show that books, no matter the type, increase language comprehension, vocabulary, and brain activity (Ward, “Two Science-Backed Ways Reading Fiction Makes You Smarter”). Psychologist Keith Stanovich writes, “If ‘smarter’ means having a larger vocabulary and more world knowledge… then reading may well make people smarter. The data supports this finding time and time again.”
An interesting aspect of reading research is that there is no parameter placed on books, such as genre or level. People most often choose fiction and rarely, if ever, choose a book at their reading level. Choose one of Oprah’s Book Club picks or a novel from Bill Gates’s semi-annual book recommendation, and one will find reads that range from a sixth- to ninth-grade level. Nevertheless, language teachers are notorious for insisting that students read at their level in spite of the fact that they themselves do not. Research repeatedly demonstrates that easy reading of any kind has a positive impact on language development. That means extensive reading of comprehensible texts in L2 will inherently result in higher proficiency levels.
When selecting texts for students, teachers will often use the rationale, “My students would be insulted if I asked them to read this easy book.” The most popular best-selling books generally have two things in common: they generally are fiction and are written between a fifth- and eighth-grade level. Since when do we pick up books for pleasure with the mindset that they are too easy to enjoy? I think I am safe in saying that no one has ever picked up a New York Times best-selling book, inventoried all known words, and said, “I already know all of these words! How insulting!”
In a nutshell, CB readers provide learners with compelling stories that are highly comprehensible, conducive to SLA, and enjoyable to read. They make the exercise of reading feel effortless and result in lasting enjoyment and satisfaction. The byproduct of the experience is SLA and the development of communicative competence. From a teacher’s perspective, CB readers provide a low-stress, low-prep, highly engaging platform to naturally, efficiently, and enjoyably facilitate acquisition. It is not rocket science. It is just comprehensible reading.
References
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1991). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper Perennial. (2008. Modern Classic Edition: HarperCollins).
Halliday, M. (1978). Language as a Social Semiotic. Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
Krashen, S. (1981). “The Case for Narrow Reading.” TESOL Newsletter 15: 23.
Krashen, S. (2000). “The Case for Narrow Reading.” (Revised version). Language Magazine, 3(5): 17–19.
Krashen, S. (2011a). “The Compelling (Not Just Interesting) Input Hypothesis.” English Connection (a publication of KOTESOL) 15.
Krashen, S. (2004). The Power of Reading. Englewood, CO Libraries Unlimited Inc.
VanPatten, B. (2010). “The Two Faces of SLA: Mental representation and skill.” International Journal of English Studies.
VanPatten, B. (2017). While We’re on the Topic: BVP on Language Acquisition and Classroom Practice. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Wilhelm, D. (2008). You Gotta Be the Book. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University.
Founder of Fluency Matters, Carol Gaab has been providing training in CI-based strategies since 1996. She was presenter for the Bureau of Education and Research for nine years and a Spanish/ESL teacher for 25 years, most notably 20 years directing the San Francisco Giant’s language program. She is the author of the ‘Brandon Brown’ series and numerous other SLA-friendly resources.
After 25 years as a classroom teacher of Spanish, German, and English, I decided to make reaching dyslexic students in the world language classroom the focus of my efforts. I found that two mistakes were being perpetuated: special education students and specifically dyslexic students were not being permitted access to world language classrooms, and when they did get there, they were driven away by literacy-based methodologies, most of which have been proven to be ineffective for many students. Dyslexia is an established learning disorder with at least seven subcategories that affects 15–20% of the population to some extent, according to the International Dyslexia Association (2017). An estimated two million U.S. students get special education services for dyslexia, but at least three times that number are undiagnosed or underserved (Hanford, 2017). The vast majority of those students do not take world languages because it is believed that they should be focusing on their native language skills rather than trying something new. I was thrilled to find that not only was the “new” language attainable for dyslexic students but the very methods that I employed to attract and retain them worked wonders for my literacy-focused students as well.
In the 1980s and 1990s, most world language classrooms were full of students who were college bound, getting a 3.0 in their other classes, and older learners. Most high schools only permitted students who achieved a specific GPA or grade in English to begin world language learning. Until very recently, world language instruction has been an elective for the elect. According to the most recent national statistics, only 20% of U.S. K–12 learners are learning a language other than English, and most school districts do not have a plan for special education and specifically dyslexic learners to gain access to world languages (Mitchell, 2019). Even when districts announce a push to invite differently abled learners to take world languages, there is little follow-through on the part of world language departments and special education staff. This discrepancy in accessibility is disappointing, as I have found that many dyslexic learners have great success in world languages and go on to achieve fluency in the early stages of language development even faster than their fluently reading peers. The good news, as many educators know, is that when the learner who faces the most obstacles has those obstacles removed, the rest of the learners will also find success. Educators who are passionate about opening their classroom doors to dyslexic learners, however, are faced with the challenge of how to do that when reading and writing have been the cornerstones of world language instruction and assessment for decades.
Anchorage, Alaska, is one of the largest school districts in the U.S. and is also among the most diverse (Tunseth, 2016). Anchorage is also a leader in offering dual-language immersion opportunities, including Yup’ik (see Language Magazine, May 2019), French, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, German, and Spanish. For five years, I worked as a Spanish immersion teacher in Chugiak, Alaska, teaching the ninth through twelfth years of the K–12 program in dual immersion. The immersion approach to learning a second language was similar to my own previously successful methods as a regular secondary school Spanish teacher, but I was surprised that only students who had started in the immersion classroom before second grade were allowed to participate in these classes. Since most dyslexic students are not identified before they start formal schooling, about 20% of the immersion students turned out to be dyslexic. They were comparatively successful at speaking and listening but struggled with written tests and standardized assessments.
After five years, I changed schools and had the opportunity to develop my own curriculum based on the immersion model for a regular school classroom. Unbeknownst to my district supervisor, I did not use the prescribed textbooks nor the curriculum as assigned but instead created a series of speaking and listening lessons that spanned the first quarter of Spanish I, after which I switched to using some reading and writing as supporting methods. However, by Spanish II, I was again delivering almost all of my assessments through reading and writing. Students were very successful on the district-mandated tests and achieved better levels of fluency than in similar programs across the district that year, but it was not enough—no dyslexic students were taking Spanish, and the world language offerings at my school remained elitist. The next year, I asked the special education director to invite ten students who were receiving services for a variety of dyslexia diagnoses to take Spanish I. They were told that I would design the class to fit their needs and talents. Dyslexic students are often incredible auditory learners and excellent memorizers (Cicerchia, 2019). There was to be no writing or reading allowed until the second semester, and all assessments were to be administered one on one through speaking and listening. That year, all the dyslexic learners were on track with or even racing ahead of their peers from the first week of class.
To be clear, I had over 30 students in the classroom. The age range was eleven to 19. There was little extra planning time and I was only able to maintain this degree of differentiation thanks to a non-Spanish-speaking principal who had no idea what I was doing and a 25-year career of experience from which to draw. Most teachers do not have the time, experience, resources, or support to differentiate at this level. Because I had been privileged to take over a dozen different training courses in five states during my early career on advanced placement instruction and immersion methodology, I had the resources. A lack of oversight created the perfect place for me to experiment. My dyslexic students continued to achieve As and Bs and progressed to Spanish II and III with few difficulties.
One day in the Spanish II classroom, students were telling stories in the past tense about a series of events from picture dice that we were using, and one student, a normally high-achieving student who was getting a B+ in Spanish II, complained that Gretchen, a highly dyslexic student who had actually been held back one year in middle school because of her reading level (first grade), had it “so easy” because she was a natural speaker and that it was “not fair” that she sounded like a native speaker and got better grades for her pronunciation. What a moment! Other than noticing the obvious petulant nature of the complainant, Gretchen, instead of pointing out that every other subject was torture for her, just beamed. This was what I wanted—I wanted students who could pronounce perfectly and listen with acuity to challenge the note-takers and the written-test-lovers. I wanted to prove that kids who were failing English could be the best students in Spanish.
There was, however, a tremendous amount of complaining and frustration from the other students and their parents. Therefore, I encouraged everyone who wished to write and read to do so to their hearts’ content but warned them that the assessments would remain speaking- and listening-based throughout Spanish I. In all levels of Spanish, students who so desired were able to continue to be assessed without any reading or writing. Over and over I explained to students that they needed to stop relying on their best skills and instead develop new ones. I put up encouraging quotes about growth and resilience. I met with literacy-based students who had trouble hearing and filtering, helped them practice with online supports, and allowed them to record what was said in the classroom. Most students overcame their prejudice within a semester and went on to enjoy a class where they had to work a little harder. Most of the activities we did in Spanish I–II revolved around creating listeners and speakers who did not need to consult the text. These students found the upper levels to be much easier than my former students had done when I was relying more on reading and writing in the early levels. This new concept of focusing primarily (and not just philosophically but in actual practice) on speaking and listening in the early years really paid off in the upper levels. Students with only three years of Spanish passed the AP Spanish Language and Culture exam last spring with a success rate of 100% achieving a 4. The methods were working. It was not just a differentiation experiment and a desire for equity but rather a full shift away from what I had been taught and how I had been taught as a high school student learning Spanish to a new vision of what my classroom would look like.
Instruction
There is a great deal of movement and kinesthetic learning in our classroom. That first year we had boxes of items we could use to illustrate meaning without writing. We had a box of plastic food, a box of clothes, a box of school supplies, and a box full of pictures of people’s faces for Spanish I, for example. Students performed skits at least once a week at all levels. I gathered over a hundred simple or traditional Spanish songs and we had Friday sing-alongs with musical instruments. Weekly participation grades that added up as 30% of the final grade were based on effort in Spanish only and not on perfectly correct responses. People who spoke English in class naturally got lower grades. I had to send home letters to parents explaining the participation grades and made sure that everyone knew what was expected and why. Students and parents were supplied with articles on language acquisition so that they could understand what we were doing.
One example of a lesson using only speaking and listening was the use of the imperfect tense in Spanish II. A homework assignment was given a week ahead of time—come to class with a picture of yourself at age five or six. Using a very old-fashioned opaque projector, we enlarged those photos and I modeled one sentence at a time. “I used to play baseball.” Then each student gave a “used to play” sentence. We grew the activity until each student could give five correct sentences from memory about their interests as a five- or six-year-old. Then students formed small groups and modeled their interests without talking while I modeled how to say “you used to” for each group. When they got the hang of that, we played charades so they would use the third-person singular and so on. They generally mastered the regular imperfect tense in one lesson, with enough movement and activity changes that they would have a little brain break every ten minutes or so. For the informal assessment, students held the pictures and described their interests, those of a friend, and one thing they had in common.
Assessment
If one is teaching for verbal and auditory fluency, one has to assess for verbal and auditory fluency. This is a common mistake that I used to make—I would speak Spanish with my students, but then assess in writing. This is something that educators need to confront. I learned Spanish in ninth through twelfth grade from a teacher who was not a native speaker and who required us to translate German fairy tales to Spanish. I was also a highly visual learner. When I moved to Spain to improve my spoken Spanish for career reasons, I cried for a month. One of the most important skills in Spanish I is being able to answer questions, changing the verb from the second to the first person. After many games and activities asking and answering led by me, led by students, and with partners, groups of six or seven were given 30 questions to ask and answer. These were delivered both in written form and via an online data-sharing tool we used as a class. Students could use laptops to play the questions and answer them while I took volunteers to the front for formal assessment. After 30 minutes, the confident volunteers had been assessed and returned to their groups to continue practice. The next group of students now had time to finish learning the material or get up the courage to come forward. Almost every student would try the assessment twice to improve their grade. For assessments, I had students take turns one at a time with me in front of the class, volunteers going first while other students watched. After a third of the students were assessed, the class moved forward doing an activity while I took students who were nervous, shy, or unprepared aside and went through the assessment more privately. Every student who did not achieve 100% was allowed to reassess. Students were encouraged to help each other prepare and any student helper got more points for participation. This fostered community spirit and an environment of encouragement and support rather than competition.
If up to 20% of our learners are suffering from some level of dyslexia or reading disability and many others are emerging language learners in English, the world language classroom can be an oasis for them and a platform for further success. For me as an educator who has a passion for equity in the classroom, it has become increasingly important to continue to differentiate and to uncover potential success stories among the special education population. When I first took Spanish in ninth grade, only students who were excellent at English could even begin study in a world language. In a high school of 800 students, there were eleven in my Spanish III/IV class. We can do better. We are already doing better. If you want to learn to differentiate, start with the special education department at your school and recruit some bright young people to give your world language classroom a chance. And then, give them the chance to shine.
Sarah Birmanns is a 30-year veteran teacher of Spanish, German, and English. She is also an artist, an avid traveler, and a passionate pursuer of equity in education. She was awarded Teacher of the Year for Southwest Minnesota in 2001 and was a winner of the BP Teacher of Excellence award in 2017. She earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in 1990 and her master’s in applied, interdisciplinary humanities in 2003. She writes the travel blog “Peter and Sarah and the World” and is currently on sabbatical with her husband, also a language teacher.
As Franklin Roosevelt famously stated in his 1932 inaugural address, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” These ringing words probably also apply to the teaching of poetry. For a whole host of reasons, many people—not only teachers but general readers as well—feel intimidated by poetry. For teachers, a fear of this kind either inhibits their teaching or leads to their not teaching poetry at all. Often, English teachers just “don’t get around to it” during their courses.
I sympathize with this fear, having experienced it myself. However, I want to offer this appeal: the very act of throwing oneself into the teaching of poetry can lead to all sorts of joys and a lifetime of discoveries. It doesn’t really matter where you begin. Just begin. This book is meant to help that process of beginning and advancing. So, begin by jumping into a favorite poem, or even a brand-new one, and tell your students that all of you are going to experience “how it means” together.
The reading of a given poem often travels through deeper and deeper layers of understanding; it can traverse from the simple (though not necessarily inaccurate) to the highly complex (though this is not necessary to enjoyment) sense of the poem’s meaning.
One must, however, engage with the poem, gaining some reasonably accurate understanding of “what the poem is about.” It is a long journey from Mother Goose to Ezra Pound, though the journey is exciting because the pleasures are never-ending. The journey in the classroom begins with the teacher’s comfort level and willingness to learn and to grow.
Thus this book offers teachers several different ways to introduce students to the reading, memorization, and writing of poetry. Not every chapter or activity need be used: teachers may pick and choose whatever they wish.
Perhaps it may be helpful to offer a mini-catalog of obstacles or trepidations some teachers—and students—could feel, which might prevent them from immersing themselves in the teaching or learning of poetry.
1. The big question is, almost always, what does it mean? I don’t understand it.
2. Why is it [the poem] arranged on the page the way it is?
3. Why do some poems look so different from others?
4. The poem [we are looking at] seems to have a sort of rhythm to it. What is that about?
5. Does the so-called rhythm of the poem contribute in some way to its meaning? If so, how?
6. Do we need to know the connotations of words as well as their denotations?
7. How can we teach (or should we?) distinctions among sense, feeling, tone, and intention?
It’s a mission of mine now to help students, teachers, and readers get beyond such questions and beyond specific areas of intimidation or insecurity they may feel in confronting a given poem.
There may, however, be other reasons that students don’t enjoy poetry, and one of these may be the curricular dictates imposed upon teachers by state curriculum boards, Common Core curriculum requirements, and the like: definitions to memorize, difficult “classic” poems to analyze, and so forth. In this scenario, as poet William Logan writes, “it [poetry] becomes another way to bully students into feeling ‘compassion’ or ‘tolerance,’ part of a curriculum that makes them good citizens but bad readers of poetry.” And, I would add, students turned off by poetry for good.
No, the teaching of poetry is best served in an atmosphere of joy; of exploration, by student and teacher alike; of creative and sometimes goofy assignments; and mostly of imaginative activities.
I’ll just mention one example from my own experience. I once hired a professional juggler to come, as a surprise, to a class where I was teaching Richard Wilbur’s poem “Juggler.” At the moment I said these lines…
It takes a sky blue juggler with five red balls To shake our gravity up
…in walked the juggler in a blue shirt juggling five red balls. It was a memorable moment and an unforgettable class.
There are some lofty goals for poetry in the curriculum, but they should not be where the classroom teacher launches the study of poetry. When students are hooked and feeling comfortable, beginning to love the interplay of words and sound and sense, then perhaps these goals can be examined, but only later in the game.
Finally, I would like to offer an example of poetry’s ability to transform lives.
For 14 years, my nonprofit organization and I have been involved in bringing arts electives to incarcerated juveniles at Camp Gonzalez in Southern California. One of the most influential classes has been creative writing: usually beginning with rap, but almost always evolving into other forms of poetry. Boys who have never liked school find they love these electives. They gain opportunities to discover and hurl their voices out into the world in a positive way, many for the first time, and the results are stunning. They live their lives no longer as a “broken-winged bird that cannot fly” but as dreamers who leave their cages transformed and inspired to rebuild their previously dysfunctional lives.
Poetry, for example, led J. to leave camp, enroll in a two-year college, transfer to UC Berkeley, graduate in June 2016, and receive a full scholarship to a PhD program at Duke University in September 2016. Poetry can make things happen.
Presented with Mary Oliver’s profound question, “What do you want to do with your one wild and precious life?”, J. found his own “wild and precious answer.”
This is an excerpt from Dr. Paul Cummins’s new book, Voice & Verse: Joys and How-To’s of Teaching, Reading and Writing Poetry.
Dr. Paul Cummins is a visionary educator, poet and tireless protector of the art of verse. He received his bachelor of arts from Stanford University, his MAT from Harvard, and his doctorate from the University of Southern California.
In 1971, he co-founded Crossroads School in Santa Monica and built it into one of Los Angeles’s most successful educational institutions and a national model for innovative, independent schools. In 1995, Cummins stepped down as headmaster there and formed New Visions Foundation (now Coalition for Engaged Education) to offer opportunities for engaged education to all youth.
The first venture was New Roads School, a diverse K–12 independent school in Santa Monica that has a deep commitment to social justice. Since 2016, Cummins has helped co-create two new progressive schools: Pine Ridge Girls School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and Tree Academy in Los Angeles. Both schools serve grades 6–12 and are diverse, providing substantial financial aid.
Cummins has published several books on education. His two latest books, Voice & Verse: Joys and How-To’s of Teaching, Reading and Writing Poetry and The Collected Poems of Paul F. Cummins, are now available via Amazon.com.
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