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Using Evidence to Overcome Adversity

We are currently in the midst of an education crisis. Given the magnitude of the issues we’ve faced over the last year, it would be near impossible for students not to experience some level of disruption. But one issue we cannot blame on COVID is the woeful gaps among our youngest students in literacy.

It is tempting to lay blame for setbacks on the past year, given how tumultuous it has been. But students have been falling behind in reading since long before COVID exacerbated the issue. What’s worse is we’ve known about it and have failed to fix the situation by doing one fundamental thing: supporting educators in how to teach reading using evidence-based methods. If last year has taught us anything, it’s that a crisis offers lessons in prevention. If there were ever a time to invest in a new foundation that will prepare us better for the future, it’s now.

Elementary teachers are faced today not only with teaching students coming into the classroom with a range of skill levels, as they are every year, but also with catching up many students who are even further behind due to missed instruction. And much of the reading instruction they’ve had to do this year has been online with small children wriggling in front of video screens, which has made matters even more challenging. Depending on their district and school contexts, educators may or may not have been exposed to evidence-based practices for teaching reading through professional development and/or instructional materials. And this is exactly what they need in this most difficult of teaching scenarios in order to help their young students make big strides in literacy.

In a perfect world, teachers, faced with the difficulty of not only catching students up but also keeping them on track, would have the time and resources to attend professional development conferences, register for continuing education courses, or even obtain master’s degrees.

But few educators have those luxuries, and so districts and schools must support them with curriculum and supplemental programs that embed the science of reading into the content and the science of teaching reading within the teacher tools. Coherent programs and knowledgeable teachers are essential to the success of early readers—during a pandemic and at all times.

Right now is a historic moment in education. Innovation abounds, and we have interest and a willingness to invest in learning recovery from the broader community. Now is the opportune time to commit once and for all to strong readers and, very importantly, to strong teachers of reading.

Here’s what educators need to know to help themselves and their teams on this journey:

Don’t Forget the Importance of Kindergarten and First-Grade Instruction
The education community often focuses on literacy outcomes in the later grades, when the requirement to read well becomes academically urgent for success. For example, national metrics, like the Nation’s Report Card, assess math and literacy skills across grades K–12 but place emphasis on troublesome scores in middle and high school. When we see flat performance in fourth- and eighth-grade NAEP reading scores, the focus naturally turns to third-grade instruction and outcomes. As a result, we see many states where third-grade reading instruction and goals have been written into education policy. But that response is far too literal; research demonstrates that we can predict a child’s reading success by the end of grade one. Prioritizing reading instruction in grade three is too late.

Strong foundational instruction is critical in kindergarten and first grade. Several research studies show that, absent such additional support, there is nearly a 90% chance that a poor reader in first grade will remain a poor reader.1 Everywhere you look, there is a flashing light pointing at our crisis in early-grade literacy. So when the latest middle-of-year data indicated early literacy losses are twice as large as we typically see in reading at this time of the year, it should have come as no surprise. After all, we haven’t done what we needed to pre-COVID to address these gaps.

And who is paying for it but our youngest students. The impact of lost spring instruction hit first graders (former kindergarteners) and second graders (former first graders) particularly hard, resulting in more students with clear deficits in foundational reading skills. These patterns existed before COVID upended the world. But now they are compounded and complicated by so many other issues.

Even more alarming, K–3 students are currently worse off than they were at the beginning of the school year, even though many have actually been back to an in-person or hybrid learning environment. When comparing the typical experience from beginning-of-year to mid-year (pre-COVID) with this year’s, we see that while most grades tend to experience improvement from beginning- to mid-year, that progress appears to be muted or reversed this year, with the greatest impact in kindergarten. Teachers will need to give additional instruction early and often to close the gaps from unfinished instruction.

We can’t afford to see if kids catch up on their own. The problem is not a developmental lag; it is a total disruption to progress due to missed instruction. Learning to read is not something innate; reading must be taught, and we know how. We must once and for all establish the systems and supports that early-grade teachers need to close these preventable gaps.

Understand and Implement a Simple View of Reading 
In 1986, two researchers who connected through the University of Texas, Philip Gough and Bill Tunmer, proposed an easy way to understand the complex combination of skills that result in reading. They called it the simple view of reading. This view answers a straightforward but surprisingly understated question: when we are presented with a passage of text, how do we get meaning from it?

First, we need to convert written words into speech. Second, we need to understand that speech. While our brains are naturally wired for language, reading does not develop naturally. One must be taught to read. Language develops naturally, from before a child is even born, continuing through their lifetime. The better their encounters with language, the better their language comprehension.

The simple view points out that if we can’t decode the symbols in a sentence, we can’t read it, even if we know the language in which it’s written. For example, try reading this sentence:

“England’s openers labored 34 balls before scoring their first boundary as Strauss cracked two fours through the leg side. Cook made a patient start before motoring past his skipper.”

You know the code, but you also need the vocabulary and background knowledge—in this case, cricket knowledge.

When children first learn to read, they already understand a lot of spoken language. That means the best way to help students begin to read for themselves is to get decoding started. It’s important to teach children that words are made up of sounds and then teach them what sounds the letters stand for.

To see that this happens, we need to support teachers in providing students with activities in their classrooms that meet both language development and foundational skill needs. Especially now, we must provide teachers with the instructional materials, training, coaching, and additional supports to engage students in developing both knowledge and skills—language comprehension and word recognition—in their grade-level, whole-class instruction.

Know the Phases of Reading Development
We know how reading develops. Children develop reading skills by moving through four phases on their way to proficient reading. Each phase is important and requires specific instruction to ensure a strong foundation is built so that skilled reading develops.

• Pre-alphabetic Phase: Children use visual cues to identify words, seeing them holistically as pictures and context to make educated guesses, memorizing words as images. During this phase children focus on semantics to identify words. This is an important time to focus on phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge, while beginning to introduce grapheme–phoneme correspondences.

• Partial Alphabetic Phase: Children have an awareness of some grapheme–phoneme correspondences and they are beginning to recognize that letters represent sounds. They guess at words based on first letters or notice ending letters to refine their guesses. This is a necessary first step in more nuanced letter–sound relationships, but is neither a sufficient nor a reliable approach to word recognition. During this phase, children should receive systematic and explicit instruction that emphasizes careful attention to each letter in words.

• Full Alphabetic Phase: Children in the full alphabetic phase can translate most grapheme–phoneme correspondences for both reading and writing. This marks a critical phase as they learn to attend to each letter in every word, allowing them to decode and encode words sequentially. Children begin to build a lexicon of words in memory by using knowledge of grapheme–phoneme relationships to map speech to print and print to speech. Though text reading may be slow during this phase, instruction should include advanced phonics concepts as well as daily practice with decodable, connected text.

• Consolidated Alphabetic Phase: Once individual phonemes are tackled and mastered, children begin to view and automatize parts of words in chunks, including morphemes and syllables. During this phase, children have rapid recognition of a large sight vocabulary and can quickly add new words to that sight vocabulary with minimal exposure. The process that underlies this automaticity, orthographic mapping, is a result of focused instruction and considerable practice. This mapping process is a literal rewiring of the brain’s neural pathways. During this phase, children are able to focus almost exclusively on the meaning of the text, as word recognition has become automatic.

Without appropriate instruction in previous phases, some children never reach the consolidated alphabetic phase. Universal screening to determine risk of reading failure is nonnegotiable to ensure appropriate identification of children who need support at each stage so they can progress. It is vitally important that we know how students are performing compared to a national peer group, as it enables screening for risk and intervention. The way to do this is by using an assessment for benchmarking and universal screening that measures at the skills levels and provides predictive information at the student level. This information can then be used to allocate resources to student support. But that is not a one-time or even a one-year endeavor. Measuring must be embedded into systems, for the long term.

During a time when it can be so easy to dwell on unfinished learning, school districts and teachers have the unparalleled opportunity to improve reading education and reading instruction from the ground up. When educators are supported by curriculum and assessments that are embedded with the science of reading and serve as professional development tools, students are positioned to close gaps, stay on track, and overcome the missed instruction of last year.

This crisis has been brewing for many years and the solution, therefore, is more than a quick fix and will likely take several years. But, unlike ever before, we have the interest, the investment, the innovative thinking, and the will to truly support every educator in learning to teach this most vital human skill: reading. We can teach every child to read, even after the massive disruptions and challenges of the pandemic, but we must help our teachers with the evidence-based professional development, instructional materials, assessments, and systems of support that will make them successful. Our educators, and our young students, deserve nothing less.

Links
1. www.readingrockets.org/article/waiting-rarely-works-late-bloomers-usually-just-wilt

Susan Lambert is the chief academic officer of elementary humanities at Amplify Education and hosts a very popular biweekly podcast, Science of Reading: The Podcast. Susan has worked in education for over 25 years as a classroom teacher, a building administrator, and in various district-level roles.

After Whiteness, Part Two

How many times have you seen an advertisement for an English teaching position that either implicitly or explicitly seeks a “native English speaker”? What ethnoracial background do you think the students and/or school administration expect when hiring an applicant for an English teaching job that is seeking a “native English speaker”? Is “native English speaker” more than simply about how one may sound, but also about how one may look the part? These questions are among the issues that we will be discussing in this second installment of a three-part series on ELT after Whiteness. In part one, found in the April 2021 issue of this magazine (Gerald, Ramjattan, and Stillar, 2021), we began to outline our collective vision for English language teaching after Whiteness has been decentered, a follow-up to one of our (Gerald’s) articles “Worth the Risk” (Gerald, 2020), which was released in the spring of 2020 in the BC TEAL Journal. The first installment focused on changes that could be made in classrooms and pedagogy, arguing that instead of merely dispensing with linguistic prescriptivism, we need to empower racialized students with the ability to challenge their (White) teachers when they are told their languaging is incorrect, a process we termed counterprescriptivism. We also argued that naming the language we are teaching as “standardized” rather than Standard English helps illustrate the constructed nature of what they are expected to learn and that other forms of English should be taught and valued equally, which would, in turn, allow for such things as an anti-racist pronunciation pedagogy that destigmatizes accents coded as racialized. In this installment, we turn our attention to a post-Whiteness version of ELT training and labor—aspects of the field which are in dire need of substantive shifts if they are to achieve the vision we are proposing in this series of articles.

A Convergence of Interests
None of our pedagogical recommendations will succeed if the way that future educators are trained and molded does not undergo massive changes. The education profession itself is White-dominant—approximately 80% White, from a recent study (National Council on Education Statistics, 2020)—and teacher training is supportive of centered Whiteness (Matias, 2013). So long as this remains true, none of our suggestions have a chance of coming to fruition. With this said, if we consider the concept of interest convergence (Bell, 1980; Milner, 2008), we know that we will need White educators to see the value in our suggestions if we are to make progress. Accordingly, we must convey to White readers that this is not an exclusionary vision but rather a vision of inclusion. Due to White folks often misinterpreting inclusionary projects that bolster representation of People of Color as being exclusionary of White people, regardless of how untrue that may be, part of the challenge will be to convey the fact that a more diverse industry benefits racialized students and colleagues, and White educators as well, by creating a more robust learning and teaching environment.

This installment is centered on training and labor, and the above ideas need to be central to any credentialing program for English language teachers. It is vital not only that all training programs, be they master’s degrees, CELTAs, or what have you, prioritize racialized and language-minoritized pedagogy and scholarship but also that this reorientation is done in such a way that White future educators feel included in the new version of the field. We contend that Whiteness does a disservice to White teachers all the same, even as it claims to prioritize them, yet too many of our training programs are still founded on the same hoary set of ideals and theories. Many of us were taught about the inner, outer, and expanding circles (Kachru, 1992), and for one of us (Gerald) at least, the concept was presented as a bold attempt at equality, but in the vision we submit to you in this article series, there would be no singular center around which all of English is meant to orbit. That is a destabilizing idea, and a messy one, but it is the only way ELT could work in a world where Whiteness has been removed from the center.

Confronting the Point of Departure
Our vision also necessitates a vigilant promotion of consciousness raising, rather than a disconscious reinforcement of a White-normative status quo. Racism and other forms of bias thrive in environments where they are not challenged. By encouraging both students and teachers to challenge biases that are embedded within such a status quo, we can assist in limiting regression to a state where Whiteness is again centered. However, being that language and race operate as co-naturalized entities, the English language is commonly, yet erroneously, associated with those who inhabit White bodies via a process known as raciolinguistic enregisterment (Rosa, 2019; Rosa and Flores, 2017). In order to subvert such widespread racial prevarications, it is crucial that any and all assumptive tethering of the English language to Whiteness is not only confronted at the aesthetic and communicative point of arrival (i.e., what the students see and hear), but also at the aesthetic and communicative point of departure (i.e., from the instructors and/or administrators themselves).

Thus, our vision for ELT is one that ultimately ideates English language education as a space where equitable representation of marginalized ethnoracial groups occurs via the contestation and abolishment of White dominance in all its forms. In doing so, we imagine a field where a diverse representation of bodies and voices are rightfully valued alongside the quality of one’s pedagogical practices, dedication to students, and passion for the language learning process. In doing so, we stress that alongside the active rejection of assumptions that frame Whiteness as an embodied ELT qualification, we also emphasize the value of equitable ethnoracial representation by encouraging and materially compensating individuals from marginalized backgrounds to recognize the immense value they bring to the ELT profession.

“Native” Speakers as Standard Bearers
While considering the value that equitable representation brings to an ELT space, we must also be mindful of the challenges that stand to impede progress toward our vision. These challenges often manifest as adoptions of a White gaze by students and teachers who, while they are not White, have become professionally invested in Whiteness due to the historical legacy of White settler colonialism. In particular, we need to confront linguistic bolstering of White supremacy and encourage both instructors and students to challenge notions of the White, English “native speaker” as the standard bearer of the English language. By doing so, we can begin to make space for adjacent discourses that confront lingering and all-too-common biases in schools and classrooms, such as anti-Blackness, that contribute to the limitation of equitable representation within the ELT profession via the framing of instructors who are not coded as White as bearing an embodied pedagogical deficiency (Ramjattan, 2015).

Additionally, it is worth problematizing the concept of a “native speaker” altogether. As Frank Ocean once asked, “What’s a god to a nonbeliever?” We do not need to be controlled by nativeness if we reject the concept. Or we can continue to pretend as though there is a neutral reality of “nativeness,” be it nation of birth or citizenship or using a language before the age of three. No matter what we tell ourselves, because of the issues we have enumerated above, the concept of the native speaker is inextricable from Whiteness. Consequently, even if an employer has learned enough not to demand this oppressive requirement from applicants, any expectations of nativeness will leave a workplace mired in the same racial hierarchies in which, as Ray (2019) explained, Whiteness itself is a credential, even if referred to by a different name. We will explore this topic, as well as other aspects of the broader ELT industry, in the third and final part of our project, due to arrive in a future issue. Before we conclude, though, we do want to issue one brief note of caution for all readers to ensure our message is clear.

A Warning
In making the above recommendations for the inclusion of a diverse array of bodies and voices in the ELT profession, we are not making a case for diversity in order to economically bolster a learning space. That is, we encourage you, the reader, not to understand the value of diversity in economic terms, similar to how many schools and teacher-education programs advertise the diversity of their students or workforces in order to better their reputations and increase their revenues. To be clear, we are not advocating for diversity so that White-dominant institutions or individuals will gain further economic and socially upward mobility from marginalized groups (Leong, 2013). Instead, we hope to stress the inherent value of these groups and how a diverse range of people and perspectives can aid and inspire students while acting as a powerful counterbalance in the decentering of Whiteness within institutions as well.

We will return with our conclusion, centered on the broader ELT industry, in a future issue of Language Magazine. Stay tuned…

Bibliography
Bell, D. (1980). “Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma.” Harvard Law Review, 93(1), 518–533.
Gerald, J. P. B., Ramjattan, V. A., and Stillar, S. (2021). “After Whiteness (Part One).” Language Magazine. www.languagemagazine.com/2021/05/17/after-whiteness
Gerald, J. P. B. (2020). “Worth the Risk: Towards decentring whiteness in English language teaching.” BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 44–54. doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.345
Kachru, B. (1992). The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. University of Illinois Press.
Leong, N. (2013). “Racial Capitalism.” Harvard Law Review, 126(8), 2151–2226.
Matias, C. E. (2013). “Tears Worth Telling: Urban teaching and the possibilities of racial justice.” Multicultural Perspectives, 15(4), 187–193. doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2013.844603
Milner, H. R. (2008). “Critical Race Theory and Interest Convergence as Analytic Tools in Teacher Education Policies and Practices.” Journal of Teacher Education, 59(3), 332–346. doi.org/10.1177/0022487108321884
National Council on Education Statistics. (2020). “Characteristics of Public School Teachers.” Condition of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_clr.asp#:~:text=In%202017%E2%80%9318%2C%20about%2079,1%20percent%20of%20public%20school
Ramjattan, V. A. (2015). “Lacking the Right Aesthetic: Everyday employment discrimination in Toronto private language schools.” Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 34(8), 692–704. doi:10.1108/EDI-03-2015-0018
Rosa, J. (2019). Looking Like a Language, Sounding Like a Race: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and the Learning of Latinidad. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rosa, J., and Flores, N. (2017). “Unsettling Language and Race: Toward a raciolinguistic perspective.” Language in Society, 46, 621–647.

J. P. B. Gerald is an EdD candidate at CUNY–Hunter College whose scholarship focuses on language teaching, racism, and Whiteness. You can find his public scholarship at jpbgerald.com and his excessive Twitter opinions @JPBGerald.

Vijay A. Ramjattan received his PhD in adult education and community development from the University of Toronto. His research interests pertain to the intersections of language, race, and work(place learning). He often talks about these interests on Twitter @Vijay_Ramjattan.

Scott Stillar is currently a PhD candidate in second language acquisition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His dissertation research investigates the ideological intersections of standardized American English and Whiteness within English language education spaces.

Ayanna Cooper, EdD, is an advocate and writer and the 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 the editor for Language Magazine’s Pass the Mic, a series that highlights experiences of traditionally marginalized educators and the students they serve.

Creating Community Connections

On March 13, 2020, when the seriousness of the coronavirus hit our campus, classes, lectures, programs, conferences, and celebrations had to be cancelled or reinvented. Faculty, staff, and students received that same night the alarming email from the president of the university informing us about the severe ramifications of the virus. We were instructed to stay home for a whole week while the EdTech staff assisted faculty to start teaching online for at least two weeks. After those two weeks we were supposed to come back to campus, but of course, that never happened. My colleague (Carmen Alicia Martínez) and I, the two faculty members in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures (MLL) teaching community-engaged courses, had to quickly change gears to reinvent our courses. Our plans to start working on the 6th edition of our community-engaged program, Reading to Play, Playing to Read (RPPR) with children in the Latino Community Center were shaken. RPPR is a program that combines learning goals from upper-level language courses and Spanish for Healthcare Professionals courses with the objectives of a non-profit organization serving the Latino community.

This program bridges the Spanish language and Spanish for Health Professionals curricula to prepare students for careers in a multicultural society. Students from both courses cooperatively develop a four-week project on health and illness prevention for Latino children who recently immigrated to the U.S. RPPR teaches about healthy habits and illness prevention, enhancing their elementary education. For many college students this program is the first opportunity they have to discover the Latino neighborhood in their own city. This pandemic required my colleague and I to think about alternative options.

We came up with complex and ambiguous options that did not imply enough learning for the children or students. For example, having the children connected on Zoom for a full hour was not realistic for young learners; reducing sessions to 30 minutes would not give students enough time to complete the program; shrinking the content of the program would result in less relevant learning objectives; etc… It seemed like one disappointment led to another.

Additionally, we were not as skilled as we are now with videoconference tools, and we were not fully sure that all children would have access to electronic devices at home to connect with students. Of course, face to face, even with protective masks and face shields, was not an option at the beginning of the pandemic. As a consequence, we had a heart-to-heart conversation with our community partner and with much regret, we decided to cancel the RPPR 2020. Spanish Conversation and Composition Community Engagement is an intensive writing class that emphasizes the community-engagement component.

Most students understand what a community-engaged class means and they are aware of the significant amount of time that they are required to spend with the community. I have been teaching this class for six consecutive years now and every year it seems that the community-engaged project is more vital. I knew that I just had to be creative and find alternatives. Many other community engagement scholars around the world were frantically adapting and reinventing programs in the community that still stayed true to the community partner and students. It was time to think outside the box, but it was also a time of uncertainty, insecurity, and a lot of doubt. Remember, that at the end of March, when we canceled RPPR, we did not know yet how severe the pandemic was and how much longer virtual school would be.

On a Friday afternoon the chair of MLL and I received an email from the director of Center for Global Engagement asking us to meet virtually with the director and the assistant director in International Admissions. International Admissions had been asked by the Pittsburgh non-profit organization, Casa San José, to assist with the English needs of the adult Latino population. The pandemic had placed many immigrants at home with no option of attending face to face ESL evening classes. The situation for ESL learners was not easy. They suddenly found themselves at home, confined, stressed out, overwhelmed, and with a strong desire to learn English. They knew they could use this time to prepare for their return to the workforce once the pandemic was over.

Casa San José was asking for free virtual ESL night lessons from teachers or students who could donate their time, effort, and knowledge to the community. It’s important to state at this point that the community engagement pedagogy is central to the mission of Duquesne University. In fact, the Community Engagement Teaching and Learning Center is one of the biggest offices in campus and offers help to hundreds of faculty, staff and students who complete their degrees and their professional careers connected to the community. The assistant director for International Admissions met with Sister Janice, founder and director of Casa San José to design a plan to assist with the community needs. Duquesne would use some of their funding to organize virtual ESL classes for the Latino community with the ESL teachers’ expertise, time and effort. The pay for these teachers was not enough for their services, but they also wanted to help.

Most ESL teachers did not speak Spanish and some of the learners were true beginners in English. Could they find a way to connect between the teachers and those Spanish speaking adults who were novice in English? Somebody who could work as a class liaison? The Director of the Global Engagement Office had an idea. He proposed contacting the professors teaching community engagement Spanish classes in the department of MLL and see if they could help. If we were lucky, we could find some advanced students of Spanish who could act as language assistants, he thought. My Conversation and Composition Community Engagement class was already in session and I was desperately trying to find opportunities for my students to contribute to the community, especially now that RPPR had been canceled. It all happened fast.

It took just two Zoom meetings to realize how beneficial this opportunity could be for my students and the community. The organizers in International Admissions, the executive director of Global Engagement, the chair of MLL and I had a very productive meeting and we all envisioned the program so clearly that the only thing we had left was asking the students if they were ready for this adventure, and including the activity in the syllabus, of course. I invited Megan Evangeliste from International Admissions to my virtual class to explain the details about Proyecto ESL to my students.

She presented the program, the schedule, the teachers, the students and the most important thing, the ultimate goal of the program: assist the Latino Community to develop a command of basic oral English so they could return to the workforce as soon as the pandemic concluded. In turn, my students would have the opportunity to virtually meet Spanish native speakers, develop their teaching skills to help them with their English needs, and use their target language to converse with them via Zoom at the end of class. The duration of the program would be 10 weeks. Students were required to attend the same night session every week with the hopes of developing continuity and consistency for the ESL students and the language assistants.

As a requirement of the Conversation and Composition Community Engagement class, students had to write a 450 words self-reflection narrative at the end of the program. In this personal narrative, students were asked to answer questions about their role as a Spanish language assistant, the art of teaching ESL, the time commitment to the program, the relationships developed with native speakers, and their willingness to continue cooperating in the community. Students would receive credit for their Spanish grammar and vocabulary; writing style; and content.

When I read my students’ narratives, I focused on these three areas, but I could not help being happily indulged with their personal revelations. Some students wrote testimonies that made me stop the reading process and thank the International Admission faculty for providing this unique opportunity to me and my students. I was unaware of the many levels that this project would impact us. I naively thought the positive impact would come from linguistic exchanges. The opportunity to practice their Spanish with real speakers was a plus, but it was definitely not the most impactful aspect of the program. The reality was that my students mentioned their oral skills development and practice just as a passing comment. However, they did enthusiastically comment on other ways that this program affected them. I believe their own words reflect better what I am trying to explain. Below you will find comments that exemplify how students perceived the benefits of Proyecto ESL.

1. Para algunos de mis alumnos de ESL, este año fue su primer Halloween y primera elección en Estados Unidos. Estaba muy emocionada por [sic] ellos para [sic] tener las nuevas experiencias en mi país. Voy a estar triste cuando estas clases terminen, pero mis estudiantes quieren darme sus números de teléfono pues podemos estar en contacto en el futuro y posiblemente estar en la misma clase si ellas están ofrecidas el próximo semestre. (AD) [For some of my ESL students, this year was their first Halloween and first USA election. I was very excited that they were going to have new experiences in my country. I am going to be sad when these classes end, but my students want to give me their phone numbers so we can be in touch in the future and possibly be in the same class if these classes are offered next semester]

2. Una de mis alumnas favoritas invitó a Laura y a mí a su casa después del Covid-19 (con otra estudiante también) para tener una mini fiesta con la comida de su país y karaoke. ¡Ella incluso nos hizo promesa meñique [sic] que iremos! Espero que pueda quedar en contacto con mis alumnos favoritos pues ellos pueden ayudarme y puedo ayudarlos también. Ahora son mis amigos (AD) [One of my favorite students invited Laura and me to her place after COVID-19 (with another student also) to have a mini party with food from her country and karaoke. She even did the pinky swear. I hope I can keep in touch with my favorite students so I can help them and they can help me also. Now, they are my friends]

3. Ahora el proyecto ESL tiene una gran parte de mi corazón y sé que es algo que me gustaría continuar. Estoy muy feliz Duquesne se asoció con Casa san José para ayudar a nuestra comunidad durante momentos difíciles. Sé que mi español ha mejorado de la clase [sic] y a pesar de que estaba nervioso y me sentí como que no sería capaz de ayudar a nadie sé que hice un impacto en los estudiantes, así. Espero que Duquesne continúe con este programa y que podamos llegar a ayudar a más personas en el futuro (SH) [Now, Proyecto ESL has a big place in my heart and I know it is something that I would love to continue. I am very happy that Duquesne cooperated with Casa San José to help our community during tough times. I know my Spanish has improved in the class and even though I was nervous and I felt like I would not be able to help anybody, I know that I made an impact in the students. I hope Duquesne continues with this program and we can get to help more people in the future]

Topics such as, connection with strangers; development of friendships; opening to a new culture; development of the target language; out of the box educational practices, and significance of their work in the community, were a constant in the narratives. Students learned, students helped others learn and they fully enjoyed it. The connection, as a quote from Dr. Brené Brown states, is “the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgement; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship”. I believe we can proudly assert that Proyecto ESL created exactly this type of connection for college students and Latino ESL learners.

Dr. Lucía Osa-Melero is associate professor at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Duquesne University. She teaches Spanish community-engaged courses and co-leads the lower-level Spanish program. She holds a PhD in Language Teaching from Universitat de València (Spain) and MA and MAT from the University of Iowa.

Predicting Reading Ability Among Ten-Year Olds

This is a report on the most recent of three similar studies. We present the results all three here in order to highlight the profound similarities. All three are analyses of the results of the PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study), an examination given to 10-year-olds in 2006 (45 countries), 2011 (57 countries), and 2016 (61 countries) https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pirls/countries.asp.

Sample sizes ranged from 3349 to 18,245 (see https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/publications/pirls/2016-methods/P16_MP_Chap5_Sample_Implementation.pdf).

PIRLS provided not only test scores, but also the results of extensive questionnaires given to teachers and parents, including student attitudes, student reading behavior outside of school, classroom practices, availability of a library, and socio-economic class. The items on the questionnaire relevant to this study and socioeconomic status (SES) statistics are available in the PIRLS report. We will not repeat them here as our focus in this report was only the relationship of reading test scores and certain predictors.

The PIRLS test attempts to measure both reading for literary experience and reading to acquire and use information (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy, and Foy, 2007). Students take the test in the national language of their country.

We present here a simple analysis of the effect of selected factors on PIRLS performance, analyzing only the results of one predictor to represent each factor we were interested in investigating. (In a previous paper, we reported that this simple analysis gave results very similar to a more elaborate analysis, based on factor analysis of nearly all the data provided by PIRLS; Krashen, Lee, and McQuillan, 2012).

THE FACTORS
SES: As measured by the United Nations HDI (Human Development Index), based on education, life expectancy, and wealth (UN Development Program, 2006; 2011; 2016).

The measure of independent reading used was the percentage of students who read independently in school every day or almost every day in each country. This predictor was only investigated in the 2006 study.

LIBRARIES: In the 2006 study, the library factor was represented by the percentage of school libraries in each country with over 500 books. In 2011 and 2016, the library factor was represented by the percentage of school libraries in each country with at least 5000 books.

INSTRUCTION: Based on the number of hours devoted to reading instruction in each country.

PARENTAL READING (included only in 2011 and 2016): The percentage of parents in each country who say they like to read “very much.”

EARLY LITERACY: The percentage of parents who reported that their children were able to do three of the following five tasks well and others “moderately well” before starting school: (1) Recognize most of the letters in the alphabet, (2) Read some words, (3) Read sentences, (4) Write letters of the alphabet, (5) Write some words. In 2016, a rating of “very well” was also asked about “read a story” and the ability to do three other three tasks “moderately well.”

CLASSROOM LIBRARIES: PIRLS provides data for each country on the presence of a classroom library with at least 50 books, three magazines, library use, and whether students could take books out, but does not provide details on how this data was used in the statistical analysis. http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/international-results/pirls/classroom-instruction/classroom-libraries/

The data was analyzed using a very useful statistical tool, multiple regression.

MULTIPLE REGRESSION
With multiple regression, a researcher can determine the impact of one variable, while holding the effect of other variables constant. For example, in the studies included here, we report on the impact of poverty and on the impact of having a school library. In the 2006 analysis, these two predictors were correlated: Schools with less poverty were more likely to have a school library with at least 500 books (r = .35). Multiple regression tells us the impact the library has “pretending” that poverty level and the presence of a library are not related. In statistical jargon, the impact of poverty is “controlled.” This is reflected by the “beta” in table 1. “Beta” means the effect of a predictor on scores on the PIRLS examination uninfluenced by other predictors, those included in the table as well as others in the analysis.

Thus, multiple regression allows us to examine the effect of several predictors at the same time, while controlling for their effects on each other.

The r2 at the bottom of each table tells us the contribution of all predictors combined. In table 1, for example, r2 = .63. This means that if we know the contribution of all the factors listed (SES, SSR, library, instruction), this provides 63% of the information we need to predict their PIRLS scores.

Tables 1, 2 and 3 present the results of multiple regression analyses for 2006, 2011, and 2016.

Table 1: Predictors of PIRLS scores, 2006

PredictorbetaP
SES-0.410.005
Independent Reading0.1610.143
Library0.3460.005
Instruction-0.1860.085
r2 = .63

Table 2: Predictors of PIRL scores, 2011

PredictorbetaP
SES-0.520.01
Library0.20.08
Classroom Library0.080.28
Parent Read0.0650.31
Early Lit-0.260.4
Instruction-0.0610.5
r2 = .62

Table 3: Predictors of PIRL scores, 2016

PredictorbetaP
SES-0.540.000016
Library0.260.004
Classroom Library0.0260.8
Parent Read0.270.013
Early Lit-0.120.21
Instruction0.060.54
r2 = .56

In all three cases, the impact of poverty (SES) is strong and negative, and the effect is nearly identical in all three. The presence of a school library has a consistently positive effect significant in two studies and falling just short of significance in the third. In 2006, the positive effect of having a library was nearly as large as the effect of poverty was negative. The amount of instruction in reading had no significant effect, and early competence in literacy, included in two studies, had a negative but statistically insignificant relationship with performance on the PIRLS test.

Discussion

Our results on the impact of libraries are highly consistent with studies reporting that library quality is a clear predictor of reading achievement (see especially Keith Curry Lance’s school library impact studies, http://keithcurrylance.com/school-library-impact-studies/) as well as studies reporting that direct instruction in phonics and phonemic awareness has little or no effect of reading comprehension (Krashen, 2001, 2009; McQuillan, 2018; Bowers, 2020). The lack of support for early literacy reported here runs counter to common wisdom.

The negative effect of poverty on all aspects of student achievement has been reported consistently since it was first studied decades ago. Highly plausible explanations for the negative correlation with poverty includes lack of medical care and nutrition for children of poverty (e.g. Coles 2008/2009 on hunger). Another is a lack of reading material: children of poverty have fewer books in the home and attend schools with less reading material, and live in neighborhoods with less well-supported public libraries (Krashen, 2004).

The clear winner in boosting reading achievement appears to be providing access to books, which in turn helps create a pleasure reading habit, which in turn results in better scores on tests such as the PIRLS, and in turn contributes to school and life success. Note. The correlation between amount of parental reading and SES was positive both times it was investigated, but this predictor survived the multiple regression only in the 2016 analysis. The reason for this is not yet clear.

References

Bowers, J.S. (2020). Reconsidering the evidence that systematic phonics is more effective than alternative methods of reading instruction. Educational Psychology Review, 32, 681–705.

Coles, G. 2008/2009. Hunger, Academic Success, and the Hard Bigotry of Indifference Rethinking Schools. 23,2. https://rethinkingschools.org/articles/hunger-academic-success-and-the-hard-bigotry-of-indifference/

Coles, G. 2019 Cryonics phonics: Inequality’s little helper. New Politics 18(3) https://newpol.org/issue_post/cryonics-phonics-inequalitys-little-helper/

Krashen, S. 2001. Does “pure” phonemic awareness training affect reading comprehension? Perceptual and Motor Skills 93: 356-358. http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/pure_pa_and_rc.pdf

Krashen. S. 2004. The Power of Reading. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited. Second Edition.

Krashen, S. 2009. Does intensive reading instruction contribute to reading comprehension? Knowledge Quest 37 (4): 72-74. http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/decoding_&_comprehension.pdf

Krashen, S., Lee, S.Y. and McQuillan, J. 2012. Is the library important? Multivariate studies at the national and international level. Journal of Language and Literacy Education, 8(1): 26-36. http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/multivariate_studies.pdf

Krashen, S., Lee, S.Y., and Lao, C. 2017. Comprehensible and Compelling: The Causes and Effects of Free Voluntary Reading. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited. ABC-CLIO, LLC.

McQuillan, J. (2018). Is synthetic phonics working in England? A comment on “Teaching to Teach Literary” Report. In Clark, Margaret (Ed.). (2018). Teaching initial literacy: Policies, evidence and ideology. Birmingham, UK: Glendale Education. Pp. 23-28.

Mullis, I. V. S., Martin, M. O., Foy, P., & Hooper, M. (2017). PIRLS 2016 International Results in Reading. Retrieved from Boston College, TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center: http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2016/international-results/ https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/pirls2011/index.html

UN Development Program. (2006). Human Development Report 2006. New York: Author.

UN Development Program. (2011). Human Development Report 2011. New York: Author.

UN Development Program. (2016). Human Development Report 2016. New York: Author

Christy Lao is associate professor, Graduate College of Education,
San Francisco State University.

Sy-ying Lee is professor in Applied Foreign Languages at National
Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

Jeff McQuillan is an independent researcher living in Los Angeles,
California.

Stephen Krashen is professor emeritus, University of Southern
California.

Illinois bilingual education teacher elected to NEA’s Executive Committee

A bilingual education teacher from Frankfort, Ill., was elected to serve on NEA’s Executive Committee, the highest-level governing body that oversees and helps establish policy for the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union with more than 3 million members. Gladys Fátima Márquez, who currently serves as chair of the NEA Hispanic Caucus, was elected by secret ballot by delegates attending NEA’s virtual Representative Assembly for a three-year term that begins September 1.

“The core value that has echoed in all of my work from the local level to the state and national levels…is to protect students and communities that have fallen victim to unjust systems of oppression that systemically and systematically disenfranchise our students,” said Márquez in her virtual address to RA delegates. “My commitment is to doing everything that I can to protecting our students, our communities, and our profession.”

Márquez has helped to organize nationwide events to raise awareness about the plight of immigrants in America with “Teach-Ins” at immigration detention centers, humanitarian missions to shelters at the border, and massive marches in protest of the national policy leading to the separation of immigrant families and the incarceration of immigrant children.

“I want my students to believe in themselves. I want them to see themselves the way that I see them,” Márquez said in an Emmy-nominated film that spotlighted her work as a teacher in Chicagoland. “I see greatness every time I look into my students’ faces. When I hear them debate issues, when I see where their heart is, I feel like there’s hope…And as teachers, it’s our responsibility to develop those lasting relationships with students because it’s those relationships that will help them succeed. Isn’t that what it is all about at the end of the day? That all your students have a shot at the American dream?”

Pursuing the American dream helps fuel Márquez’s education advocacy work, including lobbying Congress to advance issues that support public education. She also has worked with national organizations to help pass a clean DREAM Act and protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. Marquez is a dedicated activist, organizer, and community advocate, with a track record of public service that attests to her commitment to protect public education.

“No matter where we live, where we come from, what we look like or which language we speak, we all have the right to the American dream. Gladys knows just how much stronger we all are when we draw from our diverse and vibrant population,” said NEA President Becky Pringle. “She also understands that educators are, many times, at the forefront in advocating for a future that works for all of us — without exceptions. When RA delegates elected Gladys to the NEA Executive Committee, they ensured that educators, students, families, and our communities will have a powerful and vocal advocate at NEA’s decision-making table.”

During her virtual address to RA fellow delegates, Márquez talked about how she started her 24-year education career as an education support professional, working as a school translator and a parent liaison. She later pursued her dream to become a classroom teacher after getting involved with the Illinois chapter of NEA’s Aspiring Educators program. For the last two decades, Márquez has taught English learners from kindergarten through adult education programs, and her professional experiences have helped to shape the educator and leader she is today.

“We have to be able to engage in courageous conversations about the social or racial inequities that plague many of our educational institutions and our profession as a whole,” added Márquez. “Social action is part of who we are. We have to stand up for ourselves because if not, we are going to be helping perpetuate the systems that are oppressing our students, and that’s not ok.”

Márquez received her bachelor’s degree in English/language arts education in 2000, Master of Arts in the field of secondary school administration in 2006, and last year completed her Doctor of Education in multi- and interdisciplinary studies, all from Governors State University. The NEA Executive Committee consists of nine members — three executive officers and six members elected at-large by nearly 8,000 delegates attending the NEA RA, which was held virtually this year out of an abundance of caution because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The committee is responsible for general policy and interests of NEA and acts for the NEA Board of Directors in between its four regularly scheduled meetings each year.

Celebrating the Linguistic Self

Last spring, as the pandemic raged on outside my student dorm, I found myself mentally chained to the desk where I would now have to undertake fieldwork for my master’s degree in second-language education at the University of Cambridge. Determined to craft a dissertation that would offer meaning and impact, no matter how small, I set out to brainstorm the core challenges associated with the only subset of education I was familiar with at the time— tutoring Chinese students to gain admission into independent English schools.

Scrolling through my old resources, which comprised hundreds of past papers assessing vocabulary, reading comprehensions, and verbal and nonverbal reasoning (all of which I found could be rote learned), I felt disheartened. I wondered how such exams could have prepared my students for an English curriculum that centers around critical thinking, independence, and creativity.

Having helped numerous Chinese students toward successful admission at English schools prior to my postgraduate studies, I was intrigued as to how they were faring in an all-English environment so far from home both culturally and linguistically. I needed a project that would elicit sentiments of the linguistic and cultural self through a creative, artistic means—the former to explore how they might have adjusted to school in England, and the latter to offer my former students a creative project for fun amid the trials and tribulations of the pandemic.

And so, the idea of an ESL poetry workshop was born. Poetry has had a long and illustrious influence on society, dating to prehistoric times, when it was sung or recited as a means of oral history. A piece of literature may be considered a poem if it emphasizes musical qualities of language, condenses language, and features intense feelings and/or emotions. Harnessed as a tool, poetry can challenge convention and empower individuals. And yet it is not only the aesthetics of how language is presented in a poem but the sociocultural significance behind the language chosen by the author that is intriguing.

With English (ESL) at the center, interpretations of poetry can reveal deep feelings toward the world’s lingua franca. Today, the ability to speak English is considered a means of accumulating linguistic capital, since it possesses the highest linguistic utility and is not only a tool for social inclusion but a conduit for social as well as economic advancement.

The workshop, from which all poems and their follow-up interviews made up the data for my dissertation, took place over four weeks, on Zoom. In the first week, I taught the “Five Senses” poem, for which students had to loosely follow a template and write two poems depicting the five strongest senses they associate with China and then with England. In the second week, I taught the “Hero” poem, for which students again loosely followed a template to write two poems, one about an English-speaking friend and one about a Chinese-speaking friend. In the third week, I taught the “I Am” and then the “Me at 25” poems, which were encouraged to be free verse, authentic, and true, thereby requiring deep reflection. In the fourth and final week, students presented their poems to one another and I interviewed them about the workshop as a whole. The following is a selection of two “Five Senses” poems.

China
China is fiery red.
It tastes like a mixture of salt and spice;
It sounds like the roar of unity;
It looks like a phoenix ready to soar;
When the power of it bursts,
I feel proud of being part of it.

England
England is a blue sea, deep and mysterious,
It smells like refreshing grass in the gardens
It tastes like school meals
It sounds like the church bell
It feels like the chilly wind pierced in my skin
It looks like a kind gentleman.
When the weather didn’t change for a whole day,
I feel bewildered.

For students whose L1 is not English, the integration of ESL poetry into the curriculum or as a workshop prior to commencing and then integrated throughout their academic journey could provide recognition and celebration of their linguistic identity. Engaging ESL learners in the construction of poetry entices the learner to gravitate toward the center of the learning process. Incorporating poetry, learning a language is depicted as an embodied and emotional experience, for which issues of identity and self-perception are at the core. International students can feel empowered by situations where they can utilize their bilingualism, particularly where the grammatical restraints are lifted and wholesome creative expression without fault is advocated.

It was interesting to notice how students integrated Chinese Mandarin into their “Five Senses” and “Hero” poems. When quizzed about this, they said, “[My L1] is easier to have fun with… you can make jokes because you can interpret the pronunciation of words different and it’s funny… you can’t do that in English.” In addition, the process itself of constructing the series of poems highlighted to my students their linguistic advantage. One student said, “When writing this poem, I felt proud to be able to speak English and experience another culture when many Chinese back home wouldn’t get this experience.”

As the world globalizes and interconnects, individuals who migrate bring with them lived experiences; presenting these experiences through a creative medium such as poetry has potential to emotionally yet constructively engage readers in appreciating, if not understanding, others’ experiences. For Chinese adolescents, such a poetry workshop may help to conceptualize, place, and understand their linguistic identity, resulting in better engagement with their environment and more confidence in their linguistic abilities.

Olivia Halsall ([email protected]) | Olivia recently completed her master’s degree in research in second-language education from the University of Cambridge, UK. A trilingual speaker of English, French, and Chinese Mandarin, she is the founder of OLEA Education Ltd., an innovative education venture that seeks to simultaneously enhance students’ English writing and 21st-century skills through the use of OLEA’s Box.

Olivia encourages ESL poetry and creative writing enthusiasts to reach out to her directly with e-introductions.

Federal Statement in Support of International Education

The U.S. Departments of State and Education have issued a Joint Statement of Principles in Support of International Education, with support from the Departments of Commerce and Homeland Security, to encourage the sector to recover and build back better after the prior administration’s restrictions on student visas and the pandemic-induced shutdowns.

The statement is the first public affirmation of federal support for international education in over 20 years. The U.S. Departments of State and Education have committed to undertaking actions to support a renewed focus on international education, with key principles of support, including:

  • A coordinated national approach to international education, including study abroad for Americans, international students on U.S. campuses, and the internationalization of U.S. campuses and classrooms.
  • A welcoming environment for international students coming to the U.S., encouraging a diversity of participants, disciplines, and types of schools and higher education institutions where they can choose to study, teach, or contribute to research.
  • Encouragement for U.S. students, researchers, scholars, and educators who reflect the diversity of the U.S. population to pursue overseas study, internships, research, and other international experiences.
  • Promotion of expanded access to international education, including using technology where in-person experiences are not feasible, to connect U.S. students, researchers, scholars, and educators with their peers abroad.
  • Partnerships of the U.S. government with higher education institutions, schools, state, and local governments, the business community, and others to support international education.

These principles have been established to help welcome international students to the U.S. and to develop the global and cultural competencies Americans need to operate internationally. The statement indicates a marked change of direction in policy, which should be of particular interest to the many Chinese students looking to study in the U.S. as well as Americans looking to study in China.

Capitalizing on America’s Languages

We’re at an unprecedented point of opportunity for education reform in the U.S., but we need to ensure that adopted reforms rejuvenate our systems and make them more flexible to suit the diversity of learners and provide them with the breadth of skills that will be required to succeed in the 21st century.

Pandemic-related school closures have accelerated the adoption and absorption of educational technology, even at schools in high-poverty communities, while revealing its shortcomings. Over the past year, we’ve also seen a boost in public support and respect for educators as parents have experienced firsthand the work that they do. The hiatus of in-person schooling has afforded us the opportunity to question how schools should work.

Budget surpluses in some states, like California, and massive increases in federal education spending mean that funds are available to redesign curricula, train existing educators, and recruit new teachers to respond to systemic reforms.
Particularly from the language educator’s perspective, there is another looming opportunity that should have implications across the board—one-third of the nearly 23 million preschool-age children in the U.S. live with a parent who speaks a language other than English, according to the Migration Policy Unit. Never before have there been so many students in possession of the valuable potential to develop their own bilingualism and share it with their peers.

The neurological benefits of bilingualism are now proven, and most of us accept that languages are an essential skill for the 21st century. Language and cultural studies can also play a huge part in promoting equity and social/emotional learning. So, why not seize this opportunity to infiltrate curricula with language learning?

The most effective reaction would be to multiply the creation of dual language schools and programs across the country, but their creation would likely take too long to take advantage of this influx of emergent bilinguals, so, while we should push ahead with more dual language programs, we should also look at flexible options that can be applied in all schools.
We can prioritize the recruitment of educators with language skills, preferably from the communities within which they will be teaching. We can incentivize educators to develop their own language skills and make provisions for them to share these newly acquired skills. We can make the most of the edtech gains acquired during the pandemic to personalize instruction based on language skills, needs, and interests. We can increase the number of hours allocated to content-based education with bilingual educators.

Fundamentally, we need to reexamine the idea of educating according to subject-based silos and look at a cross-curricular approach in which disciplines are intertwined to enable students to engage, whatever their interests or learning styles. Mixing the language of instruction is key to the success of this approach.

Such change may seem radical, but it will likely be a step that all educational systems need to make to meet the demands of the 21st century. Not so long ago, we changed perceptions by renaming foreign languages world languages. Now that we accept that the U.S. is a reflection of the world and its diversity, we should adapt our educational system to take advantage of this asset and set a shining example.

A Destination of Choice in Unprecedented Times

At the outset of the COVID pandemic last spring, public schools across Canada shifted to virtual/remote delivery remarkably well and expediently. Some of the more than 45,000 international students who were enrolled from K–12 in public schools throughout the country headed home to wait out the pandemic with their families, but the majority of students preferred to remain. In fact, many of those who planned to study in Canada until graduation even continued to live with their host families throughout the summer months to avoid having to quarantine upon arriving home and then on their return to Canada. At a time like no other, despite uncertainty and stresses being high, the pandemic bonded international students and their host families more closely than ever before.

As of the start of the new school year, only those students who already held a valid study permit or had been approved for one prior to mid-March 2020 were permitted to enter the country. At that time, our 128 member school boards/districts/divisions across the country reported enrolling just 15,000 international students—less than half of typical international student enrollment for the start of a school year.

Inbound international students needed to comply with the federal government’s 14- day quarantine requirement upon arrival in Canada, and did so either with a host family or in some cases a well-supervised and appropriately distanced hotel arrangement. In addition, our member school boards/districts and homestay staff developed thoughtful and creative ways to remain in communication with the students to support their mental health and well-being as well as to have them engage with each other.

As education is under provincial jurisdiction in Canada, the eligibility for and delivery of virtual/online courses from September 2020 varied across the country. In some cases, only international students who had previously been studying in Canada were permitted to continue online; in others, even new international students destined for Canada could begin their educational programs remotely.

It wasn’t until early October that the Canadian government announced exemptions for international students who had been approved after March. As some schools had shifted to a “quadmester” or quarter system, breaking the school year into four terms to reduce the number of courses taken at a time and therefore the number of different interactions between students and teachers, it enabled some international students to begin arriving in late October for a mid-November start.

In January, new legislation required all travelers arriving by air to have a negative COVID molecular PCR test result within 72 hours of their flight departing for Canada. Despite the short notice for some students and the fact that the new testing requirement didn’t negate the requirement to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival, many of our members reported their largest second semester intake of international students ever. It’s estimated that close to 20,000 international students were studying in Canadian public schools by early 2021.

By late March 2021, an additional requirement of COVID testing upon arrival and on day ten as well as having to complete the first three days of the 14-day quarantine period in government-authorized accommodation while awaiting test results came into effect. Given the unique requirements of supervising and supporting minor children, an exemption to the three-night hotel stay was granted to minors (defined as under 18 years of age) to continue on to their final destinations to complete all 14 days of quarantine. Unfortunately, this exemption was not extended to students who are 18 years of age and enrolled in a high school program or younger minor students accompanied by a parent.

It remains at the discretion of the Canadian Border Services officer as to whether a minor student has their first test at the airport or is provided with test kits to self-administer on day one and day ten. After receiving a negative result from their day ten test and upon completion of the 14-day quarantine, students are permitted to begin studying in their Canadian school communities.

It seems likely that many international students will again choose to spend their summers in Canada to avoid the testing and quarantine requirements of many countries around the globe. As we look ahead to the 2021/2022 school year, quite a number of our members have reported that the many deferrals from last school year and, in some cases, homestay capacity constraints have resulted in their programs being full and registration closing much earlier this year.

We are grateful that Canadian public schools have remained a destination of choice for so many despite these unprecedented times and hopeful that the coming months will bring more certainty and brighter days for all.

Bonnie McKie is executive director of the Canadian Association of Public Schools–International (CAPS-I)/Association canadienne des écoles publiques– International (ACEP-I).

Leading the Dance

Many years ago, I was asked to be the advisor for the Spanish Club at my university, and I accepted with pleasure, since our club is also a departmental club. I came up with fun activities to share with the Spanish Club so we could openly promote Hispanic culture at our university and in our city, one of which was Hispanic Dance Sessions, taught through the Spanish Club and the Department of Modern Languages. This was far from the only activity the club sponsored, but the Hispanic Dance Sessions attracted many participants from the university and also from the community.

The dance sessions we offer are taught by different instructors (professors and students), including myself, who have specific dance knowledge and skills. Instructors give a short presentation on the dance they are teaching, its origin and meaning, and the music, so attendees have the cultural context of the dance they are about to learn that day. It is important to mention that nobody is required to have dance skills to attend any of these sessions. Each instructor teaches the session bearing in mind that attendees may not have any dance skills at all.

The Hispanic Dance Sessions were created with four goals in mind:

  • To teach about a different culture, country, origin of the dance and music, and influences, in order to show attendees that human expression of dance and music are intimately connected. We all express the same feelings and emotions through different dances and different types of music and can relate to this aspect.
  • To teach respect for another culture, another country, and the people from that country by teaching their dances and music.
  • To teach diversity and inclusiveness by teaching a dance and its music that are rare or not mainstream to the people learning about it.
  • To teach tolerance for different cultures and different ways of expressing through dance and music, which, by extension, helps us learn to be more tolerant of diverse ways of living in general. The dance sessions teach about different ways of living life and expressing it through dances and music.

The dance sessions are practical classes where attendees learn new dance moves and steps to music they might never have heard before. As an example, I talk about flamenco, which is hardly known here in the area of Kansas where I live. I am sure my students and the other attendees think it is the strangest music to which they have ever danced. Flamenco is an art or genre which embraces different mediums—the guitarist, the singer, the dancer, or all of them together. Through flamenco, attendees learn about Spain and the south of Spain (Andalucía); Arabic, Indian, and Gypsy influences on the music; and steps and rhythms that relate to the steps and rhythms of some Arabic dances or some dances from India. Attendees also learn about palos, types of flamenco dances and how very hard they are. They are learned by repetition, and the repetition of moves and steps allows them to become more natural. In my opinion and as a student of flamenco, the most challenging aspect of flamenco is arm position, hand movement, and tapping to a specific rhythm (palo). Each move has meaning and expresses an emotion. The whole body dances flamenco; even your face and facial expressions are part of the flamenco move you are learning.

Flamenco dates from the 18th century, and the oldest record of flamenco music dates back to 1774. There’s a mention of it in the book Las Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso (1789). The origin of flamenco has many hypotheses. Current studies about the genre tells us that it is in fact an interchange of different cultures that coincided in Andalucía. The genre influences can be seen in the dances, singing, music, clothing, instruments from the Romani (known as Gitanos in Spain; they came from India), Gregorian chants from the Catholic Church, oriundos (an Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese noun describing an immigrant of native ancestry, a foreigner), Jewish, Al-Ándalus, and Castellanos; all these influences converged in Spain and created the modern art we know as flamenco. On a curious note, flamenco also evolves and becomes something new with the younger generations, like Rosalía, for instance, who mixes it with hip-hop and reggaeton. Her personal way of mixing all these different types of music and dancing styles has created a new genre for the show business industry.

Every academic year, the Hispanic Dance Sessions Team at FHSU decides what new dances related to Hispanic culture can be incorporated into the schedule to make it more diverse and interesting for students and attendees. We started out with salsa (from different Latino countries), tango (Argentina), and samba (Brazil), and since our first year as a group that teaches Hispanic culture through dances and music, we have added other dances to our schedule, like zambra (a primitive form of flamenco), flamenco, different salsa dances from different Latino countries, ballet exercise for adults, Caribbean dances, and Polynesian dances (traditional and modern hula). All of these are related to Hispanic culture somehow; even basic ballet positions and moves can be related to Danza estilizada or Danza española (Spanish dance), which refers to the set of dances of Spanish origin. These differ according to region and represent the most important cultural events in each location. The concept of Spanish dance or Spanish ballet differs from classical ballet and is usually identified with flamenco dance, although it is not strictly flamenco. Danza española has influences from classical ballet and flamenco.

The students and community members who attend our dance sessions seem to particularly enjoy tango and salsa, more familiar to them, but we have had good interest in the zambra and flamenco sessions, as well as the Caribbean and Polynesian dances. We believe these dance sessions we teach make the attendees learn about a different culture than their own. The dance sessions expose anybody who attends, and Kansans especially, to music and moves they have never seen before, and that is a very valuable experience. Through diversity of music and dances, attendees learn about other cultures, respect for different musical sounds and structures, customs, and ways of living, as dances represent ways of living from different communities of the world. They also teach beauty and art created by humans from another part of the world. My favorite moment is when an attendee explains that they have never heard flamenco music before and that they were impressed with the energy and tapping steps that go with that music.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, our team had to think of an alternative way of teaching these dance sessions for our university and attendees. From March 2020 until August 2020, we had to cancel our live sessions to avoid spreading the coronavirus, but in the fall of 2020, we decided to stream the sessions live on Zoom, with masks on. We had to adjust to speaking with masks on, and we had to adjust to teaching on Zoom. We had to adjust the computers as well and set them up so that our attendees would see our fronts and our backs when we were dancing. We adjusted the pace of the sessions too, making them much slower than the normal sessions on campus.

The four instructors met every Wednesday at our usual time in the dance room reserved for these sessions and streamed them live on Zoom. We did get a good response from students who were confined at home, some community members, and students who took online programs with FHSU. Our dance team found out that streaming the sessions live on Zoom made them more accessible to people who would not be able to attend the sessions on campus. We are planning to dance live next fall, in 2021, with attendees in the dance room and also with attendees on Zoom. We plan to combine both options to make it more accessible and inclusive to everybody who would like to be able to attend.

To finalize, all the dance sessions we teach are good exercise, fun, and culture related. We expose attendees and Kansans to dances they would never see in our area, and we all learn to respect diversity and cultural differences through these dances and music. We learn that dances and music connect all humans as well, as all cultures dance to their music to express emotions, customs, or art.

Chita Espino-Bravo, PhD ([email protected]), is associate professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages at Fort Hays State University (FHSU), a public university in Hays, Kansas.

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