Welcoming New WIDA Bloggers, Part 3: Ashley Coblentz, Sara Batesky and Jackie Moreno

Our third welcome blog features three educators from Madison, WI: Ashley Coblentz, Sara Batesky, and Jackie Moreno.

Last spring we found out we would be getting the chance to present at WIDA’s first national conference. Little did WIDA suspect that by accepting our proposal they were also inviting 28 fourth and fifth grade bilingual co-presenters and their families! However, when we floated the idea to WIDA prior to the conference, they went out of their way to welcome the students and their families. Consequently, when WIDA invited us to be a part of their family as monthly bloggers, we couldn’t wait.

We work together in Madison, Wisconsin, at Sandburg Elementary, a school at the forefront of innovative and transformative approaches to education. As Sandburg’s principal Brett Wilfrid explains, “In the last five years, our areas of focus have included character traits which are predictive of future success, interpreting the Common Core State Standards through the lens of WIDA's features of academic language, and expanding the school's offerings and partnerships (including a Community Learning Center after-school program and partnerships with the UW-Madison in a number of areas, such as hosting pre-service teachers pursuing ESL licensure, collaborating with researchers focused on the the achievement of language learners on standardized assessments, and consulting around our school-wide efforts to effectively integrate tablet technology).” 

At Sandburg, collaborative technology integration has helped us become more effective when it comes to formative assessment, meaningful project-based learning, providing language learners with appropriate scaffolds and giving students exciting opportunities to write and speak for authentic purposes. Collectively we have teaching experience that spans K-12 in ESL, DLI and bilingual settings. 

Our hope is that these monthly posts offer inspirational and practical ideas for cultivating rich opportunities for language learning that keep student creativity at the forefront. Although we are currently elementary school teachers, many of the ideas we will be sharing in the blog can be applied to secondary teaching as well. Our original intent in highlighting student voices at the WIDA conference and beyond was to allow the community to learn from and love our bilingual students as much as we do. Our wish is that they continue to have their voices heard through our monthly blog posts. 

Photo courtesy of Ashley Coblentz, Sara Batesky and Jackie Moreno

The Unquiet Classroom: Technology Integration and ELLs

Ashley Coblentz and Jackie Moreno share their vision of the "Unquiet Classroom."

What images come to mind when you imagine a classroom filled with kids using technology?

The Unquiet Classroom: Ashley Coblentz & Jackie Moreno 

A language rich environment or a silent room with students staring at screens? It seems like there is a divide around this issue in the teaching world right now. Recently, we heard a leader in the biliteracy community speak dismissively about providing ELLs with access to technology. Common misconceptions about one-to-one technology initiatives and ELLs include:

• Kids lose interpersonal skills
• ELLs do not get enough opportunities to produce oral language
• Districts purchase devices in a largely unsuccessful attempt to replace good teaching

Before we started using technology with our students, we had similar reservations. If you also have these concerns, rather, imagine:

• Instead of writing a book report, students become movie producers, bringing excitement to project-based learning
• Instead of just “publishing” one paper version of a story during writing workshop, students publish ebooks, accessible to hundreds of people, sending digital copies to all of their friends, teachers and family members, creating a digital library
• Instead of writing a simple reader-response journal entry, students compose original songs in GarageBand to demonstrate learning

Technology integration has helped us become more effective when it comes to formative assessment, meaningful project-based learning, providing language learners with appropriate scaffolds and giving students exciting opportunities to write for authentic purposes.

Our hope is that by sharing how teachers and students are using devices as tools for transformative learning, members of the ELL educational community concerned about potential misuse of of technology will see what is possible. At this point, we can’t imagine not advocating for other ELLs to have similar opportunities. If you are an ELL teacher wanting to make a case to your school’s administration or colleagues about the powerful ways technology integration can support language learners’ academic success, here are some talking points regarding technology integration:

• It promotes student collaboration 
• When used purposefully technology integration increases student talk, providing opportunities for oral language development and more accurate assessment 
• Teachers are able to provide more interactive, graphic and sensory language supports
• Student creativity is cultivated through project based learning

Ultimately, these ways to support ELLs’ academic success can be realized on a whole new level when technology integration becomes part of the story.

To see some concrete examples of how technology integration lives and breathes in a bilingual classroom, check out our students’ presentation to our district’s Board of Education prior to a 6-1 vote to pass a $27 million tech plan:

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/2547880

What If We Measured What We Value? A Must-Read Interview with Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy

We recently had the opportunity to interview Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy (Lumbee), ASU President's Professor of Indigenous Education and Justice in the School of Social Transformation. Brayboy was a keynote speaker at WIDA’s 2015 National Conference. Here are some thoughts he shared with us after his presentation.

Narrow metrics are often used to measure how successful a school is, how would you define a successful school?

It won’t be using the same metrics that other people are using. To me, it is about whether or not children are healthy. To me I measure if a school is working based on how kids look when they are walking in. So for my own kids, who go to a good school, they have a way of walking when I know they are happy and engaged and want to be there. So one of them glides when he is happy. When he is gliding, I know things are working well. The other one bounces.

I understand accountability measures and the politics around them, but for me school should be a place where kids want to be, where they are happy, where they are healthy. And I think the same would be true for teachers. The teachers and the administrators should show up and feel happy. They should bounce or glide into work, however that goes for them. That would be a pretty good mark, and the rest of the work will end up taking care of itself.

So for me, I’m a big believer of taking care of people.

On mistakes and learning:

The other thing I would say to teachers is make mistakes. We don’t do that enough. I was once watching my son build with Legos. They’d come in these packages, and he’d spend all day doing it, and then he’d be done with it. It’d sit on the shelf for a week and then he’d tear it apart and start free styling with the Legos. I watched him trying to do this really complicated thing once. It kept breaking in a particular spot, and he just kept going back to it. I watched him work through that and figure it out, but he made the same mistake probably four, five, six, eight, times. Then he started trying stuff, and this was maybe when he was in second grade. 

I noticed around fourth grade he stopped doing that; he’s still building with Legos, but I think there’s something, and I don’t know developmentally how this works, but it seems to me he stopped wanting to make mistakes. And I think that mistakes are actually this great place to learn, so administrators have to allow teachers to make mistakes.

What we need to be careful of when analyzing accountability measures:

Transferring deficiencies to children rather than looking at structures.

Moving beyond conventional thinking about students:

Think about things differently. Move outside of what you see as success or failure. Open yourself to see new kinds of possibilities for your children. I think the other thing is to love your students.

Interviewed by Jackie Moreno and Ashley Painter

The Escamilla Interview: A Must-Read for Teachers of Language Learners

Interviewed by Jackie Moreno and Ashley Painter

 

Top experts in the field of bilingual education Kathy and Manuel Escamilla

answer teachers’ questions on what makes a successful school, hybrid language use, and student identities. Their answers have affected our practice and could influence yours.

How would you define a successful school?

Kathy: We need to measure how kids are learning and doing in reading, writing and math. However, engagement is as important as accomplishment. Are the kids engaged?  Are they motivated? Do they like to come to school? Do they see school as a place to invent their future? Those factors, as hard as they are to measure, are equally important to me when it comes to having a successful school.

Are the teachers well prepared? Is there a positive climate in the school?  

I go into too many schools where the climate is like a prison. Kids are marching down the halls like soldiers. I don’t think that’s the kind of place where you will find engagement or the joy of learning that will take kids through graduate school.

What are your thoughts on hybrid language use and bridging in DLI programs?

Kathy: I think that hybrid language use has a place. I don’t think it matters if we legitimize it or not in schools; the human mind is open. We don’t close the Spanish drawer and open the English drawer, which is why doing things like mixing language is possible, because the human brain is going to do it anyway.

I know how controversial it is in the field and why the field took such a strict separation of language policy because 20, even 10 or 5 years ago, there was so much concurrent translation. Concurrent translation is not the same as hybrid language practice.

I see a place for it, and we have to consider it in the context of the entire school day. Even if we tell students not to, they are using both of their languages to process information. We have to understand how to productively use what they know and what they are bringing to the table.

I don’t see it as a problem, but rather as a way for us to understand how the human brain is processing two languages. There is a need for us to better understand that.

How could a teacher integrate hybrid language use into a guided reading group?

Kathy: Let’s say you are doing a guided reading group in English and the teacher says the sound is “ch, ch, ch” and the child responds with chancla. You don’t need to stop and say, “It’s English time.” Rather you could say, “ You’re right, that’s a good Spanish word that illustrates the sound ch, just like chocolate.” You don’t need to put down the child or censor the child. You let them know they were making a good cognitive connection.

How can we effectively affirm student identities as bilingual learners when there are so many social forces that are coming at them?

Kathy: There is absolutely no problem affirming the identity of kids who speak English at home in terms of learning Spanish. They value their bilingual identities when they are not even bilingual yet. For white students who come from the dominant culture, bilingual is not a bad word, it’s an additive process. You are affirming an identity that is already there.

In the case of the kids who come to school speaking Spanish, the identities that we have to affirm are a little bit different because they are speaking a stigmatized language, stigmatized in terms of what they are bringing to school. We have to work a little harder to assure them that what they have is of value to them, to their family, and to the greater community, and it is not something that they should lose.

Manuel: We have two colleagues here at the University of Colorado, and there are others. They grew up in Mexico, and they went to the University in Mexico and graduated. The language they spoke was the normal language that was used there. They didn’t have to be corrected or told not to use that language.  They have a different attitude than I do and other colleagues like myself. This is a very big issue and a big challenge.

I came to the U.S. as a young person when I was eleven years old. The experiences that my colleagues had were different than the experiences that I had or of the students who are born being simultaneous bilinguals. We don’t often give enough attention to our native language.

The difference between me and my colleagues is the confidence that they exhibit. I am a faculty member, and I teach at the college level. I notice how I react and behave when I teach a class versus how those two colleagues act. Their accents are heavier than mine, but that is not important to them. To me it mattered because I grew up here with the expectation that I shouldn’t have an accent in English.

Two things that are important in terms of what is happening in education: many of our children lack the confidence to be more adventurous in their learning. Also, teachers at low-achieving schools are reminded that they are at low-achieving schools, and their confidence is not at the level where they think they can teach something well. Because of this, we have lost the ability to inspire our children.

See more of the Escamillas' work at: www.literacysquared.org 

Teacher Timesavers Reimagined

by Jackie Moreno and Ashley Coblentz

What if students took on more of the “teacher workload” and in the process became more engaged and invested in school?

Instead of running around crazily as stressed-out adults, why not invite students to be a part of the essential work that happens at schools, such as having a say in how schools spend money, plan events, and communicate with parents? We have been thinking about this a lot this year, especially in the midst of new demands placed on educators.

At Sandburg Elementary our principal has branded 2014-15 the “Year of the Student.” This is all about teachers working together to create opportunities for student leadership and ownership of learning. 

Third-graders writing the morning message

"Whoever does the work does the learning" is often said in education. Here are some Sandburg teacher inspired ways to bring this to life in the classroom:

• Instead of rushing to school early to write a morning message, pass the markers to the students.

• Instead of hurrying to finish a newsletter on a Friday, have students do it by writing about what they learned that week.

• Instead of stressing about planning school assemblies, let students take charge. For instance, Sandburg’s fifth grade students lead whole school assemblies where teachers are in the audience and students are front and center.

• Instead of coordinating field trips, empower student leaders to plan outings by contacting organizations, writing permission slips, and setting up transportation.

One of our students’ favorite experiences this year has been spending thousands of dollars on books for their classroom and school libraries. Due to high poverty, our school is eligible for Title I funding. Historically adults have been in charge of figuring out how this money is spent, but this year each child in our school was in charge of spending fifty dollars at Barnes and Noble to shop for books to fill their classroom libraries. Additionally, students created surveys to determine how the school library budget would be spent.

Before the trip students surveyed their current classroom libraries; created online wish lists within their budgets; and graphed the genres of books selected to decide if their choices supported a balanced classroom library. This culminated in a joy filled day they will always remember and left them with a personal investment in how they care for and engage with their refreshed libraries.  

Turning over the book selection to students connects to reading research around student choice improving academic outcomes and saved teachers hours of time that would have been spent paging through catalogs and placing orders. And after all, the best experts on what kids like to read are kids themselves.

Inviting students to participate in these practical, fun tasks incorporates standards into authentic learning experiences, allowing students to understand how school applies to everyday life, while helping teachers save time. What could you subtract from your to do list, that your students could take on?

Scenes from an Unquiet Classroom

by Ashley Coblentz and Jackie Moreno

Do our students help write the script for learning or do they sit in the audience?

`

`

This is a question we regularly ask ourselves, and although we definitely want to say the former, the true answer is found in how we use our time. As we count down our last days of first quarter, we are at the perfect time of year to take a close look at our daily schedule, to see if the value we place on student-driven learning is truly reflected in our day.

Today we’d like to share one of our favorite projects that fosters student choice and empowerment, student created book trailers! They are multi-media projects that encourage students to take on the roles of writers, actors and directors of learning.

`

A Spanish language book trailer created by a third grader.

`

Creating in the Classroom

Together teachers and students define which standards will be addressed. Once students demonstrate they clearly understand the purpose, the creative direction of the project is primarily up to them. For example, students might choose the theme, tone, script, etc. Next enters joy and engagement as they compose music, act, illustrate, read and write about what’s most compelling to them. In other words, students decide how they will prove they have learned what they set out to.

In Writing Workshop 2.0, in addition to publishing their narratives digitally, students might print them as well. Then QR codes leading to student-created book trailers advertising their books are placed on the copies. Other QR codes featuring a student read audio book version are placed on the print copy as well. 

`

Joy is found not only in the creation; it expands further as they get to share their writing and book trailers with the whole school. This is incredibly powerful for them since it creates a sense of authentic purpose for writing. By creating the trailers and books, students have more access to texts that reflect experiences of other students “like them”. This is a particularly powerful opportunity for ELL students to tell their stories and the stories of their families, especially given mainstream portrayals of immigrant communities.

`

`

How To

1. Students write and publish narratives.

2. The book trailer concept is introduced, and students are given a descriptive rubric. Students use the rubrics to evaluate professional or other student created book the trailers before creating their own so that they know exactly what the CCSS learning goals are and what is expected from them.

3. Students then use iMovie to create book trailers about their stories. Students use the rubric to make sure their trailer includes all of the key components.

4. After that, students use Voice Record Pro to record themselves reading their narratives. They then convert their voice recordings into QR codes so that other students can hear the stories read aloud.

5. Place the books with the QR codes on them in the school library so that students throughout the school can read the print versions and scan the QR codes to access the book trailers, as well as audio versions of the books.