As the new school year approaches, be it virtual or on campus, one of the most important ways to to lay the foundation for a successful school year is building meaningful relationships (teacher-student & coach-teacher). Teachers and coaches will facilitate "getting to know you" and "all about me" activities. Those activities can provide an overview of basic information, likes, and dislikes. However, I think that a more meaningful relationship can be made when we understand each other's culture, educational philosophy, disposition towards the content taught, and past learning experiences. Students come to school with funds of knowledge and experiences that impact how they receive and participate in instruction. Getting to know students' culture and bring that culture into instruction will make lessons more relevant to students. Students are more likely to feel engaged in classroom lessons and remember what has been taught when they are able to make connections. Are there particular math strategies that students use at home? What are the ways that students share and participate in conversations outside of school? What are the real-life situations during which students will actually use the math concepts they are learning? Are we encouraging students to use their L1 or other languages they know to support their learning? A teacher's culture plays a big part into how they work with their teams and how they facilitate instruction. Their past experiences with other instructional coaches, teachers, campuses, and teacher preparation programs also has a big impact on they approach their teacher role. For example, their culture might be one where being respectful to elders is extremely important and they might be less like to ask questions to some team members. There might be bilingual teachers at a campus that share the same L1, but the dialect is different. My first year as a campus coach, I quickly learned that my "Mexican" Spanish is the same a "Colombian" Spanish, "Venezuelan" Spanish etc! This discovery helped me revamp a few campus initiatives. I also made a point to learn about the mathematical mindsets of my teachers. This allowed me as a coach to set priorities and figure out more quickly how to provide more targeted support that was more likely to be welcomed by teachers.
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Recently I read the book Math for ELLs: As Easy as Uno, Dos, Tres. One of the biggest take-aways for me was the need to reframe the definition of a "ELL". In general ELLs, seemed to be seen through a deficit lens. It's about what students cannot do right now & what students still need to learn. This book provides background information and strategies to view students from an asset based perspective. One way to move this forward is to refer to ELLs as EBs. The term English Language Learner has the connotation that our students are missing something and that they are trying to gain something better. The term Emergent Bilingual (EB) sends the message that students' first language (L1) is beneficial and is something that should be maintained. The term Emergent Bilingual (EB) also shows that the goal for our students is not to replace their L1 with English (L2), but to have two languages that they can use to support their learning.
In Texas, the 2019-2020 school year will end in a few days or weeks. Teachers have done an amazing job in shifting from physical classroom instruction to emergency remote learning. They have planned and facilitated lessons using technology that many were not familiar with in order to continue providing the best possible instruction for students. Instructional Coaches have also played a great role as they continue to support their teachers and campus teams. Teachers tend to look to their coaches for guidance, support, feedback, and ideas. Instructional Coaches have needed to learn tools & strategies at an even faster pace in order to be able to support their teachers. This unprecedented situation is just another example of how important Instructional Coaches are at a campus. Shout out to all Instructional Coaches!
****Shout out & a round of applause to all teachers, coaches, school personnel, and all educators that have are working through emergency remote teaching/distance learning. As teachers figure out how to make online distance learning work for them and for their students, I have been asked the question What can I do to support my ELs during online distance learning? There are four main ways that I think can be used online while keeping time constraints in mind.
A,ll students are academic language learners! All teachers are academic language teachers! It is necessary for students to have a solid grasp on the language of math to ensure that students have a deep understanding of the mathematics. Mathematics is not a universal language and in order to make mathematics accessible for ALL students educators need to spend time helping students develop their academic language. Explicit vocabulary needs to take place before, during, or after each math lesson.
Scaffolds are temporary supports that students practice using to support their learning & understanding. Scaffolds are meant to be temporary and students should internalize the strategy they have practiced to such a degree it becomes a permanent fixture of their toolkit.
It is not unusual for conversations about bilingual learners to focus on the challenges and figuring out how to help these students. It is often a deficit based approach and the focus is on trying to "fix" a problem. A more effective way to support student learning is to take an asset based approach. Our bilingual learners have "bilingual superpowers" that they can use to take ownership of their own learning & teachers can activate in order to lower students' affective filter and maximize their learning. Many of our emerging bilingual students are simultaneous bilingual students because they have been exposed to more than one language by the time they are three years old. These students enter school with some BICS (basic personal interpersonal communication skills) and have a foundation in their Language 1 to gain CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency) in their Language 2 (English).
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