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Creating
Intentional Communities to Support English Language Learners in the Classroom
Author: Rance-Roney,
Judith
Abstract: Judith
Rance-Roney calls on teachers to form intentional learning communities within
their classrooms. The Culture Share Club, initially conceived to provide
scaffolding for ELL students to acquire English and pass the statewide test in
English, legitimized student knowledge by benefitting all students as they
prepared materials for lessons and invested in shared experiences and
responsibilities for classroom learning. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
Full text: Headnote
Judith Rance-Roney calls on teachers to form intentional
learning communities within their classrooms. The Culture Share Club, initially
conceived to provide scaffolding for ELL students to acquire English and pass
the statewide test in English, legitimized student knowledge by benefitting all
students as they prepared materials for lessons and invested in shared
experiences and responsibilities for classroom learning.
Earlier in my career, I taught in a large suburban district
in New Jersey. In my junior English class, side by side in the front row sat Tu
and Phan, two Vietnamese brothers whom I estimated knew a few hundred words
other than "Hello, how are you?" I thumbed through my minutely
planned unit on Beowulf and early English and I felt like crying. How would I
teach Beowulf to these brothers who were struggling to learn the basics of
English grammar and vocabulary? How could I teach the new language of early
English to my "regular" students while teaching "real"
English to these young men? I was an English teacher and I was stumped. I know
that more and more teachers are facing these questions.
According to Diane August, there has been a significant
increase in the percentage of teachers who will encounter at least one English
language learner in the mainstream classroom (August and Shanahan). In 1991-92,
only 15 percent of all teachers would instruct an English language learner, but
in 2001-02, the percentage had risen dramatically to 42.6 percent (45). In
addition, statewide mandates moving the English language learner out of
bilingual and ESL classrooms into the mainstream English curriculum have
occurred in some of the states with the greatest populations of English
language learners (ELLs), such as California and Arizona.
Federal legislation, too, has put the spotlight on these
students. For the English language learner (LEP-limited English proficient in
government terms), No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation means good news and
bad news. The good news is that these students can no longer remain in the
darker corners of our classrooms, exempted from state achievement testing
because of their English as a second language status. Schools have had to
implement a more effective and grade-appropriate education for ELLs. However,
the bad news contained in such legislation is that for new learners of English
entering high schools for the first time in the United States, meeting the
grade-level content standards, especially in English language arts, is
difficult or nearly impossible for all but the most educationally ready
learners who arrive in our schools with strong literacy and content knowledge
in their first language. Key researchers Jim Cummins and Virginia Collier
contend that it takes five to seven years of English exposure before English
language learners can demonstrate academic English proficiency equal to their
native English speaking peers. However, in spite of this finding, NCLB demands
that ELLs who have been enrolled in US schools for more than one year must
demonstrate progress on English proficiency measures and meet grade level content
mastery determined for high school graduation. For Tu and Phan to graduate with
a high school diploma, they must earn enough credits but also pass the rigorous
state assessment, a requirement similar to that of about half the states. While
the more rigorous standards take a toll on students, the effect on school
districts and teachers can be equally challenging. Thus, the welcome mat, by
and large, has not been rolled out for students like Tu and Phan at the
macrolevel of district and school nor at the microlevel of the classroom
community.
NCLB makes districts accountable for ensuring that
subgroups, such as English language learners, achieve Annual Yearly Progress
(AYP) targets or risk penalties. School districts with significant populations
of ELLs may be labeled as schools in need of improvement because of the
performance of the ELL subgroup alone; this designation will then trigger
schoolwide interventions even though only the subgroup has failed to meet the
target. According to the 2005 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational
Progress) reading reports, while 74 percent of non-ELL twelfth-grade students
score at or above the basic level, only 31 percent of ELLs score at or above
the basic level and of those students, only 5 percent are deemed proficient or
advanced. Finger pointing has escalated at the English language arts teachers
who may be facing the daunting task of bringing these learners to proficient
level, yet language arts teachers may be untrained or minimally trained in
fostering language development for ELLs.
Thus, at the school level, a shuffling game often occurs;
teachers who are untenured or who have the most to lose strategize to avoid
these students. English teachers who in past years have been sensitive to the
needs of ELLs find their classes filled with students who are struggling with
the language, but they also find that they are not fully prepared, lack support
systems, and are unable, even with their best effort, to adequately help these
students with language development needs. In this climate of rigorous
accountability, English language learners are often seen as liabilities and not
as resources in the daily life of a school.
When Tu and Phan entered the doors of my classroom, I must
honestly admit that I, too, saw them for a fleeting moment as yet another chore
in my stress-filled day even though I had a strong background in TESOL. The
other members of the classroom community, their fellow students, merely stared
dispassionately past them. How could I create a learning community where these
English language learners were denned, not by "lacks," but by the
potential resources they brought to the classroom: diverse experiences with the
world, novel perspectives of the world, and linguistic and cultural knowledge
to be shared with others including their fellow students?
Marginalization and Interaction
Tu and Phan, like many other new immigrants (newcomers),
arrived mid-high school with little English, with little knowledge of how to
"do school" in American culture, and with a realization that they may
not be welcomed socially into the school community. In her book about newcomers
in an American high school, Made in America: Immigrant Students in Our Public
Schools, Laurie Olsen writes, "The point from which newcomer students
observe, learn about, and begin to interact with 'America' is always from the
sidelines. . . . Their view of the other students and of the life of the school
is truly a view from afar, a view from the margins of the life of the
school" (44). In the first few weeks, Tu and Phan remained together but
alone, sitting by themselves in the corner of the cafeteria, walking together
silently in the halls, and talking sometimes to me in class, but never to the
non-ELL classmates sitting around them.
From the perspective of second language acquisition, this
spells disaster. Researchers have begun to explore the synergy among the
language skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. There is an
obvious practice effect; when learners engage in academic conversations and
listen to others, the syntax and vocabulary of academic English is internalized
and becomes automatic. But also, recent research points to the role of oral
language development and aural comprehension in the fostering of reading
comprehension skills. Talking to others about deep questions and
co-constructing knowledge seems to increase comprehension, perhaps because of
the exercise of critical-thinking skills and a motivation for deeper inquiry
(Meltzer and Hamann 27).
Tu and Phan were immersed in a language they could barely
understand throughout the long school day. As most language learners, they paid
attention to critical messages that they judged would immediately affect their
well-being. However, like most language learners, "listening fatigue"
would set in quickly and so they seemed to take the sensible route of staying
in the bubble of silence they were able to build around them. Some ESL
advocates will allow the bubble of silence to stay intact, citing references to
the existence of a "silent period" (the preproduction phase) in which
ELLs are building critical language mass before having to produce the language.
However, the advisability of allowing this period to continue for more than a
few weeks in adolescents has been questioned by practitioners because, for
many, the silent period becomes a habit that may extend to the end of the high
school years.
Adding to the challenges of teaching ELLs in the mainstream,
Tu and Phan, like others, had experienced what has been labeled
"interrupted formal education" and had not been in a content
classroom in almost two years. Back in Vietnam, their schooling may have been
strong but their sense of cultural dislocation and the real challenges of
setting up life in the United States had also influenced their ability to
concentrate on academic work even if their English had been proficient.
The diversity of prior background knowledge and schema
development among all learners is a challenge that English teachers face when
teaching the language of Beowulf and Chaucer; but for Tu and Phan, the cultural
connection to monsters, to the Viking images, and to the history of the English
language required taking a further step back.
Tu and Phan came to school every day and appeared motivated
to succeed, but the language, new content forms, and their reticence to talk to
their classmates were hampering their acquisition of English and the new
culture. How could I help them to acquire English, and how could I leverage the
English skills they were able to grasp so that they could pass the statewide
test in English required for graduation that would be administered in the
spring?
An Intentional Classroom Learning Community
Seeing the marginalization of Tu and Phan in my classroom, I
soon realized that it would be important to re-envision the dysfunctional
culture of the classroom community that was rapidly solidifying and allowing
the brothers to exist in the bubble of silence. I recognized that I needed to
take steps not only to support my two English language learners in their
English acquisition, but also to invest all the students in creating a
classroom culture that encouraged shared experiences and a construction of
knowledge that legitimized all class members. In the second language field,
there has been an increasing awareness that a web of potent social factors and
the motivation that follows from those factors is a strong predictor of second
language acquisition. Bonnie Norton Peirce talks in terms of "investment"
(17): For a new learner of English to take the risk of using the fledgling
language in spite of the fear of being misunderstood or laughed at, the learner
must believe that there is a substantive payoff in language use. The user's
social identity in the new language and new culture is being formed, and for
the time being, the new identity is fragile. By creating the bubble of silence,
Tu and Phan were protecting their fragile identities but were also missing
valuable chances to practice and experiment with their new language and were
not building confidence in social English. They did not see themselves as
authentic users of English.
In the high school English classroom, English language
learners need to see themselves as worthy and legitimate contributors to
co-constructed knowledge and to possess the deep belief in their ability to
interact in the English language. Thankfully, the teacher can take intentional
steps in fostering that environment; it not only takes a classroom to support
an English language learner but it also takes the English language learner to
support a classroom.
Challenging Conventional Classroom Dynamics and Values: The
Culture Share Club
I began by observing the subtle classroom interactions that
started before the bell rang. Tu and Phan were always the first to leave the
chatter of the hall and choose their front-row seats. I observed Renee, a smart
and popular young woman, smile and say hi to the brothers as she passed by.
Edgar, whom I suspect may have once learned English himself, tapped Phan on the
shoulder saying, "What's up, man." With those simple acts, I found
hope that I could still alter classroom dynamics.
I started the process by handing out a flyer announcing that
I was forming an informal Culture Share Club of volunteer student helpers who
were willing to work collaboratively on special projects in class and to meet
twice during the school year to talk and to journal about what they were
learning from each other. I encouraged those thinking about a career in
teaching to join a group. I promised to print certificates at the end of the
year and promised to write college recommendation letters for all who gave
their best effort. I felt I needed an initial vehicle to legitimize the
classroom moves I would soon be making. By the end of the week I had five
enrollees in addition to Tu and Phan, whom I had "strongly
encouraged" to join. From the volunteer group, I formed two smaller groups
to act as support systems for each of the brothers. As a firm believer in
controlled seating, I physically surrounded each of the brothers with their
group members. I put Renee, Edgar, and Phan in a triad. When I gave out project
assignments, I provided the option for either individual work or for Culture
Share group collaborative projects. As the year progressed and more students
wanted to do projects in collaborative groups, I formed more groups.
My first assignment was for all students to interview a
class member whom they felt had a background different from their own and to
write an essay about that person. For the Culture Share groups, the assignment
was to interview one another and to put together a multimedia presentation
about the similarities and contrasts among the members of the group. For this
first assignment, I became a participating group member of each of the Culture
Share groups for several reasons. I wanted not only to model effective group
interaction when a member has limited English (drawing, writing words in
addition to saying them, using a two-way bilingual dictionary for all group
members to translate unknown words, talking about cultural differences in
power-neutral language) but also to allow Tu and Phan to get to know me as a
person and for me to get to know Tu and Phan. One of the most critical steps in
the education of an English language learner is for the teacher to understand
the learner's unique needs and motivations and for the learner to develop a
personal relationship with the teacher. From the learner's perspective, a
mutual interview begins the establishment of a mentor relationship with the
teacher and provides a culturally responsive connection between home and
school. Many ELLs come from cultures in which the teacher is in loco parentis
and respect for the teacher is a motivating factor in academic achievement.
The Culture Share group interview project assignment served
several purposes. First, because the report was to be in a multimedia format,
the new English learners could assist the group in finding images and writing
the abbreviated script needed for the slides. This differentiated format used
their artistic strengths and the English language resources they had. The
collaborative discussion that went into the preparation of the project and
their role in the class presentation gave Tu and Phan a chance to practice
their spoken English. Further, this presentation allowed them to begin speaking
about their Vietnamese culture and to teach others, thereby establishing their
legitimacy as contributors to co-constructed knowledge. Their group was
building a global view of community and developing critical-thinking competence
as the members tried to describe cultural differences and similarities. This
competence would serve all the members well when they faced statewide testing
in the spring.
Learning Support Projects
For each major unit in my eleventh-grade English class,
students had to complete a unit project. The project could be either a prequel
(pre-unit) or a sequel (post-unit) project. I asked the Culture Share groups to
consider prequels that were service-learning projects, thus helping each other
as learners by developing learning support materials.
Jump-Start Files
To provide content access for English language learners,
Jana Echevarria, MaryEllen Vogt, and Deborah J. Short advocate the use of
"jump-start" lessons (32), which entails pre-teaching small groups of
struggling students the background material and vocabulary needed to understand
the upcoming lesson. In my teaching practice, what I have found equally
effective is a jump-start packet, a collection of preview materials that the
English learner would take home or cover in a tutoring session prior to the
start of the whole-class instruction in that unit. There are typically three
components in a jump-start packet: (1) a preview of essential vocabulary; (2)
visual scaffolding of the content; and (3) proficiency-appropriate prereading
text that parallels the upcoming class readings.
For a prequel unit project, I asked that a group member of
each Culture Share prepare a jump-start packet for the group. Two weeks ahead
of the unit, he or she compiled important words, collected and labeled pictures
relating to the unit, made a list of helpful Web sites about the topic, and
found simple articles or printouts about the key ideas in the topic. This would
constitute the unit project requirement. Before our Shakespeare unit, several
students prepared elaborate file folders filled with labeled pictures, maps,
history timelines, and even videotapes of Shakespearean plays. I used these
files as jump-start material for Tu and Phan before beginning the unit,
Adapted-Text Files
Another popular choice for the prequel assignment was
adapting or scaffolding the text in some way for greater comprehensibility for
English language learners and struggling readers.
Text highlighting and annotating are some of the strategies
that are least time intensive. The teacher sets aside one or two textbooks for
ELLs or makes photocopies of text pages on which a student helper highlights
key terms and elaborates on difficult concepts. This helps English learners who
know little English to focus exclusively on the highlighted text and translate
as needed. They can begin to make sense of the text that otherwise seems
overwhelming. I found that when the student helper explains a concept, the
comments are audience-sensitive and scaffold the reading for English language
learners. For the final act of Julius Caesar, one student not only highlighted
important lines in the play but also drew a graphically accurate storyboard of
the various actions in the scenes.
Another adapted-text technique that students chose included
the audiotaping of text material. I taught the student helpers to read with
expression and to highlight verbally important terms or words. I found that the
student helpers, being aware of the audience, also made parenthetical comments,
defining a word that they felt would be difficult for an ELL to understand or
explaining an American or British cultural tradition that may be unknown to the
newcomer student. I made copies of the audiotapes of the literature and
distributed them to Tu and Phan and kept copies for use with future English
learners.
Turning the Tables
While initially it was obvious that the servicelearning
projects were designed to scaffold the English language learners, the student
helpers soon realized the value of the projects for their own learning. They
reported that doing these pre-quel projects led them to read more critically
and to think more clearly about the key ideas of the literature. The students seemed
more engaged in the classroom as an outcome of sharing responsibility for the
learning of the Culture Share members, most notably for Tu and Phan.
Later in the year, as Tu and Phan became more confident
about their linguistic and social skills, I introduced a unit on contemporary
Vietnamese poetry. This time, I asked the brothers to create a jump-start file
for the class to prepare them for the experience of reading this lyrical verse,
and I gave them the opportunity to co-teach the file material with me. That
morning in my classroom two crocks of soup, a large pile of Vietnamese spring
rolls, and a platter of cakes appeared along with an assortment of cultural
objects the family had carried from Vietnam. In class, we all learned how to
wrap a delicate spring roll and about holidays and the education system in that
country. A few days later, I handed out a poem in Vietnamese to the students,
and Tu and Phan read the poem to their classmates and worked with the class
translating the poem into English and comparing this poem to the British poetry
of the same time period.
English Language Learners as Resources
Tu and Phan graduated with their class the next year in
spite of the predictions that it would take much longer to master academic
English. Their English expanded and so did the social network that was forming
around the brothers. Tu and Phan demonstrated Bonny Norton and Kelleen Toohey's
contention that "the proficiencies of the good language learners . . .
were bound up not only in what they did individually but also in the
possibilities their various communities offered them" (318).
What is the bottom line? When teachers reorient their
beliefs about the nature of English language learners, seeing them as authentic
and legitimate participants in constructing classroom knowledge even when their
English is limited, these students are able to grow academically and develop
language proficiency. However, beliefs alone will not change the secondary
classroom culture that isolates and marginalizes these students. Teachers need
to form intentional communities of learners that both support these students
and integrate the resources that ELLs bring to the English classroom.
Sidebar
Key researchers Jim Cummins and Virginia Collier contend
that it takes five to seven years of English exposure before English language
learners can demonstrate academic English proficiency equal to their native
English speaking peers.
Sidebar
As most language learners, they paid attention to critical
messages that they judged would immediately affect their well-being. However,
like most language learners, "listening fatigue" would set in quickly
and so they seemed to take the sensible route of staying In the bubble of
silence they were able to build around them.
Sidebar
I recognized that I needed to take steps not only to support
my two English language learners in their English acquisition, but also to
invest all the students in creating a classroom culture that encouraged shared
experiences and a construction of knowledge that legitimized all class members.
Sidebar
Their group was building a global view of community and
developing critical-thinking competence as the members tried to describe
cultural differences and similarities.
Sidebar
READWRITETHINK CONNECTION Lisa Storm Fink, RWT
To make the English language learners in her classroom feel
more welcome and part of the community, Rance-Roney asked students to interview
each other so they could get to know each other better. "The Feature
Story-Fifteen Minutes (and 500 Words) of Fame! " asks students to write a
profile of a classmate, with a particular focus on a talent, interest, or
passion of that classmate. In the process, students learn how to differentiate
between a news story and a feature story, practice interviewing techniques,
develop voice, and write for an audience. Perhaps most importantly, they come
to celebrate their individual strengths, http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/
lesson_view.asp?id=987
References
Works Cited
August, Diane, and Timothy Shanahan, eds. Developing
Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on
Language-Minority Children and Youth. Mahwah: Erlbaum, 2006.
Collier, Virginia P. "How Long?: A Synthesis of
Research on Academic Achievement in a second Language." TESOL Quarterly
23.3 (1989): 509-31.
Cummins, Jim. Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual
Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2000.
Echevarria, Jana, MaryEllen Vogt, and Deborah Short. Making
Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model. 2nd ed. Boston:
Pearson, 2004.
Meltzer, Julie, and Edmund T. Hamann. Meeting the Literacy
Development Needs of Adolescent English Language Learners through Content-Area
Learning: Part One: Focus on Motivation and Engagement. Providence: Education
Alliance at Brown U, 2005. 11 Jan. 2008 <http://www
.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/adlit/adell_litdvl .pdf>.
National Assessment of Educational Progress. "Average
Reading Scores and Achievement-Level Results for English Language
Learners." The Nation's Report Card. 2005. 11 Sept. 2007
<http://nationsreport card.gov/reading_math_gradel 2_2005/s0211 .asp?s
ubtab_id=Tab_2&tab_id=tab 1 #chart >.
Norton, Bonny, and Kelleen Toohey. "Changing
Perspectives on Good Language Learners." TESOL Quarterly 35.2 (2001):
307-22.
Norton Peirce, Bonny. "Social Identity, Investment, and
Language Learning." TESOL Quarterly 29.1 (1995): 9-31.
Olsen, Laurie. Made in America: Immigrant Students in Our
Public Schools. New York: New Press, 1997.
AuthorAffiliation
Judith Rance-Roney is assistant professor in the Department
of secondary Education at the State University of New York at New Paltz and is
on the English Language Learner Leadership Team of the National Writing
Project. She teaches education courses across the disciplines, but her primary
work is in TESOL graduate education, email: ranceroj@newpaltz.edu.
Subject: Poetry;
English as a second language--ESL; English language; Standardized tests;
Secondary schools; Linguistics; Learning; Language proficiency; Language arts;
Immigrant students; Federal legislation; Community; Achievement tests;
Publication title: English
Journal,
High school edition
Volume: 97
Issue: 5
Pages: 17-22
Number of pages: 6
Publication year: 2008
Publication date: May
2008
Year: 2008
Section: MORE
THAN MANDATES: RECLAIMING THE POWER TO TEACH
Publisher: National
Council of Teachers of English Conference on College Composition and
Communication
Place of publication: Urbana
Country of publication: United
States
Publication subject: Education
ISSN: 00138274
CODEN: ENGJBP
Source type: Scholarly
Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: Commentary
Document feature: References
ProQuest document ID: 237311424
Document URL: http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/docview/237311424?accountid=42518
Copyright: Copyright
National Council of Teachers of English Conference on College Composition and
Communication May 2008
Last updated: 2010-06-11
Database: ProQuest
Education Journals,Arts & Humanities Full Text
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