Mitigating Student Trauma in the Virtual Classroom
The most common question on deck these days: How do I go about minimizing student trauma in the virtual setting?
Of course, this is a loaded question. So let’s start by laying a foundation. Here are the most practical ways to get started (or to boost your existing trauma-informed practice).
Reframe the conversation: Mitigating trauma isn't about fixing broken things. It's about restoring power. The distinction is critical. This power belongs to our students, and they’ve owned it all along. Sometimes it gets interrupted. We can see ourselves as technicians, trained to employ tools that can help to get the power-up and running again. The next step: turn those Power Restoration tools over to our students.
Get Brainy: Don't underestimate the power that comes from understanding the human brain. Set aside the time. Open the conversation. Invite students to become observers of their own thinking (metacognition). Practice non-judgmental recognition of fight-flight-freeze-submit responses. Experiment with trauma minimizing strategies in a safe space to discover 'just right' fits.
Resources:
Elementary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_dxnYhdyuY
Upper Grades Parts of the Brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CpRY9-M
Upper Grades Fight-Flight-Freeze: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpolpKTWrp4
Elementary Journal: What Survival Looks Like for Me (Inner World Work): http://www.innerworldwork.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/What-survival-looks-like...-for-me-3.pdf
Upper Grades Journal: What Survival Looks Like In Secondary School (Inner World Work): http://www.innerworldwork.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Survival-In-Secondary-School.pdf
Practice Predictability: YOU show up day after day. Remember that this seemingly simple act goes a long way in minimizing the impacts of trauma for our students. The consistency of your presence and the routine you strive for in daily learning is critical. Preemptively signal upcoming changes, where possible. Predictability fosters trust. Trust lends itself to safety. And when students feel safe, they are able to learn.
Host a Restore Your Power Space: Create a space or folder in whatever virtual platform you're using. House Power Restoration tools here and encourage students to visit, even when school's not in session. Digital black-out or magnetic poetry, drawing/sketchnoting tools, guided bilateral movements, and SEL-based calming strategies are all good fits here. Looking for more resources and strategies? Explore our blog and stay tuned for our upcoming book on this topic with ASCD (due early 2021).
Resources:
Mitigating Transition Shock in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Settings. Louise El Yaafouri (DiversifiED Consulting) and Saddleback Education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9KxIFECSF8
Edutopia: Strategies for Easing Transition Shock by Louise El Yaafouri (DiversifiED Consulting) https://www.edutopia.org/article/strategies-easing-transition-shock
Art Therapy ideas: https://diversifi-ed.com/explore/2018/10/1/art-therapy-for-trauma-in-the-classroom
Recommended at-home resource: http://www.innerworldwork.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/What-Survival-Looks-Like-At-Home-Quick-Printout.pdf
8 Ways to Optimize a Learning Culture... and Celebrate Diversity
Culture. It’s the latest education buzzword to catch fire, and it is applied to a seemingly endless range of affairs. We refer to our students’ heritage cultures. We toss around the idea of a school culture, a classroom culture, a staff culture. So, what exactly are we talking about here? In the simplest possible terms, we can look at it in this way:
“Culture is the way you think, act and interact.” –Anonymous
From this lens, it is indeed possible to reference "culture" across such a variety of social platforms. How our students think, act and interact at home and in their communities is a reflection of their heritage culture. How we think, act and interact at work is a reflection of our work culture.
Let’s consider our schools and classrooms from this same vantage. Looking to the best versions of ourselves and our programs, what do we envision as an optimal learning culture for our students and staff? How are we encouraged to think, act and interact with our students and colleagues? How are we teaching learners to engage with each other in affirmative ways?
As a school or classroom leader, these are important thoughts to map out. My ideas may not look the same as your ideas. That’s ok. We can lay some common ground, though. The following cues present an opportunity to check in with your own vision of school culture. How can you help to improve the way that your team thinks, acts and interacts?
1. Invest in Students
We all ache to know that someone we care about is standing firmly behind or beside us. If our aim is to increase a student's success rate, our honest investment in both their present capacity and future potential is non-negotiable.
Express a genuine interest in each individual. Learn how to pronounce student’s names correctly and begin using them on the very first day. Ask questions about students’ heritage culture and allow for safe opportunities to share these insights with other classmates. Offer relevant multicultural reading materials. Post flags or maps, and have students mark their heritage country. Be a listener. Find out what students find interesting. Commit to supporting students with time-in over time-out. Show up. Keep promises. Practice being present and mindful with students. Nurture connectivity.
2. Provide Choice
When presented with choice-making opportunities in a safe, predictable environment, learners develop self-efficacy and strategizing abilities. We can scaffold these processes to enable students to grow as wise decision makers. Begin by limiting the range of available options. Model reasoning through active think-alouds.
Also, it is important to allow time for students to consider and process potential gains and sacrifices involved when choosing between items or activities. Similarly, prompt students to predict the probable consequences of unwise choice making and to reflect on these outcomes when they occur. Incorporate choice making throughout the day. Station (center) activities, choice of paper color, homework, reading book, order of task completion and game selection are manageable places to start.
When students are invited to make healthy choices- and have opportunities to practice doing so- they are much more inclined to become invested, engaged learners.
3. Provide Clarity
Students, not unlike adults, desire to know what is expected of them. Who doesn't enjoy a road map to success? By sharing bite-sized road maps with your students throughout a school day or school year, you are helping them to succeed. “Bite-size” can be defined as 3-5 clear steps, with a target of three.
As we’ve already mentioned, clarified expectations foster routine, predictability and ultimately, a sense of safety. Be sure that instructional objectives are posted and communicated. Is your class schedule visible and correct? Do you refer to it throughout the day? Are station areas and supplies labeled (using rebus indicators, where necessary)? How often do you review key routines? Check your day for clarity. Define and refine.
4. Trust
Trust that students are wholly capable of making great choices and doing the right thing. Does that mean perfection? No. It does mean that in a healthy, facilitative environment most students, most of the time, will strive to meet the expectations set by (and modeled by) the teacher. We are intentional about setting the bar high, because that’s where students will reach. Maintain confidence that they will stretch to achieve it.
As students see that you trust them, they will begin living up to the expectation that they are probably doing the right thing. They will almost always respond by trusting you in return. Aim for autonomy. Give away power (when appropriate). Expect greatness.
5. Practice Problem Solving
Investigation that relies upon solution seeking engages students in developing deeper concept understanding and creative thinking abilities, while also building essential life skills. Problem-solving behaviors are learned. They are either explicitly taught or modeled by others. The school is an ideal incubator for nurturing these attributes.
Offer specific steps toward solving a problem. Model these thoughts and behavior patterns. Provide multiple opportunities for students to practice problem solving in a variety of subjects and contexts. View problems as “puzzles”. Solution seeking is a willed behavior. Our role is to guide the discovery of enjoyment and creative thinking in these processes.
6. Teach Critical Social Skills
Young people often need to be taught how to interact in positive ways. This is especially true in a Recent Arriver context, where layers of cultural expectation overlap often one another. Essential social skills encompass sensitivity, empathy, humor, reliability, honesty, respect, and concern.
Learners often benefit from explicit step-by-step social routines that work through these skill sets. Modeling, play-acting, and “Looks Like/Sounds Like/Feels Like” charts are also useful. Plan lessons to incorporate openings to explore and practice social skills. Offer guidance, and get out of the way. Provide cuing only when relevant. Share constructive feedback and reinforcement of positive behaviors.
Be the way you wish your students to behave.
7. Embrace “Failure” as a Success
Trying requires immense courage.
Perceived failure is a byproduct of trying. If we look at a FAIL- a First Attempt In Learning, then we are able to see that we have many more possible tries ahead of us. When we work to remove the fear of failing, we are also working to embed a confidence in trying.
Try celebrating failures outright. “Did you succeed the way you hoped you were going to?” No. “Did you learn something?” Yes. “Bravo! You are a successful learner.” Next time you fail at something, try acknowledging it in front of your students. Observe aloud what might have occurred and what part of your strategy you might change to bring about a different result. Failure is simply feedback. If we can take some wisdom from it, and adjust our sails, failure is a sure step in the right direction of success. Aim to create safety nets for trying.
8. Acknowledge Progress
A simple acknowledgement of our gains can go a long way. When we feel appreciated in our efforts, we also feel empowered to continue on a positive trajectory. Administrators, teachers, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria personnel and after school care teams perform better in supportive environments where they feel that they are a contributive factor to the overarching success of a network. Our students, not surprisingly, also thrive in these settings.
Progress has an infinite number of faces. Growth and change can occur in every facet of learning- in academic, linguistic, social, emotional and cultural capacities.
Take the time to offer a thank you for a student’s concentrated efforts. Post students’ work, along with encouraging and reflective feedback. Share students’ growth. Acknowledge healthy choice making, positive social behaviors and persistence in the light of adversity. Help all learners to discover, refine and purposely engage their strongest attributes, and seek equity in endorsing successes publicly. Each day, relish in small miracles.
Welcoming Newcomer Students
The following is an excerpt from The Newcomer Teacher: An Educator’s Guide to Aid Transition (Rowman & Littlefied International) available HERE.
We know that a whole family approach serves our students’ highest learning welfares. We understand that community interest and involvement is a school asset with tremendous payouts. However, such presence is not instantaneous or guaranteed. Instead, it is meticulously cultivated. Who is responsible for this charge? The school and its’ staff. Us.
Strong community relations cannot occur without strong communication efforts by the school. In fact, robust school-to-home communication is an apparent quality of America’s healthiest schools. Positive community outreach disseminates the breakdown of barriers between families and the school and endorses collaboration. Communication is a crux of school success, and it is one that requires support, nurturing, and creative perseverance. (8).
A school can work to foster whole family engagement in any combination of ways. The most common efforts include outreach and inclusion programs. In our classrooms, we also employ home visits, conferencing, parent/guardian correspondence and volunteer/chaperone opportunities. (9).
The same communication tactics are applicable in Newcomer settings. However, they demand significant manipulation and elaboration in order to be successful. The truth is that home communication in multi-lingual, exceptionally diverse school settings doesn’t always go over so smoothly. There are translations, liaisons, caseworkers and older-child spokespersons. There are misunderstandings, misgivings, fears, and discomforts. There are frustrations, question marks, and lines of cultural jurisdiction. There is language, language, and language.
Despite obvious exchange barriers, the roots of parent-school partnership efforts are generally coherent across all socio-economic platforms. In most cases, parents in every category do wish the very best for their children. Similarly, the vast majority of teachers also manifest high hopes and expectations for every single student in their care.
This is the meeting ground. Under optimal conditions, the school is synonymous with safety and collaboration. It is viewed as an action point for trustful collaboration. In the Newcomer setting, this is non-negotiable, as many families may not be aware of or comfortable with Western academic expectations. That’s a big responsibility. We must make the most of it.
9 Cross-Curricular Writing Activities for ELLs
As summer wraps up, we find ourselves contemplating our instructional intentions for the coming school year. My big focus this year: writing.
Of the four language-learning domains (listening, speaking, reading, writing), writing is typically the last to fully develop. We can help our ELLs to develop confidence in this area by providing plenty of opportunities to practice writing skills and build writing stamina. Here are nine fantastic ways to incorporate writing into any lesson, at any grade level, and across all levels of English mastery.
CLASS MURAL
Class murals are interactive anchor charts that encourage text analysis and cooperative talk. In advance, prepare the mural "wall". A long piece of butcher paper turned lengthwise (or several strips of butcher paper taped together) works well. Depending on the class size, the mural may be 5-20 feet long. Also, a variety of print materials related to a topic should also be available- books, magazines, picture cards, student dictionaries or websites. To create the mural, first draw out background knowledge from the entire group. Then, allow students sufficient time to explore resources independently, in pairs or in teams. When ready, students will synthesize information to create a landscape on the mural that includes pictures, words, quotes, etc. To encourage language development, all illustrations should be labeled. Post mural in a visible place. Learners may add to the mural throughout a unit of study as new information is revealed. When spelling or speaking a word related to the topic, students should be asked to refer to the mural as the primary anchor chart.
FEEDBACK JOURNALS
Journaling allows students a healthy expressive outlet while practicing critical writing skills. The feedback component is what makes this strategy an effective one. Each student has a dedicated notebook to be used for the purpose of journaling for the duration of the course or unit. Students may be asked to record free thoughts, respond to direct prompts or create short summaries of daily learning or wonderings. The facilitator has the responsibility to read and respond to students' entries, offering comments, insight, clarification, grammatical notes or additional prompts. A student, in return, may also reply to or comment on the teacher's feedback. Feedback journals act as a conversation piece between the student and instructional guide, foster trust and engagement, and serve as a record of students' writing progress.
GRAFFITI
Graffiti is a cooperative exercise in which all members of a group are invited share awareness about a topic. To begin, arrange students into small cooperative work groups (3 or 5 students work best). Provide each student with a piece of butcher paper or poster-sized Post-It. Assign each group a topic or prompt that is relevant to a current unit of study. Within work groups, students will discuss and record thoughts/illustrations related to the prompt. All students are encouraged to converse and write (different colored makers- one color for each student in the group- work well for this). Use a timer to mark discussions and recording sessions. After a set period of time, rotate the posters from one group to another in a circular fashion. Each group will receive a poster that already contains student insight. Within groups, students will share thoughts on what the previous group recorded before writing new thoughts. This process continues until each poster returns to its "home" group. Posters may be reserved as anchor charts or used to further class discussion.
PARTNER DICTATION
Partner dictation is a fast-paced, simple activity that engages students in all four language-learning domains. To prepare, select a brief passage on a focus topic. Print half the number of copies as students in the class. (Or, choose unique dictation passages and print separately). For the activity, begin by pairing students. Each pair of students stands on one side of the room. Dictation passages are posted in another part of the room (or outside of the room in a hallway or corridor). One student will act as the "runner" and the other as the "recorder". (Students will have a chance to change roles). The "runner" will quickly make trips to and from the printed dictation passage to read it and return to partner to relay the message. The recorder writes what he or she hears. Students work together to edit scripts as they are being written. The runner makes as many trips to the dictation sample as needed for the recorder to capture the whole passage. Roles reverse, with a new dictation passage. Length and complexity of passages should reflect grade and language abilities present in the classroom and should be modified for pair groups as necessary.
QUICK WRITE
One key challenge for ELLs around writing is stamina. It is important to remember that students need to build up to writing longer passages. This is especially true in the upper grades, where lengthy responses are expected. Quick writes are one strategy to aid students in building stamina and structure for writing. Quick writes are set apart from other types of writing in that they purposefully omit planning, organizing, editing and revising (at least in the initial stage). The purpose of a quick write is to have students record as much relevant information related to a topic as they can in a set period of time. The writing period is intentionally limited, often beginning with only 5 or 10 minutes and working up to 15, 20 or 25-minute intervals. In the beginning stages of practices, modifications may be necessary. Early emergent students may need to copy a specific passage or use sentence stems or cloze sentences for support. More advanced students may employ a text on the topic of writing, but will be responsible for paraphrasing important information. Eventually, students will learn to write freely without significant support. To introduce a quick write, first establish a topic and time limit and then model the practice for students. It is also helpful to practice writing one document as a whole class. Finally, students write on their worn. A word bank may be useful. Quick writes should be carried out on a consistent basis and should receive some type of feedback (either from a teacher or peer). If desired, a quick write may be expanded upon to create a fully fleshed out and edited writing piece.
SAGE N’ SCRIBE
(Kagan Activity)
Sage n 'Scribe is a Kagan activity that effectively engages learners in all four language domains. Students work in pairs for this exercise. Generally, pairs use the time to work together in completing comprehension questions related to a topic. To begin, the first student (Sage) will read the first question aloud. The sage will then verbally answer his or her own question. Meanwhile, the second partner (Scribe) records the first partner’s response. The scribe also coaches the sage and/or offers feedback, if necessary. Then, the sage also records his or her response. Finally, the partners switch roles and move on to another question.
THINK-WRITE-PAIR-SHARE
(adapted Kagan strategy)
Think-Write-Pair-Share is a variation on the popular Think-Pair-Share Strategy. For Think-Pair-Share, students are asked to consider a question, given time to think about their response, and then are paired with a partner to share and discuss their reply. Adding the "write" portion deepens students thinking into the question and allows for students to explore an additional language domain. To complete the activity, facilitator poses a question to students related to a text or topic of study. Then, students are given time to process the question and think about their response. The next step calls for students to record their reply on a piece of paper or white board. When students do pair with a partner, they exchange papers. Each student reads his or her partner's contribution aloud. Within partner groups, students work together to discuss, amend, and edit responses. (Applicable texts, dictionaries, word walls or other supports may be used). Responses may be turned in, shared with other classmates, or incorporated into a graphic organizer or class anchor chart.
WRITING IN REVERSE
(based on a lesson by Jackie McAvoy)
This activity asks students to consider "comprehension" questions in order to compose a piece of writing. To complete, present students with a series of questions that are worded in the style of reading comprehension questions. Students are amused when you explain that you brought the questions to class but "lost" the reading passage. Using these questions as thinking points, they will work backward to create a composition. Working with a partner, they will first read all of the questions and write short answers to them. Then, they will use these responses to craft a full writing piece. When finished, students can exchange stories with a peer. Each learner should be able to answer the comprehension questions based on his or her partner’s writing.
WRITING WITH A MENTOR TEXT
Many English language learners can benefit from extra supports when writing. Mentor texts provide students with an exemplary piece of work to follow. They are especially helpful for intermediate and advanced students who are ready to move beyond sentence stems/cloze writing and are working toward independent writing. An appropriate mentor text should be on the same topic, length and writing style (or similar topic, length and writing style) as the piece that students will be expected to produce. Students should be guided, as a whole group or in smaller work groups, to deconstruct the mentor text. To do this, students will identify and explore key features of the text. First, have students identify the purpose of the text (narrative, expository, how-to, etc.). Next, students will explore the passage's organization (sentence structure, paragraph structure, etc.). Finally, students evaluate the "star features" of the text- meaning words, phrases, writing style, voice, figurative language or other items that make the mentor text interesting to read. Once students have had a sufficient time to digest and understand the components of the mentor text, they can use this passage to guide their independent writing.
Ready to dig deeper? These activities (and many others) were created by Refugee Classroom as part of the comprehensive EduSkills platform. Learn more at eduskills.us.
EduSkills is an educational services and school data analysis company serving schools and districts Pre-K through 12th grade. EduSkills collaborates with schools and districts in order to help teachers and administrators become high-performing outcome based educators with a clear focus on high level student achievement.
Using Sentence Starters with ELLs
The initial stages of language acquisition can be overwhelming for Newcomer learners. We can support these students (and all ELLs!) by incorporating “sheltering” techniques into our teaching practice. Sheltering strategies help to make content more accessible to language learners. Sentence starters are one type of sheltered instruction.
Sentence starters are helpful for language learners in that they can be used to scaffold both oral and written expression. Also, when learners are provided with sentence starters, they are relieved of some of the pressure to structure an entire reply. This allows students to focus on the body, or "meat", of their response.
“Sentence starters provide opportunities for ELLs to successfully participate in classroom activities in structured, purposeful ways.”
–Louise El Yaafouri, The Newcomer Student, 2016
When introducing sentence starters to learners who are within the early stages of language acquisition, it is best to limit the number of prompts to choose from. In fact, one or two options are plenty. As students grow in their language development, the number of options can be increased. With time and consistent opportunities to practice, learners will eventually develop efficacy in using a broad range of starters.
To make the most out of using sentence starters, the specific prompts should be visible to students as they are speaking and/or writing. Appropriate usage should be modeled- by the instructor, by video, or by other students, or in some combination of all of these. Eventually, students will become more independent in their production sentence starters.
As learners move closer to mastery with a particular set of sentence starters, these supports can be gradually lessened and eventually removed. Meanwhile, more complex strategies can be introduced- with new supports, if needed. Through this process of continuous scaffolding, we can guide our students closer to language proficiency and deeper content understanding.
Included is a collection of key sentence starters for academic participation. The prompts are organized into two categories: listening capacity and speaking capacity. They are suitable across grade and age levels.
Do you currently use sentence starters in your classroom? Share your experiences and contribute new prompts on Twitter @NewcomerESL #sentencestarters.
Trauma, Stress & Friend-Making
Student trauma and high levels of stress can manifest in a wide range of socio-academic challenges. As one example, complex stress can hinder friend-making. This is especially critical for EL students, as social inclusion an integral component of integration. As we strive to create trauma-sensitive learning environments for all students, we must be inclusive of the need to promote healthy social interaction and friend making.
In looking at refugee Newcomers specifically, here’s what we know: “With no other complications, it may be difficult for resettled refugee children to form healthy peer relationships in the host setting.” (The Newcomer Student, 2016). Let’s look at why.
“Newcomers face challenges in communicating thoughts and feelings in the new language, and may feel that peers do not understand them. As an added complexity, children who demonstrate elements of post-traumatic stress also score lower on the prosocial behavior scale. In other words, normative social efficacy is compromised.” (The Newcomer Student, 2016).
Friend making and self-esteem are inherently linked. Learners who feel that they have friends (or at least are largely accepted by their peers) are more likely to demonstrate healthy self-confidence. The ability to make and keep friends has academic implications, too. Students who self-identify as partners in a friendship or friendships tend to have healthier self-esteems; and learners with this type of confidence are more likely to perform well academically.
The reverse is also true: individuals who are challenged to make friends are also likely to experience difficulties in learning and participating at school. For example, “a child who has difficulty recalling, pronouncing, or ordering words in the new language is likely to experience teasing or harassment. … Teasing, in turn, can lead to shame and silence, and ultimately, to isolation. Such stalls create obvious fissures in an individual’s friend-making capacities.” (The Newcomer Student, 2016)
We know that trauma and high levels of stress negatively impact friend making (and consequently self-esteem, school satisfaction and academic success). We can also acknowledge our responsibility to aid our students in navigating social exchange as a mechanism of trauma informed instruction.
We can begin this work in the classroom using evidence-based strategies. Here’s how to get started.
1. Create safe opportunities for social engagement. Begin with pair groupings (to encourage talk and decrease the chances of a student feeling “left out”). Build up to small group engagement. Initially, schedule short periods of interaction, working up into longer ones.
2. Begin simply, with exchanges around likes and dislikes or recalling steps in a process. Invite students to find similarities in their views or observations.
3. Choose interactive activities that highlight the various strengths of students within the work-social groups.
4. Aim to initiate small group activities on a schedule, so that students can predict and better prepare themselves for interpersonal exchange.
5. During periods of sustained student interaction, listen for areas that individual students appear to struggle with or exhibit discomfort in. Work with individual students to create “social scripts” that can guide them through tricky points in a conversation.
6. Explicitly teach the meaning of facial expressions and body language. This is especially helpful for students coming from cultures where there are discrepancies in communicative gestures.
7. Avoid competitive exchanges. Instead, offer activities that promote teamwork, sharing, friendly game play and routine conversation. Have students leave personal items behind when they enter a partner or group setting, to minimize opportunities for conflict. Slowly incorporate activities that require sharing or taking turns.
8. Provide live, video or other examples of similarly aged-students engaged in normative play, conversation or group work.
9. Create structure, routine and control, but also allow students some choice and the opportunity to demonstrate self-efficacy. Anticipate that students will act in mature ways. Redirect when necessary.
10. Model how to work through conflict or disagreement. Offer sentence stems and allow students to practice these exchanges in a safe, monitored setting.
11. Prepare students to be active listeners. Emphasize the importance of active listening in a conversation. Ask students to engage in a conversation and recall details about what their partner revealed during his or her talk time. Model facial expressions and body language that indicate active listening.
12. Be mindful that some students will require additional interventions. Be prompt in processing referrals for those services. If, after a period of consistent interventions in the classroom, the student continues to struggle in social setting, request the assistance of school staff who are equipped to support the learner at a more advanced level.
Trauma and stress can impact students’ academic achievement and social wellbeing. The ability to establish and maintain friendships is a singular facet, but an important one. We can do our part to introduce tools that help our students to overcome these obstacles.
Keep in mind that our students are brilliant reminders of the resilience of the human spirit. There is always hope to be found here, and that hope is bolstered by implementation of timely, appropriate and evidence-rooted strategies in the learning context.
Risk Factors for Newcomer Trauma
Approximately one quarter of the young people in U.S. schools have endured some type of significant trauma. Trauma can occur as a singular paralyzing event or as a period of intense ongoing stress. We can define significant trauma as distress that is impactful enough to overwhelm an individual’s ability to produce and manage healthy responses to upheaval.
Trauma and shock are complex issues, especially with respect to students’ academic participation. It is important to bear in mind that trauma is often multi-layered and can be influenced by a broad range of factors. This helps us to better understand why two individuals who may have experienced very similar profound-stress life events may rationalize that information in vastly different ways. Underlying risk factors can have dedicated implications for both the impact of trauma and the viability of resilience.
Refugee newcomer students are vulnerable to additional risk factors that may impair or restrict an individual's ability to access emotional coping resources. For example, the age at which the trauma occurred can influence the degree of affectedness (preschool and early adolescence are especially critical periods). In The Newcomer Student, we read:
“The degree to which our Newcomer students are impacted by stress can be notably profound. We can assume that most Newcomers will have endured episodes of prolonged stress, as an organic byproduct of abrupt flight. Of course, affectedness presents itself in individualized ways, and it is intensely codependent upon the length and gradation of stressful experience, as well as a string of alternative variables.”
What are those variables?
We can explore some of the most common trauma impact risk factors for refugee Newcomer students in the info-chart below. We can use this resource to increase our own educator awareness around our students’ vulnerabilities. This understanding can be integrated into a whole child approach to trauma prevention and mitigation in the school setting.
By increasing our own awareness into trauma, we are also expanding the breadth and depth to which we are able to service our students. We can commit to meeting our learners where they are now; setting high expectations for their socio-academic achievement; and celebrating with them critical milestones along the way.
Let's embrace this cognizance that episodes of trauma may manifest in our students, but focus our sights looking forward- to our students' overwhelming, captivating resilience. Our learners have a story to tell, but that's not the whole journey. It's just the beginning.
Growing Through Our Biases: An Educator Exercise
The recent events surrounding race and racism have been difficult and painful.
And we have to talk about it.
As we piece through our individual places in the fray, we have the double task of coaching our students through these uncomfortable social paradigms. In the case of schools, we can only support our students' in the shedding of unhealthy biases after we have examined and tended to our own.
As someone who is hired to coach educators through the processes of naming and mitigating implicit and explicit biases, recent events have forced a re-evaluation of my own thoughts, rooted values and prejudices. More than this, they've been a catalyst to explore my potential contributions within this context, as well as the potential contributions of my peer practitioners and our students, who watch us with anticipatory eyes. How can our voices be proactively and retroactively employed? How can we come to terms with a reasonable framework for self-accountability in light of the brazen dissolution of interpersonal respect and cooperativeness?
I have prejudices. You have prejudices. Our students and their parents carry biases into the school each day. Some of those are friendly, harmless judgments. Many are not.
We have a responsibility to mitigate our own biases to whatever extent we are able. This duty carries remarkable weight, based on the nature of our work with children and the inevitable part we play as role models in urban, multicultural settings. It is also our task to encourage a shift in the negative biases that exist in our parents and students, Newcomer and non-Newcomer alike.
Where is our start point?
The following is an excerpt from The Newcomer Teacher: A Workbook Companion to the Newcomer Student (Sept 2017). The Cultural Biases Workshop is a means to explore our own thought and action patterns. After all, only after we are brave enough to confront our own implicit and explicit biases can we hope to make positive changes to the broader social dynamic.
From the text:
"When we meet new people or begin to establish new relationships, our brains respond with a flurry of conscious and unconscious activity. We are analyzing the other individual and making a series of analyses based on the stimulation that our brain is receiving. We are producing and activating biases.
Prejudices, stereotypes and discriminatory evaluations are unconscious thinking patterns. Often, these thought-processing channels were constructed in our early childhood, influenced by our role models, societal constructs and media. Reinforced or repeated prejudices eventually become automatic. They become ingrained information-processing mechanisms."
But there's good news.
"Evidence strongly indicates that unconscious biases can be overcome, and even reversed, with sincere intent." In fact, "A person who is motivated to be unprejudiced—because of legal sanctions, social pressures, or strong personal egalitarian values—can suppress biased responses." -Culture Plus, 2018
In a fascinating turn of events, the human mind is capable of overriding itself.
Again from The Newcomer Teacher:
"We are capable of re-imagining our vision of the world around us. In order for true culture and bias training to be effective, we have to make way for it to be effective. That process begins with us taking the time to be raw and honest with ourselves about our own apparent and underlying prejudices.
There’s no promise that the process will be attractive, or even particularly enjoyable. However, be assured that by taking the first steps in being truthful with ourselves, we can open doors for growth and improvement, both in our lives and in the the lives of the students we serve."
Ina Catrinescu writes, “Confirmation bias is our most treasured enemy. Our opinions, our acumen- all of it, are the result of years of selectively choosing to pay attention to that information only which confirms what our limited minds already accept as truth.”
If we can selectively choose to pay attention to those things that support one thought pattern, then we can selectively choose to entertain new though patterns as well. Let’s make an effort to choose wisely.
Access the full Cultural Biases Workshop HERE.
Voices from the Classroom: Birtukan
Deep into the process of writing my second book, The Newcomer Fieldbook, a singular thought came to mind: gratitude. Gratitude for the teachers, who guided, mentored, supported me and kept me sane; and gratitude for my students, who had taught me so much.
There it was. The light bulb. My top-notch, unbeatable professional developers? My peer practitioners and my students.
Another “aha” followed. These very student voices- the same ones that had guided my professional growth and acted as magic carpet to new worlds and cultures- appeared no where in my writing. In fact, I couldn't find them in my state's PD platform or in my college curriculum. How had I (and indeed, we) overlooked our most powerful resources?
That's when the last chapter became the penultimate chapter. The closing space would be reserved for the best insights of all- those that don't come from me. This final segment has been divided into two parts: educator contributions and student contributions.
As part of the student insight piece, English language learners from all over the world, ages 7 to 70 took part in a twelve-question survey about their experiences. The responses are telling of our own work as educators. The narratives at once heart breaking and uplifting. These are the voices of our ELLs, as humans, as learners, as individuals who are ready to make a positive mark on the world around them.
Let's look at one of those responses. I happen to know Birtukan personally. In fact, she was in my Newcomer classroom two years in a row, as I rolled up with her class. Her first teacher, Ms. Carmen Kuri, is among my mentor teachers. Carmen's passion for her students' success shines in this interview. Birtukan is now a socially and academically competent, full-of-life middle school student on the brink of high school.
Birtukan G., age 14, female. Heritage: Sudanese. Arrived in U.S. at age 7 from Eritrea. First languages: Tigrinya, Amharic, Arabic.
Survey: What do you remember most about your first day of school in the U.S.?
Birtukan: I was a little shy. I didn’t know where to go. The school was really big and I didn’t know the language and I didn’t have any friends yet. It was a lot of new things.
S: How did you find U.S. school to be different from schooling in other countries where you went to school?
B: I wasn’t experienced in going to school with a teacher who spoke English. It’s a lot different in my country. There, if you don’t listen you are punished. Also, in my country we didn’t have any homework. You do all of your learning at school. I had to learn what to do with homework.
S: What is something you wish your first teacher in America knew about you (but maybe you didn’t have enough English to tell them)?
B: I didn’t know any English and it was hard for me to communicate. I wanted my teacher to know that when I started learning more English I was like a translator for everything. I don’t have brothers or sisters. It’s just me and my mom. My mom got sick a LOT in our country and in America. We lived in a refugee camp and sometimes in the desert. Sometimes we had to walk a long way. I took care of her. In America, I had to be the translator for the doctors and everyone. Now she’s doing better. She has a job here now, so that’s really good.
S: What is something you wish other students in America knew about you (but maybe you didn’t have enough English to tell them)?
B: That I don’t have any brothers or sisters. It made it harder because I was alone a lot.
S: What were your biggest thoughts or worries about going to school in America?
B: That people would bully me. I was bullied a lot when I went to school in Eritrea, so I thought people would bully me here, too.
S: What is something that your first teacher or teachers did that made you feel safe and welcomed?
B: My teacher saw that I didn’t have a lot of clothes and that me and my mom didn’t have any coats. She came to our house with coats and clothes and a lot of food. That was really helpful. My mom was so grateful.
S: Tell about something in your first years of school in America that was hard for you or made you feel uncomfortable.
B: Everything in America was new. For example, it was hard for us to go buy food. We didn’t know what the money meant. We thought $50 was like a dollar. We didn’t know these things yet and I didn’t learn it in school until after.
S: If you could change something about the way your first teacher in the U.S. taught or the way he or she taught you, what would it be?
B: I would want her to help me not be so shy.
S: Was there something in particular that made learning English easier for you? Something at school or at home?
B: I had a friend, Rufta. She spoke my language. It was really easier having her by my side. She came about six months after me, so I knew a little bit more English. I helped her with math. I started speaking more after I had Rufta.
S: What school activities do you think helped you the most in learning English?
B: Playing with the kids outside helped. I didn’t feel as nervous speaking English on the playground. Reading with my teacher in groups was really good.
S: If you could give Newcomer teachers one piece of advice in working with students from your country it would be:
B: Don’t pressure students too much. Try to help them learn the basics of English.
S: If you could give first year Newcomers one piece of advice it would be:
B: Please don’t be scared. There are teachers and students who want to help and be your friend.
Read more student interviews in The Newcomer Fieldbook, available HERE.