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.
Art Therapy for Trauma in the Classroom
All children experience stress. In fact, it is natural and normative for young people to encounter stress and learn to process it in healthy ways. Some children experience very high levels of stress, either as an isolated moment of impact or as a period of heightened, prolonged unrest.
Trauma occurs when the experience of stress is significant enough to overwhelm one’s capacity to manage and diffuse it. Not all individuals who experience trauma will exhibit lasting symptoms of distress. Yet for others, traumatic stress can dismantle one’s entire sense of belonging, safety, and self-control.
As teachers, we may witness the effects of childhood trauma in the classroom. Significant stress manifests in a myriad of ways- from speech impediments and frequent urination to disruptive behaviors and excessive organization. Educators are not advised to step into the role of psychologist or student counselor, unless they are explicitly trained and licensed to do so. However, we can do our best to take proactive measures to mitigate significant stress in the classroom setting.
The implications of trauma in childhood can be significant, affecting physical wellbeing and brain development at a molecular level. Specifically, significant trauma is capable of creating blockages, or “stalls”, in the right brain (where visual memories are stored) and in the Brocas area of the frontal lobe (where speech and language processing occur). Meanwhile, the amygdala, which is responsible for recognizing and reacting to danger, becomes hyperactive, leaving the “fight or flight” switch turned on. (Rausch et al, 1996).
Art is widely recognized as one effective means of trauma-informed care. A variety of art forms are employed in therapeutic contexts. Classroom art activities can be used as a component of trauma-informed instruction and may include drawing, painting, drama, music-making, creative movement, sculpting, weaving, and collage-making.
Artistic expression is unique in its ability to bypass speech-production areas in the brain and construct wordless somatic paths to expression. The actual process of art making is a predominately right-brained activity. As the right brain is stimulated and strengthened, left-brain connectivity (the essential link to language acquisition) can begin to repair. Miranda Field, writing for the University of Regina, explains:
“Research has shown that the non-verbal right brain holds traumatic memories and these can be accessed through the use of symbols and sensations in art therapy. Communication between the brain hemispheres can be accomplished through the use of art therapy and may assist in the processing of the trauma (Lobban, 2014).”
Humans retain traumatic memories in physiological and cerebral ways. The use of art in education addresses both facets. Chloe Chapman, for The Palmeira Practice, shares that “using art to express emotion accesses both visually stored memory and body memory, as not only does it enable people to create images, but the use of art materials such as clay and paint can reconnect them to physical sensation.” In fact, research links sights and touch to the amygdala and the processing of fear. When these sensory elements are introduced in safe contexts, the slow relinquishment of trauma can occur. (Lusebrink, 2004)
Art making provides a container for trauma and can promote feelings of safety, security, belonging, grounding and validation. Creative output engages the student in organizing, expressing and making meaning from traumatic experiences. It also encourages the reconstruction of one’s sense of efficacy and and the notion of “being present” in the new context.
Art expression provides learners with the option of creative choice, as well as the ability to process trauma in their own measure- reducing the likelihood of emotional overload. Ultimately, students who are exposed to art as therapy are more likely to reach a place of recognizing and valuing their own existing coping strategies- and becoming more receptive to learning new ones.
Ready to grow on the path of trauma-informed education through art therapy?
Visit the incredible authors and resources below.
1. 101 Mindful Arts-Based Activities to Get Children and Adolescents Talking: Working with Severe Trauma, Abuse and Neglect Using Found and Everyday Objects (Dawn D’Amico)
https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Arts-Based-Activities-Children-Adolescents-ebook/dp/B01N47I0FI/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1514483429&sr=8-2-fkmr1&keywords=dialectical+behavioral+therapy+101
2. The Big Book of Therapeutic Activity Ideas for Children and Teens: Inspiring Arts-Based Activities and Character Education Curricula (Lindsey Joiner)
https://www.amazon.com/Therapeutic-Activity-Ideas-Children-Teens-ebook/dp/B00812X6GE/ref=pd_sim_351_4?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SB2JP3ZDPDZW5VQXHC03
3. Free Video Series: Trauma Training For Educators (ACES in Education)
http://www.acesconnection.com/g/aces-in-education/blog/trauma-training-for-educators-free
4. Essentials for Creating A Trauma-Sensitive Classroom
https://traumaessentials.weebly.com/resources.html
5. The Art Therapy Sourcebook (Cathy Malchiodi)
https://www.amazon.com/Therapy-Sourcebook-Sourcebooks-Cathy-Malchiodi/dp/0071468277/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1514483721&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=The+Art+Therapy+Sourcebook
6. Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul (Shawn McNiff)
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Heals-Creativity-Cures-Soul/dp/1590301668
7. DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition (Marsha M. Linehan)
https://www.amazon.com/Skills-Training-Handouts-Worksheets-Second/dp/1572307811/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1514484354&sr=8-2&keywords=dialectical+behavior+therapy+skills+workbook
5 Schema Building Strategies for ELLs
Background knowledge, also referred to as schema or prior knowledge, is vital to learning comprehension. When students are able to apply what they already know within novel contexts, they become more resourceful in constructing meaningful understanding. Robert Marzano encourages,
“What students already know about the content is one of the strongest indicators of how well they will learn new information relevant to the content.”
Activating and strengthening background knowledge is a core tenet of impactful instruction for English language learners. ELLs may require additional support to establish schema in the new social and historical dynamic. They may also need explicit direction in order to recognize the validity of their own previous acuity and to link this knowledge to new learning.
It is important to keep in mind that all students, including ELLs, bring rich volumes of schema with them into our classrooms. As we plan and implement lessons, our role is to seek out embedded prior knowledge and identify potential lulls in content-relevant schema. To do so effectively, we must be mindful of our own educator assumptions about what students know and do not know.
This can be especially true of newcomers, whose experiences are likely to be different, though no less valid, than our own. The value of our students' diverse schemas should not be underestimated- especially as it contributes the broader cultural knowledge bank of the class as a whole.
What we can do is employ specific strategies to elicit layers of understanding in order to connect existing schema to new academic concepts. Strategies for activating and building background knowledge for ELLs can be beneficial for all students, across all language learning levels. In fact, even students from heterogeneous cultural and linguistic origins have vast discrepancies in background knowledge. (Bransford & Johnson, 1973).
After all, each student has access to different life events, classroom experiences and content knowledge/academic language exposure. Such varying levels of schema impact comprehension and recall in highly individualized ways (Anderson, Reynolds, etal, 1977). Differentiating our approach to activating background knowledge can enhance comprehension for all learners.
As we look to ELLs, the spectrum of background knowledge diversifies to an even greater extent. Of course, we can expect that certain cultural implications will impeded the direct transfer of background knowledge. We can do our best to be informed of possible cultural misalignments and explicitly address those in our planning. Nonetheless, many aspects of schema are cross-culturally universal, with an ability to resonate across the human landscape (Patricia Carrell, 1983). We enhance learning by bringing these universal connections (family, excitement, thirst, conflict, thunder, cooking) to the forefront of student learning.
Background knowledge is explored from three lenses of connection: text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world. The following exercises encourage students to activate, share and expand on schema in order to make meaning from each of the schematic lenses.
5 Strategies for Activating & Building Schema for ELLs
1. Make it visual.
A. Illustrations- picture file cards, photos, student drawings
B. Realia- clothing, food, and other artifacts
C. Diaries, postcards, letters
D. Maps
E. KWL Charts
F. Picture Walk-the-Room: Pictures related to a topic are posted around the room. Students move from picture to picture, discussing with a partner what they know about the image.
2. Make it Engaging
G. Tangible Experiences- physical/virtual field trips, kinesthetic learning
H. Media clips
I. Carousel- in groups of 4, students rotate through stations, talking about a specific topic or picture and recording all they can about that topic on a poster.
J. Non-linguistic representations- Tableaus, dramatic enactments
K. Expert/Guest- parents, volunteers, older students
3. Read About It
L. Picture walk
M. Cloze reading
N. Content word wall- ideally, student-generated
O. Word sorts- using key text vocabulary and explaining sort strategy
P. Picture sequencing sorts
Q. Flexible small group reading instruction
4. Talk About It
R. 3-step interview- In groups of four, two students take turns interviewing one another about personal experiences related to a topic. The second pair does the same. Then, each student reports out to the group on their partner’s experiences.
S. Inside-outside circle- One group forms inner circle; the second group forms a circle around first, facing a partner; facilitator calls on inside or outside to respond to prompt; outside circle shifts one spot to the right.
T. Jigsaw- Students read and or/research different parts of a text; in small groups, each member shares out critical information, or “teaches” his or her text.
5. Write about it
U. Anticipation guides- students indicate agreement/disagreement of a statement related to the text; teacher facilitates discussion.
V. Thinking maps and Graphic Organizers
W. Student-centered Journaling
X. Sentence frames
Y. Storyboard with sequence- Using a storyboard, students draw or write all that they know about a topic in sequential order.
Z. Interactive vocabulary walls
Read more in The Newcomer Student (2016), available HERE
and The Newcomer Fieldbook (2017), available HERE.
8 Listening-Speaking Strategies to Engage ELLs
Listening and speaking are often the first domains explored by a language learner. Students who are new to English require frequent, purposeful opportunities to develop these skills. With so many demands on our classroom time, it can be challenging to make room for dedicated speaking/listening skills practice. Fortunately, we can engage learners by embedding meaningful conversational activities in our lessons throughout the school day.
Here are eight low-prep cross-curricular activities that will get students talking (and listening, too!).
DESCRIPTIVE PAIRS
This activity encourages academic vocabulary development by engaging students in active speaking and listening around relevant classroom content. A pair of students sits back to back, with one student facing the front of the room. A category is announced (for example: mammals, text characters, types of triangles) Facilitator presents an image of one item in this category. The student facing the visual must relay to his or her partner what the image shows. In giving clues, this student must be as descriptive as possible, but cannot say the actual word or words that name the image. The student facing away from the image must engage his or her active listening skills in order to guess what the image is. When the away-facing student correctly names the image, partners hold a high-five or touching elbows and wait for other teams to solve the puzzle. Partners exchange seats and reverse speaking/listening roles.
FAN N’ PICK
Fan N' Pick is a Kagan cooperative strategy that can be used to activate background knowledge, facilitate discussion on a topic or review a concept. To prepare for activity, create a series of questions related to a text or concept. Write or type questions on strips of paper that are of similar size and shape. Place questions in an envelope. Each working group of four students will receive one envelope. Create as many envelopes as projected student groups. For lesson, arrange students into groups of four and distribute envelopes. Students in each group are numbered 1-4. Student 1 will remove the strips, making sure that all of the questions are faced down. Student 1 "fans" the strips and presents them to Student 2. Student 2 reads the strip that he or she chose and provides thinking time. Student 3 is responsible for answering the questions. Student 4 clarifies, praises, or adds on to Student 3's response. Then, the sentence strips are passed to Student 2, who becomes the new Student 1. The process repeats until all students have had a turn or all questions are answered.
INFORMATION DETECTIVE
Students work in pairs for this cooperative activity. Within pairs, each student has a card containing an image or text. The two images or passages are the same, except that each is missing some information. It is important that different information is missing on each card. Place a folder or other divider between the two students. Partners take turns asking each other questions in order to solve for the missing information on each card. New information should be recorded on the card or in a notebook. The students should not view one another's cards during the activity. Sentence starters may be useful.
LISTEN-RETELL
Listen-retell is a straightforward strategy that assesses student comprehension while working to develop learners' listening and speaking skills. For this exercise, students work in pairs. Facilitator gives each pair a prompt that is relevant to a topic being studied. One student from each pair responds to the prompt. The other student listens carefully to his or her partner's response. Then, the listening partner rephrases what was said. The first partner confirms the accuracy of the listing partner's retell. For older or more advanced students, the listening partner will rephrase the speaking partner's statement and then add on to the conversation with a new statement. After both partners have contributed, a new prompt is issues and students' speaking/listening roles are reversed.
MIX-AND-MATCH
The Mix-and-Match strategy encourages students to interact with one another in a guided format and allows for movement within the classroom. This exercise works well across all content areas. To prepare, first create a series of questions related to a topic or unit of study. Record these questions on a set of index cards. On a separate set of cards, record appropriate responses to those questions. Each question card should have a corresponding answer card. In working with older learners and/or learners with higher levels of language proficiency, it is best to incorporate student-generated questions and responses. To carry out the exercise, half of the participants are issued cards containing questions. Give the other students cards with appropriate responses to questions. Learners must move about the room sharing and comparing their cards until they find their match. Once all students have found their match, pairs may share out their corresponding questions and responses with the other students in the class.
PARTNER COACHING
Partner coaching is a cooperative strategy that allows students to practice using several or all language domains while working to solve a problem together. This activity works especially well in math or science subjects. To begin, arrange students in pairs and assign two challenges or problems to each pair of students. Each student in the pair will be responsible for solving one challenge. While the first student works on his or her problem, the second student acts as a coach, offering advice, feedback and encouragement. The coach is not permitted to write the answers or solve the problem for the first student. Students reverse roles and solve the other problem. When both challenges have been solved, one pair of students partners with another pair to form a group of four. All four students work together to confirm the validity of answers and make corrections as necessary. Note that it is helpful to model the acts of offering and accepting constructive feedback in advance. Some students may find it difficult to accept peer coaching. Make it clear that the expectation is to try to be open to feedback as possible. Offer sentence stems and other supports to guide students through the cooperative practice, as needed.
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.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
This is a classic drama warm-up game that works great for ESL verb study. To play, select a small group of students (teams of 5-7 students works well, though any number is fine) to enter the "stage". The remaining students in the class will serve as the audience, though all students should have the chance to perform. Have one student from the acting group take center stage while his or her teammates wait "in the wings". The first student begins the game by performing an action, such as driving a car. Another teammate enters and asks the first student, "What are you doing?" The first student can respond with any answer excluding his or her actual answer. For example, "I'm brushing my teeth." The second student would then have to begin the action of brushing his or her teeth. The first and second students continue performing their actions. The third student enters and asks the second student, "What are you doing?" He or she responds with a new action, such as "I'm ice skating." The third student mimes ice skating. The process repeats until all students in the group have gone. Audience applauds and a new group takes the stage. More advanced students may be encouraged to use more complex verb clauses, such as “I’m baking a cake for my mom’s birthday.” Students really love this activity!
Ready to dig deeper? These activities (and many others) are 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.
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.
Teacher Home Visits with ASCD
Teacher home visits are a vital component of overall student success. How Home Visits Transformed My Teaching (ASCD Educational Leadership, September 2017) captures some of my own experiences inside the homes of my students.
Read the full article here: http://bit.ly/2j3QBu5
(As a side note, it was such a treat to work with the Educational Leadership team. From start to finish, this was a seamless, professional and joyful process. Moreover, the other articles in this issue- and in other issues- are insightful, engaging and worth the read!)
Now, I’d love to hear from YOU.
What are your experiences around teacher home visits? Which of these occasions transformed you or your students? Which site visits became memorable experiences or lead to lasting relationships with a student’s family?
I hope you’ll take the chance to share in the comment field below. As practitioners, we grow the most when we take the time to listen to and learn from one another. I am grateful for you, educator!
Newcomer Education: Facilitating Integration
Excerpted from The Newcomer Student: An Educator’s Guide to Aid Transition, Louise Kreuzer-El Yaafouri @ Rowman & Littlefield International Press, 2016.
As we strive to guide our refugee and immigrant newcomers toward socio-academic access, we must focus on a unified goal: healthy, holistic & long-range integration.
Integration is a loaded concept with varied intent, depending on its context. Let’s clarify this term with specificity to Newcomer programming.
To do this, we’ll need to take a few steps back. To get to integration, we’ll need to start with culture shock. Culture shock is a process of adjusting from one set of heritage norms to another.
The process of culture shock is marked by four domains: honeymoon, negotiation, adjustment and mastery. We can see how culture shock resembles grief in the sense that an individual will navigate a predictable set of uncomfortable stages before reaching a level of comfort and acceptance.
Briefly, the honeymoon period is a romaticized one, full of awe and discovery. Stress factors may be delayed by fascination and shock. The negotiation phase, which may begin approximately three months after resettlement, signals reality setting in and is marked by frustration, fear, homesickness, detachment and physical discomfort. The adjustment period, typically encountered six to twelve months post-resettlement, is one of acceptance and sense-making. Anxiety is reduced as maneauverability and self-efficacy are increased. Finally, the mastery (or bicultural stage) is generally achieved between one to five years post-resettlement and indicates an ability to navigate freely and successfully in the new culture.
In order to examine potential implications of culture shock in the classroom setting, we’ll focus on the adjustment domain, the third stage on the way to cultural mastery. The Adjustment Domain can be further disseminated into three categories: Isolation, Adoption and Integration.
We can view these three areas within the adjustment domain on a spectrum. On the far left of the spectrum, we’ll place Isolation; on the far right, Adoption. These tendencies have opposite values.
Isolation
· Marked by disengagement or conflict with the host culture.
· Likely to return to heritage country, but may not fit in well.
· Feelings of separation from heritage and host identities.
Adoption
· Marked by utter identification with new culture at the expense of the old one.
· Expected loss of language, culture and loyalty to heritage culture.
· Social isolation between family and community members can occur.
Of course, neither end of the spectrum is particularly healthy, though isolation creates the most devastation. What we hope for our Newcomers to achieve is a balance. This “sweet spot” in the middle range of the spectrum we identify as "integration".
Integration
· Able to recognize positive attributes of heritage and host cultures.
· Full, healthy assimilation into new culture without loss of the old one.
· More likely to experience social acceptance, emotional well-being, self-efficacy, cooperative relationships and general productivity.
It may be helpful to imagine the verb of integrating in this way: picture an individual standing in the middle of a teeter-totter, with a goal of keeping both ends of the teeter-totter elevated from the ground. To do this, the individual needs to have one hand and one foot on each side of center. Constant re-adjustment is necessary.
Education plays a critical role in aiding successful integration. Ager and Strang (2008) write that, “For refugee children, schools are the most important place of contact with members of local host communities, playing an important role in establishing relationships supportive of integration”. Aart De Gues, in Cities of Migration, adds that, “When integration fails, the inevitable result is inertia and exclusion. Nothing is more important than education for gaining a foothold in society and determining one’s own path.”
As schools and teachers, where can we start in facilitating this process? Here are a few ideas:
Tips & Tools to Promote Healthy Integration
1. Ensure that inclusion is school-wide priority.
2. Begin inclusive services promptly.
3. Maintain consistency of services, scheduling and supports.
4. Meet students where they are and consider individual backgrounds when prescribing services.
5. Proactively address mental and physical health issues.
6. Explore and celebrate confianza.
7. Establish safety and trust through routine and predictability.
8. Explicitly teach new laws, rules, customs and traditions.
9. Model speech and behavior.
10. Encourage collaboration.
11. Champion native language speech/literacy.
12. Honor cultures without trivialization.
13. Value Newcomers and their parents as critical stakeholders and partners in success.
14. Encourage ELL investment in the classroom, the school and the community.
15. Actively engage with Newcomer parents and work to build mutual trust and respect.
16. Employ adult Newcomers as volunteers, paraprofessionals, teachers and other school staff.
17. Foster relationships with community links and stakeholders.
18. Allow opportunities to create and share cultural artifacts.
19. Incorporate cultural realia, such as foreign coins, postcards, and stamps as manipulatives or authentic textiles/patterns for geometry and spatial reasoning.
20. Allow for multiple levels of expression that include traditional songs, games and call-and-response.
21. Provide opportunities for “wander-and-explore” learning (practical, hands-on application).
22. Celebrate both students and parents as sharers of wisdom.
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.
Back-to-School With ELL Parents
A Closer Look at ELL Parent Engagement
An age-old question: How do we, as teachers and schools, go about increasing parent participation in students’ learning? To further define this question, how do we engage our newcomer parents and EL families in their child’s academic endeavors?
Involving parents in school activities can be tricky business. It can also be immensely rewarding- for the teacher, the school, and (most importantly!) the student.
A million terrific ideas exist on the subject. Don’t believe me? Take a visit to the Teachers Pay Teachers website with the key word parent.
As with any instructional technique, it is critically important to discover the strategy that works best for our specific student demographics- and then refine it to meet the needs of our students in a given year and within a particular scenario. What I found in researching parent-engagement ideas was that few were actually applicable within my unique classroom context- which was vibrant with cultural and linguistic diversity. The one-size-fits all plans did not fit at all.
And so began the process of creating suitable alternatives. Here is one of my favorites. It's one that I’ve implemented many times over with much success.
This idea came about one year as I was preparing for “Back-to-School” night. Combined, the students in my third grade newcomer class spoke nearly a dozen separate primary languages. I desperately wanted parents to feel welcomed and to be able to participate in the evening.
The problem was that I had no idea how I would overcome tremendous language obstacles to achieve this.
So, asked the students for their help. Together, this is what we came up with.
Student-Parent Notes
The students wrote simple notes to their parents and families. We arranged the notes so that they were waiting in the classroom for parents when they arrived for the school event. As a class team, we decided that students would record their sentiments in English (and later translate them for their parents) or in their native language (if this skill set was accessible to them).
When family members arrived at school, students took immediate ownership of their letters and were eager to share them. They were equally eager to ask their parents to reciprocate the gesture.
Our classroom writing station became a hub of activity. We laid out an assortment of colored pens and stationary. Parents and caretakers, shy at first, took pens in their hands to begin composing notes of love and encouragement for their students. As with the kids, caretakers were invited to utilize the language they felt most comfortable with.
As parents read aloud to their students in their native languages, the entire tone of the room shifted. Parents of different cultures exchanged knowing glances with one another. Those who shared the same language made room for laughter and conversation. These caretakers all had the same thoughts, hopes and expectations for their children. They were the very same considerations that I had for their children:
I am proud of you. You are a good child. Work hard. Try your best. Be kind. I am here for you.
I couldn't comprehend all of the notes, as I was now the one inhibited by language ability. That didn't matter. The messages were not meant for me. My take away was this: we were all on the same playing field, and also on the same team.
The notes hung in our classroom for the duration of the year. Not only did they provide tangible artifacts of students’ heritage cultures, they offered grounding and a call toward fortitude. Our student-parent notes became the most authentic, relevant anchor charts that Room 13 had to offer.
Here are a few for the road!
Books That Celebrate Diversity 2017
Readers- especially young readers- should have access to texts that provide mirrors and windows. Mirrors in literature enable our readers to see reflections of themselves within the pages of books. Windows allow for glimpses into worlds, cultures and perspectives that are outside of a reader's personal experience.
These remarkable books of 2017 allow for both- and they are calling for a place on your classroom bookshelf.
EARLY READERS
This is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World
Matt Lamothe (Chronicle Books)
This visually engaging picture book follows one day in the lives of seven children from countries around the world. From Uganda to Russia, from Peru to Iran, we find that while differences do exist, we are all connected by our human qualities and the world we share.
My Beautiful Birds
Suzanne Del Rizzo (Pajama Press)
My Beautiful Birds is an eloquently written story of a boy who is forced to flee his home in war-torn Syria. He finds purpose in caring for the birds that surround him. Del Rizzo, through words and fascinating mixed-media illustrations, tells a story of human resiliency with clarity, compassion and a firm sense of hope.
A Different Pond
Bao Phi, illustrated by Thi Bui (Capstone Young Readers)
Author Bao Phi relays the touching story of a father and son in honest, captivating simplicity. Each day, the father and son fish a Minneapolis pond for the family’s evening meal. During these precious moments together, the father reveals more of his own memories of fishing in Vietnam and of his migration to the United States. The illustrations are equally as moving, making A Different Pondan impactful and digestible sharing of the human experience.
A Family is a Family is a Family
Sara O’Leary, illustrated by Qin Leng (Groundwood Books)
This vibrant picture book tells the story of a young girl who lives with her loving foster family, but is hesitant to share this information with her classmates. When a class project reveals the diversity of other students’ home lives, she becomes empowered to share- and to find pride in- her own unique version of family.
All the Way to Havana
Margarita Engle, illustrated by Mike Curato
Full of energetic sounds and illustrations, All the Way to Havana highlights the adventures of a young boy and his parents while driving to Havana, Cuba. “Cara Cara”, the old family car, chugs and rumbles and zooms through streets filled with musicians, vendors, bustling activity and colorful buildings. All the Way to Havana is a delightful celebration of culture, sight and sound.
Danza!: Amalia Hernandez and El Ballet Folklorico de Mexico
Duncan Tonatiuh
Danza! celebrates the life of famous dancer and choreographer Amalia Hernandez. It tells of her dreams as a young child and her eventual founding of El Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. With this troupe, she performed all over the world, sharing her unique blend of ballet, modern and traditional Mexican dance. Danza! is engaging, informative, inspiring and a visual treat for young readers.
The Journey
Francesca Sanna (Flying Eagle Books)
Italian author and illustrator Francesca Sanna examines the kinds of journeys a refugee might take and the difficult decisions a family might endure when confronted with the unimaginable. The Journey does not detail the refugee experiences of a specific region, giving the main characters a sense of universal relevance. The book is expressive, beautifully depicted and incredibly timely.
The World is Not a Rectangle: A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid
Jeanette Winter
Zara Hadid, famed Iraqi architect takes the stage in this uplifting non-fiction picture book. Readers learn of Hadid’s struggles to achieve her dream of becoming a great architect, despite the obstacles she encountered because of her gender and religion. The World is Not a Rectangle encourages young readers to dream big and work hard to reach their aims.
Malaika’s Costume
Nadia Hohn, illustrated by Irena Luxbacher (Groundwood Books)
The culture of the Caribbean comes alive in this delightful picture book. Maliaka, living with her grandmother in Canada, work together to create the perfect carnival costume. Malaika’s Costume celebrates the values of family, cultural pride and imagination.
MIDDLE READERS
Refugee
Alan Gratz (Scholastic)
Refugee details three separate accounts of the refugee experience, from
Nazi Germany to 90’s Cuba to modern day Syria. Gratz weaves these stories together in suspenseful ways, making clear that each refugee experience is significant and deserving of human attention. While each character's search for refuge is unique, hope is the overarching sentiment throughout.
Amina’s Voice
Hena Kan
In this coming-of-age story, Amina and her best friend Soojin must navigate middle school and what it means to be American. Faced with the idea of “fitting in”, Amina contemplates changing her name and hiding her most obvious cultural markers. When her local mosque is vandalized, Amina is forced to reconcile with her own identity. Amina’s Voice is a brave story of finding balance between cultures new and old.
Illegal
Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano (Hodder Books)
Illegal is an engrossing graphic novel that tells the harrowing story of Ebo, who is forced to leave his North African homeland. At only twelve years old, Ebo must make the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, experiencing a vast range of emotions and experiences along the way.
The Epic Fail of Artura Zamora
Pablo Cartaya
Growing up in Miami, thirteen-year-old Artura Zamora is about to embark on a summer of challenges, complicated by the presence of Carmen, who moves into the neighborhood and consumes Arturo’s thoughts. Artura becomes a hero in the community when he uses poetry and the art of Jose Marti as a form of protest against neighborhood gentrification.
Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History
Vashti Harrison (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Little Leaders features forty inspiring role models in history, including Sojourner Truth, Bessie Coleman, Alice Ball and Maya Angelou. The text is beautifully illustrated and captures the imagination of readers of all ages. From science to poetry to advocacy, Harrison relates these true stories of determination with poise and clarity.
Somos Como Las Nubes/We Are Like the Clouds
Jorge Argueta (Groundwood Books)
We Are Like the Clouds is an honest collection of bilingual poems that relate the experience of child migration from Central America to the United States. The poems tell stories from a variety of perspectives and capture sentiments of fear, sorrow, adventure, desperation, hope, and resilience.
The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street
Karina Yan Glaser (Houton Mifflin)
Celebrated as a New York Times Notable Children’s Book of 2017, this book swallows readers up in the story of a large bi-racial family known as the Vanderbeekers, and the beloved brownstone they’ve always called home. When Beiderman, the not-so-nice landlord, refuses to renew their lease, the Vanderbeekers must use all of their combined creativity to keep their home.
YOUNG ADULT
The Stars Beneath Our Feet
David Barclay Moore (Knopf)
Lolly Rachpaul is a twelve-year-old boy living in Harlem. He and his mother are still grieving the loss of Lolly’s older brother, who was lost to gang violence. A gift of Legos changes the course of Lolly’s life, marking a path toward friendship, purpose, overcoming and eventual healing. This remarkable coming of age story is heartfelt and speaks to the combined power of self-determination and human connectivity.
The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas (Walker)
Thomas’ debut novel about Starr Carter is a Black Lives Matter inspired testament to our times. Starr’s friend Khalil is shot and killed by a police officer as she watches. The consequences are many, rippling into the community and rattling Starr’s existence. This is a potent look at modern race issues, tempered by the goodness of community and the strength of human resolve.
See You in the Cosmos
Jack Cheng
See You in the Cosmos is an endearing story of 11-year old Alex, who records his travels throughout the American southwest on his iPod, with the hopes of one day launching the device into space. Sharing in Alex’s adventures are his troubled mother and sidekick of a dog, Carl Sagan. Alex’s experiences lead him to recognize that the destination is the journey and that family is where- and what- you make of it.
American Street
Ibi Zoboi (Balzer & Bray)
Teenager Fabiola Toussaint expects to find joy and ease after making it from Port-au-Prince to Detroit. She is faced with a different version of reality when her mother is detained by U.S. immigration. Fabiola now wrestles with high school in a new country, the overbearing presence of her cousins, a feeling that must certainly be love- and at the forefront, a desperate drive to free her mother.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
Erica L. Sanchez
Julia has always been compared to her “perfect” sister Olga. In fact, Julia's family struggles to understand her motive to leave the family and move away to college. When her sister is killed in a tragic car accident, Julia faces even more pressure to live up to the daughter Olga was. Julia is already juggling new life and new love- and now must face the loss of Olga and the truth about who her sister really might have been. In all of this, Julia begins to reconcile with the past, make peace with her Mexican heritage and discover her own self worth.
Piecing Me Together
Renee Watson
Jade is a determined and bright young women fighting an upward incline of social mobility. She has set out to leave her neighborhood to find success. She is awarded a scholarship to a predominately white school and is taken under the wings of powerful black female advisors. Yet, Jade struggles to identify completely with her old world or her new one. She eventually learns to value all that her less-privileged upbringing taught her. These lessons are part of her identity and become part of her own success story. Watson elegantly tackles race, privilege, and identity in this coming-of-age treat.
When Dimple Met Rishi
Sandhya Menon
Menon has crafted a lighthearted YA romance that places her protagonist at the crossroads of cultural tradition and modern aspirations. Dimple Shah has recently graduated high school and is off to a summer academy for web developers. There, she meets Rishi, the same boy her parents selected as her “suggested arrangement”. While Dimple shuns the idea of an arranged marriage, Rishi welcomes it. Despite their differences, the two are drawn together, and eventually discover a connection that surprises them both. New York Times bestseller and winner of multiple book awards
The Girl from Aleppo: Nujeen’s Escape from War to Freedom
Nujeen Mustafa and Christina Lamb
Lamb, co-author of I Am Malala has joined with Nujeen Mustafa to relate another incredible true story. Sixteen-year-old Nujeen was forced to flee Syria amid the destruction and terror of civil war. Her journey is complicated by the fact that she is has cerebral palsy is bound to a wheelchair, making her escape more challenging and dangerous. Nujeen’s quest for safety becomes a sixteen-month odyssey across the Mediterranean and through a number of countries before at last finding haven in Germany. A Girl From Aleppo offers a window into the tragic events in Syria and through one young woman’s story of hardship, perseverance, and overcoming.
Connecting ELD & Academic Language
Rights Reserved. RefugeeClassroom, 2018.
“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.” – Flora Lewis
Language learning engages some of our most complex cognitive capacities. Growing our understanding of how language acquisition works helps us to better address the needs of our new-to-English learners. Indeed, "Academic Language is believed to be one of the most important factors in the academic success of English Language Learners, and it has been shown to be a major contributor to achievement gaps between ELLs and English-proficient students." (Willis, 2013).
We’ll look at language acquisition under two distinct umbrellas: English Language Development (ELD) and Academic Language. The first refers to direct language use and function (social expressiveness), while the latter addresses content-specific communication. New-to-English speakers typically achieve conversational language fluency at or around two years of practice; academic language proficiency can take five to seven years to develop.
Teaching for ELLs requires a dedication to English Language Development. ELD instruction is deliberately designed to promote language proficiency and overall school success. As a learner develops the ability to navigate basic language use and function, he or she can begin to access academic language components. Basic social expressiveness falls under the realm of ELD. These elemental mechanisms of inter-personal communication are essential for successful integration and can be heard in the hallways and lunchrooms and on the bus or playground.
Here’s what we need to keep in mind about English Language Development:
· It is the basic infrastructure for language learning
· It is necessary for communication
· Language acquisition is the primary goal
· ELD is structured around Tier 1 and Tier 2 words
· ELD instruction should be continued, even as academic language is introduced
· ELD instruction benefits cooperative structures, team building, classroom culture, information processing.
· ELD techniques can be effectively used in whole class settings across a range of language ability levels (including non-ELLs!) to grow command of the English language.
English, in the context of ELD, is explicitly taught using specific strategies that are shown to enhance and accelerate language acquisition. Instruction often occurs in small group settings and focuses on the domains of listening and speaking to build efficacy in the areas of reading and writing. ELD efforts provide opportunities to learn and practice English vocabulary, syntax, conventions, functions, grammar and registers. Student engagement is enhanced through the implementation of sheltered instruction techniques and consistent ongoing feedback toward student growth.
The goal of ELD is to provide ELs a foundation on which academic language constructs can be mapped, built and renovated. Students require academic language proficiency in order to navigate the classroom experience, to fully participate content learning and to express knowledge in school-appropriate ways. Students encounter academic language in learning objectives, textbooks, course/content exercises and standardized testing materials. Writer and researcher Todd Finley summarizes: "Academic language is a meta-language that helps learners acquire the 50,000 words that they are expected to have internalized by the end of high school."
Here’s what we need to keep in mind about academic language, or integrated ELD:
· It is discipline and content specific
· It grows from basic conversational fluency
· Academic language is explicitly taught in direct content context
· It is standards based and essential for school success
· Academic language is structured Tier 2 words and beyond
· Academic language includes and expands upon essential ELD principles (vocabulary, syntax, grammar, conventions and functions)
· Sheltered instruction techniques can also used for the purpose of teaching and clarifying academic language
· ELD/social language aptitude is not an accurate indicator for academic language proficiency
As educators, we can encourage the shift from social language to academic content language in organic ways. One approach is to assist language learners in making conscious moves to “upgrade” known language. In this way, we can scaffold the transition toward advanced content-specific vernacular, or “juicy” words, in elementary-teacher talk.
Let's look at some examples in shifting from social to academic language:
· Know: recognize, experience, comprehend
· See: observe, examine, distinguish
· Think: determine, consider, summarize
· Guess: predict, wonder, imagine
· Show: demonstrate, prove, establish
· Write: record, compose, formulate
It is important to point out that social and academic English need not (and should not) be mutually exclusive entities in the classroom context. Each serves a unique purpose and supports the other. In fact, conversational English is an essential tool for teaching, clarifying and exchanging ideas around academic language.
We can refer to the structure of language building as an "iceberg". At the tip of the iceberg, above the surface, social language proficiency is demonstrated (as output defined under ELD). This is what we hear when we engage with our students. It provides a snapshot of an individual's level of BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills). Below the surface, we find the deeper, more complex tier of academic-content language, associated with CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). The wide bottom platform of the iceberg represents language mastery.
We can make the (often overwhelming) task of learning a new language more manageable when we shape our instruction in purposeful, developmentally appropriate ways. That is, we can provide students opportunities to achieve language mastery by building on the brain’s holistic tendency to sequentially stack learning according to accessibility and complexity. We show intentionality in our work with language learners by building on known language and scaffolding into new domains.
School success for ELLs requires an integrated approach that combines English Language Development and explicit academic-content language instruction in a ways that are tailored to a student's English language capacity at a given time, in a given space. In this way, students are able to work toward the successful negotiation of both worlds on a continuum toward language mastery. After all, assures artist and intellect Edmund De Waal,
"With languages, you are at home anywhere."
Crafting a Language Rich Classroom
Traits of a Language Rich Classroom
Language rich environments promote direct interaction with contextual print and vocabulary in facilitative, non-threatening ways. These types of learning environments are especially critical for ELLs, who are likely to have had limited exposure to literacy in the new language. Classrooms can and should be designed to promote literacy accessibility across all language and reading levels. Print rich environments accomplish this by providing students many different opportunities to engage in many different components of language and literacy.
The key in creating an effective print-rich environment is to first evaluate the specific ages, interests and learning needs of a student population. An 8th grade Newcomer classroom should not reflect the learning or interest needs of an kindergarten Newcomer classroom, a 3rd grade ESL classroom or a sophomore Geography class. Print-rich planning should encourage rigorous, grade-level content learning by making language more accessible to developing readers and language learners.
The good news: creating a language rich learning environment is not rocket science. In fact, you are likely incorporating many literacy-promoting techniques in your school or classroom right now. Our aim, then, is to grow and refine our repertoire. The following ideas can be employed across multiple grade and content levels. Start with two or three; add on as the school year progresses.
Exposing children to more than one form of communication sparks interest and interest turns into learning. This connection quickly becomes the making of meaning for reading. –Leyva & McClure, et al.
· Rebus Labeling: Familiar items (door, bookshelf, glue) should be clearly labeled and in student view. Labeling works best when combined with an image. To avoid over-stimulation, refrain from labeling every item in the room. For example, one “ window” tag is sufficient, even if there are four windows in the room.
· Content Language Objectives: CLOs should be visible at child-height, clearly printed and worded in student-friendly ways. Objectives should be read aloud and together with students at the beginning of each lesson and revisited throughout. Eventually, academic frames used in Content Language Objectives will become predictable; and individual or small groups of students may have the responsibility of reading CLOs aloud to the class.
· Student-created books: Learners develop special relationships with stories and books they create. The act of physically and mentally composing text makes it relatable and “readable” in subsequent visits to the material, even if a child is not yet actually (or fully) literate in the text language. Student-created books also encourage sequencing and oral production and fluency, when shared aloud.
· Teacher-created books: Teacher-created books serve many of the same functions and advantages of student-created texts. Instructor-created books, however, are more deliberate in their use of content-based vocabulary, target sight words and proper grammar and punctuation.
· Name Labels: Students love seeing their name- it’s also a great way to encourage print concepts! Options: label student photos, desks, lockers, cubbies, notebooks, attendance markers
· Displayed Co-Created Work: These samples should remain in student view for the day or days for which they are relevant. Ideas include: morning message, whole group text summaries, co-created objectives, daily weather or “news” reports.
· Print-based charts: Essential charts are very helpful. Again, the caution is in not overdoing it. Too many posters create clutter and issues with over-stimulation. Pick and choose carefully, and re-adjust as students’ specific learning and unit needs change. Examples: days of the week, months of the year, weather, colors, sight words, planets, homonyms, life cycle, Pledge of Allegiance. Alphabet, calendars, schedules, directions, number line, teacher helpers, anchor charts and rubrics are posted in clear student view and referred to often.
· Frequent Read-Alouds: Listening to teacher read-alouds and audio read-alouds of text encourage auditory processing and help students learn to identify and use appropriate intonation and emphasis. Tip: Read like an adult. Learners should hear (and learn to mimic) natural tonal fluctuation.
· Language Based Technology and Media: Computer-based programs that support language learning and literacy can be incorporated as station work. Watch for: computer use as a crutch, diversion or means of “occupying” a learner during mainstream instruction.
· Displayed Student Work: This is a very powerful tool for promoting student confidence and encouraging learners to read and reflect on peer accomplishments. Posted teacher celebrations on the work (or peer celebrations) also encourage reading!
· Writing Centers: Writing centers are a chance for students to explore print and practice skills in differentiated ways. Provide different sized writing tools to develop fine motor skills and interesting paper sources that invite participation. Suggestions: shopping lists, thank-you cards, Pen Pal writing, journaling, invitations, notes to teachers and school personnel, postcards, reading response logs. Early writers will benefit from sentence stems and graphic organizer choices.
· Teacher-print: Teacher-printed dictation, summaries of student expression, daily vocabulary or other relevant items are meaningful to students as models for appropriate spelling, spacing, punctuation and print.
· Murals: Whole class murals invite students to contribute understanding and insight on a theme in ways that are accessible to each at his or her own language development level. A mural on the story, Swimmy, by Leo Leonni, for example, might include a story line or multiple story lines; labeled pictures of fish, characters with thinking or speaking bubbles; pictures or descriptions of the environment; single or multi-sentence structures about the story; opinions on characters or plot; or non-fiction statements about fish. A word of note: language development is key. That is, while illustration is an important element of mural work, it should not be the only element. Encourage students to exchange topic-focused thoughts with their peers as they work and to include some variation of print expression with every illustration.
· Classroom Libraries: Inviting, comfortable classroom libraries are an essential component of the Newcomer classroom (or any classroom!). Exemplary classroom libraries are age, ability and interest appropriate, and they are representative of a global community. Newcomer classrooms are especially diverse and include an incredible range of reading and interest levels; libraries should reflect this diversity. Books should be organized and clearly labeled. Students will benefit from reading books at their level and also exploring other texts in interest areas that are outside of reader ability. Early readers, especially, will learn to explore print concepts, picture cues, captions, directionality and broad content idea-shaping. Depending on the age and grade level, Newcomer classroom libraries areas should include:
o Picture, dual language (where applicable), English dictionaries
o Tactile and Predictable Picture Books
o Special-interest books
o Multi-cultural books
o Dual-language books, where accessible
o Grade-level content texts with supports
o Maps and atlases
o Magazines
o Play-based and life-based print: magnetic letters, menus, phone books, recipes, bus schedules, business cards
· Word Walls: As many thoughts and ideas exist on word walls as word walls themselves. Alphabetically, by unit, by tiers, by reading group, by color code? Growing throughout the year or rotating through? So many choices! Bottom line? They work! Ask around, try different variations… see what works best for you, then modify and refine.
· Theme displays: Theme displays are helpful in anchoring ideas related to an ongoing unit. These are excellent areas to post unit vocabulary, charts, pictures, student work and teacher dictation related to a topic.
· Involve parents: This may be the most important trait of all. Most Newcomer parents do wish to help their students learn English and succeed in school. The most commonly heard Newcomer parent frustration? The feeling of helplessness that arises in wanting to aid their child in at-home learning, while working through language learning themselves. In the vast majority of cases, Newcomer parents are eager to take part in their child’s successes and are open to guidance from the teacher and school. So- make this process fun! Allow for activities that can be completed as a family. Host parents at the school to discuss cultural expectations around parent involvement in learning and creating quiet “homework” spaces at home. Invite parents to share their strengths with students. Parents can gain confidence by working with their children on math, teaching them the history of their heritage country, creating regional maps, or explaining in-depth science concepts in the native language. Learning is a collaborative process- and parents are an essential link!
Download & print Language Functional Survey (GREAT for classroom observations!) 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.