NJ Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages/
NJ Bilingual Educators

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Early Childhood

What’s New in the Early Childhood Education

By Karen Nemeth and Sandee McBride

The Early Childhood Special Interest Group met on Tuesday and Wednesday during the conference this year; it is great to see our numbers growing. At both meetings we discussed the same topics. We shared some new resources with our members and talked about their questions and concerns. We also presented highlights from the draft version of New Jersey’s upcoming kindergarten implementation guidelines in order to get input from our members about the items describing best practices for ELLs. Sandee McBride has participated in the NJDOE planning committee that worked on developing these guidelines.

Sandee and Karen, the SIG co-coordinators, appreciated the spirited discussions that focused mainly on allowable interpretations of the NJ Bilingual Education Code for preschool, coordinating services for young ELLs in special education, and strategies for language assessment of entering and exiting kindergarten students who speak different languages. We all agreed that these discussions had just begun when it was time for the meeting to end. We developed a plan for additional SIG meetings during the year to allow more in-depth exploration of these topics. We are hoping to have a meeting in August at a central location. Please send your email and contact information to Sandee McBride or Karen Nemeth so that we can be sure to send you meeting information and updates.

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ESL Middle School 6-8

Preparing for the Unknown

By Tina Kern

Another conference is over. Once again I’ve met many colleagues, enjoyed learning about ways to improve my classroom and skills, and made many promises.

First, an apology to those that I met and promised to send along information from my SIG and my workshop. I was involved in a very bad accident and am just emerging from the shock it caused. Even after realizing how very fortunate I was after being extracted from my car, it has taken some time as I am becoming “myself” again. I will catch up and have made a list to “to do” items, including the aforementioned.

Second, I want to thank everyone who attended the conference. I am grateful that so many professionals, no matter how long they have taught, are willing to travel and spend time in order to remain current on topics that are crucial to success in our field. Many of us have felt great pressure asking for professional days and substitutes, yet we persist because district staff development is definitely not enough for ELL and bilingual professionals. We need to further explore topics, “touch base” with colleagues, and explore options for our students. What is adequate for regular classroom teachers is not enough for us to meet the needs of all of our students. We have to understand when language development is impeded by other issues. We have to know how to adapt district objectives for children whose first language is not English.

In particular, I would like to thank the many members of NJTESOL/NJBE who attended SIG meetings. With our meetings, ideas are readily exchanged, and concerns that perhaps are paramount in some districts and not others, are brought to the attention of our group. We are not alone teaching our ELLs. Even if you are the only teacher for ELLs in a school or district, we have a network of teachers for support. That is why we have Special Interest Groups. Our meetings now are not just relegated to annual meetings at the conference; we can continue in cyberspace: through email lists and blogs, etc. We will continue our discussions and I will reach out to you during the summer to explore the possibilities.

Recently, I attended a workshop by Will Richardson. He wrote Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. He is constantly involved in the Web and utilizes it for almost everything imaginable. He acknowledged that his role demanded constant monitoring of the Internet in all forms, and he has a huge following, which now includes me. At this meeting, one of my colleagues was weary of the manner in which our students socialize on the Internet. Often children are bullied and belittled as they share what many of us consider private information.

I am a private person who, though I embrace technology, and everything connected with this beautiful new universe, shies away from sharing my lunch and dinner stories with one hundred of my “best” friends. But, unlike my colleague, I realize that our students are very much a part of this new world. It doesn’t matter if we believe that too much is shared as privacy becomes a word far removed from the reality of today. Some of our students will work in jobs that are not yet created and we need to be able to lead our children in positive directions with technology that they must learn to use responsibly. So our role changes and continually morphs as we teach and guide our ESL Middle School 6 – 8 students to explore other possibilities in our computer world. It is not enough anymore to be just adequate. We must transcend our traditional roles. Many of our students don’t even know what reliable sources are and how to negotiate the web that I know, and the one that Will Richardson visits regularly.

So as I peruse my previous articles I come across a phrase once again that seems to sum up my philosophy: “What you don’t know can hurt you.” In so many ways, we must reach out, remain current, explore, and be part of learning communities so that we teach responsibly and masterfully.I am ecstatic to be part of this movement forward, and look forward to sharing my journey with you.

Tina Kern is the ESL Middle School SIG Representative. She teaches in the Morris School District.

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ESL Secondary

The Importance of the NJTESOL/NJBE Conference

By Christina Namendorf

I prepared for the 2010 NJTESOL-NJBE Conference, as I do each year, highlighting workshops to attend, thinking of my own presentation, and debating about what materials I would like to view for the next school year. But that is not the true importance of this conference for me:the greatest part of attending the NJTESOL-NJBE Conference each year is meeting other enthusiastic ESL and bilingual teachers from across the state with ideas and challenges similar to my own! As I thought about all of the aspects of this conference, I realized that is what makes this impact my teaching the most – the relationships that I make with the other attendees.

This year I sat to eat my lunch with a colleague from my own district; we were discussing the successes of our year. As we sat there, another group of teachers from another district sat down and began to have an identical conversation. We stopped them and introduced ourselves and our district. It was amazing how many similarities our districts and populations had. We were both in small number districts with a wide variety of languages with mixed level classes, as well as all being traveling teachers. It empowered me to find out how much that we did alike and to share our ideas, successes, and failures with teachers much like ourselves just a few towns away! I feel that this is where the true value of this conference lies. 

So often we feel isolated and misunderstood by many teachers and administrators in our districts but at the NJTESOL-NJBE Conference we find a group that not only understands but deals  with the same struggles across the state. It amazes me how important it is to have allies fighting about the unfairness of AHSA for our high school students or the pains of giving a state test to the student who speaks little to no English yet. These relationships and connections to other teachers inspire us to all reach a little further the next school year. It is my pleasure to meet my colleagues from across the state and share our ideas.

Christina Namendorf is the Secondary ESL SIG Representative. She teaches ESL and English for ELLs at Sayreville War Memorial High School in Sayreville, New Jersey. 

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Bilingual & ESL Secondary

Group Meetings about AHSA

By Janet Kaback and Christina Namendorf

The bilingual and secondary ESL special group meetings (SIGs) were held jointly since the majority of our issues at the secondary level overlap. We can tell you that Tuesday’s meeting was a rollicking, exciting place to be as we discussed the AHSA (Alternative High School Assessment)! The attendance was standing room only and most attendees participated. Wednesday’s Meeting was calmer but most of the issues and comments were similar to those of Tuesday.

The AHSA, born from the SRA (Special Review Assessment) was administered for the first time in January 2010, providing an alternate assessment for high school seniors who failed the HSPA (High School Proficiency Assessment). However, the exam was not field-tested and the directions for administering the test were not clear as you will see from the information gleaned from our SIG meetings:

• Scoring: When an exam is scored by half points, such as between 3 and 4, it appears that the test didn’t go to a third reader.
• Correlation with HSPA: The Performance Assessment Tasks (PATS) on the translated Spanish exam appeared to be more difficult than on the English version. How were these scored in comparison to the HSPA?
• Time: The three week window to administer the exam was too short. It cut into teaching time.
• Difficulty: The length and difficulty level of the reading passages in English was way above the levels recommended for ELLs or students who have recently entered mainstream classes.
• Test Administration: The AHSA was administered differently in most districts which means that the time allotted and the results will be skewed. In some districts, students were pulled out of their classes to take the AHSA, where they remained in the testing site until they  were finished, not being allowed to return to the PAT once they had  begun it. In others, students took the AHSA during their ESL or  testing periods, and were allowed to return to the previously  started PAT to complete it. In still others, the AHSA was  administered during certain classes and before/after school. This  kind of variation in the administration of a high- stakes test does  not allow us to make legitimate comparisons of the results. There were too many variables.
• Language: The Native Language booklets were available in Spanish, Portuguese, and Gujarati. More languages are needed.

Students taking the AHSA were able to take the exam in either English or their native language (if it were available). However, ELLs who needed to take the Language Arts Literacy portion in their native language were forced to take the Math in their L1 as well because they could not change booklets midstream. They were allowed to change the language of the test in the next window but only for the total booklet. This presents a problem for the students who learn math in English but needed to take the LA Literacy portion in their L1.

A number of questions and/or suggestions were offered by the participants:

• Provide an extended window of time so that the AHSA does not interfere with school tests, vacations, or other academic events previously planned in the school calendars;
• Provide more native languages with a sufficient number of booklets printed and distributed to the districts;
• Translators: Who translated the exams? What were their qualifications? Did these same people score the exams?
• Scorers: Who scored the AHSA in the native languages? What kind of training did the raters receive? How many were certified to teach ESL? The native languages?
• Too much testing –from ACCESS to AHSA;
• Why not use the ACCESS as students are over-tested?
• Send the scoring rubric to the districts at the beginning of the school year so that students and teachers have time with which to become familiar with its use;
• For borderline scores, multiple criteria should be implemented to determine if a student will graduate. For example, a bridging student who failed the HSPA by a minimal number of points should have their bridging scores on the ACCESS taken into account to determine a passing grade;
• Culture-based and regional expressions were used, as were idioms. These confuse the students as they are not able to be translated for comprehension;
• There should be a data analysis of the percentage of ELLs that correlates the GPA, the HSPA scores, with the AHSA to see trends, if any.

Throughout both meetings, many stories were shared about individual students. Some students said they might drop out since they will not get a diploma anyway, while others had scholarships waiting that might be lost along with their opportunity to attend college. Most of the high school teachers at the meeting felt that the students were overwhelmed and frustrated and that many had given up entirely. Sadly, our population is tested many times throughout the year with ACCESS, HSPA, district language tests, and now AHSA. These students could be passing all of their classes and attending graduation but not receiving a diploma due to one test score! Hearing these stories, it became clear that we must advocate strongly for our students!

State politicians and legislators must heed our voices fighting for the rights of our students. We asked everyone at the meeting to write to the members of our state legislature to give back to our students their hopes and their futures by changing the unfounded and unfair results of this test. Thank you to all who attended the meetings; we look forward to seeing you all next year.

Janet Kaback is the Secondary Bilingual SIG Representative. She teaches Social Studies (Spanish Bilingual) at East Side High School in Newark, New Jersey.

Christina Namendorf is the Secondary ESL SIG Representative. She teaches ESL and English for ELLs at Sayreville War Memorial High School in Sayreville, New Jersey.

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Higher Education

Notes From Four Different Conferences

By Marianne Hsu Santelli

I went to four conferences this past year: NCTE (National Council for Teachers of English) in November, the Celebration for Teaching and Learning in March, NJTESOL/NJBE in May, and the Teaching Professor also in May.  

Only one, NJTESOL-NJBE, was discipline specific; only one, The Teaching Professor, was higher education oriented. I paid for three of the four conferences myself and will not receive any  reimbursement. Each of the four offered material for all educators whether public or private, elementary or higher ed. 

From each, I have taken away “stuff” that I can use or adapt immediately in my college class- room; some of the other “stuff” I have to store for later. From all, I take away new enthusiasm and  energy. 

 At the NCTE conference, I was reintroduced to Ralph Fletcher and his reasons for using writing notebooks. Among them are that notebooks are “non-threatening; they help us live like writers, and they can be used across the curriculum.” There are his books, Marshfield Dreams (memoir writing), Twilight Comes Twice, Harvest Moon (poetry), and Writer’s Notebook (writing fluency) accompanied by great illustrations which are very user/reader/teacher-friendly. I took home some of his enthusiasm and an admiration for his creativity; especially for  his joy of writing for an audience. I am committed to trying writing notebooks in my community college writing classes again.

I then attended the Celebration of Teaching and Learning, where Adobe youth Voices introduced me to extraordinary examples of students’ use of art and multimedia to create compelling photo essays and videos, presentations, and animations. From this session, I increased my curiosity for animation and a hope of involving my college learners in developing video, digital stories, graphic novels, and anime to help them connect their reading with their writing.

In May, I attended two conferences: the NJTESOL/NJBE, Inc., Annual Conference, and later,  the Teaching Professor Conference. At the NJTESOL/NJBE awards dinner, students were recognized for outstanding accomplishments and this was great. Later, I attended a session given by Lessonwriter. The original version had some glitches, but  these have been resolved and the newest version (e.g. larger print type, more connection to standards, and the potential for lesson differentiation) is much better. I left with a renewed admiration  for software creators and for their willingness to share. 

Finally, the Teaching Professor Conference was one that I had never attended before but was very pleased to have gone. There, I attended “How to Wake Up Your Students: Getting Started in Active Learning” facilitated by Ed Neal. It was the last session of the day and many of us were tired but there we sat hoping to learn some techniques to keep our students alert. It was remarkable how Neal kept us awake! His clear and concise presentation was full of information and short meaningful activities. I have taken from him the perspective that we should never lose our common sense in the classroom and also that active learning  includes active teaching.

So, what’s the point? Simply, it really does not matter if a conference is for ‘me’ or if it is specific to my discipline or the level I teach, or even if it is paid for. It does matter that learning never stops. 

Although higher education is a special interest group of NJTESOL-NJBE, Inc., many of us in higher education were not at the NJTESOL-NJBE May Conference and that’s too bad because there were some good sessions applicable to all of us. It is our going to and participating in conferences that makes them relevant.

Conferences provide us with an opportunity to explore outside our comfort zones; we learn new things that we can always adapt and use; old “stuff” re-energizes us. We find old friends and make new friends with whom we can discuss all sorts of issues. So, plan ahead for the NJTESOL-NJBE May Conference in 2011. I hope to meet you there. 

Links to the organizations mentioned: https://ncte.org/; https://njtesol-njbe.org; https://www.teachingprofessor.com/ 

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Special Education

Group Roundtables

By Dave Greer

The Special Education Special Interest Group had two roundtable meetings at the 2010 NJTESOL/NJBE Spring Conference. Each day consisted of conversations that included a discussion of the benefits and potential issues that arise with Response to Intervention (RTI). Remember, RTI is a method that is used to help identify students with Specific Learning Disability (SLD) and to provide those students with appropriate academic and behavioral interventions to assist them in learning at an appropriate level. Traditionally and concurrently, the usual method for identifying SLD has been a reliance on a discrepancy between IQ and achievement assessments. The traditional model has come under much scrutiny since its inception; therefore, RTI is seen as an alternative way to help identify students with SLD. The conversations started with a discussion of RTI but changed quickly to meet the needs of the participants. The discussion from the first day was informed by ESL educators from all levels and elementary school special education teachers. It was enlightening to hear issues from both teachers of ELLs and special needs students. Some of the major concerns were that it is often difficult to identify if a student has a learning disability or is not working at an appropriate linguistic level. Each district has different criteria for identifying learning disabilities in ELLs. The discussion from the second day was focused on ELLs with learning disabilities at the post-secondary school level and how to appropriately meet their needs. I am looking forward to continuing these conversations over the next year until the 2011 NJTESOL-NJBE Spring Conference! Dave Greer teaches ESL and World Languages in the Westfield School District. The Special Education Special Interest Group had two roundtable meetings at the 2010 NJTESOL/NJBE Spring Conference. Each day consisted of conversations that included a discussion of the benefits and potential issues that arise with Response to Intervention (RTI). Remember, RTI is a method that is used to help identify students with Specific Learning Disability (SLD) and to provide those students with appropriate academic and behavioral interventions to assist them in learning at an appropriate level. Traditionally and concurrently, the usual method for identifying SLD has been a reliance on a discrepancy between IQ and achievement assessments. The traditional model has come under much scrutiny since its inception; therefore, RTI is seen as an alternative way to help identify students with SLD. The conversations started with a discussion of RTI but changed quickly to meet the needs of the participants.

The discussion from the first day was informed by ESL educators from all levels and elementary school special education teachers. It was enlightening to hear issues from both teachers of ELLs and special needs students. Some of the major concerns were that it is often difficult to identify if a student has a learning disability or is not working at an appropriate linguistic level. Each district has different criteria for identifying learning disabilities in ELLs. The discussion from the second day was focused on ELLs with learning disabilities at the post-secondary school level and how to appropriately meet their needs. I am looking forward to continuing these conversations over the next year until the 2011 NJTESOL-NJBE Spring Conference!

Dave Greer teaches ESL and World Languages in the Westfield School District.

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Teacher Education

Changes in Teaching and Learning a Second Language

By Gail Verdi

The Teacher Education Special Interest Group meeting that was held at the 2010 NJTESOL/NJBE Conference on Tuesday, May 18th , was attended by both faculty that run TESOL programs as well as educators from schools and universities. We began the session by adjusting my original question: In the spring of 2010, I asked the VOICES readership to consider what forms of background knowledge, pedagogical skills, and postures teachers need in order to support L2 students as they ac-quire 21st century literacy skills. However, the group that met reframed the question to: How has teaching and learning a second language changed in the 21st century?

The consensus amongst the attendees was that populations have changed. According to the teachers present at our roundtable, there has been an increase in immigrant populations that have interrupted education. The definition of a student who has had either Limited Formal Schooling (LFS) or Interrupted Formal Education (IFE) is described as a newcomer to the United States who has arrived with little or no formal schooling and is assessed to be at least three grades behind students of a the same age. These students are either pre- or semi-literate, lack an understanding of school culture and how schools are organized, and perform below grade level. Although participants did not discuss particular trends in immigration during this session, it was clear that educators are aware of their students’ need sand are looking for materials and methods that will help integrate students with LFS into the classroom culture while continuing to service students that come to school having had formal schooling. We all agreed that the most important part of our jobs is to understand the community in which we work and the students that we are charged with teaching. Therefore, finding opportunities to learn about our students’ lives and educational backgrounds is paramount to understanding how to help support them at their points of need. The group shared suggestions about useful materials; the following resources were collected:

[Note: Only some of the links are still available.]

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