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

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What haunted me was the question:  Why were the girls put in entirely different placements?  They were both born in this country, but spoke Spanish almost exclusively until entering school. Of course, the researcher in me was curious as to the outcome of this informal and totally unintentional study of two girls that were somehow separate, but so equal in so many ways. The obvious solution to so many questions was to contact the previous school and teachers…and so I did.

I can’t say that I got definitive answers; it  was just “more of the same”. Let me just list some questions and answers I’ve received from various sources at various times:

• Why was the child retained in kindergarten?  He/She wasn’t making good progress; language was poor; since the child was small, he/she would fit in with the other kindergarteners next year.

As for the placement:

• Why was one put in bilingual education and one in ESL? We wanted them separated.

In fact, the answers created more questions and so I continued my pursuit in order to understand and, thus, provide the best program for these girls that now were a regular classroom setting with ESL instruction. 

First, I searched for answers as to the separation of the twins in school, a decision which ultimately led to the placement of one girl in ESL and the other in a total bilingual program. This separation was more than an effort to afford more individuality and independent behavior; it fostered two separate and distinct models of education for these twins.

I didn’t know enough about placement of twins and so searched for information. I found various articles and research.  Many alluded to the parents’ role and/or the administration/educational aspect of the determination. Some articles admitted that there were minimal comprehensive studies as to separating twins, but those I read did advocate placing twins together in classes during their early education, and then separating them.  Certainly, if twins were not placed in the same classroom, studies advocated consistent education for them (Clearinghouse for Early Education and Parenting).

“When multiple-birth children are enrolled in different classrooms at the same grade level, there is a need for a consistent approach to instruction and classroom management.” (NOMOTC, 2000, pp.29-31).

One of the most complete longitudinal studies was a British study by Lucy Tully of the
Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, UK:

“First, relative to twins not separated, twins who were separated in the first year of school had more internalizing problems…”  In addition, “there was some evidence that separated twins experienced more academic problems than non-separated twins…” 

This study approaches the effect of separation as a “pattern” in the development of the twins in the educational setting.

As to the second issue in our case, kindergarten retention is a “hot button” for many in the field of ESL, and, indeed, in all of education. A Medical News Today  article (Oct 2005)  touts the title Kindergarten Retention Fails to Help Academic Achievement:

“A new examination of research on this perennially controversial issue indicates that retention does not improve achievement among kindergartners in reading or mathematics, nor does it facilitate instruction by making classrooms more homogeneous academically.” (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/mnt/releases/31495#1) 

Of course, as ESL educators, retention becomes more complicated.  We don’t want to hold a child back because the student hasn’t mastered his second language.  That would be unconscionable. If one is considering retention for an ELL and the reason is other than a second language problem, dig deeper and attend to the problem.  The answer probably won’t be ameliorated by having the young child repeat the grade.   Consider various options and methods. Reach out to colleagues in other schools and districts.

Finally, though, the futility of this exercise in trying to find answers just emphasized certain aspects of our career choice as ESL/bilingual educators, namely:

• The importance of being current and informed
• The importance of being thorough in the decisions we make
• The importance of communication
• The importance of questioning
• The importance of advocating.

What concerned me was revisiting the simplicity of the statement: the decisions made for a child by educators early in his education has far-reaching consequences.  It is such an uncomplicated concept, a “no-brainer”, yet how many of us are alone in a school and/or district as experts in our field, stressed for answers “now”, and still take the time to ascertain that the knowledge of the child, the situation and the law are current?  I hope we all do.  I hope we all check the state bilingual website regularly, among others.

What we ultimately decide influences a child’s educational future.  In fact, the beginning of a child’s education could determine the outcome.  We must not make arbitrary decisions.  We must “do no harm” and realize that no one can decide in a vacuum. We should not be afraid to ask or answer.  We must consider our decisions very carefully, based upon best practices, research, and communication with parents, teachers, and administrators.  Test for proficiency in various areas; provide differentiated instruction that is at the child’s level and relevant.  Never assume everything, every mandate, every “given” is the same because rarely is it true.  Your best friend is information. We on the board of NJTESOL/NJBE can be part of your system of support.   Be prepared as you interact with colleagues and give professional advice.  We must be thoughtful, consider the possible outcomes, and reflect upon our determinations.

If you are the only ESL teacher in a school or district, reach out to other ESL teachers, check our NJTESOL/NJBE website, our Face Book page, SIG representatives, contacts you’ve made from attending our chapter meetings and our conference.  It is certainly worthwhile and exhilarating when we come together in May at our Spring Conference and receive current and pertinent information from mentors, authors, leaders in our field and colleagues.  What we share and learn is invaluable.  It is powerful and empowering.  I am looking forward to compelling and exciting workshops.

Also please note that our Special Interest Group has expanded to bilingual and ESL colleagues; please take the time to email me with your current email address so that you can be included as we continue to educate each other, connect, and share experiences.  As always I am looking forward to meeting all of you in person, but until then we will remain connected through our emails.

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Special Interest Groups: Early Childhood

November and December Reflections

By Monica Schnee

November and December are busy months in very different ways. By now, we know our students and we can clearly define our expectations of them. We also know their parents and how to work with them to help them support our work. We have now set a baseline for our students to build on and we have shared their strengths and weaknesses with mainstream classroom teachers and parents alike.

November brought Parent/Teacher Conferences and report cards. I like to hold an ELL Parent Meeting to discuss what parent/teacher conferences mean and what parents should expect. This practice has proven very successful to all stakeholders. Another thing that has helped classroom teachers and parents is having a translation of the school report card for teachers to have with them as they discuss the child’s progress. I have asked parent volunteers to translate our report card into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and I have translated it into Spanish. We also provide a separate ESL report card, which is translated into these languages. Every year brings new challenges and new insights into our students and our profession.

Some reflections on my experience this year conferring with Kindergarten ELL parents:

• We are their link to the classroom teachers: patience, care and letting them know that we are there for them is crucial to their child’s success this first year.

• We are not diagnosticians: parents are looking for answers to their child’s lack of focus, reversed writing, hyperactivity or anxieties. We just need to reassure them that it is early in their child’s academic life and that if they have such concerns, they might want to talk to their pediatrician.

• We have to be particularly sensitive to parents whose child has never been to school. They all have a lot to learn and become adjusted to.

• When parents ask about whether to teach their child to write in their own language or English, I encourage them to help their child become phonemically aware in their home language and I have copies of  two great articles that Karen Nemeth shared with us this fall: Mapping the Literacy Development of Bilingual Children by Maria Fusaro, and Teaching Children to Read and Write in More Than One Orthography: Tips for Parents Bby Xiao-lei Wang, Pace University.  [Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, neither of these pages are available anymore.]

• When parents ask us how they can help their child by reading to them in English , correct their developmental spelling, or have them memorize high frequency words, just  remind them that their child puts in a full day’s work at school. They can help them by reading to them in their own language and allowing them to play, do crafts, read what they like or just rest!

I realize that so many parents are looking for parental advice. They need “Parenting 101” so they can understand not only the academic aspects of school but also the social, emotional, and behavioral demands.

Thanksgiving is a time to have your ELL parents join you for a fun lesson on the meaning of this holiday for Americans. I go through the history, share the traditional foods and some recipes and show them a wonderful video of the Plimoth Plantation so they can keep it in mind for a family visit. 

December is always busy with class parties, making gingerbread houses, cutting the first snowflakes and the holiday concert. It is always a wonderful time to invite your parents to join you to discuss different end-of-year celebrations. It is also a time when you find that so many of our learners have finally “cracked the Kindergarten code”! They have now truly become Kindergartners.

On that note, please remember that our Spring Conference is a great forum to share successes, best practices, and concerns. 

*WIDA Update:  The 2012 WIDA Standards will no longer include standards for Pre-K. According to WIDA, they are in the process of developing new Pre- K standards separate from the K- 12.

Monica Schnee is the Early Childhood Special Interest Group Representative.

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Special Interest Groups: ESL Elementary Grades 1 – 5

Bilingual and ESL Education Through the Years

By Noreen Drucker

Teaching English to second language learners has changed drastically in the last 40 years. We have gone from a nation that demanded instruction in a language the student could understand to a nation tied to the requirements of NCLB. Today  we struggle to break those ties and design  an educational system that will make our students successful in school and in life. So maybe it is the perfect time to reflect on what has happened in ESL and what the future holds for us and our students.

Let’s go back for a moment to the early 70’s. The place is San Francisco-a synopsis of Lau vs. Nichols still in effect today….

Probably the most important legal event for bilingual education was the Lau v. Nichols case, which was brought against the San Francisco Unified School District by the parents of nearly 1,800 Chinese students. It began as a discrimination case in 1970 when a poverty lawyer decided to represent a Chinese student who was failing in school because he could not understand the lessons and was given no special assistance.

Lower courts ruled in favor of the San Francisco schools, but in 1974 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiffs. In his opinion, Justice William O. Douglas stated simply that “there is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.

And so began the golden age of bilingual education and ESL programs.

Bilingual/ ESL programs sprang up all over. Federal funds were funneled into schools needing assistance to run them. There were not enough certified bilingual/ESL teachers. States and universities scurried  to create emergency certificates and start up teacher preparation courses in these new fields. In the case of bilingual programs, schools scrambled to find ANYONE who could speak Spanish, Japanese, or Chinese.

Publishers were just getting out some of their newer materials. Classroom teachers were frantically creating whatever they could make so that the kids had something to work on. Picture dictionaries came out, as did vocabulary picture cards. The Scott Foresman Company put out their CUE BOOK. In my humble opinion, this publication was way ahead of its time. It contained the basics for teaching beginners- the colors, the numbers, jobs, prepositions ( for those of you who remember- there was a girl- in a car, next to a car, under a car etc). The pictures were clear and easy to understand. The best part was that they constantly reused the vocabulary. The tall man, for example, was the lawyer in one picture, walking down the street in the next and talking to the policeman in the last one. They knew, back in those days that new words had to be manipulated 12-18 times before they were committed to short term memory. They were ahead of their time.

In the classroom, ESL teachers were implementing a  “It’s a, that’s a, what’s a”  strategy. It was used to teach vocabulary and went like this: What’s this? It’s a pencil. What’s that? It’s a pen. What’s this? It’s a notebook. What’s that? It’s a cat. This methodology was used by many ESL teachers, because they simply had so little to choose from. ESL teachers needed more training both through the universities and professional development programs, more appropriate resources, materials that were engaging and rigorous and a curriculum that was consistent and challenging.

In the late eighties and nineties the research began. We were  questioning how children learned, how the brain worked and what bilingualism really was.

There was work done by Stephen Krashen and Jim Cummins which led to many changes in thinking and implementing new ideas.

Back in the classroom, some technology began filtering in. There were BIG computers referred to as desktops and programs that by today’s standards were Jurassic in nature. There were many books being published for ELLs. Actually, that is not completely true. There were some books totally dedicated to ELLs. Most of them, however, were written for native English speakers, with an Add On for ELLs. Content area became a part of an ESL program. ELLs needed to know the vocabulary to learn science, social studies. and math.

The number of ELLs continued to grow. Many states that previously had no ELLS were now finding them filling up  their schools.

Bring on the new millennium. More and more studies were being done, touting the advantages of bilingualism. Technology continued to astound us, both in and out of the classroom. The numbers of ELLs skyrocketed in places like Georgia, Wyoming and North Carolina.

SIOP Training was provided to teachers. ESL teachers began to collaborate  with mainstream teachers. Programs to educate the parents and community were funded.
Testing was  king. NJASK ruled. Scores were unfair to kids who didn’t dominate the language. Access was designed to assess language proficiency. The WIDA Consortium grew.

It is now 2012.

The only school-age population that continues to increase is that of the ELLs. We have lots of technology, but figuring out how best to use it with our kids can be challenging. Do we purchase a program, subscribe online to one, or do we create our own?

We know more about our kids now. They might come and go, but they are being tracked and information about them is on file.

We have learned the value of the home language and can explain to the parent how important maintaining it is.

What other changes can we look forward to?  How will we, as educators be able to guide our students through the educational system of today and tomorrow?

Please consider joining us at our annual convention on May 30th and 31st at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick. We will explore some of these very questions with you and provide you with assistance as we continue to advocate for those whose voices can barely be heard.

Noreen M. Drucker, ESL 1-5 SIG  Representative. 

 

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Special Interest Groups: ESL Secondary

Preparing for High School ELLs for Post-Secondary Life: 

The $1,500 Pedro J. Rodriguez High School Scholarship
The $1,000 Héctor R. Villafañe Memorial Scholarship

By Caia Schlessinger

The NJTESOL/NJBE Executive Board meets every December to plan for the annual spring conference. This year’s conference will be held on May 30th and May 31st, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick. The conference theme is ‘Success for ELLs across the Curriculum.’ As the ESL Secondary Special Interest Group Representative, I am really looking forward to meeting all of you at our SIG meeting, which is held on both days of the conference. The SIG meetings are a great place to come and interact with other ESL and bilingual teachers from across the state of New Jersey.

One of the most popular topics among secondary ESL teachers is how to best help our ELLs with postsecondary planning. This can be a daunting task – from completing college applications, going on campus tours, completing financial aid applications, and searching for scholarships, to creating a college-going culture. Colorín Colorado has a number of articles to help secondary ESL teachers and guidance counselors better assist their students, such as this one about college preparation.

Colorín Colorado suggests that you start early and get parents involved as much as possible. It is also helpful to create a resource center for students and parents and to plan tours of local campuses. Establishing relationships with colleges that fit your students will also facilitate the application process. Assisting your students in determining their postsecondary goals will help keep students motivated and focused. Another tip is to keep in touch with students who have graduated and successfully joined a college community.

NJTESOL/NJBE has a wonderful opportunity to help your ELLs with the financial difficulties of postsecondary school planning. This year, NJTESOL/NJBE is offering the Pedro J. Rodriguez High School Scholarship in the amount of $1,500 to a student who is or has been enrolled in ESL or bilingual classes at the secondary level. NJTESOL/NJBE is also sponsoring the Héctor R. Villafañe Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $1,000 for a college-bound Hispanic student. The applications for both of these scholarships need to be postmarked by March 1st, 2012. The recommending teacher MUST be a current member of NJTESOL/NJBE. This is a wonderful opportunity for you and your students! Both of these applications can be found on our website.

Caia Schlessinger is the NJTESOL/NJBE Secondary ESL Representative.

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Special Interest Groups: Parent/Community Action

Community Action is a Two-Way Street

By Karen Nemeth

In the last issue of Voices I shared some key resources to support parent involvement in education.  In keeping with the dual purpose of our group, Parent/Community Action Special Interest Group, I’ll share some community action ideas in this issue.

I’ve found that some teachers have a relationship with their public libraries and others have not thought to use this resource.  Connecting with a library is a perfect example of this two-way street for parent/community action.  Libraries maintain a mission to respond to the needs of their communities, so they are happy to learn more about the families from different countries that are moving into their area.  The library may have access to funding to buy books and materials that you can borrow for your classroom.  They also have access to catalogs of materials in different languages that we don’t ordinarily see.  Many public libraries subscribe to Tumblebooks which allows them to make stories, games, and literacy activities in multiple languages available on their websites for their members to use free of charge.  You can help the library by informing newcomer parents about the location and services offered by their library and encouraging them to sign up for family library cards.  Maybe a field trip would be a great way to bring families and libraries together for some parent/community action.

Another resource that needs you as much as you need them is your local college or university.  Students in many programs and extracurricular activities need opportunities to work with children or to do community service.  This can be a great way for you to find college staff and students who speak the languages of your students.  Think about supporting their goals by letting them help create multilingual materials for your classroom or volunteering as a reading buddy or science co-explorer with a child who speaks their language.

And, one of the most useful and mutually beneficial relationships you can have is with your neighboring districts.  So often we find that one district has an influx of families speaking a new language and that they spend time and money to create parent letters and student materials only to find out that a nearby district has already created similar materials in the same language.  The more ESL and bilingual education teachers stay in touch with their colleagues, the more time and money they can save by sharing resources.

If you have resources that have helped you work with the families of your students – please share them on the NJTESOL/NJBE hot list or send them to me:

Karen Nemeth, Coordinator of Parent/Community Action SIG

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Special Interest Groups: Special Education

Success Across The Curriculum and Smart Aleks

By Claudia Plata

Success for ELLs Across the Curriculum is the focus of our next Spring Conference, an important topic nowadays since we have to meet certain parameters implemented by the state.  Therefore, we have formed a math intervention team in my building.  This team provides service to those students who have low skills in all strands as well as for those in risk of failing.

The NJASK scores and building assessments are used to place ELL students in intervention groups according to their skills.  Together these assessments provide vital information for grouping students properly.  The first presents a broad view on the specific areas of math in which these students need to improve.  The second provides a more recent overview.

The math intervention team meets regularly with the building administration and works closely with subject area teachers in order to brainstorm strategies which more effectively address the needs of students.  Each intervention teacher has been assigned a grade level which has made it easier to concentrate on the skills that need to be addressed.

It is evident that this arrangement is building self-esteem in the students being that they’re willing to participate more often without fear of making mistakes.  Additionally, this is helping them concentrate on the content.  It provides them with another teaching style which allows them to see a different way of approaching the same content area. 

Besides students-to-students and students-to-teacher discourse, students work with computer-assisted programs.  In mathematics, for instance, all sixth to eighth grade ELL students obtain supplemental skill building practice from Aleks.  The Aleks website describes the program as a computer-based artificial intelligence system.  It uses adaptive assessment and determines what a student has learned and what he/she has yet to learn.  All questions are algorithmically generated and avoid the use of multiple choices.  It also provides one-on-one instruction.  The students can access the site from home and work at their own pace.  All topics are found in English and in Spanish. Thus far, the students have provided positive feedback regarding the intervention being offered. You may access the Aleks website here and sign up for a free trial.

Claudia Plata is the Special Education SIG representative.  She is a teacher in Perth Amboy Public Schools. 

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Special Interest Groups: Supervisors’

Opportunities and Challenges

By Regina M. Postogna

We are already in the fifth month of the 2011-2012 school year and school districts have begun their supplemental programs in an effort to close the achievement gap for students deemed “at risk” which  includes many of our English language learners (ELLs). The goal for school districts is to have students perform at proficient or advanced proficient levels on state standardized tests that will be administered in the spring because this is currently how a district’s effectiveness is being measured under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). As district supervisors in charge of the effective and efficient running of our district’s bilingual and or ESL programs we are faced with many opportunities as well as challenges.

Opportunities

Research has determined that it is beneficial to develop literacy in the language that is used in the student’s home first, while beginning to build oral language fluency in English (Cummins, 1996: Genesee, 1987). The research further indicated that a strong foundation in primary language literacy facilitated the transfer of literacy skills into English. The evidence has clearly indicated that instruction in native language and oral language development provided cognitive and socio-cultural advantages to ELLs (Cahnmann, 2002, 2008; Ovando, Combs, Collier, 2006).When planning content instruction, it is crucial to take into account how content knowledge skills transfer from native language to a second language. During the past three decades, research consistently has indicated that bilingual students perform equally or better than students taught in a monolingual setting on standardized tests that measure verbal and mathematics skills in English (Thomas & Collier, 2003).This research creates opportunities for conversations regarding creating and or sustaining strong bilingual and ESL programs in districts.

Challenges

Research also indicated that testing content knowledge in a language in which a student does not have academic language proficiency actually did not always measure content knowledge as intended. What appeared in the test results as a lack of content knowledge was often the normal pace of the second language acquisition process (Abedi, Lord, & Hofstetter, 1998). According to the WIDA standards and the ACCESS test we have three tiers by which ELLs are categorized: A Beginner, B Intermediate, and C Advanced. The challenge that schools face is attempting to teach ELL students who have been in a school district more than one year enough English to demonstrate their content knowledge on the NJASK in grades 3-8 and the HESPA in high school. Many of our high school ELLs have to take the AHSA (Alternative High School Assessment) because they have not attained sufficient mastery of English to pass the HESPA, a requirement for graduation. Many of our ELL students come to our districts over-age and under-schooled due to poverty and war. These students are not literate in their native language and therefore do not have literacy skills to transfer. This makes the second language acquisition process longer for them than a student who arrives literate in their native language.

In order to meet the needs of these students some larger districts have implemented newcomer centers where basic skills are taught. Other districts, due to budget cuts or a large number of different languages being spoken, have high intensity ESL programs and others also have sheltered English classes for the ELL students. There are still many districts that have large numbers of students speaking the same native language and these districts are able to maintain self-contained bilingual classrooms or dual language programs.

Remember that if the topic of budget cuts arises quote  Justice William O. Douglas (U.S. Supreme Court, 1974: Lau v. Nichols).

“There is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, 
textbooks, teachers and curriculum; for the students who do not understand English are
effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.”

Also Chapter 15 of the New Jersey Administrative Code gives specific details regarding the requirements for bilingual education.

References

Abedi, J., Lord, C., & Hofstetter, C. (1998). Impact of selected background variables on students’ NAEP math performance. Los Angles: UCLA Center for the Study of Evaluation/National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing.

Cahnmann, M.S. & Remillard, J.T. (2002). What Counts and How: Mathematics Teaching in Culturally, Linguistically, and Socio-Economically Diverse Urban Settings. The Urban Review, Vol. 34, No. 3.

Cummings, J. (1996). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society.   Los Angeles: California Association for bilingual Education.

Genesee, F. (1987). Learning through two languages. Cambridge, MA: Newbury Hall,

C.J. Newbrand. D. Ecke, P. Sperr, U. Marchand, V. & Hayes, L. (2009). Learners Implicit Assumptions about Syntactic Frames in new L3 Words: the Role of Cognates, Typological Proximity, and L2 Status. Language Learning. V.59 no. 1,163-202.

New Jersey Administrative Code, https://www.state.nj.us/education/code/current/title6a/chap15.pdf

Ovando, C.J., Collier, V.P. & Combs, M.C. (2003). Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in Multicultural Contexts. 3rd ed., New York: McGraw-Hill.

Thomas, P. & Collier, V. (2003). The Multiple Benefits of Dual Language. Educational Leadership, Vol.61.

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Special Interest Groups: Teacher Education

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