Code the Dream

Anyone who is in the field of education is well aware that there has been a huge push for STEM education in the past decade or so.  Recently, attention has been drawn to the fact that women are highly underrepresented in the field of STEM, and girls are not pursuing classes in science, technology, engineering or math.  This week, I discovered an article that made me realize that this lack of diversity is not just in regards to women.  The tech industry is made up of only 8% Hispanic workers, and only 7% black workers.  One organization in the city of Durham, North Carolina, is working to change that. 

In “Code the Dream in Durham helps immigrant and refugee communities give back and diversify tech world”, Anne Blythe visits a Saturday morning coding class filled with immigrants, minorities, and refugees from the surrounding communities.  The article describes successful students who have created apps or landed jobs with tech companies or universities after completing the program.  The program not only introduces the students to programming and coding technology, but it also connects them with mentors in the technology industry.

These students are not only benefiting personally from the opportunity to take these classes, but many of them are developing apps and programs that give back to their own communities.  One such program is called Student Action with Farmworkers.  A pair of Code the Dream graduates worked together to create a portal to help farmworkers find services they need in North Carolina.  In either Spanish or English, farmworkers and their families can find nearby health care, education opportunities, legal and immigration help, government agencies, housing and job information.

While this organization currently only exists in Durham due to the wonderful collaboration of some motivated people with a goal to help immigrant communities in North Carolina, I see no reason why it couldn’t serve as a model to be used in any town, anywhere.  If nothing else, we can take away the lesson that our English language learners have so much to offer.  Shouldn’t we offer them the opportunity of technology education so they can have a change at jobs in the tech industry?  I know it is a daunting task, on top of teaching English and everything else we are required to do, but it seems that incorporating tech into their lessons a necessity.

Read more about the program at www.codethedream.org

Surprising "Tech Essentials" of an ELL Specialist

This week I was thrilled to see an article come across my Google alerts titled “ELL Specialist: These are My ‘Tech Essentials’”.  I thought that I had finally found the perfect article that would give me all the answers on the absolute best ways to use technology to help my students learn English.  As I began reading, I was even more convinced that I had struck gold.  The ELL Specialist the article is referring to is the administrator for multilingual programs at Beaverton Public Schools in Beaverton, OR.  She is responsible for the education of 5,000 English language learners (ELLs), and those students speak more than 95 different languages.  This person obviously is an expert and has experience to know what she is talking about!

As I continued to read, I discovered that the entire school system is something called “Future Ready,” which means that the teachers and students are using technology in some form in every single lesson.  Teachers are expected to design lessons that are both innovative and engaging.  “Perfect!” I thought.  “They’ve definitely got to have some great tools to share with this focus on technology.”  I scanned down and saw three bullet points.  I was a bit surprised that she had narrowed her essentials down to only three things.  My surprise did not end as I discovered what those things are.

First, she named something that I had not heard of before, and we have not discussed in our CALL class.  Every ELL classroom in their district has something called Lightspeed Redcat audio systems.  This is an amplification system that is used so that teachers can use natural voices and not have to project so much throughout the day.  The justification is that it is important that ELLs are able to hear the teacher clearly.

The second essential was most surprising to me, mostly because I consider it a normal part of every classroom.  She named teacher laptops as another “tech essential”.  They are necessary for ELL teachers especially because of the need for creating lessons and presentations with lots of visuals.  Again, I certainly agree with this assessment, but was surprised to see it included because I feel like it should almost be a given these days.  I was looking for something a little more cutting edge.

Finally, she named iPads as another essential for ELL classrooms.  As I do not have access to these, or any one-to-one device for my students, I would have to agree that something like this would be ideal for my ELLs.  She pointed out that iPads are very useful to help connect students to their native languages.  They use Google translate to adapt the keyboard feature to put the English alphabet underneath the students’ native alphabet, which I think could be very helpful, especially for languages such as Ukranian that do not use the Roman alphabet. 

Overall, I definitely agree with her assessment that these three tools could be considered “tech essentials” for an ELL classroom.  I do admit to being a bit disappointed that they were not the magic solutions I was hoping for when I first came across the article.  As with any type of technology we try to implement in our classrooms, they will only be effective if we – the educators – are knowledgeable about how to use them effectively. 

English Learner Roadmap - California Leads the Way

This week’s article is not focused so much on tech as on improving educational programming for English learners in California.  As “State board: ‘English Learner Roadmap’ to aid 1.4M students” reports, the CA State Board of Education just approved a policy called the English Learner Roadmap, and since 1 in 4 students in California are English Learners, this is going to mean big changes.  Due to its diverse student population, other states often look to California for examples of how to support their ELs, so it is possible these changes may spread to other states in the coming years.  It seems that something like this has been a long time coming.  It will remove many outdated “barriers to bilingual and multilingual instruction,” and is in fact the first time in 20 years that a new policy like this has been created.

The English Learner Roadmap is a response to the voter approved proposition 58, which does several things:

       1. It includes a requirement that public schools ensure students become proficient in English.

2     2. It requires school districts to reach out to parents and communities for input in developing          
           language acquisition programs.

            3. It authorizes school districts to set up dual-language immersion programs for both native and non-      native English speakers.

With all of the research agreeing that dual language programs are the highly beneficial for all students involved, I am very encouraged that California is headed in the right direction with this policy.  It is also one of the states that includes the Seal of Biliteracy on its diplomas for graduates who have demonstrated dual language skills.  What a great advantage these students will have when going on to college and the job market!

Wondering why this matters for all students?  Check out The Many Benefits of BeingBilingual!

When Technology Fails Our Students

This week I read an article which highlights a concern I frequently have when incorporating technology with English Learners.  I often speak with teachers who tell me they are making accommodations for their ELs because they allow them to use translators, or the website or online program they are using has an option for Spanish translation.  Unfortunately, these translator tools are not always accurate and do not benefit the students.  In the article "When ELA Tools Can't Adapt to Students' Native Language," Carmina Mendoza is a bilingual teacher working with fifth graders.  She uses a program that we actually use with some of our Newcomer ELs called DreamBox.  DreamBox covers gaps in math education for our students, and offers the option for Spanish translation.  According to Mendoza, however, the translations are not good.  They are translated word for word, which doesn't often lead to a comprehensible sentence.  Students can't understand the directions, and she often has to reword the sentences for them on the spot.  As a teacher who is not fluent in Spanish, let alone the many other languages my students may speak, I cannot tell if the translations are good or not, and I certainly can't translate for the students myself. 

In addition to the inaccurate translation issues, there is another problem that some of the technology programs don't take into account.  Even if the translation is good, students still may not understand what they are reading.  I was surprised to discover that what is considered a grade 4 level text in English actually becomes a grade 6 level text when translated to Spanish.  The lexile is higher because the translation becomes multi-syllabic.  Mendoza used the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid book as an example.  Not only that, but as she points out, these translations are only effective if students are literate in their native languages, which is not often the case.

For this reason, some tech companies are choosing not to continue offering Spanish translations at all.  i-Ready is one such program.  Instead, they recommend that teachers assign materials that are on the students' current English levels.  They explain, "That’s why i-Ready integrates English-language support 'through strategic scaffolds' designed to mitigate student frustration and build English skills. 'We have visual supports, images that can help them with language acquisition without the need for native language skills,' Salinas says.'We also have an audio feature that allows English learners to hear a text read aloud multiple times, since generally their listening skills are stronger than their reading skills.'

While this seems to make sense, given the limitations of the translation technology, there are still some concerns.  These supports seem to be effective for native English speakers, while still offering only small growth for ELs.

Improving Technlogy and English Instruction in Columbia

This week, I came across an interesting site called EdTechTimes.  It is a news site about the educational technology industry.  The particular post that came across my alerts is actually a SoundCloud clip containing an interview with Ana Maria Ternent de Samper, a foreign language professor at Universidad de La Sabana in Columbia.  It is part of a series of interviews they will be sharing from the TESOL Columbia for TESOL International.  She talked about how the university is working to move into the digital age, and how both the university and Columbia in general are striving to make improvements in English education.  

According to Ana Maria, the university is working to make changes both within itself and in the surrounding community.  Within the in university there has been more interest in adding new technologies for teaching.  They have begun to offer more blended and online classes, including a masters in teaching English.  The goal of this program is to prepare teachers to help students – and themselves – become more autonomous English Language Learners.  Within community, the university is offering extension programs to work with teachers and schools.  Ana Maria admits that this has been very difficult, because teachers feel their jobs are fairly stable, so there is not as much need to transform teaching practices.  In addition, with the fast pace of technological advances, teachers are preparing students for a future may be unknown.  For example, programs are being added at the university that didn’t exist when students were in high school.  For this reason, it is necessary for the teachers to embrace changes.  In addition, they are dealing with both an incredible access to technology, and at the same time, incredible poverty where there is no technology, so teachers need to learn how to balance that and how to get education to those people who need it most.  

Ana Maria says that the focus is on making the switch from trying to solve problems that the students and society in general might have, and instead capitalizing on strengths.  In her words, “instead of a needs based approach, it is more of an assets based approach.”  The goal is to empower people to find their own solutions.

She then goes on to talk a little bit about English learning in Columbia.  There are strong English and foreign language programs in the schools.  In fact, some students come to the university from bilingual high schools, so they do not need much English instruction.  The university is working to improve their offerings for English education, including offering major subjects taught in English.  This is an attempt to counter some of the lack of student motivation in to study English in higher education.  The country of Columbia itself has a goal of working to becoming totally bilingual, and to be most educated country in Latin America.  The Ministry of Education is creating national programs with clear objectives, but at this point these objectives are not being met before the students enroll in the university.  It is an ongoing initiative, and educators are working towards achieving that goal.

Listen to the interview, and follow up with other interviews from TESOL Columbia, by going to “Heard at TESOL Colombia: How Universidad deLa Sabana Is Supporting the Growth of English Language Learning in Colombia”.

In my own experience as an ESL teacher here in the United States, I have had one student from Columbia who moved into my classroom as an eleventh grader.  He already had good English conversational skills, and his academic language was much higher than a traditional newcomer.  I assumed that he was from a well-educated family and possibly in private school, but after hearing this interview I understand more of the importance his native country places on learning English.  It makes sense that he was more advanced than the other students I was getting who were coming from Guatemala and El Salvador.  It seems that Columbia is a strong path of meeting its students’ technological and English learning needs.  I’m hopeful that other countries look to this as a model to make improvements to their educational programs as well. 

The Digital Divide for Teachers

This week, one article stood out from the rest as I looked through my Google Alerts results.  It comes from Education Week's Technology Counts 2017issue.  The article is titled "Poor Students Face Digital Divide in How Teachers Learn to Use Tech".  The author, Benjamin Herold, focuses on two very different school districts in Allegheny County, PA.  The first, South Fayette Intermediate School, is an exemplary model of how a school focused on tech and student focused learning should be run.  The second, Sto-Rox High School, has minimal focus on technology in comparison.  The school is not equipped for students to have easy access to technological tools, and teachers are not trained in how to use technology in their classrooms. 

The big difference?  South Fayette is in a predominately white, low-poverty area, whereas Sto-Rox is faced with 77% of its students living in poverty.  Not only that, but Sto-Rox is losing 20% of its budget each year, and most likely its more promising students, to area charter schools as students have left looking for better options.  In South Fayette, it is easier to make technology a priority as things like school safety sit higher on the priority list at Sto-Rox.

It is easy to see that there is a digital divide in the opportunities students have to access and learn with technology in these schools.  However, Herold found that lack of teacher training is an issue across the board.  The administration at South Fayette is working to change that and has hired a STEAM teacher to work with students and teachers to provide more technology based lessons and activities.  In Sto-Rox, administration is more focused on working with the local police department and trying to prepare students for the working class jobs most will be headed for after graduation. 

This is not to say that there is not hope, although the divide is large and hasn't seemed to be closing much in recent years.  Some teachers at Sto-Rox have been working with Pittsburgh based foundations and organizations to receive grants for resources and training to try to provide more opportunities for their students.  While they have a bigger challenge to face than teachers in other more affluent districts, they are proving that there are ways to try to make technology-based learning accessible to all students. 

My take-away from the article is this - many teachers of English Language Learners are probably facing similar situations to the Sto-Rox teachers.  The majority of our students are low-income, and priority is probably on other things.  Even if we are not hearing the message from administration, we should be taking the initiative to find grants, foundations, and supporters to help us get technology into the hands of our students as well as advocate for more training for ourselves. 

Larry's Tips for Technlogy and ELLs

Unfortunately, my Google Alerts did not come up with any good results for me this week, so I had to do a little adapting and digging.  I came up with a blog post on Animoto featuring tips from Larry Ferlazzo, who is well known for supporting teachers who are looking for ways to help their English Language Learners (ELLs).  He is one of the first people I stumbled upon when I began my journey into the world of ESL teaching 9 years ago. This post, written by Moira West, is titled Tips for Using Technology with ELL Students.

According to the blog post, Mr. Ferlazzo teaches English and Social Studies to blog ELLs and native speakers, and has for 12 years.  This post focuses specifically on his tips for using technology to teacher ELL students.  He always uses some form of technology in his classes for ELLs because of the audio/visual nature that helps support language development.  While it can be overwhelming to try to determine tools are best to use, Larry recommends five tips for finding technology tools for the ELL classroom.

        1. Make sure it is relevant - Don't just use a tool because it seems like a cool one.  Determine
              what you want to teach, and then find a tool to fit that.
        2. Keep it simple - use tools that are easy for both students and teachers to learn
        3. Look for cheap or free options - not only does this help our meager school budgets, but it  
              also allows students the option to practice at home without worrying about paying for a
              subscription.
        4. Consider mobile options - While many students do not have computers at home, more and
               more have access to Smartphones.  There are several websites that also have mobile apps
               that students can use to practice.
        5. Have students produce something - Having a final product for students to work on provides
               motivation and is a great piece to use to assess learning.

Some of the tools recommended in this blog post are the Simple English Wikipedia, Lingohut, Duolingo, and the Animoto app.  I would also highly recommend following Larry's edublog, Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day.  He shares a wealth of websites to help in teaching ELLs, and this has definitely been linked to my delicious site!