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his document is one of the essential documents ELL teachers and the teachers with ELLs should refer to plan and implement the ELL teaching and learning. It has the government policies and procedures to follow.

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How can I bring ELL students' experience, knowledge, culture and language to the classroom so everyone can benefit one another in a safe and caring environment?

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How can I make the deep understanding and rich learning happen when ELL's English is still developing?

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This document guides how to incorporate the the culture and value of FNMIC communities into Ontario curriculum with examples and the explanations of the concepts

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This document is one of the essential document ELL teachers and the teachers with ELLs should refer to to understand how teaching ELL works in the education system.

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The document shows the action plans for education in Ontario to be more inclusive and equal to everyone.

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KPRDSB has this checklist for welcoming newcomers

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ELLs have incredibly diverse background and the move to a different country gives huge impact on their emotional status too. Making them feel home in the new environment is essential to begin their lives

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Settlement.Org - Information Newcomers Can Trust

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ICDL is increasing its collection of children books. You can find the books by language, difficulty level, characters, genre and etc.

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This is one example that the school or class can create through translanguage projcets. Students wrote their own stories in dual language and published through the platform

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EduGanins ELL website has government documents, helpful articles and assessment tools regarding ELL programs. It is the main resource to planning and implementing the ELL programs.

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This website has practical and easy to use resources for teachers and parents to improve young children's literacy skills

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This visual diagram illustrates the "big picture" for the interrelated practices recommended for teaching K-5 English learners to read in English. Use this diagram to engage teachers in discussion about how to implement the practices and use benchmarks, staff collaboration, and other supporting conditions to build a core reading program for all students.

Download diagram >

Screen and monitor progress

Conduct formative assessments to screen for reading problems and monitor progress.

English learners can learn to read at the same rate as their native English-speaking peers but may need extra support. A comprehensive core reading program includes well-developed assessment systems for identifying student needs. The field of beginning reading has a well-known set of instruments to assess phonological processing, letter knowledge, and word and text reading which give teachers solid information about their students' reading development. The same English language instruments that are used with native English speakers can also be used with English learners.

Teachers can use these measures to determine which students need support and what kind of support they need. By the middle of kindergarten, after students have received some instruction, these formative assessments are a valid indicator of whether or not a student is at risk for reading problems. Students at a higher risk will require frequent monitoring — as often as several times per month.

Provide reading interventions

Provide intensive, small group reading interventions for English learners at risk for reading problems.

It is critical to respond in a timely fashion to potential reading difficulties indicated in formative assessment results. Reading interventions that occur daily in a small group format and provide explicit, direct instruction in critical reading components in addition to the core reading program should be the primary means of instructional delivery. English learners and native speakers can be included in instructional groups as long as the groups share the same skill level. English learners at risk for reading problems benefit from the following additional instruction:

Daily small group instruction of 30-50 minutes

Direct, explicit instruction that is fast-paced and engaging and offers frequent opportunities for students to respond and participate in short practice activities

Frequent review of skills

Clear, corrective feedback to student errors

Adequate wait time for student response

Attention to the five core reading elements (phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency)

Teach vocabulary

Provide extensive and varied vocabulary instruction throughout the day.

Students must be taught vocabulary through formal instruction and also provided opportunities to acquire vocabulary through use in language-rich settings in and out of the classroom. Teachers should go beyond the words in reading texts and address the meaning of common words, phrases, and expressions that English learners have not yet learned.

Core reading programs typically do not include adequate vocabulary instruction for English learners, so districts and schools need to develop a framework of essential words to be taught explicitly and in-depth. Vocabulary instruction should be emphasized in all parts of the curriculum and include common English words and phrases as well as content words. The panel recommends instruction that:

focuses on a limited number (8-10) of target words each week;

provides multiple exposures of target words in varied contexts;

uses student-friendly definitions;

makes active use of words in meaningful contexts; and

includes regular review.

Develop academic English

Develop academic English competence beginning in the primary grades.

Academic English is the language of school-based learning and entails understanding the structure of language and the precise way that words and phrases are used, including content-specific vocabulary. More nuanced and de-contextualized than conversational English, it requires a high degree of precision in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Starting in kindergarten, academic English should be taught explicitly in specific blocks of time throughout the day - during content area instruction, reading instruction, and English language development. Students should learn the structure of the language, grammar, how words and phrases are used. They need to learn the technical vocabulary in content areas (e.g., &quot;perimeter&quot; in math) as well as general academic words like &quot;compare and contrast.&quot; Teaching strategies include daily instruction, supplemental curricula to accompany core reading and mathematics series, and professional development.

Schedule peer learning

Schedule regular peer-assisted learning opportunities, including structured language practice.

At least 90 minutes a week should be spent on instructional activities where student pairs work together. Students at different ability levels and/or different English language proficiency levels should be assigned to work together on structured academic tasks. These activities should provide practice and extension to reading and language skills already taught.

Partner work provides opportunities for students to practice what the teacher has taught and can be used to strengthen a wide range of skills, including word and text reading, fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, and writing. Effective partner work includes:

Clear instructional activities planned in advance and based on material that has been taught

Procedures and routines for working in pairs taught by the teacher in advance of peer work

Members of pairs who differ in reading ability or English proficiency

Peers working together approximately 90 minutes per week in reading and language practice

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Teaching Literacy in English to K-5 English Learners

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Explore the five recommended practices for teaching literacy in English to English language learners: (1) Screen and monitor progress, (2) Provide reading interventions, (3) Teach vocabulary, (4) Develop academic English, and (5) Schedule peer learning.

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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Ontario has a world-renowned publicly funded public education system. We are committed to improving our schools, to fighting for equity for all, and to creating a safe and supportive environment.

As the heartbeat of public education, teachers and other education professionals play a critical role in helping to shape the system and develop our students to be the very best they can be. Ontario's future depends on all of us to protect and build better schools.

Voices Speaking Up For Public Education.

Invest in Future Generations

Public education is the great equalizer offering a supportive hub for immigrant families explains Winnie Ng.

Stand Up For Indigenous Children and Education

Cindy Blackstock explains why all of us should be activists for children and stand up for Indigenous kids to ensure quality education for all! Watch her talk about her dream.

We Can't Build Better Schools Without You.

We're asking people all over the province to sign up and be part of this campaign. Parents, guardians, teachers, other education professionals, and allies need to speak up against cuts to education.

The Conservative government is a threat to publicly-funded public education in Ontario. Are you ready to stand up for our schools?

Join the Fight

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Ontario has a world-renowned publicly funded public education system. We are committed to improving our schools, to fighting for equity for all, and to creating a safe and supportive environment. As the heartbeat of public education, teachers and other education professionals play a critical role in helping to shape the system and develop our students to be the very best they can be.

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Edutopia has practical advice for cross-curricular approach which is essential for ELL and more tips for other educational issues.

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George Lucas Educational Foundation

The benefits of movement in the classroom aren't limited to younger students. Pairing new words and concepts with gestures or dance moves locks in understanding-and active brain breaks prime students to learn even more.

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A free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education.

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The video is brief but shows the essentials of using creativity approach students without the level of academic English

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This short video reminds us how important the explicit instruction to enhance the students academic language skills.

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The website is dedicated to bilingual education approach 'translanguaging' and it has video sources and practical implementation strategies

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This video blew my mind. It changes the perception on ELL students in teachers mind and shows why ELL's first language use in content classes is so important.
Commins' comment about 'killing their first language and the school responsibility for it' has a point.

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Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Ontario

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Multiliteracy Project is an initiative that multiple schools across Canada are participating to develop students' multilingual literacy through various new methods.

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I believe I have a responsibility to not only educate the minds, but also the hearts of my students. I want my students to look at knowledge in a connected and ethical way. This involves higher level thinking skills and a greater degree of personal self-understanding on an intellectual and emotional level than simply memorizing facts in various subject areas. This project takes a closer look at how I encourage students to attain greater self-understanding through providing opportunities for the students to consider who they are, and the types of lives the students would like to lead. This project also explores the ways in which I have encouraged students to connect knowledge to action in service to differing levels of community.

Images of the students and members of the NWPS cleaning up the woody debris from a portion of land at Purfleet Pt. on Annacis Island. The woody debris ranged from small pieces to logs. The clean up was done to encourage return of plant and animal life to various spots covered in woody debris at the estuary.

The term social responsibility has many interpretations depending upon the perspective of the person or group of people that are considering the concept. In my view, social responsibility related education involves educating students to become more self-aware of personal identity and how that sense of personal identity currently connects to differing communities in responsible and...

The Multiliteracy Project is a national Canadian study exploring pedagogies or teaching practices that prepare children for the literacy challenges of our globalized, networked, culturally diverse world. Increasingly, we encounter knowledge in multiple forms - in print, in images, in video, in combinations of forms in digital contexts - and are asked to represent our knowledge in an equally complex manner. Further, there is international recognition that Canada's linguistic and cultural diversity are a source of its strength, and a key contributor of Canada's social and economic well-being. The challenge is to assist our schools in helping students to achieve a more diverse folio of literacies.

The term multiliteracies was coined by the New London Group (1996) to highlight two related aspects of the increasing complexity of texts: (a) the proliferation of multimodal ways of making meaning where the written word is increasingly part and parcel of visual, audio, and spatial patterns; (b) the increasing salience of cultural and linguistic diversity characterized by local diversity and global connectedness .

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I believe I have a responsibility to not only educate the minds, but also the hearts of my students. I want my students to look at knowledge in a connected and ethical way. This involves higher level thinking skills and a greater degree of personal self-understanding on an intellectual and emotional level than simply memorizing facts in various subject areas.

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I realized that there has been big change for the last decade. When I was teaching English for my EFL students back in Korea, I was pushed to teach them in English only. There were English only zone in my school and we tried everything to ban their first language. However, in part of myself somewhere, I always wanted to utilize to promote the language learning especially low achieving English learners.
To my sadness, level of English is closely related to their economic status in many non-English countries. In many cases of low achievement in English is limited to only English subject. They can learn English much effectively when using their first language e.g. phonetic symbols.

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TLX is a website that has various research based resources with regard to K-12 education. The resources are videos, documents and articles.

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We're on a mission to share rich research-based educational tools focused on advancing student achievement with resources developed by educators for educators.

We host professional learning video content developed by Ontario's Ministry of Education that is designed to support and improve the practice of classroom educators, coaches, consultants, and school system leaders.

The Learning Exchange supports the goal of achieving excellence in education for early learning, K-12 and adult education.

We're in the process of making all online resources compliant with Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and WCAG 2.0 AA. Do you have a specific accessibility request? Contact us at hello@learningx.ca.

The Learning Exchange is powered by MediaFace Inc.

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We're on a mission to share rich research-based educational tools focused on advancing student achievement with resources developed by educators for educators. We host professional learning video content developed by Ontario's Ministry of Education that is designed to support and improve the practice of classroom educators, coaches, consultants, and school system leaders.

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a Welcoming Classroom
iColorine Colorado is a website has tons of valuable resources for educators.
The specific link has the tips for making welcoming classroom environment for newcomer students

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An important first step in helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed is making them feel welcome in the classroom.

This will:

increase their confidence

make them feel more comfortable in the class

build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers.

Here's how you can get started!

The ELL student population includes students who were born in the U.S. and students who have immigrated from another country. For ELLs who have recently arrived in the U.S., they will face the challenge of learning a new language in addition to adjusting to an unfamiliar cultural setting and school system.

On a daily basis, ELLs are adjusting to new ways of saying and doing things. As their teacher, you are an important bridge to this unknown culture and school system.

In the same way that ELLs go through stages of English language learning, they may also pass through stages of cultural accommodation. These stages, however, may be less defined and more difficult to notice. Being aware of these stages may help you to better understand "unusual" actions and reactions that may just be part of adjusting to a new culture.

Euphoria: ELLs may experience an initial period of excitement about their new surroundings.

Culture shock: ELLs may then experience anger, hostility, frustration, homesickness, or resentment towards the new culture.

Acceptance: ELLs may gradually accept their different surroundings.

Assimilation/adaptation: ELLs may embrace and adapt to their surroundings and their "new" culture.

It is also common for students who are learning a new language to be 'silent' for a period of time, when they are listening to the language around them without speaking yet (much as a young child listens to language first before learning to talk). This is considered the first stage of language acquisition.

Patience and creating opportunities for small successes in speaking with you and peers can help build students' confidence. In addition, keep in mind that students' silence could also be a sign of respect for you as an authority - and not a sign of their inability or refusal to participate.

Students may also have experienced trauma or face different kinds of hardship in the U.S. You can better prepare yourself for this possibility by:

Learn more from the following:

This award-winning documentary highlights how the Dearborn, MI public school district is helping its immigrant students succeed. Learn more about this project and see related videos.

Getting to Know Students

Learn how to pronounce students' names correctly

Don't forget to smile and use positive body language!

A lot of communication happens through expressions, body language, and tone. Smiling and using positive body language can go a long way in making students feel welcome and comfortable, particularly if they are newcomers, as seen in the vignette shared by a teacher below.

Build relationships with students

Veteran teachers of ELLs always point to building relationships as the most important step in their work with ELLs. Not only does it increase engagement and support students' later academic success, it also provides invaluable information that can inform your instruction and family engagement.

In addition, it can help build bridges with students who may have particularly unique experiences, such as children in migrant farmwork families or Indigenous students.

See more ideas on how to build these relationships from the following:

Video: Showing students you care

Corpus Christi teacher Christine Price talks about the importance of showing students you care early on.

Identify students' strengths and interests

It's important to remember that ELLs bring lots of strengths, talents, and rich experiences to the classroom. Getting to know students' interests can help:

build rapport

engage students in learning

find connections with new friends.

Families are also an important source of information and are often happy to talk about the activities that their child enjoys. They may also appreciate the fact that their child's teacher is taking an interest in the child's strengths and talents. (This is especially true in special education settings.)

Teacher Omar Salem describes a student who not only sings and dances but manages her own YouTube channel and edits all of the video she posts of her performances.

Video: Using parent letters to get to know my students

Albuquerque teacher Clara Gonzales-Espinoza asks her parents to write her a letter at the beginning of each school year telling her about the child's personality, interests, strengths, and anything else they think she should know. In this interview, Clara speaks more about this strategy and its impact on her relationships with parents and students.

Ensure that students have information about activities and clubs

Make sure that students have information about extra-curricular activities, sports, and clubs related to their interests. You can also encourage them to start their own club within the school.

ELL educator Christine Rowland notes, "Many students find involvement in school clubs and teams to be extremely helpful, as they are often experts in these areas, and they can provide a space where they more easily feel they belong."

Welcoming Students' Language and Culture

Invite students' cultures into the classroom

Encourage ELLs and their families to share their culture with you and your class. Show-and-tell is a good opportunity for ELLs to bring in something representative of their culture, if they wish.

Invite students and families to:

share photographs, visuals, or meaningful artifacts such as flags or mementos

tell a popular story or folktale using words, pictures, gestures, and movements

share information about important holidays or celebrations.

Looking beyond the classroom

Imagine that you are walking into your school for the first time as a parent.

What do you see on the walls?

If your first language weren't English, would you see signs in your language?

Would you see flags, maps, or books representing your home country?

Would you see your child's work on display in the hallway?

If you think more could be done to make families feel welcome, consider:

sharing some ideas with colleagues or administrators and taking small steps that you can point to as successes

looking for opportunities to celebrate all families and their languages, customs, and cultures, whether in the classroom or at a school-wide event

keeping a lookout for a special part of their lives that other families might appreciate getting to know.

See more ideas in the following:

Video: What happened when the students realized the Yemeni flag wasn't on stage

ELD Specialist Diana Alqadhi tells the story of some students who realized that the Yemeni flag was not featured prominently enough on stage before a school show.

Invite students' languages into the classroom

Label classroom objects to allow ELLs to better understand their immediate surroundings. These labels will also assist you when explaining or giving directions, and it gives peers an additional opportunity to learn some words in their classmates' language.

Start with everyday items, such as "door/puerta," "book/libro," and "chair/silla."

You may wish to ask students who can write in their first language or family members to help you with this project.

You can also invite students to teach the class some words from their home language.

Learn more about the resources available in students' home languages

Students benefit from support in their home language - what Dr. Fred Genesee calls their " most valuable resource." You have may have access to learning material in students' languages, or you may be able to find resources that support those languages.

Language access for multilingual families

In addition, it's critical to understand what language access resources you have available through your school and district, particularly for communication with families. Keep in mind that all families have a legal right to information in their home language. Family liaisons, interpreters, ESL teachers, or administrators may have more information about what language access resources are available in your district.

Video: What Do School Districts Need to Know About Language Access?

This helpful overview about what language access means for school districts is a great introduction to the requirements, best practices, and funding streams related to language access in public education. This interview features Dr. Jennifer Love, the Supervisor of Language Access and Engagement in Prince George's County Public Schools, Maryland.

Video: Language Access for Multilingual Families

What does appropriate language access mean for multilingual families? This interview also features Dr. Jennifer Love.

Ensure your students see themselves reflected in the classroom

Ask yourself if students can see representations of their culture, race, gender, and other aspects of identity reflected in your:

classroom materials and library

lesson plans and activities

classroom visuals (both in-person and virtual).

In addition:

Success in the Classroom

Encourage your students

Some ELLs may not answer voluntarily in class or ask for your help even if they need it. ELLs may smile and nod, but this does not necessarily mean that they understand. Offer one-on-one support and encouragement as much as possible. For convenience, it may be helpful to seat ELLs near your desk.

Assign a buddy

Identify a classmate who will make a good buddy for new students - someone who is friendly, patient, and a good communicator to be a buddy. This student can make sure that the new student understands what he or she is supposed to do during class activities. It is helpful if the peer partner knows the ELL's first language, but not necessary. However, remember to never use another student as an interpreter in any situation.

Learn more about ways to increase peer interaction and collaboration in these related strategies.

Ask the class how they can help welcome new students

Ask students to brainstorm ways to help ELLs in particular. You may wish to make a list of ideas on how to welcome new students at the beginning of the year so that students have these strategies in mind if a student comes with little advance notice.

Be vigilant about health issues, dietary concerns, and allergies

Students may have specific health issues or dietary restrictions due to health, cultural, or religious reasons. Be sure that you learn all essential information you need to know about student health and diet from parents or guardians. For ELLs, be sure to confirm and clarify this information with the help of interpreters.

If you learn information about a student that would be helpful for other staff to know, particularly regarding health or food allergies, talk with administrators about how to keep the child safe. In addition, be sensitive to cultural or religious norms, such as fasting for religious reasons.

Keep an eye out for signs of culture shock

Moving to a new country and leaving a familiar life, relatives, friends, and language behind can be traumatic for children in the best of circumstances. Those challenges are compounded if children have experienced trauma, violence, or upheaval. Learn more about how culture shock can impact students in the classroom and affect student behavior so that you recognize signs if newcomers act out.

Encourage students to take ownership of the classroom culture

Ask students to answer the following questions through drawings or written responses.

How can I be a good classmate to others?

What are examples of unkind or disrespectful behavior in the classroom?

To support ELLs in their discussions of these questions:

Encourage students who speak the same language to discuss their ideas in groups.

Provide scaffolded materials such as graphic organizers, sentence stems, and sentence frames.

Use a picture book to talk about different kinds of behavior with students.

Create a shared set of classroom expectations together

Return to your earlier discussion of what a respectful classroom looks like.

Brainstorm ideas on possible class rules based on that discussion.

Streamline the list of class guidelines or rules.

Add any rules or guidelines that are missing.

In order to establish appropriate consequences for disrespectful behavior, you may wish to come up with ideas with the class or determine those consequences yourself.

Post the final list classroom rules in the classroom.

Translate the rules into ELLs' native languages so that they can keep the list handy and share it at home.

To see an example of this proces in action, take a look at ELL expert Carol Salva's process for developing a community contract each year.

Help your ELLs understand expectations for the classroom

ELLs may need some extra support in understanding expectations for classroom behavior. Helping them understand these expectations can avoid misunderstandings, discipline problems, and feelings of low self-esteem.

At the same time, it's important to remember that students bridging two cultures may need guidance which behaviors are appropriate in which setting (such as eye contact, physical proximity, etc.). If you have questions, talk with a cultural liaison in the school to learn more about appropriate responses and ideas for helping students navigate a new culture. You can also learn more about cultural norms of your students, particularly related to schooling, to help inform your approach.

Here are a few strategies that you can use in class:

Use visuals like pictures, symbols, and reward systems to communicate your expectations in a positive and direct manner.

Physically model language to ELLs in classroom routines and instructional activities. ELLs will need to see you or their peers model behavior when you want them to sit down, walk to the bulletin board, work with a partner, copy a word, etc.

Be consistent and fair with all students. Once ELLs clearly understand what is expected, hold them equally accountable for their behavior.

Post a daily schedule. Even if ELLs do not yet understand all of the words that you speak, it is possible for them to understand the structure of each day. Whether through chalkboard art or images on Velcro, you can post the daily schedule each morning. By writing down times and having pictures next to words like lunch, wash hands, math, and field trip, ELLs can have a general sense of the upcoming day.

Finally, remember ELLs can make unintentional "mistakes" as they are trying hard to adjust to a new cultural setting. They are constantly transferring what they know as acceptable behaviors from their own culture to the U.S. classroom and school. Be patient as ELLs learn English and adjust - and remember that you will learn a lot from this experience too!

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How to Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment for ELLs

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An important first step in helping English language learners (ELLs) succeed is making them feel welcome in the classroom. This will: increase their confidence make them feel more comfortable in the class build a foundation for positive relationships with you and their peers. Here's how you can get started!

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This is one package of strategies that I can instantly refer to and implement to my ELL teaching right away.

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This is a resourceful professional learning website full of books and publications.

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March 2013 | Volume 70 | Number 6
Technology-Rich Learning Pages 10-14

Will Richardson

No, this is not the picture most of us painted for ourselves when we went into education. Most of us went into teaching understanding that school was pretty much the only education game in town, the place where kids came to get information, where, at the end of the day, we were responsible for disseminating the knowledge, we assessed whether our students got it, and we stamped it "an education." For that vast majority of kids (and for us, too) who attended a brick-and-mortar school, that's been the unbending, monolithic vision of schooling for 150 years.

So what do we do when that vision begins, finally, to be undermined? What do we do when the fast-maturing technology-the web-which has upended just about every other traditional institution we've grown up with, sets its sights squarely on schooling? And what do we do as schools become just one of many places in both the real and virtual world where our students can get an education?

Welcome to what portends to be the messiest, most upheaval-filled 10 years in education that any of us has ever seen. Resistance, as they say, is futile.

So Many Ways to Learn

The news that change is now seriously afoot, although daunting, is good news on many levels. In fact, it's hard not to look at it as great news for kids, who will see growing availability of computers and access as a means to learn deeply and passionately in ways the current system of schooling was never built for. I can't help but look at my own two kids and feel a twinge of envy. For the learner, these are exciting times.

But while the world of learning expands, many education policymakers seem to want to limit it to a discrete set of standards and outcomes. While our children pursue a growing array of interests and passions using technology outside school, we're narrowing opportunities for learning inside school as we raise the stakes on standardized assessments to evaluate not just students but also teachers, schools, districts, and states.

Worse, in the debate over what comes next, few people seem to understand that the web and the technologies that drive it are more than just vehicles for delivering the traditional curriculum more effectively as measured by those assessments. Instead, as Neil Postman suggests, those technologies change everything. Right now, we should be asking ourselves not just how to do school better, but how to do it decidedly differently.

What changes, exactly? Suddenly having access to an abundance of content, knowledge, and teachers-and being able to tap into all of that at a moment's notice-is just the start. Here's the real sea change with the web: Learning is now truly participatory in real-world contexts. The transformation occurs in that participation, that connection with other learners outside school walls with whom we can converse, create, and publish authentic, meaningful, beautiful work. That's when technological change becomes ecological, when the classroom walls are obliterated, when students truly drive their own learning, and when people whom we will never meet in person become some of our best teachers.

Putting Learning First

This moment of technological explosion raises a host of important questions for education leaders that speak directly to the way we think about the potentials of technology in school. If we see technology simply as additive, our questions will be about the technology: Should we get iPads or laptops? Does every classroom need an interactive whiteboard? What apps are best to engage students? and so on.

As Larry Cuban and others have pointed out, we've spent billions of dollars on technology that by almost every measure has had little or no widespread effect. No doubt, we've spent millions of dollars on iPads and interactive whiteboards in schools that do little more than deliver digitized worksheets or teacher-directed content to students.

But it's not about the tools. It's not about layering expensive technology on top of the traditional curriculum. Instead, it's about addressing the new needs of modern learners in entirely new ways. And once we understand that it's about learning, our questions reframe themselves in terms of the ecological shifts we need to make: What do we mean by learning? What does it mean to be literate in a networked, connected world? What does it mean to be educated? What do students need to know and be able to do to be successful in their futures? Educators must lead inclusive conversations in their communities around such questions to better inform decisions about technology and change.

What Do We Mean by Learning?

Almost a decade ago, Seymour Sarason asked the most basic of questions in the title of his book And What Do YOU Mean by Learning? If we define learning as "higher student achievement" or "improved student performance" as measured by test scores (as many of us do), then we'll add technology primarily to deliver the current curriculum more effectively, to make those scores "better." When I hear school leaders talk about spending thousands of dollars on devices to make students more engaged or to "personalize" instruction, I know they mean to change little, if anything, of what learning looks like in classrooms. Old wine, new bottles.

Sarason (2004) writes that "productive learning is the learning process which engenders and reinforces wanting to learn more" (p. x). Never has that been more possible than at this moment of abundant access to information, knowledge, and people via the web. But "wanting to learn more" suggests a transfer of power over learning from teacher to student-it implies that students discover the curriculum rather than have it delivered to them. It suggests that real learning that sticks-as opposed to learning that disappears once the test is over-is about allowing students to pursue their interests in the context of the curriculum. And it suggests that learning should have an authentic place in the world, that it should be shared with the world. I think John Dewey and Maria Montessori, both of whom saw school as a place for students to do real-life learning around the things that interested them, would be thrilled at the potentials that today's technologies bring to that vision.

That shift-from teacher to student control, from contrived to authentic creation and sharing of outcomes, from covering the curriculum to discovering it-represents ecological change. That's not to say that teachers haven't used these approaches before or that these approaches rely exclusively on technology. But it is to say that now-because of the web, because of how new technologies create new ways to connect, create, and communicate-those changes must become the rule in our classrooms, not the exception.

And with those changes comes a change in the role of the teacher. Teachers must be colearners with kids, expert at asking great, open-ended questions and modeling the learning process required to answer those questions. Teachers should be master learners in the classroom.

What Does It Mean to Be Literate?

Reframing learning in classrooms requires us to reframe literacy as well. As the National Council of Teachers of English suggests, literacy is much more than simply reading and writing texts. The organization's position statement (n.d.) now defines 21st century literacies as including "proficiency with the tools of technology," an ability to "manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information," an ability to "design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes," and more.

Some, like Stanford professor Howard Rheingold, believe that technology now requires an attention literacy-the ability to exert some degree of mental control over our use of technology rather than simply being distracted by it-for users to be productive. Professor Henry Jenkins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) advocates for transmedia literacy, which includes networking and performance skills that take advantage of this connected, audience-rich moment.

But these literacies don't just apply to our students; they apply to us as well. If we cannot use these new literacies in our own lives, if we're not "proficient with the tools of technology," how can we make sound decisions about the technologies that will support this kind of literacy development in our students? It's not surprising that we've wasted millions of dollars buying technologies that few, if any, of the adults in the room were familiar enough with to guide the decision-making process.

What Does It Mean to Be Educated?

Connective technologies like the web now require us to rethink what "being educated" means. As we gain more access to more information, content, knowledge, and teachers, it's becoming increasingly possible for learners to educate themselves outside the traditional structures of school. I'm not just talking about taking online courses, which by and large are simply additive in that they change little more than the delivery model. With access, and with a full set of skills and literacies to use this access well, we now have the power to create our own education in any number of ways.

Take Massively Open Online Courses-or MOOCs. Although MOOCs have exploded in the last year, the original idea, created in 2008 by Canadian researcher-educators George Siemens and Stephen Downes, was to organize a learning experience around a topic that online students could then explore in a way that best suited them. That might mean writing and responding to blog posts, participating in webinars, contributing to discussions, or even meeting with other participants in Second Life. In Siemens and Downes's original iteration, the MOOC enabled more than 2,000 passionate, self-directed learners from all parts of the globe to educate themselves, teaching one another and modeling the powerful potential to learn deeply with others online.

Now, almost five years later, a host of respected universities like Stanford, Princeton, MIT, and others are offering more structured versions of MOOCs led by experts and professors in the field. These versions of MOOCs are more additive in that they offer shared online learning spaces that feature readings, homework, and assessments mostly selected and driven by the instructors. But they also represent ecological change because they're free. Millions have signed on, and tens of thousands have received certificates of completion.

But here's the newest twist. Some universities, like Colorado State University, are now offering full college credit for completion of free MOOCs (Lewin, 2012). That changes things a bit, don't you think?

I'm not suggesting that a four-year college degree is no longer worth striving for. What I am saying is this: As tuition costs continue to rise and as opportunities to earn credits, certificates, or badges for a variety of online learning experiences continue to grow, our youngest students will have many opportunities to create their own paths to an education when they leave the K-12 system. Instead of helping our students become "college ready," we might be better off making them "learning ready," prepared for any opportunity that might present itself down the road. That's an ecological shift in thinking.

What Do Students Need to Know?

Now that we have so much information and knowledge at our fingertips, what's important for students to know? And how can we make sure that the knowledge they acquire in the classroom is relevant enough that they can put it to good use in their lives outside school?

The current "knowledge-based" curriculum that most schools use was created at a time when access to information was scarce; we wanted to make sure our students had a working memory of the facts, figures, and skills we believed they would need in their lives. But the world has changed.

The reality is that I no longer need to send my children to a school to learn algebra, U.S. history, or French. For many students around the world who have no access to schools but who have a self-directed disposition to learn, MIT Open Courseware or courses offered through Khan Academy will provide all the knowledge they need to pass a typical test on the subject.

What if we focused on developing kids who are "learners" instead of trying to make sure they're "learned"? What if, instead of delivering the same, common education to every student, we focused on developing the skills and dispositions necessary for them to learn whatever they need to learn whenever they need to learn it? That means rethinking classrooms to focus on individual passions, inquiry, creation, sharing, patient problem solving, and innovation.

That doesn't mean that we throw all information and knowledge out of the curriculum. No question, all kids need to be able to read and write effectively, understand enough math to function in their daily lives, and have a basic understanding of science, history, and more. But we must be willing to consider that in a world full of access to knowledge and information, it may be more important to develop students who can take advantage of that knowledge when they need it than to develop students who memorize a slice of information that schools offer in case they might need it someday.

It's About the Students

Asking and answering questions like these before we consider adding technology within school would do much to ensure that the decisions we make and the money we spend are in the service of learning rather than just an impulse to keep up with the school down the road or show off the next shiny, expensive new object that gets marketed as a learning device. Our students certainly need connected, networked devices and a fluency in how to use them so they can compete with people who have both of those things. But giving students devices and access is only a small part of the equation.

Right now, the web requires us to reconsider the ecology of schools, not just the technologies we use in them. We must start long-term, broad, inclusive conversations about what teaching, learning, and being educated mean in light of the new technologies we now have available to us. Just like business, politics, journalism, music, and a host of other long-standing institutions that the web has rocked at their foundations, education will be and is being changed. To understand the implications fully, we need to start with the questions that focus on our students-and not just on the stuff.

References

Lewin, T. (2012, September 6). Colorado State to offer credits for online class. New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/education/colorado-state-to-offer-credits-for-online-class.html

National Council of Teachers of English. (n.d.) The NCTE definition of 21st century literacies. Retrieved from www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition

Sarason, S. (2004). And what do YOU mean by learning? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Will Richardson is a parent, educator, speaker, and author, most recently of Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere (TED Conferences, 2012). He blogs at http://willrichardson.com.

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March 2013 | Volume 70 | Number 6 Technology-Rich Learning Pages 10-14 Will Richardson No, this is not the picture most of us painted for ourselves when we went into education.

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