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NAELPA Quarter 2 - Grading with Equity Q&A

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Few Educators Say A-F and Numeric Grades Offer

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Few Educators Say A-F and Numeric Grades Offer

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‘Very Effective’ Feedback for Students

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Rooted Linguistics: Serving Teachers of Multilingual Learners

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I think as educators, we can learn something from the tree.
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1. not all our students will need scaffolds all the time
2. some will need different levels of support
3. remember to release the scaffolds

Jerome Bruner introduced the term scaffolding in 1983. Scaffolding is the assistance provided by a teacher.

Scaffolds can be divided into three main types: verbal, procedural, and instructional:

​recasting: this is a type of paraphrasing of what students say in an effort to model correct grammar, pronunciation, and English usage. For instance if a student says, "My eye color blue." The teacher would respond by saying, "Your eyes are blue and my eyes are brown." Students have a chance to hear how to use the language in a safe, nonthreatening atmosphere.

thinking aloud: this is a strategy that helps students hear what goes on in the mind of a thinker/learner. Students benefit from hearing the process we go through as thinkers. For example, if I am reading a book aloud to my class, I might say, "I'm noticing that the cover of this book has a both a pig and a fox on it. And the title says My Lucky Day. They both look happy because they are smiling and holding their hands in an excited pose. I wonder whose lucky day it will be?" As I continue to read, I will stop to share my thoughts, wonderings, predictions, and new ideas aloud.

building vocabulary-vocabulary unlocks meaning, so it's important that we stop and directly teach words or phrases that may be unfamiliar to our students. If we are learning about the Civil War and the word muskets comes up, I may stop and quickly build that vocabulary simply by pointing to the musket in the picture and/or labeling it.

slow, clear speech: talking louder won't help an EL, but slowing down and pausing slightly between words and sentences will definitely make a difference. Remember that for some English Learners part of their process is translating. This calls for additional wait time to process information.

elicit more language: I remember being an English Learner myself in elementary school. I was shy and quiet and wanted to be a good student. I didn't talk in class and my teachers rarely called on me. I'm not sure if they didn't want to embarrass me or if they thought I didn't know the answers. For whatever reason, I didn't express myself verbally in English much at all. If we want our students to grow in the English language, they must have plenty of opportunities to practice. And on top of that, we have to push them to extend their answers. If the student responds with a short answer, we have to ask them to "tell me more".

Procedural

​Instructional framework: our framework for all instruction should be clear, concise, and routine. Students should not be left guessing about what they should be doing or learning. Here's what we are learning today. Here's why. Here's how to do it. Model, and utilize a Gradual Release of Responsibility. And keep the routines going. Routines allow the learner to focus on the content and language rather than wondering and worrying about what's coming next.

One on One coaching: time individually with ELs is valuable. During this time, we build trust and relationships. Students feel safe discussing with their teacher and the teacher can ask questions that he/she may not ask in a different setting. One on one offers focused time to meet the very specific needs of individual ELs.

Small group: time in small group with ELs is important for communication and collaboration of ELs. This is a time where ELs can practice and take risks in a small setting in a safe atmosphere.

Partnering: when partnering ELs consider pairing them with more experienced readers. Just like running partners, academic partners should push one another. One should not bring the other down, rather they should compliment one another. It reminds me of the saying, "When one teaches, two learn." Students benefit from partners that push them and help them grow, not a partner who is at the same level as they are. This could cause a plateau.

Instructional

Graphic organizers: this type of tool is effective for organizing information and thinking in all content areas. Some include cause and effect, Venn Diagram, and story maps. These tools can prepare students for content as well as allow students to process and organize learning.

Models: these have often been referred to as targets, mentor texts, or touchstones as well. They are models for students. The best are student sample products that are individually designed based on student needs. For example, if we are learning to write a how-to book, my beginner student will not have the same goal or target as my advanced high English Learner. In this case they will have different models. Other models could include digital products or posters. The point is that students are given clear targets.

A common misconception is that scaffolding is when we simply take a student's worksheet or test and reduce the answer choices or reduce the number of problems that the student is responsible for doing. If we properly scaffold for our students and gradually release, then they will be able to do the work that is expected in our classrooms.
​Remember the tree. Not student needs a scaffold. Scaffolds will vary depending on students' needs. And take the scaffold away as soon as possible. Keeping it too long causes more harm than good.
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Resources:
Echevarría, J., Vogt, M., & Short, D. (2008). Making content comprehensible for English learners: the SIOP® model. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.
​Seidlitz, J., Base, M., Lara, M., Rodríguez, M., & Hartill, M. (2014). ELLs in Texas: what administrators need to know. San Clemente, CA: Seidlitz Education.
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Scaffolding...when I hear this word, I think of the small trees that were planted in my front yard. Around them, the gardeners placed metal tree stakes as supports. Scaffolds in teaching are like...

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When I started teaching English, I followed the traditional route of marking essays with corrections, suggestions, and scores. It would take hours. When I handed the papers to my students, they would look at the grade, and then smile, sigh, or grimace. The paper would be quickly stuffed into their backpack. I rarely saw students read what I had written. So I made a major shift to my instruction. I decided to give feedback only, with no grade. I also developed a cover sheet for student writing so students could let me know what they thought they did well and where they struggled. I met with each student and we set a revision writing goal. I would love to say that everything went smoothly and my class ran like clockwork, but the truth is that there were many bumps in the road. However, the outcome was that my students participated in their own learning, and I no longer spent hours on end grading papers on my own time.

- Roberta Blasjo, resource teacher, Leesburg High School, Leesburg, Florida

Sometimes we solicit feedback and sometimes it's thrust upon us. Recently I asked our faculty to provide me, their principal, with feedback. I asked what should I stop, start, and continue doing, plus a couple of other questions. The response was largely affirming for me, as well as giving me a few tips on how to refine my approach. I felt good about this process, as I was ready to receive the feedback, and agreed with the constructive comments. Then, in the last week or so I received some feedback I did not ask for about how my behavior in online meetings was affecting some team members. Feedback is aways a gift, but sometimes it's not easy to receive. Knowing myself, I could see the validity of the feedback, yet it rocked me. I had not been ready for it. In these cases it's hard to distance oneself emotionally from the feedback and look at it cognitively, moving away from the personal realm. There is one other real positive I can take from all of this: those involved felt safe enough to share that feedback with me, the principal. That thought gives me a boost as I process the feedback itself.

- Liz Durkin, middle school principal, Stamford American International School, Singapore

We need to rethink the "feedback sandwich," a method in which we offer praise, then criticism, then praise. It's predictable, and can therefore feel formulaic and disingenuous at times. Tailoring feedback by using our knowledge of the recipient can be a more sincere approach. Asking the recipient for their initial thoughts and engaging in reflective conversation helps build trusting relationships so that feedback can be welcomed on a regular basis.

- Julie Webb, literacy coach, LitCentric, Napa, California

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Tell us about a time that giving or receiving feedback really shifted your thinking.

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Addressing limiting beliefs & implicit bias in education

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Addressing limiting beliefs & implicit bias in education

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Ellevation: ML Program Management Tools for K-12

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Implicit bias, a negative attitude of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group, shows up in every profession - including education. For English learners, who have experienced a long history of explicit bias in the education system, this is a very real threat to their educational opportunities and achievement. When educators hold unconscious stereotypes about these students' abilities, it can lead to lowered expectations...

Moreover, this bias can erode students' self-esteem and sense of belonging, further impeding their educational journey. Addressing and dismantling such bias is essential to ensuring equitable access to quality education for all students, regardless of their language background.

We spoke with Amy King and Yvonne Williams from WCEPS about this topic on our latest Highest Aspirations podcast episode. Listen to the full conversation there, and find key takeaways and highlights from the conversation below:

Impact of expectations on potential

We've had several conversations with our EL Community in the past about the impact that labels can have on students as well as the educators who teach them. One of the biggest risks is that by assigning a certain label to a subgroup of students, we are subconsciously assigning them a different set of expectations and beliefs about what they can achieve.

"There's some that have interrupted schooling, there's some that have a lot of schooling, there's some that come from an Indigenous area of their country, there are refugees. So to lump up and say newcomer or ELL is the starting place for the mistakes that we're making because we need to identify who these students are before we place a label on them," Williams explains.

Another leading factor in the mismatch of the expectations we have for our language learners and their full potential is an idea commonly called the "pobrecito syndrome," where educators lower their expectations for students that they believe to be disadvantaged in some way to avoid adding additional stress or frustration.

"When we're working with a group of students that we know we are trying to empower to learn and acquire a second language, we fall trapped to the idea that we're there to protect them and support them. Then there's the fact that as teachers, in our hearts, we want to teach. And if we don't see it happening in the moment... then we will do just enough so that we see that they are happy in the progress that they're making, instead of really thinking about what is the potential that we're trying to get them to meet," says Williams.

While it may come from an empathetic or caring place, lowering our expectations for our students is only harming them in the long run. Instead, King and Williams encourage changing our approach to instruction, rather than our expectations.

"It's about mindset and thinking about ways that we can be intentional in our planning to challenge students cognitively, but reduce the language demand...It's also important to recognize that English proficiency is not a measure of IQ or cognitive ability," shares King.

Productive struggle vs. pushing past their frustration point

While it is important to maintain high expectations for our language learners and encourage them to reach their full potential, there is also a risk of overcorrecting. If teachers push students beyond their productive struggle zone, they can become frustrated and shut down or can no longer be successful.

King and Williams believe that the best way to prevent this from happening is through relationship building and creating a safe environment where students can advocate for themselves.

"I think that so much of that has to do with building relationships with students and really getting to know them. Giving students space to feel comfortable in sharing with you when you have pushed them too far," shares King.

"One of the most important pieces, in my opinion, is the self-advocacy of students or self-regulation of learning where they're able to communicate," Williams continues. "Students who don't feel that they're able to be successful will give up. Everyone has their own journey, but we need to provide them the opportunity to advocate for themselves and tell us what they need to learn."

Addressing & decreasing implicit bias

The first step to addressing implicit bias is to acknowledge that we all have them, and rather than judging ourselves and others for this, putting together a plan for accountability.

"I think sometimes we like to pretend that we don't because we think it labels us as racist or bigots in some way or another. But for me, I've done some reading and some work and have my allies who I can count on to check me if I say something that comes out that illustrates that implicit bias. I also think a lot of it just has to do with monitoring my own thoughts and the way I think about things. I try taking a breath before I say something out loud and process it that way," King suggests.

There are also steps educators can take to decrease the impact that this implicit bias has on their students. King and Williams share that although there is a commonly held belief that data cannot be biased, there are many ways of collecting and analyzing data where bias can become a significant factor.

"If we think about quantitative data, we're thinking, "It's numbers, it's numbers. Numbers don't lie. We can sort this and we can sort students by that." But we fail sometimes to think about what data am I looking at? What bias am I bringing in when I'm looking at this data? And how is that influencing the way I'm analyzing the data?" explains King. "I think about teachers who make data walls with students color coded and grouped, but they didn't think about the whole child, and were using this quantitative data to make decisions about what kind of additional services students got without really thinking about the students themselves and what they really needed."

Confirmation bias plays a big role in interpreting data as well, which essentially means looking at data to satisfy a certain idea you already have. Williams shares a great strategy for decreasing the risk of this:

"We have a slide [in a PD session] and we ask teachers, 'What would you recommend for the families of this student versus this student?' And we include qualitative and quantitative data, and they had very different responses for both students - and it was the same student. So we just wanted them to see how sometimes that comes into play when you're looking at data, and it's so important for us to step back and consider removing the name so that we can really think about what it is that we're looking for and at?"

A final piece of advice from King and Williams was around encouraging students, whose self esteem and beliefs around their own abilities could have been impacted by others' biases over the years, to maintain a growth mindset.

"I often say, it's almost like a marathon. I can run the marathon - not as fast as somebody that trains, but I can complete it. And the same message is if I had the training, the time, and the experience, I could also run it as fast as the person that's running it. So how are we communicating that to students back to that individual journey? Because everybody has that journey and everybody moves at a different pace and has different visions for their future," shares Williams.

" It's the 'small but mighty.' And getting students to start thinking that I'm on a path, I'm on a journey.I think even small things like greeting students as they come in, "I'm glad you're here," that I think over time can build the emotions in the student or that sense that I do care about you," adds King. "And that may help them break out of that cycle of feeling like they're not enough or that they don't have aspirations - that I as a teacher might help support them in meeting or achieving."

Download the full episode transcript and visit the WCEPS website to learn more about the work King and Williams do.
Yvonne is the Director of Multilingual Learner Educator Engagement at WCEPS. She collaborates closely with LEAs to discuss educator goals and needs to develop the best path to topics that align with those goals. Prior to WCEPS, she spent three years with WIDA, as a Professional Learning Specialist working in both international and domestic settings. She has worked in education for 25+ years, teaching a variety of language learners from grades Kinder to High School. She also worked as a District ELL Trainer, ELL Instructional Coach, Family Literacy Coordinator, and High School Parent Involvement Coordinator. Yvonne was born in Chihuahua Chihuahua Mexico and came to the US when she was 5. Her experience as an English language learner adds passion to her work. She is joined by her two sisters as first-generation graduates with a master's degree. Her journey as an EL student has provided her with insights that promote high expectations, recognizing potential and leveraging the cultural assets that bilingual students bring to school communities. She now lives in Washington State with her husband but lived in Las Vegas, Nevada for over 23 years prior to moving to Washington. Her two bi-racial sons are proud to hold bachelor's degrees and live in Nevada and Washington states. She believes in family first and values the value that public education can provide for all students. She earned her bachelor's in business administration from Angelo State University in Texas and her Master's in Bilingual Education from NOVA Southeastern University, Florida. Her endorsements include TESL, Bilingual, and Computer Literacy. Amy King has more than 20 years of experience in the field of English language teaching and learning both in the US and overseas. Before joining WCEPS, Ms. King was a Senior Professional Learning Specialist at WIDA for more than six years. She taught ESL in K-12 public schools, private language schools, and adult education programs. Internationally, she has taught in both Slovakia and South Korea. In Banska Bystrica, she was a visiting lecturer at Mateja Bela University. In Seoul, she worked at Shin-il High School as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant and at the Foreign Language Institute of Yonsei University. She was an English Language Fellow at Hanoi Metropolitan University in Vietnam through a program sponsored by the US State Department. She holds a BS in Speech and an MS in Journalism from Northwestern University near Chicago. She earned a TESOL Certificate from American University in Washington, DC and a Multiple-Subject Teaching Credential from National University in San Diego. In addition to certificates in Blended Learning, Microlearning and E-Learning, she earned a Master of Instructional Design from the Association of Talent Development. She is currently working on a MS in Educational and Instructional Technology through National University.

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Addressing limiting beliefs & implicit bias in education

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Implicit bias, a negative attitude of which one is not consciously aware, against a specific social group, shows up in every profession - including education. For English learners, who have experienced a long history of explicit bias in the education system, this is a very real threat to their educational opportunities and achievement.

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Ellevation: ML Program Management Tools for K-12

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Assessing Multilingual Learners by Margo Gottlieb

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Assessing Multilingual Learners by Margo Gottlieb

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Through eight thoroughly revised chapters that emphasize relationship building as the backdrop for linguistically and culturally sustainable assessmen…

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"Our job is to facilitate the acquisition of the English language.  Providing translation tools and translated graphic organizers is a support, but translating everything that is provided to our MLLs, including assessments, is not only an incredible amount of work, but detrimental to their language development."

This guide provides a number of ways in which educators can use a student's native language to bridge new language learning. The strategies they list, such as cognate awareness, noting similarities and differences in the language, and translanguaging, are all alternates to translating everything that is presented to MLLs. Research articles are referenced throughout.