Balancing Act: Helping English Language Learners Navigate the World of Standardized Tests and Academic Language. A Case Study

Stephanie Gugliemo Lynch, the USA

Stephanie Gugliemo Lynch is a doctoral student in the Foreign Language and ESL Education program at the University of Iowa. Her interests include qualitative research methods, the use of authentic literature in the foreign language classroom, and teaching methods for language teachers. E-mail: stephanie-lynch@uiowa.edu

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Abstract
Observation
Interview and analysis
References

Abstract

This paper describes the author’s observations of a K-6 ELL program at an elementary school in a medium-sized Midwestern town. The following things were considered in the observation: the methods being used; the materials being used; the frequency of the use of the methods and materials by the teacher; and whether or not the students seemed engaged in the instruction. This observation is discussed in the context of research regarding school change in the form of standardized testing, and of the teaching of English language learners.

Observation

It was Election Day, and there was a lot of commotion throughout the two-story brick building. I first approached the front office, since I was unsure of the location of the classroom for English language learners (ELLs). “Hi. I’m a doctoral student and I’m here to observe Ms. Pedro’s classroom”, I told the secretary, who looked up at me when I walked through the door. “Lauren, sit right there and the nurse will be with you in just a minute”, she said to a little girl who was sitting in a chair near the window. “Sorry about that. We’ve been dealing with all kinds of sick kids today”, she said to me. Then she looked into the hallway as a group of kids went by. “Marissa! Can you come here please”, she shouted out into the noisy hallway. A girl who appeared to be around eight years old came into the office. “Marissa, this lady is here to meet with Ms. Pedro. Can you please show her to Ms. Pedro’s room?” Marissa nodded, and the secretary told me that Marissa was one of Ms. Pedro’s students, and would be the perfect person to take me to the classroom.

As Marissa and I walked toward Ms. Pedro’s classroom, I noticed that this building, despite its age and location in a neighborhood mostly inhabited by poor and working-class families was absolutely beautiful and bursting with color and energy. The tile-covered walls were full of art projects from various classes. There were large wooden-framed windows in the stairwells. The hallways seemed to go in many different directions; lockers bearing nametags lined a few of them. I couldn’t help feel a bit of jealousy. I attended schools in California. Our buildings are built in an entirely different fashion, and are nowhere near as inviting as this school. This building felt warm and cozy; California schools typically don’t have enclosed hallways, and there are very few common-spaces; coziness is not an adjective that one would typically use to describe any of the schools that I attended. The layout of this building incorporated a lot of common spaces, and the hallways were bright and cheerful.

It was 1:30 in the afternoon, and as Marissa and I walked to Ms. Pedro’s class, we passed several classes walking in lines in various directions. “Did lunch just end”, I asked my tour guide. “No. They’re probably going to vote on the cookies”, she said quietly in what sounded like an American accent. “That sounds like fun”, I told her, trying to keep her engaged in conversation. “I love cookies.” “Me too”, she said, a bit less quietly than before. “I voted for chocolate chip, but I also like M&Ms”, she explained.

We walked along, and I tried to keep the conversation going. “What grade are you in?” “Fourth”, she said. “Do you like school?” I asked. “Yeah; it’s okay”, she replied as we approached a door. “This is Ms. Pedro’s room”, she announced as we walked in. “Thanks Marissa”, said the booming voice of the teacher inside the classroom. A video that I recognized immediately as the Electoral College lesson from Schoolhouse Rock was playing. There were four students seated around a kidney-shaped table in front of the classroom.

“Come on in”, the teacher said. “I’m Ms. Pedro. You can have a seat while we finish this video”, she gestures to a desk near the back of the room. “Do you know this one”, she gestures toward the screen. “Oh yes”, I say. “I grew up with Schoolhouse Rock. I love these videos”, I tell her as I take out my notebook and pen and sit down.

“I’m gonna send your vote to college…” the little cartoon character sings on the screen. “How many electors in Illinois?” the teacher asks. “20”, the students all say in unison as they continue to look up at the screen. I start to look around the room. It is small and somewhat cramped. There is a large window along one wall. Behind me were floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. I glance at the shelves. They are filled with books and papers. Many of the books appear to be textbooks and basal readers. I back my chair up to the shelves for a better look. There are magazines, Oxford picture dictionaries and sheets of stickers. There are several versions of the textbook, Avenues on different shelves. I pull one out and start looking through it. It is a textbook with various vocabulary exercises and short readings.

The video ends, and Ms. Pedro says to the class, “You guys are gonna get a chance to vote! Is it a real vote”, she asks. “No”, the students reply in unison. “I have some stars that you’ll cut out”, she says as she passes out scissors and red and blue construction paper. “You guys are gonna cast your votes”, she tells the group. “Who are the candidates?” “Obama and Romney”, say three of the students. The group busily cuts out their stars. The stars have already been drawn on to the paper, and the students carefully try to stay on the lines. “I’m gonna go in the back, and you guys are gonna come in and vote. It’s confidential. What’s that mean?”

“We don’t say”, says a male student.

“When we’re done, Ms. Pedro’s gonna put the stars next to the candidate you voted for”, Ms. Pedro says as she puts down her scissors.

“I’m finished”, says another male student excitedly.
“Do we need to say finished”, Ms. Pedro asks.
“No”, says the boy.

“That’s what kindergartners say, but we don’t”, Ms. Pedro replies. “Watch the news tonight and you’ll see the results”, she continues. A female student asks, “The kids’ channel?” Ms. Pedro doesn’t answer, but stands up and asks her students to line up toward the back of the room. “Line up please, and come back one at a time!”

“Uh…”, a girl says while still seated at the kidney table.
“What, baby?” asks Ms. Pedro.
“We voted for the cookies downstairs.”
“What kind,” asks the teacher?
“Like chocolate or peanut butter”, the student answers.
“That’s great!” says Ms. Pedro. “Okay”, continues. “Line up!”

The students get up from the kidney table with their stars in hand. They line up near the desk where I am sitting. I turn around and notice a doorway that leads to what seems to be a small storage room. The students giggle and speak to each other in hushed tones while in line. I listen closely to what they are saying, and I discover that even though these are all native Spanish speakers, they are speaking to each other in English.

Approximately five minutes later, the students have finished with their voting exercise and are now seated at the kidney table. Ms. Pedro sits down at the table and asks which state has the most electoral votes. “California!” one of the male students says enthusiastically. Ms. Pedro nods in agreement, and then says, “Okay. That’s it. Back to class!” The kids get up from the table and head back to their classroom.

While we are waiting for the next group of students to arrive, Ms. Pedro tells me that she has 50 children on her caseload. She divides her time between three different campuses. She also tells me that there are currently 600 language learners in the school district. “The major languages that we have are Kirundi, Karen, Arabic, Spanish and Chinese”, she says.

Immediately after she says this, the next group of students arrives. They are first graders and there are seven in this group. They are all Spanish speakers. They take their spot at the kidney table, and Ms. Pedro begins the session by asking, “Does anyone know what’s going on today?” “Do you know”, she says in both Spanish and English. “We are electing a new president today!”

“Obama”, asks the little girl sitting next to Ms. Pedro.

“Do you know who the other candidate is today”, Ms. Pedro asks. Nobody answers, so Ms. Pedro tells them that the other candidate is Mitt Romney. A little boy across from Ms. Pedro says excitedly, “Me too! I saw him.” The other children join in the conversation:

“He’s got a pretty office”, says one female student.
“Yeah, because we saw a book of him”, says a male student.

“Angel-ponga atencion por favor!” Ms. Pedro tries to get a little boy named Angel to turn back toward the rest of the group. Angel had been looking at the window during the conversation. Once Angel turns around, Ms. Pedro continues: “Today we are electing a new president. So people are going to the polls and they’re voting. I’m gonna take you out to the hallway, and I’ll show you-in case you want to be President someday. Everybody’s gonna get a star.” Ms. Pedro holds up one of the construction paper stars that had been cut out during the previous meeting.

“Angel, are you listening?” Ms. Pedro again tries to capture Angel’s attention. Angel is again looking at the window. “Angel? No creeo”, she says. It is at this moment that the Principal’s voice cuts in to the conversation, via the loudspeaker: “Attention everyone! YSB is not meeting today. I repeat, YSB is not meeting today.”

As soon as the voice disappears, Ms. Pedro tells her students to come with her to the hallway. Immediately to the right of her classroom door is a bulletin board. On the bulletin board is a map of the United States. “Ms. Pedro’s gonna show you how to become President!” she tells the group. The children crowd around their teacher and stare at the bulletin board. “Is anyone 35 here?,” Ms. Pedro asks her students. The students giggle, and shout out their ages in response:

“I’m six!”
“I’m seven!”
“I want to be twelve”, says one little girl.
“My brother is twelve”, says another student.

I stand in the classroom, and look out into the hallway. Ms. Pedro shows them the map and briefly discusses the Electoral College with them. I look around the room, since it is my first time seeing it from this viewpoint. There are numerous charts on the walls: “Writing Process”, alphabet charts, months- of -the –year and date charts and a multiplication chart. There is a brightly decorated bulletin board near the front of the classroom. It says, “All about me!” at the top of the bulletin board. There are paper cut-outs with the names of students placed all over the board. There are also photos of students and stickers on the bulletin board. A decorative garland made of paper with Mexican folkloric designs stretches across the room. A sign above the doorway states, “Everyone Reads”. It is a small, but cheerful classroom.

The children and Ms. Pedro return from the hallway and take their seats again at the kidney table. She immediately starts to repeat questions that were discussed out in the hallway. “How many votes does California get?” Nobody answers, so Ms. Pedro states, “fifty-five.” “Mauricio turn around”, she says to a little boy who is looking out into the hallway. She continues her quizzing. “To be President, how many do we need?” “This many!” states a little boy who stretches out his arms to indicate the amount of votes needed. Angel turns around toward the window again.

Ms. Pedro gets up and starts the Schoolhouse Rock video for this group. As the video starts, Ms. Pedro resumes her quizzing. “How many does Illinois have?” “Zero”, says a female student. Ms. Pedro asks Angel who the President is. She does this in Spanish. He does not answer. A little girl in a bright green shirt giggles at the video. The kids appear to be engaged in the video. Angel looks at the screen the entire time. When the video ends, the children clap enthusiastically.

Ms. Pedro reaches in to the basket that is placed in the center of the table. She takes out pairs of scissors and pieces of red and blue construction paper. “Now you guys are gonna have your choice of red or blue stars”, Ms. Pedro tells the children. “Noemi, I’ll start with you.” She asks this of each child at the table. One they have their paper she asks Angel if he wants to hand out the scissors. Angel doesn’t answer, so she repeats the question in Spanish. Angel nods affirmatively, and then gets up to pass out the scissors to his classmates. The kids go to work cutting out their stars.

“Tonight you’ll see the results”, Ms. Pedro says. “How many does Illinois get?”, she asks again.
“Twenty!” says one boy.
“Obama”, says a one of the girls.
“How about Texas?” asks Ms. Pedro.
“Thirty-eight!” says another boy.

“Is thirty-eight bigger than twenty?” asks Ms. Pedro. The students answer simultaneously in a chorus of “yes” and “no”. As the students finish their cutting, Ms. Pedro tells them that she’s going to put the stars up on the bulletin board. A boy named Jose-Alva tells her that he’s going to vote for Barack Obama. Ms. Pedro seizes on the opportunity to keep him talking:

“Why?” she asks.
“Because his face looks good”, Jose-Alva tells her energetically.
“Romney’s face don’t look good”, Ms. Pedro queries.
“No!” shouts Jose-Alva.

Most of the children are finished with their stars. Ms. Pedro asks them if they participated in the cookie vote. Angel now appears ready to speak in English. “We wrote our name and put it in a box”, he says clearly and happily. Ms. Pedro tries to keep him going. “When you vote, it’s confidential”, she explains. “Do you know what that means?” Angel shakes his head to indicate that he doesn’t know. “It means that it’s a secret”, Ms. Pedro says. Angel repeats, “Secret” immediately after Ms. Pedro gives him the definition.

Ms. Pedro gets up from the table and asks the students to line up with their stars. “You guys are gonna give me your star and then tell me who you choose for President.” Angel says, “Jose-Alva!” Ms. Pedro smiles and says, “Jose-Alva? He’s not running for President.” Angel smiles and takes a place in line. As the students wait in line, they whisper and giggle to each other. They do this in English. After the students vote, they sit quietly at the table. Ms. Pedro tells them that they can see their stars today at 3:00. She plans to display them on a bulletin board outside of the classroom. “Okay! Back to your classroom”, she tells them.

After the first-graders leave, Ms. Pedro shows me a brochure for an upcoming conference that she and some of her colleagues plan to attend. I recognize it immediately, as it is a bilingual conference that I have attended in the past. She’s very excited for and tells me that she hasn’t attended any conferences in a while. She plans to attend a few workshops devoted to bilingual special education. “How many bilingual teachers teach special ed in this district?” I ask her. “They don’t exist”, she says as she shakes her head. “I got certified in special ed, but then I got my master’s degree. I still miss it.” She tells me that her master’s degree is in Bilingual Education. “Yesterday we had an intervention day,” she continues. “They bring up the students they’re concerned about.” I ask her if they have a special ed classroom in the building. “No. We have a resource room, but it’s not self-contained.”

The excited voices of children cut in to our conversation. A boisterous group of third-graders has arrived. Despite their volume, there are only three children-two girls and one boy. Ms. Pedro hands a piece of paper to one of the girls. “Can you take this next door to Miss Johanson’s room? Ask her if she can load this in the printer for me.” “Load?” asks the girl. “Yes, load”, Ms. Pedro responds. The girl looks at her teacher with a puzzled expression, and Ms. Pedro tries to clarify. “Ask her to put this paper in the printer.” The student nods her head affirmatively and walks out of the room. Five more children enter.

“Why are you late?” Ms. Pedro asks. “We were learning lots of government”, says one of the late-comers. Ms. Pedro smiles as the students take their seats at the table. “We’re going to talk about something important”, she begins. “Do you know?” Several hands go up, but before the teacher has a chance to call on them, a few students shout out, “Election!” Another student jumps in and says, “We voted for cookies-chocolate chip, M&M, raisin…” his voice trails off.

Ms. Pedro continues, “I predict…that means, my guess is that chocolate chip is gonna win.” The kids murmur in both agreement and disagreement with this prediction. “Today we’re gonna discuss how to become President.” Ms. Pedro tells them about today’s activities and then takes the students out into the hallway to look at the map of the United States and the electoral vote chart. “It’s just a prediction”, she explains. “We’ll know what happens later tonight.”

“It’s a lie!” says one of the female students.
Another student chimes in, “I already know who is winning.”
“Because Mitt Romney has six, but Barack Obama has like 100”, explains the first girl.

“Let me go to CNN right now and see what’s going on”, Ms. Pedro says as she walks back into the classroom to get her laptop. She takes the laptop into the hallway where the children are standing near the map and chart. One of the students tells her that they were watching CNN in his other classroom. Ms. Pedro takes a moment to look at CNN’s website. “I don’t see anything yet. There will be more later on.” She puts the laptop back into the classroom and then steps back out to her chart.

“You guys have to live here for at least fourteen years. None of you have lived here for fourteen years. Do you know how I know?” “No”, say some of the students. “I know this because none of you are fourteen”, Ms. Pedro says with a grin. Some of the students laugh at this comment. She continues on with her lesson, asking the students how many electoral votes for California, Illinois and Texas. She then asks the students if their parents have voted. They all either say “no” or shake their heads to indicate that their parents had not voted. One girl says, “They can’t because they don’t speak English” in a quiet, yet somewhat sad voice. I am waiting for Ms. Pedro to say to her that being able to speak English is not a requirement for voting, but she does not.

The teacher and students file back in to the classroom and take their seats at the kidney table. Ms. Pedro starts the Schoolhouse Rock video, and the students seem to have no trouble keeping their attention focused on the screen. One of the students claps when the video ends. Ms. Pedro then hands out the construction paper and the students immediately start cutting out their stars.

As they cut their stars, Ms. Pedro asks them about the cookies: “Are they gonna announce the winners of the cookies in the morning?”

“Yeah”, some of the students say.
“Oh, tomorrow’s Wednesday. Do I see you guys tomorrow?” asks Ms. Pedro.
“Yeah, at the end”, says a boy seated at the middle of the table.
“We have to tell Javier he missed out!” Ms. Pedro says to the group.
“He says ELL is boring”, says a female student seated near Ms. Pedro.
“Yeah”, says a girl who is seated on the other side of the table. “It is boring!”

One of the other female students gets up from the table and announces, “I’m gonna point to Safari!” She motions at the image of the computer screen that is projected on the wall. Ms. Pedro asks her to return to her seat. The students finish cutting out their stars. Ms. Pedro asks them to line up so that they can cast their ballots. The kids line up. While they are in line, they speak to each other in Spanish. After they cast their ballots, they return to the table and whisper to each other in English. They ask each other about who they voted for.

When Ms. Pedro returns, one of the boys asks: “When are we gonna do carameled apples?”
She doesn’t respond to his question, but instead asks the entire group: “Who was born in this country?” None of the students respond. “Who was born in Mexico?” A few hands rise up. “I don’t know”, says one of the students.

Ms. Pedro continues: “I wanna tell you something that’s going on that’s important to the Hispanic community, especially the Mexicans. We have to have papers if we weren’t born here. If you know someone without papers, or who is undocumented, La Casa is helping people this weekend.” The kids don’t respond to this, but a few of them nodded their heads as their teacher spoke.

“At three today, we’ll know the results”, she said.
“It’s Obama!” said a young girl from Iraq, the only non-native speaker of Spanish in the class.

Interview and analysis

This was the last ELL group today. After the students left, Ms. Pedro began collecting her art materials. She told me that she works with all the schools in the district. This is her first year working in this particular building however; this building had an ELL teacher who had been there for eight years. “My boss made me come”, Ms. Pedro explains. “They really needed me since there was nobody to work with the kids. I like it so far. The students are great and the parents have been on board with the program.”

“Next week, we’re gonna start preparing the kids for ACCESS testing”, she continued. They will take it in January. “I have my bilingual endorsement, but there’s no bilingual classes in this district, even though the state law says that if you have 20 or more kids with the same language, you have to offer bilingual education.” She is correct. Illinois administrative code section 228.25 says:

When an attendance center has an enrollment of 20 or more limited English proficient students of the same language classification the school district must establish a transitional bilingual education (TBE) program for each language classification represented by those students (ISBE 228.25; italics from original source).

“I barely passed it”, she says of the test she had to take in order to get her bilingual endorsement. “Can you imagine? I grew up bilingual, and I barely passed it! I was so tired. It was a five-hour test.”

I ask her about the typical structure of her lessons. I mention to her that there are a lot of different textbooks on her shelves, and I ask her if she uses them. “We do use these books. See those books called English at Your Command?” She gestures toward a set of books on one of the shelves in the bookcase. “We use these books with the lower-level students and in our newcomer program. It’s got a lot of pictures. We use that, and we take them around the building to point out some of the things that are pictured in the book. This year though, most of the kids in this building are very high-functioning, but they’re in ELL class because they haven’t passed the ACCESS test. They’ve gotta have an eight to exit.

“This is the only way they can leave”, she continues. “Then they’re monitored for two years.” I ask her what the monitoring entails, and she explains: “Basically, I just check up with their teachers. I meet with them and ask them about how they’re doing. I take a look at their work and at classroom tests.” She tells me that she’s not monitoring anyone in this building at the moment because none of the ELLs have passed the ACCESS test yet. Of the fifty kids that she sees, she anticipates that at least ten or twelve should exit from ELL requirements this year. “Hopefully they do”, she says.

The ACCESS test was designed by a consortium from Wisconsin known as WIDA. This acronym stands for: World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment. WIDA is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, and are the partners of the Center for Applied Linguistics. Their first ACCESS test was developed and administered in 2004 (About us, WIDA, nd). The test developers state that their test exceeds the requirements established by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and that its results will show which students have achieved “the language proficiency needed to participate meaningfully in content-area classrooms without program support and on state academic contest tests without accommodations” (About ACCESS for ELLS, WIDA, nd). ACCESS is used as part of the state of Illinois’ accountability plan for No Child Left Behind ELL requirements (State of Illinois, 2011, 5). In this state, the ACCESS test is given only once per year, in the month of January.

The practice of giving ELLs a standardized test to determine their level of English is not unique to this state. In the neighboring state of Iowa, language learners are given a similar test called the IELDA. The IELDA is the Iowa version of the English Language Development Assessment, a standardized test developed by the American Institutes for Research at the request of the multi-state members of the State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards for Limited English Proficient Students (LEP-SCASS) (Ferrara, 2008, 133). Just like with the ACCESS test, Iowa students must reach a certain score on the IELDA in order to make an exit from ELL programs.

These tests are just one of the standardized tests that language learners must take while in school. The No Child Left Behind Act requires that ELLs be assessed on their proficiency in the English language each year (Ferrara, 2008, 132). Furthermore, English language learners who have been in the US for more than one year must take state achievement tests in language arts and mathematics each year (Colorin Colorado, 2007). While their native English-speaking peers only have to deal with one test in the late winter/early spring of each year, the ELLs in Ms. Pedro’s classes have to worry about two standardized tests.

She also tells me that her nephews are in ELL classes at their school in a neighboring district.
“They’re native English speakers, but they got stuck in ELL because of the responses on the home language survey. They always score low on writing, even though they’re fluent. It’s not really fair, and it happens all the time”, she says with a sigh. “It’s one of the reasons why I make my students write every day. I don’t want them to be stuck in ELL classes forever. One kid’s mom didn’t want him to be in ELL. She signed the waiver. They can do that if they want; they just have to sign the form.” I ask her if she knows how that child is doing in his classes. “I have no idea since he’s not part of my group. His teacher hasn’t said anything to me.”

The home language survey is something that is quite common in school districts throughout the United States. The validity of the home language survey in its accuracy of placing students into appropriate classrooms has been examined in numerous studies (Abedi, 2008, 18). Some students have been placed in an ELL classroom if a language other than English is spoken at home, regardless of the student’s ability, and some parents have indicated that English is the only language used at home, even if this is not the case (Abedi, 2008, 18). This, in combination with performance on assessments can cause students who are actually fluent in English to be placed in ELL classrooms. I ask Ms. Pedro if she has any students who are in a similar situation to her nephews. “Yes. I would say that about a third of my students are similar to my nephews. That’s why I hope that they do well on ACCESS this year. It’s not fair.”

ELLs in Ms. Pedro’s state are doing quite well when they transition out of ELL programs. A 2011 report found that Transitioned English Learners (those who have passed the ACCESS test) have decreased the achievement gap between ELLs and non-ELLs in reading in grades 3-5, and have outperformed their non-ELL peers in reading in grades 6-8 (Illinois State Board of Education, 2011, 6). The ELL programs for elementary students have helped language learners to become successful in developing their English literacy skills.

So, how long does it take a language learner to exit an ELL program? “It all depends”, Ms. Pedro tells me. “I’ll be with some of these kids for the rest of their time in elementary school, but most of them will only need me for a few years; especially if they’ve been here since kindergarten. That’s why I’ve really decided to focus on the writing with these kids. I don’t want them to be stuck in the same situation as my nephews.”

I take this time to ask her about little Angel in the first-grade group. I mention that it seemed like he had a difficult time staying on task. “Yeah. He doesn’t get much English outside of the classroom. It’s only Spanish at home. He’s learning though. I don’t know if he’s got a learning disability since it’s too soon for me to tell. I’ll have a better idea after I’ve worked with him longer. I’ve only been working with him for a couple of months. It’s too soon to do an RTI right now.”

RTI is an acronym that stands for Response to Intervention. RTI is a multi-tiered program that is in use in many schools. It involves a team of teachers and specialists who work together to help a student when they first show signs of struggling in the classroom (Orosco & Klingner, 2010, 270). Other than the support he receives in the ELL program, Angel doesn’t seem to be receiving any other support. I mention to her that it didn’t appear that he spoke any English when I first started observing him. By the end of the lesson, however, he was speaking as much English as his peers. He also seemed to have an easier time staying focused at the end of the lesson.

I then ask her if the special education teacher is certified to work with language learners. “No, but I wish that she was. She hasn’t had any ELLs yet, but I’m sure she will pretty soon. I’m actually certified to teach bilingual special ed but they don’t have it here.” It is a bit surprising that there are no language learners placed in special education at this school. There has been a tendency for language learners to be placed in very high numbers in special education programs throughout the United States (Hamayan, Marler, Lopez, et al, 2007, 1). I see this as a positive sign that the school is doing the right thing when placing their ELLs into the appropriate setting for help. “Is there only one special ed teacher for the whole school”, I ask Ms. Pedro. “Yeah”, she sighs.

I ask Ms. Pedro how many students are in special education, but she doesn’t know. This school has had ELLs for at least fifteen years, according to Ms. Pedro. “They get more and more students [ELLs] each year”, she says. “It’s not going to change.” I agree with her, while wondering how long it will be before there is a full-time ELL teacher on staff in this building.

At this time, I decide to switch the focus back to the lesson that was taught in today’s classes. “The students all seemed really enthusiastic about the election”, I say. “That video is great. I’ve used it with my adult students and they also seemed to like it.”

“Yeah. They were really good today. I think they genuinely care about the election. They see all the ads and hear about it all the time. They know it’s important, and they want to be part of it. They want to know what it’s all about, even if their parents aren’t able to vote.” I mention the comment made by a student earlier who said that her parents couldn’t vote because they didn’t speak English. I tell Ms. Pedro that speaking English isn’t a requirement for voting. Because I’m somewhat new to the community, I am not sure if the ballots are only printed in English. “Where I’m from, ballots are printed in both English and Spanish”, I tell her. “The signs for the polling places are also in both languages.” Ms. Pedro says, “Really? I don’t think it’s like that here.”

“That’s too bad”, I say. “Their parents who are citizens might participate in more elections if they didn’t have to deal with a language barrier.” “Yeah”, Ms. Pedro says. “I always try to make sure that my students and their parents know what their rights are in this community. That’s why I made the announcement about the workshop at Casa earlier today. This is something [citizenship issues] that affects the kids as well as the parents. The kids worry a lot about whether or not they’ll be able to stay here, and whether or not their mom and dad will be able to stay. Some of the kids that I work with at other schools have parents who will bring the family back and forth [between Mexico and the United States] throughout the year. It’s hard on the kids and the schools don’t understand why the students are going to be gone for the month of December each year.” I have heard a little bit about Mexican-American children travelling with their parents to Mexico during this time of the year. “Is that because they’re visiting family”, I ask. “Yeah. It’s the custom”, Ms. Pedro tells me.

“I try my best to make the students feel like their cultures are important and just as good as American culture. Do you see that?” Ms. Pedro points to the chains of brightly colored construction paper with designs that have been cut out. They are strung all over the classroom from the ceiling. “Last week was Day of the Dead. I thought it would be nice to decorate for that and to have a little party in the class for the students. A lady over at Casa made me a bunch of trays of sugar skulls for my classes. The kids were so happy!” “That’s really great”, I tell her. “I would have loved to see that. It’s something that the native English-speakers would have liked too.” I suggest to her that if the school would allow it, it would be a great program for all the students. The ELLs could do a program where they teach all the other students about the holiday. “That would be cool”, Ms. Pedro says. “I think I’ll talk to my boss about this. Maybe we could do it next year.”

By incorporating a celebration of a holiday that the children are already familiar with, Ms. Pedro is helping them to improve upon their English by engaging their prior knowledge and using it in a slightly different context-an academic context, and by having the students discuss the holiday in the language they are studying. This is something that is consistent with what researchers in the field of language learning have advocated for many years (Cummins, Bismilla, Chow, et al, 2005, 38).

I ask Ms. Pedro a little more about today’s lesson. I noticed that her lesson today involved reading, social studies, listening and speaking, and even a bit of math. The language was taught through the content itself, which is important for students who must gain the academic skills necessary to participate in American schools. This is also important due to the required participation of ELLs on state assessment tests as part of the No Child Left Behind act (Colorin Colorado, 2007). Students who are still learning the language, and who are new to American schools must take the same tests as students who are native-English speakers who have been in American schools for their entire school career. Teachers of ELLs must tend to both the language development of their students, and the content knowledge of their students.

One of the ways that teachers do this is through a method known as sheltered instruction. Teachers who use this method are typically language specialists (ESL teachers), and they teach various subjects in a way that is designed to be more comprehensible for students who are still learning English (Short, Fidelman & Louguit, 2012, 335). There isn’t a lot of research devoted to the efficacy of sheltered instruction, but the small amount of published research devoted to this topic has demonstrated that students taught in this manner tend to be more successful than students who aren’t taught in this manner (Peercy, 2011, 326). In her lesson today, I observed Ms. Pedro using this method with her students. She did this by introducing new vocabulary, repeating the words of the students, asking questions and soliciting feedback throughout her lesson and by having them read maps that contained the same vocabulary words that she taught. She also asked them to speak about themselves, which is a standard method employed in language classrooms throughout the world.

Another successful planning process that Ms. Pedro appears to have incorporated into her lesson plans is something that has been borrowed from the world of foreign language education-a consideration of the type of language they need to learn, the content and language skills that the students need to learn, and the cognitive skills that they’ll need to complete the task (Bigelow, Ranney & Dahlman, 2006, 44). By teaching them about the election, Ms. Pedro has taught them language that will be used throughout their school careers in the United States, and she has taught them how to learn this type of material by presenting it to them in the form of reading, listening, speaking and writing.

“Did you meet with any of the classroom teachers to find out how they were going to teach the students about the election”, I ask. “No”, she tells me. “I haven’t been able to really spend much time meeting with them this year. I kind of had a feeling that they would be talking about it in their classes, but I didn’t know what they were going to do.” Ms. Pedro goes on to explain that because she goes around to various schools, she’s never really been able to establish long-term collaborative relationships with the classroom teachers at her schools. It is somewhat disappointing to hear that she hasn’t had the opportunity to collaborate with the classroom teachers. This is something that has long been advocated by researchers in the ESL field, and has been shown to help the students get even more support while they’re in ELL programs (Davison, 2006, 454). Ms. Pedro then goes on to say that she hopes to have the opportunity to collaborate with the teachers in this building. She has done this successfully with teachers in the other schools she has worked at.

“Tomorrow, we’ll spend time writing about the election. I’ll have the older students talk about how the president is elected. We’ll review the Electoral College lesson, and then they’ll write. The younger kids will write a little bit about what they know about the election, or the president, or yesterday’s cookie event. I just want them to write. It’s so important.

“They’ll also read the board again. I’m going to have them look at the map with the electoral votes on it again, and then we’ll talk some more about what’s gonna happen tonight with the election. I’m sure that they’ll also spend time doing something like this in their mainstream classrooms. Hopefully, they’ll be more prepared since we spent time on it today.”

The bell signaling the end of the day rings, and I thank Ms. Pedro for her time. She is planning to go to a Latino community center later this afternoon to help with an event, and I don’t want to interrupt her schedule any more than I already have. Before I go, I feel like I must ask her one last question.

“If you could be at one school all day every day, would you do it? Or do you like going back and forth between buildings”, I ask. Ms. Pedro sighs and says, “It would be so nice to just be at one school all the time. I could have more time with these kids. I never feel like I’ve given them enough time. They would benefit from more language instruction. But, the thought of leaving other the other kids in the other buildings makes me sad. They need to hire more people so that we can do more for these kids. It’s a balancing act and it’s not what the students need.”

I thank Ms. Pedro and start to find my way out of the building. There are kids rushing in every direction, and the building is still as animated as it was when I walked in. I walk out the main door, and see parents waiting on the sidewalk and in cars for their children. I take a minute to observe the parents. They are as diverse as the neighborhood itself, yet are mostly female. When their kids approach, they greet them cheerfully in Spanish and English. I can hear some kids say, “We got to vote on cookies today!” The cookies were obviously a big hit among the students.

I walk to my car feeling a bit envious. I wish that I had gone to school in a building like this one. This school seems like a warm and friendly place that is bustling with life. I do feel a bit of sadness for the students in this school who only get to work with their EL teacher for just a few minutes on a few days. However, based on what I observed, the students at this school are getting the language and community support that they need to succeed in American schools.

References

Abedi, J. (2008). Classification system for English language learners: Issues and recommendations. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Fall 2008. 17-31.

Bigelow, M., Ranney, S. & Dahlman, A. (2006). Keeping the language focus in content-based ESL instruction through proactive curriculum planning. TESOL Canada Journal, 24, (1), 40-58.

Colorin Colorado (2007). Assessment guidelines for ELLs. Retrieved from:
www.colorincolorado.org/educators/assessment/

Cummins, J., Bismilla, V., Chow, P., et al. (2005). Affirming identity in multilingual classrooms. Educational Leadership,62(4). 38-43.

Davison, C. (2006). Collaboration between ESL teachers and content teachers: How do we know when we are doing it right? International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9(4). 454-475.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2167/beb339.0

Ferrara, S. (2008).Design and psychometric considerations for assessments of speaking proficiency: The English language development assessment (ELDA) as illustration. Educational Assessment, 13.132-169.

Hamayan, E., Marler, B., Lopez, C.S. & Damico, J. (2007).Special education considerations for English language learners: Delivering a continuum of services. Philadelphia: Carlson Publishing.

Illinois State Board of Education. (2011). Bilingual Education Programs and English Language Learners in Illinois. Retrieved from:
www.isbe.net/research/pdfs/ell_program_stat_report11.pdf

Illinois State Board of Education. (2011). Illinois Administrative Code, Title 23, part 228. Springfield, Illinois, U.S.

Newell, G. &Dorough, B. (2002).I’m gonna send your vote to college. On Schoolhouse Rock (DVD). Burbank, California: Walt Disney Entertainment.

Orosco, M. & Klingner, J. (2010).One school’s implementation of RTI with English language learners:Referring in to RTI.Journal of Learning Disability, 43(3).269-288.

Peercy, M.M. (2011). Preparing English language learners for the mainstream: Academic language andliteracy practices in two junior high school ESL classrooms. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 27:4, 324-362.

Short, D.J., Fidelman, C.G. & Louguit, M. (2012). Developing academic language in English language learners through sheltered instruction. TESOL Quarterly, 46(2). 334-361.

World Class Instructional Design and Assessment. (n.d.).Who we are and the WIDA story. Retrieved from:
www.wida.us/aboutUs/mission.aspx

Please check the Methodology and Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.