Thank you teachers! ¡Gracias maestros!
Thank you for serving our schools and communities to provide high quality learning every day and allowing TaJu to be a partner in that journey. From everyone at TaJu Educational Solutions, thank you, teachers! You are the change we seek in the world.
Top 5 Ways to Spend Down F18 Budget & Grow Your Dual Language and Bilingual Programs:
In the next few weeks, schools and districts across the country are in the midst of a crazy time between now and June 30th called “spend down”, it is the last few months of the year where they are forced to either spend their remaining budgets, or risk losing that money altogether. For many schools, this means ordering supplies, technology, and other catalog “wish list” items that were not possible during other times of the year. However, there is very little evidence that using funds for these “wish list” items has any impact on student achievement. One reason might be that educators have very little time to learn how to best utilize these purchases to support the needs of their students. Most likely, these additions rarely lead to improvement in practice and outcomes for students because the pressure to spend now before the time is up also prevents thoughtful planning for how these additions fit into current systems and structures. So how do you avoid the shopping spree mentality and invest your final F18 budget in a way that makes a difference for your language learners? As schools also begin planning their professional learning for the 2018-2019 school year, the five areas below are several “must have’s” that all schools should include and advocate for their dual language and bilingual programs. Program evaluation: Every dual language and bilingual program must analyze the needs of their educational community before building a comprehensive plan to coordinate supports. Careful diagnosis of the districts’ programs must include an analysis of a variety of data sources, as well as utilizing other qualitative data to ensure effective services and outcomes. The process should be methodical and flexible for dual language and bilingual program administrators to get a clear understanding of accountability, evidence to support a new program implementation, increase effectiveness of pedagogy and practices, or generally assessing needs. Leadership Training: Every leader should have the training and tools to lead and grow their dual language and bilingual programs. This includes understanding how the curriculum and instructional practices should look the same and when they should look different in these classrooms. Additionally, every DL and bilingual program leader (building and district level) should have the opportunity to build their capacity for observing instruction that occurs in a language other than English and offering constructive feedback around strengths and opportunities for growth. This cycle of feedback is a critical lever for improving student achievement. Equity Training: As record achievement gaps are reported across the country for dual language, bilingual, and English Learners, schools must work together to explore and analyze issues of inequitable distribution of resources, limited access in education, and how issues of race, culture, language, and identity create doors or barriers to opportunities for students. If schools are to change limiting beliefs, policies, and resource distribution models, misconceptions about students assets (rather than their deficits), social norms, and academic achievement must be rooted in a deeper understanding of the role that bias (both blatant and invisible) plays in the academic success of each student. Accepting the sociocultural-linguistic biases within their schools improves educators’ ability to become mutually responsible learners with and from students to design more effective practices, materials, and systems that lead to student growth. Spanish Literacy: Teachers have many opportunities to build their expertise and knowledge of strategies to teach reading in English. However, very few teachers in dual language and bilingual programs have received ongoing professional development that support their examination of the similarities and differences between English and Spanish. In addition to speaking Spanish, teachers in dual language and bilingual programs need to explicitly learn how Spanish literacy is developed authentically if they are to create a literacy experience that develops the sounds, words, sentence structures, and context that help students become biliterate. Ongoing coaching plans for key personnel: Educators need continuous follow up during the implementation of new ideas and practices – initial training is simply not sufficient. Ongoing coaching plans for key personnel (e.g. instructional coaches, dual language teachers, principals, etc.), allow schools to design coaching cycles which can encompass the following components: building the initial prerequisite skills & understandings, expertise in practices & tools to make new learning accessible, fidelity of implementation, effectiveness through formative assessment, and differentiated support based on need to continue improving practice. If you are interested in more information regarding any of these school supports, we would appreciate the opportunity to discuss supporting you through your program’s dual language, bilingual, ELL, and leadership training needs to improve your diverse students’ long-term success. Please email us at alexandra.guilamo@tajulearning.com or call us at 312 – 800 – 3477.
FREE workshop cohosted by TaJu Educational Solutions & West 40 Regional Service Center of Illinois
Are your teachers who serve language learners drowning in data but don’t know what to do with it all? Join Alexandra Guilamo next Thursday, April 12, 2018, for a FREE workshop hosted by TaJu & West 40 Regional Service Center of Illinois, to discover how easy it can be to use language and literacy data in a meaningful way! Learn how to use language & literacy data, and performance definitions during as part of the planning process Get ideas on how to use language acquisition theory to increase academic achievement. Experience scaffolding strategies that reach all language learners. Create a plan that focuses on differentiation that makes a difference Register Today! https://raisingachievement.eventbrite.com
Want a More Culturally Just Curriculum: Start with the Self
The first step in ensuring a socio-culturally just educational experience was to recognize the hidden bias of our assumptions by looking inward. As educators, what are our experiences, our appearance that informs how we move through different communities, our norms, and our privileges? Once we acknowledge these aspects of ourselves, we can then look to learn about our culturally and linguistically diverse students. Who are they and what are their experiences that define their beliefs and how they see the world beyond just a data point?
Why Should Dual Language Educators Start with Pillar Three?
You Can’t DO Dual Language to Schools: It Takes Time
I’m one of the fiercest advocates of DL, and the waves of districts rushing to implement DL programs in under 6 months, has me cautious of the larger consequence of starting programs without enough training, without buy-in and commitment in schools, and without a strategic plan fully developed. How will neigh Sayers recognize the difference between programs that were set up to struggle from their inception? And if something doesn’t change, will all dual language programs be deemed part of a run-away train that needs to be “fixed” with more policies that further devalue the needs of our learners?
FAQ: About Supporting Language Learners in Schools
I recently hosted an amazing webinar around engaging in data-driven instruction for language learners with Dr. Doug Reeves. I wanted to share the frequently asked questions that stemmed from the session. Please reach out with any questions! Q & A: These “service” minutes are state requirements. What can we do, add more minutes? State requirements reflect the minimum number of minutes required to be compliant, and define the way in which certified specialists are allocated at the building level. While 30 minutes, may be what the state defines as the minimum amount of specialized support, it should not be used to define how schools ensure each student has the conditions of learning that will lead to their success. It is the difference of providing 1,000 calories of crackers and wheat versus a full meal – you can only survive for so long. Does instruction and curriculum need to be authentic to students to be able to make meaning or authentic to the standards? Curriculum and instructional practices must first affirm the identity of the students that are meant its beneficiaries: meaning it provides content, concepts, and creation of knowledge (pedagogy) worth learning, and that it honors the life experiences that have shaped the individuals they are and will choose to become. Without knowledge of the students first, educators will constantly be chasing standards that escape the grasp of learners that may not see the connection or the point. Is the goal of early exit programs unrealistic in light of the research of 5 – 7 years? Yes, we have worked for many years to change policies that focus on unrealistic early exit philosophies and do so while also encouraging the abandonment of students’ first language and cultural reference points. These programs have consistently shown abysmal results, and are more grounded in personal beliefs around the value of English rather than the science and reality of the language acquisition process. For schools/districts with low EL populations, how realistic is it for beginning ELs to participate in rigorous GenEd content, texts, and topics? We must shift the idea that ELs are only capable of remedial curriculum that leave learners with little opportunity for achievement. On the contrary, ELs are capable of the cognitive demands of any curriculum that provide content, concepts, language, and meaningful opportunities to create knowledge that is worth learning within a context that allows every student to be a part of the larger community regardless of their language proficiency. In thinking about curriculum in this way, there is no perfect curriculum, text, or topic. Rather, the perfect combination of these things comes from knowing who each and every child is, and using that knowledge to adapt the materials’ ability to help each child make meaning, seek the answers to real questions, and develop more complex ways to communicate their truth within the world. Just know that the adaptation of the materials will need to include linguistic and cultural supports if the text is something like “To Kill a Mockingbird”, that is grounded in historical and cultural references that EL students may not have. What about this metalinguistic awareness you spoke of? Metalinguistic awareness and the strategies that support its development are critical for language learners, especially in dual language programs. These strategies are separate from and must work in addition to data-driven instruction. Educators must have the opportunity to build their expertise and toolkit of strategies to be able to effectively build students’ ability to meaningfully apply this thinking to their language learning and development. We do 2-3 day institutes to build this skillset strategically and effectively.
What Makes an Exemplary Curriculum for Language Learners?
The success of linguistically and culturally diverse students has become a shared goal for educators and policy-makers across both political lines because there are now over 5 million students from homes where a language other than English is spoken. The impact of this fast paced-growth began with grants, funding sources, and other program level compliances. However, the consistent failure to see achievement and growth in both language and content, has created a shift in the conversation from minutes of instruction to what educators are teaching and what they are doing to change the consistent failure. It is a conversation that inevitably leads to curriculum. Is there a curriculum that is best for language learners? Is there one that is better for dual language programs, versus bilingual programs, versus ESL programs? And while I have my own views on whether curriculum should be the focus of the conversation, here is the short answer from an article I am in the process of submitting. Curriculum that have historically served language learners have consistently been characterized by learning that is less challenging, more repetitive, more focused on skills that require low levels of thinking and denies students the opportunity to engage in any type of productive struggle. It is, in short, a curriculum that ensures language learners do not grow and remain uninspired to move beyond their current possibility in life. How do you know if you have this type of curriculum? Ask yourself the following questions: Does the teacher do most of the thinking? Do the lessons leave students unsure of what to do with new learning after the lesson? Does the curriculum allow students to sit passively and “stay under the radar”? These remedial-mentality curriculum leave learners with little opportunity for achievement. On the contrary, any curriculum that can reach the level of being exemplary must provide content, concepts, language, and meaningful opportunities to create knowledge that is worth learning within a context that allows every student to be a part of the larger community regardless of their language proficiency. In thinking about curriculum in this way, there is no perfect curriculum. Rather, the perfect curriculum comes from knowing who each and every child is, and using that knowledge to adapt the materials’ ability to help each child make meaning, seek the answers to real questions, and develop more complex ways to communicate their truth within the world. Even still, there are some criteria that must be part of how we evaluate the efficacy of our curriculum for our language learners. The following are not the only criteria that should be used to evaluate curriculum. However, if you are looking to evaluate your current curriculum materials, or looking to adopt a new one, these three criteria should top your “look for’s”: The curriculum affirms the identity of the students that are meant its beneficiaries: meaning it provide content, concepts, and creation of knowledge (pedagogy) worth learning, and that it honors the life experiences that have shaped the individuals they are and will choose to become. Provides modeling, shared practice, oracy, and independent learning experiences that include variety and choice in how they apply that learning and challenge the way they look at things. Allows for authentic and high-quality pedagogy for the language of instruction, and authentic and worthy tasks/artifacts to support the access and achievement of each diverse learner. These three criteria are critical. If we cannot, at a bare minimum, say that our curriculum affirms the learners who it was purchased for, that there are a range of paths for students to apply that learning, and that the pedagogy is authentic, we cannot expect to have different outcomes. So, what will you do to ensure that your curriculum doesn’t work against your goals?
English Only Here: The Impact of Restrictive Language Policies on Language Identity and Student Achievement
Last week, I had the opportunity to be part of a critical dialogue about the past, present, and future trends in the education of linguistically and culturally diverse students (also called bilingual, emergent bilingual, EL’s, and ELLs) with Manuel and Dr. Kathy Escamilla. It was a dialogue that created so many flashbacks of my experiences as a student. It was also a humbling reminder of my last two decades as an educator. The lingering message was a narrative of language policies that coerced linguistically diverse students out of their first language. And schools issuing a growing number of punishments for “failing” to acquire a second language almost instantaneously. The sad reality is that in many ways it was a terrible walk down memory lane that I almost did not want to take – and yet, I’m infinitely grateful that I did. The day left me hungry to change the reality of this narrative for current and future children who depend on schools to prepare them for a future of their choosing. The message of the day was powerful, but one question in particular keeps calling my attention. What are the implications of losing a language? It seems like a simple question? And yet it is incredibly profound. Many of us serve language learners in various program models with strong and (at times) immensely restrictive language policies: Don’t speak your native language in class. You need to find other friends so that you can practice English during recess Put a quarter in the jar if you use your native language These are practices and messages I have heard in schools across the country. But why are these policies problematic? Why should all educators be concerned with the consequences of restricting a native language in school? Personally, I know that my language is part of who I am; it is an essential connection to my past, my culture, my funds of knowledge. My language is how I interact with, negotiate with, and socialize with this world. My language is a point of pride that honors my culture and concurrently is refined and expanded by that same cultural connection. My language is my window to learning and gateway to new ideas embedded in books. To take away my language is to take away my right and access to interact socially and academically… to devalue the legitimacy of my identity… to render me powerless. This is the reality faced by the fastest growing student group in schools across the country, language learners. Valuing bilingualism as an asset, not a deficit, is a critical mindset needed. Even still, participation in learning may be a great source of struggle for language learners depending on their skills in English. Every successful interaction in English helps students to renegotiate their academic, social, and individual identities in more powerful ways – ways that will lead to greater academic success. Every miscommunication, idea, and thought that is stifled by the limited words and grammar they are able to produce causes a renegotiation towards greater inequality – one that will translate into greater achievement gaps. Educators must consider how to maximize students’ opportunities to fully participate in the learning community while also learning the rules, structures, and vocabulary of English. The best place to start is to use language policies and practices that provide language learners with a more powerful position to access social networks, opportunities to speak, and the tools to engage in cognitively challenging work. So how do educators do this? Include texts that reflect the interests and background knowledge of students. Utilize bilingual word walls to allow students to connect academic vocabulary with words in their native language. Engaging students in strategic learning around metalinguistic awareness (the ability to see, analyze, and manipulate language) helps to develop greater proficiency in English. Increase the amount of student talk that requires complex thinking. In doing so, students will have greater opportunities to master content knowledge by utilizing academic language, which are inter-related processes regardless of what language is used.