ESL Tech Essentials

This week, I was so happy to find what it is I am always looking for; articles involving both technology innovation and the ESL community.  The article that fits the bill this week, written by Toshiko Maurizio, is all about the technology essentials she uses to help bridge language gaps and reach the ELLs she manages in Oregon.  Maurizio manages over 5,000 ELLs in her school distract and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to address language needs and to engage her students and teachers.  They are a Future Ready school distract that always encourages teachers incorporate technology and collaboration into their daily plans. In the past, Maurizio (2017) wrote that she used tapes to record students, listen to progress, and to assess, but these technologies below have helped to modernize the progress.

• Lightspeed Redcat audio systems – These are simply amplifiers for teacher’s voices to eliminate shouting and to allow all students to hear directions and content clearly. Which certainly is critical to understanding in the classroom.
• Laptops – Maurizio describes these as the educator’s lifeline and for a Future Ready school district, that makes sense.  In their district, laptops are primarily used for lesson-planning, presentations, and for visuals, “which are extremely important while teaching ELL students, since pictures help them make the connection between their native language and English” (Maurizio, 2017). 
• iPads – Students utilize these for Google Translate, which can apparently change the keyboard letting to their native language to aid in communication (Maurizio, 2017).  Maurizio (2017) explains that they find it helpful when students can have open access to their native language to help transfer over to English. 

While I appreciated the information in this week’s short article on ESL and technology, I honestly felt a bit letdown in how obvious the three mentioned were.  Now maybe just because I take online courses for continuing my professional development I can write that, but I was expecting more information about specific programs or techniques rather than a reminder to simply use computers and make sure students can hear your voice, especially coming from a Future Ready school.  I would like to check in on more of these articles as I believe there will be a series of them in the future with more essential technology tips.  But I suppose what the title indicates is correct; laptops, iPads, and audio systems are not teacher secrets necessarily, but indeed essentials for everyday use.  While my students can simply turn up the volume to hear me better online, I do in fact need my students to have access to their provided laptops and other devices to receive their direct instruction and the majority of their curriculum.  Though work may be done offline in textbooks and workbooks, they must check in online to submit work, mark attendance, and attend my virtual LiveLessons.  

References

Maurizio, T. (2017, July 19). ELL Specialist: These are “My Tech Essentials”. Retrieved from https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/07/21/curriculum-tech-essentials/

"Reverse the decline in language education"

           I wanted to again find an article from this week that related to both technology and ESL, but I am afraid I did not find too much in those combined fields.  Instead, I managed to find an interesting article about how to reverse the decline in language education in the United States.  This opinion article from the Editorial Board of the Herald Sun, present data to suggest that learning languages other than English is taking a downturn and has been for decades.  As the world is becoming “smaller” with the help of technology and global partnerships in business, people from the US may be at a disadvantage if the partners do not speak English as the lingua franca.  

            The article states that from 75% in 1998 to 58% in 2008, there has a been a decline in the number of middle schools offering another language other than English and a 6% decline in elementary schools as well (Editorial Board, 2017).  The article continues to report that only 15% of elementary schools actually offer a second language course with 50% of private elementary schools offering them (Editorial Board, 2017).  The article presents some staggering information when the US is compared to other countries’ language programs too.  Two-thirds of all European adults make the claim to be able to speak a second language to some extent, while only 20% of Americans can say the same (Editorial Board, 2017).  And though the populations of the US and China are quite different in size, the amount of US students taking Mandarin compared to Chinese students taking English are very different.  The article contends that is 200,000 US students compared to 300-400 million Chinese students.  But are these differences in language competencies and course offerings because English is often indeed used as the lingua franca or is it that language skills other than English are not found on state assessments?  The Editorial Board (2017) suggest that US educators and political leaders push to promote more language learning through the creation of more courses and the hiring of more teachers.  They believe language proficiency will allow more people to get along with each other and for America to get ahead in the global market.  

            I first started my foreign language learning with Spanish in 6^th grade.  I never had any background in school before and I honestly do not remember it ever being offered any earlier than middle school.  Though I had great teachers, I just could not get into it during that time in my life.  Perhaps my other subjects like Math, Language Arts, and Science were more at the top of my mind at that point.  I often wish I could go back in time and involve myself more with learning the language.  Perhaps that is what I’m doing now as now language learning is at the top of my mind.  At my school where I teach now, we do offer several languages as early as kindergarten and first grade I believe like Spanish, Mandarin, etc.  Though these are online courses, we do have a Spanish teacher on staff for elementary and middle school students to get LiveLessons and real-time content.  I agree with the article though, we need more language teachers like her.  One is not enough.  I’m sure as my school expands and grows that will be something on my administrations to-do list.  

References

Board, T. E. (2017, July 13). Reverse the decline in language education. Retrieved from http://www.heraldsun.com/opinion/article161131128.html

English: The Language of Success?

            As my title for this week’s blog suggests, some people are believing that when it comes to using online educational programs, knowing English is what really makes you successful.  This is certainly a discouraging statement and one that must be addressed by educators and those who make such programs available to help our ELL population of students. 

            The article I found for this week, written by Jen Curtis (2017), details how many ELLs in schools use online programs that boast their translation skills, but that may not be enough to help them achieve.  As not all translation services are created equal, a vast amount of work and manpower must occur in order to make sure what is translated makes sense and is presented in the right context (Curtis, 2017).  Directions are also important in online programs, which are actually often not translated at all.  The fundamental linguistic differences between Spanish and English, for example, is where human translators are usually need to ensure translation is properly done.  But when that translation is done properly, it can actually raise the difficulty of a text by making it multisyllabic (Curtis, 2017).  Curtis (2017) gives the example of how Diary of a Wimpy kid is written at a fourth grade level, but when translated into Spanish suddenly becomes a sixth grade level book. 

            Though Achieve3000 tries to match content at the appropriate Lexile level to each ELL, some online products are ditching translation services altogether.  IXL and i-Ready are two of those such companies that recommend matching an ELLs current English reading level to the material rather than translating it (Curtis, 2017).  Their reasoning for this is due to the fact that many ELLs are coming to school with difficulties in literacy in English and their native languages so therefore they cannot rely on reading skills in another language that they may not have.  I-Ready and IXL rely more on strategic scaffolding then to help student progress in English literacy. 

            I was especially interested in this because I saw i-Ready and IXL mentioned, both of which we use at my school.  Though i-Ready Reading and Math were new to us last year, we really thought the program was valuable to our struggling students who needed those extra scaffolds in their learning.  I had my ELL working in there every day actually to improve her skills and she really seemed to like it as it worked on her level.  As for translation services, I would actually like to see a combination of that and the scaffolding at the appropriate Lexile levels.  In my school environment, translation in a program would often help Spanish speaking parents help explain to their students what is necessary to complete, while the scaffolding in the appropriate English levels would help students understand the language more proficiently.  But this always brings me back to one thing, which is making lower level stories interesting and enjoyable for older students.  I always say that if there is one area I think someone could make a lot of money in is making low level readers interesting for an older population.  Kindergarten and first grade passages about dirt bikes, video games, and other “older” themes rather than cute bunnies and other children’s characters. 

References

Curtis, J. (2017, June 29). When ELA Tools Can't Adapt to Students' Native Language - EdSurge News. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-06-29-when-adaptive-tools-can-t-adapt-to-students-native-language

Central Voice Increases Understanding

For this week’s blog entry, I found an interesting article from thisweeksnews.com that presents ELLs at a high school who made a very powerful and effective video.  The students from Kenya, Palestine, Peru, Somalia, Syria, Thailand, and Yemen are a part of an ESL club at their school and wanted to promote an understanding of what it is like to be an ELL including their unique cultural backgrounds. 

These students always felt that by being an ELL, they have had a hard time fitting in with others or felt isolated due to their language/cultural differences with native English speakers.  So, they took action and created a 15 minute video depicting their lives, where they came from, their emotions, and aspirations to help show everyone that they are no different from their peers.  The link to their video is at the bottom here, but it is such an effective way to reach an audience of students and teachers to deliver a message.  The ELLs said they saw a noticeable difference for good in the way students and teachers interacted and spoke to them after the video’s release.  The school board president describes being brought to tears having seen the piece as it contains several personal struggles these students faced from civil war to friends being killed by militants. 

As a film fanatic myself, I have always believed in the power of videos created to tell a story and create a dialogue.  This was a highly effective example of just that.  I could certainly see other students taking advantage of this method of storytelling to help connect with others to show a little of what it is like to be in their shoes.  With training students in Digital Stories, working with editing techniques, and interviews, I feel that all ELLs could work together in different settings to accomplish a video like this of their own.  

ESL Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HatsilPEKNE

References

Kuhlman, M. K. (2017, June 14). Central Voice members use video to increase understanding. Retrieved from http://www.thisweeknews.com/news/20170613/central-voice--members-use-video-to-increase-understanding

"Students Tap Into Technology"

           I managed to find a decent amount of ESL articles this week, but only a few that related to technology in the field.  The one for this week, written by Emma Gosalvez (2017), was about how Penn State Harrisburg students were working on researching and presenting their findings about how best to use technology in the classroom.  I was especially interested in this because I actually live just ten minutes away from the campus and any information on how to best use technology the better. 

            These college students focused on how pre-service teachers face diversity in the classroom and how to reach their students through technology.  Though the article was mostly summarizing the presentation the students gave on this topic, there were some good tips and findings shared as well.  Touching back on the concept of Digital Stories from this past week’s readings, some college students focused on making short informational videos that were presented to teachers, students or their family members, which they found resulted in higher engagement in their classes (Gosalvez, 2017).  They also discovered that when students in a classroom were assigned roles to create these informational videos for others, students were able to express their creativity and learn different skills as they took those roles on (Gosalvez, 2017).  They hope to take these videos further in the future and include interviews of people in their communities and make them more documentary in style. 

            The most interesting point in this article for me was a link (provided below) of a video created to engage ELLs with hip-hop.  It’s a very clever and effective video meant to educate educators in how ELLs learn, statistics on ELLs, and how to effectively reach them through relevant topics such as hip-hop stars.  As students are more likely to know major hip-hop artists over historical figures from hundreds of years ago, they felt incorporating it into lessons would be effective and culturally relevant. 

            I really enjoyed this article as I felt it connected well with the Digital Stories we read about this week.  Though these were college students creating short informational videos aimed at addressing diversity issues educators may deal with, I felt the collaboration and assigned roles could be utilized in any classroom focusing on Digital Stories.  The ELL Hip-Hop video was a good example too of what can be achieved through images, video, and collaboration.  The main thing I took out of this can be best summarized with a quote that, “it’s a matter of how do you take what you have and then maximize it” (Gosalvez, 2017). 

Teaching ELLs through Hip-Hip Link: https://psu.app.box.com/s/snx07ddpal2qcm0ww4tzy2xelwnxdbmr

References

Gosalvez, E. (2017, June 12). Students tap into technology to share research work. Retrieved from http://harrisburg.psu.edu/story/8613/2017/06/12/students-tap-technology-share-research-work

"Language in a Lab"

I finally got my Google Alerts working properly and an interesting article from The Fiji Times Online was brought to my attention. In this article, Ravnil Narayan from Fiji National University, basically pitches the concept of a Language Lab to help his country improve in learning the English language.  Narayan (2017) states that though English has become essential to young Fijian students to advance their careers, quality programs and language teaching in general is deteriorating in Fiji.  He believes that with the help of technology and online learning, students can become more proficient L2 learners.

As there have always been science programs conducted in laboratories, the author does not feel it is a stretch to imagine language being learned in one as well as they have seen growth from students in such a setting in Australia and New Zealand (Narayan, 2017).  Students would be utilizing technology ranging from simple headsets to “creating broadcasts, televised interactions, web-assisted materials, and video/audio taped off-air recordings in the target language” (Narayan, 2017, p. 2).

Narayan (2017) goes on to detail what he considers as the four main types of language labs that students could take advantage of.  The first is a conventional lab where a teacher hits play on a tape recorder for students to listen to recordings, which the author points out is probably the least effective of the four.  Second, the lingua phone lab, consists mainly of the previous lab’s technique, but utilizes headphones for each student instead to avoid distraction from others.  This would then allow for students to work individually on their own language learning as well.  Third, computer-assisted language learning (CALL), is where teachers would incorporate computers into their daily lessons to help teach students a target language.  Finally, the fourth is called the multimedia high-tech lab where language learning software is implemented at all learning levels to address the needs of all types of learners. 

Mr. Narayan brings up some great points and presents a general overview of advantages Fijian students would have if they incorporated more technology into the classroom for language learning.  I also think that if the same programs are working well for neighboring countries, then they should also have more data to suggest they modernize and upgrade their teaching methods and tools.  As this would be a jump into the online/computer-based world for many Fijian ELLs, I feel that well rounded and though-out teacher education programs should be devised first to ensure that they are able to get their feet underneath them before moving into this.  But again, partnering up with Australia or New Zealand may be an answer. 

Perhaps Fiji may decide to roll out these labs using the first two detailed in the article where they are less intense than other, but a step in the right direction.  I would hope that with continued efforts by Fijians like Narayan, they would be able to quickly and effectively transition to CALL and multimedia high-tech labs.  Small steps first to build an effective and lasting program?

References

Narayan, R. (2017, June 9). Language in a lab. Retrieved from http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspxid=403847

Utah ELLs and Access to Online Content

I must admit, for my very first blog here, my Google Alerts let me down.  I was alerted to ESL Gaming, but I guess ESL stands for other things as well.  I’ll have to modify my alert notification settings I suppose, but nevertheless, I found a great article in Google News about ELLs and Technology.  I have the reference below, but this was an article about how ELLs in Utah have been recently working with more technology integrated into their school day allowing them to be more proficient learners. 

            As Utah Schools have a high school graduation rate for ELLs at 62% compared to 83.9% for native English speakers, they wanted to do something more to provide for their students to make every as successful as possible (ELLs in Utah).  To counter this issue, the Utah State Board of Education decided to partner with Fuel Education to provide personalized learning and online content to their ELLs to access 24/7 (ELLs in Utah).  They decided against a full online curriculum for ELLs as they wanted for the students to have access to the teachers in the state already and to allow for further integration into the classroom.  They hope this blended approach to education will benefit their students as 1,000 secondary students will be taking apart in this. 

            The curriculum can connect to each student’s cultural backgrounds, allow for them to move at their own pace, and continue to build their language and literary skills.  There are also projects students can collaborate on in this online setting while also attending the brick and mortar school.  What is also great is that the curriculum is aligned to the WIDA standards, Common Core, and ELPA21 standards too. 

            I found this to be very interesting as it seems like something that could be a benefit to my cyber-school colleagues in the ESL department and our own ELLs.  As where I work is not homeschooling, but more of a combination of home, school, and online learning, I feel like this curriculum could help meet the needs of our students while they are still able to join for lessons in the general classroom as well.  I especially like how they align the curriculum to many standards to assure for quality content as much as possible.  As this article was written in May but mentions the roll out of this program in the Spring, I can only assume this is happening right now for some students at the end of the schoolyear in Utah.  I would like to check in on the developments next year as well to see how it is working out.  At my school, we currently use a National Geographic Curriculum for our ELLs, but I am curious if the ESL teachers and administration would see benefits in this instead provided by Fuel Education. 

References

More than 1,000 English Learners in Utah Using Supplemental Online and Blended Learning Solution from Fuel Education. (2017, May 11). Retrieved from http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170511005355/en/1000-English-Learners-Utah-Supplemental-Online-Blended