TESOL 2015 "Crossing Borders and Building Bridges"

This past March 26th and 27th, I attended my first TESOL convention, and felt invigorated as I roamed the halls and classrooms of the impressive Metro Toronto Convention Center over two days of busy learning and connecting. I was astounded at the amount of coincidental meetings with new and familiar faces, inspired by the work being done by passionate educators and researchers in the field of English language teaching (ELT), and honored to be counted among the presenters.

On the morning of my presentation, I grabbed a coffee and muffin and sat down with a stranger, Kirti, from Delhi, India. As I chatted with her, I learned that she was a colleague and friend of a welcoming woman I had met two years ago at the Asia TEFL conference in Delhi, Jayshri Kannon. Jayshri had invited me for an authentic Indian experience when I was attending the conference, a generous and unforgettable gesture of kindness for someone she’d just met. We’ve since remained friends on Facebook. I enjoyed chatting with Kirti and marveled at the way global organizations such as TESOL are able to bring people from around the world, from all walks of life, together in the name of improving teaching and learning. As I continued on to prepare for my presentation in my allotted session space, in walked Mark from Japan, an acquaintance from the Task-Based Learning Special Interest Group (TBL-SIG) of the Japanese Association of Language Teachers (JALT), an organization which I was a member of while in Japan. In fact, it was at the TBL conference in Osaka, Japan in 2012 where I gave my first poster presentation on project-based learning (PBL), encouraged forward in my work by the supportive community of the TBL-SIG. Oana strolled in after, another familiar face from the TBL-SIG, and suddenly, the task ahead wasn’t so daunting anymore. Two other colleagues and friends from Japan also came to support me. As I shook hands, gave hugs, and welcomed those who were there to learn from me, I was reminded that I am part of an extraordinary local and global community of people who are dedicated to helping their students be successful learners, and I couldn’t wait for my own learning to start.

I wasn’t disappointed by the fantastic line-up of sessions I attended over the two days I spent at the convention. Here are some of the high-lights:

Building Bridges between Rigorous Standards and ELLs

• Jen Himmel & Annie Duguay spoke representing the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) regarding “Research-Based Resources for PreK - 12 Educators” of English Learners (ELLs). They shared some great new videos the center is offering for concrete and brief best practice examples of Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) for ELLs teacher training. We watched these videos in the session. They included reading lesson objectives aloud with students, using gestures to help remember key academic vocabulary, and the use of songs to teach/review key topic-related vocabulary. An interesting note was that one of the second grade lessons recorded was a science lesson co-taught by an ELL teacher and mainstream teacher, with the ELL teacher leading the lesson. 
• American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) Ms. Lundy-Ponse spoke with two teachers from Poughkeepsie, NY about using high-expectation Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in ELL instruction. They reminded us of the rich resources provided on the Colorín Colorado website, which include videos of teachers in action modeling best practices as well as the informative blog on current issues in ELL practice Common Core and ELLs. The videos of teachers in action again highlighted the importance of sharing learning objectives with students in a student-friendly way.

ColorínColorado.org

• Of course, being a teacher in a WIDA state I had to pop in on Dr. Tim Boal’s update: “What’s the Latest from WIDA?”. WIDA’s goal is that all teachers think about language teaching and all teachers think about content. The English Language Development (ELD) standards they produce are meant to be a tool towards meeting this goal. These provide “rigorous” curriculum examples for students at all levels of English proficiency.  Dr. Boal reported that next year ACCESS 2.0 is going online for grades 1 on, but that the kindergarten test will remain paper based do to lack of grant funding. There will also be a new grade grouping system as follows: 1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-12. He shared that the following things are coming soon from WIDA:
  
• • An online training course & sample items for ACCESS 2.0
    
  • WIDA assessment management system and user guide
    
  • Facilitator toolkit
    
  • Prerecorded modules and webinars for district staff

Building Bridges Between Classroom and ELL Teachers

• The theme of building bridges was prevalent in the next session by Ms. Lisa Grimsley and Ms. Ching Yi-Yeh who shared some interesting survey-based research on mainstream teachers’ perceptions of the role of ELL teachers in schools and classrooms. In their session, “Building Bridges between Mainstream Teachers and ESL Teachers,” they built on the previous work of Angela Bell and Lauren Baecher (2012) on “Points on a Continuum: ESL Teachers Reporting on Collaboration.” They identified key areas of need for effective collaboration:
  
• • Common planning time
    
  • Professional development on collaboration
    
  • Equal status (both teachers view each other as equally qualified to teach language and content)
    
  • Clear and common instructional goals
    
  • Willingness to Collaborate

     Grimsley and Yi-Yeh’s surveyed                  hundreds of teachers in a Delaware            school district, and reported the                following findings. 

1. In general, mainstream teachers prefer push-in to pull-out models of ELL support.
   
2. Many mainstream teachers felt that students fell behind in content instruction when they were pulled from class.
3. Collaboration between classroom and ELL teachers is generally more informal (between classes, after school/before school determined by cooperating teachers, etc.) than formal (time allotted by administration for shared planning).
4. A surprising number of teachers thought that ELL teachers should be able to provide translation for English learners (ELs), which is shocking considering the diversity of languages often spoken in U.S. schools.

     A lively, large-scale discussion followed      as participants from the audience, both      mainstream and ELL teachers, shared        their own experiences with 
     collaborating, as well as ideas about the      best model for ELL support. Most                people felt as I do, that there is not one      best model for all students/schools, but      that a combination of pull-out, push-in        and co-teaching that best meets a              variety of needs for different children is      most beneficial. However, in push-in          situations, ELL teachers can often feel        more like support staff than equal              partners in instruction. There was a            consensus that shared planning time          was one of the most important                  structural indicators of collaborative            success. Teachers who were given this        time seemed to have much more                effective and equal teams, which                allowed for more co-teaching to                  happen.

Building Bridges between Schools & Families

• At the convention, there were sessions that addressed both the importance of early education for ELLs (PreK) and voiced the impact of whole family and parent education. Dr. Betty Smallwood of SWELL (Succeeding with English Language Learners) shared her passion for PreK education and identifying best practices and literature for early learners. Strategies and practices that work well for PreK ELLs (and all young learners!) include:
  
• • Creating a warm text-rich environment with predictable routines and a clean, orderly classroom
    
  • Pre-reading picture walks
    
  • Inclusion of bilingual, translated, and/or wordless texts
    
  • Opportunities for interaction with peers
    
  • Experiential learning (field trips, outdoor explorations, etc.)
    
  • Play-based/hands-on learning
    
  • Vocabulary building through songs, realia, and visuals
    
  • Use of kindergarten standards to drive instruction
    
  • Allowing for developmentally appropriate play
    
  • Integrating numeracy
    
  • Engaging families
    
  • Striving for multicultural understanding
    

Dr. Smallwood closed with a read aloud the lovely book Only One You by Linda Cranz, which is sure to tug at your heart strings.

• In “Making a Case for Math in an Adult ESL Classroom” three presenters from Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. made a strong argument for the integration of math instruction in adult ESL education. They cited data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC)’s assessment of problem solving in technology-rich environments (PSTRE) that found that math competency directly correlated with higher wages. In this study, Japan was at the top of the list of proficiencies, where the U.S. was fifteenth, and fell below the international average. Curriculum Director Heather Harris shared that 25% of U.S. immigrants were below a proficiency of 1-step math operations including basic counting and sorting, 25% were at a proficiency of 1-step operations, and 27% were able to perform 2-step operations. They noted the vital role of numeracy in successful participation in modern society. Numeracy skills are needed to read work schedules, medicine labels, store discounts and item nutritional labels, to read and measure recipes, to estimate time and distance, to read maps, to critically examine bills, to save and budget, and even to know how to dress for the weather. They outlined their process for using existing curriculum and drawing on available human resources to create math learning goals within their current syllabus. They shared some great math integration activities, such as “My Life in Numbers” and a monthly community math challenge board (see attached handout below), as well as valuable resources for educators considering who want to address math in their language classrooms, including the Canadian Language Benchmarks and CCSS. 

29767989_ho_-_tipsforstartingyourownmathchallengeboard-tesol15.pdf
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• Kathleen O’Hara-Rosa of Clarkdale Elementary School in Austell, Georgia, presented on an inspiring program called F.A.M.E. or Family Achievement Makes Excellence. In her presentation “Giving Families Tools to Build the Bridge to Success” she shared stories and activities from a unique after school program for the whole family. Through Title 1 and Title 3 grants, she was able to hire teachers and purchase materials to run this program once a week for two hours over several months. Families of ELLs were invited to come and learn English through games and activities that targeted basic letters and sounds, numbers, shapes, prepositions, etc. that parents could then play/do with their children at home. During the two hours, families were split up so that parents could work on certain skills and learning, while children were busy on other activities. At the conclusion the family members came back together for ice breakers or movement breaks before heading home. The program also offered opportunities for whole family field trips or events. The teachers used a Renaissance Place pre and post-assessment tool to place parents in classes targeted at their level. O’hara-Rosa shared plenty of activities that require no or little money to create and sounded like a lot of fun. These included: 
  
• • A storytelling festival
    
  • Modeling read-alouds for parents 
    
  • Creating DVD read alouds & literacy bags to send home with families
    
  • A flashcard game (like HedBanz or iPhone’s “Head’s Up”) where you use a baseball cap to attach a vocabulary item for other students to see and explain.
    
  • Use dollar store shower curtains to make giant concentration game boards, tic tac toe boards (for vocabulary) or tens’ frames for counting and adding practice. 
    
  • Using a recycled soup can and buttons to do math “magic”. For example, the teacher might show ten buttons, put them in the can, and then drop some out behind her back then say, “I had 10 buttons, but now I only have 7. How many disappeared?” 
    
  • An icebreaker activity where you put a question inside a balloon and pass it around like “hot potato”. Whoever’s holding the balloon at the end must pop it and take out the question to read it, and share something about themselves in their response.

I love that all of these ideas are so easy to run with! From the pictures and video O’hara-Rosa shared, it’s easy to see that the program was successful. 

I was lucky to have some social and explore time in Toronto too. I met up with the JALT representation for dinner at the 360 restaurant in the CN tower, and over the glittering lights of the city we chatted about the future of English teaching in Japan. I took a day with my good friend Karina, a fellow graduate of Saint Michael’s College MATESOL program and colleague from Japan, to visit the historic distillery district and bustling Saint Lawrence Market. I had a mini-Japan reunion with some of my closest girlfriends from my time in Japan, and we all went dancing to the classic rhythm and blues beats of Dee Dee at the Dirty Martini’s at the Reservoir Lounge (highly recommended!). And, I had engaging conversation over local Canadian brews at Bar Hop with one of my Saint Michael’s professors, learning about her adventures of hitchhiking around the world!

It is the total of these rich experiences over a few short days that make me feel I have indeed crossed borders and walked over bridges. Life is full of fascination and joy, if you are open to it. As I flew hundreds of miles above the earth, looking down at the frozen land below, reflecting on my trip, I composed this poem that illustrates my emotions post-TESOL convention:

Softly tread the earth my friend,
Listen as you breath.
The wind will blow you round the bend,
And lend you all you need.

You have to learn to listen though,
Lest you miss the rustling leaves,
That calmly coo connections
Traveling subtly on the breeze.

Massive frozen earth below
It barely feels your weight,
But a multitude of prints
Are engraved upon the shifting scapes.

We wander or we stay,
We breath the days away,
We pack them up inside,
With the wind behind our eyes.