Introduction

As co-authors on this article, we are dedicated to increasing English Learner (EL) language skills and ELD teacher leadership. We have worked together in Minnesota schools for 10 years and we co-teach an ESL Methods course at Hamline University. Over the last four years our district-wide ELD program professional development increased ELD teacher collective efficacy (Bandura, 1997) and grew ELD teacher leader status in our district, Roseville Area Schools (RAS). In this article we will discuss the problems addressed by creating a vision for ELD professional roles and responsibilities, increasing their professional skills, and our success increasing general education (GE) teacher instructional capacity through job-embedded professional development.

The Problem

In the last 20 years, many ELD teachers have been forced into non-language focused roles such as literacy intervention and classroom support. Enormous pressure for student achievement and an “all hands on deck” approach to literacy and content learning has been fueled by various policies and student needs. Educational leaders and general education teachers do not understand academic English instruction and programming which leads to inappropriate expectations of ELD teachers’ responsibilities. ELD teachers are pushed into literacy and content support in order to increase state standardized test scores.

English Learner (EL) students have a civil right to receive language instruction to reduce language barriers to content learning Lau v. Nichols (1973). ELD teachers are charged with developing critical English language skills to address language barriers yet ELD teachers experience barriers of their own providing language instruction. They experience misdirected instructional time and lack of support to develop academic language instructional skills. ELD teachers are constantly creating new lessons to tailor instruction to their students’ unique language development needs.

In RAS we defined the ELD teacher role as teachers who deliver mandated language services, advocate for EL student access, and provide leadership to educators in their settings on evidence-based practices (EBP) for content-embedded language instruction. If ELD teachers are not teaching language, it is unlikely that anyone else is. This is an equity issue, as language is the vehicle of content instruction.

Leaders and general educators who work closely with ELD teachers understand the purpose of ELD services and the importance of language instructional knowledge. Teachers who collaborate on instruction learn from each other, provide feedback, and co-construct their knowledge. By lifting up the ELD teacher as an instructional leader in the building, the capacity grows due to good relationships, proximity, and time to work together. Bandura (1997) calls this collective efficacy because a network of professionals are learning and growing together to build capacity as a team.

Addressing the Problem

Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (1997) demonstrates that educators with high self-efficacy, or belief in their abilities to be successful with a task, will perform better on a given task and work harder to attain it. We wanted to improve academic achievement and trusted teachers' instincts and knowledge by giving them time and a structure to examine instructional practices. Teachers gain more insight and increase effective instruction for their unique students’ language needs by learning from peers and teacher leaders.

In 2016, the RAS ELD department began defining the ELD teacher role and responsibilities. It grew into a much larger and meaningful project to develop a cohesive district-wide genre-based curriculum and ELD teacher leadership in buildings. We succeeded because the work was teacher driven, collaborative, evidence-based, well-defined yet flexible enough to apply in a variety of settings, and highlighted the professionalism of ELD teachers. As the work developed, collective efficacy grew and in turn ELD teachers gained more respect from general education teachers and leaders.

Angela recalls, “As a new ELD teacher, I struggled with my role. I had studied language acquisition and instruction in college, but found it challenging to implement in my school setting since I was pulled in so many other directions. I knew I was not meeting my students’ language needs.” Angela shared this with some ELD teaching colleagues and was surprised that many of them also felt like they were being pulled in a variety of directions, making it hard to focus on language instruction.

With this in mind, a small group of elementary ELD teachers participated in a book study, hoping to bring some clarity to their roles and cohesion in the department. We read “Engaging Students in Academic Literacies” by Maria Brisk (2015). The book, focused on genre-based language instruction described genres of language that align with standards-based tasks. The premise is that people make language choices when engaged in different content tasks. The selection of language aligns to the purpose of communication (Brisk, 2015). We met monthly to discuss how the ideas could be applied to our practice. Multiple ELD teachers said learning about genre pedagogy was transformative to their practices. By the following school year, additional ELD teachers wanted to learn how they could apply a genre-based approach to their practice.

Kristina used federal Title III funds for ELD teacher development time in a district-level Professional Learning Community (PLC) and to initiate English Learner in the Mainstream (ELM) job-embedded PD opportunities in every building with ELD teachers as ELM coaches. As a district-level leader it was important to keep principals informed of the ELD program vision and development work. She shares, “As we began developing our genre-based language curriculum I presented a simplified version of genre-based instruction at the district principals meeting. They were excited about the opportunity to have ELD teacher leaders providing EL professional development for general education teachers in their buildings. Many of them had established language production as a growth goal so this was perfect timing.”

Impact

Angela reports, “Through Professional Learning Community (PLC) work, my colleagues and I shifted our instructional focus to a genre-based approach. In doing this, we became more confident in our role as language teachers because we were fulfilling our unique responsibility within our schools. We had a framework to plan and implement explicit language instruction. The genre-based lens gave us the opportunity to support classroom instruction by targeting the specific language functions and features students needed to understand and meaningfully navigate grade-level academic tasks.”

Our team of ELD teachers spent many hours discussing academic expectations and language skills required for student success. Kristina says, “The ELD curriculum development team created rubrics outlining specific language features with the genres of argue, inform, and narrate as a tool to measure language growth.” ELD teachers collected evidence of students’ language learning with the rubrics and shared the results. With this experience, they were becoming more confident in their roles, and increasingly seen as teacher leaders in their buildings. A 6th grade team was so impressed by EL student writing they asked the ELD teacher to collaborate with them to develop their language instructional skills so all their students could benefit. Using a genre-based approach within a co-teaching setting provided classroom teachers and ELD teachers the opportunity to collaborate with a common understanding of required language skills.

While a genre-based instructional approach provided ELD teachers with increased confidence and success in their role, multilingual students experienced it too. Students were given more frequent specific feedback on their language growth, and as their language skills grew, so did their confidence. Students were producing more academic language not only in their small multilingual groups, but in their mainstream classroom as well.

Using carefully selected mentor texts empowered students to use academic language. Angela recalls one of her students who was initially a hesitant writer sharing at the end of the year, “It’s fun copying the author. They write something, and then you can write it.” As Angela’s students were completing more writing projects, they frequently asked if they could share their writing with their whole class, or if she could invite the principal to listen to them. It came as no surprise that as students were quickly gaining more language skills across the main text types in the Common Core State Standards, multilingual students were exiting from the ELD program at faster rates.

Closing

We enhanced ELD teacher effectiveness and leadership with a clear role, mission, and time to develop professional skills. Leaders need to listen to ELD teachers, tap into their passion for professional growth, and provide time for them to develop skills that will increase their effectiveness and help them rise as leaders.

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy. Harvard Mental Health Letter, 13(9), 3-4. Retrieved August 27, 2020.

Brisk, M.E. (2015). Engaging students in academic literacies: Genre-based pedagogy for K-5 classrooms. New York, NY: Routledge. Lau v Nichols. No. 72-6520. (December 10, 1973) US Supreme Court. Washington, D.C.

Wittgenstein, L. (1922) Great Ideas of Western Man. [book quote]