English learners have been a part of my teaching career since I began nearly 30 years ago. I wish I knew then what I know now. I had taught kindergarten and intermediate grades and now am teaching at the college level. In each of these settings, I came across a wide variety of English learners who have both challenged me and given me the opportunity to challenge them.
It all came home recently in a master's course for practicing teachers wishing to attain their reading specialists' credential. The students were all college graduates, working diligently to earn their next degree. Some of the students were English learners from another country who learned English as their second (or third) language. The rest of the students were native-born English speakers.
I had assigned three texts: one about reading difficulties and older students, one related to content area reading and writing, and the third, a foundational text on linguistics. You might guess that the third was the most challenging and least interesting, according to them.
On the first night of class, we covered the course syllabus, discussed all of the activities and requirements, and set about uncovering some of the content pertinent to this course. My courses are very interactive, and students seem to enjoy them and learn much from them. Each week I handed out the reading assignments according to the syllabus. Each week, students would come back and we had great discussions involving the first two texts. We shared ideas, practiced strategies, and related content to a variety of grade levels and each class member could walk away from class with at least one activity or strategy ready to use the next day in their own classrooms.
When we discussed the third text, the difficult linguistic content seemed to evade their speaking skills. I had to drag comments from students and I began to wonder if they had read the material. So I asked them, "Have you read the chapter assigned for tonight?" Sheepish grins and darting eyes were the responses I received. I really wanted to know what the reason was for their lack of preparation for this part of the evening. They shared with me the struggle it was each week to read this author. Some of their comments included "She uses big words"; "She makes the content boring"; and "It puts me to sleep and I can't remember what I read."
My eyes were opened that night. Right in front of me were two great texts they loved plus a slew of resources I brought to class each week in my caddy. We had just finished doing a chapter in one of the books on graphic organizers. We had practiced several of them on a variety of books they had brought to class that they used with their students. A light went on. I said to them, "What about applying these graphic organizers to this text? Do you think it would make sense to you then?" No answer was needed―I didn't want one. I had a plan.
In pairs, they were given large paragraphs in a chapter of the linguistics text. I them gave them a variety of graphic organizers we had used in class, plus others that were in the other text or resources I had brought to the class. Their assignment was to take the text they were responsible of and use one of the graphic organizers to help break down the content. Miracle of miracles, it worked. One group used the "hand" and put the main idea in the palm with supporting details or facts in each finger. Another group used the herringbone, again with the main idea in the center, and used the ribs for supporting ideas. Another group used bubbles, with large bubbles signifying main ideas and smaller "satellite" bubbles as supporting facts. I could go on.
I could see the lights coming on. They were now able to "get" the text. They understood what they were reading. It was no longer a challenge to read the linguistics text. They were assigned a chapter as before, but now had to use a strategy we used in class as they read the chapter. They could use the graphic organizers or any other strategy we discussed or they discovered. As we shared the insights we learned about the chapters, they also shared the device that helped them to unlock the content.
It all comes back to English learners. They were my English learners that term. Each of them fully understood what their students were going through in their own classrooms. They were much more aware and conscious of their students' linguistic abilities, and so was I.
Chris Roe has been an educator for 29 years. He is a former elementary school teacher and administrator. He is currently an assistant professor at California State University, Stanislaus, in the Department of Teacher Education.
