Submitted by: ERGO Members

The goal for this series of blog posts is to make a collection of quick and easy activities that can be shared to increase understanding, support students, build system capacity, and/or inspire growth and movement.

Assistive Technology To Support MLLs​

Using assistive technology supports multilingual learners by  honouring their full linguistic repertoire and by providing tools so that the students can reach their full potential. It supports the teacher to understand the assets and needs of the student while creating space for the learner to use their first language while developing their proficiency in English.

Connections

Using assistive technology to support multilingual learners creates greater opportunities for "integration into mainstream classrooms with appropriate instructional support." (ELL Policy, 2007) The use of assistive technology also supports a UDL approach that allows educations to adopt a "design thinking mindset that can provide educators with new tools and new approaches that often yield simple solutions to complex everyday challenges that they face in the classroom today." (Learning for All, 2013)

Action/Implementation Plan

Google Read and Write and Microsoft's Immersive Reader allows classroom materials to be integrated into various modalities (email, word, etc.) and allows texts to be read in mulitple languages, highlights parts of speech and attaches visuals to text. It also allows for the creation of a picture dictionary which also includes translated text or speech. Opportunities can be provided for students and teachers to learn about these tools in self-directed sessions, lunch and learns and tutorial sessions.

Submitted by: ERGO Members

The goal for this series of blog posts is to make a collection of quick and easy activities that can be shared to increase understanding, support students, build system capacity, and/or inspire growth and movement.

Google Earth Journeys

The student(s) takes the class or teacher on a tour of their homeland or take them on a journey. Explore their old school, neighbourhood, playground, surroundings or favourite places. 

Connections 

This supports knowing your learner and culturally responsive and relevant practices.

To dig more deeply into this, consider reading The K-12 Capacity Building

 Series monograph entitled "Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: Towards Equity and Inclusivity in Ontario Schools."

Action/Implementation Plan

As part of the intial conversation when getting to know our student(s) and learning about where they have come from, we have the newcomer student take us  on a tour of their previous home, school, neighbourhood. This allows the student to be the expert and to use L1, prior knowledge and personal experience to share their journey story. This exercise can be started as an oral conversation, using guiding questions and letting the students take the lead on what is shared. A follow up can be to rehearse and use the conversation as part of a writing task to share the student's journey story through voice to text or handwriting, whichever mode the student is most comfortable with. 

Part 4 of 4

By: Ontario teachers who are ESL/ELD school board leads and ERGO members as part of the ERGO Reading and ELLs working group as a subgroup of the Special Education and English language learners.  

This small group of ESL/ELD board leads has met throughout the 2020-2021 school year to explore the reading instruction and best pratices to support English language learners in Ontario school boards.  The purpose of the group is to report back to the larger group of ERGO members who have explored the resources and research focussed on the topic of special education and ELLs.  This is the fourth of a series of blogs that summarize some of their observations, research, best practices and resources available to Ontario teachers supporting ELLs in their journey to learning to read and write in English while participating in curriculum learning at their grade level.

What are the next steps for ELLs who are demonstrating persistent learning difficulties with reading?

Despite the  explicit teaching of reading strategies, daily guided reading instruction and varied daily opportunities to use new vocabulary and language structures, teachers sometimes notice an English language learner (ELL) may not be making consistent progress with reading across subject areas.  

In school boards across Ontario this is noted on the STEP Observable Language Behaviour (OLB) Continua or the STEP Observable Language and Literacy Behaviour (OLLB) Continua when the same descriptors are highlighted/checked multiple times over a couple months or more, even though teachers are using engaging levelled texts and the strategies outlined above.   Parents or families might have indicated through the registration process that their child demonstrated persistent learning difficulties in previous schools in another country.  

English language learners are as likely to have a learning disability as monolingual learners.  Though sometimes ELLs are over identified or referred to school team meetings or a persistent learning challenge is misidentified as needing more time to learn English.  

This leads educators in Ontario to wonder:

• What strategies have been missed or could have been considered to better support the development of English reading skills for these students?  
• What tools are offered to provide further considerations for this small group of students?  
• While ELLs are in the process of learning English, how can teachers best determine if these students require additional English language learning or  if they would benefit from additional supports or identifications to better support their learning needs?
• Are the specific needs of ELLs noted in board procedures  for special education teachers who may assist with team meetings?
• How can the Ministry’s STEP resources help guide teacher conversations and the learning for English language learners?

Members of the English Resource Group of Ontario meet in working groups to explore answers to these questions to help provide their school boards with relevant information, research and insight to supporting the needs of all Engish language learners.  Feel free to add additional questions or insight you may have as an Ontario educator supporting ELLs in the comment section below.

Part 3 of 4

By: Ontario teachers who are ESL/ELD school board leads and ERGO members as part of the ERGO Reading and ELLs working group as a subgroup of the Special Education and English language learners.  

This small group of ESL/ELD board leads has met throughout the 2020-2021 school year to explore the reading instruction and best practices to support English language learners in Ontario school boards.  The purpose of the group is to report back to the larger group of ERGO members who have explored the resources and research focussed on the topic of special education and ELLs.  This is the third of a series of blogs that summarize their observations, research, best practices and resources available to Ontario teachers supporting ELLs in their journey to learning to read and write in English while participating in curriculum learning at their grade level.

What can teachers of ELLs in junior, intermediate and secondary levels use to support the development of reading strategies as part of curriculum learning? 

This is the time that many students are reading to learn.  ELLs  in grades 3-12 require daily opportunities as part of curriculum learning to continue to develop their reading skills.  Teachers can begin to help students to read in English starting with what students already know.  In high school courses teachers can use a variety of instructional approaches and teaching strategies integrated into curriculum learning.

Choosing appropriate texts so that ELLs have opportunities to learn to read while learning about new topics is sometimes challenging.  There are a few published resources that schools could purchase to support curriculum learning of any student learning to read.

The Scholastic Talk About series was created and is based on Canadian curriculum and is intended for ELLs or struggling readers.  Though it is a levelled series the vocabulary may not be as controlled as books from some other levelled reading programs. This requires teachers to pre-teach or translate new words with students while reading to increase fluency, speed and understanding.  However, this series offers detailed images with labels and diagrams that support learning on science and social studies topics.

The Pearson Big Ideas series offers adapted texts for ELLs focussed on science and social studies curriculum from grade 4-6.  The pages of these texts include images, maps, diagrams, graphs and charts that provide opportunities for ELLs on STEPs 1-3 to begin to learn to use the language, attend to form and style and demonstrate understanding in English while accessing Ontario curriculum learning.  

The ERGO Financial Literacy series was written by Ontario educators and students.  It offers levelled texts that include numeracy and guided reading lessons.  They are free for schools to download and print.  They speak to the everyday questions students and their families have about using money and saving while living in Ontario.  They avoid the problem of reading levelled texts with stories intended for young kids.

In the same way, the Bowvalley ESL Readers offer levelled texts that can be accessed as ebooks or printed for free.  They are levelled and are intended for students in grades 7-12 or adult.  They are Canadian and offer insight for beginning readers into topics of Canadian citizenship, culture and social services.

Numerous blogs, twitter accounts and books provide teachers with more information on strategies, models for collaborative teaching (between classroom teachers and ESL/ELD teachers) and tech tools to engage ELLs in effective reading instruction.  Ontario educators could follow the @ergoontario Twitter account to participate in the learning and sharing among educators, researchers and organizations that support ELLs and newcomers to Canada.

Do you have any other recommendations for texts for teachers with ELLs in the junior, intermediate or senior grades?

Members of the English Resource Group of Ontario meet regularly in working groups to explore topics related to the Ministry’s ESL/ELD Policy document and related resources to help provide their school boards with relevant information, research and insight to supporting the needs of all Engish language learners.  Feel free to add additional questions or insight you may have as an Ontario educator supporting ELLs in the comment section below.

Part 2 of 4

By: Ontario teachers who are ESL/ELD school board leads and ERGO members as part of the ERGO Reading and ELLs working group as a subgroup of the Special Education and English language learners.  

This small group of ESL/ELD board leads has met throughout the 2020-2021 school year to explore the reading instruction and best pratices to support English language learners in Ontario school boards.  The purpose of the group is to report back to the larger group of ERGO members who have explored the resources and research focussed on the topic of special education and ELLs.  This is the second of a series of blogs that summarize their observations, research, best practices and resources available to Ontario teachers supporting ELLs in their journey to learning to read and write in English while participating in curriculum learning at their grade level.

What are the considerations for ELLs using published reading texts found in schools?

Teachers must first get to know their students and their previous learning and life experiences (gr 1-8 doc).  This means building a trusting relationship and understanding the students likes, dislikes, former academic experiences, home language reading and writing skills, and comfort with reading. Creating simple books or texts that originate from the student’s interests or needs (ie. getting to know the school)  is a meaningful and engaging place to start with students who are beginning to read in a new language.  

Using a Google Slide template provides a teacher the place for a new student to see themselves in the text.  Teachers can take pictures of the student in the rooms of the school and replace the photos in the book template.  The student’s name and specific names of teachers could also be added.   Using simple, patterned texts with matching photos from the student environment offers an entry point for the student and opportunity to build connections between the teacher student and possibly other students. This photo book is also a great way to build a connection with the family if the student is encouraged to take the book home and share it with their family. 

When choosing a text to read, teachers will consider the background knowledge the student brings to the topic.  For example, if the story is about camping in a Canadian environment and the student has only ever lived in an urban setting they may not be able to guess at what is happening in the pictures because of a lack of prior knowledge.  Some cultures dislike animals in the house and so a story about a dog or cat in the house, if the student is not familiar with this North American practice, may cause them some discomfort or disgust that will be distracting while trying to read at an instructional level.  

Teachers will do detailed book walks prior to reading to ensure students are familiar with the pictures and main idea of the story.  The names of characters will be introduced and new vocabulary may be translated using Google Translate or Microsoft Translate or the Say Hi Translate App.  Students may predict what will happen in the story after looking at the first couple of pages or the title page.  This is valuable time spent to provide the student with  background knowledge and vocabulary that will increase their fluency and comprehension while reading the text. 

Considering the social language and academic language used in a text will signal to teachers what may best be pre-taught before reading a text.  Before meeting with students, teachers may highlight new academic vocabulary, idioms, or language structures if the text is on paper or electronically shared.  Pre-teaching the pronunciation and meaning of this new language will also increase student confidence, understanding, fluency and speed while reading.

How can these levelled reading texts and related resources purchased by schools be used to support reading instruction for ELLs?

Teachers of ELLs in the primary grades can often use the levelled texts in their schools with young multilingual students for guided, shared and  independent reading.  Students often have time to learn new words and stories as part of the classroom learning and small group instruction.  In the lower grades most students are learning to read.  

The strategies and tools listed in Ontario Guides to Effective Reading Instruction and the Think Literacy Cross Curricular Approaches are available for teachers to access and integrate into their programming for all students, including ELLs.  The Supporting English Language Learners- A Practical Guide for Educators Grade 1-8  and the Supporting English Language Learners in Kindergarten-A Practical Guide for Educators outline effective instructional strategies for ELLs to learn to read. 

There are many strategies and tools available to teachers supporting the needs of English language learners.  Which work for you and do you have others you can share?

Members of the English Resource Group of Ontario (ERGO) meet regularly in working groups to explore topics related to the Ministry’s ESL/ELD Policy document and related resources to help provide their school boards with relevant information, research and insight to supporting the needs of all Engish language learners.  Feel free to add additional questions or insight you may have as an Ontario educator supporting ELLs in the comment section below.

Part 1 of 4

By: Ontario teachers who are ESL/ELD school board leads and ERGO members as part of the ERGO Reading and ELLs working group as a subgroup of the Special Education and English language learners.  

This small group of ESL/ELD board leads has met throughout the 2020-2021 school year to explore the topic of reading instruction and best pratices to support English language learners in Ontario school boards.  The purpose of the group is to report back to the larger group of ERGO members who have explored the resources and research focussed on the topic of special education and ELLs.  This is the first of a series of blogs that summarize some of their observations, the existing research, best practices and resources available to Ontario teachers supporting ELLs in their journey to learning to read and write in English while participating in curriculum learning at their grade level.

Imagine arriving in Canada  as a kid from a refugee situation. This means you’ve left your home country and were forced to move to a neighbouring country who has permitted you to live in some degree of safety.  Or you could have arrived in Canada by a choice your parents made to start their education again in an Ontario college or university program.  Or, your parents may have moved to Canada and you were raised in a home and possibly a community that spoke a language other English. 

Imagine all the hopes, dreams, fears, money, excitement and sadness that are wrapped up into this life in Canada for all of these students. 

Students are continually arriving at Ontario schools from countries around the world for a variety of reasons.  They may be joining our schools soon after arriving in the country or through secondary migration after living for a time in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) or another city in the country.  

Ontario educators welcome students born in Canada or who have arrived from other countries and speak languages other than English throughout the year into K-12 classrooms.  Learning to read in English is one skill these students begin to work on as soon as they join an Ontario school. 

Educators often post languages other than English on their walls to ensure multilingual students can make connections and see their linguistic identity reflected in the environment. These might be in the form of purchased or board made posters, but more often are hand-made by the students themselves or with the help of multilingual families.

Teachers begin to program for students by referring to the initial language assessment report and/or by using the STEP OLB Continua( for ESL programming) or the STEP OLLB Continua (for ELD programming) to document language behaviours across subject areas within the first week or two in the classroom.  Primary, junior or intermediate teachers who are new to using the STEP resources may refer to the Planning With The STEP Resource videos from Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario (ETFO).

This documentation for oral, reading and writing informs the teacher what the next steps for language learning are as part of curriculum learning. The STEP Continua is used as the assessment for learning or the diagnostic, but also a working document throughout the year.

Published Resources Purchased by Ontario Schools

Teachers in school boards across Ontario refer to the books or levelled readers provided in their schools to guide their reading instruction with all students, including ELLs.  There is a wide variety of published resources that schools and boards purchase.  These can include:

LLI Program

BAS Assessment - Fountas and Pinnell

Spark Reading

Raz Kids

Lexia

Empower

PM e collection - Nelson

Fluency Tutor

DRA - Pearson

These purchased resources from publishers have many strengths and challenges for ELLs. They are not often originally created for the needs of ELLs.  These programs fall on a spectrum that range from relying on where teachers follow a written script or prescribed set of lessons. School boards and schools make decisions to use these various programs that are purchased to support struggling readers, readers with learning difficulties and/or for guided reading lessons with all students.  Teachers are trained on the components of the purchased resources.  Though teachers often do not choose the texts and resources in their schools they can use them to support the reading instruction of all their students.  

Students with limited prior schooling (LPS) may have gaps in their education due to an inability or opportunity to attend school. These are often, but not always, students arriving from refugee backgrounds.  They could include students with special education concerns that were not permitted to attend school in their country of origin.

Students with limited prior schooling (LPS) may not have developed literacy and language skills appropriate for students their age. While students may lack academic experience, they bring with them many life experiences and knowledge.  Students with gaps in their education or limited prior schooling (LPS) require English Literacy Development (ELD) programming (elementary) or ELD courses (secondary) to support language learning as well as foster accelerated literacy and numeracy growth. Students with limited prior schooling benefit from focused early reading instruction and guided reading. You can learn more about guided reading here: guided reading videos with Ontario educators.

Reflective Questions for Teachers - 

There are many multilingual students who attend classes in Ontario via a face to face environment or virtual learning environment. 

• Who are the English language learners in your class who are in the process of developing social and academic English language skills while they participate in curriculum learning with their peers and teachers?  
• Do students see their linguistic or cultural backgrounds and history reflected in the texts in the classroom or school?

Questions About Teaching Reading With ELLs - 

• How can teachers use an asset based lens to teach reading using the resources available in their school? 
• Are there additional texts available to teachers who teach ELLs at the beginning steps of learning English, but are in junior, intermediate or senior grades?

Members of the English Resource Group of Ontario meet regularly in working groups to explore topics related to the Ministry’s ESL/ELD Policy document and related resources to help provide their school boards with relevant information, research and insight to supporting the needs of all Engish language learners.  Feel free to add additional questions or insight you may have as an Ontario educator supporting ELLs in the comment section below.

By: Kimiko Shibata, ESL/ELD Resource Teacher (K-8), WRDSB

On March 13, 2020, on the Friday before March Break, educators received an email telling us that all schools in Ontario would be closed for three weeks. We sent our students home at the end of the day with their indoor shoes, emptied out desks, and went home for what most of us thought would only be a few weeks. Little did we know that our lives were going to change drastically over the next several months.

Once we got word that our schools would be moving to emergency distance learning, staff swung into action, trying to make contact with every family at our schools to figure out who had reliable internet access, who needed paper copies of work to complete at home, and who might need technology to access online learning. 

This was an especially challenging time for many families, including those who had recently arrived in the country. Some students had arrived at our schools just days before March Break, and many were scared and confused. Some did not yet know how to access necessary community supports, including food, clothing, and healthcare.

Some of the families with whom I was working had lived through traumatic experiences such as famine and war before coming to Canada. They were understandably upset by the empty shelves in grocery stores and shortages of basic supplies such as canned goods and paper hygiene products. Many expressed fear about leaving their homes or riding the bus to access the Food Bank, or nutrition support programs. Some were scared to answer their phones, especially if phone numbers were blocked or they didn’t recognize the phone number.  

Our school board, like many others in the province, prioritized relationships and connection during school closures, and this made all the difference in our ability to recognize and meet the basic needs of some of our most vulnerable learners and their families.  Frequent check-ins with our families helped to keep the lines of connection open and to proactively address needs. 

School settlement workers and interpreters diligently worked around the clock with ESL and classroom educators to help us get in touch with our families, address needs, and connect students and families to necessary supports in our community. Family and Children’s Services workers also helped to meet the needs of some of our more vulnerable families during school closures. A few of our interpreters used innovative methods to try to get through to families, including using social media networks to reach out to families who were not answering their phones. Many school staff volunteered to do drop-offs of clothing, food, and school/art supplies to students. The manner in which everyone pulled together to support our families in need was inspiring.

Across the province emergency distance learning ran from March until the end of June 2020. School staff did their best to get technology out to the families that needed it, and to provide nurturing, challenging, and developmentally appropriate online learning for our students while also caring for our own families and loved ones at home. Connection and student wellbeing were at the forefront of all planning and interactions with our students and their families. The hours were long and the learning curve was steep, as we all figured out new methods to connect, teach, and learn.

Engagement with online learning was a challenge for many families, especially those for whom the technology was brand new. For some families who had lived in refugee camps before coming to Canada, this was their first time using any sort of computer. I spent many hours on the phone each day with parents and students, helping to troubleshoot everything from how to charge an iPad to logging into a Chromebook and learning how to access various learning platforms and turn in online assignments.  Many families were easily frustrated by the new technology and virtual classroom platforms, especially when students from the same family were using different platforms and websites for their classes.  It was also not uncommon for multiple students and parents in one home to be sharing only one piece of technology, which often made scheduling synchronous sessions for multiple teachers quite challenging.  While other families expressed concerns about synchronous learning, and were worried about their children or their homes being displayed on the internet or recordings made of their children. This was of particular concern for some of our families with refugee backgrounds. 

In September 2020, we had roughly 1500 English Language Learners enrolled in our full distance learning program.  Many of us were shocked to find out that the number of students who had chosen distance learning was so high, especially among our newcomer populations with refugee backgrounds and those living in lower-income neighbourhoods. Racialized communities that often face greater barriers to accessing health care are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, and some families were scared that they wouldn’t be able to get the healthcare they would need if their children were infected.  Some families from areas of conflict who had lived through trauma were afraid to leave their homes or send their children to school. Some of our newcomer students live in multigenerational homes with household members who are at higher risk because of their age or preexisting health conditions, and this was a deciding factor in their chosen mode of schooling. 

By the end of September, an additional 3,000 elementary students indicated that they would like to move to the Distance Learning program. This brought us to approximately 12,000 students enrolled in the Elementary Distance Learning Program in the WRDSB.  

We know that this pandemic has deepened and exposed existing socio-economic and racial inequalities that exist in our communities, and many of us are concerned about gaps in education getting wider, especially for our newcomer students with limited prior schooling. ESL teachers are working hard to make online learning as accessible as possible for our students, including helping our classroom teaching partners in both distance learning and blended learning environments to leverage technology and intentional teaching and assessment strategies to support the success of our culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

Encouraging students to leverage their first language skills to access curriculum has made a huge difference to their understanding, participation and engagement in online learning. The Google Translate Chrome Extension has been used in the Chrome Browser to translate whole web pages, including classroom and assignment details in a Google Classroom.  This has allowed our linguistically diverse students and their families to use their home language to access course materials, information, and instructions, and also to translate webpages for content area research projects.  The "Slides Translator" add-on for Google Slides has also been helpful for students who can use their home language literacy skills to access grade level content and activity instructions. It has also been advantageous to share instructions and front-load important concepts and information in a Google Doc, so that material can be translated by the student using the Translate feature of Google Docs. Many of our students have also enjoyed reading texts online in their home languages, using sites such as:

• Unite For Literacy 
• World Stories 
• "Live Well" Wellness books in Arabic and English by ERGO 
• Storybooks Canada
• Scribjab Dual Language Books
• Translated Children's Books Online
• International Children's Digital Library

Using visuals to support comprehension has made content more accessible and comprehensible for ALL students in distance learning programs, but is especially useful for our ELLs. Some of our teachers have been experimenting with the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM) to help students develop content vocabulary and an understanding of sentence structure through the use of teacher-labelled pictures on slideshows and virtual whiteboards.  

Many of our early STEP students have found success in communicating ideas visually using slideshows, visual creation apps such as PicCollage, or on a collaborative jamboard. 

Students have also benefited from creating and using visual word walls for content areas to help them remember important content area vocabulary.  Some of our students from the same linguistic and cultural group working at different STEPs were able to co-create visual dual-language vocabulary charts, to help scaffold each others’ content area writing in culturally relevant ways.  

The Wordsift website has also been helpful in pulling up visuals to help our students to understand and use content area vocabulary. In many cases, the students themselves have been the creators of the visuals, or have located them using royalty-free image searches on sites such as Pixabay, Flaticon or The Noun Project.

Students have made good use of the Voice Typing tool in Google Docs, as well as some of the tools from Google Read and Write, such as the picture dictionary, visual vocabulary list builder, text-to-speech and speech-to-text functions. 

Some teachers have also used sites such as Rewordify to change the complexity level of certain texts to make content more accessible for students at early STEP levels.

The last several months have definitely been challenging for educators, students, and their families… but it has also shown just how deeply school staff and our community partners care about students.  I have been moved by the passion and compassion educators bring to their work with students and their families.  Everyday, educators demonstrate their commitment to student wellness and academic success, and I am proud to be a part of it.

Kimiko Shibata has been an educator in childcare settings, as well as a classroom teacher in Kindergarten, Primary, and Junior divisions. She holds ESL Specialist Qualifications and Special Education qualifications and is currently an ESL/ELD Resource Teacher for K-8 for the WRDSB. She is married to an IT professional and is the mother of an amazing small human. She can be found on Twitter: @ESL_fairy. Her website can be found at: https://teachers.wrdsb.ca/eslresources/

By Lara Shantz, WRDSB

What is SGI?

Small group instruction (SGI) can be highly effective for all learners in a wide range of contexts but I have come to believe it is an essential component of the effective instruction of English language learners. 

Let me begin by highlighting the important difference between small group WORK and small group INSTRUCTION. Small group instruction (SGI) means there is an educator (teacher, educational assistant, peer tutor, classroom volunteer, etc), with a small group of students, guiding the instruction and interaction. Small group work is still very beneficial but it is not the same thing. 

Small group instruction lets you interact with students most effectively in their zones of proximal development (Vygotsky) where you can teach, assess, model, guide, evaluate, redirect, reinforce, and adapt as needed.

Know Your Why

One of the long-standing premises of language acquisition, established by Dr. Steven Krashen, is that ELLs need comprehensible input (CI). They “learn a new language best when they receive input that is just a bit more difficult than they can easily understand.” What Is Comprehensible Input for ELL Students?  In a whole class setting, with a wide range of English proficiency levels, what better way to make the content ‘comprehensible’ to your students learning English, than to meet them where they are at in a small group setting?

Alternatively, Merril Swain produced the hypothesis of comprehensible output (CO) - that ELLs also need opportunity to try to use the new language to communicate meaning,despite gaps in their vocabulary, and to receive feedback. (Comprehensible output hypothesis) 

Although Krashen disagrees that CO is necessary for new language acquisition  (Comprehensible Output), I would argue that when ELLs cannot easily rely on literacy to build vocabulary and understanding of a new language, having opportunity orally to produce and receive instant feedback is highly beneficial! In the insightful words of one of my own students, when asked what she liked most about SGI, Idman stated, 

“When peoples a lot talking, you scared. You can’t talk. With small group, you can talk.” 

Another one of my students, Haithm, shared that in small groups,

“I get more care about the student. In big class, maybe one teacher,  twenty students. I can’t ask the teacher questions about everything. I ask questions about everything, about every new word...Small group - yeah, I like that. Really I like that because I can ask the teacher question about everything. She help me for everything.” 

Small group instruction has accelerated these students’ progress by providing optimal learning conditions that could not be achieved through whole class instruction.

Firsthand experiences

At Eastwood CI, several years ago, we made sweeping changes to our ELD program in order to employ early literacy instruction in a small group format. We decided to change everything at once so that we could learn and adapt as we went. As we approached the end of our first ‘wild-ride’ semester, and were preparing for our first round of culminating evaluations, a colleague declared,

 “I have never been so sure of my assessment of my students.  I know them so well!” 

We all felt similarly. Our clarity was a direct result of small group instruction as we had daily opportunities to interact with groups of 4-5 students. 

We could not help but know every student’s voice, be familiar with the range of their vocabulary, understand their skills as learners, and experience their attitudes and perspectives. Additionally, through ongoing observations and conversations, each of us could provide direct instruction and targeted feedback in real time in order to help our students grow their reading, and writing proficiency levels. 

Another significant benefit of small group instruction, although it hadn’t occurred to us beforehand, was that our students’ oral proficiency and confidence to ‘try in English’ grew significantly! Having opportunity in every English class to converse with a teacher and small group of peers has been so productive for our students’ oral proficiency, and could not possibly be replicated in a whole class setting.

Finally, as so many of our ELLs have experienced trauma, small group instruction has helped us immensely in building community with our students. Being in a small group has allowed us to really know our students, to build trust with them, to laugh with them and sometimes, to cry with them, to foster their sense of safety and belonging. Small group interaction has enabled many of our students to settle, and to heal, and to grow more fully into themselves in their brand new context. It has been very rich and rewarding for me as a teacher as well.

For me?

One of my favourite concepts that I have learned about over the past five years is “vicarious resilience”. Through close proximity and relationship to students who have overcome significant barriers, challenges, and traumatic events, I have been inspired to hope, and to persevere, and to be a force for good in the world. It is my good fortune to be a teacher of English language learners.

For you!

I confidently recommend that you try small group instruction as soon as you can, in any small way that you can, so that you can experience it for yourself. SGI will most definitely help you to:

• build relationships with your students,
• know your students,
• inform your planning,
• target your instruction,
• clarify your assessment, and,
• achieve your learning goals. 

It will also reinvigorate your teaching, and remind you why you love working with English language learners so much!

Lara Shantz has taught secondary ELD/ESL at Eastwood CI for the past nine years. She has experienced the joys and challenges of overhauling her teaching practice to employ early literacy and small group instructional strategies daily in her classroom. She is currently a Secondary Learning Support Services consultant at Waterloo Region District School Board with focus on supporting teachers teaching English language learners grades 7-12 and a treasurer for ERGO. And she is always learning!

By Paulina Kurevija, WRDSB

This blog was written about teaching before March 2020.

“OK everyone. Now for the chickadees to come eat from our hands we will have to be completely still and very quiet.”

I took my class on a field trip to a nature reserve. After we explored the forest and had ourselves a good ol’ fashioned halal marshmallow roast, this is what the guide said to us. I am an eternal optimist and believe anything is possible, but nevertheless doubt crept up in my mind. I have spent 5 days a week with my loveable group of students and NEVER have I heard complete silence or seen everyone completely still. The best thing in life is to approach it with a sense of humour, so with a smile on my face and the hope my kids would get to see chickadees I said, “let’s do it!”.

As we formed a line on the wooden bridge above a frozen marsh my students stood with excitement on their faces; this is the moment they have been talking about for weeks. I stood at the end of the line looking at each of my students trying their hardest to stand “as still as a statue”. Then… I see one of my students start to wiggle and fidget as is her nature, and then, more and more students start to wiggle and fidget. After about 30 seconds a student of mine says very loudly, “No birds are coming!” and I gently say “Shhh they won’t come if they hear us talking”, to which he responds, “Why do you always get ME in trouble?!”. Immediately another student in my class yells down the line, “STOP TALKING!” and just like that, the chaos.

These memories are so fond in my mind. I never ask for the chaos and wacky craziness to stop, we just slowly day by day learn to build a little more peace. My students have come from Syria and Afghanistan, most of their families coming to Canada as refugees. Some of my students have seen violence, others were directly involved with the violence. Many have never been to school, or were treated as second class citizens in the countries they moved to temporarily before coming to Canada. If you hear stories about Syrian kids being separated from the local kids, being hit with books and spending the afternoons cleaning the school instead of learning, I have students that lived that reality. If you heard that in many countries girls do not have a chance to go to school, or are kicked out as soon as there are too many kids for the number of teachers, I have students that lived that reality. When you watch tv and see kids sitting on plastic boxes in plastic tents with dirt below their feet and no books or pencils, I have students that lived that reality. Many of my amazing, resilient students grew up in a world of chaos, and when you are surrounded by chaos eventually the chaos seeps in.

As a child, the outside environment can very quickly change your internal environment. You cannot ask a child who feels chaos on the inside not to create chaos on the outside. I do not ask this of them, instead I do everything I can to create peace on the outside and slowly day by day I see peace begin to grow in my students.

“I can’t stop talking. When I quiet, I think about things. I get sad.”

My students have big, giant hearts full of love. The thing with hearts is while they can carry a lot of love, they can also carry a lot of pain. This was said to me by one of my students after a particularly disruptive day. He sang, he made funny noises, he rocked himself, he stood up and walked around, if it was disruptive, he did it. When I see one of my students doing things like this my first thought is always, “What are they feeling in their hearts that is making them do this?”. I gave gentle reminders and continued teaching. As soon as I could transition to another activity I did and then I went to talk to my student. He quickly told me that he has to make noise and move because then he doesn’t have to think about all the things that make him sad. He said he thinks about his home, playing in the front yard and training the wild dogs. He thinks about his cousin who died recently in Afghanistan, his cousin who used to dream with him about the expensive cars and big houses they would both buy when they grew up. He thinks about the things he sees on the news or overhears his parents saying in the next room about war and violence. No one could be upset at a 9 year old kid for being disruptive when he carries that much chaos and that much pain around with him everywhere he goes.

But little by little I see the peace in him grow. I keep seeing more smiles and less furrowed brows. I see more interest in reading and math, and less unfocused attention. I see more relationships and bonds being made with the other kids and less fighting at recess. I see more peace and I see less pain. Little by little.

 “Do you think if I work really hard I can become a doctor? Or is it too late now?”

Hell yah! Of course I can’t use that language with my students, but I constantly remind them that they can achieve anything. Being born in a situation where they had to overcome more challenges is going to serve them well in the future. They know how to fight for themselves, they know how to persevere when things get tough, they know how to pick themselves up and try again and again until it works. I’ve told them many times, “You might have to work twice as hard as someone else, but it will make you so resilient that you’ll be unstoppable. Any goal and any dream you have will happen, and YOU will make it happen.” There is no doubt that being denied the opportunity to go to school until grade 6 lit a fire for the student who said she wants to become a doctor. She has told me many times that she never got to go to school, and now that she gets to go to school, she’s not going to waste it. Everyday she comes to my class ready to do her best. That doesn’t mean she’s always perfect or always listening, she’s fighting the chaos inside the best she can and she is succeeding in school better than my wildest dreams. You don’t give up, you just keep fighting. Little by little you see your goals become successes. That is what my students have taught me. 

 “I love dancing. It make me so happy!”

Dance every day. Listen to music every day. These are lessons my mom has taught me and something that makes my students very happy. Some of them love to dance and all of them love to listen to music. I’ve learned a few Arabic dance moves and it’s incredible to see how music can bring a sense of calm and happiness in my students. Trauma lives in the body and can cause many symptoms such as stomach aches, muscle tension, headaches etc. Music and movement helps the body process trauma and slowly begin to let it go. Music and dancing. Every day. Little by little the body heals.

The work I do is sometimes difficult. Many of my students are frequently caught in storms, where their emotions and past traumas come back up and throw them off balance. There are a lot of waves and a lot of storms, but little by little we are supporting each other to make the waters peaceful. Little by little the pain and the trauma becomes less intense and their hearts can start to feel the love. Little by little they get to be kids. The work I do is sometimes difficult, but it always fills my heart with so much love and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

A few times in my life I’ve been asked the question, “What does Canada and being Canadian mean to you?”. These kids and this work that I do is what Canada and being Canadian means to me. We’ve all come from different parts of the world, lived different experiences and little by little we become a family. That is what Canada is to me, a family that has come together by choice. We’re proudly Syrian, Afghan, Croatian and Canadian and little by little we become a family, part of the big Canadian family that reaches sea to sea to sea. That’s my Canada.

“There is no such thing as a foreigner in Canada. There is only our newest addition to the family.”

Paulina is a teacher who loves her job. She is passionate about teaching through Trauma-Informed Pedagogy and helping to create Trauma-Informed Schools. In the classroom her goal is to make every student feel welcomed and appreciated in Canada. When she is not teaching, you can find Paulina biking, hiking and woodworking with her family.  

Staring At A Blank Slate:  How Small Boards Can Make A Difference For ELLs

By Kaila O’Callaghan

Like many boards across the province of Ontario, the Algoma region, particularly the city of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada,  has been faced with a rapidly changing demographic and we have recently found ourselves supporting exponential growth in our ELL population across many of the schools throughout the district. Given the changing face of our schools and the unique gifts and needs of this student population, we felt compelled to begin to create programs, policies and procedures that would make learning accessible to everyone. This, of course, was and continues to be a difficult call to action in a small board where ELLs make up a growing, but still relatively small portion of our population. Creating programs and supports with limited resources that need to be  stretched over a wide area can be a creative challenge. 

That said, it is possible. Since 2016, our board has implemented a registration procedure that requires initial assessments and family interviews for all incoming ELLs. We’ve worked with all our administrators and teachers of ELLs on their understanding and use of STEPs. We’ve presented our work at Celebrating Linguistic Diversity Conference (twice!) We have two elementary itinerants supporting our ELLs and a grade 6-8 ELD class. One of our high schools offers an ELD program with credit classes for math and English and another provides ESL credits, and our board is actively growing a new international program. It’s been a busy four years! We are by no means finished our work, but we feel like we’re off to a good start.

A blank slate can be a real challenge, but it can also be an incredible opportunity, so when I think of boards like ours who are currently in the place we found ourselves a few short years ago, I can recommend some vital steps in starting the journey to shift the culture so that they can provide programs, policies and procedures that recognize and enhance the experience of English Language Learners:

1.  Get By With a Little Help From Your Friends…

Network. Network. Network. We would not be anywhere close to where we are without the connections we have made across the province. So many boards and their teachers were instrumental in supporting our learning. A great thing about the ELL community of educators is that it is really quite small and also incredibly welcoming. We visited boards and programs, we asked questions, we borrowed materials and resources, we called everyone, and we invited them to visit us. That blank slate came in handy because it enabled us to build off of the work of other boards, to take what worked and didn’t work for them and to pick and choose the models and resources that made the most sense for our context. Join ERGO, find out who the ELL coordinators are at various boards, learn the contact details of your Ministry Education Officers and add them to your speed dial. 

2. Make a Plan, Have a Vision, Start at the Start…

When we first started trying to map out all of the needs of our system in supporting ELLs, we found ourselves overwhelmed at the long to-do list that we eventually came up with, but we sat back, took a breath and decided to start at the start– which happened to be the first thing we do when any new ELL comes to our board – our welcoming process. We began by clearly defining what that would look like for our board and that was vital. For us it involves a clear registration process that includes an assessment team that administers initial assessments, supported by transition to school support prior to any ELL starting at any of our schools. This was vital and  it now means that no ELL enters our system without being recognized, welcomed and being provided the appropriate supports. From there we were able to use this to guide our work with administrators in creating awareness around this population of students, and later, when we moved on to working with classroom teachers, the results of the initial assessments and placement on STEP became a necessary part of our ongoing conversations about instructional supports and modifications for ELLs. 

3. Advocate and Collaborate…

At the end of the day, we have only been able to move forward because of the incredibly supportive senior administration team at our board, who each continue to recognize the ways in which English language learners and their needs intersect with all aspects of our system. ELLs are a small piece of their much larger puzzle, so we had to advocate for this particular group of students, for sure. And that advocacy involves the ability to deeply understand what ELLs need to thrive in our education system, how our policies and procedures support that and what barriers stand in the way. We learned about where funding comes from for ELLs. We lived in the English Language Learners Policy document. We asked a lot of questions. We worked with folks in the transportation department and secretarial staff and administrators. We worked with community partners and volunteers and families and of course, classroom teachers. In working with every group, it’s important to be able to articulate why this work matters and what it means. And if you’re in a board where the ELL population has typically been underserved, recognize that it will take time to change mindsets and historically entrenched practices. Be tireless in your advocacy. 

Keep In Mind That...

Creating programs, policies and procedures that support the gifts that our English language learner populations bring to our schools can be a daunting task when just starting out because it requires a fundamental shift in many of our historical practices. It requires looking at things differently, questioning the status quo and getting creative with our resources.  But it is so necessary. When we recognize this particular group of students and their unique strengths, gifts and needs, our schools become richer places of learning for all of our students - we open up opportunities to think about how all students learn best, we challenge our old ways of thinking and doing and we begin to create spaces that value multiple ways of seeing the world.

What will you do with your blank slate? 

Kaila O’Callaghan has been a classroom teacher for over 20 years. Her passion for learning and languages has brought her all around the world. She started her career teaching ELLs in Barranquilla, Colombia before moving on to work with struggling adolescent readers and writers in a vocational school setting. During that time she trained as a Language trainer throughout the United States. In 2010, she completed her MA in Applied Linguistics at University College Cork, Ireland, her dissertation focusing on striving adolescent readers.  She has served as the Secondary Literacy Lead for the Algoma District School Board and is currently the ELL Coordinator for the ADSB. She has presented her work at a number of conferences including OTR, Reading for the Love of It, and Celebrating Linguistic Diversity. She is also a member of the ADSB e-learning team that won the 2016 Ken Spencer Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning for their work transforming online learning spaces. She’s the proud mother of a curious 8 year-old and wife to a charming Irish man. In her spare time, she travels as much as she can  and soaks up as much music and theatre as possible.