I am an instructor of a course entitled Second Language Print Literacy Theories (ESLG 488). The students and I are embarking on a new project. Starting this Friday, we're going to begin an academic service learning project with Great Northern School District. The teachers have brainstormed questions that they have about English Language Learners (ELLs). The school district is very small, and the ELL population is a recent development; the number of native-Russian and native-Spanish speaking students is slowly growing.
The idea is fairly simple. The teachers in the district have brainstormed their questions. I'll list them below in a minute. My 17 students are expecting to get the questions on Friday and decide who will tackle which question (in pairs and one group of three, most likely). Academic Service Learning projects (projects that allow students to take the theory that they are learning in a course and solve a problem in the community with it) require that the instructor take on the role of facilitator between community and students. The first step that I'm taking here (other than communicating with two teachers in the district about the project) is to look over the questions and re/formulate (if necessary) them to best match up with our course content and perhaps take responsibility myself for any questions that match up best with other coursework so that students have to wrestle with the course curriculum in order to answer the question they choose.
Let's take a look at the eleven wonderful questions that the teachers have posed to us:
1. What are some ways that we can encourage parent engagement, specifically in the Russian population? We have great families but little to no involvement. What are some of the cultural issues that could help us to better understand their position on education and thereafter encourage engagement?
2. Are there online or other quick resources available to teachers for cultural understanding or academic questions/activities for ELL kids?
3. What are some good book group/study group books for fluent English speaking students (those who are now concentrating on academic concepts and deeper comprehension skills)?
4. What are area resources for Russian or Spanish translators when needed for conferences or other parent meetings? What is the cost? What advance notice is needed?
5. Are there area resources to help us administer the WLPT-II(the Washington State Engish language proficiency test)? What specifics are there in having a staff person gain training? Is it worth it? What would the WLPT-II tell us to better inform our instruction?
6. How much instruction can/should a student receive if the teacher speaks the native language (e.g. Spanish)? What instances are best for this? When should the teacher transition to English-only instruction?
7. What are the best practices for helping ELL students acquire academic and higher-level vocabulary when they have become 'fluent' readers?
8. What should our focus be when teaching comprehension strategies in the intermediate grade levels (4th through 6th)? In which ways should we guide book choice?
9. How is the Russian language syntax different than English syntax? What do we need to know to help ELLs use 'proper' English and grammar structure in their writing and everyday speech (especially after vacations and weekends)?
10. How can we help ELLs increase their comfort level with using resources (dictionaries, questioning, computer resources) to increase vocabulary or cultural references without looking 'dumb' in front of peers?
11. What are some good websites or computer games for ELLs?
Since there are eleven questions, and we only need nine, it is likely that I can take on two of the questions that are the least-related to our ESLG 488 content. Here are the questions listed below by number with the course unit named (if there is at least a loose correspondence) in red:
1. Unit 4: Impact of home-culture
2. Unit 4: Impact of home-culture & Unit 5: Strategies
3. Unit 5: Strategies
4.
5. Unit 5: Strategies
6. Unit 5: Strategies
7. Unit 5: Strategies
8. Unit 5: Strategies
9. Unit 1: Impact of orthography & Unit 5: Strategies
10. Unit 5: Strategies
11. Unit 5: Strategies
It looks as if there is only one question that does not in some way correspond with the content of the course: Question 4, about translators. I think I'll take this on myself. I could use my work on this as a model for the students--doing think-al0ud protocols along the way.
I can't wait to share these questions with the students. I have a feeling that this project is going to be transormative for us. My fingers are crossed.
