New Teacher Researcher Conversations: Understanding English Language Learners and Ourselves

New Teacher-Researcher Conversations:

Understanding English Language Learners and Ourselves

Elsa Bro,
Samae Horner,
Rachel Reckord,
Melody Rockwell,
and Ruth Shagoury

We gather around the dining-room table, papers and journals spread before us. Once a month, we tell stories and we pore over data about second-language learners. You won't find a more enthusiastic or passionate group of teacher-researchers anywhere.

Samae reads from her journal, telling us the story of Tatyana, whose smile lights up the room when Samae greets her in Romanian.

Rachel writes of her first conference with a Russian family and the skills teachers need for how to work with translators. Her data also contradicts the myth that parents of English Language Learners (ELL) don't come to school conferences.

"I knew immediately that I wanted to do a case study of Hung Tran (pseudonym), in order to stay mindful of his language learning and any extra support he might need," Melody writes. She shares intriguing data on a very self-directed Vietnamese boy who "definitely has his own agenda!" Melody wonders what her role should be with this very different learner. She muses, "Maybe my role here is not to teach, but to give him the place to feel in control in a system where he otherwise is fairly helpless."

Elsa tries to imagine herself in her soft-spoken Muslim student Farhiya's place to understand her shyness: "She all but climbs under her table in order to meld into the backdrop of books, plants, and colorful bulletin boards. So far, she hasn't accepted my invitations to contribute to the class."

Our stories tumble out, about Abdia, Rahat, Olga, Veronica, and Carlos. Over two years, we have gathered information and conducted in-depth case studies of English Language Learners we teach, using real-world issues to experiment with ways to help all the learners in our classrooms. As we discover strategies that will help one unique learner, we share those discoveries with our colleagues and with student teachers, adding to all our knowledge bases.

We bring our questions and wonderings, captured in our journals, our monthly "one-pagers," and on audiotapes of our rich conversations. Our group came together with a shared goal to note patterns in what we are observing about the best way to help second language learners in today's schools. And there is a second layer of learning for our support group; we are also collaborating to understand the dynamics of "what works" for a collective of new teacher-researchers.

English Language Learners Case Study Teacher Research Group
Four of us-- Elsa, Samae, Rachel, and Melody-- are new teacher-researchers. We formed this teacher-researcher group last year as first-year teachers, meeting at our fifth member, Ruth's home. We originally came to know each other at Lewis & Clark College (Portland, Oregon), where Ruth teaches literacy and teacher-research courses. A cornerstone of the Lewis & Clark teacher preparation is the stance of teaching through a lens of inquiry: collecting data, reflecting, and making teaching decisions based on the information gathered. The goal is to learn to be teacher-researchers as a crucial part of being and becoming a teacher (Campbell, 2004; Singer 2005).

In order to continue teacher research as a support beyond graduate school for first-year teachers, Ruth invited interested beginning teachers to become part of a new teacher-researcher support group. Our shared goal was to learn about the strengths and needs of our ELL students through the power of conducting and sharing case study research. We reasoned that as new teachers, we could be a collaborative support for each other as we shared data about our case studies. And the new learnings could be shared with the faculty and students at Lewis & Clark College, enhance the curriculum, and provide professional development for students and professors alike.

Over the two years that we met as a new teacher-researcher support group, we grappled with the day-to-day realities of teaching in our local schools. By looking closely at the strengths and needs of individual students learning English as a second (or third!) language, we gained insights about ways to work with students who are "between worlds" (Freeman and Freeman, 2001). We have shared those insights in panel discussions with students and faculty at Lewis & Clark. And we have learned the power of a community of teacher-researchers as a way to sustain our energy in our teaching, and as a form of professional development.

Learning about ELL students
"Abdia Aden is fresh from the Bantu region of Somalia," writes Samae in her monthly "one-pager" (see Sidebar 1).
"She's 15, has a delightful smile, and without sharing words, I can tell she has a sweet heart. Every day she has the same T-shirt on with her favorite soccer player, El Hadji Diouf, and wraps her head in a red scarf. I can't imagine what must be going on in her head. This America that she has come to live in is as different from her home village as tint white is to shade black."

Over the first year, we came to know Abdia through Samae's detailed observations, and reflections. Lan Tan, a nineteen-year old student from Vietnam, became Samae's informant the second year. Besides our own case studies, we came to know our colleagues' students and to look forward to monthly updates on their progress. We found our conversations-- and our questions-- propelled us forward.

Questions Evolving
"I'm wondering, how does Veronica's difficulty with reading overlap with her being a second-language learner?" Elsa pondered one evening.
This wondering set an avalanche of questions in motion:
Melody wondered what Hung's real goal is as he works in art, as his new English skills blossom. Rachel asked herself, "How will Svetlana adjust to the other Russian speakers in her class? What will be the impact of my meeting with her to chart her growth?"Samae wondered, "How can there be equity for all?"
Samae's story about discussing the issues of equity with all her students, ELL and English proficient alike, sparked a huge "aha" for us all, as well as new questions: "Why aren't we talking about how all our students are in this together? Our more privileged students should be advocating for their fellow classmates. What would happen if the needs of classmates were less invisible to our students? If part of the curriculum becomes one of genuine inclusion?"
Our thinking was pushed forward with these collective energetic, vibrant, and caring questions.

Themes Emerging:

"Everything has a meaning, but sometimes I just can't figure out what it is."-- Kathy Willows, 1881 (Side Saddle Cowgirls)

Over the course of our two years together, we amassed a thick folder of data to help us grapple with the questions we were generating: memos in the form of "one-pagers," journal entries, transcribed interviews and conversations, as well as samples of student writing and drawings. Like cowgirl Katie Willows, we knew it had a meaning, but it was tough to figure out just what it was! So, during our last six months, we spent part of each meeting brainstorming on what we have learned-- how our data could lead to more effective strategies for serving the educational needs of a sizeable student population-- students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds.

Our findings clustered into three main categories: the importance of relationships, telling stories, and ability to communicate. These categories weave together in the realities of classroom and school dynamics.

Relationships
We teach students rather than subject areas, materials, or curriculum. In order to work with these students, building from their strengths and addressing their real needs, we need to get to know them and establish a relationship. We discovered the power-- and the pleasure--of making time for getting to know our students individually. Elsa stated it with conviction at our final meeting of the year in June:

We have to approach our students without making assumptions, so they inform us. We just have to open our eyes, open our hearts, and open our minds to be able to truly serve our students. So, instead of going into stress mode when a student doesn't understand, you wait, you fact-find, you make those observations, and you reflect on it, so you can make a better lesson the next time.

Rachel agreed. It can often be checking in with them: "How are you?" and building on responses. It's not always, 'How's your writing, or reading, or painting. . .?' it's 'How are you?' or 'Good morning! What did you do this weekend?' Like Yuri was telling me this morning how he went fishing this weekend. And I learned he knew what a pond is! I said, 'Did you go to a river?' and he said, 'No, I went to a lake . . . no, a little lake . . . a pond.'

Without this informal conversation, Rachel would not have known the kinds of vocabulary growth Yuri was making.

Interviews are another helpful strategy for building relationships-- and for gathering needed information about our students' learning needs and strengths (see Sidebar 2) Good interviews often begin with a kind of skeletal framework and adjustments emerge as the conversations take shape. The key ingredients are listening, respect, and asking genuine questions.

Samae's interview with Lan Tan taught her aspects of Lan Tan's language learning she never would have gleaned from the classroom. For example, she learned the ways that Lan's job situation was helping her learn English in context.

After her interview with Takuya, Elsa reflected on the power of student interviews:

I now realize that I could have asked him to come in for an interview the first day we met. Our familiarity could have dispelled any misunderstandings and discomfort due to our cultural disparities. In just twenty minutes, I gained incredible insight into the history, hopes, and learning curve of one learner from Japan, that will translate into helping my students be successful in their second language classrooms. Now that we have gotten to know one another, I am confident that Takuya no longer sees me as a foreign teacher, but an ally, someone with whom he can share his stories.

Telling Stories:
An important theme that crossed our categories was the key role of telling stories. Helping ELL students develop their oral language abilities is a vital element in their overall literacy development (Fu 2004). Making time to simply have conversations in class-- with the teacher and with each other-- gives second language learners a chance to try out their language skills in a safe environment. The conversations might be about texts, content, or connections to their homeland.

What they read and write can also be an important part of their oral language development-- telling stories around the art they create, for example, or texts they read and write. For example, Samae chose a book for her class specifically with Lan in mind, because the main character had, like Lan, "come to a new country seeking a better life." Writing can be another outlet for sharing stories. In her English class, Elsa found that narrative essays provided an open palette for discussing staying in a refugee camp before immigrating to the United States, or celebrating one's one-in-a-lifetime, never-to-be-forgotten quincinera.

Communication
Stretching ourselves as teachers to find ways to communicate with our ELL students is crucial. In order to build relationships, invite stories-- in order to teach our students!-- we must be able to communicate with them. Language differences can be a difficult barrier to surmount.

We discovered early on the power of bringing first languages into the classroom. It's one thing to read authors and educators such as Kim Hakuta, (1986), Stepehen Krashen (1996), Jim Cummins (1989; 1996) and David and Yvonne Freeman (2001), who stress the importance of celebrating students' first languages and cultures as they gain access to English as another language. It's another thing to experience it first-hand in the class and claim the knowledge as our own.

Melody was able to track down not only Spanish- and Russian-English dictionaries, but also Urdu. She shared the emotional as well as communicative impact of having students' native language in writing in the classroom. She sent the message that their first language will be honored and respected in the learning community. It also sets the tone for her willingness to reach out and try words herself in other languages.

Each of us in our teacher-researcher group is attempting to learn another language. Samae, Melody, and Ruth are learning Spanish; Elsa is becoming fluent in French; and Rachel is taking classes in Russian.

Clearly, teachers with students who speak a range of languages can't possibly learn each language. We all worked to find translators for our students, whether professionals within the building, fellow students, or community members. We also found the school translators and school counselors who are bilingual to be available to help us and our students when we made the effort to meet with them and brainstorm possible help with translation.

There are many "translation" programs for computers, as well as websites such as Babelfish and Free Translation. Fairly literal instructions or introductions tend to work well, but we soon discovered the pitfalls of relying on the programs, as the translated messages can completely change the meaning of the text!

Students who relied on translation programs also discovered their drawbacks and as their English improved, found electronic dictionaries to be far more useful. On this matter, we found useful ideas in "Bridges on the I-Way": Multicultural Resources Online" by Frank Bruno (2004) and "English Learners and Machine Translation " by Royal Van Horn (2004).

Looking closely at what was working to allow us to communicate with our students reminded us of the power of visuals and hand gestures. As Rachel noted, "I realize when I talk with my ELL students, I am more animated and make more hand gestures. As with all my students, I try to explain things in different ways, or draw a picture. With Olga and Tanya, I gesture and really try to make eye contact, so I can check in and see if we're communicating."

Being and Becoming a Teacher Researcher
"I have sat down to write about the process of being and becoming a teacher researcher many times, but can never find the right way to describe the process. Because I am just finishing my second year of teaching, and I started as a teacher-researcher last year, it's almost as if it's ingrained in how I look at my classes. I know there is a lot more I can be doing in the classroom to connect with students, especially ELL students, but being a teacher-researcher makes that process easier because of making observations on a daily basis. Being a researcher makes you stop more often and ask questions, try new things, look at how and if they work, then make assessments of what you need to do next. You're constantly changing and adapting to the needs of your students." Rachel, June 6th, one-pager

Rachel's words rang true for us all as we talked about the impact of teacher-research on our teaching practice. Because we were teacher-researchers as graduate students, and then immediately started the process our first year of teaching, it has formed how we operate with in our classrooms. We are constantly checking and assessing: Is this working? Is there something else I could be doing? What am I missing? What are the pieces here? What's really going on behind the scenes? What do they already know? How can I take them to the next step? Teacher research has become a lens for all of us to view our classrooms.

Besides summing up what we have learned in our ELL case study teacher-research to date, we also reflected on how our teacher research group supported us as beginning teachers as well as teacher-researchers. Our conversations and collaborations as a group have made a powerful difference in all our teaching. In addition to making our own observations, it's wonderful to have a group of trusted colleagues to share ideas and conversations with. We don't feel alone in our frustrations, and we have a place to celebrate our joys in the classroom. We've each learned to trust in ourselves a little more. This process will stay with us as we continue growing as teacher-researchers in the years to come.

Sidebar on One-Pagers

Our "one-pagers" are brief memos that we write for each of our teacher-researcher meetings. The memos are narratives about the themes we see emerging, the questions we have about our study, or even first-draft ramblings from our teaching journals. We make copies for everyone and read them aloud and discuss each one as a way to frame our research conversations. We also read excerpts to illustrate our classroom discoveries when we share our work with teachers and teacher educators. For more information on writing research memos, see: Living the Questions: A Guide for Teacher-Researchers (Hubbard & Power, 1999); and The Art of Classroom Inquiry: A Handbook for Teacher-Researchers (Hubbard and Power, 2003)

Sidebar, Interviewing Students

One of the key skills for interviewers is to be able to ask questions through a casual, conversational approach. In this way, interviewing has an improvisational tone that allows the interviewer to come to an interview with an idea of what to ask, but ready to adjust the sequence of questions or build on a person's answers.

Here are some interviewing tips that have helped us learn from our students:

Listen actively. Pay attention to what the child or adolescent says, but also how she says it--the word choice, syntax, and context of her comments. Show you're listening through your body language, such as nods, smiles, or looks of surprise.

Be flexible in your questioning. If your student looks puzzled by your question, rephrase it or ask another. Don't be restricted by questions you may have planned to ask.

Allow the interview to continue long enough that the important points are able to surface. This may not occur until you have talked with your student long enough to get him involved and interested in the conversation.

Write down key information. You'll be able to jog your memory later if you note descriptive words for the voice, actions, and expressions of the child you are interviewing. This will be helpful even if you are using a tape recorder.

References:

Bruno, F. (2004). Bridges on the I-way: Multicultural resources online. Multicultural Review.61-63.

Campbell, K. (2004). Beginning teachers as researchers: Developing knowledge for teaching through classroom inquiry. (Unpublished dissertation, under review at Teachers College Press)

Cummins, J. (189). Empowering minority students. Sacramento, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Cummins, J. (1996). Negotiating Identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society. Ontario, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Freeman, D. & Freeman, Y. (2001). Between worlds: Access to second language acquisition (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Fu, Danling. (2004). Teaching ELL students in regular classrooms at the secondary level. Voices from the Middle, vol.11, no. 4, 8-15.

Hakuta, K. (1986). Mirror of language. New York: Basic.

Hubbard, R. & Power, B. (2003) The art of classroom inquiry: A handbook for teacher-researchers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Hubbard, R. & Power, B. (1999). Living the questions: A guide for teacher-researchers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Krashen, S. (1996). Under attack: The case against bilingual education. Culver City, CA: Language Education Associates.

Singer, J. (2005). Finding and framing teacher research questions: Moving from reflective practice to teacher research. Teaching and Learning, Fall issue (in press).

Van Horn, R. (2004). English learners and machine translation. Phi Delta Kappan.423-424.

About the authors

This group of teacher-researchers met and became friends during the graduate school program (MAT in teacher education) at Lewis and Clark College. Elsa, Samae, Melody, and Rachel are currently third-year teachers in Oregon. Ruth continues to work with graduate students at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR.

To contact the group, email them through Professor Shagoury: shagoury@lclark.edu

©April 2006 New Horizons for Learning