C68: Designing for Language Learners

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​Welcome friends!  I thought when I become a full-time consultant, I’d have more time on my hands to create content.  Unfortunately, it has become quite the opposite, so I’m sorry for the inconsistency of my episodes.  I hope to have quite a few ready for November and December soon. 

Now that we’ve had a chance to discuss the importance of learning space design, let’s dive in to supporting the language learner.  

Having been a language learner as a child, I am more sensitive to the needs of my students who are acquiring English as an additional language.  In addition to my school experiences, I often reflect on my experiences in Germany where I was walking around constantly in haze.  I felt so disconnected from the social interactions of small talk at the grocery store, talking with my neighbors, and being a part of the community. 

I’ll never forget this one spring afternoon as I’m walking down the street to absolute silence.  Usually, the neighborhood was bustling with the sounds of children playing, subway trains and buses, and people talking in the streets.  On this particular afternoon, there was nothing.

As I turned the corner, a few police officers hurried across the street and started talking rapidly at me.  When I explained that I didn’t speak much German, they explained in English that a WWII bomb had been discovered near my home and that everyone within a four block radius had been evacuated.  They were in the process of deactivating the bomb, so everything was well.  My pleasant afternoon turned into a somewhat shaky reality that learning how to read and write signs is very important. 

Tying into our classroom design, this is how your English language learners feel in your classroom. They are continuously coding and decoding language, symbols, mannerisms, and responses in order to replicate and fit into the social construct that is your classroom.  What is your role in the process?  Are you making it easier or more difficult for your learners? 

Labels

​It may sound like such an old school strategy, but I believe a classroom is more inclusive of language learners when spaces are labeled with words and pictures.  This not only provides each section of the learning space

The things that greatly helped my German acquisition and acculturation were the visual cues that guided society.  Through simple images and symbols, I was able to guide myself through several social situations with grace and minimal language.  This was a huge turning point in feeling like I could operate within society. 

Another turning point was finding simple terms to order food, asking for items in the grocery store, being able to read labels, and knowing the difference between shower gel and body lotion.  This all sounds rather simple, but it made my life so much easier to navigate in a foreign country. 

Having all of your materials labeled in the host country language and language of instruction is a huge support for your learners.  Even better is having pictures of the items on each container, so they are able to acquire new academic vocabulary words at a faster rate that is within context of their daily lives. 

Learning space design has a huge impact on how your language learners progress and adapt to their new environment. What are some simple things we can do to make it easier for them to adjust and acquire an additional language?

Visuals

At this point, you are wondering how visuals are different from the pictures on all of your resources.  Visuals go far behind doing this alone.  

I was an English language learner at such an early age that I don’t remember much of my language acquisition experiences.  I do remember what it was like to teach within a dual language classroom.  Here are some things that helped me to acquire more German vocabulary.

• Word Walls: having a dual language word wall really helps with transference between two or more languages.  A visual of that word just cements the meaning.  Having meaningful station work using the word wall, especially if it’s on a pocket chart, makes the language acquisition much easier.  By placing both words together (German and English), learners were able to grasp the concepts much more quickly.  

• Small Group Station Work: one thing I think is powerful is providing a lot of visuals and accompanying word banks at small group station time.  This allows learners to use them to create open-ended tasks that reflect their level of language development.  I’d pair this with a simple choice board to guide the thinking and connect it to the big ideas of your unit of inquiry.  In this way, we are maximizing vocabulary development and connecting to science and social studies.  Brilliant!  

Visible Thinking

Now, you must be really perplexed.  Isn’t a visual a way to show visible thinking?  Not quite.  Visible thinking is when learners are actively reflecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and summarizing their thinking.   This process requires a bit more. 

Visible thinking has really helped me to discover misconceptions in an easy way without completing a test or quiz.  When I think of my acquisition of German, it was the visual tools I used in my language class that helped me to sort and process the German language.  I was able to make connections to Spanish conjugation, which helped greatly to categorize it in my mind. Here are some tools that will help your English language learners 

Anchor Charts: I know teachers love their anchor charts, especially if they are Pinterest worthy.  The problem with these charts is that learners don’t have any part in creating them.   We use them as an exemplar and often laminate them to use with learners, year after year.  The problem with this is that we don’t have the same learners each year.  

• Instead, have your language learners create various anchor charts that can be used to help others better understand the process.  In this way, they will be written in kid-friendly language and allow your learners to teach each other the big ideas that they all struggle with.  This is powerful stuff, because you are developing agency along the way and supporting the language development of your learners.  It’s also a great way to formatively assess your learners and discover any misconceptions before it’s too late. 

Visible Thinking Routines:  I don’t hide my love of Harvard Project Zero’s Visible Thinking Routines.  They are simply amazing.  They give all the power to the learner, but also all of the responsibility to do the thinking.  Our role is to set the stage and they take off through collaborative and individual reflections.  
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• For a language learner, they have so many ideas bottled inside of them.  They may not have the words to express them in their additional language, but this is the power of collaboration.  We give them space to share their ideas with their fellow teammates by describing all aspects of the idea, using visuals from the internet, and sharing their personal connections.  This is powerful.  This tells the entire community that although I don’t have the words, I still can reach these deeper ideas using a variety of tools. The other teammates with stronger language skills can peace it together so the rest of the classroom community can understand.  Nothing is better when all kids feel included in the thinking and they see it displayed inside and outside of the classroom. 

That’s probably a bit more than what you were expecting, but this is what happens when I don’t have time to do this every week.  All of the ideas bottle up until I must share them.  I hope to see you next time!