We Need to Do Better
Emergent bilingual education is something that I feel very passionate about. I am majoring in teaching English as a second language and am an advocate for my ELLs and all ELLs when I can be. This includes educating others about the needs and rights of emergent bilinguals especially to those who are in control of laws and regulations like RIDE. Both professor Hesson and Toncelli are inspiring and knowledgeable educators with whom I have had the privilege of taking multiple classes under. Emergent bilinguals have the right to an ESL/bilingual teacher. In my school, there is an ESL/classroom teacher per grade level. At other schools in my district, they have one ESL teacher who travels to all 5 grade levels at the elementary level throughout the week. There is no co-teaching which would be ideal, but instead they follow the pull-out method. Emergent bilinguals should be with their peers in their classroom, while having access to a certified ESL expert to aid them on their journey of language acquisition.
"Under RIDE’s proposed regulations, ESL teachers would not be co-teaching, and in fact there is no requirement that they even meet the students. They must simply meet with the content teacher outside of class". The notion that the ESL expert doesn't even need to be with the student at all, but in communication with the general educator is laughable. Imagine if there was a regulation that said special educators do not need to actually meet with students as long as they meet with the content teacher? That is something that would never happen. One of the issues is that there is such a lack of understanding from the general public, law makers and sadly other educators (not all, but some). RIDE regulations isn't the only area of concern. The new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is also lacking regarding emergent bilingual education. I attended a forum last year that allowed for public/teacher/parent input. This was an opportunity for me to use my voice and be an advocate.
The video is one that if you were in a class with Professor Hesson, you might have already seen. The video is 12 minutes in length and it is eye opening. Depicting the day in the life of an ELL. Emergent bilinguals face enough obstacles in education such as culturally bias standardized tests, complex/ high language load in areas like math and lack of linguistically/culturally relevant literature. Not having access to an ESL expert to aid them in their education should not be one.
Danielle you make valid points in your blog. Specifically, "Imagine if there was a regulation that said special educators do not need to actually meet with students as long as they meet with the content teacher?" The only way this process would make sense is if ALL teachers were trained to be Emergent Bilingual Educators. I also feel your need to do your part to make colleagues more aware of best practices to include all modalities of a teacher, to include their appropriate interactions and language use with students and to include appropriate comments behind closed doors. I do hear more advertisements on the radio for certification programs teaching English Language Learners, and I have gotten more emails (since I joined the cohort to become certified as an ELL teacher) from Universities and Colleges offering ELL programs.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post Danielle and for including that video--I was planning to show it tomorrow, but so glad that many of you are familiar with it already and that you've included it here!
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Danielle, thanks for sharing your reflections. I totally agree that the public hearings were powerful and important. I participated in the one at my school, and I was totally inspired and blown away by the outpouring of community members, teachers, and administrators who turned out to push back on the harmful reforms proposed by RIDE. Something that bothered me about the hearings, which I voiced to RIDE with little effect, was that two-way interpretation was not offered. If someone wanted to speak, there was an interpreter available to share their words with the community, but there was no one interpreting the comments of other people who spoke in real time. I feel that this in and of itself is a huge violation of the language rights of those parents and community members who turned out, but could not access a large portion of the speakers' comments. In the future, I am hoping to think more about ways to hold RIDE and other educational agencies accountable for creating public fora that are accessible to all members of our communities.
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