This week we were asked to look at ISTE Student Standard 4 – Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions. Looking more closely at 4d, I questioned, how can I support students to persevere and work with open-ended ambiguous problems. Having students find success with this standard is valuable not only in the classroom but a necessary skill as they navigate the world on a daily basis.
Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. – Michael Jordan
For inspiration, I observed my ELL students in their General Education classrooms during Science while they conducted hands-on group experiments. I noticed most of my students huddled in close with their peers, manipulated variables, and appeared engaged with the activity. However, I also noticed my students were not the leaders, nor did they contribute much to the discussions and decision making.
This was an instant reminder that more scaffolding is needed in the Gen. Ed classrooms for both the students and the teachers. I asked 5 different students who varied in proficiency levels what they were doing and 4 could not offer even a simple explanation beyond “Science”. How can we expect students to persevere when they are unable to find meaning in the task?
Although, I scaffold lessons in pullout situations, I often forget to ask Gen. Ed teachers how I can better support ELLs in their classroom. If we take the time to create makerspaces, then we should also take the time to prepare our ELL students to be able to fully engage in discourse. My quest for language extension support led me back to ¡Colorín Colorado! For ELLs three components heavily impact their success: “interest from the learners, proficient speakers who support and interact with the learners, and an environment that supports relationships between learners and proficient speakers” (Mohr & Mohr, 2007).
Offering sentence frames for collaboration can help our students build upon each other’s ideas to allow inquiry and understanding to flourish.
Determined to support Gen. Ed teachers more effectively, I came home and searched for resources from a MOOC a few years back. Jeff Zwiers and Stanford University have been trying to increase academic discourse, offering a variety of universal tools to support English Language Learners in any content area. Although I led a workshop with these tools a few years ago, half of our staff are new, and with 40% of our building being ELL, I feel we can all use the reminder.
Note the conversation below. The boy is an ELL student who uses sentence frames from a poster to help him engage in discourse with his peer. The teacher introduces the project, yet gives the students tools without dictating the process or required resources.
In their article, “The Philosophy of Educational Makerspaces”, Laura Fleming, Steven & Debby Kurti, emphasise the importance of curiosity. In addition to promoting curiosity though, we need to help students understand failure and how to persevere. With ELL students, this can require additional support due to cultural differences and expectations placed on them from home. Therefore, it’s also important to have teachers and peers model a growth mindset and how to overcome obstacles and failure.
In conclusion, if we want them to take ownership of their learning and develop life-long problem solving skills, we need to support their journey. We need to pique their curiosity, provide opportunities to interact with the resources available, allow them time to reflect, encourage and model the inquiry process, as well as support each other in both success and failure.
Resources
Kurti, R. S., Kurti, D. L., & Fleming, L. (2014). The Philosophy of Educational Makerspaces. Teacher Librarian, 41(5), 8-11
Mohr, K. J., & Mohr, E. S. (2007, February). Extending English Language Learners’ Classroom Interactions Using the Response Protocol. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/extending-english-language-learners-classroom-interactions-using-response-protocol
Michael Jordan Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2017, from https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/michaeljor165967.html
Quinn, H., Lee, O., Valdés, G. Language demands and opportunities in relation to Next Generation Science Standards for English language learners: What teachers need to know. Understanding Language Paper Repository. Stanford University
Zwiers, J. (n.d.). JEFFZWIERS.ORG. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://jeffzwiers.org/tools
