140. Enhancing ELL Education: Best Practices and Strategies with Guest Paloma Cortes-Goodwyn

Episode 140 • 16th August 2024 • Equipping ELLs • Beth Vaucher, ELL, ESL Teachers

palomacortes-goodwyn

Hi, everybody. I am Paloma Cortes-Goodwin, and I've been in education going on 18 years now. I was a classroom teacher for 15 years, primarily in high school. However, I've also taught pre kindergarten and first grade. Additionally, for the past two years, I have been a district administrator, title three coordinator, which is neo coordinator, an indian education coordinator for our district, the world language coordinator. I'm also, let me keep going, the McKinney Vento, which is a homeless coordinator, and then, of course, a whole lot of other things. But what really is important for your listeners is to know that I do have experience working with english language learners. They have my heart. Personally, I am an english language learner. Spanish is my first language. I learned in public schools. And so. So I definitely have a heart for these kids. And I'm very excited to hopefully talk about some things I wish I had known before I started working with English language learners.

Beth Vaucher

Yes. Amazing. I told you all that. She wears a lot of hats, and that's a big reason I wanted to have you on, to just share kind of an overall expertise of, you know, exactly that. What are some things you wish you would have known when you started working with Ells? Because you've seen a lot of different areas in the world of english language learners and just supporting them. And so you've seen a lot of things that have worked and didn't work. And so I want you to share today. Just think that, you know, at the beginning of your journey, if you would have known these things, man, it would have been such a different approach to how you started. And, you know, I think a lot of us learn as we go and we learn these little nuggets down the road, and we think, oh, man, if I would have known this right away, it would have been so helpful. And so that's really what, what we want to hit on today is just a lot of that practical application of here's really what's best practices of how we can show up and support our multi legal learners. So, absolutely.

palomacortes-goodwyn

You know, I would also say, you know, I also am a student teacher supervisor for our local university here. And I'll tell you what really kind of drives me cuckoo for cocoa puffs is we are lacking strong training in how to truly support and differentiate your instructional practices for these unique, special students, english language learners, students on an IEP 504 having that trauma response lens. We just don't have that much training at the university level. And then now more and more teachers that are joining the education field that is working right next to you, they are sometimes alternatively or they're on an emergency certification, and they didn't have even the educational background at the university level. And so we've got a massive need for teachers to be properly trained and to be given these nuggets that you're talking about.

palomacortes-goodwyn

In order for them to truly not give up after a year or two, because teaching is extremely difficult. So I'm really excited to share these few things because, like you said, I mean, I mean, I went through a teacher credential program, and even with that teacher credential program, with the master's degree, with all this experience, I was still like, what? My first time working with english language letters. So, yes, hopefully, you know, your audience leaves with something.

Beth Vaucher

Oh, I know that they will. And this is, I mean, Paloma has been such a great advocate for yols, and her and I really been enjoying getting to know each other, and she's been coming on board with equipment else and helping in different ways and doing some trainings and school stuff. And I'm super excited to see where this leads because your passion, your heart and your knowledge is just so beneficial and so needed in our educational space today. And, and that's really, I think what we're, you know, at equipping l is our passion is, you know, empowering educators to equip their english language learners. And it really is that. It's that both. And we really kind of need those nuggets that help us get to the day to day. They get through that day to day when we're overwhelmed, when we don't know exactly what to do. We need those little nuggets to help us get, you know, through those beginning days of working with ells. But then we also need that foundation, we need that training, we need that deeper understanding. So we, we need that both. And, and that's really what we're here to do at equipping LLS is help give both those really practical do this to help you get through this lesson. And also let's go deeper on, you know, what's best practices for.

Beth Vaucher

So, and you're, you're going to be a big part of that. So we appreciate you taking the time today. Be with us. So let's dive in. Let's talk about, you know, What's the first thing that you would share?

palomacortes-goodwyn

teacher credential program in: 2006

palomacortes-goodwyn

But. But for so long, we've been in this deficit mindset, right? Oh, they're English language learners. You know? You know, they don't know much. You know, we have to. We have to just pass them along. Pass them along versus close the gap. That's it, exactly when really it should be, oh, my goodness. How can I tap in to what they already know, grow that knowledge in their native language, if at all possible, and then show them how to make those connections to the target language? I mean, another part of that is learning how to say their name. And, Beth, I know I'm preaching to the choir because I've even heard you in one of your podcasts talking about learn how to say their daggum name. I mean, truly, I don't know how many students I have from asian cultures that will come in and they will tell me their name, and if I don't or tell anyone their name, and if we don't pronounce it correctly, they might come up with an english name. With an english name. And that's happened to me on more than one occasion, and I have. Just said, I love the way you say your name. Can I record you saying it? Because I really, really want to learn how to say your name. It's so important to know how to say their name because it's a part of their identity. Now, of course, it's different if, you know, they're coming to you and they're saying my name is this, right. That that's, that's their choice. But if they're coming in and they're saying my name is, you know, Ricardo Antonio. Right. I'm not going to say, oh, can I call you Ricky? Can I call you rich? Absolutely not. I'm going to say, I love the way you just said your name. Can I record it? Because I want to say it just like you. That right there is showing that student, I respect you, I respect your sense of self, and I want to honor that. And it even just comes down to understanding different cultural traditions, how to approach students of different cultures. You know, I am an Afro Latina, and I am very big and bold and loud and in your face, and I love to hug and touch, but some of my students don't come from that kind of background, and so I have to check myself and the way I interact with my students to respect their culture, you know, it may just be as simple as, you know, I do a little bow before them. You know, I put my hands together. I thank them for what they did versus, you know, my natural inclination is I want to hug you and kiss you and hold you and all those things, right? So it's just those little things that is really showing the students the importance of preserving their own sense of self and culture because I'm showing you in my actions that you matter, your identity matters, and we're going to do everything to preserve it. So that's my number one. That's my number.

Beth Vaucher

I love that. And you know, what I have seen in my experience? I worked in the suburbs of Chicago and then worked abroad here in Panama at an international school. And to see the difference of my students in Chicago who would come in, who speak a different language at home and would be very embarrassed, wouldn't want to tell anybody that, you know, was very secretive about that and almost ashamed because of the culture in our school compared to when I worked at the international school here. And it's almost like every kid who comes in, they'll say, oh, where are you from? What languages do you know? And just, it's this excitement of, you know, even my daughter would come up, oh, this girl, she's from Norway, but her dad's from Syria. And so she speaks Arabic and she speaks Norwegian, and she's learning English, English and Spanish. And it was this badge of honor and excitement over these students and learning about where they're from and, you know, learning the culture and learning. Oh, yeah. This kid's from Argentina, and that's where Messi's from. And just this excitement around this global community. And so there is such a change. Even when the language of the classroom was English, there's still a support system of the excitement of knowing multiple languages, using them when appropriate. And just that excitement that you speak more than one language. And the difference then, of the students in how they learn language is just drastically different. Over covering up or just being so embarrassed to even say that your parents speak another language at home and trying to blend in, you know? And so I think. I think there's a shift that's happening, and I think we need to continue to push that forward of it being that, seeing exactly as that. That this is a superpower, that this is something that you bring into our classroom that's so special and unique, and we love you for that. I love story.

palomacortes-goodwyn

You. You hit the nail on the head when. When you said the culture of the school. Right. So it's one thing in my classroom, I'm teaching my kids to preserve their own sense of self. It's another thing when the school adapts that mentality, when the school is highlighting the diversity, when the school is truly taking the time to respect and recognize the beautiful cultural backgrounds that these kids are bringing to the school and how they're all students are going to grow just from knowing someone that. That has a different background, comes from a different country, knows a different language. I mean, there is so much that our english language learners bring to the table, but for so long, we've never given them a seat because they do not speak English. And so it's. It's just give them a seat and show them the importance of what they bring and how it's going to change the trajectory of some of my monolinguistic students or my kids that don't have a lot of, you know, you know, experiences with other culture, you know? But by being with this student here and learning from them, you know, for all I know, maybe they now want to study abroad.

Beth Vaucher

Absolutely. Okay, let's go to number two, because I really want to get to number five, but I know two, three, four are going to be good, too, so.

palomacortes-goodwyn

Okay, so, number two, I wish I had known the power and consistent family and community engagement. And I say consistent because for anyone out there that is just feeling overwhelmed, that is feeling like I just don't know how to get families involved, don't stop. You've got this. Keep at it. I promise you, they're going to show up, just like it takes our kids. So much time to become comfortable with us, to build that trust with us, to show up. It happens with the families, too, especially our newcomers, right? They're also coming from families that also may not speak English or may be timid, and they're afraid to come to the school and go to these engagement nights. But I promise you, once they start coming and realizing the safety that is available to them, the trust that's available to them, the resources that are available to them, they are going to continue to show up and bring more people with them. One of the things that, as an EO coordinator for our district, is in order to remain federally compliant, we have to host El family nights. And I did it when I was in California and now I'm doing them here. I currently work in the state of Oklahoma, and I remember my first few nights in California, I had like, one person show up, right? And I purchased food for like 50 because I was like, man, these people are going to show up. It's going to be the main girl. No, I took all the food home with me. I was like, eating my feelings, right. Nobody came. I had a PowerPoint ready. Yeah, but I kept having the meetings, right? And so it went from, like one and then maybe it went to three to where by the end of a few years of doing this, you know, I had probably about 20 to 30 people that were consistently showing up because, number one, they knew that I was understanding, I was sympathetic with their situation. I provided translation support. They knew I loved their kids and that I was going to do everything in my power to help my families understand what is going on in their student's life. And I say that because I think something that, I think something that a lot of schools, districts teachers do not recognize is the importance of our english language learners families to also be actively involved in the education of their child for so long because they're a newcomer or they have very little English and it's for the student themselves, then the teacher staff member will not contact home. They will not send that email because it's, well, they don't understand it anyways. What's the point? That is a terrible practice. And if you know someone like that, or if you are someone like that, I pray that you reconsider your actions because that family deserves the same right to their child's, you know, academic progress and the understanding of what's going on. As every single student in your class, if you are sending emails home for this kid, you need to send them home for your english language learner. And now with a. And with email accounts that naturally that just automatically translate emails, there is no excuse. There's no excuse. That's it. There is no excuse anymore to not involve our families. And we have families that are dying to get involved in their students education, but a lot of them can't because they're working or there's that language barrier.

Beth Vaucher

But an email.

palomacortes-goodwyn

An email cost us nothing. And chat GPT girl is free. Put your email in chat GPT and say, translate to this. Bada bing, bada boom, copy paste. You are now communicating and including that family in their child's journey in your school and in your classroom. And I just. I think that is just so important. And as we continue with those practices and then we're hosting an engagement night or, you know, we have parent teacher conference and we're reaching out to this family, they're going to start showing up and truly with consistent family engagement nights, family showing up for parent teacher conferences, et cetera. We're building that community of support at home and, of course, in the school in order to truly service the entire child. Right, the whole child. It's not just the academic portion that we need to worry about. It's also the social emotional component of that child. Many of our children are coming to us with a lot of trauma, right? I mean, a lot of trouble, some PTSD. I mean, we've got some kids that have gone through it to be here. We need to recognize that, and we need to honor that and honor, you know, the sacrifices that the family has made and not just, you know, kind of shove it off to the side. They don't understand us anyway. So why am I going to reach out? Absolutely not. We need to make those connections, make consistent connections because those families deserve it.

palomacortes-goodwyn

So, yeah, that's number two.

Beth Vaucher

And I love. Yeah, I love that word, consistent. And I think that that's a really important exhortation going into this school year is for those who have maybe tried family nights and multicultural family nights. And, oh, we didn't have great turnout. And I think that that's really the word is, is to consistently just keep at it, find ways to connect, use the community. And what I have seen, you know, just when working with really, this is kind of a hard mindset for anybody in the western world. Cause we're very independent. We don't rely on our community as much. But for many of these families coming in, their community is their. Their bloodline, you know? And so if you can get one family that comes to one of these nights, they're gonna quickly share with the other families and say, hey, you know, the school's hosting this. You know that they have translators and they have, you know, childcare available. And this is a great way for us to learn how what's going on with the school, and it can quickly spread because that one family came. So I love that. Just stick with it and it's, it will pay off, you know, I'll also.

palomacortes-goodwyn

Add here I. There are so many apps, right, that we can use to communicate with our families via text message. You know, remind one of one was what it used to be called back in the day. Now it's remind, you know, that's just a translating or not translating. That's a texting app. Well, now we have talking points, which, when I write my text in English, it goes to that family in whatever language they indicated. So it will translate before it arrives and then vice versa. You know, class dojo for a lot of my elementary people and seesaw, like, there are translating accessibility tools.

palomacortes-goodwyn

Within the messaging part of it. We do not have an excuse anymore to not include our families. And, you know, when we've got newcomers, especially that in their home country, they were, you know, a scholar. They were good at all these things. And then they're coming here, and academically, they're struggling, especially. Don't. Don't make. Don't get me started with high school. You know, they're coming to us, and, you know, this is when it matters, right? We're telling them, this is when your grades matter. If you want to go to the university, you've got to get good grades. And all they're saying is D's, D's, F's, because they do not understand the language.

Beth Vaucher

That's right. Have another conversation about that. We got it. These are. You're getting a glimpse into our conversations. Palima and I, we could go on and on about this. Okay, number three.

palomacortes-goodwyn

ause when you have a class of: 1530

Beth Vaucher

Come join us.

palomacortes-goodwyn

Yes, we're doing the work for you. We have these templates where we can do the differentiation for you, where you can just easily pull this activity. Pull that activity, and then create it to where it's still aligned with your content. Because nobody is saying that what we need to do is give them a completely separate activity. We're going to give them the kindergarten standard because they don't know English. While this is a class on biology. Absolutely not. No. I still need to teach my newcomer biology or my low performing El. The terminology, the vocabulary in the biology course, because guess what? They still have to perform on state assessments. So the first time they see the word photosynthesis should not be on that state test. It should be in my classroom in a safe environment. Baffled it. That's it right there. So, really understanding that there was various levels, I wish I had known that before. So I'm going to go to number four.

Beth Vaucher

All right.

palomacortes-goodwyn

Love it. I wish I had known the effectiveness in picture prompts for speaking activities. That sounds really simple, but I never really realized until I tried it for myself how using a picture prompt will really pull the language out of the students. Because what we have is we will have kids that are in the classroom all day long, you know, six, 7 hours a day, and they might speak ten to 15 minutes worth of English, especially our newcomers, because we are not requiring them to produce language. We have got to require production of language if they are ever going to acquire it. That's it. We have to pull it out, of course. Safe environment. We've built the trust, but here's how we do it. With picture props, right? So we have a picture on the board. We provide a word bank of, you know, five words, two to three sentence stems, and then, of course, the scaffolding comes in. I love the teaching or the, I guess, the instructional model of me. We to you. Right. So I'm going to model it. We're going to do it together. Two kids are going to practice. Then you can do it independently. And so even with these speaking activities or picture prompts, I'm going to model it. First, I'm going to pick a word from the word bank. I'm going to use a sentence stem, and boom, I'm going to practice it. I'm going to create this sentence, and I'm going to produce language. Then we're going to do one together. You and a partner will do one, and then we just kind of continue doing that. Maybe we stand up, we find a new partner, et cetera. And I understand that it's scary for newcomers that speak very little English, but that's when I'm going to go over there and I'm going to help them, you know, pronounce the words correctly, and then I'm sending them off. I have got to send them off to practice the language. I think something where a lot of teachers fail is. You know, we have humongous hearts and we want to protect our babies at all costs.

palomacortes-goodwyn

We don't want them to be uncomfortable. We don't want them to feel bad. However we are, we're not setting them up for success when we do that. Absolutely not. We have got to provide opportunities for them to produce language. And so picture prompts. Yeah, I wish I'd known way back in the day that that was very easy to do and a very easy way to pull language out of the students. Another thing with that is I wish I had known. Like, creating a weekly schedule builds that trust and expectation. Like on Mondays, we're going to focus on just listening in vocabulary. Tuesday, speaking and vocabulary. Wednesday is reading and vocabulary. Thursday is writing and grammar with the three, with the vocabulary unit that we've been working on for three days. And then Friday we're going to review and assess if we have that very clear schedule. You know, it's great for our english language learners. And so with the Tuesday speaking in vocabulary, that's where I'm focusing five of those vocabulary turns and requiring them to produce the language. I wish I had known that before because it would have made such a big, such an impact on their language acquisition.

Beth Vaucher

So that's number four. I love that. I love it. I want to keep talking about that. But no, I couldn't agree more. And I think, you know, sometimes I think most teachers, even if you've had very little experience with teaching ells, know visuals are like your first step to go to. And I think sometimes we then look over it. Oh, yeah, visual supports visuals. But really, if you're going to do anything, just add in visual supports, find ways because it is, we need to produce the language. We need to set up those routines, that expectation that we're going to constantly be speaking or writing every day in this class because I know personally, I took ten years of Spanish. I've said this so many times. I have a teaching, I have my bilingual teaching certificate and I did not speak, and I moved to a foreign country that speaks Spanish and I had to relearn how to have conversation. I was never pushed in my classes to have to actually speak it. So we don't want to do that to our students. We need, we need, that's the. I mean, that's our biggest goal, is that they can first communicate with, you know, a boss or with a doctor or with a peer, and then along with that, hopefully they can read, write and do the other things in English. But we need to be giving them opportunities to produce everything.

Beth Vaucher

everything.

palomacortes-goodwyn

You know what, going back to that word consistent, especially how you had said earlier, like going into this school year, like being consistent and intentional. I think this is where I'd like to encourage your audience to not give up that first month when your newcomer is not producing any language, when they are not wanting to do it. Do not stop. Do not stop. We are going to continue to require to give you the scaffolds to give. You the modeling, because I promise you, if you don't give up and you're consistent with. With your routine, you're consistent with the expectation. Even if they don't speak, they're still up and working in front of a partner, right?

palomacortes-goodwyn

I promise you that language is going to come, and so just. Just don't stop.

palomacortes-goodwyn

Number five.

palomacortes-goodwyn

I feel number five is the most important of all of these because I just feel it speaks to the teacher. I wish I had known before I started working with english language learners that I needed to be patient with myself. I need to be patient with myself. As I mentioned earlier, we have humongous hearts, and we want the best for our kids. And so what ends up happening is we start beating ourselves up because we have done every single thing. We have attended all the trainings, we have gone through all the resources, we got certified in this. We did this PD.

palomacortes-goodwyn

I have done everything. And this child is still not producing language. This child is still not cooperating. Stop. Take a deep breath. Because I know that you want the best for your students. We all do. But you have to understand that language acquisition realistically takes a very long time to acquire. But even more so, it takes a long time for these students to feel comfortable with you and with each other in the classroom. So if we're the type of teacher that or we're in a district where it's like, we're so tied to our curriculum and standards, we don't have any time for relationship building and, da da, make time. You've got to make time, because those kids have to feel comfortable before they can produce language. In all honesty, they've got to feel comfortable with you. They got to feel comfortable in the classroom. If the moment they open their mouth and they have an accent or they say something incorrectly and this student is laughing at them. Done. Or the teacher kind of giggles, done. They don't. Done. Language production has been shut down in your classroom. And so I really need us to understand that I know we want the best for our kids, and we're going to do everything in our power to do it, but you also have to understand that we are doing the best we can with the tools that we have. And so don't stop. Keep doing what you're doing. If the language production is not there, it's okay. It's going to come. Don't stop. Continue the scaffolds. Continue the differentiation. They're not participating. It's okay. It's gonna come. It is not an indication of your lack of effort or your lack of training. No, it takes time, and the student needs to. They may be in their silent period, right. They may be in a process where they're really trying to work through their own personal trauma. And so right now, language production is just, it's somewhere in the head, but they've got a lot of things that they're personally going through. So I know you were doing the best you can with what you got, and so don't give up on yourself. Be patient with your students, but mostly be patient with yourself because you love these kids. You got a heart for the kids. And I promise you, if you just keep at it, keep with the differentiation and the scaffolding, language is gonna come. Those are my five.

Beth Vaucher

uldn't be at school. Still at: 09:00

palomacortes-goodwyn

Thank you. You are too kind. And to the audience, you got this. This is your year. This is your year. You got this.

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