Language Magazine - February 2021

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Improving Literacy & Communication

February 2021

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Assessment for and as Learning A Journey to Reading Success

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Teaching Local Black History Harnessing Motivation Integrating Technology and Culture Mastering TESOL

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February 2021 TABLE OF CONTENTS

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A Road to Reading

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From Assessment of Learning to Assessment for/as Learning: Breaking Down the Wall, One Essential Shift at a Time

Jo Welter describes how one school district made dramatic, systemic change

Margo Gottlieb and Andrea Honigsfeld in conversation with Dan Alpert

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TESOL Mastery

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Black History in the Community

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The Importance of Feedback

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Integrating Culture through Technology

There’s never been a better time to hone your teaching skills and boost your career opportunities by taking an online MA or certificate program

In this month’s installment of Pass the Mic, Settenah A. Wright explains why teachers of English learners need to teach local Black history and how to do it

Adam Geller explores how video coaching can provide English learner educators with the feedback they need

Renae A. Merrill offers a model for second language teaching that promotes competency and engagement

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Crafting Motivational Narratives

Katherine Hardin unlearns to relearn what makes students tick

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Arguing for Good Reason February 2021 Vol. 20, No. 6 Improving Literacy and Communication Publishing Editor Daniel Ward Assistant Editor/ Creative Director Leanna Robinson Proofreading Stephanie Mitchell Office Manager Ashley George Book Reviews Karen Russikoff Last Writes Richard Lederer The Word Peter Sokolowski Pass the Mic Series Editor: Ayanna Cooper, Ed.D.

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Contributors Dan Alpert Adam Geller Margo Gottlieb Katherine Hardin Andrea Honigsfeld Renae A. Merrill Kitti Palmai Andrew Warner Jo Welter Settenah A. Wright Marketing Emma Sutton

Subscriptions 310-455-7193 National Offices 21361 B. Pacific Coast Hwy Malibu, CA 90265 Webmaster Claudio Valenzuela Distributors Delta Systems, Inc.,1400 Miller Parkway, McHenry, IL 60050 1-800-323-8270 Retail Ingram Periodicals, Inc. 1-800-627-MAGS Language Magazine (ISSN 1537-7350) is an editorially independent publication of Language Magazine, LLC. Opinions expressed by contributors and/or advertisers in Language Magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of the Publishers nor the Distributor. © 2020 Language Magazine, LLC.Language Magazine (ISSN 1537-7350) is published monthly for $29.95 per year (US/Canada) and $59.95 (Overseas) by Language Magazine LLC, 21361 B. Pacific Coast Hwy Malibu, CA 90265 . Application to mail at Periodicals Postage Rates is pending at Los Angeles, CA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to LANGUAGE MAGAZINE, 21361 B. Pacific Coast Hwy Malibu, CA 90265 Visit languagemagazine.com and click on Resources for research references.

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he outrageous attack on the U.S. Capitol shocked the world, but the environment in which such violent sentiment was allowed to brew has been years in the making. The campaigns against mainstream media, against education, against acceptance of facts, and against reasoned compromise have created a vacuum in which polarization and extremism thrive. Our best means of overcoming these threats is the strengthening of two key pillars of democracy: education and information.

Preparing young people for the rights and responsibilities of life in a democracy has long been a core objective of public education, but many schools in disadvantaged communities, both rural and urban, are ill-equipped to do much more than offer the most basic education, which is not only inadequate to enable students to process the onslaught of conflicting information our modern society generates but also offers them little prospect of improving their economic status and achieving the American dream.

Increasing investment in education and making it more equitable will not only pay off financially via taxation on improved earning capacity but it can also help to strengthen our democracy, especially if attention is paid to the skills, like rhetoric, reasoning, and debate, that the ancient Greek founders of democracy recognized as necessary for its success. The in-depth study of language is essential to the understanding of rhetoric, so that we can understand the persuasive effects of language and see the relation between language and knowledge.

Language should be the basis upon which arguments are built, accepted, or rejected, not violence. We need to teach students that to be successful, arguments need to be grounded in logic supported by evidence, and that evidence should be supplied by reliable information sources. However, determining the quality of information on offer from the multitude of sites proclaiming to be fact-based and unbiased has become a skill in itself. Media literacy should become an integral part of all literacy programs as phones, tablets, and laptops become the major sources of information even for younger readers.

Popular social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, can and should do more to warn users of potential misinforma-

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“Language should be the basis upon which arguments are built, accepted, or rejected, not violence.” tion and disinformation, but they cannot be relied upon to guarantee the integrity of the information shared by all of their users. Even if they could, there will always be alternative social sites where lies and rumors can be disseminated, and we should always question censorship, as there is a very fine line between protection from disinformation and the repression of information. Far better to arm consumers with the tools to verify information themselves.

It may seem like a daunting task to incorporate these skills into educational curricula, but there are several new initiatives to sway policy and help educators share them.

A new partnership between New America, Cyber Florida, and the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, in conjunction with the National Association for Media Literacy Education, is launching projects focusing on cyber citizenship, which they describe as “a state in which all individuals online have the knowledge and skills to check and verify the information coming across their screens, critically inquire about and seek evidence about what they are consuming, and create and share media messages in ways that advance dialogue and civil discourse.”

The hope is that this will become part of a larger national movement, but, if we are to ensure the continuity of democracy, we need to establish the principles of constructive argument, research skills, and media literacy as part of all literacy programs, in all schools, at all levels.

Daniel Ward, Editor

February 2021

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LETTERS

the word

Language Magazine, 21361 B. Pacific Coast Hwy Malibu, CA 90265

SEND TO: feedback@languagemagazine.com SUBJECT LINE: Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor Stop Overlooking English Learners (January 2021) Thank you for this piece. You have highlighted important areas in which English learners and the professionals who teach them have been overlooked. In Illinois, at the postsecondary level, a bill has been approved of which a portion stipulates that students must be enrolled in college-level coursework by the second semester of their first year at the college. This bill is focused on providing access and equity to students who have been overrepresented in the developmental education category, but in doing so, it buries the needs of English learners who may need more than two semesters of academic ESL (which is coded as developmental education in the state of Illinois). We English language teachers—TESOL professionals—are aghast at this. Can you suggest any resources that we might use to strengthen our opposition to this?

Ana King, EdD, City Colleges of Chicago aking@ccc.edu

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anguage is a measure of culture, but also, in many ways, language can be a measure of time. The words we use—if they are new or relatively new—are the words we need to express and explain our world. If these words then also become widely used, it becomes the dictionary’s job to explain this use.

We at Merriam-Webster have just released 520 new words to our online dictionary. Let’s take a look at some of the additions.

From the world of online communication: • Hard pass: A firm refusal or rejection of something (such as an offer) • Performative (disapproving): Made or done for show (as to bolster one’s own image or make a positive impression on others) • @ (informal): To respond to, challenge, or disparage the claim or opinion of (someone)—usually used in the phrase “don’t @ me” • Cancel culture: The practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure

I appreciate your question, Dr. King, and share your concern. It is difficult when policy decisions are made without considering the impact on English learners and consulting with educators like yourself. TESOL International Association is committed to advocacy and helping our members. I would suggest you reach out to our state affiliate, Illinois TESOL & Bilingual Education (www.itbe.org), to see if some concerted action, like a letter, might be possible. You may also want to @languagemagazine use the TESOL Advocacy Action Center (https://www.tesol.org/advance-the-field/tesol-advocacy-action-center) to contact your state World Language Teachers lawmakers about your concerns with how this new law will impact English learners.

Best of luck, Deborah facebook.com/ LanguageMagazine

Deborah J. Short, Ph.D. President, TESOL International Association (2020-21) @langmag Director, Academic Language Research & Training

SOCIAL MEDIA

Terms of the Time

From changes in the way we work: • Makerspace: A communal public workshop in which makers can work on small personal projects • Coworking: Being, relating to, or working in a building where multiple tenants (such as entrepreneurs, start-ups, or nonprofits) rent working space (such as desks or offices) and have the use of communal facilities • Crowdfunding: The practice of obtaining needed funding (as for a new business) by soliciting contributions from a large number of people, especially from the online community • Gig worker: A person who works temporary jobs typically in the service sector as an independent contractor or freelancer English has been expanding its terms of identity in recent decades, and several new additions demonstrate that this expansion is continuing. New words that fall under this category include serious terms primarily of self-identification as well as terms used more playfully: • BIPOC (abbreviation): Black, Indigenous, (and) People of Color • Sapiosexual: Of, relating to, or characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to highly intelligent people • Silver fox: An attractive middle-aged man having mostly gray or white hair A few new terms connect us with pleasant and soothing sensations, both physical and psychological: • ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response): A pleasant tingling sensation that originates on the back of the scalp and often spreads to the neck and upper spine, that occurs in some people in response to a stimulus (such as a particular kind of sound or movement), and that tends to have a calming effect • Hygge (pronounced /HYOO-guh/): A cozy quality that makes a person feel content and comfortable Finally, we also have a new term for a new role in national political life: • Second Gentleman: The husband or male partner of a vice president or second in command of a country or jurisdiction

Follow Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large for Merriam-Webster, on Twitter @PeterSokolowski.

languagemagazine.com

February 2021

NEWS

Call to Delay In-Person English Learner Tests pandemic,” said David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “These tests can wait. Students of color, who comprise the vast majority of English learner students, have already been disadvantaged by remote learning and are under immense levels of stress.

We cannot accurately gauge their progress right now by forcing them into schools that have been closed due to health risks.”

Beyond the imminent health risks imposed on English learner students and their families and teachers during in-person assessment, the pandemic’s compounding stressors also adversely impact these students’ learning, which may influence their assessment results. In addition, many schools have moved to remote learning as a result of the pandemic. Forcing students to attend schools that have been closed due to health risks solely for testing will likely only raise stress levels for students, impacting the validity and reliability of their assessment results.

“LULAC knows firsthand the significant obstacles Latino English-learner students are facing during this pandemic,” said Sindy Benavides, LULAC chief executive officer. “Throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, COVID-19 is ravaging our communities while parents are struggling to make ends meet. We must do everything possible to protect students’ health and not expose them unnecessarily to COVID-19.”

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o protect students who are learning English from being forced into schools for the sole purpose of testing, and to enable parents to withdraw them from testing if they do not feel safe sending their children to school, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), TESOL, League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), and several other organizations sent a letter to then-president-elect Joe Biden’s education transition team before his inauguration. The letter asks for the prioritizing of issuing guidance for state and local education agencies to make sure all students can maintain their health and well-being.

The groups are asking the education transition team to: • Develop and provide clear guidance for state and local education agencies describing an opt-out protocol for English learner students who cannot take tests like the WIDA ACCESS safely; • Make certain that those who opt out of in-person proficiency testing will not suffer any consequences; • Use other appropriate and reliable information to measure an English learner student’s proficiency for placement; • Not seek sanctions against any state or local education association for failing to administer English proficiency tests to students who opt out; and • Allow state and local education agencies to postpone testing until the beginning of the 2021–22 school year, if necessary.

REGISTER TODAY! Advance registration ends 1 March 2021

WWW.TESOLCONVENTION.ORG | #TESOL2021

“No student should be forced to choose between their health and well-being or taking a test that will determine their proficiency in learning the English language, especially during an unprecedented

February 2021

languagemagazine.com

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NEWS

Parting Blow to Fair Federal Funding

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ccording to the New York Times and the Washington Post, the Department of Justice (DOJ) tried to do away with the disparate impact rule when it comes to federal funding approvals in the last days of the Trump administration.

The DOJ reportedly submitted for presidential approval a change to how it enforces Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal funding for schools, housing, and other programs from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. (“No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” 42 U.S.C. § 2000d.) Instead of

the DOJ enforcing the law’s protection where a program or practice has a “disparate impact” on minority groups, the amended rule would only protect against intentional acts of discrimination.

According to civil rights groups, the disparate impact rule has been cited as one of the most important protections of the law, as it includes practices or policies that may initially appear neutral but end up disproportionately impacting certain minority groups. For example, the protections against disparate impact were vital to the U.S. Department of Education’s investigation into disproportionate discipline rates among Black and Latino students in schools. However, the Department of Education recently rescinded guidance on school discipline, suggesting that they will no longer enforce

disparate impact liability.

English-only policies have often been overturned based on the disparate impact rule, and there is a lot of money at stake—in FY2020, the federal government delivered almost $750 billion in grants (“federal financial assistance”) to private- and public-sector companies and agencies.

According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration had considered adopting the change for years but submitted it with just days to go until the inauguration of then-president-elect Joe Biden.

Spanish Speaks in Florida’s Elections

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(Special Education)

2020-2021 SESSIONS: Session 4: Mar. 15 – May 6, 2021 Session 5: May 17 – Jul. 8, 2021 Session 6: Jul. 12 – Aug. 19, 2021

2021-2022 SESSIONS: Session 1: Aug. 30 – Oct. 22, 2021 Session 2: Oct. 25 – Dec. 16, 2021

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settlement has been reached in one of the largest lawsuits filed under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, over providing Spanish-language ballots and assistance to voters in nearly half of Florida’s counties.

After a long legal battle, the settlement provides for Spanish-language ballots, election materials, hotlines, websites, voting assistance, and signs at election supervisors’ offices.

The Rivera v. Barton lawsuit, filed in 2018, argued that election officials had not complied with the Voting Rights Act when they didn’t provide ballots and information in Spanish to Spanish-speaking voters who had recently moved to Florida from Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, so they can register and vote in stateside elections when they move from the island to the mainland. Over a million Puerto Ricans, the vast majority of whom received school instruction in Spanish, now live in Florida, and nearly 900,000 were eligible to vote in 2018.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 states that individuals who were taught in a U.S. school where the primary language is not English, such as those in Puerto Rico, cannot be denied the right to vote just because they cannot understand English.

Marta Rivera Madera, 73, was the plaintiff in the lawsuit. “I feel good and I am very pleased with the decisions they took,” she said in a telephone news briefing.

In 2019, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring the 32 counties to take steps toward providing Spanish-language ballots and assistance in time for the March 2020 presidential primary election.

languagemagazine.com

February 2021