preservice teachers' reflections on effective strategies for teaching latino esl students

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Preservice Teachers'Reflections on EffectiveStrategies for Teaching LatinoESL StudentsDr. Lisa Anne Vacca-Rizopoulos a & AugustineNicoletti aa Education Department , Manhattan CollegePublished online: 08 Jan 2009.

To cite this article: Dr. Lisa Anne Vacca-Rizopoulos & Augustine Nicoletti(2008) Preservice Teachers' Reflections on Effective Strategies for TeachingLatino ESL Students, Journal of Latinos and Education, 8:1, 67-76, DOI:10.1080/15348430802466829

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Preservice Teachers’ Reflectionson Effective Strategies for Teaching

Latino ESL Students

Lisa Anne Vacca-Rizopoulos and Augustine NicolettiEducation Department

Manhattan College

Latinos represent the fastest growing population in U.S. schools, and teachers face anincreasingly demanding educational context in which to teach. The goal of this arti-cle is to present vignettes drawn from classroom observations conducted by pre-service teachers in urban areas. Preservice teachers capture the dilemma faced bymany teachers who feel unprepared to work with the growing number of second lan-guage learners. Preservice teachers shared their in-class interactions with Latino stu-dents and documented follow-up conversations with urban teachers. By drawing onthese reflections, teachers can appreciate the critical role of supporting Latino stu-dents in the mainstream classroom.

Key words: Latino, ESL, strategies, reflections, mainstream, teachers

This was my first time in Ms. Winter’s third grade classroom. I was not expectingthere to be a girl in the class who had limited conversational English. She couldn’tread or write in English. I grew up in a suburban neighborhood in Connecticut in acommunity and school with very little diversity. Here I am preparing to be a teacherin an urban school system where there are so many children from all over the world inthe class. The schools in Connecticut that I observed in just do not seem to encounterstudents that don’t have English as their first language. If there was a child in myclass that could not communicate in English, I think it would difficult to teach thischild along with rest of the class. I’m not sure what I would do. (Laura, 2006)

JOURNAL OF LATINOS AND EDUCATION, 8(1), 67–76Copyright © 2009 Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 1534-8431 print / 1532-771X onlineDOI: 10.1080/15348430802466829

Correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Lisa Anne Rizopoulos, Education Department, ManhattanCollege, Manhattan College Parkway, Riverdale, NY 10471. E-mail: [email protected]

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As presented in the above scenario, preservice general education teachers areconcerned about not being prepared to teach ESL students or to work with supportpersonnel in the inclusive classroom. This article presents vignettes drawn fromauthentic classroom observations conducted by elementary preservice teachers inurban areas. For teachers and other educators, acquiring the understanding andskills to help English language learners (ELLs) succeed academically is more ur-gent than ever. For this article, preservice teachers shared their in-class interactionswith Latino ESL students and then documented their follow-up conversations withurban, full-time teachers. By drawing on these honest and revealing anecdotal re-flections from the field, preservice teachers, as well as novice and experiencedteachers, can appreciate the critical role of supporting Latino students in the main-stream classroom.

“Spanish is the native language of the largest group of English language learn-ers at the PreK–12 grade level. These learners represent about 80% of the U.S.English language learner population” (Batalova, 2006). The 1990 Census (U.S.Census Bureau, March 19, 2008) revealed that 1 out of every 7 individuals olderthan the age of 5 grows up speaking a language other than English. In particular,one of the fastest growing trends is the increase in the number of Dominicans inmany urban areas. The overall educational attainment of Dominicans in the UnitedStates is among the lowest in the country. In 2000, 49% of Dominicans 25 years ofage or older had not completed high school (Hernandez & Rivera-Batiz, 2000).Because the teaching force remains predominantly White and female and the di-verse language and cultural backgrounds of students are growing dramatically,mainstream teachers need to adjust their teaching methods to build on the strengthsand meet the needs of Latino ELLs.

Given these statistics, it is apparent that teachers cannot rely on ESL and bilin-gual specialists, because inevitably they are teachers of ELLs. Mainstream teach-ers are responsible for meeting both the academic and language needs of ESLlearners, and despite the fact that few states require that teachers of core content ar-eas have any background in ESL methods, training and field experience forpreservice teachers is needed to make content material comprehensible and acces-sible for future second language learners. “It’s very demanding helping non-Eng-lish speaking students learn English and at the same time teaching them the samecontent matter as the rest of the class” (Krista, 2006). According to Krista’s reflec-tive comment, she feels unable to adequately reach these children, along with theother students in the class, unless she learns effective strategies for teaching liter-acy to ELLs.

The issue remains, can we adequately educate our Latino ELLs along with therest of the students in our classes? What strategies work for ESL learners, so stu-dents can develop content area skills and concepts? How can mainstream teachersacquire the strategies and attitudes that ensure that all students succeed in the era ofthe No Child Left Behind Act?

68 VACCA-RIZOPOULOS AND NICOLETTI

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The No Child Left Behind Act (U.S. Department of Education, 2002) stipulatesthat all students in American schools become proficient in reading by the 2013–2014 academic year. What this act does not account for is the ever-increasing num-ber of ELLs that will be entering the nation’s public schools before that time. It is theteacher’s responsibility to develop strategies and approaches targeted for this spe-cific group if all students are to be active participants in the classroom community.

VIGNETTE 1

Student Observations From the Field

Ms. Willis was teaching a unit on the desert. None of the students in the class had everbeen to a desert, so they didn’t have any prior knowledge about what it was. She cre-ated a word map, and in the middle, she placed a picture of a desert. She provided aword bank, which she reviewed before using this map. She actually brought in sand, acactus, and a spider. As she was taking out the realia, a Cuban student enthusiasti-cally raised his hand and taught the class how to say it in his language, “Cacto,Arano.” The teacher put the Spanish translation in the word bank and on the wordwall with the English version. The little boy, who hardly spoke in class, was eager toteach the other students how to say these words in his first language. (Jennifer, 2006)

Student Reflections

Teachers should encourage the use of students’ native language to teach Englishspeaking students a new vocabulary and to support learning and literacy. The use ofnonlinguistic organizers opened up an in-class dialogue and mutual sharing that pro-moted an appreciation for both languages and cultures. English language learnerswho are usually embarrassed to speak aloud in the English classroom identified fa-miliar vocabulary words in both languages. Other ELLs wanted to add the transla-tions of new vocabulary words to the word wall, so they could teach the studentsabout part of their culture.

I also learned the importance of bringing in realia. Students used all of theirsenses to learn about the vocabulary words, because the teacher brought in actualsamples for students to touch and see. Students felt the pin-like pricks on the cactusand were shown an actual mini-version of what a cactus looks like. Students feltthe graininess of the sand and visually put together that the cactus exists on thedesert in the sand. I plan to bring in models whenever I can to help my students un-derstand key concepts. (Jennifer, 2006)

PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ REFLECTIONS 69

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Episode Analysis

Being able to read, write, listen and speak in English is one of the pressing prioritiesfor non-English speaking students. Lambert and Carpenter (2005) advocate the useof visual cues and supplements to reinforce the literacy development of all students.The use of nonlinguistic organizers, like concept webs, mind maps, and word mapshelp student visualize the relationships among important concepts. Practices and in-structional strategies that can be used by monolingual teachers for working success-fully with English-language learners include the selection and presentation of keyvocabulary terms that will enhance understanding. English language learners readthe important term and associate the vocabulary word with the accompanying pic-ture. Students visualize the relationships among these concepts by their positioningon the map and make important connections with content material. (Jennifer, 2006)

VIGNETTE 2


Today Ms. Winters wrote down new vocabulary words on the board based on a newunit they were starting called, “The Ocean.” During this vocabulary exercise, stu-dents were asked to take the words apart and identify the prefixes, suffixes, and rootwords. The non-English speaking students were enthusiastic to participate in this ac-tivity. The teacher posted several vocabulary words, octopus and aquamarine, that re-lated to a unit on the ocean. [A chart (see Figure 1)] was constructed by the teacherand the class.

Maria raised her hand and excitedly said that “octo” sounds like the word “ocho.”She chose the picture that matched with the definition. Pedro shared that “aqua”sounds like “agua” in Spanish and that means water. (Devin, 2006)

Student Reflections

During this vocabulary exercise, Maria and Pedro clearly demonstrated how Latinostudents’ first language can help them develop their second language. It seemed like


FIGURE 1 The ocean.

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they were more excited to teach the class how to say the vocabulary words in Spanishthan to learn it in English. The English speaking students were just as eager to learnthe words in Spanish. I overheard one English speaking student say, “When I gohome, I’ll ask my mother to bring me some ‘agua.’ I bet she won’t understand what Iam saying.” (Devin, 2006)

Episode Analysis

Ms. Winters explained that when a student takes apart a word and finds smaller wordsin the longer word, this is called morphemic analysis. After the English languagelearners identify the different parts of the words, other words are made from theroot/prefix/suffix. She continued to explain that cognates are words in two languagesthat share a similar meaning, and many of the words in the English language sharesimilar meanings with other languages. Specifically, 30 to 40% of all words in theEnglish language have a related word in Spanish [Colorin Colorado, n.d.]. Therefore,students complete a word sort visual organizer to scaffold and make connections withimportant science vocabulary from words they already know in their first language.She also believes when students share their first language with other students in theclass, the classroom community is enhanced and students learn from each other, notjust from the teacher. During vocabulary lessons, she tries to choose several wordsthat represent the diverse languages in her class. She uses picture clues to help stu-dents think and visualize in English. Everyone contributes something unique to theclass by using their first language to understand their second language, so everyonein the class has a second language!

Ms. Winters uses pictures from the internet to support [second language] learn-ing. By using the search engine, Google, Images, teachers can print out pictures tosupport instruction. Cartoons, multicultural artwork, and “from home” photographsare also used to fill in learning and comprehension gaps. (Devin, 2006)

VIGNETTE 3


Today special support teachers were invited into the class for group work sessionswith non-English speaking students. During this session there were four Latino stu-dents in a group with two special support teachers. There was a high level ofteacher-student interaction and students seemed to feel very comfortable in theirsmall, supportive groups. When I observed these groups, students focused on a par-ticular piece of writing. It was the same piece that the rest of the class was workingon, but there was more vocabulary reinforcement and mediated scaffolding. Keyvocabulary words were presented before the lesson and then reinforced throughoutthe readings. There was a lot of talking amongst the teachers and the students dur-ing this session before starting work. Students used sentence starters to begin their


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work and each time the lesson focused on a particular skill for the assignment. Forexample, today the students focused on using adjectives to make their writing moredynamic.

Students were encouraged to speak their first language to clarify ideas with eachother. Then, when they worked with their support teachers, they spoke mostly in Eng-lish and wrote in English. These students were actively creating their stories based ontheir own experiences and culture. I noticed that students did make mistakes on theirwriting, but not all of them were corrected. The specials teachers and the primaryteacher didn’t correct every student error, but posed questions to frame and guidetheir responses, so they could figure out the spelling and sort their ideas on their own.They focused on providing positive feedback for the work students did complete suc-cessfully. (John, 2006)

Student Reflections

After thinking about this observation, I realized the value of encouraging ELLs toshare their thoughts with each other before presenting information to the class. Thisallowed the students extra time to “get their thoughts together” in English and inSpanish, and based on their extended responses, it allowed them to be more confidentabout their answers. Teachers did not correct all of the students’writing and languageerrors, because there were key objectives that needed to be met in the lesson, and thefocus was on meeting these goals. (John, 2006)

Episode Analysis

Ms. Winters explained that support personnel are very important for ELL teachers,because many of them do have background in other languages. Students get one-on-one attention and immediate feedback on their writing. She continued to explainthat one of the jobs of every teacher is to bolster student self-esteem and confidence,so students will continue to learn and take risks in the classroom. The specialists,since they only had four students in a group, were able to give each student individualattention during these sessions.

Every morning, before school begins, Ms. Winters meets with the support person-nel to talk about the objectives and topics for the lesson. The specialist discusses theobjectives of the lesson with the student to make sure they are clear and achievablefor the session. She wants them to learn the same content as the rest of the class, butELLs need more prompting and modeling in order to complete the assignments.Therefore, she encourages the use of sentence starters, visual aids, technology, andthe activation of prior knowledge through oral interaction and extensive academic di-alogue in order to present the challenging content. (John, 2006)


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VIGNETTE 4


Today an ELL support teacher came in to visit a group of Latino students. This re-source teacher used a “Flip Book.” The reason it is called a “Flip Book” is because onone side of the book the text is written in English, and on the other side it is written inSpanish. I read the story and realized that it was written by a Puerto Rican boy namedJose. Jose wrote the story first in Spanish, and then the specials teacher, who spokeboth English and Spanish, worked with Jose to translate the text. In the beginning oftheir meeting, Jose dictated the text in Spanish and then the specials teacher wrote itin English. Then, as the session progressed, they shared the pen and Jose did most ofthe writing. With the guidance of the specials teacher, Jose was eventually able towrite the story and draw the pictures for each page. Whenever Jose wasn’t able toread or understand the words, he just flipped over and read it in his first language. Af-ter watching her do this a few times, I worked with Jose and helped him spell out un-familiar words. (Ann, 2006)

Student Reflections

I learned that as a future teacher, I must capitalize on students’ linguistic and culturalstrengths. Jose used his first language to get his ideas on paper and to create a storythat represented who he was and his life in Puerto Rico. Jose’s ideas weren’t stifledby his inability to communicate in English. Instead, Jose recorded his ideas in his na-tive language and then translated the story into English. He was able to express hisideas without worrying about writing mechanics or about stifling his creativity by re-stricting his vocabulary to words he only knew in English. Jose reflected on the lan-guage he used in his writing and was asked to analyze the sentences for any errors hecould find. He was able to express his ideas in the way and language he was mostcomfortable writing in. I was especially glad to find out that specialists help studentsin small groups and on a one-on-one basis, because Jose had an important story toshare with his class. He shared about how he missed his family and his home inPuerto Rico. (Ann, 2006)

Episode Analysis

Mr. Harris stressed the value of having support personnel in his class. He explainedthat they used prompts and interactive writing to guide students’ thoughts. The spe-cialists’ role is to model and guide the student through the writing process. First, thespecialist allows the students to use their native language with a partner, so they cancollaboratively dialogue about the topic of the story. Then, each student goes throughthe writing process in their first language. Lastly, the resource teacher helps the stu-dent translate the text by referring to the word wall and personal dictionaries. During


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the last stage of student writing, publishing, the student is given a choice whether toshare his story with the group he is working with or with the entire class. The studentcelebrates the completion of his story in whatever language he chooses.

Mr. Harris showcases published student work in the class library, so that all stu-dents can read these self-authored books during independent reading time. He be-lieves that by giving students choices, he is showing respect for students as individu-als. He incorporates students’ experiences into all language arts activities by usingmulticultural literature to activate students’ prior knowledge about their differentcountries and to inspire them to write. (Ann, 2006)

VIGNETTE 5


Today was parent teacher conferences. Luckily, the teacher said I could stay to meetsome of the parents and learn about what goes on during parent-teacher conferences.Only a few families came to the meeting, but Gabriel’s mother was the parent thatstuck out in my mind among the rest. She was a short, tired looking woman who justcame from work and was headed out to another job after the meeting. The teacher, awhite female, tried to speak slowly and clearly, but the woman just kept smiling.Apologetically, she kept saying, “I’m sorry, no no English very good.” The teacherasked Gabriel to interpret whatever she said, and he tried his best to do so. She pre-sented the parent with a folder that had work samples that Gabriel completed duringthe year. The folder included drawings, writing samples, journal entries, and lan-guage proficiency exam results. Before meeting with Gabriel’s mother, the teacherasked a paraprofessional to write a short welcome note to each parent in Spanishthanking them for coming to meet with her, and she listed each student’s grades withshort comments. She used a translation service at babelfish.com to write notes toother students that didn’t speak English or Spanish. (Perry, 2006)

Student Reflections

Clearly, both the parent and the teacher were frustrated by their inability to communi-cate with each other about Gabriel’s academic and social progress. An on-site inter-preter or a parent liaison (including some who speak Spanish) could have helped thetwo of them communicate more effectively. It must be intimidating and frustratingfor the Latino parent to meet the teacher and not be able to speak in their first lan-guage. The idea of documenting Gabriel’s progress in both English and in Spanishwas a great idea, because it showed his growth in different content areas and openedup the lines of communication between the teacher and Gabriel’s parent. The motheractually saw his progress in his first language as well as in English. The use of tech-nology and the translation service helped promote communication among Gabriel,his mother, and the teacher. This attempt at positive collaboration showed that all par-


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ties really did try to share their interest in Gabriel’s learning. Everyone expressedtheir pride and confidence in Gabriel’s growth as a learner. I’m sure both partieswished they could have done more to work with each other. (Perry, 2006)

Episode Analysis

The use of a translation service was a great idea, but the teacher shared that manytimes it doesn’t translate phrases accurately. Ideally, the teacher wished that herschool supplied her with a paraprofessional or a teacher’s assistant that could trans-late conversations, but it wasn’t in the budget. She explained that education is a toppriority for Latino parents, and every effort should be made to include parents in theschool community. She shared a copy of the letter each parent received written in fivedifferent languages. This letter would, at least, help families understand the child’sgrade and progress made. It was very important that both the child and the par-ent/guardian knew that each was an important member of the school community. Sheexplained that the letter was written beforehand, and she just had to fill in the gradesand create appropriate comments.

The portfolio, consisting of a variety of across the content area work samples,highlighted Gabriel’s growth during the year. The samples emphasized his progressin language development as well as his content area knowledge. It showcased hisstrengths in a variety of ways using different types of assignments, projects, teacher-made tests, and standardized tests. The teacher used this portfolio to plan for futurelessons and to build upon Gabriel’s interests and strengths. (Perry, 2006)

FINAL REFLECTIONS

Based on this sampling of journal entries, we believe that these preservice teachershave learned so much about commitment and teaching Latino ESL learners. Bothpreservice and inservice teachers applied strategies for helping ELLs understandcontent materials, but they learned an even greater lesson. As evidenced by theconstant and consistent outreach to Latino students, preservice teachers perceivesecond language learners as a rich resource in their classroom. When preserviceteachers were asked how this assignment affected their teaching overall, the re-sponses included the following:

I will use the strategies I’ve learned about during my observations, but they will beapplied to all of my students, because I think this is good teaching practice that allstudents can benefit from. (Christina, 2006)

I’ve become more sensitive to students’cultural and linguistic diversity, and I’ll makea conscious effort to include ESL students in all phases of my instruction. I’ll alsoknow strategies for working with resource personnel that will ensure that my Latino,


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non-English speaking students are getting the services and instruction they need.(Nicole, 2006)

To make a real difference in a student’s life, I have to understand what they believe inand how their world is the same and different from mine. I will continue to read abouthow I can teach and learn from the Latino community, so my students can learn fromeach other. (Jessica, 2006)

REFERENCES

Batalova, J. (2006). Spotlight on limited English proficient students in the United States. RetrievedMarch, 9, 2007, from U.S. Department of Education Web site: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/newsline/archives/2006/02/spotlight_on_li.html

Colorin Colorado. (n.d.). Using cognates to develop comprehension in English. Retrieved March 5,2007, from www.colorincolorado.org/educators/background/cognates

Hernandez, R., & Rivera-Batiz, F. L. (2000). Dominicans in the United States: A socioeconomic profile. Re-trieved March 5, 2007, from www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/cgsd/advising/documents/rivera_batiz.pdf

Lambert, M., & Carpenter, M. (2005). Visual learning using images to focus attention, evoke emotions,and enrich learning. Retrieved October 15, 2008, from Multimedia & Internet Schools Web site:http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID-10378

U.S. Census Bureau. (2008). Census ’90. Retrieved March 6, 2007, from www.census.gov/main/www/cen1990.html

U.S. Department of Education. (2002). No Child Left Behind Act. Retrieved March 3, 2007, fromwww.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml


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preservice teachers' reflections on effective strategies for teaching latino esl students

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