Teaching for Biliteracy when you speak NO SPANISH
By Chris Knutson, Horning Middle School
School District of Waukesha WIsconsin
When my principal needed someone to teach in Dual Language this year, I said YES! I speak no Spanish at all, but I had gone through GLAD training, which is a teaching model that supports students with language acquisition. I have been using GLAD strategies for the last four or five years and felt like I should step up to the plate for this. The assignment was teaching 6th grade social studies for biliteracy. Being a Social Studies teacher and having the GLAD background really just made me feel as if it was the right fit for me to do. I also taught 6th grade last year for the first time and really enjoyed it, so I thought it might be kind of fun. I was not sure if not being bilingual myself was going to hold my students back and frustrate me. This is what I have learned!
My Dual Language Bilingual students are amazingly talented young people. They surprise me everyday. Teachers naturally make assumptions all of the time, without even realizing it and often, these kids show me that some of my assumptions were dead wrong. Sometimes, when I am front loading with a mini-lesson prior to a group activity or independent reading or writing time, students will tell me things that they already know that I wouldn't have believed they could have. Sometimes, this draws us off course a little, but the discussions that we have really build a lot of understanding and we learn from each other. They have taught me some Spanish and they like being able to explain their language to me. They are really good teachers too! They are very patient with me. They also have impressed me so much with their organization skills. They always ask what they should bring to class and to me this shows that they are not only ready to learn, but want to learn. Lastly, they are a very kind bunch. They support one another both socially and academically.
My bilingual students are very gifted. One obvious gift is the fact that they are becoming proficient in two languages. I always tell them how great what they are doing is, because it is preparing them so well for their futures. They will have such an advantage over peers who are only proficient in one language. I want them to know that what they are doing is special and sometimes I don't think they necessarily know that and they should. Aside from this, they bring the gift of curiosity. This particular group is the most inquisitive class I have ever had. I look forward to the class everyday because though I know what the topic and objective is, I never know exactly where it will lead us to.
When I heard that I would be responsible for "Teaching for Biliteracy" I was definitely anxious. I was confident in my GLAD training and experience and I knew I had a good support system, but I also knew that I had a lot to learn. I wondered if I could learn enough, fast enough to be able to do for the kids what I needed to be able to do. The first few weeks didn't feel great, because at times I felt inadequate and I wasn't understanding the methodology well enough. My coaches have been excellent though. Not only have they helped teach and guide me, but they have also been very encouraging along the way. Things felt better, very fast, which was a relief.
Teaching for Biliteracy it means that your job is to help students gain the essential speaking, listening, reading and writing skills that they need to be successful in both languages, in addition to learning essential content. These kids are pursuing a very unique asset and the protocol for attaining it is different than monolingual teaching. Not that different, but different. It is critical that these learners can transfer their academic skills from one language to the other and this requires real intentionality.
It means that I have to work harder to be able to help them because I don't know my students partner language (Spanish), so the most important thing is to make sure that they know that I honor the language. It's important for them to feel that their learning of both languages is important to me. Beyond that, it means that I have to be resourceful and to take advantage of the help that I can get. I've had to lean on people a little bit more than I am used to, but there is nothing wrong with asking for help when you need it.
I have learned that it is better when they know you are vulnerable. Sometimes we feel like we have to be superstars, but really we just have to be human. They want to see us this way and they can relate to us better when they do. They feel me learning, not just "teaching" and I think that models learning for them. When my coaches are in, they kind of see me as a learner and I can feel that, which is cool. In those moments, it is almost like I am just truly in the trenches with them. This helps me think differently with all of my classes and really pushes me to try to understand them better than I thought I could.
Any teacher could do this, absolutely. My advice would be to seek the appropriate coaching out right away. If you are not an experienced biliteracy teacher, you will not be able to figure it out sufficiently on your own. You have to see it modeled. My ESL Teacher Leaders, Shannon Kay and Jamie Dittman, have planned with me and co-taught and modeled for me. Seeing various strategies and approaches executed in real time helped me a lot. Without coaching and support, it would be difficult to be successful and the kids could be shortchanged. I have also been able to apply a number of things I have learned to my other classes as well. It has been a lot of work, but I have grown a lot professionally as a result. I am glad I did it and I've also gotten to know awesome kids that I wouldn't otherwise have known.
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