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برچسب: Boosts

  • Identifying CODA students as bilingual learners boosts academic success

    Identifying CODA students as bilingual learners boosts academic success


    Children of Deaf Adults attending the KODAWest summer camp.

    Courtesy: KODAWest

    Three decades ago, I was flagged as needing special education services because I had a Deaf parent.

    The teachers found gaps in my academic and linguistic development. I received those services for six years until a school speech pathologist noted that my language and speech delays were because of a language difference — American Sign Language, or ASL, was my first language — and not a language disorder. 

    Not recognizing earlier that special education services were not what I needed was a waste of resources, not to mention unhelpful to my progress as a student. What I needed was support as an English learner; instead, I had to sink or swim as I figured out school on my own.

    The same is true of my student Ryan, a third-grader, and a CODA — a child of Deaf adults. Ryan and I are both bilingual; we learned American Sign Language as our first language and English as our second. There are significant language differences between ASL and English. ASL has its own grammar and syntax and is wholly separate from English. However, children who learn American Sign Language as their first language are not classified as English learners. This is why Ryan is identified as a special education student, not an English learner, just as I was 30 years ago.

    Just like my teachers, Ryan’s teachers worried that he might have a learning disability. Ryan was not assessed in sign language when evaluated for special education services, so he was placed in a special day class. He was identified as having a specific learning disability, a language disorder and articulation errors.

    Just as I didn’t need special education services, neither does Ryan. If ASL were considered a language separate from English, Ryan would be an English learner. As such, he would have access to language support in the general education setting. He would not be placed in a special education class or lose valuable time learning with his peers while he receives services from a speech language pathologist. 

    General education classrooms are designed to support English language development, which children like Ryan also need. Receiving language support means getting help with learning a second language by sounding out letters and words, understanding the phonics behind them, syntax and vocabulary, and building connections between English and American Sign Language so that students can grow their vocabulary in both languages. 

    Identifying Ryan as an English learner would also have preserved his multiculturalism by celebrating his cultural and linguistic differences. English learner programs are designed to incorporate students’ native languages and cultural backgrounds into the learning process. At their best, these programs validate heritage and provide an inclusive environment, empowering students to share their unique perspectives and helping them feel like they belong in our classrooms. This is what Ryan needs. 

    I struggled with my identity for a long time, and sometimes, I still do. It took me several years to catch up to my peers academically and linguistically, and all the while, I didn’t understand why learning was so hard for me. I certainly didn’t think of myself as bilingual. My mother could not help me with phonics or reading in spoken language, so my homework took me hours to complete. Often, I used my lunchtime to sit with teachers to help me with projects, and I would go to friends’ houses after school, so their parents would help me with my work. It shouldn’t have been this difficult, but it was.

    Children of Deaf adults deserve to be successful in their education and should have help learning English alongside their bilingual peers who use spoken languages. Although my experience is 30 years older than Ryan’s, it is eerily similar.

    Change is needed, and the time is now, because every student deserves to succeed. 

    •••

    Olivia Chavez-Hart, Ed.D., is an itinerant teacher of the Deaf and hard of hearing and an induction coach in the San Bernardino City Unified School District in San Bernardino. She is a 2024-25 Teach Plus California Senior Policy Fellow.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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  • Mistake Tolerance Boosts Student Growth Mindset

    Mistake Tolerance Boosts Student Growth Mindset


    Mistake Tolerance Image

    3 Ways Building Mistake Tolerance

    Carl Slater, author of Nurturing Mistake Tolerance in the Classroom article, suggests 3 ways to build mistake tolerance in the classroom by:

    1. Use Jigsaw Activities
    2. Guide students to Get the GIST
    3. Actively Model Critical Thinking

    Slater points out that “Teachers can help students get over the fear of making a mistake by showing them that errors are just a part of the learning process.” Students do not like making mistakes in front of their peers. Same goes for the adults. Slater mentions this dislike leads to an avoidance of failure to preserve self-identity and efficacy. Slater defines it as “fear branding” which is the perception of being outed by one’s community as incompetent.

    Slater emphasizes this fear can lead down trauma spiral of internalized inadequacies, classroom disruptions, and other barriers undermining their confidence as learners. As a result outlook can last a lifetime, limiting individuals’ horizons and opportunities. Students who already faced stereotypes about their educational capacity may face more pronounced effects.

    One of the goals of educators is to teach students what to do when they don’t know what to do. Slater explains that practitioners see real value in putting knowledge into action. Practitioners believe to get past the problems brought up in knowledge, teachers need to use practice-based lessons that help students learn how to solve problems.

    Slater refers to learning is messy. The trial and error doesn’t always go in the right direction (for example, starting and stopping, pausing, being confused, writing and revising), requires a mistake tolerance must be nurtured in the classroom. Students need to learn how to accept mistakes in the classroom. As a student’s patience grows, they not only accept that making mistakes is a normal part of learning, but they also see the value in them. This helps them become expert learners.

    Slater suggests 3 ways to grow mistake tolerance in students:

    1. Use jigsaw activities. These activities break up complex text into smaller, disjointed chunks that students work collaboratively to piece together, creating coherence and meaning. Arranging ideas and/or events chronologically, logically, or sequentially requires a grit for trial and error that expert learners sometimes take for granted. Jigsaw activities create opportunities for students to gain confidence by justifying their ordering by experimentation, negotiating text meaning, and identifying target language.

    First, I introduce this activity to students using comic strips. Students practice shuffling comic strip panels in the correct order by identifying key story elements (e.g. plot, setting, characters, point of view, theme). I then increase the rigor by tasking students to correctly sequence reading passage sections, using the same story-element identification.

    This tactile approach to text engagement mirrors that of puzzling. Like puzzles, the comic strip panels or text sections within the jigsaw activity are in pieces that must be assembled properly. Manipulating the puzzle parts and figuring out where they fit within the larger picture requires problem-solving perseverance as students develop their abilities to plan and test ideas. From a social and emotional standpoint, completing jigsaw activities also helps students learn how to accept challenges, overcome problems, and deal with the frustrations of failure.

    2. Guide students to get the GIST. These activities are summarizing exercises that help students focus on main ideas. Developed by James Cunningham, PhD, in 1982, GIST (Generating Interactions between Schemata and Texts) helps students improve reading comprehension and increase recall of complex texts. As the name suggests, GIST scaffolds the removal of extraneous detail as students evaluate and create information to convey the crux of what they read. It’s an adaptable strategy that can be used with many informational and literary texts and is an effective tool to use in content areas.

    Students read a text and respond to the six common journalists’ questions on the GIST template (who, what, when, where, why, and how). Using their responses, students identify the most important information by paring down the text into summaries of 20 words or less (the teacher predefines the GIST word count).

    As students work to comply with the word constraint, you will notice the messiness of trial and error as students change their summaries to fit the predefined parameter. Students build mistake tolerance in low-stakes routines using various combinations of elaborative rehearsal, reorganization, and contextualized language.

    3. Actively model critical thinking. To create a classroom culture open to mistakes, teachers must not only embrace them among students, but also actively model their own tolerance for mistakes. We should want our students to see that we, too, wrestle with getting ideas down on paper. Follow a plan to ensure you’re modeling the thinking you intended. Stay in character as a learner, not a teacher.

    For example, imagine that you’re working through a text or a task for the first time. Model the thinking you expect from the students. Like a good learner, ask yourself questions, and verbalize inner dialogue.

    What is the author trying to tell me? Is that a clue about what’s going to happen next? What happens next if I do this? Is this getting me closer to my goal?

    Narrate actions you’re about to do, such as “I’d better write that down” or “That didn’t work. I’d better erase that step and start over.” Let students see and hear you struggle with your thinking. Students also need to see the strategies that good learners use to overcome challenges. It’s important for them to see that all learners encounter challenges and that it’s OK. So not only verbalize struggle but model the metacognitive and critical-thinking strategies that good learners use for overcoming challenges. Try modeling perseverance by building in some unsuccessful attempts and giving yourself a little pep talk after each one.

    Conclusion

    Slater describes learning is an ongoing process that includes practicing, making changes, and improving. The process of trial and error can be fun to learn if students are given the right tools and knowledge at the start. Experience, which usually means learning the right way to do something by making mistakes along the way, is what makes us learn. It’s also one of the main reasons experienced learners are motivated.



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