Guest-led Discussion with Dr. Doreen Ewert

Hello colleagues, Thanks to everyone who joined today's webinar with Doreen Ewert. If you were on the webinar, you know we had a lot of technical issues with the audio, which was unfortunate. We apologize for that. Dr. Ewert has generously offered to re-record the presentation for us, and we will be making that available soon.

Dr. Ewert has a great deal of helpful information to share with us during this week's discussion on the topic of building language and literacy through teaching content. I first encountered Dr. Ewert's work in the article she wrote for the TESOL Journal in 2014, "Content-Learning Tasks for Adult ESL Learners: Promoting Literacy for Work or School." During our discussion this week, Dr. Ewert will explain the criteria that promotes content learning and highlight six practical instructional tasks that promote language and literacy while learning important content.

The tasks include:

  1. plan lessons that integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing.
  2. require students to collaborate actively with one another
  3. assess learners' prior knowledge
  4. expect students to revisit a text multiple times for different purposes
  5. ensure that students synthesize information in various ways
  6. offer students opportunities to demonstrate their learning in multiple modes

Now for a little background on our guest. Dr. Doreen Ewert is an Associate Professor and Director of the Academic English for Multilingual Students Program in the Department of Rhetoric and Language at the University of San Francisco. Dr. Ewert’s teaching and research focus on several aspects of second language learning and teaching for pre-academic and matriculated adult language learners: language teacher development, curriculum and program design and implementation, second language literacy development, content-based instruction, extensive reading, and integrated task assessment.

Dr. Ewert will be referring to her webinar PowerPoint and handout during our discussion this week. You can access these materials at her website. Look in the upper left hand corner of the page.

Welcome, Dr. Ewert! We look forward to a robust discussion this week!

Members, your comments and questions on this timely topic are welcome!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, Adult English Language Learners Community of Practice

 


 

 

 

Comments

Greetings. In spite of the audio problems earlier today, I hope that you heard something that stimulated some reflection on your own teaching practices.  Reflection is the beginning of development!  I look forward to responding to your questions and feel free to send any and all regardless of how each day's conversation is framed.  To start, I'd like to draw out your thoughts on the notion of requiring students to be responsible for the content we bring to class, and for lengthening, layering, and expanding on a particular theme or content area in your teaching context.  In particular, how is CBI different from our general practices of using meaningful and contextualized content for short periods of time?   Also, consider how the content we use in the classroom informs or doesn't inform the assessments we make of our students' learning.  Is the content a vehicle for language use or is it the primary goal with language development a by-product? 

Hi Doreen, I think we adult ESL teachers are very good at contextualizing instruction around the needs of learners. This is what we do! Could you please discuss the similarities and differences between content-based (CBI) instruction and contextualized instruction? Is it partly about the amount of class time that is devoted to a particular theme?

Members, how do you see the similarities and differences in these approaches?

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, AELL CoP

The amount of time and the number of "texts" on the same theme are two of the critical differences between CBI and contextualized instruction.  For example, most textbooks use content that is believed to be relevant and engaging to students, but the problem is that the content from one chapter or unit to the next is unrelated.  Each topic may be of relevance and interest to the students, but without sustaining attention (using all the skills) on a theme for a significant period of time, the students do not lay a foundation of specific previous knowledge to help them negotiate the meaning of text on a new topic.  Without sustaining the content (thematically), the students do not recycle sufficient vocabulary or even phrases and modes of expression to support implicit learning along with the explicit learning they do in class.  With more knowledge in an area, with their adult minds although perhaps not extensive English ability, they can still engage in deeper critical thinking.  There are a few textbooks I've seen that will extend a theme with somewhat related readings over maybe two chapters or so, but very few actually continue a theme through an entire textbook.  Questions sometimes arise about whether this will become boring to the students, especially if it wasn't a theme that they chose themselves.  I have never found this to be a problem because there is no attempt to be so narrow that there is no room for individual variation.  For example, in the sociology theme (life in society) that I am using this semester, the students are currently investigating group dynamics.  Each student, with guidance, some models, and support, has been able to find a text that informs them about some aspect of group dynamics, which they will share with each other in class on Thursday.  Over the semester, we will move from families, to groups, to gender roles, to schooling, to some social problems--looking at them all with a sociological lens.  There is opportunity to express their own experiences and opinions, but they are held accountable for the content of the texts that we read together. On a small scale, CBI is like getting into your major after endless intro classes.  Finally, you are actually building up knowledge that enables you to go deeper and farther.

If you have to work with assigned textbooks, one possibility is to look for newspaper articles, videos, whatever possible to extend the time you spend on any one topic, and then hold the students accountable for the content.   The quiz I gave my academic English students today looked identical to a quiz I would give my undergraduates in a content course.  Nothing about the quiz looked like a language test, but, of course, it will say a great deal about how they are understanding and using the language to communicate meaningfully.  Perfect sentences without the necessary content will get no points.

Hi Doreen and all,

Thanks for the webinar and for hosting this discussion. We have used books as a way to get at content based instruction in our programs. The books provide vocabulary and grammar in context opportunities that can be exploited in a number of ways. I find the challenge for teachers is to slow down and really milk the opportunities, in the ways that Doreen speaks about above. For example, a book we have at an intermediate level about an immigrant family learning how to manage the asthma of their youngest son allows students to learn about a number of different health-related issues. They learn about asthma through the experience of this family  - what it is, what "managing" the disease means, the symptoms, etc... - and then they use this knowledge to talk about their own situations and experiences, to create language to help them navigate their own situations, to possibly read additional materials (which would include the vocabulary or expressions they've learned in the story to see it in another context - NewsELA has some great text sets that allow for this), listen to an expert on the topic, or even do their own project-based learning by designing a pamphlet on asthma, as just one example. One challenge is that teachers feel students get bored with the topic, so I am always trying to find ways to encourage teachers to find another way to manipulate - in the best possible sense - the words, concepts, grammar - related to the content in a meaningful way. As one of my mentor teachers expressed it to me: "Where else can you put it?" In other words, what's another way to use the material that's new - with practice, not repetition.

Moira

 

 

 

Hello Doreen, Moira and all, I love these examples of how to expand on a theme. In my experience, the students definitely do not get bored when sticking with a theme over a long period of time. For the past year, I have been teaching a beginning level class for 12 hours a week, and my tendency has been to work with the same theme for up to 8 weeks. I strive to engage learners in a wide range of activities using a lot of the same language but for different purposes and utilizing different skills, i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing. Of course, we continue to build vocabulary and grammar all along the way.

Thanks for mentioning Newsela, Moira. I have drawn quite a bit from that site. It's great that the texts are arranged thematically and are adapted for various levels. For instance, I recently found several texts on the theme of winter weather. The weather theme can be explored through many lenses such as how do snowflakes form; how to drive safely on ice and snow; how people dress in different seasons; how the tilt of the earth changes our weather, etc.  While I appreciate Newsela, I have noticed that the adapted versions are not always the most readable texts, even so we've been able to make them work. Another good source of themed and leveled texts is ReadWorks.

Although I am an enthusiastic supporter of a content-based approach, I can also think of a number of challenges with implementing this method in adult ESL classes. Members, please share your thoughts on this approach and pose your questions for Doreen and your colleagues in our community.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, AELL CoP

 

Hi Moira,

You have given good examples of how to extend a theme initiated by a textbook. Moving from the text to something more personal is always good, but I wonder if they could also include texts that move them out in their community and society. For example, what about examining case studies of other adult health dilemmas, or texts regarding health services in their area, or reading about health insurance policies (large or small).  So rather than cycling in to the personal, cycle out to the more general, but in fact this can be extremely purposeful and useful for individual students or groups of students.  Just a thought.  Overall, it is easier to start the course with the idea of extending the theme over a longer period of time then just trying to extend each chapter topic,.

Cheers,

Doreen

Moira, 

I like what you've mentioned here about finding ways to manipulate the language in a meaningful way. As an ESOL instructor, especially at the earlier levels, I challenged myself to get uncomfortable with the number of times we would revisit target language concepts. Of course, I want to keep things interesting by varying the way we practice and the context of the activities but I also feel that a good way to tap into the learners' progress and interest is to deny ourselves the habit of using our comfort to gauge the stopping point. In other words, if going back to this feels "awkward" for me, I remove myself from the equation and pay attention to how learners are responding before we move on to something else. So, yes, milking it and removing my own "teacher feelings" about whether learners are bored or not. I find this especially important for teachers that are teaching a language that is already their primary language. We have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, while always striving to engage, be creative, listen, and extend practice! This is similar to what we need to do with wait time... sit in that awkward moment of silence :) 

Moira, 

I like what you've mentioned here about finding ways to manipulate the language in a meaningful way. As an ESOL instructor, especially at the earlier levels, I challenged myself to get uncomfortable with the number of times we would revisit target language concepts. Of course, I want to keep things interesting by varying the way we practice and the context of the activities but I also feel that a good way to tap into the learners' progress and interest is to deny ourselves the habit of using our comfort to gauge the stopping point. In other words, if going back to this feels "awkward" for me, I remove myself from the equation and pay attention to how learners are responding before we move on to something else. So, yes, milking it and removing my own "teacher feelings" about whether learners are bored or not. I find this especially important for teachers that are teaching a language that is already their primary language. We have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, while always striving to engage, be creative, listen, and extend practice! This is similar to what we need to do with wait time... sit in that awkward moment of silence :) 

Hi Doreen, From the 6 practical instructional tasks that you recommend, i.e.,

  1. plan lessons that integrate listening, speaking, reading and writing.
  2. require students to collaborate actively with one another
  3. assess learners' prior knowledge
  4. expect students to revisit a text multiple times for different purposes
  5. ensure that students synthesize information in various ways
  6. offer students opportunities to demonstrate their learning in multiple modes

I think many teachers have a pretty good sense of what the first three might look like in the classroom. Could you elaborate on the last three and offer us some practical examples?

Many thanks, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, AELL CoP

I've learned to teach on one theme for 5-6 weeks in my Beginning/HighBeg class (12 hrs/wk) with the Top Notch books. What's more, the whole book recycles grammar and social language through out, so students can go deeper in their knowledge and skills.   Besides TV sitcoms and Street Interviews they can watch (with worksheets), songs to sing, and speaking jigsaw games, I always find many outside sources to supplement and give them more practice. I add more DOK (depth of knowledge) questions to the articles in each chapter, and do SmartBoard practice as well as Quizlet.com for vocabulary and Socrative.com for whole class listening comprehension or reading comprehension.

My problem is in my evening class, which is only 5 hours a week, with 3 or 4 different levels.  It's very difficult to stick with a theme when there is so much time gap, especially when students miss more classes.  I found I could not use TopNotch because of limited time and trying to catch up students who've missed previous lessons.  Also, with 3 levels, if I show any media, the other levels stop what they are doing to watch!    It is an EL Civics class, so I teach on certain themes for a short amount of time to all levels. Still, I feel like I am jumping around to different themes, trying to get current topics in (like "voting" last Fall).  So I have resorted to grammar books for each level I can print & let students write in. (From Stickyball.net)  I do Grammar/writing with speaking activities on Tues and Reading/Discussion on Thursdays, with Phonics and pronunciation with Reading Horizons on both days.  I feel like there is no continuity with their reading, and not really connecting their grammar with their reading.    ANY IDEAS for Multi-level classes that only meet 2 nights a week?

Multi-level classes that don't meet often are a problem for so many reasons, but I actually think that CBI is one way to mitigate some of those problems.  Starting with the easier texts on the theme includes everyone.  As the texts increase in difficulty or complexity of some sort if they are on the same topic, the less proficient students have already built up some previous specific content knowledge to support them.  Then in class, the content-engaging tasks create multiple opportunities to pass through the texts again with collaborative support from other students.  Here you can be very intentional in how you design the groups,  If the less proficient are together some times, you can focus your attention on them at once during the group work.  Sometimes putting mixed proficiency learners in the same group can create a learning/teaching environment that supports all the group members.  When students miss a class, they can get up to speed more quickly if the class begins with a task or task sequence that draws the students back to the previous texts or previous specific content knowledge while engaging with new content.   As for the direct specific work on language and vocabulary, unless they are true beginners, I don't spend too much time on it since I know that in actually using the language (all the skills) for meaningful purposes, they will achieve more implicit learning, which is more durative.  There are, however, some free and quick online tools to figure out which are the best words to focus on in a text (by word frequency, for example) to maximize explicit instruction.

Thanks, Doreen!  I do have some true beginners and they are grouped together.  I like your idea of starting with the whole class on an easier. text.  I did that before with the underground railroad, and it was very effective. Wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do.  Some students are too low for my class, and need a lot of direction and helpers to work with.  But then I had a lot of students "vote" on their own to make 3 separate groups!  What a dilemma! Will try it again.

Hi Doreen, Here are a couple of questions posed by participants during Monday's webinar that you did not have time to address at the time.

Question: It would be great if teachers could be content experts, but it might be a real challenge if we're supposed to know about other disciplines besides English language knowledge. So, should we just select the materials we know about well, or should we try to study more about different subject matter?

Question: During the webinar, you demonstrated a Jigsaw Reading activity. It seemed that the (low-level) students had a chance to go over their notes before they actually shared orally. Is that an essential strategy in your idea of "building scaffolding tasks"?

Thanks for your responses, Doreen!

If members have comments or questions for Doreen, please feel free to post.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, AELL CoP

Hi All,

In my re-recording of the webinar today, I did touch on the topic of content expertise. I have actually never found this to be a problem yet because as educated adults, we are able to read and understand the texts we choose to use in the course, and we have expertise in how to find (and/or judge) reliable information or sources of information.  Perhaps the best content-based course I ever taught with adult language learners was one on ecology.  We all learned together.  I knew how to make the texts accessible to the students and could address any language issues that impeded engagement with the content.  Students brought texts and sources of videos on shared or self-selected but related topics.  It was very dynamic.  I am not able at all to teach Ecology 101 at a university level, but we certainly could engage in content learning that impacted all of our lives in multiple ways.  Another one on American Short Stories also went quite well with a pre-academic group.  I had students return and tell me that when they took their required Intro to Lit class, they felt they already knew what was going on.  I've done content themes in the disciplines of sociology, social psychology, geography, literature, natural science, and ecology.  Except for literature (which was my undergraduate major), I was not an expert in any of them, but even with my general college education and then more advanced research schools, this was very doable.  Now, I wouldn't recommend taking on a theme you are not interested in because your enthusiasm for learning contributes to student motivation.

The other comment about the use of individual review, group review, and opportunities for rehearsal of knowledge (and language to express it) in the jigsaw task is entirely intentional.  In other tasks, I add it if it is not a part of the sequence.  In fact, in almost every content-based class, I provide time and support for students to review and rehearse what they are learning before they have to express learning in front of the whole class or on a test.  Sometimes, I let students have a quick "huddle" in first language groups to confirm content knowledge before needing to express something independently in English.   I do this for competent English language speakers as well (even doctoral students) because no matter what level we are working at, not everyone has confidence to share what they learning publicly, so why not review and rehearse. It only confirms learning (and language).

When we talk about content expertise, I think about what we are asking of teachers in the Integrated Education and Training programs. When programs are able, I think it's great to have this co-taught with an occupational specialist and a language specialist. However, that's not always feasible! I know of teachers in the program I was in who had to gain foundational knowledge in Commercial Driving, IT, and more! Thankfully, they were well-equipped with the lifelong learning skills that you mention here. Although it's different from what you're presenting as the content-based approach, there is so much overlap. Have you ever presented your content-based instructional strategies within the frame of Integrated Education and Training? 

Another question I had while looking over your PPT (AWESOME resource, by the way, I love the ideas), were you teaching during the pandemic? Can you share ways that you transformed these for distance learning and any tools or resources that were especially helpful? 

I want to express our deep appreciation to Dr. Doreen Ewert for sharing her expertise with us on the topic of building literacy and language through content-based instruction. Focusing our lessons on important content that adults care about is highly motivating. What's more, research has shown this approach to be most effective.

As Dr. Ewert pointed out, many of the textbooks we use in adult ESL spend limited time on topics or themes. She emphasized that extending themes over an extended period of time allows teachers to recycle language and engage students in using language to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. Encountering language and using language in various ways through listening, speaking, reading and writing is an essential key to language acquisition. Dr. Ewert encourages teachers to expand on the themes in their textbooks by bringing in related materials incliuding video, audio or print to dig more deeply into content. 

Adult ESL teachers are very good at assessing learners' language skills. However, Dr. Ewert suggested that we teachers should assess not only language skills, but also the content we are teaching. Making students responsible for content helps to deepen their knowledge and at the same time builds their language and literacy skills.

This has been an invaluable discussion as we all seek to enhance the rigor of our teaching to support adult English learners to achieve their important goals.

Thank you, Doreen!

Members, we can certainly continue this conversation. Feel free to add your voice!

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, AELL CoP
 

The internet reading which will fit well for my Medical Coding, Health Care Professions and Administrative Medical Assistant courses are onetonline.org, bls.gov, and chea.org. Students will need to visit and explore the websites and note down any relevant and important information they learned about the assigned topics. During one of the courses Microsoft Teams meetings, I will show the students the website and ask them to follow along to catch any difficulties they may experience. In addition, they will receive instructions and a list of topics they can choose from; however, they are encouraged to choose a topic of their choice. They must either answer questions based on their findings, make a PowerPoint presentation, or write a page on a provided topic. For example, for Bioethical topics, the students must answer questions based on Council for Higher Education Accreditation and make a PowerPoint presentation on any Health Care area of their choice where they would like to work. Students are reassured that they are here to learn and that they should not stress over the assignment. If they have any difficulty, I am here to help. I will also tell them that they should not worry about making mistakes as that is how we learn. To master their research and presentation skills, we repeatedly practice in class. This repetition will build their confidence in their skills and around the topic.