The English Language Learner Specialist and the Classroom Teacher: Providing Support for Newcomer English Language Learners

• In Event: Teacher Leader Research: Urban English Language Learner Facilitators Inquire Into Their Leadership Practice

Abstract

Amy and Jennifer are young teachers, both in their third year of teaching. They are energetic, full of ideas, and their classrooms are warm and welcoming environments where high expectations and hard work are the norm for both students and the teachers. These are the classrooms where Fikriya and Jose began their school career in the United States, just days after immigrating from Iraq and Mexico, respectively. Rather than getting on a bus to a school outside their neighborhood where they would stay all year with a class full of beginning English learners, Fikriya and Jose are able to attend their neighborhood school and learn from their English speaking peers in a blended classroom model.

This action research project began the week after Fikriya joined Jennifer’s class. Jennifer described feeling “excited but incompetent” about having a beginning English language learner in her class. Jose had been in Amy’s class for a couple of months the prior year, but Amy still said she was “constantly wondering if he is where he should be” and what expectations she should have for him.

The purpose of this action research study was to look at what happens when a district ELL specialist works with general education teachers who have newcomer ELLs in their blended classrooms. Specifically, as I worked with the teachers, I wanted to find out what the teachers learned, what changed in their classroom practice, what changed for the newcomer students, and what facilitated those changes. In the process I hoped to learn more about what these teachers needed and how I and other ELL facilitators, both district and school-based, could help provide for those needs and, in turn, strengthen the district’s overall service to our quickly increasing population of English Language Learners.

Data collection for this project focused on both the teacher and the students. First, I collected information on the teachers’ classroom practice asking: how did they structure their classrooms and provide instruction for the newcomer ELL student? Secondly, I developed a plan of support with the teachers. The format of my support plan with Amy and Jennifer had some characteristics of coaching but was more within the model of “consulting and collaborating” as described by Lipton and Wellman in their “continuum of interaction patterns” (2001). Finally, I collected information on the effects of the support—what did teachers do differently as a result of our work?

I found that these teachers wanted, needed, and benefited from my collaboration, my ideas about scaffolding instruction, and the provision of resources such as high-interest reading materials. Observations suggested that the students were more engaged and excited about their work following the collaboration. The most important learning for me, however, was learning something about how to provide specific support for teachers who are struggling to meet a large range of needs in their classrooms. I have new ideas about how to assist teachers myself or to help schools design structures to provide support to their teachers.

Author

• Rachel Hoff, Highline Public Schools