Learner-Centered Teaching: The Core of Effective Practices for Adolescent English Language Learners

Feature Articles

Learner-Centered Teaching TheCore of Effective Practices forAdolescent English Language

Learners

NANCY CLOUDRhode Island College

JUDAH LAKINKIPP King Collegiate Charter School

ERIN LEININGERAmerican School of Kuwait

In this piece a teacher educator and two secondary teachers

describe how they implemented the Learners9 Lives as

Curriculum model (Weinstein 2004) with adolescent English

language learners using a unit from a pilot secondary curriculum

titled Lives Unfolding (Weinstein amp Cloud 2007) They discuss

the development and adaptation of the Names unit and how

their work around this theme transformed their classrooms into

participatory communities of successful and highly motivated

English learners

doi 105054tj2011250377

My parents named me after my grandfather He died before Iwas born My mother told me that my grandfather was good toeverybodymdashso the people in the town told her to name me afterhim My grandfatherrsquos name was Abu Bamba so my mother saidlsquolsquoOkay now my sonrsquos name is Abu BambarsquorsquoI like my name sobad I wish I was the only one on earth called Abu I will neverchange my name If my first child is a boy Irsquoll name him AbuAbu means somebody who never tells a lie But I canrsquot tell thetruth all the time If I like a girl so bad sometimes I lie a little bit

132 TESOL Journal 22 June 2011

sometimes I tell the truth a little bit So grandfather Irsquom sorry Icanrsquot be like youFrom the Lives Unfolding Names UnitAbu Bamba Liberia

ndashAbu Bamba Hope HS Providence RI

CHALLENGES FOR ADOLESCENT ELLS

Although most English language learners (ELLs) in theUnited States are elementary schoolndashaged a growing proportion areolder students in middle and high school (Boyle Taylor Hurlburtamp Soga 2010) Some of these adolescents have recently arrivedothers have been educated in US schools for a period of time butare still not achieving to standard Because of this they cannot bereclassified as fluent English proficient and they continue to qualifyfor services as ELLs (Boyle et al 2010) During the 1990s thesecondary school population of ELLs in the United States grew by64 compared with 46 growth at the elementary school level(Ramsey amp OrsquoDay 2010) Adolescent ELLs face many challengessuch as earning needed credits and passing required tests tograduate from high school learning academic English sufficient forsuccess in secondary school fitting in to the complex socialenvironment of middle and high schools and balancing thedemands of school home and work so that they maintain regularschool attendance (Cloud Lakin Leininger amp Maxwell 2010)

One strategy that has proven key in improving outcomes foradolescents enrolled in middle and high schools is personalization(Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development 2011

Learner-Centered Teaching Adolescent ELLs 133

Keefe amp Jenkins 2002) Schools that cultivate supportiverelationships among teachers and students especially for dis-enfranchised groups promote higher attendance levels helpstudents achieve at higher levels experience fewer behaviorproblems and have faculty who report a greater sense of satis-faction in their work (Schaps 2003) Belonging has been associatedwith a host of positive effects the most important of which areincreases in motivation and academic achievement (Blum 2005Schaps 2003) But even more important maintaining a strongpositive ethnic identity is associated with high self-esteem acommitment to doing well in school a sense of purpose in lifeconfidence in onersquos own efficacy and high academic achievement(Violand-Sanchez amp Hainer-Violand 2006 p 36) For all of theseimportant reasons we as educators need to ensure that adolescentimmigrants feel that they belong without relinquishing or dimin-ishing their linguistic or cultural identities (Violand-Sanchez ampHainer-Violand 2006) Adolescents report that when they feel theybelong and are cared about they are motivated to invest in schoolIn fact researchers report that high school dropoutsrsquo most frequentexplanation for leaving school is that no one cared Converselystudents who remain in school credit meaningful relationships withadults who show an interest in them as people (Stipek 2006)

It is this rationale that underlies the naming of personalization as akey component of secondary school reform But all too oftenpersonalization is realized through mechanistic means such asinstructional periods called lsquolsquoadvisoryrsquorsquo in which students get academicand career counseling rather than having personalization become morecentral to the high school experience by being embedded in the corecurriculum Secondary English as a second language (ESL) educatorscan do moremdashthey can put learner-centered practice at the core of whatthey do with learners and when they do so they can reap great benefitswith learners A learner-centered curriculum realizes far better than anadvisory period all these desirable goals

As Gail Weinstein and Janet Johnson assert in this issue ofTESOL Journal learner-centered teaching is a primary and powerfulpersonalization strategy It works because it builds on threeimportant principles of learning (1) to build on what studentsknow (2) to build community in the classroom by providing peer

134 TESOL Journal

support and increasing motivation and (3) to require ongoinginquiry that makes learning meaningful to learners This articledescribes how several secondary ESL teachers working in differentgeographic contexts with different groups of students are using alearner-centered approach to create responsive instruction foradolescent ELLs

ERINrsquoS STORYIn the fall of 2007 I was involved in a learner-centered curriculumdevelopment project with Gail Weinstein and Nancy Cloud foradolescent ELLs as a part of a proposed curriculum series called LivesUnfolding At that time I was just about to begin an adapted unit ofSandra Cisnerosrsquos (1984) The House on Mango Street with intermediate-level ELLs Our high school intermediate and advanced ELL curriculaloosely followed that of the 9th- and 10th-grade English curricula Theregular English 9 curriculum began with a unit on memoir throughstudy of The House on Mango Street The intermediate-level students Iwas teaching read only a handful of vignettes from the book which Ihad selected for their length and accessibility of theme and languagethus making certain the vignettes would be accessible in language andcontent Cisnerosrsquos vignette titled lsquolsquoMy Namersquorsquo was a perfect text withwhich to begin the Names unit writing project

At the time I was teaching three intermediate ELL classes (atotal of approximately 50 students) In our program the studentsare grouped by proficiency level therefore my classes consisted ofGrade 9ndash12 students with intermediate proficiency The majority ofthese students were Dominican but I also had two Guatemalansone Bolivian two Cambodians and three Liberian refugeesAlthough all students were at an intermediate proficiency levelthere was a wide range of ability across the different language skillareas (listening speaking reading and writing) Some studentssuch as Abu (a refugee whose name story introduced this article)had advanced listening and speaking skills but very low readingand writing skills Other students such as Chisel (a Dominican whowas literate in Spanish) struggled with oral expression but feltcomfortable reading and writing in English Despite the range ofstrengths and challenges each student had I was confident that thetheme of the Names unit would offer all students a way to share


and express in their new language an important part of theirevolving identities

The House on Mango Street was already part of the intermediateELL curriculum and the content and themes of the textmdashthe Latinoexperience adolescent struggle economic struggle identitymdashwereeasy for many of the students to identify with and relate to Forthese reasons I used the following vignettes from the book as theprimary professional models for the Names unit lsquolsquoHouse on MangoStreetrsquorsquo lsquolsquoHairsrsquorsquo lsquolsquoBoys and Girlsrsquorsquo lsquolsquoMy Namersquorsquo lsquolsquoOur Good DayrsquorsquolsquolsquoLaughterrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoGilrsquos Furniture Bought and Soldrsquorsquo Although notall of these vignettes deal directly with the topic of names they dorelate to the greater theme of identity and contain a variety of richand fairly easily understandable examples of figurative languageparticularly similes metaphors alliteration and personificationBecause the ESL teachers had determined that part of the adaptedcurriculum would involve teaching students to identify and usefigurative language in their own writing these texts providedample exposure to such skillful language play

To prepare students for the different types of figurative lan-guage they would encounter in the texts I first explained each typeof literary device we would be focusing on offering a student-friendly definition that I had written for each device and providingsimple examples that were easy for students to access quickly (egThe room was as hot as an oven Maria made muffins on Monday) Next Iasked students to look at other simple examples of literary devicesand identify them based on what they had learned After thisdiscussion and practice we looked for examples of the same literarydevices in Cisnerosrsquos text first as a class and then with a partnerAlliteration and simile were the literary devices that were easier forthe students to identify but personification and metaphor provedmore challenging Once students started to understand they reallyenjoyed finding and thinking about the literary devices and theeffects they had on the story

Creating the Names Unit

In addition to published models of memoirs I introduced the LivesUnfolding pilot unit Names (Weinstein amp Cloud nd to see thefinal unit visit httponlinesfsuedugailwprofessional

136 TESOL Journal

learnersthematicsorry-names-secondarypdf) The purpose inteaching the pilot unit was to collect material that would becomepart of the final unit The draft unit began with teacher modeling oftelling stories about our own names I told stories of my namemdashitsorigin and historymdashand anecdotes about different names I wasgiven throughout my life First I told students how Erin is thephonetic spelling of the Irish word for Ireland which isrepresentative of my part-Irish heritage and how though I nolonger affiliate with any organized religion I chose my middlename Elizabeth on the day of my first communion Little did I knowthat adding Elizabeth to my name would pave the way for anickname started in high school and continued on throughoutcollege EEL

In addition to the oral stories that I told the students I also wrotevignettes about the nicknames I had acquired from family andfriends most notably the name that I am almost exclusively knownby and called within my immediate family Reen When my youngerbrother first started talking he had a hard time pronouncing ErinHe would drop the initial short e sound and occasionally add a longe sound to the end This resulted in either Reen or Reenie Thenickname stuck and I really canrsquot remember a time when either myparents or my brother has ever called me by my proper name

As a part of the pilot Names unit students were asked to listento my name stories take notes and ask questions to find out moreTo build the unit for future use the students were invited to tellstories about their names first to a partner and then to the classusing my stories about my name as a model The studentsrsquo spokenstories were converted into interesting short texts about theirnames which we paired with digital photos These short namestories would become texts that other adolescent ELLs would readwhen using the finished unit designed to mirror social networkingtext mode as on Facebook or MySpace

To take the theme into another genre I modeled use of figurativeand sensory language to describe my different names and then hadstudents write cinquains about their names using similes thatrepresented their impressions and the personal meanings associ-ated with their names For example Elaine wrote lsquolsquoMy name is so


fresh so sweet and delicious like cold ice creamrsquorsquo These also becamepart of the final unit

Creating a Community Through Names

As the students and I read about the many aspects of names andnamingmdashname origins name meanings nicknames family namesfirst middle and last names changing namesmdashand began draftingour own name stories we began to learn more and more about eachother our families and the communities we came from and wherewe lived This turned out to be an incredible experience for us allAs students wrote and talked about their names they began tounderstand their names and the names of their peers in a broadercultural context rather than simply from a personal or individualperspective Their comments showed that they were starting tounderstand that though their names belonged to them they were aproduct of their families and cultural backgrounds but alsofollowed similar traditions of naming that exist in other culturesThese insights helped them understand the deep commonalitiesthat exist across many different cultures

These conversations were powerful for me as well I had taughta beginner ELL class the previous year and many of the samestudents were now in my intermediate classes Although I hadknown some of these students already I learned so much moreabout their personal history during the Names unit than I hadduring the entire previous school year Of course I knew the namesof the students I had taught and where they were from I had evenmet many of their parents and extended families through schoolevents and traveling to the Dominican Republic the previoussummer to learn about the country culture and the studentsthemselves In many ways I felt that I knew them pretty well andmaybe even better than the average teacher But diving into theNames unit taught me even more about them all Yes everyone hasa name that we share with the world but there is so much more thatour names reveal about us than simply what we are calledThinking reading writing and talking about such a personal yetpublic notion as our names allowed us to investigate and reveal theunique histories of our names and to connect our past with our

138 TESOL Journal

present cross cultural boundaries and reveal our deepest feelingsabout our identities

The more we read and talked the more students shared And themore they shared the more sharing of stories and questions wastriggered around the room lsquolsquoYou were named after a character in abook So was I What book did you get your name fromrsquorsquo one studentexclaimed lsquolsquoI was also named after my grandfather Itrsquos a tradition inmy family Is that how it is in your familyrsquorsquo another student askedNot only were students learning about each other they were makingconnections and experiencing a sense of belonging

Writing the Names Stories

As was mentioned we gradually turned our initial conversations andquick drafts about names into more detailed and organized pieces Agood amount of questioning and conferencing was needed to helpstudents articulate what they automatically took for granted in termsof the significance and meaning of their names For example AbuBamba came from and at the time lived in a family that is more of anextended community than the strict parent-and-child home we tendto think of as traditional in the United States He was raised in avillage and cared for by many not only his immediate family Whenhe moved to the United States he came to live with his aunt butcontinued to be part of the larger Liberian community in his adoptedcity So getting to the root of his name story helping him clarify theideas he wanted to share about his grandfather and himself and atthe same time ensuring that his piece maintained his voice and styleinvolved many conversations and drafts Although Abu loved toexpress himself through writing revision and rewriting was oftenfrustrating and difficult for him Nevertheless after many drafts hisfinal piecemdashthough fairly short and simplemdashdemonstrates a certaindepth of Abursquos character and history For publishing we paired aphoto of Abu with his story to represent both visually and textuallyhis individual identity and personality

Another student Yeni was initially quite shy about sharingintimate details about her names for this project At first she simplytalked about her first and last names as well as her middle namewhich lsquolsquomy mother gave me because it was her motherrsquos nameand she has the name alsomdashZucely They didnrsquot want to lose the


traditionrsquorsquo This was a good start and I continued to encourage Yenito share how she felt about her names and what it meant to her tocontinue on the family tradition but she wasnrsquot particularlyforthcoming Finally after more prodding and persuasion Yenibegan to talk about how she had two nicknames one that herfriends used but that her parents didnrsquot approve of Hielera andanother that her mom called her but that she disliked Oliva

When I was younger my friends called me Hielera which meanslsquolsquocoolericeboxrsquorsquo in English Every time that my parents heardmy nickname they got angry because in that time I was going tochurch and they said that it was inappropriate for me I donrsquot likemy second nickname that I got from my mother Oliva Oliva isPopeyersquos girlfriend in the cartoon She is skinny and funny likeme and people always are laughing about my second nickname

Abursquos and Yenirsquos stories are examples of the powerfulgenerative writing process that had blossomed in my classroom

Outcomes of the Names Unit

Prior to this experience of sharing and talking about their nameswith classmates very few of the students had actually used thenames of classmates in class when addressing them Most of thetime students would informally call out lsquolsquoHeyrsquorsquo or lsquolsquoExcuse mersquorsquobut would rarely add the name of the student they were addressingAfter the names discussions I noticed students were using eachotherrsquos names more often and I wholeheartedly encouraged suchpractice adding that I too like to hear my full name Ms Leiningermuch more than the shortened lsquolsquoMissrsquorsquo This helped forge evenstronger personal connections among the students and me

The entire experience of the Names unitmdashthe reading thinkingsharing and writingmdashprovided our class with a solid academic andsocial foundation that I believe helped set and encourage highstandards for work as well as for attitudes throughout the yearAcademically I evaluated studentsrsquo communication language andliteracy skills based on the learning activities from the unit Studentsdemonstrated their ability to read with a purpose (Harvey ampGoudvis 2007) to find out how different people got their names toexpress how they felt about their names and to ask other studentsabout their names and how they got them I assessed studentsrsquo

140 TESOL Journal

understanding of key vocabulary from the unit such as what wecall our different names (eg nickname screen name) andpossessive nouns and pronouns Students showed their familiaritywith word play by creating their own similes about their names andshowed that they could understand an authorrsquos perspective whenreading On a social level starting the year with a unit that enabledstudents to make a personal connection to their teacher and theirpeers and to be successful writers in a new language created asense of community that helped students stay motivated and takerisks with new and challenging material and assignments The useof peer models generated interest and engagement in the unitbecause the students saw themselves in the pieces they read andsaw narrative writing as interesting significant and possible Theywere engaged like never before

As a final result after gathering the stories from my classroomNancy Gail and I revised the pilot unit to become the final unitcreating opportunities for future ELLs to build new vocabulary andlanguage forms when reading our stories and to give them valuablelanguage practice in listening speaking reading and writing Weadded more activities as well including freewriting about namestalking about types of names and how names are used online andresearching how schools towns or streets got their names All ofthis showed me how to use learnersrsquo lives to create curriculumcurriculum that has the power to transform classrooms intocommunities

JUDAHrsquoS STORYI teach two Reading Support classes at a small charter school inCalifornia The classes almost entirely consist of students who havebeen in the United States since childhood but are still not attainingproficiency a growing population of concern to teachers ofadolescents One of my classes has 21 students a combination offreshman and sophomores whose reading abilities range from thefifth- to eighth-grade level with the majority closer to fifth thaneighth The second class also contains a combination of freshmanand sophomores but these studentsrsquo reading abilities range fromthe second- to fifth-grade level In total there are 27 students in thisclass the majority of whom were born in the United States but


whose parents immigrated here Only two students do not speakanother languagemdashone African student and one African Americanstudent The rest are predominantly Latino (their families camefrom Mexico and Central America) with the exception of oneEritrean student and two Chinese students The two Chinesestudents were born in China and have been in the United States forroughly 2 years There is only 1 Latino student who was actuallyborn in Mexico and he immigrated to the United States when hewas in sixth grade

Overall the majority of these students attend classes in which theacademic rigor and content is beyond their level Their conversationalfluency is high because they have been in the United States theirwhole lives but their academic literacies are extremely low rangingfrom elementary to middle school levels Additionally although thereis variation the majority of the students are not engaged in school andhighly dislike reading often doing everything in their power to avoidit Some of them do read independently but material that is almostexclusively written in vernacular and contains urban themes such asTrue to the Game by Terry Woods (1999) or Addicted A Novel by Zane(2001) Although these books certainly have their place and it is greatthat these students are reading I have been concerned that these booksare not challenging them and that they are not increasing the studentsrsquointerest in and ability to read grade-level adolescent literatureeffectively or helping the students build academic vocabulary thatthey will need throughout school With rare exception when asked toread they vehemently complain and almost always struggle (Formore on long-term ELLs see Long-Term English Language LearnerProject 2008 Zehr 2010)

Goals for Using a Learner-Centered Curriculum

In the spring of 2010 I decided to try a learner-centered curriculumin an attempt to engage students more in literacy I adapted thepreviously described Names unit (Weinstein amp Cloud nd) which Iwas familiar with because it had been developed in an urban highschool where I used to teach My goals were threefold The first wasto connect the names theme to other texts so the students wouldread a variety of texts student-written in addition to traditionallypublished The second was to really stress the strategy of making

142 TESOL Journal

connections such as text to self text to text and text to world(Keene amp Zimmerman 2007) which students in my classesstruggled with throughout the year and which I knew to be aneffective way to engage kids in reading The third hopefullyaccomplished through achieving the first two goals was to build acommunity of learners that did not exist in my class previously andto help them understand how their voices are as powerful andmeaningful as anything else they may read It was important to methat I use this as an opportunity to build community around thesharing and reading of personal stories

Incorporating Additional Texts

In terms of meeting the first goal I found the following texts WhenMy Name Was Keoko (Park 2004 Lexile 610) The Namesake (Lahiri2004 Lexile 1210) The House on Mango Street (Cisneros 1984 Lexile870) and The Name Jar (Choi 2003 Lexile 290) (See the Appendixfor links to these texts) With the exception of The Name Jar achildrenrsquos book we used only excerpts of the other books thatspecifically dealt with names (For a full and detailed explanation ofLexiles please visit httpteacherscholasticcomproductssri_reading_assessmentpdfsSRI_ProfPaper_Lexilespdf)

One valuable aspect of this unit was that by reading varioustexts on the broad theme of names I was able to expose students tonot only many different texts but also many different forms oftextsmdashtranscripts oral stories novels childrenrsquos books andmemoirs These texts were not magically accessible given thestudentsrsquo reading levels but students were willing to struggle withthem because the students knew they contained information aboutnames and because I worked to scaffold them appropriately

Teaching the Unit

I started the unit with Abursquos story in which we learned that Abursquosname came from his grandfather I used this story as an opportunityto talk to students about West Africa and what it means to be arefugee

Then I did a minipresentation on my own name I explained whereit came from how it connected to my Jewish culture and what itmeant The students enjoyed hearing me talk about being a little kid at


Hebrew School which I attended three times a weekmdashtwice afterregular school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and on Sunday morningsI told them that I always got excited in November when we wouldstudy the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah This meant that for a fewweeks we would talk about how Judah Maccabee and his brothersmanaged to beat the Syrians I along with my brothers were heroesThis was the time of year that I was the most proud of my name

After finishing my stories I had the students brainstorm webs thatcontained information about their namesmdashespecially where theirnames came from We did a Think-Pair-Share (Kagan 1994) in which allof the students wrote about the importance of their names growing upshared these with a partner and then were responsible for reporting tothe class what their peer had told them In this way we got to heareveryonersquos stories and all students were practicing their active listeningskills (For more information on Think-Pair-Share see Saskatoon PublicSchools 2004ndash2009 httpolcspsdskcaDEPDinstrstratsthink)

The classroom was transformed when the students sharedThese students had always been talkative and they had certainlybeen engaged before but this was an environment I really had notexperienced with them previously Many of them loved having theopportunity to share stories about both their own names and theirpeerrsquos names and those who were shy were encouraged by thosewho were not Nancyrsquos partner shared first She explained thatNancyrsquos middle name was Miroslava which was what her fatherhad wanted as her first name Miroslava was the name of a famousactress that her father had been in love with all of his life Rightbefore Nancy was born her father and mother had a fight and hermother said that she was going to name the baby She chose Nancybut allowed Miroslava to be her middle name

After this we heard from other students who were named afterfamous movie stars or their parentsrsquo ex-lovers students whosenames were an accident because their parents had been confusedabout their meaning students who had two names one for whentheir parents were pleased with them and one for when they werein trouble We heard from students who were named by theirmothers grandmothers fathers or uncles We heard from studentswith long stories about what their names meant and others who had

144 TESOL Journal

no idea of the meaning We heard from students who loved theirnames and others who were embarrassed by them

The discourse changed remarkably when learners had anopportunity to talk about themselves For many their affect was 180degrees different than on any other day I learned that thesestudents despite being only 14 and 15 years old had amazingstories to tell about their names that connected to their cultures andstill-forming identities They learned about my Jewish heritage mylove of my name and my family All of a sudden we wereconnected in a new personal and intimate way This kind ofpowermdashthe power of a learner-centered curriculum (Weinstein2004)mdashis needed by teachers who work with struggling students Itcan propel reluctant learners into meaningful and motivatedreading which in turn can create bridges to academic success

For homework the students had to answer a series of questionsfrom the Names unit about name meanings nicknames and differencesin names among languages Each student wrote responses and created acinquain about his or her name In class they wrote their answers onlarge sticky notes that they posted around the room In my smaller classeach student did a minipresentation on his or her name whereas in mybigger class we conducted a gallery walk to look at all of the informationas it hung around the room This activity prepared students for the moreformal writing they would do at the end of the unit

The first outside text we used that matched our theme was lsquolsquoMyNamersquorsquo from The House on Mango Street (Cisneros 1984) Thevignette discusses the name Esperanza and what it feels like to growup with that name With this story I explored a grammar point andintroduced figurative language which would later be a requiredfeature in their own lsquolsquoMy Namersquorsquo texts

First we read lsquolsquoMy Namersquorsquo as a class To aid comprehension Iretyped the text using 14-point font and double-spaced formattingglossed it (Otto White amp Camperell 1980) and provided extra-largemargins for students to write down the meanings of key vocabularywords and other important notes As we read the text together wediscussed issues such as how names can mean different things indifferent languages how names connect you to different members ofyour family and what it feels like to have your name mispronouncedin school Because students could identify with all these issues and felt


strongly about them they actively participated in the conversationconfident in their ability to contribute meaningfully to the class

For language practice we reviewed the main verb tenses in thepiece through our reading using a graphic organizer I had createdThe chart had six columns with these headings RegularIrregularVerb (Infinitive) Simple Present Present Perfect Present Contin-uous and Simple Past We then read the first half of the text asecond time stopping at every verb to decide its tense and list it inthe appropriate place in the chart We then filled in the remainingcolumns with some of the work assigned as homeworkThroughout the unit we identified these tenses in other readingsand practiced using them when writing sentences

Finally we utilized lsquolsquoMy Namersquorsquo to discuss figurative languagemdashspecifically the simile Students were largely familiar with simileshaving reviewed them in their English class earlier in the year but Istill did a brief introduction Then armed with highlighters studentsreread the passage for a third time underlining all of the similes Andto really stress how similes help elicit visual images students drewpictures of the similes to create sensory or mental images (Keene ampZimmerman 2007) We came back to similes later in the unit whenthe students were writing their own lsquolsquoMy Namersquorsquo stories and we dida simile workshop to fine-tune our similes so the students couldinclude similes in their stories

Our next text was a 20-page excerpt from When My Name WasKeoko by Linda Sue Park (2004) who writes the story from theperspective of two young Korean siblings a brother and a sisterliving under Japanese rule in the 1940s The part of the book weread explains that all of the Koreans had to change their names toJapanese names The students were to read and annotate the textover the weekend They had struggled to annotate texts all year butwere slowly making progress moving beyond simple underliningand highlighting Additionally I front-loaded important vocabu-lary supplied historical background information and previewedthe text structure (Harvey amp Goudvis 2007 Keene amp Zimmerman2007) because there are two narrators and students could get lost asto which one was telling the story at any given time

To strengthen their comprehension after reading we heldseveral class discussions and used graphic organizers to plot the

146 TESOL Journal

multiple narratives and deal with some additional terms andcultural concepts so that I could be sure the students understood thegist of the story (Reis 2008) Because of this they all understood theimportance of names in the story and how the Japanese hadstripped Koreans of their names This understanding allowed us tohave both small-group and large-group discussions about hownames language culture and power sometimes intersect

Our third text consisted of two excerpts from The Namesake(Lahiri 2004) In one a Bengali family attempts to follow theirtraditions in naming a child but encounters some difficulties beingin the United States and in the second that same child now grownup struggles with his name and attempts to legally change it Iagain front-loaded vocabulary and identified the text structure toaid in comprehension (Cloud Genesee amp Hamayan 2009) Andagain students read and annotated the text on their own If theywere confused they asked questions and we explored the texttogether in class Because none of us were Bengali having adiscussion as a class helped us sort out the naming processdescribed in The Namesake Additionally several of the studentswho disliked their names were intrigued by Gogol (the protagonist)who wants to change his name because he doesnrsquot like it Readingabout his step-by-step process gave some of them hope that theytoo when adults could change their name This opened up aparticularly lively discussion about what names we preferred andwhy some of us might choose to change ours

The fourth text we read was The Name Jar (Choi 2003) about ayoung Korean girl who is embarrassed by her name and the fact thatnone of her peers can pronounce it Because of this she proceeds topick a new American name I read it aloud to the students and wediscussed the themes that were consistent with our other textsmispronunciation comfort culture and the changing of names Ichose it to connect with two recent East Asian immigrants in my class

We also read short StoryCorps stories (httpstorycorpsorg) inclass (from transcriptions of the oral stories) In one of these RamonlsquolsquoChunkyrsquorsquo Sanchez (nd) talked about all the Latino students havingtheir names changed in primary school to more easy-to-pronounceAmerican names He tells of one boy Facundo whose name theteachers could not figure out how to Americanize and their funny


attempts to do so Ultimately they were left with Facundo We readanother story about a West African woman who chooses to changeher name because she doesnrsquot feel that the meaning of her name befitsher personality (Masani amp Hairston nd) Both stories allowed us todiscuss deeper questions such as lsquolsquoDo you think it is OK for teachersto change studentsrsquo namesrsquorsquo lsquolsquoDo we have a right to change ournamersquorsquo and lsquolsquoShould we be in charge of choosing our namersquorsquo Aswas true throughout this unit the students had a great deal to say onthese topics and were always bringing in their own experiences toconnect with our readings furthering our goal of making meaningfulconnections while we read

To work on our unitrsquos reading strategy making connections(Keene amp Zimmerman 2007) I used graphic organizers provided byFloridarsquos Online Reading Professional Development (httpsitesgooglecomaalaskaedudiane-kardashHomemaking-connections) to help students write text-to-self text-to-text and text-to-world connections Students struggled to complete these as weread our initial texts They often had inaccurate connections Theirerrors were varied but usually their mistake occurred because theyhad misunderstood something in the text Sometimes they inventedsomething that was not in the text so that they could connect it to theirown lives They were also confused about the difference between selfand world Often they would not make a connection but rather makea simple comment about either the text or their own lives withoutproviding an actual connection between two things It took severalclass periods of analyzing connections to get them doing this withease Students wrote their connections on white boards and then as aclass we went through each response and analyzed whether theywere correct and complete (ie included either text and world textand self or text and text) After many examples the students becameadept at assessing whether their peersrsquo connections were correctlydone although less so with their own which is often the case whenstudents are learning a new strategy After several periods ofundergoing this process and then working as a class to create modelconnections the students were ready to read the stories in the Namesunit and make connections All of the connections up to this point hadbeen done using the other texts that we had read for this unit

148 TESOL Journal

Over a school break the students were to read all nine storiesfrom the Names unit and use graphic organizers to create threetypes of connections for each story Every time they wrote astatement about a connection they had made they needed to boxthe part of their statement that referred to a particular text label itas lsquolsquotextrsquorsquo then box the part of their statement that showed the typeof connection they made and label that as lsquolsquoworldrsquorsquo lsquolsquoother textrsquorsquo orlsquolsquoselfrsquorsquo This created a visual clue as to when they were missingsomething and increased the quality and types of connections theymade Some students still had significant struggles but overall theconnections were much better than they had been before our work

In reading their connections two aspects stood out First thestudents did a very good job of connecting the Names unit texts to theother texts we had read For example when reading Jennyrsquos text (fromthe original Names unit) one student wrote lsquolsquoThis is different from TheName Jar [Choi 2003] because she was trying to get a new name fromher friends because they couldnrsquot pronounce it whereas Jenny got hername from her grandfather and everyone could pronounce itrsquorsquo Inmaking these connections it allowed us to revisit those texts and servedas another opportunity to discuss the more difficult texts andultimately build comprehension for all students Second the studentsmade many astute and genuine connections between texts Whenreading Ambiorisrsquos text from the Names unit one student wrote lsquolsquoThisreminds me of lsquoStrength and Softnessrsquo [another story in the Namesunit] because her name is special for her just like Ambioris because hedoesnrsquot want his name to changersquorsquo Originally the students werehesitant to consider student-written texts as lsquolsquotextsrsquorsquo but after a littlewhile Abu Yeni and Chisel (authors of Names unit stories) wereviewed as legitimate authors just like Cisneros Lahiri Park and ChoiThe students made wonderful connections to the National Public Radiostories we had listened to as well as to texts they were readingindependently One student reading Miraclersquos Boys (Woodson 2000 aHampton Brown high interestndashlow level In-Zone readerwwwngspcomtabid92Defaultaspx) commented about Sergiorsquosstory from the Names unit lsquolsquoThis reminds me of The Miraclersquos Boysbecause Lafayette likes his name similar to Sergiorsquorsquo It was great to seeoral histories studentsrsquo stories independent reading and canonicliterature all discussed and revered in the same space This is one of the


great advantages to incorporating learnersrsquo stories into thecurriculummdashit gives legitimacy to their stories in a way that otherwisewould not be possible The varied types of text were viewed similarlyby the students as legitimate text for analysis and enjoyment This is thepower of a learner-centered curriculum it has the ability to transformstudents into achievers doers and experts (Ada amp Campoy 2003) SeeTable 1 for suggestions on how to develop this type of curriculum

TABLE 1 How to Implement Learner-Centered Instruction Using LearnerStories

Step 1 Determine a meaningful theme such as belonging names first day ofschool journey to the United States

Step 2 See if a unit for this theme has already been created and has materialsthat you can use If there is one review the unit and choose thematerials lessons and activities that you can use or adapt for yourown classroom

Step 3 Search through adolescent literature that students in your class canrelate to Search the Internet ask your colleagues visit your locallibrary Do your best to try to find myriad readings that match thediversity of your classroom in terms of proficiency level literacylevel ethnic backgrounds and life experiences

Step 4 Read the literature you have chosen Then check local state andnational standards and decide on what grammar vocabulary andliterary analysis you can logically teach through these readings thataligns with standards

Step 5 Write out the skills that you would like students to gain byparticipating in the unit These should include oral languagecommunication skills literacy skills (reading and writing) andnonlinguistic outcomes such as establishing a learning communityvalidating learner experiences strengthening intergenerationalrelationships in families through understanding navigating theschool community and larger world and so on

Step 6 Identify your standards (district state national) that you will bemeeting in your unit

Step 7 Include the following in your unit brainstorming language activitiesvocabulary activities grammar activities active reading strategiesscaffolded and guided writing activities activities that help studentslearn about and share information with one another formative andsummative assessments and reflective exercises

Step 8 Pilot the unit and make changes as needed to foster learnerengagement and strengthen learning outcomes

150 TESOL Journal

Writing and Publishing

The unit concluded with the writing of the studentsrsquo own lsquolsquoMyNamersquorsquo assignment We started by holding a simile workshop sothat their written pieces on their names could include several goodsimiles First we reviewed the definition of a simile and looked overany similes that had appeared in the texts we had read Studentswrote similes about their own names and as a class if needed werewrote them Some of my favorite similes were lsquolsquoMy name isoriginal and fresh like a Subway sandwichrsquorsquo and lsquolsquoMy name is like alink in a chain it connects me to my entire familyrsquorsquo

After perfecting our similes it was time to start writing ourdrafts From our discussions throughout the unit the mini-presentationsgallery walk and all of their text-to-self connectionsI knew the students had plenty to say I provided them with anassignment sheet as well as a rubric and asked them to use all oftheir materials to create a rough draft Using Lakeshore LearningrsquosFlip-to-Learn Revising and Editing Guide (nd httpbitlyfkAhB0)I had students peer revise and edit their first drafts First theylooked for commonly misspelled words Second they looked forbland words and tried to replace them with more exciting wordsThird they looked for grammatical mistakes and corrected themusing the appropriate symbols The students then created a seconddraft at home that was handed in to me I carefully read each draftmaking corrections and asking for more information in certainplaces Students then wrote a third draft and handed all three ofthem in together

I brought the unit to a close by having a publishing party Thestudents brought in their final drafts and a little food and theydressed up so that I could take their pictures In my larger class eachstudent read a portion of his or her story and in my smaller classeach student read the entire story It was truly amazing to see twoclasses full of students who generally disliked school and did notdo very well academically stand up confidently and read piecesthat they had written and that were deeply personal They were allvery respectful as their peers shared their stories I saw studentschoke up as they discussed wanting to get rid of their last namesbecause they connected them to fathers who did not raise them orlaugh as they talked about their mothers getting back at their fathers


by naming them what they wanted to name them or stand proudlyas they talked of how their first name reminded them of theirgrandmother who was always there for them It was a gift to hearthese profoundly personal stories all at once in such an inviting andrespectful environment My classroom had truly been transformed

The Names unit as modified for the students in my classesdefinitely reflected the principles of a learner-centered curriculumand that is the reason that it worked so well with these learnersThey were treated as knowledge makersmdashvalued sources ofinformationmdashand authors editors and reviewers of text Theyformed a community that had not existed prior to the unit crossingcultural and linguistic and experiential boundaries in the process Iwas a learner too and was inspired by the journey we undertooktogether around this theme in the process sharing something sointimate as the story of our names and the feelings and experiencesthat are attached to our names

CONCLUSIONIn an era of educational standards personalization is frequently onlypaid lip service through cursory advisory periods with prescribedprotocols focused on academic and career goals Through the use of alearner-centered curriculum teachers can harness the real power ofpersonalization and create meaningful learning experiences thatsupport and motivate adolescent ELLs with varied proficiency levelsliteracy levels and cultural characteristics Such practices stand instark contrast to scripted curriculum and produce far betteroutcomes With learner-centered curriculum at the core we have areal chance to help learners develop skills and strategies that lead tomeeting state and national standards while making schooling muchmore meaningful and thus keeping learners in schools where theyfeel they belong and can contribute

THE AUTHORSNancy Cloud is a professor and director of the MEd in TESLProgram at Rhode Island College in Providence Rhode Island

Judah Lakin is a teacher and ELL coordinator and reading specialistat KIPP King Collegiate Charter School in San Lorenzo California

152 TESOL Journal

Erin Leininger is an ELL teacher at the American School of Kuwait

Formerly all three worked in Providence at Hope High Schoolcollaborating on various school-based projects This work resultedin the book Teaching Adolescent English Language Learners EssentialStrategies for Middle and High School (Caslon 2010)

REFERENCESAda A F amp Campoy I (2003) Authors in the classroom A

transformative education process Boston MA Allyn amp BaconAssociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development (2011)

The ASCD High school reform proposal Retrieved from httpwwwascdorgpublic-policyHigh-School-ReformHigh-School-Reform-Summaryaspx

Blum R W (2005) A case for school connectedness EducationalLeadership 62(7) 16ndash20

Boyle A Taylor J Hurlburt S amp Soga K (2010) Title IIIaccountability Behind the numbers ESEA evaluation brief TheEnglish Language Acquisition Language Enhancement and AcademicAchievement Act (ESEA) Washington DC American Institutesfor Research

Choi Y (2003) The name jar New York NY Dragonfly BooksCisneros S (1984) The house on Mango Street New York NY

Vintage BooksCloud N Genesee F amp Hamayan E (2009) Literacy instruction for

English language learners A teacherrsquos guide to research-basedpractices Portsmouth NH Heinemann

Cloud N Lakin J Leininger E amp Maxwell L (2010) Teachingadolescent English language learners Essential strategies for middleand high school Philadelphia PA Caslon

Flip-to-learn Revising and editing guide (nd) Carson CA LakeshoreLearning

Harvey S amp Goudvis A (2007) Strategies that work Teachingcomprehension to enhance understanding (2nd ed) Portland MEStenhouse

Kagan S (1994) Kagan cooperative learning (2nd ed) San ClementeCA Kagan


Keefe J W amp Jenkins J M (2002) Personalized instruction PhiDelta Kappan 83 440ndash448

Keene E O amp Zimmerman S (2007) Mosaic of thought The power ofcomprehension strategy instruction (2nd ed) Portsmouth NHHeinemann

Lahiri J (2004) The namesake New York NY Houghton MifflinHarcourt

Long-term English language learner project (2008) Retrieved fromhttpwebgccunyeduLinguisticsrislusprojectsLTELL

Masani N amp Hairston N (nd) lsquolsquoI said lsquoIs this going to actually bemersquorsquorsquo Retrieved from httpstorycorpsorglistenstoriesnzingha-masani-and-noah-hairston

Otto W White S amp Camperell K (1980) Text comprehensionresearch to classroom application A progress report (TheoreticalPaper No 87) Madison Wisconsin Research and DevelopmentCenter for Individualized Schooling

Park L S (2004) When my name was Keoko New York NY YearlingRamsey A amp OrsquoDay J (2010) Title III policy State of the states

ESEA evaluation brief The English Language Acquisition LanguageEnhancement and Academic Achievement Act (ESEA) WashingtonDC American Institutes for Research

Reis J (2008) 102 content strategies for English language learnersTeaching for academic success in Grades 3ndash12 Upper Saddle RiverNJ Pearson MerrillPrentice Hall

Sanchez R (nd) lsquolsquoBy the time I was in the second grade everyone wascalling me Raymondrsquorsquo Retrieved from httpstorycorpsorglistenstoriesramon-chunky-sanchez

Saskatoon Public Schools (2004ndash2009) What is think pair shareRetrieved from httpolcspsdskcaDEPDinstrstratsthink

Schaps E (2003) Creating a school community EducationalLeadership 60(6) 31ndash33

Stipek D (2006) Relationships matter Educational Leadership 64(1)46ndash49

Violand-Sanchez E amp Hainer-Violand J (2006) The power ofpositive identity Educational Leadership 64(1) 36ndash40

Weinstein G (2004) Moving toward learner-centered teaching withaccountability CATESOL Journal 16(1) 1ndash14

154 TESOL Journal

Weinstein G amp Cloud N (2007) Lives unfolding Names Retrievedfrom httponlinesfsuedugailwprofessionallearnersthematicsorry-names-secondarypdf

Woods T (1999) True to the game New York NY Teri WoodsWoodson J (2000) Miraclersquos boys Carmel CA Hampton BrownZane (2001) Addicted A novel Chicago IL AtriaZehr M A (2010 May 27) Report finds long-term ELLs

languishing in Calif schools Education Week Retrieved fromhttpwwwedweekorgewarticles2010052733ellsh29htmltkn5LMTFKlu3z8cS0VNt4QZD1tteaFW2FnyfGcPQzampcmp5clp-edweek


sometimes I tell the truth a little bit So grandfather Irsquom sorry Icanrsquot be like youFrom the Lives Unfolding Names UnitAbu Bamba Liberia

ndashAbu Bamba Hope HS Providence RI

CHALLENGES FOR ADOLESCENT ELLS

Although most English language learners (ELLs) in theUnited States are elementary schoolndashaged a growing proportion areolder students in middle and high school (Boyle Taylor Hurlburtamp Soga 2010) Some of these adolescents have recently arrivedothers have been educated in US schools for a period of time butare still not achieving to standard Because of this they cannot bereclassified as fluent English proficient and they continue to qualifyfor services as ELLs (Boyle et al 2010) During the 1990s thesecondary school population of ELLs in the United States grew by64 compared with 46 growth at the elementary school level(Ramsey amp OrsquoDay 2010) Adolescent ELLs face many challengessuch as earning needed credits and passing required tests tograduate from high school learning academic English sufficient forsuccess in secondary school fitting in to the complex socialenvironment of middle and high schools and balancing thedemands of school home and work so that they maintain regularschool attendance (Cloud Lakin Leininger amp Maxwell 2010)

One strategy that has proven key in improving outcomes foradolescents enrolled in middle and high schools is personalization(Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development 2011





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Documents

Learner-Centered Teaching: The Core of Effective Practices for Adolescent English Language Learners