Recently I've been sharing stories of resilience. With that topic in mind, today I’m interviewing author, Beth Anderson, about her experiences as a teacher for English Language Learners. Beth and I will be serving on an author/educator panel along with Jolene Gutierrez for the annual Reading in the City Conference on April 15, 2023, in Denver, CO. The topic is “Using Narratives as a Bridge to Informational Text.” See last week's interview with Jolene.
Carolee: You have written several narrative non-fiction picture books about real-life characters overcoming adversity. I’m sure that many of your students who were English Language Learners faced extreme adversity in their early lives. Did you find that certain stories resonated with them more than others?
Beth: Some of my students had dealt with things unimaginable to most Americans, but stories of real people facing challenges rang across culture, time, and place. True stories always opened up thinking as they inspired questions and connections. Most were stories of struggles, survival, life-changing choices, and trying to claim one’s place in the world. I think many immigrants and refugees have a stronger connection to these stories than many of us as they’ve lived these kinds of challenges. Not only do those stories connect to students, but they also have potential to contribute to the classroom community with shared understanding.
Carolee: Did you ever use picture books with teens? If so, what tips do you have for teachers who may want to use picture books with older readers?
Beth: I used picture books ALL THE TIME! Before we had an ESL curriculum, they were the springboard for content units that built language skills. Using the term “illustrated texts” can help with older kids who may be offended by “picture books.” I used them with high school English language learners and all the time with middle school kids. They were perfect for so many reasons: length, illustration support, rich language, embedded content, text/page, and more. I could teach all the language arts skills and also sneak in content support and academic vocabulary. Narrative nonfiction is dignified and inspiring for any age. Nothing “childish,” nothing that talks down. That’s the key. So my advice is to choose books that kids can relate to, that contain themes and characters suitable for maturing minds, and use high-quality art.
Carolee: In your book, Tad Lincoln’s Restless Wriggle, Tad had difficulty with reading as well as speaking. When a student is struggling to learn English as a second language, it may be difficult to tease out which ones may have speaking or reading challenges in their original language. Do you have any tips for identifying or working with these students?
Beth: Identifying learning issues and challenges is always extremely difficult for English language learners. While we don’t want to make hasty assumptions, we do want to get a student the support they need to be successful. It requires observing and taking notes as you try different approaches over an extended period of time. Learning as much as possible about their schooling history and past academic challenges through family interviews and any records you can obtain is helpful. Knowledge about their first language can shed light, too. The ability to test in the first language can be the only way to surmount some of the barriers, but not all school systems have that ability for every student.
Carolee: One of the topics that you are planning to discuss during our panel is the Affective Filter. Can you tell us more about that topic and its implications for struggling learners?
