This case study reports on a collaborative teacher action research project that has focused on examining the intersections among identity, language and literacy learning for English language learners in grades 3 to 8. The teacher in this study has developed her teaching practice around the central theme of making students' cultural and linguistic identity and knowledge a part of the curriculum. In doing so she has used a dual language approach to writing instruction for her English language learner (ELL) students and has developed curriculum themes that draw on and extend students' prior knowledge and lived experiences.
This project examined the teaching practices of Lisa Leoni focusing on her use of students' literacy in their home language to create dual language identity texts.[1] This practice has provided opportunities for newly arrived students to participate fully in learning and to attain curricular literacy expectations through collaborative work with other students. The incorporation of bilingual students' home language into the learning environment enables students to express themselves and participate academically despite the fact that their knowledge of English is still minimal. Furthermore, it provides the teacher with opportunities to observe, evaluate and build upon the literacy skills that students bring to the classroom. As Lisa explains:
Whether students are given the opportunity or not, it has been clear to me that students learning an additional language use their first language to help them make sense of not only grammatical tasks, but of the world around them since what is inside a language helps students see what they see and draw connections between old and new learning.So rather than keeping this a hidden process, my aim is to give it a space in the class. So opportunities like these bring out the inner voice of the students and makes what is invisible to the teacher visible.
The purpose of this research study was threefold: a) to observe the teacher's use of dual language writing strategies as a way to scaffold the learning of newly-arrived immigrant students, b) to develop an understanding of the teacher's rationale for implementing this work, and c) to gain insight into the meaning that participating in this work has for students and their families. The research questions asked were:
1.What image of the students is reflected in the teaching strategies and classroom interactions orchestrated by the teacher?
2.How does a dual language approach to writing instruction affect students' engagement with literacy?
3.What impact do these strategies have on students' image of themselves as bilingual learners and on their ability to transfer literacy skills from their first language to their learning of English?
This case study articulates the claims that 1) even in a monolingual instructional setting teachers can utilize students' first language (L1) skills in ways that enable a smoother transition for immigrant students, 2) that students' L1 knowledge represents a tool for learning and a foundation upon which English language learners can base their learning of another language 3) that teachers can find ways to incorporate students' L1 into the literacy work of the classroom even when they themselves don't know the first language of the students, 4) that students' engagement with school literacy is increased when their identity is brought into the curriculum, and that asking students to write texts in both of their languages has a positive impact on their sense of self.
Michael Cranny Elementary School a public K-8 school in York Region District School Board located in the community of Maple in the city of Vaughan about 30 kilometers outside of downtown Toronto, Canada. It is a Junior Kindergarten through Grade 8 public school with a diverse student body of about 650 students. Approximately 65% of students are from Pakistan and are part of the Ahmaddiya Muslim community, a religious group that has sought refugee status in Canada and other countries. The majority of the students from the Ahmaddiya community speak Urdu as their first language. Many of them have had some exposure to English in their schooling in Pakistan.
Currently, Vaughan is listed as one of the fastest growing municipalities in Canada. It has almost doubled in population since 1991 (Retrieved October 12, 2004 from: http://www.city.vaughan.on.ca/). The school itself is only entering its sixth year, having been created largely in response to the need for a public school in the area due to the expanding population and high rates of immigration.
Lisa has worked at Michael Cranny since its inception. She taught a Grade 7/8 class for four years and for the past two years she has been an ESL teacher for grades 3-8. Lisa has been very involved in creating links between the school and the community. For the last five summers she has directed the board-sponsored Summer Institute that offers recreation and literacy programs for all students in the community. The purpose is to encourage healthy social development and to provide access for students who could benefit from continued literacy support during the summer. Because of transportation difficulties faced by some students, Lisa brought the program to the community and has held literacy programs at the mosque.
This partnership included key members of the Ahmaddiya community, York Region Health Services and volunteer staff. As a result of the partnership among community and educational agencies, a three-tiered early literacy program was developed and implemented at the Mosque during the school year. High school students from the community were recruited and trained to work as reading tutors to younger students and in the process earn community credits, parents were brought in to see effective literacy strategies modeled with their children, and young students needing academic support after school were provided this by Lisa and her colleagues. Lisa has also facilitated tours of the Mosque for interested teachers and administrators in order to develop a better understanding of students' community and culture among educators. She describes the power that building the home-school connection in a variety of ways can have for students' image of themselves in the school.
If parents are encouraged to be volunteers, if parents are seen as readers in the library the kids see their parents as valid members of the school community. So it's not about only telling them that speaking Urdu is good--it's a great language and you have two brains--it goes beyond that. It's making them believe that their parents are here for a specific reason--they wanted to better their life. You have to have kids believe that what they're coming with-- whether it's their home, their community, or their religious community is important and they can take what they have and excel.
Although she doesn't speak Urdu or any of the other languages spoken by most of her students at Michael Cranny, Lisa did grow up bilingual in an Italian immigrant household and cites this experience as crucial to her understanding of her students' need to rely on their first language as they develop literacy in English. She says:
It made sense to me because growing up I was always with two languages. My mom still now only speaks Italian to me. Anytime that I'd be in Italy, visiting a new country, feeling like a foreigner in Italy, the way that I learned to survive with language is thinking in English. When I had to learn how to articulate in Italian I would think in English so I said, this must make sense to a new kid coming from Pakistan entering the classroom; they need to think the way that they know how.
This case study documents elements of Lisa's work and explores how her implementation of dual language writing has contributed to the establishment of a classroom environment that integrates students' identities into their literacy learning.
This research study utilized a collaborative teacher research model in developing the case (Bullough & Gitlin, 2001; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993). This model emphasizes the teacher as the expert and strives to create an integrated plan for research that draws on the local knowledge of the teacher while also bringing current academic research to bear on the development of the study. In this case the university researcher worked closely with the teacher researcher to develop a plan for carrying out the research. Together they developed a focus for the research. The university researcher followed the lead of the teacher researcher in making decisions about how and when to conduct observations of the class and interview students, and together they planned what questions to ask during the interviews of the students.
Research methods followed by the university researcher included classroom observations during which field notes were taken, audio and video recording of classes and semi-structured interviews with the teacher researcher and her students. The teacher researcher was responsible for implementing the dual language practices that were the focus of the study, for collecting samples of student work and for distributing the questionnaires about language use. The study took place over the course of a year and a half during which time the school researcher and the university researcher were in close contact and the university researcher made weekly visits to the school. When the study began, Lisa was teaching a mainstream Grade 7 class. However, in the second year of the study, Lisa became one of the two English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers at the school. She taught students in Grades 3 and 4 in the morning and in the afternoon she taught students in grades 5 through 8. Work samples were collected from students in her classes with Grades 5 through Grade 8 as well as from students in her Grade 7 class.
The project focused on Lisa's teaching practices relating to literacy; specifically the ways that she has brought students' cultural and linguistic knowledge into the sphere of accepted literacy practices in the classroom. Lisa explains the importance of creating a space in her curriculum for students' voices. She says:
The way I see it everything has to relate to the identity of the students; children have to see themselves in every aspect of their work at school.
The dual language texts that have been the focus of the case study reflect the following genres:
When teaching the Grade 7 class and also in her ESL teaching, Lisa has encouraged students to use their first language in their writing. She has implemented this strategy with any student who expressed an interest in using both of their languages as well as with recently arrived students whose minimal English limited their class participation. Lisa elaborates on the powerful impact of first language expression for students:
In my case sometimes when I'm going to say something in English I'm thinking about how it would be said in Italian because in Italian it might sound more poetic. Aminah [a student in her ESL class] has told me the same thing, she says, --"Ms. Leoni, Urdu is such a poetic beautiful language, there's no English words that can tell you how much you love your parents like I would be able to say in Urdu."
One example of students' use of their first language in a writing assignment took place in her Grade 7 class when Lisa used the genre of storybook writing to integrate children's literature with the theme of migration that the class was studying in Social Studies. A feature of this assignment was that students aimed their text at a younger audience with the goal of sharing it with students in lower grades. Kanta, Sulmana and Madiha worked together on this project weaving their three experiences together to recount their story of immigration through the voice of one character, Sonia.
The book, The New Countrywas written collaboratively by the three girls in order to meet the curriculum expectations described above. While all students were expected to work in groups to complete this assignment, Kanta, Sulmana and Madiha expressed a desire to write their book based on their own immigration experience and to write it in both English and Urdu. They justified this on the grounds that most of the students in the lower grades of the school spoke only Urdu at home. Urdu was the first spoken and written language of two of the girls, Madiha and Sulmana and the second language of Kanta who speaks Punjabi as her first language. Although Kanta does not write in Urdu she is a fluent speaker of Urdu and was frequently called upon by Lisa to translate, especially when Madiha arrived in December with virtually no English skills. The collaboration provided many opportunities for first and second language development (e.g. vocabulary exploration) and metalinguistic conversations about language. It also enabled Madiha to be introduced to the expectations of process writing in a North American classroom.
Kanta, now in Grade 9 discusses the linguistic and cognitive benefits that she saw transpiring in this process for Madiha and herself:
For Madiha who was just learning English, she could see what we had written in Urdu and have a better idea how to do it in English. It's important too because there's a different format for writing sentences in Urdu than in English so when some words are translated it might not sound accurate right away, you might have to add more words in English for example than in our language so I think she learned a lot from that. It also helped us in our languages a lot too; it helped me improve my Urdu and I learned to translate better than before because it gave me some new words and practice going back and forth between the languages.
Madiha continued to be Lisa's student the following year in her ESL class where she again took the opportunity given to her to write many pieces in Urdu and English. A year after completing The New Country, Madiha discussed the benefits she saw to being given the space to work in her first language:
I think it helps my learning to be able to write in both languages because if I'm writing English and Ms. Leoni says you can write Urdu too it helps me think of what the word means because I always think in Urdu. That helps me write better in English. When I came here I didn't know any English so I always spoke in Urdu. Other teachers always said to me "Speak English, speak English" but Ms. Leoni didn't say anything when she heard me speak Urdu and I liked this because if I don't know English, what can I do? It helps me a lot to be able to speak Urdu and English.
Sulmana was the scribe during the translation process of the story from English to Urdu. She discusses how helpful it was to have access to Kanta's oral skills in both languages and Madiha's advanced knowledge of Urdu vocabulary and grammar as she completed the writing in Urdu:
It was my first experience translating English to Urdu and translating it into Urdu was a little bit difficult because I had forgotten many of the words so my vocabulary improved a lot too. I had to ask my Mom a lot of words when we were writing it in Urdu but also before that, when I realized that we were going to be doing it in both languages, I started reading more books in Urdu at home because I hadn't been doing that so much so I had forgotten some words.
In this video clip Sulmana, Kanta and Madiha are seen working on the Urdu translation of the story. Sulmana and Kanta discuss how they work together with Madiha to develop an accurate rendition of the story in Urdu.
During the 2004/2005 school year Lisa began to teach ESL. In this context she introduced a similar storybook assignment to her students, this time asking them to write a story that had a core moral or lesson. Many of her students chose to write their story in both English and their first language. All of the texts are reflective of students' identity as they utilize themes that are central to their lives to illustrate the moral they chose to write about. Tomer, for whom horses have been a part of his life for as long as he can remember, wrote the book Tom Goes to Kentucky about a rodeo rider who has to practice and practice in order to be good enough to win and go to the big rodeo in Kentucky. The book is written in both Hebrew and English. It is a story about perseverance, horses, and a boy named Tom, which is the name of Tomer's best friend back in Israel. Tomer describes the power of being able to write about things that matter to you:
That is so important, especially when you are using a language that is not your first language. You already don't understand perfectly so it's important that you want to understand. If it's boring then you won't want to understand but if it's interesting to you then you will want to try. When I wrote Tom Goes to Kentucky it was like that for me. I chose a person called Tom who would be a rodeo rider because it's fun for me to write a story about horses and stuff like that. It makes more pressure to do it from the inside.
Both Madiha and Aminah, another student from Pakistan who had just arrived in September, chose to retell stories with a religious moral that they had learned as part of their religious and cultural upbringing.
Sulmana similarly describes the pleasure she experienced in working collaboratively and writing a story in both of her languages.
When we were working on The New Country I felt really good and I wanted to write more stories afterward. When I was doing it I was really happy. It was fun to be able to write in both languages and to work on a project with my friends.
Kanta described how meaningful it was to be given the opportunity to utilize and showcase her linguistic abilities. Furthermore, she contrasts this work with the lack of recognition of her academic skill and interests by the first teachers she had when she arrived.
It helped me because when I came here in grade 4 the teachers didn't know what I was capable of. I was given a pack of crayons and a coloring book and told to color in it and after that I felt so bad like I'm capable of doing much more than just that I have my own inner skills to show the world so when we started writing this book I could show the world that I am something more than just coloring so that's how it helped me and it made me so proud of myself that I am actually capable of doing something and not just coloring and I am so proud of myself that I am something.
These students' comments echo Cummins' (2001) description of the type of identity negotiations between teacher and students that create optimal conditions for students to invest in their academic work.
Other comments by students similarly reflect the affective and academic impact of using both languages to create literature and art.
"I feel good writing in Turkish because it makes me feel good because I remember being in Turkey. My mom likes that I do it too because it's our language." --Gizem
"If we write only in English maybe I don't understand some words but if we can write in both languages it helps me understand English because we can translate into Urdu." --Aminah
Interestingly, even those students in Lisa's ESL class who had done very little or no bilingual writing still expressed an appreciation for the dual language writing of others in their class. Bilal explained that he doesn't write in Urdu as well as English because it is "hard and difficult for me to write in both languages." Despite not wishing to engage in this work, he seemed to clearly understand why others would want to when he said, "[Using] English and Urdu helps us to learn English because when we translate the English we are doing Urdu so we get the meaning of the Urdu." Similar to the comments of other students, Bilal appears to be pointing to the importance of the first language for making content meaningful.With this quote, "When I see Urdu somewhere I get happy because it is my own language." Bilal also expressed the positive impact it has on his sense of self to see this bilingual writing by other students on display in his classroom.
Lisa has elaborated on the role of the teacher in creating a classroom environment in which students come to see themselves in the curriculum. She explains the responsibility that teachers have to enable students' voices to be expressed and heard:
The teacher has the power to destroy or validate [students' identities].
Thus, the way a teacher defines her role and orchestrates classroom interactions creates a classroom ecology that provides the basis for students' cognitive and affective engagement. When Madiha was asked to reflect on how she had felt when she wrote The New Country, she summed up the positive impact that it made to her to have her teacher recognize who she is and where she comes from. Her statement highlights the power teachers have in creating the conditions for students to feel excited about sharing who they are as they invest in the work of the classroom:
I am proud of The New Country because it is our story. Nobody else has written that story. And when we showed it to Ms. Leoni she said it was really good. She said "It's about your home country, and family, and Canada, it's all attached, that's so good." I like that because it means she cares about our family and our country, not just Canada. Because she cares about us, that makes us want to do more work.
Tomer also underscores the positive outlook and appreciation for teachers who utilize students' L1 as a resource especially when, as was the case for him, knowledge of English is limited.
The first time I couldn't understand what she was saying except the word Hebrew, but I think it's very smart that she said for us to do it in our language because we can't just sit on our hands doing nothing.
Furthermore, Lisa highlights that having students write in their first language contributes important information to her in the ongoing work of observation and evaluation that is fundamental to all teaching. She explains that getting to know her students is her primary goal because it enables her to assess their skills and plan her teaching.
My overarching goal as a teacher is to uncover all that is unknown to me about my students -- linguistically, culturally and especially to understand the community they are part of, parents, friends, faith, etc. So when a student enters my class, I want to discover all that I can about that student as a learner and as a person.
The following section from my field notes (from, October 7, 2005) illustrates how Lisa put this objective into practice with Tomer and Gizem who had both arrived in her class in September of 2005 with limited English. Lisa had asked them to write a story based on three pictures that they chose. She told them to do this in their first language (Hebrew for Tomer and Turkish for Gizem). Tomer had integrated them into a story line whereas Gizem appeared to have written separate short descriptive paragraphs based on each picture. Lisa asked them to read their writing to her in their L1.
Lisa asks Gizem: "Can I listen to it in Turkish Gizem? Read it nice and loud."
When Gizem has finished Lisa turns to me and explains how much she can get out of this even though she doesn't understand the content of what Gizem says. She lists intonation, tone, and attention to punctuation as being evident and says that she will use this information in the tracking sheets of student progress that she keeps.
Next she asks Gizem to repeat the process but this time in English. She says: Now read it slowly sentence by sentence saying what you can in English.
Gizem tries to explain in English what she wrote
Lisa says: Very nice, beautiful.
Lisa: Now the next story.
Gizem: One hat inside and rabbit.
Lisa: So the rabbit is inside the hat?
Gizem: And go outside.
Lisa: So it jumped outside the hat?
Gizem: Yes. And rabbit's happy. This wand go.
Lisa: The wand is turning?
Gizem: Yes.
Lisa: And what's the rabbit doing?
Gizem: Out.
Lisa: Oh, it's coming outside when the wand is turning?
Gizem: Yes. This her stars go.
Lisa: Stars go around?
Lisa turns to me and says: "This is helping me understand how she's organizing ideas. We'll take each idea and work to make complete sentences. I can see that she has set the stage for each of her paragraphs. Here she's begun with: "One dark evening" So I can see she has the elements of writing."
Lisa listens to Gizem saying what she can in English about the paragraph she's written based on the birthday picture.
Gizem: One birthday party, cake chocolate strawberries. On the table there are hats, plates, five candles.
Lisa explains to me: This is very descriptive but what's missing? Whose birthday party is it? I'm going to ask her to elaborate in her L1
Lisa turns to Gizem: I want you to say more--whose birthday party is it? I want you to write more about why. Why are they outside?
Gizem says: It's summer. Inside too hot.
This interaction alongside Lisa's commentary excerpted here illustrates the procedure that Lisa undertook to understand her students' level of written expression in their L1. It is clear that in addition to giving students a means to engage in cognitively interesting and demanding tasks, this work also provides the teacher with a window into the skills and the needs that her students bring with them.
The creation of dual language books and incorporation of students' L1 into the classroom impacts not only the ELL students but also their peers for whom English is their first language. At the end of the 2003/2004 school year when Lisa reflected on the implications for her Grade 7 class of having made dual language writing a part of the curriculum she noted:
For the first time this year I have seen the non-Urdu speaking students come to appreciate the natural process of learning for the non-English dominant students. Using both languages in the class has had the consequence that the students don't only associate English language learning with the student that's isolated or withdrawn to ESL from the class. It removes the stigma of the child being labeled an ESL student and instead English language learning and bilingualism become a normal part of the work of the class.
This case study illustrates the fact that teachers have choices regarding language use in their classrooms. Even in a monolingual instructional setting, it is possible to provide opportunities for students to utilize their first language skills and doing so enables deeper cognitive understanding for students of both content and language learning in their new language. In addition, it highlights the strong connections that students develop to their schoolwork when their lived experiences and interests are seen as integral to the curriculum.
There are several layers to the evidence described in this case study including cognitive engagement, identity investment, metalinguistic awareness, and cross-linguistic transfer. In addition, Lisa's teaching provides us with insight into the power that a teachers' role definition can have to impact students' learning in the classroom and their image of themselves as a learner and as a person. Lisa stresses that her primary goal is to know her students and she explains that this goal imbues all of her teaching decisions. Thus, her students' language and culture act as a window through which she can gain access to the skills and knowledge they bring with them to the classroom:
Their initial response has always been that they have to leave it [their language and culture] at the door so when you go against that it allows the kids to express themselves. It's like their skills lie dormant. Part of my evidence is seeing those skills being revived.
Another outcome noted in the utilization of students' L1 in the classroom is how the dynamic of the entire class shifts to accommodate this practice as a part of the expected and ordinary. By doing so, bilingual students can be viewed by their peers as bringing resources to the classroom and ELL students cease to be identified by what they do not that is not knowing English. The classroom environment created by Lisa empowers students to bring their first language skills into their classroom work; this makes learning more meaningful and fosters respect for what each student brings to the classroom.
Bullough, R., & Gitlin, A. G. (2001). Becoming a student of teaching. London: Routledge Falmer.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1993). Inside/outside: Teacher research and knowledge. New York: Teachers College Press.
Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd. ed.). Los Angeles, CA: CABE.