More States Take On Media Literacy in Schools

In the wake of fake news and the ability to obtain information almost instantly, more and more articles are being published with bias arguments and without reliable sources. In this article, author Jackie Zubrzycki identified a 2017 Washington law that is now a model for other states in which the law encourages states to teach about digital citizenship and Internet safety while requiring a mix of sources and perspectives. After passing this bill, six other states have considered bills based on the same principals of the one passed in Washington.

In my opinion, teaching students how to locate and identify reliable and accurate information is crucial in a world filled with social media. Often times our students, even ESL students, get their news from social media, it is easy to click on and share fake news, I have even done it myself. The passing of these bills will allow educators the ability to teach media literacy classes that encourage critical thinking skills and help them navigate the complex world of online information. 

Source: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2017/07/media_literacy_laws.html

Essential Technology Tools in the ELL Classroom

This week I read an article written by Toshiko Maurizio, an administrator for multilingual programs at a public school in Oregon. He identified the importance of technology when engaging students in activities while providing resources to bridge the gap between their native language and English.

Maurizio identified the following tools as tech essentials for the ESL classroom;

Audio systems- The system is essentially an amp that enhances the teacher natural voice so they don’t have to shout to ensure that all students are hearing the teacher voice and intonation, which is very important in the language learning process.

Laptops are used on a daily basis for lesson-planning, presentations, and for visuals. The use of visuals when learning a language is key to making connections between the students’ native language and English.  

iPads allow for convenience when traveling throughout the classrooms and to other classrooms during the school day. Google Translate allows students to have easy access to naïve language. Maurizino also pointed out that Google translate settings allow for keyboard settings on iPads to show the English letter underneath their native language, allowing students to transfer knowledge back and forth between languages.

As an educator, all of these tools are beneficial to any classroom. With the abundance of free applications available, the use of an iPad would probably be the most essential tool in an ESL classroom in my opinion.

Source: https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/07/21/curriculum-tech-essentials/

When Adaptive Tools Can’t Adapt to a Student’s Native Language

This week I read an article about the difficulties of translation materials and tools used when translating English to Spanish for language learners. With the growing population of English Language Learners, software companies are designing their programs to keep up with the demand to expand to the ESL community. However, many products are falling short of their promise to provide accurate translation and are having difficulty adapting to the student’s native language.  With the difference between spoken and written language, and while translation isn’t always perfect from one language to another, users are discovering that reading levels are changing when trying to translate English stories to Spanish stories. Making it particularly harder for the elementary ESL students to keep up let alone make sense of what they are reading.

One solution to the problem is for teachers to assign students’ material that is on their native reading level rather than their English reading level. Which then poses the problem of ESL students disengaged in the content they are reading because they English reading level will be significantly lower than the Spanish Reading level. For example, the fourth grade reading level book, Diary of a Whimpy Kid actually translates to a sixth grade reading level in Spanish. The author also points out that students coming into the US tend to have difficulty with literacy skills in their first language to begin with which can pose and even greater problem. The end goal is for student to become proficient in English. By offering materials that are on their native reading level, while also taking into account their literacy skills and interest, students should be more successful while using the adaptive tools.

Source: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2017-06-29-when-adaptive-tools-can-t-adapt-to-students-native-language