Category: General

When we think of culturally responsive teaching, outdoor learning may not be the first area that comes to mind. How do you connect nature with culture and student identity? The answer is not straightforward. However, making nature relevant to students from culturally diverse communities is important, especially when we consider the importance of environmental stewardship and the historical underrepresentation of diverse communities in outdoor culture.

Spending time outdoors is one of the most high-impact, easy, and cost-efficient ways we can support the well being of all students. Outdoor play lowers anxiety, enables students to explore difficult emotions, experience awe and wonder, and disconnect from digital spaces.

It is important to keep in mind that culturally and linguistically diverse students may interpret and engage with the outdoors in ways that do not reflect what we see in dominant, Western representations of outdoor culture. One of the most interesting discrepancies I have noticed between typical Westernized representations of the outdoors and my own lived experiences is the ideal of the “empty wilderness”.

 

Many representations of the outdoors reflect an aesthetic of stillness and solitude: the empty dock, the barren mountainside, or the endless fields. Indeed, I have personally taken such photos, adjusting the camera so that I or the subject of my photos appear alone.

While I think this type of image taking is largely done to avoid having background distractions in the photo, I can’t help but connect it to the Canadian fascination with solitude in the outdoors, rooted in the romanticized concept of the explorer: Europeans who arrived in Canada and “discovered” a wealth of land and natural resources to exploit. Of course, we know that Turtle Island was far from being uninhabited – and we are just starting to see and hear Indigenous perspectives in our educational landscape – but I believe this reverence for emptied out natural spaces is tied to this piece of history.

Exploring Incongruent Experiences of the Outdoors

The dissonance between the way we idealize nature from a Western perspective and the ways different communities actually engage with nature becomes clear to me every spring when the trees start to blossom.

I’m very fortunate to live near High Park in Toronto, and I try to visit the park when its famous cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Droves of people across the city do as well, and as a result, the park is filled with crowds of people of all backgrounds taking photos and gazing into the beautiful pink canopy that forms in different areas throughout the park.

This year when I visited I noticed that the crowds were largely people of East, Southeast, and South Asian descent. I could hear so many different languages, but perhaps what was most amazing was the sound of joy and excitement at seeing the blossoms.

It occurred to me how amazing and wonderful it was to be in the masses of people enjoying something special in nature. I also wondered why we stay so fixated on this concept of nature as a lonely and empty place. I caught myself trying to capture photos of my family as though they were in an empty space, realizing how futile and pointless it was, and also questioning my own impulse to have a photo that did not reflect the environment I was actually in.

As wonderful as it is to see so many people outdoors enjoying the park, there always seems to be negative sentiments about the Cherry Blossom crowds. Perhaps unsurprisingly, complaints about traffic and the selfie-snapping crowds start to resound in online comments or conversations in the community. To be perfectly clear, I too have made some complaints as a resident who despises sitting in traffic while cars line up to get to the park. But I notice much darker sentiments of anger and irritation pervade comment threads about High Park and other popular places to visit, such as Niagara Falls or “cottage country” in the summer.

I remember reading a news post about Niagara Falls on social media a few years back and reading complaint after complaint in the comments about the high proportion of South Asian visitors who were picnicking instead of “supporting the local business.” Racism and xenophobia similarly echo in complaints about large, culturally and linguistically diverse groups that flock to beaches to enjoy the summer weather.

Why do so many people detest seeing others enjoy nature? Is it part of the collective fascination for an empty “wilderness”? Racism and xenophobia? A mix of both?

Connecting Back to Outdoor Learning

For me, outdoor time has always been strongly connected to being in large groups, being part of large potluck gatherings with family, sharing a cottage rental, or joining droves of tourists that gravitate toward an awe-inspiring sight like Cherry Blossoms. These are activities that, at least in my view, are rather broad in appeal to most people in Canada. I find it upsetting when certain groups are stigmatized for enjoying the outdoors in this way. And I can’t help but feel a tinge of shame and self-consciousness when I am part of a group of “too many” or “so many” Asians.

These feelings of being “othered” in outdoor spaces can be difficult to talk about, but I think it is important to name them because internalization of colonial values have such detrimental impacts on mental well-being, especially for those of us who grow up in Canada learning colonizer mythologies. As culturally responsive educators, we especially need to be mindful of when we may be sharing such narratives to students.

In part 2 of this blog, I will present a framework of cultural responsiveness we can use to start breaking away from harmful and inaccurate historical narratives.

There are some memories about school that are crystal clear in my mind. One such memory is when I was in first grade with a friend of mine (I’ll call her Beth). The most prominent memory I have of us is when we were reading with the teacher. She told us that we would be able to choose our own books from what I now understand was the levelled reading room . We went down the hall together and when she opened the doors it was like a bright light that shone in our eyes and a choir singing in the background. We saw so many BOOKS. These were different books than you would find in the library in the primary section – there were chapter books, picture books, and long books and books with lots of different characters in them. We could choose and exchange any books we wanted to read from this special room.

In retrospect, I know there wasn’t theme music or bright lights (unless it was the sun coming through the window). The books probably would be boring by today’s standards and were likely more dusty than I remember, but it remains a defining moment for me. I am still a voracious reader. I love a good story and I aim to develop a love of reading with students.

I think there’s something to be said for building a love of reading. When I was young I read books that were fun. As I grew older, I went through all the genres; scary books, romance books, literary canons, non-fiction, etc. I discovered what I love most about reading is the way I can learn about the world and the people who live in it.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that despite the fact that I learned to read in school, it isn’t the phonics worksheets that developed me into a reader. It wasn’t the focus on sounding out the alphabet and consonant blends that made me want to visit the local library and get the newest book from a favourite author. Of course, all of those things are important in the science of reading; developing decoding skills and a knowledge of words, but today there’s so much more opportunity for students to gain experience in developing these skills. Using audiobooks, thinking about text images to introduce vocabulary and ideas before engaging in print, technology, videos, and even music are all helpful in allowing so many students access to reading and language development. What I loved most, as a student, is the books coming alive. I remember my grade one teacher reading aloud to us and having us imagine (then vocalise) the sound effects for the stories she read to us. We would make knocking sounds when someone knocked on the door or big sighs when we saw a character’s emotions on their faces. This interactive way of engaging with reading helped me to understand that reading is also important because of the way we make sense of texts and ideas.

It was also the autonomy to choose books that meant something to me, ones that I thought were interesting or fascinating. I could spend time learning about myself and what I liked to read. It was the opportunity to talk about things that were interesting to me with my teachers. It was finding a voice and learning the words to express ideas and emotions and thoughts in a small reading group when I was painfully shy to raise my hand in class.

One of the main goals of the revised language curriculum is “to encourage students to experience the joy and possibility that literacy learning can ignite.” It sounds like such a beautiful learning experience. What if we made sure to create joyful literacy moments for every student? What possibilities would they dream of? What would inspire them to become readers and to love reading a good text – whether it be books or movies or an instructional manual – or to love creating one? Think about the possibilities that literacy learning blocks can bring when we consider learning to read and reading to learn a purposeful partnership. Maybe those are the core memories of joy and possibility we can cultivate for students.

I recently read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer with a book club of people across Canada. We were amazed by the numerous messages throughout the book. The author is a Potawatomi woman and mother as well as a botanist. She encourages readers to use two-eyed seeing, meaning to see the world through an Indigenous lens as well as a scientific one.

This leads me to thinking about the medicine wheel and the teachings of the sunrise, the East, the beginning of life and the season of spring. Although I am Irish-Canadian, these teachings resonate with me more than the idea of a new year in January. The natural world is bustling with energy as buds burst into leaves and blossoms form on flowers. Birds are singing out and the bunnies are appearing in my neighbourhood. 

This energy transfers into our classrooms as well and we may need to re-establish routines that change as wet weather brings muddy shoes and cool frosty mornings bring layers of sweaters and jackets one day and then t-shirt weather the next. Spring is a natural time for all of us to review the goals we wish to reach before the end of the school year.

Personally, I am building an understanding of the theme of reciprocity from Braiding Sweetgrass. Kimmerer explains it as “Nature gives us so much; the only thing one can do in the face of such profound generosity is to turn around and do the same.”

My choices at the grocery store impact the planet’s health as well as my own. I know I cannot always buy organic or local food but I’m doing it more often than I was. I’m also adding native pollinator plants to my garden to help the ecosystem where I live. It’s a start.

Professionally, I’m working on how to develop rapport with students quickly as an occasional teacher. I enter their classroom community as a guest teacher hoping they will feel safe and respected. Some strategies I’ve adopted include quickly learning their names, using a seating plan, giving the safety talk and interspersing mindfulness activities throughout the day.

If you are reviewing your goals this spring, I encourage you to be gentle with yourself. Be realistic about what can be achieved in the next two months. 

One suggestion for student goal setting is to include daily goal setting in your morning meeting time and take time to reflect on previous goals. A wonderful picture book to illustrate this point is The Bad Seed by Jori John. One year I had a student identify with the main character and then he set goals for self-improvement. It was very inspiring to see him do the work needed to make positive changes in his life.

Whatever happens with you this spring, I hope you enjoy this incredible season of renewal!

 

Even in noisy classrooms, busy hallways, and seas of faces, there are endless ways students might be lonely. Maybe they feel different, like they don’t quite belong. Perhaps they feel like they can’t contribute, that their voices and opinions don’t matter.  Some may feel like they can’t talk to anyone, at all.

Any child could feel these things, for any number of reasons. And having worked in ESL for many years now, I have come to see that multilingual language learners might be lonely in ways that are typically unexpected, in situations which otherwise might seem innocuous …

Perhaps loneliness might be born of listening to a class novel, read out loud by their teacher for 20 minutes … while the thrilling tale is open to all their classmates, it remains only a hum of disjointed sounds to the student just learning English.

Maybe loneliness finds them while staring confoundedly at a worksheet … devoid of illustrations and graphics, an intimidating wall of text stares back at them, crammed margin to margin with indecipherable script.

And loneliness might show itself at the sound of their classmates’ voices, at the sight of their hands raised … knowing that their peers are answering, participating, and understanding … while they themselves cannot.

This blight of isolation has an elixir, however. There is no one single recipe that produces this redeeming draught, but many educators know the basic ingredients. Luckily, my role affords me glimpses into this creative process, across many schools, in countless classrooms. School days, and weeks, and months reveal of a pinch of this, a dash of that, strong foundations, and ingenious combinations. Here’s a smattering of this years’ reimagined approaches:

A novel study, but with copies in multiple languages… so everyone is involved in the magic of the tale, and the meaningful exploration of related themes and topics afterwards.

A worksheet, dense script lightened by illustrations and open spaces, meaning unlocked through visuals and strategic translation, transforming that wall of text to an invitation, a welcoming-in.

A lesson, relevant to the lived experiences of students in the class, its ciphered speech slowly made comprehensible as teachers point to pictures of vocabulary they are talking about, visual clasps that fasten meaning to words … and the slight slowing of the voice as this happens, like stopping briefly on a stroll for a warm greeting.

As I’ve said before, each classroom is different, each teacher’s response tailored to the needs of the students before them. But each wonderful concoction has the same effect. And I never tire of seeing all the various ways our teaching can become that beautiful remedy, that antidote to loneliness.

The schools where I work as an occasional teacher play O Canada in the morning. I’ve been listening to this anthem for decades and am happy there is a movement to have diverse and inclusive versions of the anthem played at various schools. Recently, I was at a school for two days in a row and on both days they played an older version of O Canada with the lyric “all thy sons command” in it. As you know that line was changed in 2018 to “ in all of us command.”

As the anthem played I wondered if any students had picked up on the different lyrics so I asked my grade 4 students what they had noticed about the variations in the versions of O Canada that their school played. Their comments focussed on the style of singing and the style of music. When I asked them about the lyrics there was one student who was able to identify the word “sons”  in the version we had heard that day.

Grabbing this teachable moment I realized we had an opportunity for a topic for their journal entry.  I decided the students would benefit from hearing the 2023 story of the anthem being performed at the Toronto Raptors game by Jully Black. Black changed the words to “our home on native land” instead of “our home and native land”. We watched her performance and then viewed an interview with her.  I asked the class to reflect about whether or not the lyrics of O Canada make a difference.

We then posted the current lyrics from the federal government website and I gave the students a chance to reflect in their journals about the lyrics. Should the lyrics go back to what they were originally? Should the lyrics stay the same as they are currently posted? Are there any lyrics that could be changed to make the Canadian national anthem more inclusive? It was an open opportunity for students to do some critical thinking and explain their reasoning in their writing.

After some discussion, the students settled into their work fairly quickly. I was only supply teaching for a couple of periods so I was impressed that we were able to have an honest discussion and get some thoughts on paper. I was pleased to see that there were students who noticed other words in O Canada that could be changed to make the national anthem more inclusive. 

One of the students had explained clearly that the school should stop playing the version of O Canada with “all they sons command”.  She backed up her statement with solid reasoning.  With her permission I showed her journal entry to the principal and she promised to have that version taken out of the rotation. The student was all smiles knowing that her work had made a difference.

Unexpected teachable moments are one of the great benefits of teaching. I think our day plans should always have an asterisk with a reminder to go with the flow of energy that the students bring. Keeping them engaged with relevant material and empowering them to make positive change keeps everyone motivated to be present. I hope you have many teachable moments this year.

Last fall I wrote a blog entry about our union local’s efforts to identify The Missing Pieces in its office space, the things that may unintentionally inhibit members’ participation in union events and workshops. The HWETL Disabilities and Accessibility Issues Committee organized this initiative and came up with a one-question survey that we asked anonymously at all union events, in hopes of identifying barriers:

“Is there anything missing from this space that you need in order to have access to the same information, and the same opportunity to participate, as everyone else in the room?”

The answers we received were illuminating.

We got responses that spanned everything from lighting brightness, to speech amplification, to the amount of space between tables and in aisles. Some of the answers we did not anticipate … but isn’t that always the case? We cannot know how life unfolds for those whose experiences and identity we do not share.

And the union got to work right away, making changes to promote inclusion, just as we would in our classrooms. Making better spaces. 

And this process reaffirmed for me the importance of continuing to question things as they are, even if they seem “fine” to me. What is that saying? There are a great many things we know. And there are a great many things we don’t know. But there are even more things that we don’t know we don’t know.

So for now, this survey is a start. It is most definitely not an ending. Wishing all of us luck in discovering tomorrow what we do not know today, and making our students’ lives ever better for it.

French programming for newcomer English language learners, or ELLs, is an area of professional learning that does not get as much attention as areas like mathematics or language arts. On the surface, it seems obvious – shouldn’t French language acquisition for newcomers be similar to that of their Canadian born peers?

The answer, of course, is far from simple. First of all, newcomer ELLs are not a monolithic group. Some ELLs will come with knowledge of the Latin alphabet, others will come with limited literacy skills in their home language, and others may be experiencing a silent phase as they adjust to learning two new languages. Many ELLs will adjust to French learning with little difficulty, and some may even pursue French learning for years to come.

Complicating the issue further are the different perspectives that educators have about teaching French to students who are also learning English. However, it is important to note that elementary ELLs should not be exempt from learning French from both a policy and equity perspective. French instruction is for all students, and if we exclude or discourage students from French learning we bar access to an important part of the curriculum.

In my last blog post on ELLs in FSL programs, I discussed the different perspectives that educators may have about students that are learning French at the same time as they are learning English. In this post, we will delve into the practical side of things. Exactly how can French teachers adapt programming for ELLs?

Get to Know Your Newcomer Students

To program effectively for ELLs it’s important to know what backgrounds they bring to the classroom. Here are a few questions you will want answered:

Is the student receiving ESL or ELD program adaptations? When a student is receiving English Literacy Development, or ELD programming, it means they have two or more years of interrupted formal schooling. Students in ELD programs will be building their foundational literacy and numeracy skills, and may require extensive scaffolding in language and literacy activities.

What is the student’s home language, or L1? This is an important question because the student may still be familiarizing themselves with the Latin alphabet, which is used in English and French.

What is the student’s position on the Steps to English Proficiency Continua (STEP)? STEP is the tool used by Ontario educators to understand the student’s language acquisition progress in English. Knowing exactly where the student is in their English language proficiency is important, especially if the educator is using English as a scaffold to teach French.

Modifying Learning Expectations from a Policy Perspective

When newcomer ELLs are in the early steps of language acquisition in English (ex. pre-STEP 1-STEP 2), they may receive modifications to the grade level curriculum to meet their needs. In French, modifications may also be made, particularly when students are in the intermediate grades.

As the Ontario Curriculum, French as a Second Language states:

“For students in the early stages of language acquisition, teachers may need to modify the curriculum expectations in some or all curriculum areas. For example, if an English language learner begins the study of French in Grade 7, it may be desirable to modify the expectations to meet the student’s level of readiness and needs. Most English language learners require accommodations for an extended period, long after they have achieved proficiency in everyday English.”

It is important to note that ESL/ELD curriculum modifications typically involve adjustments to the depth and breadth of the grade level curriculum expectation. To make French instruction equitable, and to set clear learning goals for newcomer multilingual students it is critical to understand and apply modifications when needed for the student to be successful.

Another great benefit to applying modifications properly is that it takes a lot of stress away from the workflow of the educator. All too often, I find that teachers are concerned and sometimes overwhelmed by the idea that they are tasked by teaching students with emerging language proficiency in English. Having clear goals for French language output and assessment brings clarity to how they can plan and program for the student.

How to Modify French Learning Expectations

So what exactly does a modified French learning expectation look for an emergent speaker of English?

There are a couple of tools French teachers can utilize to modify French learning goals. The first tool is the STEP Continua, which is used by educators of ELLs in Ontario to understand the student’s level of English language proficiency. Pre STEP 1 to STEP 3, or the early phase of language acquisition, is typically when students are acquiring everyday, interpersonal language skills. It is in this phase of language learning that curriculum modifications are most often made.

The second tool a French teacher might consider using is the CEFR, or the Common European Framework of Reference for Language. This tool is widely used by additional language educators in Ontario and around the world to understand the student’s level of target language proficiency. Pre A1-B1 are considered early levels of language acquisition.

Both tools are language acquisition continua that can be used as an assessment for learning tool to identify what entry points a student might have into the curriculum. Teachers can use the descriptors of language behaviours to adapt learning goals for the student to support accessible programming and equitable assessment.

Let’s explore how we can use the STEP Continua for a grade 7 emergent speaker of English (pre-STEP 1) in a core French program. We will just focus on the ESL STEP Continua to align practice with other subject areas in the Ontario curriculum. Let’s start by looking at the original curriculum expectation:

C1.1 Using Reading Comprehension Strategies: identify a variety of reading comprehension strategies and use them before, during, and after reading to understand texts in modelled, shared, guided, and independent reading contexts.

Next, let’s look at the STEP Continua. (STEP 1 grades 7-8, Reading)

Demonstrate understanding by responding to a highly visual text, using a combination of visuals, drawings, L1, pretaught vocabulary and gestures

Read and follow simply worded instructions with visual support

Use concepts of English print (e.g., directionality of print, English alphabet, sound/symbol patterns, and upper and lower case letters)

We can tell by this descriptor that the student would require a significant amount of scaffolds when reading at this very early step of language acquisition. This might include the option to use the home language to support comprehension, and simplified and highly visual texts.

A modification of the French expectation might be:

Identify and use reading comprehension strategies, such as translanguaging, visual cues, and using pretaught vocabulary to read teacher and student selected French language texts.

Assessment and Reporting

As per Growing Success and the Ontario FSL curriculum, when assessing ELLs in French, teachers should use the modified French curriculum expectations. When the student is being assessed according to modified learning expectations, the “ESL/ELD Box” would be checked on the provincial report card. As the Ontario FSL curriculum states,

When curriculum expectations are modified in order to meet the language-learning needs of English language learners, assessment and evaluation will be based on the documented modified expectations. Teachers will check the ESL/ELD box on the progress report card and the provincial report card only when modifications have been made to curriculum expectations to address the language needs of English language learners (the box should not be checked to indicate simply that they are participating in ESL/ELD programs or if they are only receiving accommodations).

Summing it Up

Part of making French language instruction equitable and inclusive is providing ELLs with an appropriately adapted program based on the curriculum and tools like the STEP continua. Knowing how to adapt program according to policy will ensure that the language instruction is intentional and grounded in learning expectations that provide an entry point into the French curriculum for the student.