Dear Members & Friends of TexTESOL II,

During these unprecedented times of dealing with the stresses of managing the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to share with you some things that TexTESOL II has done to make the best of a tough situation. We have adapted to online engagement and have had success with hosting our first online webinar, which had over 60 attendees! We have also added links to our website for quick and easy ways to donate to our organization. In addition, we are now more engaged through our social media sites with our Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @textesol2 handle.

We are also proud to announce that we were able to award 3 scholarships last month (2) high school senior scholarships and (1) pre-teacher college scholarship. Please continue to read further through the newsletter to meet our winners and read their stories! Also, be ready to engage in this upcoming Webinar on Race, Diversity and Language within our field. It is going to be a chance for us to learn and grow together as teachers and grow within our profession!

TexTESOL II will continue to do its best to offer articles and resource websites to assist you in your journey with teaching online and in the classroom. Once we get past our current social distancing guidance, TexTESOL II will be back out in the community continuing to provide networking and education opportunities. The board members and I look forward to seeing you in person once again, but until then, see you on Zoom!

Warm Regards,

Nickola Wilson-Chung

TexTESOL II President

By Elise Brittain

PhD Student of Culture, Literacy and Language at the University of Texas at San Antonio

We are very proud to announce our Fall 2020 scholarship award winners! After reviewing many strong applicants, we chose two high school students and one college student who is pursuing a career in the field of ESL. Please help us congratulate our winners: Yasmin Banuelos, Fernanda Rangel. and Fernando Cordova. We have shared their essays (with permission) as a source of inspiration.

by Yasmin Banuelos

Both of my parents emigrated from Mexico to the United States when they were in their early twenties; they never had access to proper education in their hometown, much less a college degree. They attended their respective Mexican schools as far as they could before making the decision to search for a better life to the North, and my mom earned her high school diploma and my dad only completed a second grade education. Being born into a Spanish speaking household, I was placed in bilingual classes throughout all of my primary school years and took English Second Language (ESL) courses in middle school. Growing up I experienced first-hand the challenges that my parents faced as native Spanish speakers. These challenges included helping my brother with homework and tutoring and guiding my parents through business transactions by interpreting and translating to and from English and Spanish. My parents have always expressed the importance of a college degree, and by making this my gift to them, it is reflective as a symbol of gratitude for their sacrifices. To receive their acclamation, once I reach this goal, will be my ultimate sense of pride and accomplishment. To help further my college commitment, I chose to attend Travis Early College High School (TECHS) for their ambitious academic atmosphere. As part of the Dual Enrollment program at Travis ECHS and San Antonio College (SAC), my brothers and I are the first generation of my family to attend college. Throughout high school, I have built an extensive academic record, found time to participate in clubs that were meaningful, and volunteered to help others, and I plan to continue these types of activities while in college. I have maintained an impressive balance of active volunteering, strong academics, and varied extracurricular activities, while maintaining a 4.0 GPA at both Travis ECHS and SAC. I am a founding member of the National Hispanic Honor Society, which we started during my sophomore year, and in it we attend community activities and programs that celebrate and appreciate the Hispanic culture and language. Furthermore, I am proud that I was selected as the 2020 Distinguished Graduate in Liberal Arts at San Antonio College; this honor is highlighted as I am only the second Travis ECHS student to be selected from all the college student applicants in the last five years. In addition, I have been on San Antonio College Dean’s List for four consecutive years, which means I have maintained a GPA above 3.5 for seven semesters. With adequate financial support through college, I hope to become part of the next generation of Hispanic Business Women of San Antonio. This Fall 2020 semester I will be attending Texas Tech University where I plan on double majoring in Business Accounting and Finance with a minor in Spanish Language. My vision is to provide a language translating service for other native Spanish speakers, where they feel equitably represented in a professional environment.

by Fernanda Rangel

When I moved to the United States from Mexico, I was only three years old. I vaguely had a concept of the Spanish language since I was so young, but I now had to learn a completely new language. It was difficult hearing English in a head start program and coming home to a Spanish speaking family. To my family and I surprise I was able to quickly grasp both languages. My mom noticed during doctor appointments the nurses would talk to me in English and I would do exactly what they said. Both my parents were amazed at the fact that I started understanding. When I was enrolled in elementary school I was placed in a bilingual program. The classes were taught in English, but it was easy to communicate in Spanish if needed. I recall every now and then I was tested on my improvement in the English language. At first it made me feel insecure because not every student would get tested. Every few weeks they would pull me out to the hallway where a little desk was waiting for me while other students would eat snacks or play games.

At the end of fourth grade they sent me home with a letter that the next upcoming school year I would be placed in a regular all English class. When that happened, I drifted from all my friends I had made in the bilingual program but luckily met some of my best friends. As time went on, I realized my parents depended on me and to this day to translate for them when it came to reading documents, doctors’ appointments, sending emails or texts, making phone calls, etc. This helped me in some ways on my communication and translation skills.

I found myself working harder in my classes. In fact, I was given the opportunity to take English 1 in 8th grade because of my score on my seventh grade English EOC exam. I was also placed in AP Spanish by the time I entered high school and earned four Spanish credits in just my first year. By my senior year I did not have to take an English class since I had finished the English high school requirements a year early. Although it was a challenge in the beginning, I am grateful to be bilingual. I find myself helping in various circumstances. My senior year I had a chance to be a student assistant working in the attendance office. The other student assistants depended on me when parents only knew Spanish. They struggled the days I would be occupied or absent. In addition, since my goal is to become part of the medical field, I feel that being bilingual will help me communicate with many patients. I always see the relief in my parents or other people’s eyes when a nurse or doctor can speak Spanish. I hope in the future I can give that same relief when it comes to language barriers.

by Fernando Cordova

The English language is very hard to learn. I’ve personally know this from experience having to learn it myself and by trying to help my parents learn it as well. When I first started going to school, I only knew Spanish because that was the language always spoken at home. I never knew one word of English until I stepped into the classroom and I personally struggled to retain it because as soon as I went home because I didn’t have a speaking buddy to speak English with. Throughout my educational career, I have always been looked down upon because I spoke Spanish. Even my teachers would make me answers things in English when I couldn’t or didn’t know how to. I wasn’t allowed to use the restroom unless I could say it in English, which was degrading, but I was too afraid to speak because my English wasn’t as “acceptable” as it is today, and I was picked on by other students because of it. As years went on, my Spanish withered. Looking back and reflecting on my studies, I determined that I was in an early exit bilingual education program, which is a subtractive bilingual program (Baker & Wright, 2017). They rushed me to learn English at the expense of negating my Spanish, and once they decided I was decent in English, I was “kicked to the curb.”

Luckily, my personal experiences and ESL courses have taught me that we (ESL teachers) are building on maintaining student’s home language and trying to build their English skills without taking away from their first language or cultural identity (Bunch, 2010, 2013; Valdés, 2004; Valdés et al., 2005, 2014; Walqui, 2015; Walqui & Bunch, 2019). During my time at the University of Texas at San Antonio, I realized that the public education system let me and so many others down. That’s something that I plan to prevent for my future students. Bilingual development a journey that most people don’t understand in the field of education (Coady et al., 2011; de Jong et al., 2013; de Jong & Harper, 2005; Harper & de Jong, 2009), but I do. It’s something that requires patience, kindness, compassion, and teacher language awareness (Lindahl & Watkins, 2015). I hope that by continuing my studies I will be able to make a life-long impact on these students; something that I wish I had instead of trauma. My hope is that with my studies I will be able to provide my students with a safe environment in which they feel like they can make mistakes, where I can as a teacher provide them with the tools they need to be successful. I plan to study and take notes on how to become a successful teacher. I plan to research ways to make students feel comfortable in their languages and not shame them for being at the beginning stages of language development. Overall, I want to learn on ways I can help my student’s build on their language as a resource (Faltis & Smith, 2016) to be proud of, and not take away from it.

References

Baker, C., & Wright, W. E. (2017). Foundations of bilingualism and bilingual education (6th ed.). Multilingual Matters.

Bunch, G. (2010). Preparing mainstream secondary content-area teachers to facilitate English language learners’ development of academic language. The Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Educaiton, 109(2), 351–383.

Bunch, G. (2013). Pedagogical language knowledge: Preparing mainstream teachers for English learners in the new standards era. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 298–341. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X12461772

Coady, M., Harper, C., & de Jong, E. (2011). From preservice to practice: Mainstream elementary teacher Beliefs of preparation and efficacy with English Language Learners in the state of Florida. Bilingual Research Journal, 34(2), 223–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2011.597823

de Jong, E. J., & Harper, C. A. (2005). Preparing mainstream teachers for English-language learners: Is being a good teacher good enough? Teacher Education Quarterly, 32(2), 101–124.

de Jong, E. J., Harper, C. A., & Coady, M. R. (2013). Enhanced knowledge and skills for elementary mainstream teachers of English Language Learners. Theory Into Practice, 52(2), 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2013.770326

Faltis, C., & Smith, H. L. (2016). Bilingualism and the multilingual turn: Language-as-resource. The Bilingual Review/Revista Bilingüe, 33(3), 126–139.

Harper, C. A., & de Jong, E. J. (2009). English language teacher expertise: The elephant in the room. Language and Education, 23(2), 137–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500780802152788

Lindahl, K., & Watkins, N. M. (2015). Creating a culture of language awareness in content-based contexts. TESOL Journal, 6(4), 777–789. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.223

Valdés, G. (2004). Between support and marginalisation: The development of academic language in linguistic minority children. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 7(2–3), 102–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050408667804

Valdés, G., Bunch, G., Snow, C. E., & Lee, C. (2005). Enhancing the development of students’ language(s). In L. Darling-Hammmond, P. Bransford, P. LePage, K. Hammerness, & H. Duffy (Eds.), Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do (pp. 126–168). Jossey-Bass.

Valdés, G., Kibler, A., & Walqui, A. (2014). Changes in the expertise of ESL professionals: Knowledge and action in an era of new standards. Alexandria, VA: TESOL International Association.

http://prodev.elpa21.org/module2/module2/resources/ChangesInTheExpertiseOfESLProfessionals.pdf

Walqui, A. (2015). The language valued at school. In G. Valdés, K. Menken, & M. Castro (Eds.), Common core, bilingual, and English langauge learners: A resource for educators (pp. 49–50). Caslon Publishing.

Walqui, A., & Bunch, G. (Eds.). (2019). Amplifiying the curriculum: Designing quality learning opportunities for English learners. Teachers College Press.

by Francine M. Johnson

PhD Candidate of Culture, Literacy and Language at the University of Texas at San Antonio

After teaching a class that was 100% asynchronous during the summer of 2020, I felt I was missing a personal connection with my students. We used Blackboard Learn, FlipGrid, discussion boards, etc., but I felt like I only knew my students by their work. Therefore, after spending time thinking about how to create more natural communication for students and myself in the context of our undergraduate courses, I decided to use GroupMe.

GroupMe is an app that you can install on your phone and/or use on your computer for free. It is used to create groups where members of the group can easily text and share files and digital links. The best part is that it does not show people's phone numbers! This allows for instant communication while maintaining student privacy. I set it up and offered it on my syllabus (with a link to join) as an optional means of communication. More than 80% of my students joined the group, and so far, they seem to enjoy it! Students have been helping one another, sharing ideas, and reflecting and making connections to the readings in GroupMe. Students are also making connection of the content presented in their various ESL courses. Once in awhile, I clarify things if I see a misunderstanding that is not corrected by a peer, but for the most part, this tool has enabled students to exert their own agency, to connect with others, and to help construct meaning.

I imagine people could use GroupMe to share announcements and messages to families of students in public schools, to communicate with committees in which they serve professionally, and other types of groups where one would want easy access but some level of privacy. I encourage you to consider using this app!

https://groupme.com/en-US/

By Francine M. Johnson

PhD Candidate of Culture, Literacy and Language at UTSA

TexTESOL2 hosted its first webinar, titled Tools for Distance Learning, on August 1, 2020. Presenters shared tools and ideas and collaborated with our amazing participants. Francine M. Johnson taught people how to create bitmoji virtual classrooms to add a little fun to their online teaching, President Nickola Wilson-Chung taught members how to use Flip Grid in the ESL classroom, Brent Warner presented a session titled GoogELL, where he presented and modeled several useful plug-ins to use with google chrome to support our learners, and Alpha Martínez-Suarez presented about how to talk to children about anti-racism at home and in the classroom.

Each session lasted approximately forty-five minutes, and participants were encouraged to ask questions or to share ideas. As participants offered ideas and tools or websites to help us take the work further, the TexTESOL Board created a document to include those and shared them with participants. Paid registrants received the presenter handouts, and everyone was able to purchase a video recording of the webinar to watch at their leisure.

To view the program, please click here.

Feedback on the evaluation form was extremely positive, which has led us to believe we need to offer more webinars, even if we are not social distancing during a pandemic. Some of the comments we received:

"This was the best TexTESOL seminar I have attended." TexTESOL2 Member

"I found the webinar to be very informative and interesting." TexTESOL2 Member

"I appreciated the session of anti-racism in the classroom, but the topic is complex and is one that requires a great deal of introspection. I am glad that we are attempting to deal with the problem." TexTESOL2 Member

"We appreciated the high quality of the presentations." Nonmember

By Rosemary Villanueva-Delaney

ESL/Bilingual Specialist for SAISD

Sometimes ESL teachers need some quick and easy tech tools to help make learning easy for their newcomer students. Older newcomers at the secondary level need to be able to have tools to help them in a variety of content classes. These tools help the students to grasp content which they are acquiring more English. Here are a few tech tools that are great for the new arrivals.

Read & Write

Read & Write is a great Google Extension that can help you make a vocabulary chart from any Google doc that you have. The extension will do most of the work for you—all you have to do is highlight the words that you need in the chart. Then, when you click on vocabulary icon, the words will go into a chart, along with their definition, a visual, and a column for students to write notes or translations. The entire vocabulary chart is editable, so you can make sure that it is exactly what your students need. I used to spend so much time building these charts on my own, and now I can do it in just a few clicks!

Click the link below for the screencastify tutorial on how to make a chart now.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uISE47pS6NWLSouOVpJwA1MauQkoiZFC/view

Immersive Reader

Immersive reader is a great way for newcomers to have a variety of supports while reading webpages. After installing the free extension for google, you merely highlight text, right click, and select “Hel[ Me Read This”. Students can select from many languages and hear the text in their language. They can hear the text read in English and toggle back and forth between the two. They can click on words to see picture dictionary photos of what words mean. They can highlight various parts of speech at the click of a button. They can click and see syllable breaks in words. Students can even adjust text size and spacing. This great tool is indispensable to the newcomer classroom.

You can click the links below to see how to install immersive reader extension and how to use it.

How to install Immersive Reader:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dthT8jGm2CmzSwEH6S_yMuJzADJOQIT3/view

Using the Immersive Reader in Websites

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1juqfdFL5mQx_-drz3ye41n9fEsrxzxRs/view

Easy Multilingual Closed Captioning

Many students and teachers don’t know that you can go into the settings on most videos and change the closed captioning settings to get a multitude of languages. Videos can be tricky for many students to follow. Even with closed captioning turned on, the captions are frequently to fast for the students to be able to read them. Students can learn to adjust their closed captioning to their own language and better understand the content. This is extremely helpful to newcomers in their content area classes such as math, science, and history where the emphasis is on knowing the content.

You can click on the link below to view the screencastify on how to get closed captioning in various languages.

Closed Captioning in Multiple Languages

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BAbDt6rXpCCcSPcpdZ_8W_8MhWCCrQX4/view

by Tracey Jones

Lecturer at Baylor University

It seems likely that one could begin a narrative with “That summer when…” and launch into a description of high temps, high anxiety and trips canceled, with images of teachers pivoting, prepping and re-prepping and anyone who lived through it will nod knowingly and say: “That had to be Summer 2020.”

Many of us made an abrupt shift, beginning last March, to fully virtual teaching. I have been an online student in various programs since 2011, and this seemed to work to my advantage a bit. When colleagues were discovering the wonder of Zoom, I had been fortunate enough to be a student on Zoom since the application came out in 2013. I have experienced varying levels of teaching effectiveness from an online student perspective, and that background has afforded me a unique view as I put on my Online Teacher Hat.

When I go into an online teaching environment, I don’t think: “What do I do in class, that I can STILL do online.” Instead, I think: “What can I do online that is even BETTER than what I would do in class.”

Summer 2020 was that summer when I taught ESL Methodology, Spanish as a modern language and ESOL courses for international students in China. Start to finish, it was a summer of immersion in online second language acquisition and pedagogy.

And, I learned three things…

Comfort zones can be challenged, even from the comfort of home

I have always loved a classroom. When I was a public high school teacher in L.A., I created such a cool, comfortable, welcoming classroom. I adored that space. I even had students (“my groupies”, they called themselves) who would hang out in my classroom at snack and lunch breaks. Still, I’ve always felt a little bit restricted by the traditional classroom setting. Desks can get in the way of Zumba dance sessions, nearby colleagues are perturbed by music blaring in the target language, and the unquiet language acquisition classroom, touted decades ago by Dr. Stephen Krashen, is not always as welcome as it should be. Taking learning outside of the classroom has always been a passion of mine, and in the traditional setting, this is not always easy.

Experiential learning can be very meaningful and memorable. This summer, I paired my TESOL methodology students (who were unable to engage in an in-person field experience) with my ESOL students in China. Students connected through WeChat and Zoom. The reports and recordings indicated fruitful conversations among peers engaging across the globe. Real-world experience with proficiency levels was had and cultural connections were made. Perspectives shifted among all students. We could not connect in person, but we could still connect. This semester, my Spanish students will partner with Dual Language classes at a local primary school. What is language for, if not to connect humans through the ages, across the world, and now over the Wi-Fi.

SLA can be personal, even when not in-person

My most effective online instructors over the years have been creative, yet realistic, and rigorous while flexible. More than anything: they were real. I try to mimic my professors’ best practices. When instructors reach out to me before classes begin, that reduces anxiety. So, I sent my students an introductory e-mail with video and instructed them to text me (yes, to my personal cell phone) and to respond to a couple of brief questions. I replied to every text, and created a GroupMe for all classes. In the Group Text, I post reminders, and a daily meme, or TikTok, quote, or video related to course content. Again, these posts can warm up a cold, virtual space. Students can then direct-message me. For me, this is the most efficient way of communicating with students—fast and direct for all of us. My international Students in China message me and send GIFs via the WeChat app.

I love it when students I had semesters and semesters ago, contact me via text to share something they saw, heard or experienced that reminded them of me and our learning experience together. As last spring morphs into 2021, more and more of my students will never meet me in-person. This is a sobering thought. But, they can still connect with me as their instructor because being connected virtually doesn’t mean being only virtually connected.

Spanish and ESOL students were responsible for “show and tell” and daily “scavenger hunts” while on Zoom. These activities brought life, laughs and community to the Virtual Classroom while students were challenged to process their living/studying spaces through a bi/multilingual lens. And, these activities were much more successful and varied in an online learning environment than they would be in person within the confines of a classroom. Students had to connect “show and tell” to the current content, so in a section on well-being, a student aptly described her pet cat’s way of living a healthy and relaxed lifestyle. The newest, feline, on-screen classmate was a huge hit! Please note: we all have a lot to learn about well-being from cats.

Asynchronous can still be in-sync

When I say: in-sync, I don’t mean the boy-band, but getting into a rhythm can be part of it.

In online teaching environments, there are often online Discussions. My best professors were RIGHT in there in those Discussions with us. They didn’t just assign them and leave us to our own devices—as professors, they participated actively in the Discussions along with us. They would post comments on student posts, pose additional probing questions, suggest further reading, a TED talk, or a related YouTube video. They let us know when we had come up with something really original that made them think!

Online Discussions can be spaces that are incredibly alive and rewarding to be part of, and so I make sure that I am in those Discussions as much as possible, just like I would be in-person. And, really, these Discussions can be more fruitful because there is no classroom time-limit on them. I can even go back and add thoughts and comments if/when we circle back to the topic later in the semester. I can refer to a Discussion that is not just a faded recollection from a past class, but a virtual memory saved in cyber-space that students can click on and review.

That summer when…

Summer 2020 became that summer when I learned about my students, I learned about online teaching, and I learned that I still have a lot to learn. Still, it ended up being that summer when the connections made transcended those Zoom sessions. Second language acquisition over a screen has less to do with reliable wifi, and everything to do with individual, human connections, virtual though they may be.

By Alpha Martínez-Suarez

PhD Student of Culture, Literacy and Language at the University of Texas at San Antonio

There are a lot of conversations happening right now regarding the passing of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her legacy. The Notorious RBG as she was known (see here for the origins of the term) was not only a power force in the seat of the Supreme Court Of The United States (SCOTUS), but also a strong woman dedicated to her work, her

convictions, and her fight for woman’s rights. Justice Bader Ginsburg was legendary for her dissents and the way a powerful intellect was used for the greater good.

On this note, -a voice and lifelong work used for the greater good despite incredible odds- is where I would like to focus this reflection today. More often than not, and especially during these challenging times brought by the CoVid19 pandemic tribulations and discomforts, our work and dedication as educators seems to be reaching daunting proportions of accumulated stress. The particular conditions of our back-to-school Fall semester and the implications of continued online or remote distance learning during the second part of the school year in the Spring semester has become an added source of stress in an already stressful profession. These challenging conditions, including but not limited to technological quandaries, the problem of access and privilege that implies a non-existent equally uniform access to technology in the form of devices, and services in the form of unlimited internet, has served to highlight the disparities our school system encounters in the daily and now even more exacerbated or brought to a harsher light under the current learning circumstances. Learning in the best of the environments is a dedicated labor of love, courage, and resilience, from both the student and the educator. This labor of love is now under trial and is requiring even more of our educators and school leadership and this is where the work and dedication of Associate Justice Bader Ginsburg can have another long-lasting impact as we incorporate this example of strength and resilience during extreme difficult circumstances. RBG spent an entire lifetime flourishing in the face of adversity even before being appointed a Justice of the SCOTUS, she was seeing as a moderate liberal that helped unify the liberal block in the court and fought against gender discrimination during her career. She graduated top of her class in Columbia Law school after having to transferred from Harvard in her last year of studies due to her husband’s accepted position in a New York law firm. Not even her exceptional academic record was enough to shield her from the gender-based discrimination in the workplace. This helped cement her convictions and lifelong work towards ending gender-based discrimination, both in the professional and personal world. Justice Bader Ginsburg proved time and time again that she was a powerhouse and a force to be reckoned with. Until her death she was one of the most devoted questioners on the bench and left with a legacy that will -hopefully- still have an impact for years to come. With this in mind, I invite you dear reader, fellow educator, to reflect on the legacy we are working to build every day, by our actions, our dedication, our heart, mind and soul in this beautiful profession that is to teach. Teaching is a call, goes beyond the profession to have also long-lasting impacts in the minds, hearts, and souls trusted under our guidance and care. May the strength of women like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg be with you all the time, specially during this difficult era in education, during a challenging political climate in the history of our country and with the passion and dedication that we gift to this call, this profession and lifestyle.

Featuring Scholar JPB Gerald

TexTESOL 2 elections will be coming up in November 2020! Please consider getting more involved by joining us on the board. Your vote matters! We have elected positions with erm limits and appointed positions with unlimited terms. Our organization is only as strong as our membership. Please stay tuned for more information to come.

The mission of TexTESOL II is to provide information, professional development, scholarships, advocacy, networking opportunities and support to its membership in promoting excellence in the teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages.

We encourage membership among teachers, administrators or from any community member involved with English learners who work in K-12 and Adult ESL, as well as dual language/bilingual education contexts.

By networking with and learning from each other, we hope to continue to move the TESOL field forward in South Texas!

Email: textesoltwo@gmail.com
Website: textesoltwo.com
Location: Texas
Facebook: facebook.com/TexTESOL2
Twitter: @textesol2