Learning from Efforts of ESOL Students

Laura Sweeney

Now, in my tenth year of public school teaching in Georgia middle schools, I have come to appreciate that it is I who have learned most from my students. Perhaps the greatest lessons are to be learned from our immigrant students, the limited English proficient students (also known as LEP) who strive to keep up with the pace of the American public schools, always happy to please adults in the age of standardized testing.

Standardized testing was created with good intentions to ensure that students do not fall through the cracks and that they benefit from all possible educational opportunities. Why should students fall behind in English, math, or any other subject? To ensure that this will not happen, ESOL students are literally racing to keep up with proficient-English-speaking peers. They know that standardized tests are administered yearly to ensure that they have attained mastery of various subjects. ESOL students also know that failure of tests may make it difficult to move from middle school to high school. Yes, this new emphasis on testing and accountability was created to thrust my students to the forefront of achievement regardless of the fact that it takes five years to master a new language, in spite of whether they came from foreign orphanages with little adult contact and no formal education!

The tests attempt to determine whether students are reading and doing math on grade level, but more importantly, tests compare the progress of large groups of students from one school to the next. Unfortunately, some schools do not meet Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals, and when this happens, it is as though the bell tolls for the failing schools. In Georgia, parents can be given an option to transfer their children to a new school if the so-called, “poor-performing school” continues to get low test scores.

Politicians and school policy makers forget that test scores are highly fallible indicators of progress and that they don’t show the whole picture of educational attainment. Fortunately, my students have taught me that there’s more to the picture than test scores. They know that portfolio-production, love for fellow students, working well together, and especially empathy are the greatest lessons to be taught. Test scores vary depending on students’ health, emotions, motivation, and willingness to participate. Besides, my students know that they are capable individuals with endless potential, even when their test scores are low.

Love of humanity, good intention, and that enthusiasm for learning are the true indicators of effective school performance. Students know why it’s important to step into the classroom and get that feeling of teamwork and mutual support. Rather than racing to see if we can compete globally through test scores, we must out perform the rest of the world with love and compassion.

Last year, my international classroom had students originating from four Asian countries, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Mexico, and various countries of South America. Students worked together in a cooperative, loving manner, demonstrating to me that we can do the same on a global scale.

ESOL students don’t want to be left behind; however, they know the value of compassionate collaboration with peers. Helping one another with group tests and discussion runs counter to comparative testing and percentile scores. Open discussion and writing develop the mind to a greater extent than choosing multiple choice answers.

Politicians, school leaders, and educators should become familiar with the writings of Howard Gardner, author of Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice (Basic Books, 1993, p. 9) and discoverer of seven – or more – multiple intelligences, including intrapersonal, interpersonal, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, linguistic, and logical-mathematical. One can find demonstrations of various types of intelligence in the portfolio products of our schools. One must accept that poor test takers do have unique learning styles that manifest distinctive talents and that all learners can be successful. It’s essential to realize that not all children are alike, nor should they be, and that it is diversity and creativity that makes this country great.

Just as tests aren’t suited to all students, the developmental stages of childhood continue to be crucial in the learning environment. Psychologists know that all children do not pass through the same developmental stages at the same time. Until a student is psychologically prepared for a specific level of study, he or she will not master the skill that is being taught. Infrequently, there are middle school students who have not progressed past the most rudimentary developmental stages and who are unprepared for an education beyond preschool level. This should make it obvious that we cannot expect everyone to attain high test scores and the same skills.

My ESOL students have all been highly capable people whom I anticipate will be successful adults and future leaders. They engage in intense conversation about culture, diversity, and a broad range of other topics. Many have experienced the pain of having lost members of the family and the loss of self-esteem that comes with having had to speak a foreign language in a new culture.

We hold the foreign students to a standard that is higher than that which we expect of ourselves when we travel abroad; whereas, we expect the Russians, Germans, and French to speak English, Americans rarely learn second languages to accommodate or build empathy for foreigners. We think learning a language is difficult, and we ridiculously assume all children will be able to learn our language and get high test scores within the short time frame of a year.
Immigrant seventh-graders, with little or no previous education, have been seen toting algebra books through hallways, even when they never had studied basic mathematics in their former homelands. It is amazing that one might try to teach advanced math to a child who has not mastered the math basics and that this would be done to make certain no child’s left behind. It only makes sense that one would first teach subtraction to an individual (of any age) and then proceed to teach pre-algebra.

Is it healthy to make children race to catch up with the majority when they are not ready? Is standardized testing really worth it if young ESOL students’ self-esteem is destroyed as they try to keep up with the pace of testing? Other unique groups, including the developmentally disabled or students with unique learning styles might be negatively impacted by the results of standardized testing. Is not a good sense of self-worth and compassion for others more important than the comparison of test scores to determine which students and schools have met the grade?

The public schools tend to encourage competition in the form of test scores between the states, schools, and children. This comparison between test results creates fear that might impair children’s health while teaching children to be highly competitive. The fact is, someone or some state will always be number 49 or 50, and some unfortunate school is going to score the poorest scores in the state, especially since the tests are comparative.

Active discourse, using open-ended questions and answers encourages students to think for themselves as they address political issues, social studies, and much loved pastimes. Our favorite classroom activities are book critiques and the discussion of newspaper articles, requiring students to reflect upon the world in which we live. Students love filling schools with graphic organizers that illustrate the parts of speech in distinctive ways. Making drawings ingrains new terminology in their minds, and this is particularly effective for visual learners.
Last year, students participated in the new, Computer-art ESOL Curriculum © that involved making websites, publishing books, using word processing to correct grammar, Internet reading programs, email exchange, and critiques of the arts and literature. Every student proved he or she was a gifted student with multiple outlets for intelligence. The class demonstrated that the limited-English-proficient have beautiful voices that resonate through the published word and human-kind’s most primal, visual arts.

Fortunately, the ESOL classroom can run counter to our competitive culture because it is a compassionate environment, encouraging students to help one another. From time to time, the children give these words of encouragement, and so, I end with this summary of lessons taught by a whole world of children in one classroom, with childish – but mature – eyes, hopeful that others will show them the same respect that they show American culture:

1. Tell teachers that it’s okay to use different tests and techniques for evaluating different kids.
2. Let the new kid take an easier test or do less work until she’s ready for what the rest of the class is doing. This is fair.
3. Share notes and the rest of your knowledge with classmates.
4. Encourage your friends.
5. Be proud to be bilingual and bicultural.
6. Learn from diversity.
7. Everyone in the class can share talents to make the group do well.
8. Try to understand others, especially if you know what it feels like to be in their shoes.
9. When one student wins, everyone wins!

It is my conclusion that schools should treat all children like gifted children because they all do have great gifts to be manifested in thousands of ways that cannot begin to be measured by standardized tests. When confronted with an obstacle, I think about how ESOL students overcome their challenges.