TRANSCRIPT - Note:  Please excuse all grammar, spelling, punctuation, and messaging mistakes.  We use an automatic transcription service and it's not perfect!

Hey there, English Learner Portal Community! Welcome to our very first podcast episode. I am super excited about this because I've never done a podcast before and I think it could give us a new way to communicate and share information. I know I have a decent commute in the mornings when I'm going to school, so I like to listen to podcasts on the drive.

It gives me things to think about and I don't have to really be watching or paying attention, so maybe a podcast will work for some of our topics that don't involve too many visuals. So we're going to give this a try today for our first topic.

I think a great way to start the new year is to think about student engagement. We talk about student engagement all the time in our online courses and in our vlogs because if your students aren't engaged in your instruction, if they're not tuned in to you, if they're not part of the fray, then they are not learning. So how did we address the idea of student engagement in a couple recent workshops and school visits?

I had conversations around this topic as well in different ways. In classrooms, what I notice is the English learners often off to themselves, by themselves, or off as a little group within a classroom together, or together at a table in the cafeteria.

I would say more of my time recently has been in secondary examples where I think the isolation and exclusion is much more of an issue. I think in elementary school students kind of attach to each other and help them along.

So I've been thinking about what do we do about that? Some of it is student choice. They're choosing to not be part of the group. They're choosing to stay back and not participate or isolate themselves because they're uncomfortable. They're embarrassed. They're shy.  They're still trying to figure it out. They don't know exactly what to do. There are a lot of reasons and sometimes it's good intentions on the teacher part which result in isolating the students. So, for example, good intentions on the teacher part if you are doing an activity, where students are required to get up and move and find a partner or have some kind of conversation.  Students participate, get up and move and the teacher would say, "oh you can sit this out and you can just write it quietly" or you know, three four five English learners there, "You all can go to that table and do this together. You don't have to get up and do this activity with us."  I totally understand that is compassion at work and teachers trying to just protect students from doing something that's a risk-taking thing. They're hesitant to do it, but I ask you to really think about that practice because when we excuse students from what the rest of the class is doing, we are adding to the seclusion.

We are setting the expectation that I don't think you can do this or it's not important that you do this or you know, we'll just be here when you get comfortable and feel like joining us.  I'm a firm believer in compassion, but at a certain point we push students to participate. Just today I had a class that was doing a vocabulary activity. It was awesome and the content teacher put vocabulary word on cards and the definitions on cards. Each student had a card. They had to go find their matching partner and my English learner didn't want to do it and I'm just like I'm going with you. I'm going to help you. We're going to do this. You're going to be part of the group and she pushed back and she didn't want to and she didn't say much of anything through the entire activity, but she did it.

It made other students interact as well, which leads me to the second thought then I have on this. As teachers, it would really be helpful if we took the time to address this with other students. How can you be a good peer for a student who isn't proficient in English and is trying to figure out this class. What could you do to be a good member of the community to help out the student to include the student? What are some strategies that you can use if you end up partners with someone who's English isn't that well developed yet and really have that conversation with the class. What do you do?

I have been in a number of classrooms over the years where the students just pretend like other students don't exist. They don't look at them. They don't talk to them. They don't include them and then mostly recently I've seen some beautiful examples of some students who really step up and have that outgoing personality and they say I don't speak any Chinese. I don't speak any Spanish but come with me and I'll help you and you can be in my group, or you can be in our group, or you can come work with us. At first students are hesitant to work with someone who's different from them, but the classes are together for a good amount of time. So over time, some friendships and understanding really do begin to forge. I think it's a wonderful best practice to find those students who are willing to stretch out and not always keep those English learners together as their own comfort group. Sometimes yes. Sometimes you need to put our English learners together at one table because the ESL teacher's coming in, or an intervention teachers coming in, or you're going to sit down and do a small group and it's easier to have them together in one place. Absolutely.

But not all the time.

There needs to be a little discomfort to grow sometimes and I don't mean tormenting children or not being compassionate, but throughout the day at different times, everybody needs to get a little uncomfortable so we can stretch and grow.

That would be another thought - to really think about your partnering your small group set up, how often you switch up partners, or you allow students to get really comfortable with a couple friends first and then they'll be brave enough to stretch out later on, but you have to take the first step.

I do understand the silent period. I do believe that it's something, but I also believe that we have to encourage students to move past it. We can't let the silent period be this ongoing, I'll come back to you when you look like you're silent silent period might be over.  We need to help them push through that period and to hold and support them whether it's conversation starters, sentence frames, word walls, whatever it is that we can do to help them participate so that we can push through that place faster.

So let's talk about a couple other things that really help prevent the seclusion.  I hinted at that already, but the sense of belonging and relationship-building, making connections, mean everything in the world. I have been in classrooms where not a single person acknowledges the English learner, including the teacher, because the teacher feels uncomfortable or doesn't know what to do. So it's easier to just avoid it and let that quiet students sit there.

So, I challenge you to challenge each other and challenge yourself to really interact with the student. Even if you get a blank look, even if you get a stare, a smile and a comment or a little picture or a Google translate even. If it's not exactly right all of that effort will mean something and will help bring students through and get them engaged more quickly in your classroom.

Also for the sense of belonging. I'm sure many of you have heard of the idea behind mirrors and windows in your school and in your classroom.

For our English learners, are they seeing themselves as outsiders watching this class go on or do they see themselves reflected in the class? Do the curriculum materials reflect different cultures, art on the walls, different things that are happening in the classroom, chances to share culture. Do I see myself here as someone who belongs?

When the teacher is giving examples or applications, you know, do you make an effort to connect to things that all students are interested in? I always think about this around Thanksgiving time when the school's do the different Turkey Trot fundraisers and how funny it must be for families who aren't American families who are trying to figure out what on Earth turkey trots all about. So are we trying to find connections and background knowledge that we can work with with students.

I think also preventing seclusion involves bringing the family in and making effort.

In a workshop recently, we had this conversation and the teacher was saying, you know, I've tried but they don't answer and my response to that was keep trying.

Keep reaching out. They may not know how to respond. They may not know you're waiting for a response. They may think it's one-way information you're sharing. So it takes a while it takes a while to get comfortable to figure out what the routine is. Use interpreters. Use whatever written translation process you have.

Make a regular effort to reach out and communicate because eventually they're going to be comfortable enough to respond, or to come in, or to at least do something at home that shows you that they're hearing you.

I would also look into other community resources. We talked about this in a community where there was one arabic-speaking student. And that was the only arabic-speaking student that this district had ever known, so they were struggling with how do they help with the acculturation part when they don't know much about the culture. This was an Afghani student.

The family doesn't know much about the culture of the area where they're living right this minute. So we talked about reaching out to churches, to synagogues, to mosques, to finding other communities nearby, whether they're associated with the school or not, but just business people or at local universities anyone who can have insight into the culture and language and just like in your classroom with your students be buddies for the parents and kind of help them make connections within the community to make themselves more comfortable and adapt more easily.

My last thought on this preventing seclusion goes with what we were saying earlier of giving students a push and expecting them to at least participate in some way in every activity and I would really encourage that to happen through thinking about what supports they will need. So lots of opportunities for student to student interaction in your classroom. Lots of talk, because the more you do it the more comfortable you'll be and within those opportunities setting up supports such as a word bank or sentence frames and modeling what that conversation should sound like have two students get up and share what their think-pair-share would sound like or their partner talk would be so that it's very clear what's expected and it takes away a lot of the threat of the unknown and being uncomfortable.

Making the step by step directions as visual as possible. So that are less English proficient students can have a chance of following along and not have to feel so uncomfortable. But in the end it's practice practice practice. So including students and setting them up for Success along the way the more interaction the better.

So our podcasts were trying to keep to around 15 minutes. So I'm super excited that I got to share ideas about preventing seclusion in under 15 minutes for you and watching the timer. I have to hurry if you have thoughts on the subject or ideas to share or examples and how you redirected a teacher or student to deal with seclusion ideas. Please reach out send an email go to our Facebook page and let us know what you're thinking.

Our email is [email protected]. Our Facebook page is under English Learner Portal. You can find us under the same on Twitter. We are all over the place. So feel free to jump into the conversation and share your thoughts on the topic. And I also just wanted to throw a little plug in there. We do a lot of work around interaction and Scaffolding student interaction in

Online course "A Content Teacher's Guide to English Learner Success." So if you're really looking for more specific strategies and examples and ideas for lesson plans Beyond just the big idea and real specific strategies. You might want to check out the online course a Content teacher's guide to English Learners success and you can find all of our online courses at our website at www.englishlearnerportal.com.

Thank you so much for joining us for our first podcast and please let me know what you think. And if you have topics you'd like to hear discussed or ideas to share. Let us know. We are always open. Thank you again and have a great week.