Back to School: My Latest Challenge

I'm going back to school. Not as a student - though I might still do that, too - but as a teacher. For the first time, I'll be teaching elementary school students English, and attempting to prepare them for the chance of continuing their middle and high school education in a school where English is the language of instruction. It's definitely going to be a challenge, but it's one I'm completely up for. 

You see, there's something I've always wanted to try: creating a K-12 English Language Arts curriculum tailored to Moroccan ELLs. 

Morocco, for its part, is introducing English language instruction as part of the national curriculum at all grade levels, though we've yet to see that implemented in elementary schools. This seems, to me, to be the perfect time to get "stuck in."

 

It's no secret that I've been working on curriculum and syllabus design for quite a while now, on my own, and in an array of different fields (fiction writing being the latest foray). I've also had various homeschool curriculum and original curriculum projects going on in the background for many years. This opportunity will give me the chance to actually put my thoughts into practice and design a powerful English curriculum for K-5 students, while at the same time having more on-the-ground knowledge and experience about the needs of the students, teachers, parents, and schools, as well as what will be required for the success of such a project.

The school I've joined has been extremely generous in their scheduling. It's a Moroccan private school that teaches in both French and Arabic - most private schools that I know of do this - but they've allocated a not-insignificant chunk of time out of their already divided day to English language learning for their students. With higher grade levels giving me a full seven hours per week, I have big hopes that I can take that time to take the students beyond simple ESL and into a more robust ELA program, designed specifically for the young Moroccan ELL with the goal of giving them the opportunity to study in a school where English is the language of instruction, such as American, British, or international schools.

I've been excitedly preparing for my classes all summer long, and as the school year takes off, I'm even more excited to put my plans in motion and see how each of my grade levels will respond, what will work and what won't, and changes that I'll need to make for upcoming years. In the meantime, I want to take a moment to briefly record challenges that I've already identified and how I plan to tackle them. My hope is that I can return to this mid-year (or at the end of the year) with updates.

Identified Challenges 

In my preparations over the summer, I've already identified a number of challenges, both big and small. Perhaps the most evident is the ways in which I will be approaching the progression of English language learning across all K-4 grades I'll be teaching. Based on my discussions with fellow teachers and staff, I'm going to be operating on the assumption that most of my students will have very minimal or no English language exposure. Therefore, I've made a number of decisions regarding the approach to the program:

1.  Core Phonics Instruction: With students who are Arabic-speaking and French-speaking in their daily lives, pronunciation and letter-sound recognition is extremely important to tackle head-on. While French uses the same letters, French letter sounds can be extremely different, and the lack of accents in English may be confusing for learners. Meanwhile, some letter sounds don't even exist in the Arabic language (though they do in the local Darija dialect). Focusing on teaching phonics explicitly, as its own activity in the classroom, can therefore help students avoid common pronunciation and reading errors (such as reading the 'ch' sound as 'sh', among many others). 
   
   However, the length of phonics instruction will change from one grade level to the next. Not only will I have more time with students in higher grade levels, I will also have more breadth of language to teach them in what will be a much more limited amount of time overall compared to younger learners who will still be learning English with me in the rest of their elementary school years. Moreover, older learners will be able to pick up target language more quickly than younger learners, though they may have more deeply set speaking patterns and habits, which may require more focused attention. Finding a balance for older learners, particularly Grade 4-5 students, will be critical here. As for younger learners, phonics instruction can happen with more ease and depth, as we will have more time to cover more language over coming years. 
   
   
2. ESL vs ELA: As with any new language, we have to begin somewhere. For the first part of the school year, students will be acquiring what I call essential English language. This includes classroom survival English, as well as basic English to discuss themselves, describe people and things, talk about likes and dislikes, ask and answer questions, and so on. The good news is that for younger students, ESL instruction is much like regular ELA instruction, with many of the same topics and learning outcomes. However, the gap between the two grows extremely quickly from one grade level to the next, and thus I feel that a two-pronged ESL and ELA approach may be extremely effective for the rest of the year. For example, students may be introduced to target language in an ESL block, practice and master it, and shift into an ELA block that takes that same target language and pushes it just a bit farther. In practice, this may be applied in a variety of different ways, however, and I'll have a lot of balancing to do before I find the most effective pace and structure.
   
   
3. Multidisciplinary Language Learning: Because the goal is to go beyond ESL instruction and provide students with the opportunity to continue their studies in American, British, or international schools, the students should also be acquiring academic language related to a range of different topics, not just ELA. Certainly, they will be learning grammar, spelling, writing process, reading comprehension and literature, and so on, but they'll need exposure to vocabulary in a range of other topics: sciences, math, social studies, and physical and emotional health, mainly. 
   
   In this regard, my goal is to introduce a range of subject-focused lessons or units where students can get more exposure to specific language used in other subjects while still having a heavy language learning component. For example, we may learn about extreme weather, and then do a science experiment to model a tornado in a jar, and write a report to follow-up. Or, we may learn about the history of Rabat, model past tense sentences while answering reading comprehension questions, and make informative posters about the different landmarks in Rabat. In this way, students will feel that they are not just learning English language, as they might in an ESL class, but rather learning a variety of other subjects and topics in English, all the while improving language proficiency and skills. 
   
   
4. Supplies and Equipment: There are some supplies that aren't found locally, and some which can be found but are significantly pricier than they would be in other countries because they're imported. This can create a tricky situation. I've found myself unable to locate a roll of construction paper or bulletin board paper, along with various other supplies and equipment that could be quite helpful. Nevertheless, when it comes to necessities, they can be readily found, and all that is required in this regard is a little creativity about how to use the supplies and equipment that are readily available to create similarly robust learning experiences for students regardless. A small gripe, but one that bears mentioning when so many resources and activity and lesson plans found online operate on the assumption that you will have certain items and supplies at your disposal.

A Final Note

Of course, there's a lot more to discuss, and a lot more to write about and consider. For example, most leveled readers are geared towards students who have almost full-time exposure to English in their daily lives, or at the very least, full-day English-language instruction in their schools - neither of which is true for my students. Many teachers in English-speaking countries will give young students homework that their parents can help them complete, but most of my students' parents are not proficient in English, which limits me in that regard as well. In terms of exposure to English beyond the classroom, it seems I'm going to have to be creative. And despite all of the issues listed in this article and more, I'm still trying my best to align with as many standards as possible. I've considered a range of solutions for all of these issues and more, but as with all of these ideas, I have to try them out first and see how students react.

I'm enjoying this experience so far. As you can see, it's a challenge in many, many ways. But it's a challenge I'm excited to take on, and I hope that the results will speak for themselves when the time comes.