Embedded ESL Tutoring Merges the Writing Center with STEM Courses
Introduction/to the pertinent points
Who am I Hello, my name is Taycia Grasmick. I am a Writing Advisor and embedded ELL Biology Tutor at the College of Western Idaho. Why am I here I am here to talk to you today about how the Writing Center can partner with STEM departments to offer targeted support for ELL students. To understand where this idea originated it may be helpful to provide a little bit of background information first. What is CWI Locations first The College of Western Idaho is a community college serving students in Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, and surrounding areas in Idaho with campuses in each of these cities. Our college serves a mixture of people from urban and rural communities; among those are a large refugee, immigrant, and international population. Demographic Info This diversity is reflected in the demographics of The College of Western Idaho (CWI) where of our roughly 20,000 students, four percent are Asian, three percent are African or African American, twenty-two percent are Hispanic, nine percent are multi-racial or not reported (College of Western Idaho, 2015). We have students who are from Sudan, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Burma, Nepal, China, Vietnam, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico to name a few. Writing Center Diversity of majors Along with the diversity of students attending CWI, our Writing Center Coordinator has sought to hire consultants with varying majors and educational backgrounds in order to respond to an array of potential student needs. We have the standard English majors, but we also have had History, Business, Psychology, Science, and Engineering majors as advisors. What drove me My major I am an Engineering major, Biomedical Engineering minor. I have a background in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math, but I love Biology. Length of Employment I have worked for the Writing Center at CWI for almost four years. Sumayah, Aveen, and Noor Over the last couple of years a few of my regular ELL students have come to me with rather unique requests. They wanted to know if they could schedule time with me to go over topics in their Biology 100 course. While this wasn’t specifically a need that the Writing Center was set up to address our coordinator allowed me to proceed. We spent 2 hours a day two to three days of every week pouring through their assignments, dissecting every term, drawing out images of the material they were struggling to master. It did not take me long to realize that the problem was language not content. I saw a need that was not sufficiently being met with our current tutoring model. Already having Biology on my mind, when I attended last year’s conference and saw a presentation about STEM majors and their misconceptions about the Writing Center a seed of an idea began to form in my mind. The Problem English language learners (ELLs) degree of fluency and a lack of English prerequisites for many core courses presents them with barriers to graduation that are disproportionate to their native English-speaking counterparts. At the College of Western Idaho, we have attempted to level this playing field for our ELL students by establishing an intrinsic cooperation between the Writing Center, English as a Second Language Coordinator, and the Life Sciences Department. The Writing Center and ESL Coordinators at the College of Western Idaho have allowed me to become an embedded tutor into first-year Biology courses. The goal was to offer STEM writing and language support, work closely with instructors and departments to support student success, and over-time identify both successes and challenges the College of Western Idaho’s Writing Center has had with its ELL Embedded Tutoring Services in science writing courses. What we know about working with ESL students Research Review In order to prepare myself for this new position I researched embedded ESL STEM tutoring. I was surprised that I couldn’t find information specific to my topic. What I did find was a plethora of sources that sought to offer training suggestions to faculty teaching STEM courses. Many of these articles focused on elementary through high school pedagogy that could readily be applied in these specific settings. This means that much of the research needs to be adapted into appropriate andragogy, but there is still a great deal that can be learned. Only a few of the articles referenced specific theories behind their techniques. I’m not going to spend a lot of time on these theories, simply because I feel it is the tools gleaned from them that is what matters most. The theories applied to STEM ELL instruction are Cognitive Constructivist Theories That emphasize the construction of knowledge through organization and social interaction (Concept Mapping, Sketching) (Solas, Wilson, 2015). Language Socialization Aims at integration of specific science content learning and the construction of the rhetoric necessary for scientific writing and communication through demonstration of the skills needed (Sentence Frames, Modeling, Concept Mapping) (Huang, 2004). Morphemic Analysis Provides the etymology of terms from their Graeco-Latin origins to further content comprehension (Paiman, Yap Ngee, Chan Mei, 2015). Communicative Language Teaching Suggests that STEM language can be taught in social situations where students can negotiate meaning, expression, and interpretation with cohorts (Wong, 2012). Systemic Functional Linguistics Sees language as a process of making meaning and suggests that science language and writing skills should be taught explicitly (Slater, Mohan, 2010). Language Acquisition Theories Uses the Input and Output hypotheses to suggest only presenting content that is one step away from students’ current mastery level vs dumbing it down, similar to the scaffolding presented in Constructivist Learning Theory. (Welsh, Newman, 2010). 5R Instructional Model (Repeating, Revealing, Repositioning, Replacing and Reloading Language) Suggests that in order for ELL students to negotiate the socioculturally defined contexts of scientific language that is unique hybrid of natural language, mathematical symbols, graphic representations, and specialized actions they need to be taught the rhetoric and have it demonstrated for them (Weinburgh et al, 2014 Sheltered Instruction Makes content comprehensible to ELLs using strategies that are language acquisition driven, such as emphasizing key vocabulary terms and scaffolding to reduce linguistic demand without sacrificing the rigor of the content (Weinburgh et al, 2014). And finally the Constructivist Learning Theory Suggests that learning is a dynamic, social activity where students can build new knowledge by integrating new ideas into what has been previously learned (Weinburg et al, 2014). Many of these theories and strategies have overlapping themes when it comes to teaching STEM content to ELL students that I will address shortly. What they don’t clearly discuss is the Time and rigor of instructor training needed to incorporate them into the classroom setting, or how this would impact time taken up in a university course with expected outcomes. Why Embedded Tutoring Instead Embedded tutoring allows the instructors instead to focus on teaching the content within their course. This improves instructor/tutor relationships, and prevents constraints on their focus and time in the classroom. An example of this from my experience is the Biology 105 Anatomy and Physiology lab that I tutor in. The instructor was concerned about the amount of time it was taking in class and from her ability to address the needs of all of her students to sit with her ELL students and explain the procedures to them step by step. With an embedded tutor in her class she is now more free to travel around the room and pay attention to all of her students, because the tutor can help the ELL students navigate through their lab instructions. Every student that utilizes the embedded tutor has the advantage of streamlined focus on course specific tutoring. There is very little confusion about what the instructor expects and what they need to accomplish, saving them a good deal of time and frustration. Another significant advantage is just getting the ELL students plugged into a service designed to adapt to their needs and support their success. Why the Writing Center/connection to research So why should the Writing Center head up this work? Language acquisition It is estimated that the average ELL student will have to learn approximately 1500 words in Life Sciences and Biology, along with around 500 Chemistry and Physics terms. For those students who are still struggling with conversational English, working with an embedded Writing Advisor who sits in the classroom with them, has regular hours, and allows for flexible appointments within university operating hours provides them with ample opportunity to practice focused Scientific language with a tutor who understands what the instructor’s goals are for content language comprehension and demonstration. This opportunity to try out their newly acquired rhetoric provides the foundation for content mastery and allows the student time to develop skills necessary to build on their previous understanding. To demonstrate why the Writing Center is perfect for this job… I’m going to perform a little exercise at this time. I’m going to describe the tools that are repeated throughout most the articles detailing methods for teaching content to ELL students. If you have ever used one of these in a Writing Consultation please stand, if you are able. I will provide a brief description of each after everyone has had a chance to look around and sit back down. Front-loading Vocabulary/Word Lists A key component to demonstrating content competency is proper use of the vocabulary. This means that a fair amount of time needs to be consumed breaking-down, defining, and demonstrating the different terms. For the Biology courses that have an embedded tutor these lists have been created and provided to the students at the start of each semester. Modeling Demonstration is one of the best tools in our toolkit, and it can be one of the easiest to do. When tutoring in a specific topic it is very important for ELL students that the tutor use the language and structure needed for the subject’s field to help them observe and learn how to apply their new knowledge. Modeling also allows for evolution of the demonstrated language as the student’s skills increase. Sentence Frames/Grammar Instruction Without the English pre-req, it is often necessary to use sentence frames to help teach ELL students the skills necessary for scientific writing. Setting up a model hypothesis, or even an entire materials and methods section, for them to use as a practice template can help them see the requirements needed for the specific types of writing. This is no different than tutoring a student in paragraph structure from a well-constructed thesis. Showing and teaching them the use of language specific to any given field will enable the students to demonstrate their own knowledge of a subject. Cohorts/Group Learning I think that this goes without saying. How this is encouraged in our program is with scheduled tutor facilitated review sessions prior to tests and major assignments. Any student is welcome, and group discussion is facilitated by the tutor who puts any student question back out to the group for a consensus, before the tutor offers their own insight into the material. Concept Mapping Scaffolds information as new knowledge is linked to previous knowledge. This, again, is no different than a brainstorming web exercise in practice. Word Etymology Breaking down the Graeco-Latin terms into their roots allows students to develop language pattern recognition skills that are often critical to interpreting and understanding scientific concepts. It also has the nice effect of helping students more effectively answer questions on tests, because even if they don’t understand the entirety of a question they can make informed assertions based on what they know of the pieces and parts of the language, such as with a question like “what is the relationship between the endosymbiotic theory and cellular respiration and photosynthesis”. This skill can help them in more than just their science courses. Culturally Familiar Examples/Prior Knowledge/Native Language Use Many students have some background in science from their native countries. Many tutors have also taken classes that have educated them about other cultures as well. Pooling this information and encouraging students to use what is familiar helps to scaffold what they are learning. If the tutors do not know of any good examples, often asking the student with either directive or non- directive questioning will reveal one. Encourage students to translate terms into their native language, or even discuss it with other students in the class in their native languages. This allows them to form multiple connections to the material and will make recall that much easier for them. Code Switching While this may not seem like an obvious tool for STEM tutoring, it absolutely is. Where this applies most directly is in language use. Demonstrating through conversation the change in communication between conversational English and scientific language further models the skills necessary to speak and write about scientific concepts. This will also set the stage for the same skill use when they enter professional fields after graduation. Sketches I cannot emphasize enough how important this is in scientific tutoring. However, for it to be most effective with any student it helps if the tutor can get them drawing, just like writing. Some demonstration may be needed to get them started, but many will find that giving the marker to a student studying meiosis and mitosis empowers them and keeps them in authority over their own content mastery. Gamification While this may not be a skill used in every writing session, it is an effective learning strategy in this day and age. It allows students to have fun and interact with the content. In science courses there are many games and apps available that allow students to play with the information they are trying to learn. This forms yet another connection to the information, and we all are more likely to remember something challenging that we enjoyed doing. Multi-sensory approaches Be flexible, and adapt as students grapple with concepts. Get students up and using a white board. Find online resources. Draw, find written examples, use props, whatever it takes to meet the student where they are. Grappling with information can be a path to mastery of concepts. Communication Activities In the end, all of these approaches are a social form of learning. Allowing students to have a space where they can talk about their subject, what is perplexing them, and to redirect or enhance information that may be off course, while validating and encouraging when they are on track is going to be the best help that tutors can give. What we have demonstrated with this exercise is why the Writing Center is an ideal fit for STEM embedded tutoring. If our Writing Centers have a diversity of majors, and there is a need for it at our institutions, we can help these students overcome an unfair barrier to their success in our educational system. Now that I have my feet wet at my own institution I hope to start compiling data. I anticipate that I will see similar trends that the ESL English courses are seeing with their own embedded tutoring program. This will be an increase in both retention and GPA. I look forward to sharing that with you at a future conference. Thank you.