On Wednesday, September 21^st, my partner and I went to observe a social studies 10 class. We were asked by the teacher to help two students who needed to write a quiz that the rest of the class had written the day before. As the two students were English Language Learners, we were asked to monitor their translator use and help if they had any doubts with the questions.

Upon arriving at the library, it was very clear that the student who I was helping had a very low level of English. As I have taught ELL for a few years, I was looking forward to the challenge. Most of my experience teaching is in a low risk environment for my students, as they were learning English while living in Brazil, taking away much of the pressure of learning a new language. I was excited to have the opportunity to spend time with a different type of English Language Learner, and test my skills in a different context.

The girl was nervous, and didn’t know what to do. She had me explain the questions a few times, and asked many questions about what she should write. She had me read the options to her as she was struggling with the reading. It became apparent very quickly that this quiz was far beyond her level. It was frustrating for both of us. I worked with her for the full block, patiently explaining vocabulary necessary to answer the questions. The quiz was on Canadian government, and I realized that she didn’t really understand what a province is. Much of our time was spent trying to understand the words vote, elect, and choose. During this time together, she disclosed that she left school in grade 3. There was obviously a large knowledge gap, and I felt so horrible. I attended school in Santiago, and didn’t speak much Spanish. I remember that experience being really hard for me, but I at least had the basic knowledge required to understand the course.

When the block ended, she asked very sincerely to please have another opportunity to work on this. I could see that she wasn’t happy with the situation.

Having the chance to sit one on one with a student and really assess her level, gave me a tiny window into her life. It really helped me to appreciate the idea of different assessment types, and reflect on each students “story”. It gave me the opportunity to experience first hand the idea that each student has a unique background and carry different weights. I feel frustrated even now, as I can’t come up with a solution. She shouldn’t be separated from her peers, but she definitely needs to learn so much more before writing a quiz on Canadian government.

For me, this experience reminded me of the reading, ‘The Transpoemations Project’: Digital Storytelling, Contemporary Poetry, and Refugee Boys”. The reading described a group of refugee boys with low levels of English who were given an assignment to write a poem about themselves, create a digital story, and critique their classmates work. I made a direct connection between these boys from the reading, and the two girls writing the test. Having the girls write the socials studies test on Canadian Government wasn’t a meaningful task for them. Perhaps a more meaningful task would have been to collaborate on a multimodal project comparing the Canadian Government to the Syrian Government. Teaching their classmates about differences between the two could provide the students with the opportunity to be the experts. As the article states, “This is not a role that refugee youth are often asked to play; they are typically regarded as needing the assistance of experts. So, the opportunity to ‘teach’ a concept or skill to native English-speaking adults elevated the level of the intercultural interactions and shifted the dynamics of the social situations the students often experience, especially in public school classrooms, where they are typically cast in the role of ‘at-risk child.’” (Emert, 2013). Before beginning this course, I never really considered the idea of multiliteracy. Testing language learners on their understanding of Canadian Government through a written test, isn’t a fair test, as their language was holding them back. Vital to a multiliteracies framework is the understanding that all meaning-making is multimodal, including linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial elements, which are in dynamic interaction with one another during communication (Smith, 2017).  It is very probable that this girl is very much literate in other forms, but writing a test on Canadian government isn’t a good test for her.

References:

Smith, B.E., (2017) Composing across modes: a comparative analysis of adolescents’ multimodal composing processes. Learning, Media and Technology, 42:3, 259-278, DOI:10.1080/17439884.2016.1182924