RITELL Conference Response

RITELL Conference: Saturday October 20, 2018

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ofelia Garcia

Small Group Workshop Leader: Rachel Toncelli

The RITELL conference this year was a very important and interesting experience. As teachers, we need to be aware that not every one of our students is fluent in English, and that not all of them spoke English as their first language. In each of our classrooms, we will have a collection of diverse students, who may have some understand of the English language, but are in the process of bettering their own abilities. This can be verbal, written, or in many other repressive ways. 

Students who are learning English can learn in a bunch of ways, but Dr. Ofelia Garica pointed out that some understand through memory, and in turn they repeat what they have heard others say, and took to be correct. Sometimes, it is correct but other times, they need some redirection to help aide them in their learning process. She also mentioned that some students will combine English and Spanish, and that is a way for them to slowly adjust, and remember. 

Dr. Garcia expressed how important it is for us as teachers to look as ELL students as active subjects, and to just as passive participants. Sometimes, they will adjust and success, but other times they will struggle, and those are the times that we need to be most available, and most flexible. She said at one point that people “never stop doing a language”. She explained that even the most fluent English speaker still works on their verbal and written craft, and that sometimes, we ourselves, teachers or not, can learn more and adjust better.

Dr. Garcia also mentioned that as teachers, we need to be aware that “language holds cultural histories, and those histories have impacted our students and their families.” Through these histories, students learn in different ways, and at different paces. We need to remain understanding and flexible, and be sure to not begrudge our students for the different journey they have taken to get to our classrooms. There is a lot of pressure on bilingual students to “match the voices of others”, and she calls this very “problematic”. We want to encourage students to learn as much as they can, without overwhelming themselves and confusing themselves. If they’re confused, they won’t learn, and we don’t want them to stagger in one spot. 

In the smaller groups, I worked with a professor I had a few years ago. Rachel Toncelli taught Italian I, and I struggled to learn the language. I remember how patient she was, and how much time she spent working with me, both in and out of the classroom. I yearn to embody that patience in my own classroom, and the passion behind her teaching. In the small group, called “Translanguaging in the Drafting Process”, she spoke about how as teachers, we need to be flexible in our writing and grading. She explained that there are different kinds of writing, and that “good writing is a cultural construct”. From Kaplan’s Doodles, she further explained American writing is linear, Romance languages and German writing is digressive, Asian writing is circular, and Arabic writing has parallel propositions and embedded stories. She goes on to say “adolescent and adult learners often have internalized the rhetorical patterns common to their home language”, and says this is a valuable resource. Knowing what your students are used to makes it easier to teach them what you expect from them as writers. If they are use to a certain way of writing, it’s important not to tell them that they are wrong, but rather try and direct them into the direction of your expectations. It’s important to not “police” a language, but rather guide our students to a path of success, both in our classrooms and out.

Rachel left us with 8 tips that I feel are very important, especially to me as an English teacher. 

1. Familiarize yourself with the rhetorical styles of the home language of your students.
2. Let thinking happen in any language.
3. Read and build vocabulary connections in multiple languages.
4. Let drafting occur in a variety of styles.
5. Create many opportunities for informal writing to occur.
6. Use samples to analyze form.
7. Give writers choices about which language to use in formal drafts.
8. Consider your cultural positioning when giving feedback.

All of her tips, as well as those from Dr. Garcia, are very insightful and important when teaching all students, but especially ELL students. In my own classroom, I will be sure to be conscious of my students histories, and make sure I have background details about the forms or writing they may know. While you can and don’t learn all of the languages, you can learn about them. I want to keep learning about my students, and will hopefully motivate them to learn more about each other and our styles of writing.