I was a bit intimated about providing a keynote presentation at the NYS Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference this month because of my own rather unpleasant memories of being made fun of for my “white” accent in high school, and later in college, Spanish classes. I always envied those who could roll their tongues and speak with a proper accent. I can not. I speak with one accent. It is very Caucasian and often laughed at.

I remember when I took Spanish in high school how uncomfortable I was when we had to speak out loud. The other kids seriously laughed out loud at me. I laughed too, because I really did sound ridiculous. Because of this experience, I hated speaking Spanish. Years later, my experience speaking the second language of Spanish gave me a little insight into what English Language Learner (ELL) students may feel. The fear of embarrassment and the trepidation about sounding wrong or different kept me, a normally outspoken kid, pretty quiet. Even though I wanted to learn another language, my discomfort, combined with less than effective instruction, were not a recipe for success. When I went to school to get my master’s degree in education, again I was told I’d have to have completed 2 years of language study. Gulp. I couldn’t handle the idea of my embarrassing accent so instead I came up with a solution to all that…I took sign language.

I have broken the strategies I believe innovative educators will find useful into two categories:

1. Innovative ways for speakers of languages other than English to CONSUME content.
2. Innovative ways for speakers of languages other than English to PRODUCE content.

As you read about these strategies, please reflect on ways you can use what I am sharing in your work and consider publishing your feedback, experience, and ideas in comments to this post.

To set the tone for those wondering if I can really speak multiple languages with an accent that is not laughable, please allow me greet you in a few different languages at Global Welcome from The Innovative Educator. If you speak any of the languages in my greetings, you’ll notice that while not perfect, the accent is respectable and you can understand the intent of my message. I’ve come a long way! There’s much more available to provide affordable and innovative resources to students to enable them to break the language barrier and become effective consumers and producers of information. To follow are ideas I find particularly promising.

SUPPORTING ELL STUDENTS IN BECOMING INFORMATION CONSUMERS
One of the best ways to help students get excited about learning anything is by helping them discover and explore areas of deep personal interest and passion.
(To learn more read these articles from ISTE Connect – Engage Me or Enrage Me! (Pt.1) / Engage Me or Enrage Me! (Pt.2).

• Technorati
  • Help students by showing them how they can use technorati to find people who are blogging about topics of interest.

• Convert Text to Speech
  • We all know that student’s listening level is higher than their reading level. How about enabling them to access more difficult material by suggesting they find websites that read passages with tools like Odigo. While the voice is rather robotic, it does provide students with the ability to access the content. Here are some useful text to speech (tts) tools to help students consume information.
  • Odigo for Websites and Blogs
  • iSpeech – For any text
  • Online Translator – for performing real-time translation for various languages
  • TTS Voice presented by animated speaking characters will read the text in the most realistic, human-sounding way in a variety of languages: English U.S., Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and European Spanish.
  • Why: Educational Value of Text to Speech (TTS)

• Google Translation Tools
  • Google Webpage Translation Gadget: Since your students are ELLs recommend they find blogs that use translation tools such as The Google Translation Gadget or BabbleFish. These tools let you take any blog and translate it into more than a dozen languages. If the blog does not have a tool for a blog or site that may be valuable, a student can write to the author asking them to install this tool.
  • Google Translate: If your student is reading content that does not have a translation tool, use Google Translate to translate the entire page.
  • Google Translated Search: Enter a search phrase in your own language to find information in other languages.
  • Google Toolbar: Or your student can use the translate tool in the Google toolbar to translate specific words by hoovering over them.
  • Google Reader: Show them how to subscribe to these blogs using Google Reader.

• KidsClick
  • Sort materials by reading level.

• dotSub
  • Some say video is the new text, but if you don’t know the language very well, it may be hard to access that information.
  • Watch videos with subtitles in your language, upload your videos, create your own subtitles!
  • Click here to learn more and view tutorials on “how to dotSUB”

• ESL LISTENING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES: Movie Clips
  Learning through media (movies, music, etc.) is one of the best ways to learn a new language. The clips below will improve your listening comprehension skills, helping you to learn and practice English as spoken by normal people every day! These particular clips are from recent movies. Good luck!

Ideas for ELLs on the go.
Note: If your school or district has policies banning personal learning devices, you can still empower students to harness the power of technology away from school i.e. as part of their toolbox for life as well as homework.

• G-O-O-G-L-E Text (466453)
  • Define
  • Translate
  • Currency Converter
  • Calculator to Convert Metric System

• Polleverywhere Text (99503)
  • Give students a voice with survey and open response polls

(This post is to be continued in part two where readers will discover Innovative Ideas for Supporting ELLs in Becoming Information “Producers” and Ideas for Funding and Planning for Innovation.)

Ideas for Engaging Students in Passion-Based Learning:

Discover and Consume:
First you need to support your students in finding area of passion and deep personal interest which is an ongoing journey.  Next you may want to connect them with other students and teachers who share these interests so they have a face-to-face (f-2-f) connection with others with like interests.  Once they have identified an area of passion, help them develop strategies to learn more about their topic of interest.

• Finding Passion:
  Help students discover what passions and interests they may have.  One way to do this is by having them take an interest inventory.  While I am a fan of the Renzulli Learning Profile that helps students discover interests, learning styles, abilities, and expression styles, there are many different types of interest inventories out there. While this is a good idea for starting on the road to helping your students discover their passion, take some time to explore multiple ways to helping students find their passion.
• F-2-F Connections with Others with Similar Interests
:
  Ideally an entire school student body and staff would engage in taking a learning profile.  If so, this is a terrific way to connect students with other students with similar interests and even identify teachers with interests shared by students.  These interests can turn into elective classes in the school and provides a tremendous opportunity for students to make deep connections with other students and their teacher.  If a school wide implementation is not possible this is still powerful even if partnering with other classes or finding common interests within your own class.  As an educator you’ll want to work with your students on some conversation guidelines, starters, and extenders to support your students in engaging in meaningful and perhaps accountable talk.
• Researching Your Passion
:
  Once you’ve helped students determine some areas of passion, help them learn more about their area of interest.  Perhaps start with an encyclopedia then move to supporting students in using smart search techniques about their area of interest.  You may want to show them how to use Technorati to locate bloggers who are writing about the topics they are interested in.
• Following Your Passion
:
  Once you’ve supported students in searching for and finding their passions, show them how to follow their passions.  An RSS aggregator like Google Reader is a simple, easy to use tool made just for this purpose.  You can learn how to get started by going here.

Communicate and Connect:
Once students have found an area of passion, it is of utmost importance to know how to search and find information about areas of passion.  While it is certainly powerful for students to have friends and adults in their physical world with the shared passion, learning truly begins when the learning becomes interactive.  Technology provides a never before possible way to find and connect with others who share like interests and to develop and grow in new ways.  Here are some ideas for getting started.

• Help Students Begin Social Bookmarking
:
  Social bookmarking sites such as Diigo allow users to collect resources that will be accessible to them anytime from any computer.  The site also enables students to highlight pages and add sticky notes to record thoughts, ideas, and reflections.  What is potentially most powerful about social bookmarking sites is the ability for users to connect and communicate effortlessly with others who share a common interest.  Educators will want to work with students to model and demonstrate acceptable and appropriate ways to communicate with others online.
• Help Students Become Respectable Netizens (InterNet citiZens)
:
  Once students have used a tool like Google Reader to stay current with their favorite news sites, blogs, magazine and more it is time to begin teaching them how to meaningfully engage in conversations about areas of deep personal interest.  This is where the real learning begins and students begin making connections that lead to the development of what will soon become their personal learning network. Connecting, conversing, commenting, and making meaning with experts in the field is one of the most powerful learning practices in which students can engage. Supporting students in lending their rarely heard voice to these conversations is extremely impactful. Educators will want to work with students on best practices for commenting.
• Support Students in Identifying Learning Networks and Groups:
  Where are the physical and online networks and groups that others with this area of interest connect? Is there a MeetUp group in your area for others interested in this topic? Is there a Ning or a group on Facebook?  Is there an online community or discussion board?  Help students find these resources.  Educators will want to ensure that students and families are aware of safe, acceptable, and appropriate participation in both online and physical groups.

Create and Produce:
Here is where my thinking has changed and moved away from that of some other innovative educators. In The Blog of Proximal Development, Konrad Glogowski says, “I think it’s time to acknowledge that just because students make podcasts or contribute to blogs does not mean that they have become passionate about the topic they’re researching. If a teacher says, “I’d like you to create a podcast to share your work,” students will do it. In fact, they will even show a lot of enthusiasm because the project takes them out of their seats and often even out of their classroom. Are they really working on something that they are passionate about? Rarely.”

Like Glogowski, I don’t believe that having students create blogs, wikis, podcasts, and digital documentaries is the starting point.  It is where we bring students when they have developed areas of deep personal interest and passion; when they have read about and researched these areas; when they have joined the conversation and independently connected with others with similar passions and interests.  It is then that students are ready to create and produce.  To allow for differentiated instruction aligned to each student’s interest, ability, and learning style I recommend that rather than dictate, teachers let students select (with their guidance), what it is they might produce.

• Contribute to or Intern for a Blog, Magazine, or Newspaper:
  Once a student has become immersed in an area of passion and is exposed to those who are publishing in their area of interest, you may want to encourage him/her to inquire about submitting their own post.  This is a great opportunity for a student to publish in an authentic medium to an authentic audience and provide him/her with the opportunity to have experienced experts to guide them and edit their work.  A student may also want to consider interning for their favorite blog magazine or columnist.  A set up fresh eyes and ideas are welcomed by many writers.  This work can provide students with the experience and professionalism that is helpful if they decide to make the committment to writing their own blog or column.
• Join a Cause
:
  Is there an organization that already exists for others with this area of interest?  If there is help students learn how to join, volunteer, and contribute to the group. May the student has an area of expertise or interest that would be beneficial to the cause. Perhaps the student loves photography and can take pictures at an event, maybe s/he is good in using an online publishing program and could make fliers.  Perhaps the student has a network of younger potential group members or knows how to navigate online environments.
• Write a book:
  If you have students that enjoy writing, consider having them work to publish their own book using one of the free online publishing sites like Blurb or LuLu. Not only is it free to publish the book, but students get their own isbn number and can even make a profit if anyone purchases the book. Help students determine who might be interested in contributing to the book? Could this student find someone in the field to revise and edit the book?  Should the book be written collaboratively or individually?  Where can the student promote his or her new book?
• Join or Start a Group or Club:
  Encourage students to find or start a physical group or club that meets at a set time either talking, writing, or engaging in a particular activity. If  a group does not exist, have students research how to start, maintain and build a group. Help students determine the group’s audience. Will this be a school or community based group? Where, when and how often will the group meet?  Will their be a contract that members will sign? What are the groups goals and objectives?
• Start of Join an Online Group:
  If there is not already a group aligned to the student’s interest and targeted audience, perhaps s/he could start one incorporating many of the same considerations that a virtual group would have. If such a group already exists encourage an interested student to take a leadership role in the online community. Perhaps they can serve as a guide, lead discussions, build membership, etc.
• Create a Digital video:
  Is there a powerful message or personal story that a student has found would be important to share?  Then perhaps a student would like to create a video. Now that s/he has an established PLN and base of materials from their RSS reader they have a solid foundation from which to start. Help students determine who from their PLN would be good candidates for collaboration; what resources may they want to pull from?  Help students with a strategy for evaluating and citing their sources.
• Participate in a Podcast:
  Is there a podcast that your student listens to?  If so, encourage him or her to contact the people running the show and participate as a guest. Help students prepare by noticing the components of an effective podcast, coming up with ideas for an engaging topic, determining materials they’ll need to prepare, and ways to inform others of their appearance and build an audience.
• Design a Game:
  Is your student a gamer? If the topic is one that others might be interested in learning about or testing their knowledge, perhaps your student can design a game. Scratch is a free and fantastic tool and online community for students with some interest in programing, but there a variety of options students can explore for such an endeavor.

• Participate in a Contest or Competition:
  There are contests and competitions in a variety of areas of interest. Help your students explore what may be right for him/her. Students interested in architecture and engineering might be interested in investigating the Future City Competition.  Students interested in building, design, and mechanics and engineering may be interested in participating in Robotics Competitions.
• Take Advanced Classes
:
  Just because your not in college doesn’t mean you are not ready for college level material in an area of deep personal interest.  I did just taking college courses beginning at age 15 while I was still in high school.  See what local colleges have to offer and ask if you can take, audit, or get a scholarship for a class. Students may also be interested in investigating online line options like YouTube Edu that organizes the video channels of more than 100 colleges and universities.

WHAT NEXT?

Glogowski observes in his blog that, “I really don’t see that passion around me. My colleagues seem to be concerned with outcomes and expectations, not the passion that they can awaken in their students. Many K-12 students also seem to be going through the motions and ‘playing school.’”

In the blog The Big Picture Erin Murphy shares, “I think about students, and it seems that there are some students who are just born with fires lit in their hearts for particular topics.  Then there are others who aren’t really sure what they want to do with their lives – they enter schools and jobs blindly chasing after money the so-called “right way to live.”  And there are some students who find nothing of value in school for them, and so they stop and go on to jobs where they can feel useful and feel like they are actually learning.  But can we change learning to light fires for students who have a spark in need of kindling?

Can we shift from what Glogowski describes as “playing school” and change how we measure success? Can we start judging an educator’s effectiveness by how s/he answers the question, “How are you helping your students discover and connect with their passions and become contributors to communities in which those passions are developed?”

If educators begin to embrace passion-based learning we can do that and indeed it may be possible to say, “Yes we can” in response to Erin Murphy’s question, “Can we light fires for students who have a spark in need of kindling?”  If we do, we will be truly be developing life-long learners who have the knowledge to discover and pursue their passions, whatever they may be for the rest of their lives.

Recently I attended Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference where I participated in a session for educators exploring how to become transformational leaders. A participant at my table said, “This is all nice, but kids need to learn that school isn’t always interesting. Sometimes school is just boring.” “Not true!” I responded. “School shouldn’t and doesn’t have to be boring.”

When I shared this with Alan he recommended I ask this participant, “Which teachers should teach students that they have to learn that school is boring?“ This certainly would not be me. While I’ve witnessed teachers who accept that students are disengaged, sometimes even falling asleep in their class, I do not believe a teacher passionate about his/her career would embrace the idea that it is okay for their students to be bored. In fact, I contend that if every teacher prioritized just one thing, we could eradicate boredom in our classrooms, deeply engage students, and dramatically decrease the dropout rate.  That one thing is…

Supporting Students in Finding Their Passion:

Not long ago I wrote about a school that supports students in finding their passions in my post You Can Get a Dalton Education at a NYC Public School. I was more formally introduced to the concept of educator’s supporting students in finding and developing their passions when I went to Confratute, a conference that focused on the Schoolwide Enrichment model which provides enriched learning experiences and higher learning standards for students through three goals: 1) developing talents in all students; 2) providing a broad range of advanced-level enrichment experiences for all students; and 3) providing advanced follow-up opportunities for students based on their strengths and interests.  Most recently, I was introduced to another formalized way to name what it is I have been talking and thinking about through this status update which I saw on Facebook:

Mark Wagner Today: “Blogs, Wikis, Docs: Which is right for your lesson?” http://bit.ly/XAUUx
Yesterday at 5:01pm via Twitter

As I followed the link, I discovered a slew of resources about what education scholar John Seely Brown calls “passion based learning” as discussed in an article on CNET. I was thrilled to find this body of work, as I felt this concept beautifully captured what it is I’ve been thinking about education.  I dove in to read more and was anxious to share my findings with others.  Here’s what I’ve learned -

Passion-Based Learning:

In the article on CNET Brown says that, schools should complement teaching with what he calls “passion-based learning” that focuses on getting students more engaged with topic experts.” Education expert Will Richardson shares that what really resonates for him is that Seely Brown praised situations where students who are passionate about specific topics study in groups and participate in online communities.

Richardson says, “To me, this is the one biggest advantages of the Read/Write Web, the ability to connect to others who are passionate about whatever it is that you want to learn. How rare is it to have that happen in physical space, where everyone in the room is ready and excited to learn?”

The same topic came up in response to a blog post a school administrator wrote about steps he plans to take to become a transformational leader. In response to his idea about renaming their computer lab and calling it the Global Communication Center, High School teacher Susan Ettenheim made this comment:

“It is wonderful for a class to share with another class across the world, but it is possibly even more exciting for one student to find that there are other people who can teach and share with them and take action to make the world a better place through a shared personal interest.”

In my own conversations with educators about our role as passion detectives, explorers and connectors for students, I have come up against resistance from some who ask, “Are you saying that students should just be able to skateboard all day, sit around watching Harry Potter movies, or worse persue some type of distructive behavior?” Of course not and I think Seely Brown hits on the reason for the resistance by some when he says, “For educators to really take advantage of the potential of technology, we need to rethink our practice.”

Will Richardson believes, and I concur, that the best way to do that is to get involved in “passion based learning” ourselves.  He believes this so much so that he has referred to himself as a blogevangelist and I credit him with being my “blogfather”. When Will would run into me at conferences, speaking engagements and the like where I was often passionately engaged in a topic of conversation, he would ask when I was going to join the conversation and begin authentically publishing and connecting with those with similar passions.  The reality is that it wasn’t until I began doing that, that deep, TRANSFERABLE learning occurred for me that I could confidently and credibly share with other educators.

Technology provides the window to connections and learning around areas of passion and deep personal interest that were never before possible. Some educators I have discussed this concept with have scoffed at the idea for various reasons believing it would be too much work for them to make individualized, differentiated connections for each student. I’ve suggested that their job is not to determine a student’s passion, or find the experts and make the connections, but rather to support their students in doing so.

That doesn’t mean have all the students in your class create blogs where they respond to your prompts or make a podcast about a topic you are studying in social studies.  That really, isn’t an effective means to helping students explore their passions, publish authentically to an audience they care about, or connect with others with their similar interests.  This is a big shift.  Here are some smart ways educators might engage in passion-based learning with our students.

(Continued on Wednesday…)

“Engage Me or Enrage Me” is a quote from “Dr. Kip Leland, online learning specialist and the founder of the Los Angeles Virtual Academy (LAVA) within the LAUSD.