ML/EL E6: Curating a confident classroom for multilingual learners, with Arturo Valadez Sáenz

We've also explored the history of multilingual education in this country, and shared the story of a school in a refugee resettlement community that's embraced the Science of Reading. To close out this series, we're going to focus on some effective classroom strategies. My guest today is Arturo Sáenz, an instructional specialist from Dallas Independent School District.

Arturo is a demonstration teacher who performs a host of roles to support other educators, and he has extensive experience working with multilingual and English learners. During this conversation, we talk about his experience utilizing the Science of Reading in a bilingual setting, and we discuss specific strategies like pairing and immediate feedback. I think it's the perfect way to close out this miniseries.

Here's our conversation. Well, Arturo, thank you so much for joining us on today's episode. We are so glad to have you.

And the rest of the time, basically I need to spend it providing teachers with instructional support and coaching, planning and creating professional development, analyzing and discussing data with teachers, and lastly, supporting my administrative team in the campus operations, and wherever I'm needed. Let's say, as educators, we play a lot of roles and we wear a lot of hats. So, kind of the same way in my current role.

Because we have some other students that are coming from Central and South America that have never attended school. But we will talk a little bit more of that as t he podcast advances.

However, I was looking for opportunities to come to the U. S., and one day, magically , this vacancy appeared in front of my eyes: "Looking for teachers to teach in Texas." And I'm like , " This sounds pretty odd. Like, why are these people looking for people here to teach in the United States?" So I gave it a shot. I passed a few exams.

I thought, "How hard can it be teaching kids?" " Being in the classroom?" And I learned the hard way. < Laugh > I had a very tough first year, but then , as I was teaching and interacting with my students , I realized that I truly have a calling for being with kids. And the biggest thing to me is the intrinsic reward that you receive, especially working with economically disadvantaged communities.

I always see myself in these kids. Like, most of these kids are coming from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia , Venezuela. And they have really hard realities in their countries. Some of them arrive very afraid to the country. But that's where, as educators, we play an important role in their lives. And eight years after that shot that I took, I'm still here in education.

I recently graduated from my master's in educational leadership. And I want to continue growing on my educational journey, having an impact not only with a group of kids in the classroom, but beyond — either a school or the whole country. Or the whole world, if possible.

And I try to transfer this dream and this vision also to my students, so they can see that these opportunities are out there and they can also have access to this.

That's how I like to call it. And , I don't know, it's just ... sometimes we have a pathway in our minds, but life takes us wherever we have to be at. And I'm very grateful with this opportunity of teaching my students. It's eight generations now. And I want to believe that I'm having a bigger impact on this than any other area.

Because personally you are bilingual—

More than ever, I think it is very important for students to learn more than one language as they're growing up, because it's easier for them. It is easier to learn when you're a child. And this is not limited to Spanish. It all depends on where you are at and what is the reality of your community. Every year, getting a job becomes more and more competitive for us. I cannot imagine how hard will it be in 20 years.

So definitely being bilingual, or more bilingual, we like to see it as a superpower. Because right now, as a child: "Oh yes, I'm learning English, I'm learning Spanish, 60 minutes and 60 minutes." And they don't see the impact of leaving elementary school knowing two languages. But in the future, I'm pretty sure it will have a huge impact on their lives.

So just like that , being bilingual, I consider is important either in United States or Germany or Japan. And I know some countries are stronger in preparing their students, learning two or three languages.

However, I started learning English, once I graduated from college, just by putting it into practice, because most of the time you receive the content, but if you are not practicing it. ... And not only in an educational setting, but in your social interactions. So I acquire a few international friends.

I travel a lot, and that gave me the opportunity to actually sharpen my skills in English, getting familiar with other phrases that I was not aware they exist and so on. But definitely the education that we are providing the students with here in Dallas, it's working. And I will share more of that in a little bit.

And then we went to G ermany on a German trip, and I could speak none of it because I wasn't immersed in the language. I only knew the book part of it.

I took it a second time and I went up to 27. But again, I was putting it into practice. And I see it every day with the kids. Like, sometimes they're quiet in the classroom because they're afraid of getting the wrong answer. Or other kids making fun of their accents. Which happens to me very often, by the way.

But when I see them interacting in the playground during recess time, they're actually interacting with other kids using English and using Spanish and back and forth. And it's just amazing, seeing these 7-year-old, 8-year-old kids that are new to the country, and they're already having these social interactions in two languages. It's just amazing.

Like, sometimes, every other day, I start with Spanish, so they don't feel like, "Oh, start with English. No, no, no, no, no." I want to take you off a little bit and challenge you. So, as I was saying, most of our kids are English-proficient, but I have a few that are struggling because they're newcomers to the country. So the biggest tool that I leverage in my classroom is having bilingual pairs.

Why having bilingual pairs? Because I have students that have a Hispanic background because their parents moved here 15 years ago, so these kids were born here , but they are not Spanish-proficient. You might think, "Wait a minute, they speak Spanish at home!" But sometimes the parents are fully immersing themselves in the culture, and they want to speak English. All right! OK!

On the other hand, I have these newcomers that sometimes don't even speak Spanish, but they're placed in a bilingual classroom because, "Oh, you are from Guatemala, go to the bilingual classroom; you are from Honduras, go to the bilingual classroom." But sometimes they come speaking certain dialects from the regions. And this is when it becomes challenging for us as educators. Like, all right, so you need to be creative.

And basically, you need to start teaching them from scratch. Thankfully, we recently acquired a curriculum that supports the foundational skills for students at any given age. Because back in the day — and back in the day is last year —

But , I definitely see a huge impact in pairing students with one another and creating that positive culture that also allows for them to take risks and speak in another language. Because most of the time — and I see this in a lot of classrooms — the kids are super-quiet. They're afraid of sharing. And it comes mostly because of the school culture or the classroom culture. The child needs to feel safe.

The child needs to feel that you truly care about him or her. And is not gonna be judged by you. So in our Hispanic culture, we respect our elders, and sometimes we are afraid of disappointing our people. So, I think this is why it is important to create this safe space for them to share and to communicate what they think.

Because, sometimes, these kids have brilliant ideas in their brains, but they haven't fully developed their confidence. So I like to see it in a holistic way. As educators, we are not only delivering the content in languages, but we are actually shaping this child's values. And he finds — or he or she develops their personalities as they're growing up in the classroom.

And sometimes we don't have an idea of how huge o ur impact can be in creating that safe space for them.

The kid whose parents have been here for many years, but they maybe don't speak Spanish at home anymore — or not a lot of Spanish at home — and they also need their English developed. So really, that kid that you're talking about, your bilingual situation is helping them develop their Spanish language as well as their English language.

But it depends on you and, and the way you set your expectations and your classroom culture for them to make it a collaborative space. More than, "Oh , I'm gonna make fun of this kid because he doesn't even speak Spanish.

How am I supposed to help him if we cannot even communicate with each other?" On the other hand, if you emphasize culture during the first quarter of your school year, that will have a huge impact for the rest of the school year. And the kids, the kids are good.

And this is also very important — making the parents an active participant of the child's education, because they feel very proud of, "Oh, Dad, look what I created!" And it's, like, an extended constructive response with four paragraphs. And then, that's when the parents get shocked. Like, "Wait a minute, my child never attended school and now he's writing in English?

Like, what's going on at school?!" So I personally like having that open channel of communication with parents, because most of the time as teachers, we wait for the child to underperform or to misbehave.

And then with that, the child gets more motivated. H e i s like, "Oh, wait a second, my dad and my teacher care about me. They a re a team. Therefore, I need to put that extra effort in every single lesson."

Therefore, when having professional learning communities, it becomes a little bit challenging. Like, "Hey, what's going on well in your classroom with this lesson?" And it's like, "Wait a minute, I'm ahead of you. I'm like in Unit 2 and you're in Unit 1." However, we also found a way to kind of increase collaboration, so students can get the benefit out of it: "OK. So what I'm listening is , you're ahead of me.

So what things went well during your first unit, so I can implement them, and I can give you feedback on how you did?" And that way, we can grow all together. Another challenge is basically what I just shared: The kids that are newcomers and have zero background in education , families being afraid of reaching out to the school for different reasons. And I understand them, at some point .

Some parents do not want to be actively involved and seen. But it's very important to create that channel of communication with them, again. As for the English speakers, I will say they can learn faster how to speak with other Spanish speaker kids. But for them it's really hard , delivering a writing product. So a huge thing that we're implementing right now, it's writing, writing, writing.

Which are constructive responses, extended constructive responses. And all these questions are text-dependent. And I think that is the biggest challenge that we currently have. The writing portion. And just building the s tudents' confidence to speak in a second language. .

I was at 'does not meet' at the beginning of the school year, then halfway through, I was at an 'approaches' level to my grade level." And at the end of the school year, they are like, "Oh, wait a minute: I'm 'meeting expectations' for my current grade level."

So, tracking their own data, I cannot highlight enough, because it is super important to have this conference, one-on-one, with students, and helping them see like, "OK, so based on our last assessment, you have these strengths. So you have mastered these things, but I want you to put the extra work on these other things." So what I'm trying to say to the kid is — because I heard it as well!

— "Oh, I'm dumb; I can't" — and some teachers allow that. I don't. And we don't allow that at my campus, because we strongly believe that every child can. But you need to become that guidance to help him or help her see, you have strengths right here. And sometimes we don't show that to the kid. Therefore the kid grows up thinking like, "I cannot do it." No, you can do it.

You just need to put more effort on this things, or on these standards here in Texas. But super-important, having these goal-setting conferences with students. And you can have them for both languages. And then you can compare and contrast, and make decisions for testing as well. Like, "I know you feel more confident speaking Spanish, but guess what?

It turns out that you are great in English!" And then the child can also see like, "Wow, I didn't know that." But if you don't show them their progress, and you're not having periodic conversations about their data, they will never know. And they will grow up with the wrong idea of, "OK, I'm labeled as a person that cannot."

So some of those kids that come in as newcomers — and maybe not even newcomers — that overwhelming sense of, "Wow, writing is a hard thing." Right? It's the hardest thing we ask our kids to do. Do you employ similar strategies in some of that feedback loop, too, to help them learn and grow in that writing element?

So that creates a sense of confidence on the student. Round number two, walk around, maybe a few students start struggling, I don't know , with grammar, with punctuation, capitalization. Sometimes even something as absurd as capitalization becomes the biggest challenge some days.

But as you said, the power of giving feedback in the moment, that is also a huge component of building the student confidence and sharpening his skills or her skills over a period of time. Because sometimes we are operating in a reactive way. Waiting all the way t ill the unit assessment to look at the standards. And identifying those t rends.

However, we have the power to collect data d uring formative assessments on a daily basis, just by walking around. Walking around. Look at what their students are producing in the moment. Because i f you don't provide them with feedback right there, then it becomes a huge misconception. Like, "Oh, OK, my teacher didn't correct me. That means I'm doing the right thing."

But I wonder if you could talk a little bit about, you know, going back to what you were saying: "Sometimes I start with Spanish and sometimes I start with English, and they don't always know." And , what are some of the benefits and challenges of teaching two languages almost simultaneously, or at the same time?

So you need to shock the students as well, because their mind ... you need to trick them. Your brain, it's already coming prepared, like, "OK, I'm gonna get my English book; I'm gonna get through the lesson; and I'm gonna get bored, because I don't understand anything." OK. But guess what, guys? Today, we're starting with Spanish! So the child starts with a fresh and positive mindset.

He has these good interactions with other peers. And then, when you shift it to the other 60 minutes in English, the child is already at a good place, where he is like, "OK, I can do this. I can make this happen. My peers — I was supporting the English speakers." And then the kid feels a little bit empowered, because the English speakers were literally asking him or asking her, "Hey, what do I do here?

How do you write this? How do you pronounce that?"

And I'm just gonna read something to you, something random, like very slowly>, "'My mom and I'...I can't!" Hands on the face! Yeah. . All red! All red. And he is like, "I can't." But then again, it comes back to the culture that you set in your classroom. And then you have the other kids empowering him, and motivating him. Like, "Hey, no, no, no, let's do it! Let's do it!

Go one more time, one more time, one more time!" In contrast with other classroom settings, where the kid can feel judged by the peers and sometimes by the teacher. But just creating these collaborative spaces as well.

You know, we have a lot of activities, but the way I see it, since I support classrooms from kindergarten all the way through fifth grade , you have all these activities, but you have your own reality in your classrooms. And in your bilingual classroom, you have your own reality. In my classroom, I have, out of 16 kids, 10 are English-proficient. The other six are strong in Spanish.

But some classrooms at my own campus — same campus! — have three English-proficient and probably 15 Spanish-proficient. And at that moment, how are you pairing people? So now you need to think about groups. OK, so maybe not bilingual pairs, but maybe I have, like, three groups, four groups, and not based on skill. Because we're talking about two different things: the skills for the grade level, and the language skills.

If you have a split of second and third, you teach to the third grade level. And so on. But again, every classroom, every educator has its own reality. And you need to be clever to play around with those pieces of data that you have available.

In second grade, they can barely start writing!" And then we built a structure — a strong structure — having third, fourth, and fifth grade as a model for writing. We transfer it for K–2, and now we have kids in both gen ed and bilingual classrooms in kindergarten, writing to read-aloud from the teacher. Let's say the teacher is reading Cinderella. I dunno .

< laugh> And the question is, like, "What happened at midnight?" And just by listening to that — and I will emphasize the bilingual classroom. So the read-aloud is in English. And most of those kids are Spanish speakers. And in kindergarten, you are like, what, five-year-old kids? And the kids are able at least to write, "because the magic disappeared ." Something as simple as that.

But sometimes, we have this schema, based on the way we were growing up, like, "No, but when I was a child, I don't remember that I was able to write." Well, maybe you were not being challenged to do it. But again, I hear it all the time. Like, the kids are like sponges. They are ready to absorb everything.

Every learning you put out there for them, every opportunity you provide them to collaborate with other peers, they will take it. And my favorite thing is that they learn it. They learn without even knowing that they are learning. Sometimes, in kindergarten or first grade, it looks more like games. While in fourth and fifth, it's like a little bit more serious, like learning about the Renaissance.

"And what do you think was the biggest inspiration for the artist of the Renaissance?" OK. You need to put all your brain into that! < Laugh> But in kindergarten it's more like, I don't k now, show me your hands if you think that Cinderella ... I d on't know! I'm , I'm thinking in the moment! < Laugh> That Cinderella l ost the love of her life. And move around to the other corner if you think that.

Or this corner i f you think this way. So it looks more like that. It's all about making it engaging for them. Either if you are five years o ld or if you are 12 years old, they need to be engaged in the process of learning.

So when it comes to the Science of Teaching Reading, it's using evidence collected from rigorous research, to have a successful classroom environment. So the Science of Teaching Reading connects with the literacy development in multi-language, multilingual classrooms. Because of the same thing that I've been saying the whole podcast — it allows the children to read, write, and discuss in the moment about what they are learning.

It doesn't really matter if they have a background on what they're learning. Because in my own experience this year, they love the Renaissance and they love the Aztecs, the Mayan, and the Inca history. They didn't know anything about that! But they were super-involved in, "Oh, what's gonna happen next with the Aztecs?

What's gonna happen with the Incas?" So when it comes to having these opportunities to read something new, authentic — authentic reading — and then responding to the teacher's questions in a writing way ... but wait a minute , you also have the opportunity to talk about it! With your friend, with the teacher, presenting to the class sometimes.

And going deeper, analyzing the words, analyzing the vocabulary, the grammar components, the morphology of the language ... I think all this together has a huge impact in the bilingual classroom. Because that is not the way I learned English. I was taught , "What is your name? My name is Arturo. How old are you? I am 15 years old ." < laugh> With that t hick accent!

But now you're actually teaching the students, oh, this is the way you actually speak the language. This is ... I like to say, this is the story of the word. Like with the prefixes, suffixes, the root words, and the Greeks and so on u san laughs>. And it's just like, if you put all those pieces together, the kid gets more involved in his own learning.

But, definitely — reading, writing, and discussing on a daily basis, it is the best thing that you can provide the kids with. Guys out there, please do not make it a monologue. u san laughs.> It's not about the teacher. It 's n ot a college lecture, guys. It 's n ot yo u, si tting in front of the kids for two hours, and teaching them about, I don't kn ow, N ative Americans' history.

But having them doing it for you.

OK, you have two wheels, and you spin it, and a Spanish speaker shares. And then the next question, an English speaker shares. And then we give feedback to each other. So you're receiving feedback, not only from the teacher, but also your peers are giving you feedback, on how are you sharing, how are you writing? When it comes to the writing, just be out there.

Do not just make it a task for the kid, because you will create a lot of misconceptions and the kid will have the wrong idea of what excellence looks like. But just be walking around either in the bilingual classroom or the general education classroom. Be there for them. They will notice; they will see it; they will value it; and therefore, they will respect you. And you will have great behavior.

So the lexile level went from below grade level — like, way below grade level, and we're talking about a kid that has never attended school, fully Spanish speaker , no English knowledge — and that kid took the English test, the end-of-the-year test, and he went up, like, 30 points In one year. And that is the impact of putting into practice on a daily basis both languages. So yeah.

I have this one kid in my mind, coming from Venezuela as a refugee, and I'm very proud of him. And I only expect that he continues growing. That mindset, that me and other teachers put on him, goes on all the way till college.

Maybe only one parent. And maybe this parent has two jobs, to provide, to bring food to the table. And you can barely see this parent during the week, because of these two jobs. How will you feel? And I invite you to pause the podcast for a moment — even for a minute, right here. Reflect on this. Consider how will you feel being this child. And with that being said, do not give up on your students.

Sometimes your everything, literally, what they have. Sometimes they spend the whole day by themselves at home, waiting for Dad, waiting for Mom, holding two, three jobs. Especially in the United States.

And some families can barely afford having the next meal. So, please, reflect on this. Be nice to your kids. Treat your students the same way you want your own children to be treated. And you will become the teacher of the year, everywhere you are in the world.

If you missed any episodes in this miniseries, exploring how the Science of Reading serves multilingual and English learners, please scroll back in this podcast feed. And while this is the last episode in this miniseries, we're going to continue exploring this critical topic throughout our upcoming ninth season. I can't wait to tell you more about that soon.

In the meantime, we'll be right back in your feed in two weeks with a brand new episode to kick off our summer series. Here's a little preview of what to expect.