Category: English Language Development

Are ICEbreakers appropriate for EML students this year?

The school year has gotten off to a quiet start, against the most horrifying backdrop imaginable for immigrant students in the English Language  Development (ELD) program (formerly called ESOL). Images on the news show ICE agents throwing black and brown men to the ground and leading them away in handcuffs, disappearing them to unknown destinations, where due process is almost nonexistent. Law-abiding residents just going to work. The families and neighbors of my students targeted by armed men in masks.

I teach at one of the largest high schools in the state of Maryland, with a student population that’s 60% Hispanic, and about 25% actively enrolled in our ELD program. After sitting through a week of Pre-Service teacher meetings where not a single mention of immigration was made, I sent an email message to my supervisor pointing out my concerns that students might face unusually high levels of anxiety and fear as they come back to school this year. And maybe we could send an email to the entire staff. And share the robust MCPS web page for Immigrant Supports. 

I even mentioned that the typical classroom ICEbreakers might be triggering for some students.

Instead of support, I got called in to my supervisor’s office and reprimanded for sending out a “political” message using school email. Apparently now it’s “political” to express concern for EML students.

Is it that my supervisors are low-key MAGA enthusiasts? Are they afraid? Do they just not want to be inconvenienced? Why would someone in charge of a program comprising 100% immigrant students not be on the side of our students? Of their teachers and staff? (as an aside, one of my colleagues, whose spouse was born overseas, says he takes his U.S. passport with him to take out the trash so that he won’t be arrested). We are living in an era where our government is turning against us.

I am deeply distressed that school leaders have ignored my concerns and are trying to pretend that everything is normal. Even worse, they told me, “You need to be careful. I don’t want you to get in trouble” WTF?! I was pointing out that we need to be aware of pressures our students were facing outside of school that could affect attendance, participation in school events, grades, and social-emotional well-being. Isn’t that important any more?

If this what the school year will look like for 2025-2026, then I’m not sure how I’ll make it through. I will follow school rules and be compliant at work, but outside of the duty day, I will use my teacher voice to exercise my First Amendment rights while I still have them, to speak out in support of immigrants, the people who actually keep our country running.

Even though the Department of Education has quietly rescinded the federal guidelines for students learning English, I will support my students, whatever their immigration status, for as long as I am able. Which may not be very long, at this rate.

Through a confidential source, I learned that the MCPS International Office usually admits close to 1,000 newcomer students every year. Last year, they admitted 850. This year, only 12.

I hope I’ll make it another year. Or at least until a time when choosing the right ICEbreaker activity is my biggest back-to-school concern.

ELD Teachers: Still the illegitimate step-children of the district

Twenty five years ago I started my MCPS career teaching in a stairwell. As the newbie, I was content to pull kids into a quiet, sunny space, even though I felt a little unwanted, like Harry Potter. The specialized small-group instruction allowed them to feel more comfortable practicing English and taking academic risks than gathered than in a large room with 24 others.

Then the fire marshal came along and shut me down.

Since 2000, I have taught elementary, middle and high school classes – all levels of ESOL (before they were called ELD), Developmental Reading, Basic Reading, READ 180, Academic Acceleration, and SLIFE. I’ve co-taught Physics, Basic Math, and English 6, 9, 10, 11, and 12. I’ve taught alone in my own classroom or in a shared space. I’ve pulled kids out of the classroom and I’ve plugged into the classroom.

As I changed schools, grade levels, and instructional models, one thing has become clear: ELD teachers are expected to teach just about any subject at every grade level, and to remain completely flexible and fluid. Most teachers grumble when they have to learn a new curriculum or when the district launches a new state test. But ESOL teachers have had to endure an onslaught of changes to their profession year after year after year.

The changing acronyms and language around our field may be the best example of dramatic shifts. The field of ESOL became ELD, while the students are EMLs (Emergent Multilingual Learners), and the classes they take are ELP courses. I have no idea what that stands for. Our district office is called DELME. Whatever.

Just to keep us on our toes, the district DELME Office keeps purchasing new curriculum resources, each requiring many hours of extra teacher prep time to use effectively. We’ve gone from an internally-written (and in my opinion, excellent) curriculum guide to boxed sets: Rigor, System 44, READ 180, Study Sync, CKLA and more. Let’s not forget the grossly inappropriate frog reader books purchased for our high school METS/ SLIFE students in 2018 that were mostly warehoused before they even saw a classroom.

Around the county, our ELD book rooms are full of discarded materials that probably cost the district hundreds of thousands of dollars and cost the teachers hundreds of hours of prep time.

Recently, MCPS moved to a co-teaching model of instruction for secondary students (see my September 2024 blog https://wp.me/p6YtYW-BR). It’s also a new instructional model that takes time for teachers to learn. Instead of ELD classes at different proficiency levels focusing on specific language objectives, now all but the newcomers are mainstreamed into math, science, and social studies classes — often with no curriculum to support language learning. This can be good for some students, especially those who are fully literate in their own languages. But students at lower levels of proficiency risk being left behind.

It is the burden of the co-teacher to develop lessons that support these ELD students in addition to negotiating for time and space to deliver those lessons.

I would like to work with our struggling students in small groups, but I have only the noisy hallway for pull-out instruction. I have no classroom, except the space I share with my co-teachers during our 50 minutes together.

During my contractual planning periods, I sit at a shared desk in a cramped office where there’s no place to hang my coat. Staff come and go to use the refrigerator, the microwave, or just to chat. Sometimes I’m happy for the camaraderie, but mostly it’s hard to get any work done. There’s no place to make a personal phone call during the school day or to have a private meeting with a colleague. There’s no quiet space to decompress after a morning dancing diplomatically around another teacher.

My working conditions have come full circle in 25 years.

We’ve just hired three new ELD teachers for next school year, and I’m already anxious about where they’ll sit. Our department is suddenly bigger than the English Department and yet we have half the working space they do.

That stairwell from 25 years ago is looking like a really attractive option.