3. Prioritize High-Level Thinking Tasks
Make high-level thinking tasks a priority for all students. Remember that perfect English language use is not a prerequisite for high-level academic tasks. When an EL uses English imperfectly in the context of a high-level task, don’t replace that task with back-to-basics grammar. Instead, encourage the imperfections that are a natural part of students stretching their cognitive and communicative skills, and then listen closely to gather formative data about student assets and challenges. Use this information to plan strategic scaffolds and personalize teaching so ELs thrive with both your high-level tasks and the language they need to effectively communicate their thinking with impact.
“ELs at all proficiency levels are capable of high-level thinking and can engage in complex, cognitively demanding social and academic activities requiring language as long as they are provided appropriate linguistic support.”
—California State Board of Education (2012)
Higher-order thinking questions are important not just for the intellectual rigor but for relevance. Most higher-order questions are open-ended, meaning they do not have one right answer. A question such as “What is the author’s message in this story?” invites multiple, diverse perspectives. Be open to students having different opinions than you and drawing different inferences from texts based on their own life experiences and cultures. When you ask high-level thinking questions and invite multiple points of view, classroom discussions get interesting! Justifying ideas with evidence becomes a relevant task important for explaining and clarifying thinking. Through higher-level discussions that invite diverse interpretations, you value the unique assets all students bring to their learning. You create a space for every voice in your community of scholars.
Also critical for maintaining high expectations, use scaffolds strategically! When engaging ELs in high-level tasks, use scaffolds to ensure all students can participate, but don’t overscaffold. Only use what a student needs. Flip to Section III to learn the core philosophy and strategies for strategic scaffolding, which is central to teaching with high expectations.
Questions for Humble Reflection
Do I Teach With High Expectations for ELs and All Students?
Are my goals and success criteria clear to me and to my students?
Do my goals and success criteria align with grade-level and content-area expectations? How do I know?
Do I ask questions that require high-level thinking of ELs and all students?
Do my tasks reflect high expectations appropriate for my grade level(s) and content area(s)? How do I know?
How Do I Respond When a Student Struggles?
If an EL struggles, do I blame the struggle on the students’ EL status or seek to understand the specific opportunity for growth? Do I lower my expectations or reflect on how I will change my teaching so the student will succeed?
How is my response to how a student struggles different for different student groups in my classroom (e.g., EL, GATE, low-performing students, white students, black students, boys, girls)? What differences do I notice in what I say, what I do, and the time I wait before stepping in?
Be in inquiry about these questions across a week of teaching. For example, reflect:
When a high-performing student struggles with a challenge in my classroom, how do I respond?
When a student who performs well below grade level struggles with a challenge, how do I respond?
When an EL struggles with a challenge, how do I respond?
What differences do I notice in the wait time I provide, what I say, or how I say it? What differences do I notice in my nonverbal cues and body language?
Additional Reading to Foster This Mindset
Gibbons, P. (2009). English learners, academic literacy, and thinking: Learning in the challenge zone. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Saphier, J. (2017). High-expectations teaching. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Reflect in Inquiry About Your Impact
VISION: Reflect in continuous inquiry about your impact. Set clear goals. Look at formative data both to understand how students are learning and to study the impact of your teaching on student learning. When students struggle, ask, “What might I change in my teaching to ensure my students succeed?”
Why This Mindset Matters
Reflective teaching is good teaching for all students (Chenoweth & Noguera, 2009; Hattie, 2012; Noguera et al., 2015). Reflective teachers engage in a continuous cycle of inquiry about the impact of teaching on students. Figure 2.1 shows the four essential steps of reflective teaching.
It looks simple enough to apply this cycle to our teaching, and many teachers do so with ease. We plan, we teach, we asses, we look at our assessment data, and then we rethink and refine our plans. However . . .
Ways We Might Get Stuck
Every step of this cycle has a possible sticking point when we teach ELs. Our mindset makes the difference. The reflective cycle helps us ensure EL success when we have high expectations for ELs, are curious about the strengths they bring, and have a sense of ownership and responsibility to impact their learning. If, however, we don’t believe in their capacities, assume their learning is another teacher’s job, or blame instead of taking ownership for their struggles, the reflective cycle gets stuck. I created Table 2.2 to compare two possible approaches to each step of the reflective cycle. Compare the difference in mindset for each approach.
Figure 2.1 Reflective Cycle of Effective Teaching
I have experienced every one of the possible stagnations in the reflective cycle both in my own teaching and in my work helping teachers thrive with ELs. It takes honest, humble reflection to uncover the ways our own unconscious mindsets about ELs might get in our way.
The place in this cycle I’m most likely to get stuck is with the adaptation. When an EL succeeds, I might keep using the same level of supports and challenges. Why? I get attached to a strategy. It works, so why change it? I get attached to my students succeeding with the tasks I give them. If I take my reflection a little deeper, I notice that I’m also uncomfortable watching ELs struggle. I want to guarantee their success, and as a result, sometimes I overscaffold. Or I don’t remove scaffolds as students advance to foster their independence and success. It helps to know this about myself so I can actively plan places in the lesson where students may struggle and be intentional about giving them space for that struggle. Instead of jumping in immediately to rescue with scaffolds, I watch closely to learn and see what they can do on their own. I watch to also learn specifically how students struggle (and succeed) so I can personalize my teaching to address their very specific, and evolving, needs.
Table 2.2
Reflective teaching is only effective for ELs when used in the context of expecting excellence and valuing ELs’ assets. Remember the graphic I introduced in