What is Working: Latinos in New York City High Schools

1. What is Working: Latinos in New York City High Schools Haiwen Chu, Suzanne Dikker, Heather Homonoff Woodley Ph.D program in Urban Education, The Graduate Center, CUNY Research Institute for the Study of Languages in Urban Societies New York City Department of Education Immigration and Education Conference City College of New York, CUNYMarch 19, 2011

2. Research Questions How are New York Latino students with different characteristics being educated in public schools? What are the practices, structures, and stories within high schools that are successful in educating Latino students? The research team: Dr. Ofelia García , Haiwen Chu, Nelson Flores, Suzanne Dikker, Laura Kaplan, Heather Homonoff Woodley

3. Sampled High Schools SOURCES: 2009 CEP, 2005-8 School Report Cards

4. Data Sources For each of the eight schools: • Two days of observations following a student’s schedule • Advanced or proficient English speaking Latino student • Beginner Latino ELL/emergent bilingual • Interviews were conducted with the following staff: • Principal or Assistant Principal • Teacher selected as successful with Latino students by administration • Guidance counselor or social worker • Informal interviews with students • Teacher, student, and school artifacts

5. Major Findings • Bilingualism in Education • Collaborative Structures • Dynamic Assessment Practices • Culture of Caring • Support Services • Cultural Relevance

6. Bilingualism in Education Student: “Maestra, se puede recoger en Spanglish? Teacher: “Yes, so long as I understand your answer” Translanguaging in the classroom: A process of the student and/or teacher using bilingual/multiple discursive practices as “sense-making” of learning or teaching in multilingual classrooms (García, 2009)

7. Bilingualism in Education • Translanguaging in the classroom • Between individuals: Student to student, student to teacher, teacher to student • Across modalities: Reading, writing, speaking, listening

8. Teacher to students:content • Oral • “The same thing goes for composicion, okay? Lo mismo va para composicion” • “Despues tenemos los […] arena, limo, arcilla.In English that would be sand, silt, and clay” • T: “Ok, are we good?” S: “Yes” T: “Todos lo entienden entonces. Tienen que aprender esos nombres” • “Debes contestar estas nueve preguntas. You must answer all 9 questions”

9. Teacher to students:content • Written • At several schools, teachers use both Spanish and English on hand-outs, posters, blackboard, powerpoint presentations

10. Teacher-produced handout for an ELA class.

11. English in bold Spanish translations Elaborations in Spanish Spanish cognates

12. Student to teacher:content Worksheet in a Living Environment class • Student: “Maestra, se puede recoger en Spanglish? Teacher: “Yes, so long as I understand your answer”

13. Building content knowledge Reading. Class text in English, with Spanish dictionaries for support Discussing. Class lecture and discussion in English with some Spanish translation or elaboration Writing: Headings in English (Effects, People, Causes, Reforms) Content detail in Spanish Presenting: Groups report out to class in English with some Spanish translation Mapping: Use of semantic maps/webs throughout ELA, science, and social studies

14. Explicit use of both languages Student-produced poster in an ELA class.

15. Instrumental use of both languages • Oral: • Bilingual Algebra class (instruction mainly in Spanish): • S: “Yo hice: cinco times one which is five. Then cinco times two…” • S: “Equis minus three igual que three”

16. Student-student:content/instructions • T: “You need to pick one” S1 > S2: “Asi que tenemos que coger uno y escribirlo asi” • S1 > S2: [speaking Spanish] T: “S, what are you doing?” S: “I’m HELPING him!” [continues explaining in Spanish]

17. Teacher-student:negotiation • “Ay, Antony, por favor, have a seat now!” • “Everybody sit down! X, Estate quieto, bien?!” • S: “Maestro, puedo ir despues de ella?” T: “No” S: “Please?” • “No, tu no vas a salir. Tu te vas a sentar. Thank you.”

18. “Pick up the pace…” “Rápido” “Seis, cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno.” “all captains in front” “uno, cuatro” “sit down” “Muévete, muévete, no te quedes así!” “Argentina, tienes que levantar los brazos.” “Tiene que pasar la bola también. Levanta la mano. Alguien está libre, pasa la bola.” “She’s fine, vamos, vamos, vamos.”

19. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy • Culturally Relevant Teaching (Ladson-Billings, 1995) • Academic achievement • Cultural competence • Critical consciousness • Dominant and critical axes (Gutiérrez, 2007) • Dominant axis: access and achievement • Critical access: identity and power • Curriculum as serving as “windows and mirrors”

20. Language as Cultural Competence • “Students culture is their language, and language is their culture so much. How can you ignore that in teaching?” (Mr. Matos, math teacher) • “I had this one teacher who screams ‘No Spanish!”…it’s like she’s saying ‘You’re culture is dumb, don’t bring it here.’” (Leonela, 10th grade student) • “I tell them to tap into your language....your own language is a very useful skill.” (Mr. Chavez, history teacher)

21. “Mirrors and Windows” on Global History Window: medieval European history and symbolism in a Coat of Arms Mirror: create a Coat of Arms for whatever country you consider “home”

22. Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in the Content Areas • When the conversation changed to the Greek tragedy of Oedipus Rex, the teacher enhanced student understanding of both themes and plot by connecting the drama, relationships, and authors’ purposes to telenovelas • Down these Mean Streets (Piri Thomas), When I Was Puerto Rican (Esmerelda Santiago), and Bodega Dreams (Ernesto Quiñonez). • To illustrate the concept of exchange rate, for example, a teacher asks a question with a reference to the Dominican Republic ,“Digamos que la línea representa una tasa de cambio. ¿Cuántos pesos le dan en Dominicana ahora por un dólar?” [Let’s say that the line represents an exchange rate. How many pesos do they give you for a dollar in the Dominican Republic?]

23. From a Class Reader’s Guide to When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

24. Cultural Competence on a School-Wide Level • Celebrations of heritage, national independence days, and strong use of school physical space for displays of student culture (class doors, flags, bulletin boards, school-wide events, murals) • Teachers address issues that students face in their own lives when considering content choice (discrimination, domestic violence, immigration experienced by characters in fiction) and integrate it naturally into class curriculum • Partnerships for supplementary services with: Ballet Hispanico, Afro-Caribbean dance troupes, Alianza Domincana, Puerto Rican Family Institute, and Centro de Desarollo de la Mujer Dominicana

25. Implications for Schools and Next Steps • Expanded professional development • Alternative (multilingual, multimodal) assessments • Recruitment and retention of multilingual staff • Flexibility within the frame of Language Allocation Policy • Spaces for student agency • Multilingual resources and materials • Strategies for teachers who do, and do not, speak students’ home languages • Creating multilingual spaces for non-dominant language speakers

26. References • García, O. (2009). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Malden, MA and Oxford: Basil/Blackwell • Gutiérrez, R. (2007). Context matters: Equity, success, and the future of mathematics education. In T. Lamberg& L. R. Wiest (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Reno: University of Nevada. • Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465-491.

27. Haiwen Chu achu@gc.cuny.eduSuzanne Dikker suzanne.dikker@nyu.eduHeather Homonoff Woodley hwoodley@gc.cuny.eduhttp://latnyhs.commons.gc.cuny.edu Ph.D program in Urban Education, The Graduate Center, CUNY Research Institute for the Study of Languages in Urban Societies New York City Department of Education