Language Castle nominates the following excellent educational sharers for making a difference in our field.  Thanks for helping me learn so much about what’s going on out there – and thanks for helping other people learn about my work!  Here’s hoping that the Edublog awards will help us spread the word on early education, technology and dual language learners!

• Best individual tweeter @JudieHaynes
• Best group blog   http://www.multilingualliving.com/
• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog 140+ In the Moment
• Best twitter hashtag #ELLCHAT
• Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast Bam! Radio Network
• Best open PD / unconference / webinar series Early Childhood Investigations Webinar Series
• Best educational use of a social network  Teach_Preschool on Twitter and Facebook

The Meaning of Meaning in Second Language Learning

By Karen Nemeth

This week in my workshops we discussed some differences between the language environment of a baby learning L1 and the experiences of an older child learning L2. In the whole first year of life, parents and caregivers talk to infants about what’s happening currently in their surroundings.   They sing songs with rhythm, rhyme and repetition.  They read stories with pictures that connect to the words.  They talk about the books, toys, and items in the home and outdoors that really seem to capture the child’s attention.  A preverbal infant will quickly train adults to respond to their interests.  Have you ever tried to read a story to a squirmy 9 month old when they are not interested????

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The U.S. Department of Education Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), under the direction of Dr. Rosalinda Barrera, is moving forward with new supports for our field.  Here are some key elements of their new message:

In the September 21, 2011 report “Issues from the National Conversations on Educating English Language Learners for the 21^st Century” from Dr. Rosalinda Barrera, director of the Office of English Language Acquisition, included these points about early learning:

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Response to “Early Care and Education for Children in Immigrant Families”

This article by Lynn A. Karoly and Gabriella C. Gonzalez in the Spring 2011 issue of the Future of Children journal, provides some solid information about the participation of immigrant children in different types of early care and education.   The authors analyze how factors like poverty and parental education influence participation.  They conclude with policy recommendations designed to reduce the achievement gap.  I appreciate this article, but I have on major concern to raise here.

The authors talk at length about the importance of providing high quality early education to children who face disadvantages and to children in immigrant families.  (more…)

A Dozen Myths about Meeting the Language Needs of Young Children

By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M.

Today I asked the audience how many of these myths they have encountered.  The discussion actually led them to assess their own knowledge and beliefs about planning language supports for early childhood education.  Have you seen these myths in action?  Can you suggest some resources that would help to debunk these myths?

1. A bilingual ed teacher’s job description does not include doing any teaching in English.
2. A child with special needs should only be taught in one language to avoid confusing him. (more…)

By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M.

Truth is I don’t have a magic answer to the many questions about how preschool children should be screened and assessed when they speak languages other than English and Spanish. But I do have an honest opinion based on my reading of current information from top sources. So – I’ll share my opinion and resources with you here and see if you would like to weigh in and share your own views.
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by Karen Nemeth

Have you observed an early childhood teacher who does a lot of talking as she moves around, multitasking throughout the day? She’ll call out, “That’s a nice tower! I like how you guys are sharing” as she is wiping down tables on the other side of the room, or “Keep the playdough on the table. Look at those beautiful balls and snakes!” as she walks by the art table and opens the closet. If you are just listening, you may hear a lot of high quality language going on. If you take a closer look you’ll find something is missing. Children may be hearing interesting words, but how do they know what connections to make with those words?

This is what I call “driveby teaching” I may have invented the term, but everyone seems to know it when they see it. “Driveby teaching” happens when teachers talk while moving around the room without taking the time to see that the children make the right connections with the words being used. It can even be as simple as going on and on about ants on the playground without realizing that the child is looking up at some birds flying overhead. “Driveby teaching” is kind of like reading a storybook to your class while running in circles so they can’t see the pictures.
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By Karen Nemeth

Don’t wait – I think you can find Superman in the heart of every great preschool teacher!

Based on what I’ve been reading lately, the real question is how are we going to release the superpowers of preschool teachers so they can ensure the best possible start for all of the young children they teach?  Yes – all of the children.  Not just the ones who speak English.  Not just the ones who are easy.  All of them.

I think the key to making early education effective for the 25% of our under 6 population who come from different languages lies in bringing teacher-child interactions into focus.

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Professional Development Secret Weapons – Early Childhood Language and Cultural Diversity

By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M.

These professional development resources are so useful – I’m starting to feel a little guilty about keeping them to myself!  If you’ve attended my workshops, you’ve seen how I use them.  Anyone who does presentations about early childhood education focusing on diversity in language and culture will find lots of ways to use these.  Please come back and share your success stories here or on my facebook page: Karen Nemeth at Language Castle LLC.  I’m a firm believer in paying it forward!

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Who is on your diversity team?

By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M.

I think every preschool program should have a diversity team.  Bring together staff, parents, and members of your community that speak the languages of the children in your classrooms so they can provide help and support in a variety of ways.  Whether you have a very formal role for them to play or a loose, informal get together from time to time, you will find that the benefits of this type of committee will grow and grow.

For example, they can help you by reading translations of school materials to be sure the language is appropriate for the children and families you serve, they can help you find resources in the languages you need, they can serve as volunteers with the children or behind the scenes, and they can welcome new families to your program.  Here is a list of organizations that come up in my presentations.  Feel free to submit additions for this list.  I’ve started by giving some examples of the kind of help these groups can provide, but I’m leaving it up to you to fill in the success stories! Comment here or email to info@languagecastle.com

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Letter to Administrators about Dual Language Learners in Preschool

(a template you can use – by Karen Nemeth)

Dear [Administrator]:

I appreciate the opportunity to work with you on this most important task: teaching preschool children who come from different language background.  We both know that I can only be a truly effective teacher for these children if I have your full support.  Here are some things I want you to know:

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“Rules” for Teaching English/Dual Language Learners in Preschool?? A Conversation Starter

by Karen Nemeth

People are often asking me to just tell them the “rules” for teaching dual language learners in preschool.  They seem disappointed when I answer, “It depends!”.   Whether you say English language learners (ELLs) or dual language learners (DLLs), they are all children who come from families that speak languages other than English.  There’s no one recipe for success – it depends on the mix of children you have, the skills of your staff, the format of your curriculum, and the resources available to you.  But, there are some principles that can function as rules – so I am sharing my views here.  This is not meant to be a definitive guide – it is meant to be a starting point to get people talking.  Please share your thoughts and suggestions via comments to the blog or email to me at info@languagecastle.net.  Let’s get this conversation started!

#1 First, and above all, preschool needs to be high quality.  This includes small class sizes, well-prepared teacher, comprehensive curriculum that is developmentally appropriate, and well-stocked classroom.  A low quality program that happens to have a bilingual teacher is still a low quality program.

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By:  Karen Nemeth

The debate in Illinois about whether bilingual education should be required for preschool shows the growing level attention being paid to how we should meet the needs of young children from different language backgrounds (via Edweek http://bit.ly/dhxA2n ). Unfortunately, I think the question being debated is off track. Determining a specific type of program for children who have limited English experience is a question for older grades – for children who are at a different level of cognitive development. Preschool children must not be treated like small versions of elementary school students, especially when it comes to language development! All children in the preschool years are at some stage of developing language – some in one, some in two or more languages. The focus has to be on high quality language input and teacher-child interactions.

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By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M.

I recently visited a childcare center that had five preschool classrooms. There were children who spoke eight different languages and adults who spoke only three of those languages. The director had done plenty of reading of about the need to support home language development in young children. In her view, this was ‘easier read than done’. She, and her teachers, wanted to know how they could possibly support home language learning in these complicated circumstances. That’s a question I’ve been asked countless times. Here’s a piece of the answer.

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By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M.

If you are reading this, you must be interested in early childhood education.  Now, here’s the question at the core of this post:  “Have you given any thought to the children who, for one reason or another, will not be able to attend a preschool program?” There’s an awful lot of talk about early childhood education these days, much of it coming from President Obama and Education Secretary Duncan.  Politicians are talking about it, as are business leaders and economists. Millions upon millions of Federal and state funding dollars are being spent for high quality early childhood programs such as Head Start, Early Head Start and universal preschool.  Great minds are hard at work deciding exactly what the best possible preschool program should look like.  But a preschool program is only effective for the children who show up.

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By Karen Nemeth, Ed.M.

My last blog, “Meeting the Early Learning Needs of ALL Children  – Not Just the Ones Who Show Up”, generated some important questions from readers, and I promised some answers.  How can states and districts accomplish the goal of providing high quality preschool education to all, when some simply will not or can not participate in a full time, out of home program?  Does high quality early childhood education have to be an all or nothing question?  What happens when the children who don’t enroll in preschool programs are the ones who need support the most – such as children from struggling families or new immigrant families?  Here are some possibilities to get the discussion started.

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By Karen Nemeth

I blogged about my concern that high quality preschool is failing to reach some of the neediest children who can’t make it to a program every day. My main emphasis is always about how these issues and solutions will affect children from different language backgrounds. Then, I posted several resources and solutions to that problem. Now I have two more important ideas to share with you and I invite you to add to the discussion. Registering for WordPress is no big deal. The more resources we have to share, the more successful we can be in helping children from struggling families access the full benefit of services that will give them the best possible start in education and in life.

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By Karen Nemeth Ed.M.

Last week I attended a leadership symposium presented by the Pew Center on the States.  John Schlitt, director of the new Pew Home Visiting Campaign, hosted informative presentations and fielded important questions from participants.  We learned about the sophisticated research techniques that will be used to assess which aspects of home visiting programs are most effective so that future funding can be directed toward the greatest impact.  I was on twitter during the meeting to share live comments about what I was hearing.

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By Karen Nemeth, M. Ed.

Time after time teachers ask, “we believe in supporting the home language, but what should we do when parents ask us NOT to use anything other than English?”  Parents who speak another language often enroll their child in a preschool program with the expectation that total immersion in English will speed their child’s progress in American schools.  Research tells us this is the wrong way to go.  You can help parents understand that you share their desire for their child to learn English well and to succeed in school.  The best way to achieve this is to begin with strong support for the home language in the preschool years. Experts believe this approach will not only be effective in helping young dual language learners enter elementary school ready to succeed – but it will also prevent the tragic breakdown of family relationships that results from loss of the shared home language.  Here is some information you can use to engage parents in a strong collaboration in support of each child’s growing ability to learn and communicate in their home language.

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