Using artifacts to engage, enrich and encourage ELLs in the classroom

              

           In developing my lesson plans to fit the protocol of the portfolio my state requires for a teaching license I have been compiling data on my students.  In looking at all the data on my students, I have become very interested in how to better engage the vast number of English Language Learners in my classes.  I want our classroom environment and the lessons I’m presenting to give them meaningful opportunities to become more comfortable in their speaking, writing and reading of English.  With my classrooms being over 50% English Language Learners I really want to know how best to engage, and grow their writing, reading and even speaking skills.

                Of all the lesson types I’ve done or have seen done with these students this year, the most impactful and the most engaging have typically involved the production of or interaction with some sort of artifact.  We’ve done window pane style vocabulary where we introduce students to words with an image they draw first, we’ve done book cover investigations where we look at an image and try to infer what the text might be about, we’ve produced AVID one pagers that include illustrations and we’ve created detail rich sentences on script strips with added color.  Give these students choral reading, Cornell notes, quick writes or a writing assignment and they struggle.  Give them the chance to draw and write or color and write or draw and discuss and the interaction level and participation increases exponentially.

                In the November/December 2015 issue of the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Réngine Randall and Mia Lynn Mercurio published an article about the power of artifacts in the classroom as a motivator for learning and developing more literate through process and application in students.  Based on their article and the work of advocates for multi-modal learning like Tom Romano, Troy Hicks, Bomer, and many strategies advocated by Marzano – the resounding opinions seems to be that artifacts are a great way to engage and motivate our students. 

                Our students are consumers of multi-modal literacy every day through their use of technology and social media and as Randall and Mercurio state, “our ability to impact student achievement rests on innovative instructional practices that enable teachers to meet students where they are with the materials that they are best able to read and interpret.”  The message seems pretty clear to me – if I want to meet my students where they are and have them be more engaged in the learning process I need to consider the production, analysis and display of artifacts in my teaching.  Again to quote Randall and Mercurio, “objects, artifacts, and materials matter precisely because they are tangible and often more central to students’ lives than a text alone.”  Artifacts, it seems, are a powerful learning tool and I suspect, for my students who are English Language Learners, being able to connect their understanding of text, writing and critical thinking in conjunction with an artifact is a much more meaningful way to allow them to dig deeper into how they feel about a particular event, theme or piece of writing.  I have seen this myself and have even taught it myself.  I brought cover art investigations to my 8^th grade ELA students and it provided us with a thoughtful way to consider a text before even reading a single word.  We were able to go back and revisit the cover after reading and discuss what we have accurately inferred and what new things we saw after our reading.  Even better was that many of my quieter language learner students actively participated. 

 “Also, of no small importance is how the use of materials and artifactual literacies might                 positively change intervention or developmental reading classes intended to support                           underperforming students. Such an approach is not a perfect or straight path to raising                   achievement, but it may be one that improves the development of transferable academic                       skills, promotes engagement and curiosity, informs action, and allows for greater self-­                         efficacy,” (Randall & Mercurio, 327).

        I have always seen the benefit and loved the idea of multi-genre projects, portfolios, and the integration of art and technology in the ELA classroom, but this new information and the depth to which it positively affects English Language Learners gives me a whole new sense of motivation to make artifacts and the opportunity to develop and use them in the ELA classroom all the more pressing. 

Works cited:

Randall, R., & Mercurio, M. L. (2015). Valuing Stuff. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy J Adolesc Adult Liter, 59(3), 319-327. Retrieved February 23, 2016.