Confronting the Binary

  

For about ten years I have been teaching ESOL elective classes, classes that support students’ English language development, but do not count toward their high school ELA credits. In this capacity, I have been free to use a workshop model, focusing on fostering a love of reading, encouraging my students to read widely and pursuing their interests while knowing that the English department would handle the required “serious literature”. I have enjoyed being the book matchmaker who helped my students find books they would like to read. I have celebrated my students who read their very first book in English in my class. I have taken my students to the public library and helped them fill out the library card application so they would have access to books over the summer. Teaching the reading class is one of my favorite parts of my job. 

As the number of multilingual learners at my school has increased significantly in the past two or three years, it made sense for me to think about expanding my areas of certification in order to be able to support my students in more ways. I took the GACE for high school English last November, and was anticipating teaching sheltered world literature for the first time next school year. It turned out that we had so many ESOL students projected to be at the high school next year that another ESOL teacher in the district is moving to the high school and she has been assigned the sheltered ELA class. I will possibly teach high school English in the future, but for the time being I will continue to teach ESOL support classes. 

Beuhler’s chapters made me realize that I am reinforcing the binary by thinking of the reading students do in my class as more fun and less complex than the reading they do in their “real” English classes. I am excited to learn more (hopefully in future chapters) about how I can build upon the foundation that I have created of building a community of readers and serving as a guide in their reading to also engage my students in activities that help them develop the reading and writing skills that they will use in their other English classes. I like the idea of pushing students to read outside their comfort zones and to think about their reading beyond how it relates to their personal lives. I will surely continue to use young adult and middle grades literature in my classroom, but I will use it more thoughtfully, focusing on quality rather than quantity.  

For my students, many of them newcomers and new learners of English, graphic novels and middle grades titles play an important role. These books are often more accessible to my students because of their illustrations, shorter chapters, and simpler language. Many of my students, although new readers of English, are in their late teens and have experienced many hardships already in their lives. I don’t want to offer them books that they feel are babyish or inappropriate for them. I carefully curate my classroom library, and talk with my students about why I have chosen certain books and what I like about them. I feel like this is an important step in helping them understand the books on the shelves. I am looking forward to continuing to develop my YA pedagogy through this class. It will have a real impact on my teaching in the upcoming year.