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One of the great opportunities as a middle school teacher is to help our students find their unique voices! Unfortunately, many of our ESL students often fall silent because they don't have the confidence to share their experiences and opinions due to language barriers. They can get stuck in the rut of just doing the basics and not connecting with their assignments, thus falling behind academically. Yet assignments that have a specific real-life application help students see the impact of their learning and the importance of sharing their voice with the community. Authentic and meaningful writing projects deeply motivate students and make learning English personal and purposeful. For example, my students groaned loudly when I told them we were starting a writing project. However, when I explained that we were creating a children's book about their hero in Google slides, they got so excited that many of them worked on it outside of class. That NEVER happens! Most of them wrote about family members and wanted to share the stories with their family and friends, but it was too expensive to print them out, even at the district copy center. Sharing the stories with their families on their Chromebooks was ok, but it didn't feel like a real storybook to them. If we had a printer, laminator and binder, we could create these books in class. These books could also be read to younger ESL students to encourage them to overcome challenges and find their own voices. Other meaningful cultural writing projects such as a newsletter for new families with school, business, and community info, recipe books, personalized flash cards for new ESL students, etc, can help our ESL students find their voices, realize a meaningful purpose in practicing English, and connect our diverse cultural community.
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