The Challenge

Multilingual students from 60 nationalities attend AISB in Romania. International Baccalaureate courses taught in English develop students academically and personally. But, despite English not being the primary language for most students, language development was just considered the work of the “English as an Additional Language” (EAL) department.

The Solution

Confianza helped to develop common language goals across all subject areas. Now that English language development is viewed as integral to multilingual student access to content, a culture shift has occurred in which ELA Specialists are now seen as coaches and all content teachers seek to continually improve their language instruction.

The Story

With over 940 students from 60 nationalities, the American International Early Childhood to 12th Grade School in Bucharest, Romania faces unique challenges educating its linguistically diverse student body. School leaders partnered with Confianza Director and Founder, Sarah Ottow, to identify language needs and design a customized professional learning cycle aligned to their goals. Confianza’s approach left a striking impression on English as an Additional Language (EAL) Coordinator, Alina Guzganu. “What Confianza has to offer is fluid and customized to meet specific needs. It's not like you have a program and you come and promote that program, but instead you try to understand what we are doing and how you can address our needs,” Alina said.

Establishing Common Language Objectives

Sarah met with all educators at AISB virtually and identified the following team goals: teaching practices for language domains (reading, writing, speaking, and listening), differentiated supports dependent upon student level (sensory, graphic, interactive), assessment, and collaboration. The International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) Curriculum Coordinator, Courtney Hughes, comments that now “our teachers are having whole conversations across the school. You've really helped us to create some common language and some common goals around language objectives [which] has been really powerful for us as a school.”

Teachers Educating the Whole Child

Once this common language was established across all educators at the school, it facilitated structures among educators that mirror the “whole child as inquirer” focus of the IB framework that educators provide to their students. In addition to “content area teachers hav[ing] a better understanding of the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) and how to meet them,” EAL Coordinator Rita McDermott explains, “there is a reignited focus on the importance of systems that enable students to access curriculum and acquire language simultaneously." Therefore, EAL Specialists have begun to play a key role as “ambassadors” of language access co-planning, co-teaching, co-assessing, and engaging in inquiry-based reflection with all educators. Rita continues, “EAL Specialists feel more equipped and empowered to serve as language coaches for other educators and administration. A part of this system is improving how we collect and use data to inform our program structure and instruction.” 

Vulnerability to Improve

In fact, this focus on language access inquiry, coupled with Confianza’s approach to improvement through modeling the inquiry-based consulting cycle, has begun to open educators up to further feedback, learning, and improvement. “The openness and the willingness of teachers to share where they are with you surprised me,” says PYP Curriculum Coordinator Courtney Hughes, “and one grade level in particular asked all of us to come in and watch a lesson that they co-planned together and asked us to give feedback, and that was a big step!” Courtney continues, “You took the time to get to know us as a school and your approach was very kind and caring and I think that led to people opening up about what we need.” 

  • [Courtney] There are many values of working with Sarah and Confianza, but for me as the curriculum coordinator, the biggest value is that our teachers are having the same conversation now. Not only within the elementary school but across the school. So you've really helped us to create some common language and some common goals around language objectives which tends to get, I don't know why, but left up to everybody's own idea of what it is. So having this real concrete tool that we can use and having teachers discuss and think about the language that we're asking kids to use has been really powerful for us as a school.

    [Alina] I like the fact that we can have an open communication about the good, and the bad, and the ugly and you always had some resources at hand and you always just did things so naturally, and you were so knowledgeable and able to support conversation across many domains, many languages, many subject areas, and all the teachers felt like you are a specialist in their own domain. So that was very valuable for me.

    --

    [Courtney] So in terms of results that we've seen since our work in October, I would say teachers are using the tool that you've created for us. We've even added to it or changed it a little bit to fit our needs with your support. So the fact that grades one to five, every grade level is now using this tool and becoming more comfortable with it is a huge result for us. In terms of coaching and teaching, I think that our classroom teachers are starting to look at our EAL specialists more in the coaching role, and our EAL specialists are starting to feel empowered-

    [Alina] Empowered.

    [Courtney] from that, and lead meetings, and really take on that leadership position that we want them to take on. So, those are two big results that we're happy with.

    [Alina] I think people are now more open about conversations related to language objectives, and we all speak the same language and this led to an increased awareness of how we teach things and how we do things. And I also love the fact that we actually unpacked an idea and we tried to look at it from different angles and get the most out of it. And it was just helpful to have these language planning tools and use them across the curriculum.

    --

    [Alina] Well, it surprised me that you could work with the Early Learning Center, and then the elementary school, and then move to the secondary school in one week. So that was surprising. I think I had a special moment when I understood that there are all kinds of resources out there, but to really have to be able to synthesize information, dissect information, and use strategies to select the kind of information that best meets your needs. And I think that's why we need a consultant because there are all kinds of resources out there, easily accessible, but it's not that easy to make the right choice.

    [Courtney] Anything that surprised me? I think the openness and the willingness of our teachers to share where they are with you, and how you were able to have different resources available, because every grade level had a different idea of what they wanted to do. So it was very customized but there was always a resource like at the tip of your hat, you know, you said, "Oh, let me show you this," or "Let's look at this," or "Let's try this together." And that was just so cool to see, and I think we were hungry to see it, so that was wonderful. The other thing that surprised me was that one grade level in particular asked you to come in and asked all of us in the grade to come in and watch a lesson of the co-plan together and asked us to give feedback. And that was a big step, so that was really great.

    --

    [Alina] Something like, "Have confidence in Confianza."

    [Interviewer] Whoa, I like that!

    [Alina] I don't know. I think they should know that whatever you have to offer is not stuck in form or shape and is very fluid and-

    [Courtney] Customized to our needs.

    [Alina] Customized to meet specific needs.

    [Courtney] Yeah.

    [Alina] Yes.

    [Courtney] To whatever school's needs.

    [Alina] And I think that's very special, it's not like you have a program and you come and you know, promote that program. This is what you have to do in order to be successful, but instead you are trying to understand what we are doing, what we are doing right, and how we can address certain needs based on your recommendations or guidance.

    [Courtney] And I shared this with you earlier but I'll share it again. The feedback that you gave us as a consultant in your post-visit the first time, and hopefully this time as well, was by far the most thorough and helpful feedback I've ever received from any consultant in terms of what each person's next steps were. I knew very clearly what my next steps were as a coordinator based on our work together, and I think the same is true for Alina as the head of EAL. And the principals knew, and it was just so very clear. And just to reiterate what you just said, I think you took the time to get to know us as a school and your approach was very kind and caring and I think that led to people opening up about what we need.

    [Alina] Personally, yes, that was surprising.

    [Interviewer] Great.

 

Impact Areas

#culture shift
#LanguageLens
#continuousimprovement