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Three Steps Towards Schoolwide Change: Language Specialists as Teacher Leaders

Sarah Ottow

by Sarah Bernadette Ottow

Originally published on Colorín Colorado

Becoming a Changemaker

When I became an English Language (EL) teacher, I had high hopes — not only for my work with my students, but for my work with colleagues. Newly prepared with specialized knowledge and skills, I was ready to use this knowledge and my skills to support my students in learning academic English every day — in my setting and beyond. Yet I quickly realized that this knowledge was not supporting student success beyond the scope of my direct instruction in the way that I had envisioned.

I thought to myself, “What am I doing wrong? Why am I struggling to help other teachers help my students?” I was concerned about my general education colleagues not making the necessary adjustments to their curriculum and instruction to set EL students up for success when I wasn’t in the room. Since I didn’t have any shared prep time with other educators, I tried to help my colleagues in one-off conversations by the copier and in the hallway, and I shared strategies and scaffolds to support our EL students. But it was all to no avail. I felt unheard and invisible, and my colleagues seemed too busy or not fully invested in taking on my ideas to help students.  I felt that my EL kids were unheard and invisible, too, which was the exact problem I was trying to address! In addition, I was also extremely busy with a full schedule of teaching our shared students. Pretty soon into my new role, I became frustrated and started to burn out. Sound familiar?

As many of you may be able to relate to, I felt extremely unsuccessful because my students weren’t thriving. In fact, I was being way too hard on myself. I was seeing this lack of collaboration time, this lack of centering multilingual students, and this lack of capacity-building for general educators as something I was contributing to, rather than a result of an out-of-date system. I was being reactive and I didn’t know how to be more proactive.

Have you been in a situation like this? Are you currently dealing with something like this as a language specialist yourself? Don’t despair! What I now know is that this situation doesn’t have to remain static. With some guidance, you can adjust:

  • your approach so you’re not spinning your wheels

  • how you’re collaborating with others to get more traction for students

  • the ways you’re supporting your students to be more effective and efficient in meeting their unique needs for language development across the school day

You can be that changemaker!

How do you do this? How can you become a champion for your students, instead of feeling marginalized and isolated? How can you truly be heard so that other educators can make the necessary improvements to their instruction to support language learners? Read on for a practical, three-step process to be a true agent of change in your school, based on the experiences I went through on my own journey as well as my subsequent work coaching and mentoring other EL specialists. In addition, I’ve included specific resources below to help build your knowledge and skills in some of the areas from this process. Let’s go…you can start today!

1. Sphere of Influence

See where your sphere of influence is… and where it isn’t

For me, the first thing I realized was that a broader system-wide change was needed. Yet that change was not directly something I could make happen, no matter how hard I wanted to make that change. There was a larger, underlying issue that was not being addressed: we had an understaffed EL department — and collaboration time focused on EL students was neither scheduled nor valued. At that point, that bigger issue was outside of my sphere of influence. I’d forgotten that change is complex. Change takes time. Change needs mindset shifts. Change usually requires more than just us, language specialists, to make the system evolve. We can easily spin into feeling hopeless and end up wasting our precious energy!

Because I had been burning out and spinning my wheels, I eventually decided to try a different approach. I decided to focus on what was directly in my sphere of influence. For example, I could directly influence the quality of time I had with my students instead of trying to single-handedly address the lack of collaboration time, understaffing of the EL department, and areas in which our students were struggling.

Easier said than done! However, I tried to shift my focus to being 100% fully present for my students without the distraction of thinking somehow I could “fix” what wasn’t working. Renewed in my purpose and unweighted from my imagined burden, I could now feel more competent and more confident, knowing that I was not only doing my job, but that I was also improving my instructional practice for my students in real time. I realized that when I was in other classrooms with general educators, I was, in fact, modeling that change for others, day by day. While I knew that the situation was still difficult for my students outside of their instructional time with me, I also knew that I was making a positive impact when they were under my care. By clarifying my own boundaries within my sphere of influence, I was building the groundwork for positive change.

2. Small Wins

Uncover entry points for small wins

I started to gain traction by focusing on what I could actually control and influence. Organically, some small steps revealed themselves to address system-wide issues, one classroom at a time. For example I went from thinking, “I wish I could meet with EVERY teacher my students see — but that’s too many teachers in all!” to taking that valid concern and reframing it into two action steps I could viably take on: 1) “I can meet with this one ‘EL-friendly’ teacher weekly before school who has several of my students,” and 2) “I’ll ask my principal if I can adjust my schedule to attend team planning time for this one grade level once every two weeks because I have a critical mass of Newcomers in those classes.” One teacher at a time, one team at a time paved the way for more influence over time to collaboratively target students’ needs and celebrate their growth.

This is when I found some entry points for actionable change. I built relationships with a few key teachers instead of feeling like I needed to, or could, support all of the teachers who came in contact with EL students on my caseload. Those relationships grew and the students grew, too. I noticed that a cohort of the collaborators I worked with became interested in additional professional development to support ELs. I asked the district supervisor of instruction if we could add a course to our summer PD catalog on this topic and offered to run it. The course was a success and soon we had to add more courses to keep up with the demand. Teachers requested more EL staff and more collaboration time — which meant that the requests weren’t just coming from me. I had developed some allies, and we were able to make a stronger case for change when we made it together. Hooray!

The students made more and more traction in their success and they became more visible in the school community! As a blossoming teacher leader, I was truly making an impact so that my students had more opportunity and access to the core curriculum.

3. Reflection

Reflect, reflect, reflect…while demonstrating mutual respect and trust

I have come to learn that when we get air time with colleagues, it’s important to not just tell people what to do but enact mutual respect in every interaction. Believe me, I learned this the hard way! When I got my ESL license, I felt like every general education teacher should want to know about phrasal verbs, modals and cross-cultural communication skills! Not surprisingly, that usually wasn’t the case. But what I did realize is that many of my colleagues and the teachers I meet today do want to better and, with guidance, come to understand the importance of adopting a “language lens.” We can’t just provide suggestions without a give and take. It’s not just about us, it’s not just about our students — it’s also about that teacher we hope to enlist as a partner.

Often, as language specialists, we can come off like the proverbial firehouse of information, rather than meeting other educators where they are right now through the “dripping” of pertinent information that is helpful in the moment to that specific educator. Here are some lessons I’ve learned along the way:

  • Be a conduit for reflection, which is so desperately needed in schools.

  • Validate where your colleagues are coming from.

  • Try to take their perspective, even if you’ve never been a general education teacher.

  • Get to know their strengths. In fact, you may wish to initiate a conversation in which you both can talk about some strengths you bring to the partnership.

  • Show them you care. This will go a long way!

  • Ask questions. You can even model some of the ways you might work with your students in your collaboration. For example, use your academic conversation prompts like clarifying questions, paraphrasing questions, and asking them to partner, giving them choice along the way.

Asking questions is a surefire way to provide choice and to model the respect that other educators deserve. As I say when training coaches and EL teacher leaders, we don’t have to have all the answers, but we do need to ask them the right kinds of questions. This shifts the power to other educators and builds on their strengths. Asking questions also ensures that we are listening, not just preparing for what we want to say. The relationship needs to be two-way in order for it to be a true collaboration.

Concluding Thoughts

One step in front of the other makes our spheres of influence expand. Change is messy, it takes time and, most importantly, it takes a village! If we consider these three steps, we move from being more reactive to more proactive and toward being truly collaborative. We can plan for small wins and build from there. Once your influence grows, repeat the cycle to address more areas needing change on behalf of your students.

Additional Resources

Currently, I run my own consulting organization, Confianza (which means "mutual trust and respect" Spanish), to guide others in their change efforts based on the framework from my book, The Language Lens, 2nd Edition. I believe at any stage of our careers, we are truly never done learning and need to come to any collaboration with humility. I certainly have more to learn and I love learning with other educators. With this in mind, I offer you some resources that you may find helpful to dig into for your journey as an EL specialist:

Finally, you can find more resources on my website and social media channels. I publish daily tips and love hearing questions, feedback, and updates! You can also connect at https://www.sarahottow.com.