Embedded ESL Tutoring Merges the Writing Center with STEM Courses

Introduction/to the pertinent points

Who am I
Hello, my name is Taycia Grasmick. I am a Writing Advisor and embedded ELL
Biology Tutor at the College of Western Idaho.
Why am I here
I am here to talk to you today about how the Writing Center can partner with
STEM departments to offer targeted support for ELL students. To understand
where this idea originated it may be helpful to provide a little bit of background
information first.
What is CWI
Locations first
The College of Western Idaho is a community college serving students in
Boise, Nampa, Caldwell, and surrounding areas in Idaho with campuses in
each of these cities. Our college serves a mixture of people from urban
and rural communities; among those are a large refugee, immigrant, and
international population.
Demographic Info
This diversity is reflected in the demographics of The College of Western
Idaho (CWI) where of our roughly 20,000 students, four percent are
Asian, three percent are African or African American, twenty-two
percent are Hispanic, nine percent are multi-racial or not reported
(College of Western Idaho, 2015). We have students who are from Sudan,
Rwanda, Ethiopia, Somalia, Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia, Burma,
Nepal, China, Vietnam, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico to name a few.
Writing Center
Diversity of majors
Along with the diversity of students attending CWI, our Writing
Center Coordinator has sought to hire consultants with varying
majors and educational backgrounds in order to respond to an
array of potential student needs. We have the standard English
majors, but we also have had History, Business, Psychology,
Science, and Engineering majors as advisors.
 What drove me
My major
I am an Engineering major, Biomedical Engineering minor. I have a
background in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math, but I love Biology.
Length of Employment
I have worked for the Writing Center at CWI for almost four years.
Sumayah, Aveen, and Noor
Over the last couple of years a few of my regular ELL students have come
to me with rather unique requests. They wanted to know if they could
schedule time with me to go over topics in their Biology 100 course.
While this wasn’t specifically a need that the Writing Center was set up to
address our coordinator allowed me to proceed. We spent 2 hours a day
two to three days of every week pouring through their assignments,
dissecting every term, drawing out images of the material they were
struggling to master. It did not take me long to realize that the problem
was language not content. I saw a need that was not sufficiently being
met with our current tutoring model. Already having Biology on my mind,
when I attended last year’s conference and saw a presentation about
STEM majors and their misconceptions about the Writing Center a seed
of an idea began to form in my mind.
The Problem
English language learners (ELLs) degree of fluency and a lack of English prerequisites for
many core courses presents them with barriers to graduation that are disproportionate
to their native English-speaking counterparts. At the College of Western Idaho, we have
attempted to level this playing field for our ELL students by establishing an intrinsic
cooperation between the Writing Center, English as a Second Language Coordinator,
and the Life Sciences Department. The Writing Center and ESL Coordinators at the
College of Western Idaho have allowed me to become an embedded tutor into first-year
Biology courses. The goal was to offer STEM writing and language support, work closely
with instructors and departments to support student success, and over-time identify
both successes and challenges the College of Western Idaho’s Writing Center has had
with its ELL Embedded Tutoring Services in science writing courses.
What we know about working with ESL students
Research Review
In order to prepare myself for this new position I researched embedded ESL
STEM tutoring. I was surprised that I couldn’t find information specific to my
topic. What I did find was a plethora of sources that sought to offer training
suggestions to faculty teaching STEM courses. Many of these articles focused on
elementary through high school pedagogy that could readily be applied in these
specific settings. This means that much of the research needs to be adapted into
appropriate andragogy, but there is still a great deal that can be learned. Only a
few of the articles referenced specific theories behind their techniques. I’m not
going to spend a lot of time on these theories, simply because I feel it is the tools
gleaned from them that is what matters most. The theories applied to STEM ELL
instruction are
Cognitive Constructivist Theories
That emphasize the construction of knowledge through
organization and social interaction (Concept Mapping, Sketching)
(Solas, Wilson, 2015).
Language Socialization
Aims at integration of specific science content learning and the
construction of the rhetoric necessary for scientific writing and
communication through demonstration of the skills needed
(Sentence Frames, Modeling, Concept Mapping) (Huang, 2004).
Morphemic Analysis
Provides the etymology of terms from their Graeco-Latin origins
to further content comprehension (Paiman, Yap Ngee, Chan Mei,
2015).
Communicative Language Teaching
Suggests that STEM language can be taught in social situations
where students can negotiate meaning, expression, and
interpretation with cohorts (Wong, 2012).
Systemic Functional Linguistics
Sees language as a process of making meaning and suggests that
science language and writing skills should be taught explicitly
(Slater, Mohan, 2010).
Language Acquisition Theories
 Uses the Input and Output hypotheses to suggest only presenting
content that is one step away from students’ current mastery
level vs dumbing it down, similar to the scaffolding presented in
Constructivist Learning Theory. (Welsh, Newman, 2010).
5R Instructional Model (Repeating, Revealing, Repositioning, Replacing
and Reloading Language)
Suggests that in order for ELL students to negotiate the
socioculturally defined contexts of scientific language that is
unique hybrid of natural language, mathematical symbols,
graphic representations, and specialized actions they need to be
taught the rhetoric and have it demonstrated for them
(Weinburgh et al, 2014
Sheltered Instruction
Makes content comprehensible to ELLs using strategies that are
language acquisition driven, such as emphasizing key vocabulary
terms and scaffolding to reduce linguistic demand without
sacrificing the rigor of the content (Weinburgh et al, 2014).
And finally the Constructivist Learning Theory
Suggests that learning is a dynamic, social activity where students
can build new knowledge by integrating new ideas into what has
been previously learned (Weinburg et al, 2014).
Many of these theories and strategies have overlapping themes when it comes
to teaching STEM content to ELL students that I will address shortly. What they
don’t clearly discuss is the
Time and rigor of instructor training needed to incorporate them into
the classroom setting, or how this would impact time taken up in a
university course with expected outcomes.
Why Embedded Tutoring Instead
Embedded tutoring allows the instructors instead to focus on teaching the content
within their course. This improves instructor/tutor relationships, and prevents
constraints on their focus and time in the classroom. An example of this from my
experience is the Biology 105 Anatomy and Physiology lab that I tutor in. The instructor
was concerned about the amount of time it was taking in class and from her ability to
address the needs of all of her students to sit with her ELL students and explain the
procedures to them step by step. With an embedded tutor in her class she is now more
 free to travel around the room and pay attention to all of her students, because the
tutor can help the ELL students navigate through their lab instructions.
Every student that utilizes the embedded tutor has the advantage of streamlined focus
on course specific tutoring. There is very little confusion about what the instructor
expects and what they need to accomplish, saving them a good deal of time and
frustration.
Another significant advantage is just getting the ELL students plugged into a service
designed to adapt to their needs and support their success.
Why the Writing Center/connection to research
So why should the Writing Center head up this work?
Language acquisition
It is estimated that the average ELL student will have to learn approximately
1500 words in Life Sciences and Biology, along with around 500 Chemistry and
Physics terms.
For those students who are still struggling with conversational English, working
with an embedded Writing Advisor who sits in the classroom with them, has
regular hours, and allows for flexible appointments within university operating
hours provides them with ample opportunity to practice focused Scientific
language with a tutor who understands what the instructor’s goals are for
content language comprehension and demonstration. This opportunity to try out
their newly acquired rhetoric provides the foundation for content mastery and
allows the student time to develop skills necessary to build on their previous
understanding. To demonstrate why the Writing Center is perfect for this job…
I’m going to perform a little exercise at this time. I’m going to describe the tools that are
repeated throughout most the articles detailing methods for teaching content to ELL
students. If you have ever used one of these in a Writing Consultation please stand, if
you are able. I will provide a brief description of each after everyone has had a chance
to look around and sit back down.
Front-loading Vocabulary/Word Lists
A key component to demonstrating content competency is proper use of the
vocabulary. This means that a fair amount of time needs to be consumed
breaking-down, defining, and demonstrating the different terms. For the Biology
courses that have an embedded tutor these lists have been created and
provided to the students at the start of each semester.
Modeling
 Demonstration is one of the best tools in our toolkit, and it can be one of the
easiest to do. When tutoring in a specific topic it is very important for ELL
students that the tutor use the language and structure needed for the subject’s
field to help them observe and learn how to apply their new knowledge.
Modeling also allows for evolution of the demonstrated language as the
student’s skills increase.
Sentence Frames/Grammar Instruction
Without the English pre-req, it is often necessary to use sentence frames to help
teach ELL students the skills necessary for scientific writing. Setting up a model
hypothesis, or even an entire materials and methods section, for them to use as
a practice template can help them see the requirements needed for the specific
types of writing. This is no different than tutoring a student in paragraph
structure from a well-constructed thesis. Showing and teaching them the use of
language specific to any given field will enable the students to demonstrate their
own knowledge of a subject.
Cohorts/Group Learning
I think that this goes without saying. How this is encouraged in our program is
with scheduled tutor facilitated review sessions prior to tests and major
assignments. Any student is welcome, and group discussion is facilitated by the
tutor who puts any student question back out to the group for a consensus,
before the tutor offers their own insight into the material.
Concept Mapping
Scaffolds information as new knowledge is linked to previous knowledge. This,
again, is no different than a brainstorming web exercise in practice.
Word Etymology
Breaking down the Graeco-Latin terms into their roots allows students to
develop language pattern recognition skills that are often critical to interpreting
and understanding scientific concepts. It also has the nice effect of helping
students more effectively answer questions on tests, because even if they don’t
understand the entirety of a question they can make informed assertions based
on what they know of the pieces and parts of the language, such as with a
question like “what is the relationship between the endosymbiotic theory and
cellular respiration and photosynthesis”. This skill can help them in more than
just their science courses.
Culturally Familiar Examples/Prior Knowledge/Native Language Use
 Many students have some background in science from their native countries.
Many tutors have also taken classes that have educated them about other
cultures as well. Pooling this information and encouraging students to use what
is familiar helps to scaffold what they are learning. If the tutors do not know of
any good examples, often asking the student with either directive or non-
directive questioning will reveal one. Encourage students to translate terms into
their native language, or even discuss it with other students in the class in their
native languages. This allows them to form multiple connections to the material
and will make recall that much easier for them.
Code Switching
While this may not seem like an obvious tool for STEM tutoring, it absolutely is.
Where this applies most directly is in language use. Demonstrating through
conversation the change in communication between conversational English and
scientific language further models the skills necessary to speak and write about
scientific concepts. This will also set the stage for the same skill use when they
enter professional fields after graduation.
Sketches
I cannot emphasize enough how important this is in scientific tutoring. However,
for it to be most effective with any student it helps if the tutor can get them
drawing, just like writing. Some demonstration may be needed to get them
started, but many will find that giving the marker to a student studying meiosis
and mitosis empowers them and keeps them in authority over their own content
mastery.
Gamification
While this may not be a skill used in every writing session, it is an effective
learning strategy in this day and age. It allows students to have fun and interact
with the content. In science courses there are many games and apps available
that allow students to play with the information they are trying to learn. This
forms yet another connection to the information, and we all are more likely to
remember something challenging that we enjoyed doing.
Multi-sensory approaches
Be flexible, and adapt as students grapple with concepts. Get students up and
using a white board. Find online resources. Draw, find written examples, use
props, whatever it takes to meet the student where they are. Grappling with
information can be a path to mastery of concepts.
Communication Activities
 In the end, all of these approaches are a social form of learning. Allowing
students to have a space where they can talk about their subject, what is
perplexing them, and to redirect or enhance information that may be off course,
while validating and encouraging when they are on track is going to be the best
help that tutors can give.
What we have demonstrated with this exercise is why the Writing Center is an ideal fit for STEM
embedded tutoring. If our Writing Centers have a diversity of majors, and there is a need for it
at our institutions, we can help these students overcome an unfair barrier to their success in
our educational system.
Now that I have my feet wet at my own institution I hope to start compiling data. I anticipate
that I will see similar trends that the ESL English courses are seeing with their own embedded
tutoring program. This will be an increase in both retention and GPA. I look forward to sharing
that with you at a future conference.
Thank you.