Teacher Case Study: Yvette Ramirez

ESOL teacher Yvette Ramirez used several performance tasks to help students gain confidence and language skills using STEM and project-based learning (PBL).

STEM projects help ESOL studentsbuild skills and shine

Middleschool can be challenging as students make the transition from elementaryschool and adjust to the many physical and emotional changes they’reundergoing. For English language learners the challenges are even greater. Notonly do these students have to learn how to speak, read and write a newlanguage, they have to adjust to a new culture. At Hunter’s Creek Middle Schoolin Orlando, FL the school’s 165 ESOL students speak 32 different languages andare gaining confidence and language skills using STEM and project-basedlearning (PBL).

Accordingto Hunter’s Creek ESOL teacher Yvette Ramirez, “Project based learning is agood fit with ESOL because it gives students an opportunity to dive deep into atopic and really spend time with it. They also get to practice their languageskills in a variety of ways from listening to and watching videos to readingarticles and writing their own content.”

As anOrange County Public Schools Digital Curriculum Pilot School all of Hunter’sCreek’s students work exclusively on iPads. On the rare occasions when Ms.Ramirez asks her the kids to take out a piece of paper “they look at me strangebecause they want to use the iPads. We’re not just using digitized work. We aredigital.”

Ms.Ramirez is using one of the digital curriculum programs that came pre-loaded onthe school’s iPads to implement PBL in her STEM lessons. Defined STEM is an online program thatprovides educators with resources to create engaging, relevant,cross-curricular PBL lessons. “One of the great things about Defined STEM is thatthe students are able to access the lesson directions and rubric in many differentlanguages,” said Ms. Ramirez. “But, all of the articles, videos and othersupporting content are in English. So students can feel comfortable that theyunderstand the directions by reading them in their own languages but must usetheir English skills to actually complete the assignments.”

A cultural and a STEM learningexperience

Duringthe 2014-15 school year Ms. Ramirez’s ESOL students worked on several STEM projects.The project that generated the most excitement and engagement was DefinedSTEM’s Culinary Artist: Sustainability performance task. The DevelopmentalLanguage Arts class, which is for students who speak very little English, workedon the project.

The goalof the project was for students create their own farm to table restaurant,including deciding where to locate the restaurant geographically, what to farm,how to farm, and ultimately what the menu would be. “Defined STEM had a lot ofarticles and videos within students’ Lexile levels that helped them get startedbut then they had to go find additional resources outside of Defined STEM,”shared Ms. Ramirez. “Students researched healthy recipes and figured out whatkind of gardens they needed and where in the country they needed their gardensto grow.”

The CulinaryArtist project culminated in students presenting the commercials and TVinterviews they created that showcased their unique farm-to-table concepts.“These students have influences from around the world which they got to show intheir menu and food choices,” said Ms. Ramirez. “So even though the projectreally helped them build their English skills and gain knowledge about Americanculture and geography, the students still were able to incorporate a bit ofhome.”

Technology makes effective STEMand PBL instruction easier

Ms.Ramirez has a strong background in teaching ESOL students and believes that adigital PBL STEM curriculum is a highly effective method to teach students bothlanguage and curricular skills. A common approach to teaching ESOL students isto pair a student with stronger language skills with a struggling student. Thishelps them both build their skills. PBL facilitates this kind of collaborativelearning. “Without Defined STEM it would have been much harder to do thesetypes of complex, lengthy STEM projects. All of the resources are there anddesigned to support English language learners. Plus, Defined STEM makes theperformance tasks so interesting and intriguing that even when the work getstough, the students persevere because they’re totally engaged.”

“The Culinary Artist projects were amazing,”shared Ms. Ramirez. “The students worked so hard and really deepened theirunderstanding not only of English but of technology, geography, math, and somuch more. They were so proud of themselves and that is exactly how I want mystudents to