Dos and Don’ts of Modifying Materials for Ells.

In talking to ESL (often Bilingual) teachers about the tasks they find themselves doing over and over again, I often hear complains and concerns about translation and modification.

I understand the pain although I never ever translated because, although I’m bilingual, I don’t speak Spanish, and most teachers who complain about the tasks of translating are Bilingual English-Spanish/ Spanish – English teachers.

Starting my second year in a public schools system, I have been religiously creating procedures, formulas, strategies that place the boundaries between my work and personal time as well as alleviate the pressure to do everything.

The most valuable thing I understood in my first years of teaching is that efficiency of a teacher is not based on how much he or she does, it’s not about how much you create and translate, how much you explain.

Indeed, if you find yourself investing more in the material than your students or doing more work than your students, then you should stop and think whether you are the one who is creating the stress for yourself.

What about translations?

I quite understand the circumstances where you would be asked to or tend to translate for your students or other teachers.

The thing is there are hardly any ESL techniques and methods that would justify pure translation of activities for English language learners.

And if this is so, why would you do this? Another reason why translation is merely your choice of gaining more workload is that ESL certification does not require Spanish or any other language proficiency to do the job.

The use of Spanish tends to be the teachers’ choice and is based on the circumstances you choose for yourself when you are a Spanish speaker.

I know I might have a different situation. I don’t speak or understand Spanish, but to prove that translation does not work I need to say I rarely use technology for translation even for my lowest Ells especially during the explanation or instruction.

Students’ translating to one another is another situation when they have the right to use their mother tongue to make sense of learning. It’s their choice and the right they have, but it’s not coming from the teacher, and as a teacher, I am not the source of translation.

The bottom line is your ESL position does not require you to translate for students. And if you catch yourself doing it for students or teachers, you might start thinking whether you take this task upon yourself jeopardizing your valuable work hours and gaining more stress.

What about Modifications?

I do believe in modifications of the materials for learning and assessment if this is substantiated by my students’ placement scores, WIDA scores, and the information I take from Can Do WIDA descriptors.

I make modifications very often, but I take into account many factors before I consider modifications make sense and they will bring value to students while not just taking my time. If I see that modification of the assignment or assessment is not valuable, I will not do it.

Here is the chart that summarizes the situations when I modify assignments and assessments, and when I do not do it: