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The Good News about English Learners 

By Sarah Mantegna 
Fulton County Schools 

Atlanta, Georgia 
mantegna@fultonschools.org 

 
 

This article describes how one teacher re-discovered the good news about 
English learners. It offers a counter-narrative to the prevailing negative 
discourse surrounding these students and offers teachers ideas for engaging 
their students in tasks that bring out the good news. 
 
Keywords:  English learners; multimodal; task based; common core 
 

 
The  strongest finding of the study and the lesson which appeared 
over and over is the good news that English learners are capable of 
much more than prevailing discourses suggest. These adolescent 
English learners demonstrated again and again that, when given an 
opportunity to engage in a non-traditional assignment that called 
on their creativity and engaged them in multimodal composition, 
and pushed them to do things they had not done before, they would, 
could, and did rise to the challenge.  They demonstrated an 
investment in learning, worked collaboratively, and created high 
quality videos.  Their video compositions inspired in these students a 
sense of pride, and the videos' content and quality impressed their 
teacher and other adult viewers. (Mantegna, 2014, p. 207) 

 
In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to maintain a sense 

of optimism about public education. The national and local media routinely air 

1                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 

mailto:mantegna@fultonschools.org


negative stories about curriculum and standards such as Common Core State 

Standards, performance on large scale standardized tests such as SAT and 

ACT, educational policies like ESE and NCLB,  education funding, teachers and 

more.   In Georgia our legislature has cut billions of promised education 

dollars since 2002, with recent funding shortfalls averaging a billion dollars 

annually (Shearer, 2014a).  Meanwhile, after a two year review and comment 

period, the state adopted the Common Core State Standards in 2010, 

(Foundation, 2013) and school systems began to implement the standards.  In 

the 2014 session of the Georgia legislature a bill was introduced which would 

effectively discard the Common Core standards (Waylock, 2014).  The bill died 

in committee, only after strong opposition from education, business and civic 

organizations (Jones, 2014).  The latest blow to teachers who are just now 

hitting their stride with implementing the Georgia Common Core curriculum 

standards is a new teacher evaluation system that will tie annual performance 

evaluation to student test scores (Shearer, 2014b).  Beginning in 2014-2015, 

teacher job performance will be measured in part by their students' 

performance on large scale standardized tests and/or other measures of 

student growth.  Is there no good news in education?  Many would answer 

that there is not, but I contend that there is and that we must focus on the 

2                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



good news and forge ahead.  I want to share with you the good news about 

English learners. 

 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time with nine high 

school English learners on a weekly basis over the course of a semester while 

doing a research project.  My presence in the classroom provided a bit of 

respite for their teacher and provided a change of pace for the students.  

Together we explored different modes of communication, modes other than 

the spoken and written words that filled their day in high school.  Using the 

tools of visual discourse analysis (Albers, 2007; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006) 

we engaged in activities such as examining the significance of colors and the 

ways they can be used to convey a message visually.  We composed 

photographs to express concepts like alone, invisible, and justice.  We 

experimented with different camera angles, distances, and perspectives and 

analyzed how these changed the visual messages we composed.  We critiqued 

magazine and TV ads, deconstructed the ways in which the advertisers appeal 

to our subconscious in order to sell a product, and evaluated their 

effectiveness in doing so.  We cast a critical eye on our school setting; 

discussed issues such as racism, falseness, and stereotypes that the students 

confronted daily.  We took action on these issues by composing short public 

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service announcement-style videos that could be used to spark discussions 

with other members of the school community.   

Throughout the semester these students from a variety of cultural and 

language backgrounds worked collaboratively and creatively within and 

across groups.  They learned and applied the tools of visual discourse analysis 

to read and analyze a variety of visual and video texts.   They critically 

discussed the effectiveness, audience, purpose, and attributes of visual and 

video texts, and practiced creating their own texts.  They explored identities 

that were new to them; they viewed themselves and their peers from a 

different perspective. They used multiple modes of communication 

purposefully and effectively to communicate a persuasive message in their 

video texts.  They showed pride in their successful completion of a challenging 

project, and they showed appreciation for the accomplishments of their 

classmates. 

Along the way the students used their English extensively, often 

engaging in rapid-fire verbal interactions in English, the only language they all 

shared.  The presence of these passionate discussions in a class composed of 

students labeled English learners is noteworthy for several reasons.  First, it 

signals that students were invested in these interactions.  Norton (2000) 

suggested the construct of learner investment as an alternative to the often 

4                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



used concept of motivation.  The concept of investment calls to mind business 

transactions undertaken voluntarily with a goal of increasing one's capital 

resources.  Applied to a classroom setting, capital resources can take the form 

of such intangible assets as social position, knowledge, or experience.  

Whatever the form, the anticipated return on investment must be sufficient to 

warrant an investment of time, attention, or effort by the student.  Using the 

construct of investment recognizes that the locus of power lies within the 

learner; the learner has the choice of whether or not to participate, the choice 

of participating at a superficial or deeply engaged level. The students' deep 

engagement in these discussions signaled their investment. 

Another reason these rapid-fire discussions are notable is that such a 

level of participation indicates that our classroom context provided the 

necessary conditions for students to demonstrate their proficiency with 

spoken English.  The students' interactions were characterized by friendly 

camaraderie from my first encounter with them.  It was apparent that they 

liked and respected each other, a fact not surprising to me given their 

previous semester together as classmates.  Upon joining their class I 

introduced  a project-based curriculum that included clear goals and 

procedures while also encouraging students to express and develop their 

interests and creativity (van Lier, 2004). The combination of positive 

5                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



relationships with a weekly change of pace, in the form of a project that 

provided increased opportunities for conversation, seemed to create the ideal 

conditions for the extensive and wide-ranging discussions they engaged in.  

Lastly, and perhaps most important, the students' level of participation 

suggests that these students identified themselves as English speakers rather 

than as English learners. They demonstrated communicative competence 

(Canale, 1983; Canale & Swain, 1980; Hymes, 1972) as they actively engaged 

in using English to bid for recognition or show solidarity, to make connections 

and express their thoughts, to build their identities and sustain their 

relationships (Cummins, 2001, 2006; Kramsch, 2000). They were using the 

Discourse of English to enact the socially recognizable identity of English 

speaker (Gee, 2011).  Indeed, these students demonstrated that they were 

multilingual/multimodal communicators (Mantegna, 2014) who drew upon a 

repertoire of heritage languages, academic and social English registers, and a 

host of additional embodied and disembodied modes of communication.    

The students' identity as multilingual/multimodal communicators was 

reinforced by their use of 21st century skills such as critical thinking and 

critically analyzing media;  creating multimodal / multimedia products; 

communicating, collaborating, and working effectively in diverse teams; 

exhibiting flexibility, working independently, managing goals and time. (NCTE, 

6                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



2008; P21, 2009; PPRC, 2010).  Further, they exhibited most of the attributes 

that characterize the description of college and career ready students 

provided in the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.  

Such students demonstrate independence; build strong content knowledge; 

respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and discipline.  

College and career ready students comprehend as well as critique, they value 

evidence, use technology and digital media strategically and capably, and they 

come to understand other perspectives and cultures (NGACBP & CCSSO, 

2010).  Over the course of our time together, the students demonstrated each 

of these traits as they interacted, negotiated relationships and power, 

experimented with new identities and connected to imagined communities, all 

the while using the tools of multiple languages and modes of communication.  

Indeed, their actions and interactions served to contest the 

institutionally imposed identity of English learner.  Any visitor to the 

classroom would have witnessed them discursively enacting identities of 

English speaker, multimodal communicator, collaborator, media critic, team 

member, creative thinker, independent worker, goal and time manager, actor, 

director, cameraman, multimodal composer.  How did this occur?  What made 

this possible?  These identities were possible due to the nature of the tasks 

and activities the students were engaged in (Tinker Sachs, 2007, 2009). In 

7                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



today's high stakes climate, we teachers must recognize that traditional school 

assignments often serve to limit our students.  Those mundane tasks do not 

offer opportunities to imagine or explore varied identities; they don't give 

students the chance to demonstrate a wide range of abilities and skills.  In fact, 

such activities deny teachers the opportunity to learn of their students' many 

abilities and interests.  

In contrast, when we design academic tasks that require active 

involvement, provide opportunities for student initiative, and promote 

interaction among students as they engage in meaningful tasks we provide 

our students the opportunity to surprise us with what they can accomplish 

(Van den Branden, Bygate, & Norris, 2009).  In particular those of us who are 

ESOL teachers must recognize that it is such task based learning and teaching 

that leads to rich language learning.  The student-to-student and student-to-

teacher interactions and the language processing that students engage in 

while they perform these meaningful tasks results in rich language learning 

(Van den Branden, 2006) that does not come from traditional, uninteresting, 

decontextualized instruction.  This, then, is the good news; the students we 

label as English learners are capable of much more than we typically imagine 

and we can glimpse these capabilities and possibilities by changing the 

instructional tasks we design.  We can offer our students the opportunity to 

8                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



use and enrich their language while engaging in meaningful tasks that help 

them develop skills and abilities crucial for their participation in 21st century 

careers.   

The prospect of changing our classroom instruction may seem 

overwhelming, particularly in light of the pressures discussed at the beginning 

of this piece.  We already work hard to create classroom environments that 

lower our students’ affective filters and provide comprehensible input 

(Krashen, 1995); to educate our general education teaching peers about the 

difference between BICS and CALP (Cummins, 1980); to use the WIDA, CCGPS, 

and TESOL standards to guide our instruction.  Nevertheless, we owe it to our 

students to forge ahead.  We can and should improve the instructional tasks 

and activities we design.  We can start by reflecting on tasks or projects we’ve 

used previously and selecting one that yielded unsatisfactory results.  Then 

we must commit to replacing it with a new task or project.  We can design a 

meaningful task that requires our students to interact, to create, to 

collaborate, to produce; some ideas for such activities, and resources to 

support them, are listed in the table below.  These new instructional tasks will 

call for us to embrace new classroom roles as facilitator, guide, or coach as our 

students take on more active and interactive roles in the classroom.  We will 

surely encounter challenges as we change our practice; our students may be 

9                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



reluctant to step outside the comfort zone of traditional assignments, we may 

grapple with technological problems or internet service interruptions, we may 

be reluctant to use applications or technologies that are unfamiliar to us.  We 

must persevere and remember that every challenge presents opportunities.  

The difficulties we encounter will provide us opportunities for problem-

solving, for collaborating with others to find solutions, for modeling flexibility 

and creativity, for demonstrating to our students that everyone is a learner – 

even their teacher.  

I challenge all teachers of English learners to uncover and share the 

good news about English learners in their own classrooms by designing 

meaningful instructional tasks that incorporate 21st century skills and 

abilities, that engage English learners in rich use of language, that call for 

creativity, that promote a classroom culture focused on strengths and 

possibilities.  Through our purposeful design and use of such activities we can 

reveal the strengths, develop the skills, and expand the possibilities of English 

learners.  Our voices may or may not be part of the public narrative on 

education, but our actions in the classroom will provide a powerful and 

enduring counternarrative to the ongoing litany of bad news, and compel 

others to recognize the good news we have to share about English learners.  

 

10                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



Web resources: 

 Educational uses of Digital Storytelling, University of Houston – Includes 

information about digital storytelling, examples, suggested tools, step by 

step instructions, lesson plans.  http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/  

 International Reading Association Strategy Guide: Using Glogster to 

Support Multimodal Literacy –  Provides information on the research basis, 

application, resources and lesson plans. 

http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-

guides/using-glogster-support-multimodal-30789.html 

 Creating Multimodal Texts - blog and collection of resources by Australian 

educator Annemaree O’Brian.  Includes basic information on several types 

of multimodal texts with linked examples and how-to guidance.  

http://creatingmultimodaltexts.com/   

 Adobe Youth Voices Community – worldwide network of educators, free to 

join.  Site includes extensive collection of curriculum resources, lesson 

plans, writing prompts, storyboarding tools, forums, and other resources.  

http://youthvoices.adobe.com/community/ 

11                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 

http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-glogster-support-multimodal-30789.html
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-glogster-support-multimodal-30789.html
http://creatingmultimodaltexts.com/
http://youthvoices.adobe.com/community/


Suggested activities for PK-12 classrooms: 
 

Grade 
level 

Activity Software applications 

PK-2 Create a digital story - based on 
personal experience, newly 
learned content, retell a favorite 
story, etc. 

Tellagami 
Little Bird Tales 
Doodlecast 
Toontastic 

3-5 You be the teacher - students 
depict and summarize their 
learning from an instructional unit 
by creating video from slideshow 
and adding voiceovers.  Use as 
review for test, save and use next 
year for new students, etc. 

Mybrainshark 
Animoto 
 
 

6-8 Interview a community or family 
member about his/her views or 
experiences related to an 
important world event then create 
a mini-documentary.  ( example: 
Tell me about when the first man 
walked on the moon) 

Mybrainshark 
Prezi 
 

Create public service campaign 
posters or comic strips about 
school dress code, anti-bullying, 
preparing for high school, etc.  

Glogster 
Makebeliefscomix.com 

9-12 Identify a problem in school or 
community, create a video or 
poster campaign to address it.   

Glogster 
Windows Movie Maker 
Apple iMovie 

 

  

12                                                                      GATESOL in Action, Vol. 2, Fall 2014 



References 

Albers, P. (2007). Visual discourse analysis:  An introduction to the analysis of 

school-generated visual texts. In D. W. Rowe, R. T. Jimenez, D. L. 

Compton, D. K. Dickinson, Y. Kim, K. M. Leander & V. J. Risko (Eds.), 56th 

Yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 81-95). Oak Creek, WI: 

NRC. 

Canale, M. (1983). From communicative competence to communicative 

language pedagogy. In J. C. Richards & R. W. Schmidt (Eds.), Language 

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Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative 

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Cummins, J. (1980). The cross-lingual dimensions of language proficiency: 

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Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a 

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Cummins, J. (2006). Identity texts: The imaginative construction of self 

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Foundation, G. P. P. (2013). Background and analysis of the Common Core 

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Gee, J. P. (2011). How to do discourse analysis: A toolkit   Retrieved from 

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Hymes, D. H. (1972). On communicative competence. In J. B. Pride & J. Holmes 

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Jones, W. (2014). Georgia House committee kills Common Core bill. Athens 

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Kramsch, C. (2000). Social discursive constructions of self in L2 learning. In J. 

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http://www.georgiapolicy.org/background-and-analysis-of-the-common-core-state-standards-as-they-relate-to-georgia/%23ff_s=tCPzz
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Krashen, S. D. (1995). Principles and practice in second language acquisition 

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Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading images:  The grammar of visual 

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redefined. Ph.D. Dissertation, Georgia State University, Atlanta. 

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NCTE. (2008). Position statement - 21st century curriculum and assessment 

framework  Retrieved June 15, 2010 

NGACBP, & CCSSO. (2010). Common core state standards: English language 

arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects   

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Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning:  Gender, ethnicity and 

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P21. (2009). Framework for 21st Century learning  Retrieved October 14, 

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PPRC. (2010). Pacific Policy Research Center - 21st Century skills for students 

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http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/msit_diss/123/
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Shearer, L. (2014a). Georgia schools at breaking point after years of cuts. The 

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Shearer, L. (2014b). Good, bad in new Ga. teacher evaluations. Augusta 

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Tinker Sachs, G. (2007). The challenges of adopting and adapting task-based 

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language teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 

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http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/government/2014-01-20/georgia-schools-breaking-point-after-years-cuts
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203038.114126-sub-Common-Core-survives-legislative-attempts-at-

revisions.html 

 

 

 

 

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http://www.northfulton.com/
http://www.northfulton.com/Articles-COLUMNISTS-c-2014-03-19-203038.114126-sub-Common-Core-survives-legislative-attempts-at-revisions.html
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http://www.northfulton.com/Articles-COLUMNISTS-c-2014-03-19-203038.114126-sub-Common-Core-survives-legislative-attempts-at-revisions.html

