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ML Chat explores everything to do with Multilingual student instruction. Do you oversee students that are learning English? ML Chat is the place to learn more and continue to refine your craft. In each episode co-hosts Tim Blackburn and Justin Hewett talk with experts, researchers, and district administrators to explore how to best serve our language learners.
When we give them some more opportunity, they rise to the occasion. I think that sometimes we limit them because we think they can't. And so that happens across the board, but especially with English learners, I found that oftentimes we give them a little bit less because we don't always think that they can do it. But that's not been the case in my experience is if you really work with them, they can do it too.
Mandi Morris:Welcome to the Immortal Chat Podcast. I'm Mandy Morris, your host. Today, we had the opportunity to talk with long time educator Heather Benitez. She has so much experience working in the bilingual classroom and as an ESL teacher now has been working at district level for many years, supporting teachers and students in the state of Texas. And she had so much to say about literacy in secondary and for every teacher out there, every school district out there trying to figure out how to do literacy in secondary, she brought some really good points about literacy is everyone's responsibility.
Mandi Morris:It's in a science classroom. It's in a math classroom. Some great conversation around changing the hearts and minds of teachers in all content areas to support literacy across the secondary classroom. She also was an advocate for extended reading in the ESL classroom. And I love that it was so fun to hear her talk about her own passion for reading and her passion for extended reading opportunities for all students, English learners included, and then it's not too hard.
Mandi Morris:So thanks for being here with us today. Let's go. Holding a master's degree in educational Heather Benitez taught in a first grade and fourth grade bilingual classroom and then transitioned to high school English and ESL, where she found her passion for multilingual learners. In 2016, she served as an ESL specialist in Northeast ISD for seven years. With seventeen years of experience, Heather is currently the coordinator for bilingual ESL Lotte in Scherz Cibolo Universal City ISD, where she focuses on empowering educators to create equitable and culturally responsive learning environments.
Mandi Morris:Heather, welcome to the ML chat podcast. It is so nice to have you on today.
Heather Benitez:Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
Mandi Morris:So tell us about your school district, the work that you're doing. We wanna learn a little bit about the students you serve and the work that keeps you busy.
Heather Benitez:So for the past two and a half years, I've worked in Shirt Cillo Universal City ISD, which is right outside of San Antonio, Texas. And we are a smaller district, very close to a military base. We have a lot of military families, a lot of international families. We have a smaller population of emergent bilingual students. We serve about 700 to 800 students, and we have students from all over the place.
Heather Benitez:Our biggest language that we have in our district is Spanish, but we also have a lot of students who speak Vietnamese, Japanese. We have some students who speak Russian and German, Swahili and Urdu. So we do have about 26, maybe 30 languages represented in our district. And some of our students come in knowing only their home language. Some of our students come in very fluent in both English and their home language.
Heather Benitez:We do serve a very diverse population.
Mandi Morris:Wow, that's so interesting. And when you say small, about how many students and English learners do you have?
Heather Benitez:We have about, I would say about 15,000 students, if I'm not mistaken, but we only serve, and I could be wrong on that number, but our emerging bilingual population is about 700 to 800, maybe about seven
Mandi Morris:Wow, and a really diverse population for that number. So that's really cool being able to serve students from so many different language and cultural backgrounds. So the work that you do in your school district, what does that look like? Are you mostly supporting teachers with coaching? Are you supporting systems and curriculum implementation?
Mandi Morris:What does that work look like for you?
Heather Benitez:So in a smaller district, I've worked in very large districts and this is a smaller district. Really love working in a small district. You do wear all the hats. So it looks like all of the things that you mentioned. I work with students.
Heather Benitez:I work with teachers. I take care of compliance. I'm making sure that all the components are where they need to be. So what I do is I make sure that teachers have the resources that they need, that they're provided with the professional development they need to support our students. I also make sure that our campuses, administrators are educated on what they need to be doing with these students, how they can support them best.
Heather Benitez:So I do a little bit of everything. I do coach teachers. I do provide professional development myself. I outsource professional development. I run the budgets.
Heather Benitez:I do all the things, the behind the scenes things. So it's a little bit of everything. No day looks the same. Currently, right now, I know we're in summertime, but right now what we are doing is we have our pre K and kinder bilingual ESL summer learning program going on. So that's really where my main focus has been this month, working with the little ones and helping those teachers make sure that those students have what they need.
Mandi Morris:That's awesome. That's so cool. And I'm sure the families and parents really appreciate an opportunity for their students to be in school over the summer. It's a huge lift for a school district to do summer school. Do you do that every year?
Mandi Morris:Is there a reason why you focus just on kindergarten and first grade?
Heather Benitez:So this, yes. So we do, this program is given every year and this is a requirement by the state of Texas. We do offer, Texas requires that you have a language program in the summers for our students that are going, it's all like an enrichment for these kids that are getting that foundational learning. It's really important that they continue that learning. They're available to attend.
Heather Benitez:It's not mandatory for the students, but it is open for the students. We have a good group this year. We have about 50 students attending and it's four groups. So we've got two ESL classes and two bilingual classes, one each of pre K and kinder. And so in our bilingual classes, they're giving all Spanish and they do Spanish all day long and they do a little bit of English language development, but we're really focusing on building their academic language.
Heather Benitez:And whether that be in Spanish or in English in our ESL classes, but we wanna set them up for success for the incoming year. And it really is important that they keep that routine going, even though like it's only for part of the summer, it really helps them continue that learning and helps them retain what they've learned in the prior year.
Mandi Morris:Yeah, that is fantastic. What awesome opportunity for those students. For your school district, what is your main focus for instruction? I feel like school districts are in different places, like whether they're really focused on integrated ELD, or they're focusing on bilingual class rooms or on co teaching classrooms. What is your focus when you think about all of that professional learning that you're doing for teachers?
Mandi Morris:What is your focus, your vision for your school district?
Heather Benitez:So our district wide focus, whether it be for emerging bilingual students, regular monolingual students, it doesn't matter which population they're in. We are really focused on literacy routines and building up just structured conversations and working through making sure that students know how to access language and to build those writing and reading and speaking and listening skills across the board. So that's something that I've really focused on with my side and doing professional development really geared toward that. In fact, that was what my Navi presentation was on. It was building literacy routines for students in the secondary level.
Mandi Morris:Oh, I love that. We're going to go into your Navi presentation. I'm super excited to dive into that because we know literacy in secondary is a hot topic. Everyone's trying to figure out how to do that and where are there resources for it. But before we go there, Heather, let's go back.
Mandi Morris:You started your career as a first grade and then a fourth grade bilingual educator. Take us back fifteen plus years ago. Where did you find your passion to start a career in education? Did you fall into it? Tell us a little bit about your story.
Heather Benitez:So I did really fall into My bachelor's degree is in business administration, and I am, like many educators, an alternatively certified teacher. And so when I got my bachelor's degree, I needed a job. And really the market was, it was in 02/2008, so was a long time ago. So the market was different then and what I thought I was gonna do didn't really pan out. And so I said, you know what, I'll teach for the meantime.
Heather Benitez:And that has turned into a lifetime career. And I think that happens to a lot of people. So I had a friend who also did the same thing, had gotten their bachelor's in another area and encouraged me to try out this alternative certification program. And I did. And I walked into the classroom knowing little to nothing.
Heather Benitez:I always tell people like, I was 22, my brain was not fully formed. My frontal lobe had not finished yet. So I knew very little about teaching. I knew I made so many mistakes that first year, like any teacher does, but I learned so much. And I remember just going home those first few weeks, just overwhelmed because I didn't know what to do and I didn't know how to reach these kids.
Heather Benitez:By the end of the year, it was just so delightful. I loved those kids so much. I cried when I left them because of course I had fallen in love with them, but they were just such good kids and they really taught me more than I could have ever taught them about just how to interact with kids. I remember setting up centers for a first grade class, not knowing anything about centers or I had some help, but I remember setting up so many centers because I thought they all had to be set up. And I think I had 20 centers in the room.
Heather Benitez:Just, of course, it never worked because you can't do 20 centers. And I just didn't understand until I had a mentor teacher come in and be like, what are you doing? And so it just was a lot of learning. And then when I moved to fourth grade the following year, it was just to move closer to home. I worked in a district pretty far from where I lived.
Heather Benitez:And so I moved to Macallan ISD, which was my home district, the district I attended school in. And I was able to teach fourth grade, also a bilingual classroom. I felt a little more at ease there. And so it kind of grew from there. I eventually moved into the high school where I found my niche.
Heather Benitez:I love high school students. And as much as I love elementary level, high school was really where I found like these are the kids that I really love teaching.
Mandi Morris:I'm so impressed that your first year of teaching, you even attempted centers. That's impressive. And a great visual to imagine 20 centers in a first rate classroom.
Heather Benitez:No, it was ridiculous.
Mandi Morris:You mentioned mentor teachers, and I think none of us would have made it past the first year if we didn't have someone that Wright came in your room and was like, No, what are you doing? Let me help you. Let me redirect. Mentor teachers are so important. It seems like some school districts have a more formalized process for mentor teachers.
Mandi Morris:What does that look like in your school district?
Heather Benitez:So in our school district, we do have mentor teachers for our first and second year teachers. And these are teachers that are brand new to the profession. So we set them up with a mentor, but we also have instructional coaches at our elementary and at one of our intermediate campuses. And so at our elementary level, they often get paired up with an instructional coach that will help them. So the instructional coach also goes above and beyond for the teacher and just really helps them plan and has the time.
Heather Benitez:Because sometimes when we put a mentor teacher, who's also got a classroom at that time, it's hard to find that common planning and let's sit down because they've gotta do all their own planning plus help a new teacher with their planning. So we've seen that the instructional coaches have been so pivotal in helping our new teachers really sit down. I can plan with you. I can come in and co teach with you. I can show you how to do this.
Heather Benitez:I can show you these processes for our dual language students or our ESL students or monolingual students. Really the instructional coaches are such a great part of SCUC IST, and they really do help out our teachers. Now at the secondary level, we don't have instructional coaches, so they are still paired up with a mentor teacher. But the district also provides support for our first and second year teachers. We meet with them throughout the year to do just intensive professional development where we take, this past year we four days.
Heather Benitez:So every quarter we brought in the first year teachers to meet with them, to plan with them, to give them that time to really sit down. Hey, we're gonna teach you for the first half of the day. Then that second half of the day, we're gonna let you have some time, catch up on emails, do the things that you don't have time to do, plan for your next week. And so that's really been a big part for our new teachers.
Mandi Morris:That's awesome. It's a very formalized process and it's got to feel great for new teachers coming in to know I'm not alone. Have people I can reach out to, people I can coordinate and collaborate with. Even veteran teachers benefit, right, from having someone come in their classroom and watch and observe and learn. But it's almost like a survival need for the beginning of your education career.
Mandi Morris:So you found high school was your sweet spot. You're like, okay, I'm home. This is the right space for me. And at that point too, you started to lean more into the ESL space. It's interesting having gone from the bilingual classroom to more of an ESL position.
Mandi Morris:Tell me some about what did it feel like to fall in love with that ESL work versus the bilingual classroom. Of course, in a bilingual classroom, you have a lot of students who are learning English as an additional language, but the way the instruction looks is different in a bilingual classroom compared to an ESL classroom at a high school level. So tell me a little bit about what did you fall in love with about high school level that felt different?
Heather Benitez:So for my first year, first couple of years teaching in high school, I taught English three and four regular classes. I had emergent bilingual students in my class. I had things in special education in my class. They were just regular classes where you get a mix of students. And then one summer I was teaching summer school and they said, Can you teach this group?
Heather Benitez:They're all earning their credits. They're emergent bilingual students who are, maybe they'd come in a little older. And so they go to summer school to like, Hey, let's get another credit in so we can graduate on time. And I said, Sure. But that was the class that was available.
Heather Benitez:I wanted to teach summer school. And that summer, I really had the opportunity to develop the curriculum the way I wanted, which was great because it was okay. Had various levels of students. So I had students getting their English one printed, English two, and English three all in one group. So what I decided to do was to use a novel and just teach the different standards through that novel and break up the class into groups and just, okay, you're English one, you're English two, you're English three.
Heather Benitez:But what I came to find was that many of those students at the end of the summer, they told me that I've never read a book before. I've never read a whole novel before. And so I had students still coming to me the next year, like during school to ask me, Do you have this book? Or can I borrow another book? And one, I'm a reader and I love to read.
Heather Benitez:And that's always been like why I really enjoy teaching is because I love reading and I love giving kids that love of reading as well and showing them that there are books for everyone. And so those students really latched on to the book and we read The Maze Runner and it was just, it was really good for that age. I had a lot of boys in that class. And so I needed something that was not going to be too early here. It's something that they could really latch on to, that had a lot of That's what we read and it was such a great experience.
Heather Benitez:And it was just the right timing. The teacher who taught ESOL, which is English for Speakers of Other Languages, had retired. That was her retirement year. And they were looking for who would be replacing her. And so when I reached out to who ended up being my mentor teacher at the new campus, at the high school campus, she said, I just told her, I was like, Hey, this was so much fun.
Heather Benitez:I had a blast. I really loved it. And she was like, Are you interested in teaching the ESOL kids? I was like, she was like, Such and such teacher is retired, and so we need somebody to fill in that spot. And I gladly took it.
Heather Benitez:And it was just, it ended up being like, I always have said, God, this is just like, it opened up a whole new world to me because not only was I teaching these students, it's just very visible growth that you're able to see when you're teaching ESL. You see the difference between students who do not speak the language at all when they come into your class. They are completely brand new because the ESOL class was not for students who are advanced or advanced high. It's for students who are newcomers, beginners, recent immigrants. And those students, you see the change.
Heather Benitez:There is tangible, I see growth in this student. Sometimes when you're teaching regular classes, and just in my experience, I hope that they learn. And we look at their state scores and we're like, Great, you did. I hope that you took something from it. These students I know took something because they now speak another language.
Heather Benitez:And being bilingual is so important. And it is something that I really enjoy doing.
Mandi Morris:Oh, that's so neat. And I can hear and feel your passion for those students. It is very rewarding to see that growth that is so fast in students. And I'm sure your students loved you and benefited a ton from your passion. And it's so cool to hear about a novel study like that.
Mandi Morris:I feel like you and I started our teaching careers around the same time. My first year was 02/2006. And I feel like there was this shift that I saw happen of we do novels, like a whole novel to, no, we only do chapters articles or we only we don't do fiction anymore. We only do non fiction. Students have to read non fiction.
Mandi Morris:And it felt like there was a big shift. And I think what we're hearing now from teachers and librarians alike is that kids don't know how to read a full novel. They don't have the attention span. They don't have the practice because they haven't been doing it in class. Everything shifted to these more like chunked experiences of reading.
Mandi Morris:And I think that coalesced with social media and YouTube shorts and like everything just being shorter and shorter. So attention span has been impacted, but I love to hear that you had such positive experiences with whole novels. I feel like I did too with my ESL classrooms. I loved doing whole novels with my middle school ESL students. It was a wonderful way to see their love for reading grow.
Mandi Morris:And then also for them to just like latch onto something as a class. It sounds very similar to your experience.
Heather Benitez:Yeah, I really, I think you're correct there. There's a lack of stamina in our students. And I see that now. And yes, I really do feel like these bites of information that they get through social media. Mean, they're watching thirty seconds, sixty seconds of a TikTok or an Instagram Reel or whatever they're seeing.
Heather Benitez:And it's like, I have this much attention. And that's the stamina that a student has in the past to really build up. When we would read full novels, when we would do a novel study or a thematic unit, it is just so different from the way things are taught now. We do do a lot of like, we've got to read non fiction texts because we know that they're going to be tested on their ability to read informational text. And so we shift that way.
Heather Benitez:But I think that English teachers as a whole kind of like bear that weight of we've still got to teach the fiction and it's still so important. And there are students who are going to latch onto it. There are students definitely who are going to read more and get more out of informational text just because that's what they like to read. But I really think that there is such value in reading novels and understanding and seeing things from different perspectives and learning about other cultures. It's a great way to introduce new ideas and perspectives to students, but also to build up their language abilities, their stamina, their time when they can really focus in on something.
Heather Benitez:And it's not something that happens all the time. And I really do think that we, as teachers, there needs to be that shift into, hey, stretch them out a little bit more, push that boundary just a little bit more so that they can read a little bit longer, they can pay attention longer. They're going to need it in the long run. They really are. And I do think that when we give them some more opportunity, they rise to the occasion.
Heather Benitez:I think that sometimes we limit them because we think they can't. And so that happens across the board, but especially with English learners, I found that oftentimes we give them a little bit less because we don't always think that they can do it. But that's not been the case in my experience is if you really work with them, they can do it too.
Mandi Morris:I love that. That's so good. And this is a perfect time to pivot to your Naabe session because you have a love for literacy. I can hear that in your experience. I can hear that and what it sounds like brought you a lot of joy as an educator in the classroom.
Mandi Morris:So tell us some about your NABE session and the work that you've been doing that drove you to submit for that session and then present.
Heather Benitez:So the session I did was on, it was called illuminate lighting the literacy lamp for secondary English learners. And so I really think that it's so important that our students are given the opportunity to really interact with the written word, but also conversational English and having that chance to communicate back and forth, to listen, to practice their listening skills and answer with the intention of, I listened to somebody else and now my answer has shifted, or I've heard this other perspective or read this other perspective, but I'm getting the chance to not only speak about it, write about it, read, listen, doing all the components of language, but not only in English, in science, in social studies, in math, across content. And so I think that's the key is understanding that they should be interacting across contents. I've had educators say, but literacy is for English, literacy is for reading. And that's, I think we confound literacy with literature and there is literacy for every content.
Heather Benitez:You have to be financially literate to know what you're doing with your money. So there is literacy of math, there's literacy of science, literacy of social studies, of course, literacy in English. But giving students the opportunity to engage with the text in a very structured format and engage with their peers and their teachers in a way that allows them to grasp language, I think, very important for their academic success.
Mandi Morris:Yeah, you used a phrase that I love, a structured process or a structured format. I was always a big believer in my classrooms, especially my classrooms as supported English language learners. There's so much that's unknown that the more structure we can create, it affords the opportunity for predictability. So my brain is already processing new language, processing new content. Like I don't wanna have to learn a new routine every single day, or I don't wanna have to learn a new structure every single day.
Mandi Morris:What does that look like for you? Like when you're coaching your teachers or when you're if you walk in a classroom and you're like, this is what we all need to be aiming for. What does that structured literacy or structured opportunities for students to do? Academic discourse, to have writing opportunities? What is, what do you look for when you're going into a classroom or how do you coach around them?
Heather Benitez:So one of the things that I talk to teachers about is the difference between oracy and literacy. And so what has to be developed first is your oracy, and that's learning to talk and learning through talk. And then we develop literacy, and that's using all facets of language to learn and communicate effectively. So we're looking at not only listening, speaking, reading, and writing, but visualizing or being able to see things and imagine things and creating too. So not only on a writing basis, but our literacy has a lot of different pieces of what our brain can do.
Heather Benitez:And for me, it's very important that teachers understand those two components first, but then they need to understand that there are key components to a literacy routine. So I've always taught it in three parts, stimulus, discourse, and process. So by a stimulus, they're going to be interacting with whatever you're giving the students. So that could be a text, an article, it could be a chart or a graph, a map, a word problem, a visual or a video. That is the piece that they are interacting with.
Heather Benitez:What are they learning from? What are they taking from there? And then there's the discourse piece where they are talking with their partner or their peers. They are having class discussions. They're interacting with their teacher, but there is a piece where they are speaking and listening.
Heather Benitez:That has to happen before they can process. So let's say I'm doing a talk read, talk write, where I'm having them, okay, let's look at this image. Let's look at this chart, let's talk about it, what do we think? Let's have some conversation, turn to your partner A, say this, partner B, say this. And I really think it's very important that we give them the structure to say, okay, you're going to do this piece, and then partner B is going to do this, and then you're going to switch, depending on how the teacher sets it up.
Heather Benitez:And then maybe let's read something. So let's read through the problem, let's read through the article, talk, read, and then we're going to talk again. Okay, now I've seen something, I've interacted with somebody about it, and then I've read something. Has my opinion changed? Depending on what the question is, or have I learned more?
Heather Benitez:What else do I know? And so let's talk again, let's hear some more answers. And then I'm gonna give you the opportunity to write about it. But now the student who might have come in very quietly on the first talk has now had the opportunity to hear their teachers or their peers. They've had the opportunity to read more, to hear again.
Heather Benitez:And so now the process piece of having them write, they have the opportunity to not just use what was in their brain the first time. They have the opportunity to use ideas from other students and maybe they heard something else and they thought, oh, that's a better answer. Or, you know what, I like the way they said that, so I'm gonna write that down. That's okay. We have to use all of our resources.
Heather Benitez:And that's how we get our students confident in turning in papers. Because if we just tell a student, Hey, here's this article, read, answer these questions, some students will turn in nothing. They will not write, or they will not Because they don't have the words that they want yet, or they're not confident enough to do it, or sometimes they just don't understand. And that discourse piece is so key in giving them the opportunity to understand what they're reading, what they're looking at. Maybe they're hearing other ideas said in a way that maybe the teacher wouldn't think about, say.
Heather Benitez:And sometimes our peers are our perfect teachers.
Mandi Morris:Yeah, Heather, I am visualizing this classroom as you're describing it. And this is classroom that has a teacher at the front of the room. Here's an article, everyone's quiet, read the article, then write down your answers. This is a classroom that has a lot of conversation happening. There is visual stimulus throughout the classroom, opportunities for students to change their thinking, to grow their thinking, opportunities for students to engage in debate.
Mandi Morris:I love this classroom you're describing. It feels like a very vibrant, active place where students feel like their voice is heard and also valued. And I think that's an important thing that you called out is that what if a student in the classroom brings an idea or a perspective that the teacher hadn't even thought about or hadn't thought to present about. And what a unique school district that you're in to have so many different cultures represented. I imagine there are lots of times and opportunities where teachers are presented with something new information, or it's like, Oh, I wouldn't have thought about it that way.
Mandi Morris:I didn't have that life experience that you had. How do you encourage the teachers? And I'm thinking about the high school teachers, your peers. How do you encourage the teachers that say, I have always done it this way. I have taught this lesson for ten years.
Mandi Morris:This is how I teach this lesson. And now you are telling me to literally turn it upside down. You want me to insert five different talking activities. You want kids talking. You want engagement.
Mandi Morris:How do you do coaching around that to help maybe change the hearts and minds of some teachers that are resistant?
Heather Benitez:So one of the things that I think is really important is for a teacher to see it happen. So if teachers are reticent to do it, and that happens a lot, especially in classes that are not English. So if you're not teaching an ELAR class, this is science, this is math. This is how we teach it. This is social studies, this is how we teach it.
Heather Benitez:What I like to do is to be able to step in, could I come and co teach with you? Can I model this for you? And let me just show you what it would look like. And let's definitely, I start small. I don't want them to feel overwhelmed.
Heather Benitez:They don't need to revamp their entire curriculum, but let's start with what are you teaching next week? Could I look at that? And then can I come in and model maybe the first fifteen minutes of class? And what I like to do is let me show you what can be done in the classroom. And it's not, it really is a shift in the practice.
Heather Benitez:So yes, I've had these lesson plans for fifteen years, and these are the same ones that I've used every year. And we've always taught this, and I've always lectured and given these slides that haven't changed. And so it really is just being willing. There has to be some give and take. But I think that when teachers see it happening and they're like, oh, and they have to see it happening with their students.
Heather Benitez:I think it's very important to go into the teacher's classroom and not say, come and watch me do it in somebody else's because they're going to say, those are different kids. My kids still can't do that. And so I think it's really important to find the time to get into teachers' classrooms and really, hey, let me model for you. Because sometimes even attending a professional development session can hear somebody and I think, God, that sounds great, but I don't think that would work with my kids. And that happens.
Heather Benitez:But when you are like, let me show you what your kids can do. And they see their kids interacting in a way that they haven't before, or they see them, Hey, this kid never spoke, or this kid never tries or never engages or doesn't raise their hand or just refuses to interact, and they see them doing the pieces, I think that there's just a light bulb and that really helps out. I do think that modeling and co teaching and not just once, but going in, okay, let me model it for you. Now, maybe next week, let's co teach together and you'll do these pieces and I'll do these pieces. And then in a week, let me come back again and see you doing it on your own.
Heather Benitez:Then doing a full coaching cycle is really important, where it's like an I do, we do, you do, just the same way we teach students, that gradual release. I think that's very beneficial for teachers. And now as a coordinator who does all these different things, we don't always have the time. So it's really about being super intentional with our time and making sure this needs to happen. So let's make it happen in this teacher's class.
Heather Benitez:And hopefully you're working with someone who then can turn that around and do the same thing. I think that's important, like turning your teachers into teacher leaders and so that they can do it for all the teachers. Because granted, I am one person, cannot go into every single classroom in our entire district to do this. And so developing teacher leaders who can do the same thing is really important as well.
Mandi Morris:Absolutely. And for teachers who are listening today and they think, oh man, yes, I am a believer in the concept that literacy is happening in all classrooms, whether teachers want to accept that or not, like you said, students are learning the language of science, learning the language of math. And then to make that even more challenging in high school, each year that course changes. So all the language I learned from that ninth grade bio class, now I'm in the tenth grade chemistry class. And for students, it can feel like I'm starting over again.
Mandi Morris:I worked so hard on all that language I needed for that content class. It feels like there's less of that isolation in the younger grades where things have a natural spiral, where it feels like the skills, a lot of the skills or even like con the concepts will stay similar, but they will grow or morph. And in high school, it's a real challenge for, especially for English learners, but can be for students in general. What advice do you give for a teacher who says, really wanna help change the hearts and minds of my teachers that literacy is for everyone. It's for the science teacher, it's for the math teacher.
Mandi Morris:Where would you recommend that start to have that conversation? Or where could they start to lean into success?
Heather Benitez:So what I think is that I think it's really important to be willing to do the work and willing to make the mistakes and to show that it's not going to be perfect every time. I think that teachers might see someone offering professional development or someone who is a district leader and see, yeah, you can say all these things, but you don't have that practice anymore. I think that especially happens when it's coming from an administrator or district leader. They're like, you're not even in the classroom. But when it's coming from another teacher, I think it's really important to be vulnerable and to talk about the things like, hey, I did this and it wasn't perfect every time.
Heather Benitez:And it certainly wasn't perfect at the beginning. And I think that's part of it is working through the kinks and being willing to continue the work. Sometimes teachers, they do it once and they're like, Man, this was terrible. And I don't want to do it like that. Feel like I wasted a whole period.
Heather Benitez:And that's hard because you have so finite time with these students. And so you're like, I got to get through these lessons. And then we have a unit test coming up next week or in a couple of weeks. I don't have time to be wasting. And showing teachers that being resilient and going back and really being willing to like, hey, let me work with you.
Heather Benitez:I know it's not going to be perfect the first time. I know it's not going to be like great, but the more practice you have, the better it will get. I think that's important. When teachers are trying to start these conversations, they need to come, I feel like they need to come at it from a very human perspective. We are all practitioners of our work and we are trying our best to do the best for the students.
Heather Benitez:And that's the goal is to do things in the best interest of the student. And I think that really coming at it from like, you know, this is going to be not super easy if you've never tried it before, but it is in the best interest of the student. So let's make mistakes along the way, but it is going to get so much better.
Mandi Morris:Yeah. I'm hearing a few different things from you that feel important and worth sitting on for a minute. It's accepting that doing something new is hard, and it makes me think a lot of the power of yet. So if you try something once and it doesn't feel successful, there's a shift in your thinking if you say it isn't successful yet. It hasn't worked yet.
Mandi Morris:It doesn't mean that it can't ever, but I need to keep trying. Use the word resilience, which I think is so powerful when you're trying to shift your practice as a teacher to feel resilient, that I can keep trying. It's okay to make mistakes along the way, but having the resiliency to keep at it and really that shift of we'll get there. And together, something else you've really highlighted that throughout this conversation, Heather, is the collaborative piece, the teamwork piece. Whether being a new teacher or a science high school teacher who says, okay, I'm willing to try, but I don't know where to start.
Mandi Morris:I don't know how to get started. Your willingness to collaborate, to co teach, to model, that is a powerful part of implementing new practice in a school district. And I think there are really high leverage takeaways from what you've shared with us today. So I wonder, Heather, when you think forward for your school district, the work that you're doing, thinking about literacy at the secondary level, what's next for you, for your school district? What are some goals or some big focus points that you have for this upcoming school year?
Heather Benitez:So for this next school year, our district is still keeping literacy at the center of its focus. So we are still focused on literacy routines. And one of the things that we are doing this year or this coming year is we are empowering our admin to also lead that professional development. It doesn't always happen in the school districts where we usually have your specialists or your coordinators or outside people coming in. But what we're really focusing in on is making sure that our admin are also trained in these literacy routines and making sure that they can also turn around.
Heather Benitez:But it's important because they need to know what to look for in the classroom. And when sometimes you've been out of the classroom for a long time, you don't know exactly, oh, what does this look like? I would say, at the secondary level, maybe you're an admin who was a math teacher and you're walking into a social studies class and what am I exactly looking at? I think this is correct. And we all know good teaching.
Heather Benitez:I think that's one thing, like instructional practice. I can walk into, I might not be a math teacher myself, but I can walk into a math class and I know what a good instructional practice looks like. We know best practices, but I think that it's very important to understand exactly, these are our district focuses. We are going to equip you with, let's say, four or five different literacy routines that we're teaching throughout the year to make sure that these are in practice, and this is what you're looking for. It should be in the lesson plan.
Heather Benitez:It should be part of the PLC type when they're planning together. Let's build these together. And that way the principal knows or the admin who's going in knows what am I looking for and what should I be seeing? I should be seeing the discourse. I should be seeing a stimulus of some time.
Heather Benitez:I should also be seeing that process time. There needs to be that connective piece that all of these pieces go together and it's not something that I see in isolation. It's things that I want to see. I want to see the whole cycle of it. So that's something that we are really focusing on this year is really empowering our administrators to also understand like what is the practice that you should be looking for?
Heather Benitez:But then also turning around and making sure that our teachers are, of course, very well equipped, that they are able to implement these routines and really give their students the chance to practice their listening, speaking, reading, writing skills, practice that time to interact on an academic language, having that academic discourse, because it's so different because the kids can talk to each other just fine. They will talk to each other all day if you let them. But that academic vocabulary, building up their ability to interact in academic manner and write academically is so important. So really giving the teachers the opportunity to practice, to have that time, to plan and to implement that throughout the year.
Mandi Morris:Yeah, that's awesome. You guys have some big goals for this upcoming school year. I love the concept of making sure that admin and teachers are really on the same page. I think that's so powerful. How can teachers feel success and feel seen and heard in the work that they're doing, that they're being asked to do if they feel like admin aren't fully looped in, fully in support of that work.
Mandi Morris:So I love that. It's like a two pronged approach, right? Like making sure admin are just totally fully invested and trained up in what is being expected of teachers so that teachers really have the support that they need for success. Heather, we're gonna do some questions here at the end. Some of them are reflection questions.
Mandi Morris:If you could go back in time, back to 02/2008, a baby Heather teacher, what advice would you give yourself that you're like, man, I wish I knew this?
Heather Benitez:So right off the bat, I would say don't do 20 centers with five year olds, six year olds. But I think that if I could go back and talk to myself as a 22 year old brand new teacher, I would really just encourage myself to keep going and to not get overwhelmed because there are so many times where I just felt like this isn't for me. Especially that first year, I was like, what am I doing? I don't know this work. I'm not a teacher.
Heather Benitez:I didn't study education. What is happening? And so I would go back and tell any new teacher, just that first year is going to be rough. Get through that first year. There are so many ways, so many things that you will learn and you will take with you from that first year that are going to be invaluable to your teaching career.
Heather Benitez:It's going to be so worthwhile and wonderful at the end, but you have to get through those five days. So I think that's what I would tell myself is just keep pushing through and there will be a world of different opportunities that open up to you.
Mandi Morris:Yes, absolutely. I don't know if you've ever felt this way, but I have sometimes felt, oh man, I wish I could go back to my first class and I'm sorry.
Heather Benitez:I think about my kids a lot. And I'm like, I wonder how they're doing.
Mandi Morris:Really trying. I think young teachers make up for the lack of classroom management and experience in just, like, passion and excitement and love for their students. I always say tell myself that. But yeah, it's really hard. And a lot of teachers you talk to, a lot of educators will say, oh man, the first year, the second year, I just, I thought I wanted to quit after my first year.
Mandi Morris:I just felt like I can't do this. I'm failing. I'm failing every day. But thank goodness for incredible mentor teachers and some persistence that sticking with it, it's like where you've really got to get through that first year or two and have people supporting you along the way. That's just pivotal.
Mandi Morris:Okay, Heather, you are a self proclaimed book lover. So you've got to give us some books that you love and maybe some of we've never done this before. We're just like, what do you love to read for pleasure? Summer's coming. Like, do you have any books you'd recommend on that are fun summer reads?
Mandi Morris:But then also, is there anything professionally that you just feel like, I read this book, it meant a lot to me?
Heather Benitez:Okay. So I'll start with what I'm reading now. Just for the, what I'm reading just for fun. I really, like my favorite book ever is A Man Called Ooze by Fredrik Backman. And it's I read a lot for Pleasure Nurse.
Heather Benitez:I read a lot about this. But currently I'm reading James by Everett Percival or Percival Everett. I think I might have that backwards, but that is a retelling of Huck Finn, but through the lens of Jim, the slave. And so it is fascinating and it's beautifully retold. I'm almost done and I love the book.
Heather Benitez:It has been a really good read. So I would recommend that to anyone. As far as what I've read that really has developed my as an educator, there is a company called Cyclets and they put out a lot of texts for language learners. And a lot of them are very putting the work in practice. So they have their talk read, talk write books.
Heather Benitez:They're teaching. So one of the big trainings that we did this past year, and we did it for a lot of our teachers and we're continuing it for next year, called Small Moves, Big Games. And it's so great because it's very simple moves for, instructional moves for a teacher to do that have a big payoff. And it's little things like if I'm making a waterfall sound, everybody knows to be quiet. If I'm telling, let's say I have a group discussion going and you have a speaker in your group, a lot of times the group turns off because they know, oh, that's the person who's gonna talk, I'm done.
Heather Benitez:So what we do is called prepare the speaker. And so the group's in charge of telling the speaker what to say. And so it just shifts the mindset of your group because now they have to tell the speaker what to say, the speaker doesn't have to be the only one preparing themselves. And so little things like that, I think that has been one of my favorites this past year that I really enjoyed reading. So I would say small moves, big games would be a great place to start for anybody because it's just so easy to implement these practices and a lot of them feel like common sense.
Heather Benitez:But I think that when you see them written, you're like, Oh, I could do that too. So they're very, very easy to implement.
Mandi Morris:Oh, I love that. Those are really fun. I love the prepared the speaker. It's fantastic. It's so good.
Mandi Morris:And, yeah, simple, but a powerful shift. I love that. Okay. Those are fantastic recommendations. For you, Heather, you've been in education for seventeen years.
Mandi Morris:You've worked elementary school level, high school level, now district level, and you're supporting educators in a lot of different ways. What brings you joy? Like when you think about you're on summer break now, right? But you've got a school year ahead and you're already preparing and prepping for it. And what after seventeen years still brings you joy about the work that you do?
Heather Benitez:So it really is the students. I love working with teachers and being on this side of the desk for nine years now, ten years now. I always miss the students. I always miss that classroom time. The time that I thought, I can't wait to go to the classroom.
Heather Benitez:When I was a teacher, I wanted to do something else. I was like, Okay, I love these kids, but I want to see what it's like to be a specialist or a director or a coordinator. I find myself now, the moments that I get to be in a classroom and really putting my work into practice, that's the most fun for me. Adults are adults. And so adults can be hard.
Heather Benitez:They're the hardest learners, I feel like. So when you're doing PD with teachers or with other educators, sometimes it's like hitting a brick wall over and over. But when you're with kids, kids, no matter the age, I can be with the pre K students that I work with in the summer, with the high school students, it does not matter what age group they are. The student doing the work and watching them interact with each other. If it's small things like for a pre K group, turn and talk to your neighbor and tell them what the letter sound is.
Heather Benitez:If it's a high school class where they're discussing and doing like a Socratic seminar, it is beautiful to see that happening because you see those light bulbs and you don't I think that there's so much potential in our students. We don't know what they're gonna grow up to be or who they're gonna influence later or what they're going to do. And I love to see them interact with each other and talk. And you see their brains just working in a way that I'm like, God, I didn't think like that when I was a kid. And this is awesome.
Heather Benitez:So for me, it really is anytime that I get to meet with the students, I love it.
Mandi Morris:Oh, that's so cool. You mentioned Socratic seminars. And so I this is a good plug. If you're a teacher, especially middle school, high school, and you have not done a Socratic seminar, or maybe you haven't done it in a long time, that was a practice that I did in middle school that was a time in my career where I thought this is too hard. This is not going to work.
Mandi Morris:Like I have students with too many different needs. I've got English learners. I have students that just have a lot of needs and this is just gonna be too hard. And it always amazed me that it's not. It's another one of those opportunities you mentioned earlier about doing a novel read.
Mandi Morris:It's not too hard. Do you need scaffolds? Yes. Do you need some redirection and reiteration? Do you need really good structures?
Mandi Morris:Yes. But yeah, Socratic seminar is such an incredible way to engage students and really incorporate a certain level of debate in the classroom too. That is just a really cool element for speaking and listening skills.
Heather Benitez:I think that's just, it's really important. And you mentioned like putting in scaffolds and building in like the opportunities to make something that sounds like a Socratic seminar, it sounds hard. It sounds like, and the work doesn't does not seem easy. But it's when you put in the scaffolds and you make it equitable for the students. Hey, I can access this kind of discussion and this upper level thinking as well.
Heather Benitez:I think that's so important. And you get to really see, hey, all of my students are capable of this regardless of their abilities or their language proficiency. Everyone has something to contribute. I think that it's one of the, like a key practice to use in a classroom. And I would say, especially with students learning English for the first time or who are multilingual learners.
Mandi Morris:Yeah, absolutely. Heather, it's been such a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. After seventeen years, you have so much joy and love for what you do. It's very evident. I feel happy for all of the teachers and students who are able to learn from you and grow with you and collaborate with you.
Mandi Morris:It's been a pleasure to have you. Thank you for joining the podcast today.
Heather Benitez:Thank you so much. I really enjoyed being here.