1. Karen Salerni Master’s Candidate in TESOL, Literacy, and Culture
Open Enrollment: Coping With a Fluctuating Adult Population at a Private English Language School
Karen Salerni
Master’s Candidate in TESOL, Literacy, and Culture

2. Research Context and Needs Assessment
“San Diego English School” (SDES)
Intensive English Program (IEP)
Open enrollment
New students take entry test on Mondays, begin class on Tuesdays
Core (integrated skills) classes meet Monday-Friday
Partner-teacher system
Began teaching a Tuesday/Thursday Intermediate Core class on January 21
Teaching is hard! Open enrollment makes it harder!
I struggled with:
Lesson planning
Integrating new students into my classroom

3. Open Enrollment by the Numbers

4. Research Question
How can I cope with a fluctuating international adult population at an English language school with open enrollment?

5. Literature and Theories
English as a lingua franca
Only about 25% of English users are native speakers (Seidlhofer, 2005)
English is notable for: geographical spread, cultural diversity of speakers, variety of purposes it serves (Dewey, 2007)
Open enrollment
“Less than optimum” (Wardell, 1991, p. 66)
To improve teaching and learning:
Build community (Martinsen, 2009)
Differentiate instruction (Finn, 2010)

6. Phase I: Plan Area of Study Intervention Assessment Plan
Coping as a teacher
Study myself to separate effective and ineffective teaching strategies
Interview and observe partner and mentor teachers
Record of lesson plans and attendance
Reflection and observation journals
Community in the classroom
Tuesday-morning introductions
Group/pair work
Create community through interactions
Differentiating instruction
Use continuing students as “experts” to assist the new students
Review student work

7. Phase I: Findings Area of Study Findings Evidence Coping as a teacher
Flexibility and adaptability
Move from detailed lesson plans to basic notes
Communicate with co-teacher
Interviews: “Be flexible. [Open enrollment] makes you a better teacher because you’re used to adapting lessons and activities” —Anya
Record of lesson plans
Conversations with my co-teacher about student needs in his class informed material covered in my class
Ex: Question formation
Community in the classroom
Students felt comfortable speaking in class
Continuing students welcoming to new students
Students still did not know each other’s names!
Observations and reflections: laughter, willingness to speak, participation of all students during communicative tasks
Observations: continuing students offered to accompany new students during class breaks
Observations: Students did not fill out classmate’s names during travel survey activity; responded that they were unsure of names
Differentiating instruction
Did not explore in-depth
“Students as experts” worked when utilized
Boredom when covering material that continuing students had already learned
Observations and reflections: “Old” students stimulated interest in and helped new students understand Marley and Me
Observations and reflections: Talking and cell phone use during lesson, “selfies”

8. Building Community: Conversation Cards

9. Phase II: Plan How can I better cope with open enrollment by:
effectively and quickly building community in my classroom?
differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all of my students?
Area of Study
Intervention
Assessment Plan
Community in the classroom
Continue teacher interviews (for strategies)
Continue group/pair work
Facebook page
Reflection and observation journals
Exit slips
Differentiating instruction
Teacher interviews (for strategies)
Deliberate – not random – student groups
Back-up tasks for “early finishers”
Student work

10. Phase II: Findings Area of Study Findings Evidence
Community in the classroom
Student felt comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions with their classmates, especially during group work
Humor, interviews, and group work helped students remember names
Facebook did not appear to improve community
Observations: Continuing to mix up pairs/groups worked to create a welcoming atmosphere – laughter, applause
Exit slips:
What activities help you learn other people’s names?
“Work directly with them in groups and kidding”
“Work with groups, interviews”
“Kidding with them”
Observations/reflections: Average class size of 14 students, only 9 “likes” on Facebook
Differentiating instruction
Continuing students were willing to work as “experts” and help new students
Starting homework in class helped “early finishers” remain engaged
Continuing students appeared less engaged with material
Observations: “Expert” students helped explain new material to new students; I was able to assess student needs based on these explanations
Observations/reflections: By giving “early finishers,” a task, I helped ensure that they were engaged in class – and not busy on their cell phones!
Observations/reflections: Continuing students began to become more disruptive in class and no longer turned in homework

11. Phase III: Plan
How can I improve my teaching and student learning in an open- enrollment context by:
differentiating instruction?
continuing to build community both inside and outside of the classroom?
Area of Study
Intervention
Assessment Plan
Differentiating instruction
Continue to use “older” students as experts
Utilize needs assessment tasks to better understand learner needs
Learning centers – students can work on different activities depending on their needs
Reflection and observation journals
Exit slips
Student work and test scores
Community in and out the classroom
Create WhatsApp group for students
Service-learning activities
Interviews/focus groups with students

12. Overall Findings and Reflections
Open-enrollment findings:
Other teachers can provide information and support
The best way to plan a lesson is to plan less! Be flexible and open to change
Building community provides support to teachers AND students in this context
Differentiating instruction is challenging when you have a limited amount of time to meet your students and learn about their needs
Personal reflections:
I’m a teacher now!
Open enrollment has many challenges, but there are also many positive aspects:
I’ve met a variety of students from around the world
Classroom dynamics are always changing: If you have a good group of students, it’s difficult when someone leaves, but if you have a difficult student, you know they will leave eventually!
Not only am I a teacher, but I’m a better teacher – and person – because of open enrollment