Institutes - Monday, June 18, 2007
Teaching Reading to English Language Learners in Grades 6 - 12
This presentation will focus on the key elements of Project Expediting Comprehension for English Language Learners (ExC-ELL®), funded by the New York Carnegie Corporation. This project studied the effects of a professional development model for middle and high school teachers of English, science, mathematics, and social studies who work with ELLs. Student data from this study indicated significant results not just for ELLs but also for all students in the participating classrooms, particularly those reading below grade level
Instructor: Margarita Calderon, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist/Professor, Johns Hopkins University, New York, NY
Presentation Slides
Expediting Comprehension for English Language Learners: Project ExC-ELL™
Bridging Cultures: Classroom Management from the Lens of Different Cultures
Cultural values and beliefs are at the core of all classroom organization and management decisions. Likewise, cultural values and beliefs are at the center of students’ responses to teachers’ management strategies. In this presentation, participants will learn how to recognize, understand, and build on students’ cultural strengths leveraging classroom organization and management for the benefit of learning and teaching. Using an uncomplicated framework, and teacher-developed and tested strategies, methods of classroom organization will be presented while participants’ reflect and plan for changes in their own classrooms.
Instructor: Carrie Rothstein-Fisch, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Co-Coordinator of the Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Handouts
Addressing the Disability and Special Education Needs of English Language Learners
This institute is offered in two parts. Part I will help participants understand the variables that affect individuals acquiring a new language, distinguishing issues associated with learning English, from those where a true disability is discovered. Part II addresses concerns associated with special education and standard assessment - moving toward culturally competent evaluation practice and Response to Intervention (RTI). This session will provide a model for the early intervention, referral, assessment, and placement of ELLs experiencing academic difficulty. Issues regarding standardized assessments, inherent cultural and linguistic bias and concerns with the use of interpreters will be examined. A collaborative decision-making and problem-solving framework to meet the needs of struggling ELLs will be shared.
Instructor: Berthica Rodriguez-McCleary, Ed.S., Education Specialist, Fairfax County Public Schools, Falls Church, VA
English as a Second Language and Assessment (Accountability and Evaluation)
A growing number of students from diverse racial, cultural and linguistic backgrounds have unique learning needs as they acquire English language skills and adapt to the culture of the American educational system. Among this diverse population of students are at-risk learners and learners with a variety of disabilities. This situation presents school districts and even the most experienced education professional with unique challenges. Some culturally and linguistically diversified (CLD) students are disproportionately placed in special education and some are disproportionately being
denied needed special education services. The needs of these diverse learners are not being appropriately addressed when “difference” is used to disproportionately place or deny diverse learners special education services. This workshop addresses specific issues in disproportionality facing education professionals working with diverse learners with learning and behavior problems, particularly language minority students, and provides guidelines to the assessment, intervention and identification strategies that are most effective in separating difference from disability.
Instructor: Catherine Collier, Ph.D., Director, CrossCultural Development Education, Ferndale, WA
Handouts
ELL Instruction & Assessment: Accountability + Evaluation
What Every Administrator & Educator Should Know: Separating Difference from Disability
From Surface to Deep Understanding: Connecting Strategies to Student Biographies
This session will bridge research-based content literacy instruction and teaching English Language Learners. At the end of this session, participants will be able to demonstrate the fundamental theories of second language acquisition as they relate to literacy development. Through an interactive format educators will explore strategies that increase language and academic development throughout a lesson. The session will demonstrate how research based instructional strategies enhance effective instruction regardless of content area or grade level. Teacher clips will showcase the strategies learned in classroom practice. At the end of the session participants will take away practical strategies that can be implemented immediately in the classroom.
Instructor: Socorro Herrera, Ph.D., Professor, Elementary Education, Kansas State University Manhattan, Manhattan, KS
Promoting Writing for English Learners through the Language and Cultural Stories of Student Teachers
Building culturally and linguistically responsive classrooms is key when working with English Learners. This interactive writing session will draw upon the wellspring of cultural and linguistic resources within teacher preparation programs at two universities. This work aims to provide participants with concrete scaffolded strategies that will affect the writing lives of English Learners in diverse classroom settings. Participants will learn ways to tap into the historical, cultural and linguistic backgrounds of students in preparing them to succeed.
Instructors: Lilia E. Sarmiento, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Education, California State University, Dominguez Hills, CA
Dolores Beltran, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, California State University, Los Angeles, CA
Presentation Slides
Handouts
Principles of Learning for English Learners
Family History Writing Project