PD-CI-400 Optimizing Learning for English Language Learners (ELL) in our Classrooms - Elementary

 

Monday, August 6, 2012    8:30 a.m. -2:30 p.m.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012   8:30 a.m. -2:30 p.m.

 

The LPS Professional Development Committee is proud to offer this course for the Summer 2012 semester that was created, designed and will be taught by an LPS staff member.

This course provides training and background information to mainstream teachers who have English language learners in their classrooms. It is designed to provide teachers with the skills and knowledge they need to effectively instruct English language learners using strategies and activities that increase reading comprehension, enhance and expand academic vocabulary, and increase thinking skills that will lead to improved academic writing. Using the “English Language Proficiency Benchmarks and Outcomes (ELPBO)” as a guide, teachers will learn to target specific skills in their lessons by incorporating ELPBO standards in their reading and writing instruction.

The course provides the theoretical and practical knowledge base to provide research-based reading and writing instruction to the English language learners in their class that focuses on the comprehension necessary to interact with academic text and to provide the necessary cognitive skills to write effectively in English. A particular focus will be on the acquisition of the academic language necessary to comprehend new and abstract information in order to deepen understanding of grade-level content. This course fulfills the requirements outlined in Category IV Professional Development as outlined by the MADESE Guidelines on Qualifications for teachers in Sheltered English Immersion Classrooms from the Massachusetts Commissioner on Education, dated June 15, 2004.

Participants will:
• Be able to understand the elements of the reading process, particularly as it relates to students who are learning to read in a second language.
• Be able to plan and implement reading activities that build on the knowledge that students bring to school, emphasize meaning construction through activities that require critical thinking, and afford students the opportunity to apply literacy strategies in the classroom.
• Be able to incorporate content—rich vocabulary instruction that expands and deepens receptive and expressive understanding of concept taught in each subject matter domain, as well as process language required for understanding relationships, analyzing and evaluating new material.
• Be able to understand the elements of the writing process, particularly as they relate to students learning to write in a second language.
• Be able to incorporate strategies in their instruction that assist students in using the higher-order writing components of planning, drafting, and revising in order to enhance their learning.
• Be able to provide instruction to English learners of diverse backgrounds, languages, and schooling by explicitly instructing students who are at different levels of English proficiency in syntax, word choice, and ideational content appropriate to each language proficiency level.

 

Who May Enroll: Grade K-5 Teachers
Instructor: Robyn Dowling-Grant, Coordinator, English Language Learner Program, Lexington Public Schools
PD Credits: PDPs/Optional 1 Graduate Credit offered for purchase through Cambridge College (pending approval)

 

About the Instructor: Robyn Dowling-Grant, Lexington Public Schools
Robyn Dowling-Grant has been the K-12 Coordinator of the English Learner Education Program for the Lexington Public Schools since 2006. She also teaches English as a Second Language at Diamond Middle School, is Co-Chair of the Massachusetts' ELL/Bilingual Advisory Council to the Commissioner of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), and is Past-President of Massachusetts Association of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages (MATSOL). Robyn is passionate about infusing academic language in the classroom.