Leaving No Child Behind: Modern Red SchoolHouse Institutes on
English Language Learners

MRSH ELL Institutes

One of the greatest challenges facing schools today is meeting the needs of the growing population of English Language Learners. The requirements of NCLB have heightened the urgency for schools and districts to provide the appropriate instruction for these students in order for them to be prepared for high-stakes assessments. According to the March 2004 issue of The Economist, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas are among the ten states with the highest growth rates in immigrant population. Classroom teachers in these states must be prepared to face the challenge of providing the very best educational experiences to their students for whom English is a second language. Unfortunately, many teachers have had little opportunity to learn about the needs of ELL students.

Modern Red SchoolHouse is pleased to offer three-day ELL Institutes for teachers and administrators. Nationally recognized experts in the needs of ELL students will share the latest research and proven instructional strategies for use in the classroom. Teachers will have the opportunity to adapt and modify their own lessons and materials to meet the needs of their ELL students.

Participants will:

• Understand the population trends expected across the South during the next few years,
  
  
• Learn the evidence-based research needed to implement best classroom practices,
  
  
• Build a “toolbox” of practical, tested instructional strategies,
  
  
• Design a coherent instructional plan to meet the specific needs of ELL students, and
  
  
• Focus special attention on strategies for helping ELL students become successful readers and writers.

Day One: Understanding the Needs of ELL Students

Understanding Our Context
What are the specific ELL populations in our schools, and what kinds of challenges do these students face? Participants will become familiar with the richly diverse backgrounds of ELL students, including characteristics of their social, cultural, educational, and political backgrounds.

Understanding How Cultural Differences Affect Students in the Classroom
Participants will examine culture in the context of the classroom and learn about culturally-related responses to classroom organization. They will explore how literacy traditions of the home and community influence the ways in which students respond to instruction.

What Do You Know When You Know a Language?
Exactly what does it mean to know a language? Participants will explore the idea of language proficiency, from basic auditory comprehension to the ability to manage the grammar and syntax of written language.

Language Acquisition Theories
Participants will become acquainted with how children learn language. They will learn what current research says about how English Language Learners acquire a second language.

Learning a Second Language in School
Participants will learn about the factors that play important roles in second language acquisition: age, cognitive factors, personality traits, and social relationships. They will explore differences in school expectations for younger and older learners and learn ways to help students understand the differences between the language of social interaction and the language of academic learning.

Day Two: Classroom Practices for ELL Students

Sheltered Instruction
Participants will learn strategies for teaching English Language Learners in ways that make the subject matter comprehensible while promoting students’ English language development.

Group Work
Participants will learn how to provide opportunities for ELL students to interact with their English-speaking peers. They will gain strategies for organizing group work and managing cooperative learning.

Thematic Instruction
Participants will consider how they might use themes as focal points for organizing curriculum content. Institute facilitators will share six criteria for organizing thematic instruction to promote language development, critical thinking, independence, and interpersonal collaboration.

Scaffolding
Participants will focus on practical strategies for providing the appropriate assistance for students’ individual needs as they become more independent learners.

Integration of Speaking, Listening, Reading, and Writing
Participants will examine what it means to integrate listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They will learn the importance of taking into account grammatical forms, communicative functions, and social contexts as they focus on ELL students’ language use.

Promoting Oral Language Development in the Classroom
Participants will learn a variety of practical instructional strategies for promoting oral language development, including strategies specific to each content area, including mathematics, social studies, and science.

Day Three: Focusing on Literacy for ELL Students

Reading Instruction for Beginning Readers: Characteristics and Strategies
Participants will learn how to implement the language-experience approach, how to provide quality literature for beginners, how to maximize the benefits of patterned books, how to check reading comprehension through student illustrations. In addition, they will learn strategies for including listening and thinking activities into their reading instruction and how to improve comprehension through story mapping.

Reading Instruction for Intermediate Readers: Characteristics and Strategies
Participants will learn practical strategies for increasing comprehension, such as cognitive mapping, directed reading-thinking activities, literature response journals, reader’s theater, and adapting stories into plays and scripts for film or videotape.

Research on Second Language Writing
Using the “six traits” as a lens for examining developmental phases, participants will explore research-supported strategies for teaching writing to ELL students.

Strategies for Assisting Beginning Writers
Participants will learn strategies, activities, and resources for promoting writing proficiency in beginners, including oral discussion, partner stories using pictures and wordless books, concept books, riddle books, pattern poems, personal journals and buddy journals, life murals, clustering, and free writing.

Strategies to Assist Intermediate Writers
Participants will learn strategies, activities, and resources for promoting writing proficiency in intermediate writers, including prewriting, concept mapping, sentence combining, sentence shortening, sentence models, and editing.

Shannon Terry, Modern Red SchoolHouse ELL Specialist

Ms. Shannon Terry, Director of Bilingual/ESL Program in the Garland Independent School District, earned a B.A. (English and Spanish) from Texas A&M University-Commerce, a Master's in bilingual education from Southern Methodist University, and a course of study at Texas Christian University which allowed her to obtain a Mid-management Certificate from the State Board of Educator's Certification in Texas. Ms. Terry was accepted into the University of Phoenix Doctor of Management Program in fall 1999. She has served the education communities of Dallas, Garland, and Fort Worth school districts in the following capacities: a fifth grade bilingual/ESL teacher, a bilingual/ESL kindergarten teacher, a bilingual parent educator, a bilingual/ESL curriculum specialist, an adjunct professor at Texas Woman's University, Assistant Director for the International Newcomer Academy, Coordinator of Bilingual/ESL Programs, Assistant Director of Bilingual/ESL Programs, and Director of Bilingual/ESL Programs. She has also served as the co-editor for the TESOL publication, Bilingual Basics.

To learn more about Modern Red SchoolHouse Institutes on English Language Learners, please contact Judy Lyles at the Modern Red SchoolHouse Institute.