Teaching

New Patterns for Teachers of English Language Learners

1. With recent federal legislation calling for high-quality teachers and teaching, schools will have to explore new ways to enhance teachers’ skills sets.
2. The project is comprised of five components that contribute to student success, as supported by the literature: • Training for Capacity Building • Technical Assistance for Classroom Support • Teacher Mentoring • Teacher-Parent Partnership • ESL Learning Communities
3. The process of teacher development through the practice of teaching is an important one. The practice of teaching as a medium for teacher development requires:
   1. A context of high quality model teaching: High expectations of the teacher resulting in high student engagement and academic success;
   2. A process of deep noticing: Observing teachers come together to share observations and insights;
   3. A critical result sought is application appropriate to the observer’s skill level that leads to self-critique and self-improvement.
4. An effective lesson for English language learners includes: recognizing and drawing on student experiences (prior knowledge); allowing for multiple opportunities to demonstrate learning and mastery; aligning with state standards; demonstrating the use of language to develop content; and connecting to real-life application.
5. In our example described in the first article, the lesson was a microcosm of the larger organic teaching process, showing the relationship among content, language, management and assessment. Readers may recall some key themes of the lesson.
6. For this process we will focus on three groups who must value it: teachers, staff developers, and the larger system or school district.
   1. Teachers – This process has underlying assumptions about teachers, their intelligence and their desire to trust their own perceptions that increases the chances that they will apply what they learned and get attached to the process
   2. Staff Developers – Staff developers want to bring rich context to staff development. They know that a simulation, video or demonstration modeled in a workshop is not enough.
      1. This process of teacher development through the practice of teaching is a part of the larger IDRA professional development and school improvement framework, called ExCELs, which has five major elements.
         1. Training for Capacity Building: Workshops on developing a knowledge base for English language acquisition; the role of language in content learning; and diversified forms of assessment.
         2. Teacher Mentoring: modeling, coaching and material sharing. Teacher-Parent Partnership: parent meetings; student/teacher/parent conversations.
   3. School District – With the pressure of accountability and higher standards, schools have to conduct professional development that accelerates teacher improvement and reduces the time from introduction to application in teaching.