SupportEd Winter News 2018

We are having a productive winter at SupportEd with our three online courses, ongoing projects and professional development (PD), and upcoming conference presentations.

Online EL Courses (January 22 – March 9, 2018)

This winter we are offering three online courses. In addition to our popular courses on EL advocacy and SLIFE, we are also offering a new course on instructional strategies for supporting ELs in content classrooms.

• • Effectively Advocating for English Learners (ELs)

• • Effectively Reaching Students Your with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE)

• Unlocking ELs’ Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible (New!)

Projects

• • Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). SupportEd is partnering with the Center for Applied Linguistics to revise LAUSD’s English Learner Master Plan. This plan serves more than 160,000 ELs. SupportEd Senior Consultants Teddi Predaris and Joanne Urrutia are leading committee meetings in Los Angeles to solicit input on the content of the plan and are applying their expertise as district administrators to provide input on the content and share feedback on drafts of the plan.

• • Syracuse City School District, NY. We continue our close work with the Syracuse City School District (SCSD) begun four years ago to develop and enhance their programs for ELs, including dual language, bilingual, and English as a New Language programs. This year we are supporting the implementation of a pilot blended EL PD program in three schools and lending expertise on special education for ELs.

• • Nearpod. We will provide the second in a series of webinars on Academic Language featuring Nearpod’s unique interactive presentation platform this winter.

• Education.com. SupportEd is providing guidance and feedback on education.com’s new suite of English Language Arts and mathematics lessons for English learners in grades K through 5 so that ELs’ academic language development and appropriate scaffolds are embedded. SupportEd is collaborating with education.com to create a research-based template for EL pre-lessons and scaffolded content lessons.

Professional Development

• • Yonkers Public Schools, NY. SupportEd is completing year two of the “Strategies for Supporting ELLs in the Content Areas” project providing on-site PD at two high schools as well as developing a job-embedded peer-coaching model.

• • Berkeley County School District, SC. We have been facilitating two different online book studies for educators in this district based on Diane Staehr Fenner’s book Advocating for English Learners: A Guide for Educators (2014) and Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney Snyder’s book Unlocking English Learners’ Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible (2017). Both book studies will culminate in a final face to face PD session with Diane in February 2018.

• Professional Development for Various School Districts. We are providing ongoing professional development on many EL-related topics, including culturally responsive instruction, instructional strategies for supporting ELs in content classrooms, instruction of SLIFE, literacy for ELs, and teacher leadership in support of ELs. This winter we will be collaborating with educators in Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.

Upcoming Conferences and Presentations

Diane Staehr Fenner will be presenting at the following conferences.

• • Keynote titled Advocating for Diverse ELs in Georgia: Issues and Strategies and a breakout session titled Honing your Advocacy and Leadership Skills to Support ELs at the Kennesaw State University and Georgia Department of Education Title III’s ESOL Conference (February 7, 2018)

• • Unlocking ELs’ Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible at the 2018 Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program and ESL Conference (March 15, 2018)

• • Perspectives on English Learner Advocacy and Action: A Dialogue at the TESOL 2018 Convention with Michelle Benegas, Laura Baecher, and Amy Hewett-Olatunde (March 28, 2018)

• Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education: Challenges and Solutions at the TESOL 2018 Convention with Maria Konkel (March 29, 2018)

Webinars

• Sydney Snyder will be presenting a Nearpod webinar, Embedding Academic Language for English Learners (January 31, 2018, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM EST). Click here to register.