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Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Teaching-Learning Collaborative (TLC)
Transforming professional development for teacher preparation faculty and classroom teachers through collaboration and inquiry
Developed by Antioch University Los Angeles
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
The TLC pilot project was implemented in Los Angeles schools, where the
needs of English learners are arguably the greatest in the nation.
94% of English learners speak Spanish.
California schools are, by law, limited to English only instruction.
44% of CA students are English learners compared to national school average of 16%.
The Los Angeles Unified School District enrolls three quarters of a million students.
73% of are of Latino heritage; 41% are English learners;
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Teachers’ Voices
“There’s a lot of fear. With my kids, many of their parents have immigrated from Mexico and Oaxaca and there’s a lot of fear that they will be sent back.”
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
English Learner Academic Achievement in LAUSD
• Levels of learning among English learners continue to be 1-3 years below grade level (K-8)
• High school graduation rates for Latinos enrolled in LAUSD hover around 61%
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
LAUSD needs to find ways to retain teachers more effectively.
• 10% leave district before end of first year.
• 20% leave within three years.
• Over 50% of the teachers in low socio-economic urban schools leave within five years.
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Teachers’ Voices
The biggest challenge for me has been teaching the way that I want to teach. Open Court [district mandated, scripted language arts curriculum] is not the way I believe children, especially second language [learners], should be taught... The biggest frustration is that [teaching is] being treated like a job, and we’re just being trained to do our job. It’s not considered an intimate endeavor where teachers can create a curriculum or a classroom in which children can thrive.
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
The goal of the Teaching Learning Collaborative is to enhance the
effectiveness of instruction of English learners and to increase job
satisfaction and retention by offering teachers a program of support and resources whereby they may guide
their own professional development.
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Teaching Learning Collaborative (TLC) Classroom Teacher Project
• Two Title 1, K-5 schools in Los Angeles Unified School District with mostly English learners
• Leadership team of teachers, administrators, teacher education faculty, and ELD experts
• Teacher dialogs for full faculty at both schools monthly during professional development time by leadership team and other experts
• Self-selected sub-group of 16 teachers from both schools: monthly workshops, coaching, inquiry projects
• Sub-days allow teachers to participate, and salary points/compensation is provided
• Takes place over a minimum one-year period
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
TLC Guiding Principles
5. Inquiry-based teaching and learning
1. Collaborative rather than directive
2. Constructed rather than scripted
3. Getting to know students
4. Current theory and research in English language development, instructional strategies, and existing programs for English learners
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Collaborative and Constructivist(Underlying theory)
• Engaging learners at their levels of experience and knowledge (Piaget)
• Sharing authority of knowledge and expertise (Freire)
• Demonstrating mutual respect (Rawls)
• Acting on, working with, reflecting upon, mentoring. (Vygotsky)
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Collaborative and Constructivist(how it works)
• University faculty provide a framework for teachers to conduct classroom inquiry into their instruction of English learners.
• Classroom teachers identify a specific area of their instruction to study and improve.
• Faculty and teachers support teacher’s inquiry over a long term period.
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Teachers’ Voices
“The thing I really appreciated about the TLC project is that for the first time we weren’t being told what
to do. It started with us.”
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Getting to Know Students
• Assess prior knowledge
• Foster authentic relationships
• Seek out students’ interests in order to know how best to teach them (Dewey)
• Respectful, meaningful relationships are essential.
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Getting to know students Collaborative Trust-building
--community and trust building activities create a climate of mutual respect
--methods allow them to get to know each other in ways unlikely in regular day-to-day work situations
--reflect how each activity can be modified to use in the classroom with English learners
School & university faculty
Teachers El students
Authentic relationships
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Fostering authentic relationshipsOverlapping narratives
• Models strategies for use with ELs
• Allows teachers to get to know each other
• Provides vehicle to discuss ideas
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Sample Community Building: Overlapping narratives
• Identify salient events in lives as teachers
• Organize into themes• Identify a shared
narrative in themselves and students
• Reflect on using this process with English learners
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Sample Community Building: “Salvador Late and Early”
• Read story together• Individually “retell”
the narrative with symbols
• May be used with Els
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Sample Community Building: Salvador Late and Early
• Builds relationships between teachers
• Provides vehicle to discuss school experience of ELs
• Models narrative symbol exercise for use with Els
• Thanks to Isabel Aguirre, who brought this exercise to TLC
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Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Teachers’ Voices
Like Salvador, many students come “to school where teachers
do not understand their language, don’t understand their
background, don’t understand where they come from.”
-- TLC teacher
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Teaching Learning Collaborative
Learning About StudentsExamining assumptions about English learners.
In LAUSD, most English learners are Spanish speakers.
Are they from rural or urban areas?
Attitudes towards teachers?
Family attitudes about education?
Interests and values?
Economic status?
Household arrangements?
Student skills differ depending on their histories
Many families risked their
lives so their children could
get a better education.
Many large families live in one bedroom apartments.
Family is very important.
Very respectful. They rarely doubt a teacher.
85% are at or below poverty level.
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Current theory and research
• At annual retreats and regular meetings, teachers read, “jig-sawed” and summarized articles in pairs
• “I liked the readings and discussing with peers.”
• The most beneficial activity was “time to read articles and reflect with our fellow teachers”
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Current theory and research
• Together, participants read material on participatory and liberatory education, connecting those ideas to authentic work with their students.
• Discussions generate a framework for change that focuses on deep knowledge, individualized instruction, and authentic relationships among teachers and project staff.
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Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Mini-universities
teachers to teach each other.
Expert instructor in SDAIE
Faculty with ELDknowledge
but lackinginstructional
strategiesExpert instructor In ELD
Instructors with outdated ELD knowledge
In some instances, the “mini-
university” allow
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Inquiry-based Teaching and Learning
Learning takes place in response to questions.
Developing questions leads to knowledge seeking.
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Inquiry-based Teaching & Learningvideotaping lessons
• Individual inquiry projects to improve instruction of English learners. – Faculty consulted on unit
& lesson design– Classroom observations– Review videos of lessons
with faculty and peers, sometimes with whole group
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Inquiry-based Teaching & Learning
• Challenges included:– Time to plan and implement inquiry projects – Mandated curriculum content is often not culturally
relevant to students– The mandated curriculum is not designed for
English learners
• Therefore, we suggest focusing on inquiry projects that work with or supplement the district-mandated curriculum
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Sample Inquiry Project: Getting to Know Students
• Two 4th grade teachers visited all 35 students in their homes.
• Photography project in which students created photo journals
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Sample Inquiry Project: Getting to Know Students One teacher learned Spanish
• She used Spanish to set children at ease: Qué pasó mi hijo?
• In classroom management: Sientate por favor!
• And to teach new words in English: content - contento library - libro
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
Sample Inquiry Project: Math Conferences
• One 4th grade teacher read “The Algebra Project” and implemented math conferences that were similar to the writing and language arts conferences she had used for many years.
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
How Did the Project Affect Instruction? Teachers’ Voices
• “Thank you for the theory, interesting topics, and not dumbing things down.”
• “The only model [that works] is the inquiry model where teachers are reflecting and thinking and changing their practice on their own, not being told to implement another program, but an authentic questioning amongst teachers.”
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
How Did the Project Affect Instruction? Teachers’ Voices
• “It’s about self-study, where you study yourself and … see how you want to change… It is great professional development because it allows teachers to go into their practice and say, ‘You know what, I would like to see this change. I want to better myself in this teaching aspect. How can I do it? What can I do to change myself as an educator and to change my practice to better reach those students.’”
Celebrate Our Rising Stars Summit VI“Preparing ELLs to Succeed in the 21st Century”
We invite you to participate in a new TLC project!
• First retreat scheduled October 24-25
• Please sign up!
• Make sure to stay in touch with______, TLC coordinator at your school.
