Nagle And Mac Donald, Professional Learning Communities Develop Effective Inegrated Content Language Instruction

Professional Learning Communities Develop

Effective Integrated Content-Language Instruction

Rita MacDonald, Applied Linguistics [email protected]

James Nagle, Education [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Project CREATE at SMC

Curriculum Reform for the

Education of All Teachers of ELLs

Project CREATE

OELA National Professional Development Grant

Year 3 of 5 years

Goal: revise curriculum for pre-service teachers so that all teachers graduating SMC are equipped for today’s culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms

Work with three partner school districts

SMC Curriculum Placements Schools

Program Design Program DesignCourse work Instruction

Elementary Secondary

Teaching ModelShared responsibility, collaboration,

integrated content and language instruction

SMC Curriculum Placements Schools

Program Design Program DesignCourse work Instruction

Elementary Secondary

Teaching ModelShared responsibility, collaboration,

integrated content and language instruction

Winooski School District

Consists of one elementary, one middle and one high school. Total student population of 822. 76% qualify for free and reduced lunch.

26% are ELL with 22 languages spoken and most of the ELLs are recently arrived refugees in the last three years.

All but three of the sixty teachers are HQT.

All grades (3-8 & 11) have been identified as needing improvement in math and language arts.

Integrated Content-Language Instruction

Develop teacher knowledge of understanding by design and differentiated instruction (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006)

Integrate content and language instruction for elementary science, middle school social studies and high school core content courses (VT Grade Expectations; WIDA, 2008; Zweirs, 2008)

Create teacher learning communities that plan, teach and assess integrated content and language instruction (Little, 2006) and are customized to the school’s particular needs and responsive to the realistic constraints of schooling

Professional Development Plan over 2 Years

Aug. 08

March 09

March –June 094 months

Aug. 09 September 09-presentFull school year

W W Varied W VariedK-5

2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide

Workshop-30 m/twice/monthAll K-5 1-day

district-wide

Workshop, 30 m /month+ observation

MS Embedded-2h/month1 team

Embedded, 2 h/month

HS Embedded- 2h/monthDepartments

PLC, 1 h/month•student work•Text analysis

ESL:CT Collaboration (shared planning or teaching)

K-5only @ event

only @ event

only @ workshops@ event

only @ workshops

MS Began co-planning for instruction

Co-planning for instruction

HS Planning @ workshop Co-teaching science & math


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




• English Proficiency Scores (WIDA ACCESS)

• Can Do charts for entire class

• Cultural profiles

• Choose unit to plan DI


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




• Understanding proficiency levels

• Strategies & tools for differentiated instruction

• ‘Apprenticing’ students into Academic English

• Writing clear Content and Language Objectives


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




CONTEXTUALIZED SAME TOPICS

• Understanding proficiency levels

• Strategies & tools for differentiated instruction

• “Apprenticing’ students into Academic English

• Writing clear Content and Language ObjectivesPRODUCTS

differentiated lesson/unit plans

for Fall 09


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




Ts also learning methodology of

inquiry-based science

+ UBD basics


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




Ts also learning methodology of

inquiry-based science

+ UBD basics

Difference in Teacher Products

K-5: 2-3 lesson plans with some Content Objectives, some

differentiation

MS: Ancient Civilizations course developed within three teacher team

with ELL teacher as consultant

HS: Unit plan designed in core content courses for

implementation in Fall 2009


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




REITERATION OF FALL 08

• English Proficiency Scores (WIDA ACCESS)

• Can Do charts for entire class

• Cultural profiles

• Revise unit based on UPDATED class profile


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded/TLC, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops





Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops





Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




Varied Process = Varied

Outcomes


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




Varied Outcomes

•Meet monthly, 30 Ts at once, 30 minutes

•Effective differentiation across English proficiency levels (WIDA

2-5)

•Widespread use of SIOP strategies in Science, spreading to other

lessons

•Beginning to use UBD learning objectives effectively

•Increased focus on Academic English, explicit language

instruction (strategies from SIOP and Zwiers)

-----------------------------

•No shared ESL: gen ed planning time + no opportunity for peer

observation leaves Ts dependent on outside ESOL expertise


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




Varied Outcomes

•Eclipse team meets weekly, 90 minutes, to review progress of Ancient

Civilizations course, modify lesson and unit plans based on analysis of

student work

•Team meets with ELL teacher & SMC professor monthly to analyze

student performance on formative & summative assessments (WIDA

levels 2-5)

•Over 2009-10, teachers move from cursory knowledge of WIDA

standards and MPIs to developing specific MPIs and language objectives

for unit and lesson plans

•Currently, in monthly meetings teachers analyze language level of

resources, differentiate texts for WIDA language proficiency level, and

analyze student writing to modify writing instruction


Aug. 08

March 09




2 days

district-wide

½-day

district-wide


district-wide



Embedded, 2 h/month




K-5only @ event

only @ event


only @ workshops




Varied Outcomes

•Faculty discuss unit and lesson plans for WIDA language proficiency levels

of 2-5 – modifying lessons with differentiated resources and formative

assessments

•Faculty analyze student work, specifically writing samples, to modify

writing instruction

•All core content faculty (language arts, math, history, science) meet

monthly with ELL faculty as department teams to review and develop unit

and lesson plans using Zweirs’ strategies for language structure and

vocabulary

•Currently, in monthly meetings faculty conduct discourse analysis on

content specific texts using the systemic functional language approach (Fang

& Schleppegrell, 2008)

Recommendations Need to start where Ts are and work from there.

PD needs to be integrated into Ts’ planning, teaching and assessment programs, using their tools and formats.

PD needs to be responsive to the context of the school. Work with teachers during the school day. Intensive front-loading of information can be a start, but PD needs to be embedded into teachers’ work with their curriculum and lessons.

References

Echevarria, Vogt and Short. (2008) Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model,

Third Edition. Pearson

Fang, Z. & Schleppegrell, M. (2008). Reading in secondary content areas: A language-based pedagogy. Ann

Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Tomlinson, C. A. & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by

Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD

Vermont Grade Level Expectations for content area and grade level

http://education.vermont.gov

WIDA Standards for Language Standards www.wida.us

Winooski School District (2009). The Report on the Effectiveness of the Winooski School District.

Zwiers, J. (2008) Building Academic Language: Essential Practices for Content Classrooms, Grades 5-12.

Wiley.

CREATE website http://academics.smcvt.edu/CREATE/Default.htm

[email protected] [email protected]