Improving Education for English Learners - Webinar Series

Kathryn Lindholm-Leary, Professor in the College of Education, San Jose State University, and Fred Genesee, Professor in the Psychology Department at McGill University in Montréal, discuss dual language programs for English learners; that is, programs that use both English and another language to teach oral and written language as well as academic content. After briefly describing these models, they will explore the importance of oral language skills, and the influence of native language oral and literacy skills for the development of English literacy skills. Genesee and Lindholm-Leary will then reflect on research findings on English learners’ academic achievement in dual language programs and on the influence of certain learner or school characteristics on student outcomes. The presenters will discuss issues of program implementation and will share examples from the field to illustrate their discussion.

In this Webinar in our 2010-2011 series on English learners, Jana Echevarria, Professor Emerita of Education at California State University, Long Beach, and Deborah J. Short, Director of Academic Language Research and Training, LLC, will describe effective strategies aimed at providing English learners access to the core curriculum. The presenters will review current practices and explore various pedagogical models of sheltered content instruction*, focusing on the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model, sample lessons, and a review of research findings on the effectiveness of this model in increasing student outcomes. Short and Echevarria will then discuss issues around implementation of sheltered instruction program models and classroom strategies and share examples from exemplar schools. Finally, they will conclude by reflecting on the centrality of teacher professional development to sustained implementation of these strategies.

Copy of presentation in handout format.

Presenters on this Webinar in our 2010-2011 series on English learners are Susana Dutro, a founding partner of E.L. Achieve, an organization whose mission is to assist educators in equipping English Learners for academic achievement and Dr. Kate Kinsella faculty member in San Francisco State University’s Center for Teacher Efficacy and consultant to districts and state departments throughout the nation. They address English language development (ELD) for adolescent English language learners based on current research, endemic challenges, and promising practices. They outline a model for rigorous standards-aligned instructed ELD, illustrative examples, and practical tools to inform ELD program design. In addition, they also focus on the explicit teaching of vocabulary and syntactical structures as critical components in building students’ oral and written academic English.

In this Webinar from the series on English language learners, William Saunders, Research Associate at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Claude Goldenberg, Professor of Education at Stanford University, provide an overview of the current research with the aim of identifying effective guidelines for English language development (ELD) instruction. First, the presenters define and explain ELD instruction and explain how it differs from sheltered content instruction. They then present guidelines for ELD instruction derived from the six syntheses and meta-analyses they reviewed and evaluate the strength of the evidence for each of these guidelines.

In this Webinar from the series on English learners, Ann Snow, Professor in the Charter College of Education, California State University, Los Angeles, and Anne Katz, Independent Education Consultant, present an overview of effective research-based English language development (ELD) instruction in grades K-5. After discussing the implications of the research for ELD instruction, they discuss how to design ELD instruction and assessment, focusing on the application of instructional strategies for listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Katz and Snow provide unit and lesson plan examples of effective ELD instruction and discuss features of high-quality professional development.

This Webinar from the series on English learners features Diane August, Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Applied Linguistics; and Timothy Shanahan, Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, presenting the research basis for effective English literacy instruction for English learners. They discuss guidelines for teaching literacy to English learners and provide some examples of how schools and districts are utilizing these principles to implement effective English learner programs.