Sixth International Conference on Language Teacher Education
Theme III: Collaborations in Language Teacher Education
Symposium (2 hours)
Participants:
- Christopher Browder, Howard County, MD Public Schools (HCPSS) ESOL/social studies teacher
- Lori Edmonds, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) doctoral student
- Roberta Girardi, HCPSS math resource teacher
- John Quinn, HCPSS secondary science coordinator
- Joan Kang Shin, UMBC, Project Director
- Jodi Crandall, UMBC TESOL professor, Discussant
Title:
Teaching Content to ELLs: Collaboration between Universities and Schools
50 Word Summary
Presenters discuss their perspectives on collaborative efforts between a university education department and a public school system to design and implement a new federally funded professional development program to help secondary content teachers improve English language learners’ performance in math, science, and social studies. Voices from teachers, administrators, and professors are highlighted.
(50 words)
400 Word Abstract
With the advent of No Child Left Behind, there has been a spotlight on the levels of achievement of English language learners (ELLs) in the content areas based on standardized test scores. Improving the performance of ELLs in tested subjects such as math, science, and social studies has become an important priority of some school systems with professional development for both ESOL and content teachers as one part of the solution. With funding from the US Department of Education, the presenters in this symposium have co-developed a professional development program for math, science, and social studies teachers at the secondary level to improve their cross-cultural communication skills, teaching strategies, and lesson planning for ELLs. The presenters will describe their collaborative efforts between a university education department and a Maryland public school system to design and implement professional development for public school content teachers from the perspective of a TESOL professor, social studies teacher, math resource teacher, secondary science coordinator, and university doctoral student.
First, the project director of the USDOE funded professional development program, a K-12 certified TESOL professor, will introduce the goals and structure of the five-year project. In addition, she will explain the collaboration between the university and local public school system and the importance of a collaborative approach to professional development program design.
Second, a public school teacher, dual certified in ESOL and social studies, will present his perspectives on teaching U.S. Government to ELLs. In addition, he will share professional development activities designed for mainstream secondary social studies teachers to accommodate ELLs.
Third, a public school resource teacher, dual certified in math and ESOL, will discuss the incorporation of ELL training for a year long professional development program for Math Instructional Support Teachers (MISTs).
Next, a secondary science coordinator in the same public school system will share the progress of a two-year pilot course for ELLs co-taught by ESOL and science teachers in eight high schools.
Finally, a university doctoral student will describe her research in using a Funds of Knowledge approach to teach content to ELLs and explain how this approach has been incorporated into training mainstream teachers to create a more culturally inclusive classroom for ELLs.
Presentations in the first hour and questions and discussions in the second hour will be moderated by the symposium discussant. Symposium attendees will see many different perspectives of a dynamic model of professional development for content teachers at the secondary level.
(400 words)