Sponsored by the Region 15 Comprehensive Center at WestEd, in collaboration with the California Teachers Association and the California Department of Education, this webinar series addresses the ways educators can support multilingual and English Learner students in distance learning.
How to Support Young English Learners at Home with Language and Literacy Development
Date: Recorded on May 11, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Language and literacy are critical for young students to develop in the first few years of school. Now that schools are operating in distance learning environments, it is essential to involve families in supporting language and literacy development at home. In this webinar, teachers, coaches, and administrators will receive guidance, resources, and activities that can be shared with families and caregivers to strengthen language and literacy development with English Learners at home.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- The need for home-school connections during distance learning
- The importance of early language and literacy development
- Recommendations and activities for families and caregivers of young English Learners to develop language and literacy at home
Lesson Planning for English Learners in Distance Learning Environments: Secondary Educators
Date: Recorded on May 13, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Distance learning experiences that promote conceptual and linguistic development for English Learners require a shift in teacher expertise and instructional design. This webinar will demonstrate how secondary educators can adapt and implement lessons in a distance learning environment that promote rigor and high levels of support. Participants will learn how to plan appropriate scaffolds for students engaging with subject-matter content in synchronous, asynchronous, and no-tech environments.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Integrating activities that encourage students to discuss, argue, and analyze rigorous grade-level texts
- Grouping students to optimize instruction
- Providing options for synchronous and asynchronous learning
Lesson Planning for English Learners in Distance Learning Environments: Elementary Educators
Date: Recorded on May 18, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Engaging elementary students in distance learning has particular challenges. Ensuring age-appropriate learning experiences that couple high challenges with high supports and promote language development requires teachers to shift how they design and plan instruction. This webinar will demonstrate how elementary educators can adapt and implement lessons in a distance learning environment to support English Learners and language development.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Integrating activities that encourage students to discuss and interact with grade-level texts
- Grouping students to optimize instruction
- Providing options for synchronous and asynchronous learning
Secondary Educators: Communicating with Families of Newcomer English Learners During Distance Learning
Date: Recorded on May 20, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Communicating with families of newcomer English Learners in secondary grades has its own distinct challenges. Teens who are in the process of separating from their parents and establishing their own identities as adolescents in a new culture are particularly uncomfortable with the idea of parent engagement in schools. By drawing from Chapter 5 of the U.S. Department of Education’s Newcomer Toolkit, presenters will offer practitioners ideas for how to keep parents, guardians, and other family members engaged in supporting their students’ learning trajectory at home.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- The need for home-school connections during distance learning
- The specific needs of newcomer English Learners
- Ideas for engaging parents, guardians, and other family members to support students’ learning at home
Effective Questioning in Grades K-2: The Development of Oral Language in a Distance Learning Environment
Date: May 27, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Oral interactions promote the development of conceptual understandings and language proficiency. Ensuring young English Learners have multiple opportunities to practice language and discuss grade-level content is essential. In this webinar, teachers will learn effective questioning techniques that can be used to design activities for distance learning environments that promote text-based discussions.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Introduction to oral language development and its importance for English Learners
- Strategically designing questions to support language development using grade-level texts
- Increasing opportunities for student talk in distance learning environments
Linking, Describing, and Critiquing in Secondary Mathematics: Supporting English Learners’ Oral Language Development
Date: June 1, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Language is at the center of students’ development of mathematical understanding and engagement in mathematical practices. Oral language development and disciplinary discourse are indispensable for the development of knowledge and growth in language proficiency. In this webinar, secondary math teachers will learn how to design content-specific learning experiences that promote oral language development in distance learning environments.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Introduction to oral language development and its importance for English Learners
- The importance of oracy in developing mathematical understanding
- Continua for quality interactions
- Activities and tools supporting student engagement in mathematical practices
Elementary Educators: Communicating with Families of English Learners During Distance Learning
Date: June 3, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Maintaining regular communication with families of elementary students is critical in this time of distance learning. Elementary students need family support to be successful with home-based learning, and many families need guidance on how to best support their children at home. In this webinar, participants will learn how educators can communicate regularly with families of young English Learners to increase student success.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- The need for home-school connections during distance learning
- Challenges for home-school communication and learning support
- Ideas and resources that aid in communicating with families and caregivers of English Learners
- Recommendations and activities for families and caregivers of young English Learners
Supporting Secondary English Learners in the Social Studies Classroom in a Distance Learning Environment
Date: June 8, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Structuring opportunities for students to participate in quality and sustained interactions, where they engage in rigorous back-and-forth discussions about a historical topic in a virtual environment, can present some challenges. One approach to help teachers make lessons more accessible to English Learners is integrating the use of carefully selected multimodal texts such as historical maps, photographs, and video into the design of lessons. This webinar will deepen teachers’ understanding of the development of oral language for English Learners and provide some strategies that can be applied to distance learning environments.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Introduction to oral language development and its importance for English Learners
- How to enable oral language development in a distance learning environment?
- What resources support quality interactions for English Learners?
- Using multimodal texts to invite interactions
Analyzing Text Themes in Grades 3-5: The Development of Oral Language in a Distance Learning Environment
Date: June 10, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
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Oral interactions promote the development of conceptual understandings and language proficiency. Ensuring English Learners have multiple opportunities to practice language and discuss grade-level content is essential. In this webinar, upper elementary teachers learn how to support 3rd-5th grade students’ oral language development by asking questions that promote student analysis of a text’s key themes in distance learning environments.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Introduction to oral language development and its importance for English Learners
- Strategically designing questions to support text analysis and language development using grade-level texts
- Increasing opportunities for student talk in distance learning environments
How to Prepare Dual Language Elementary Students to Engage in Conversations Around Central Ideas with High-Quality Texts
Date: June 15, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
Given the pervasive practice of engaging students with the text without building the field or inviting prior knowledge to make sense of it, a common design challenge faced by teachers of bilingual and emerging-bilingual students is how to structure invitations for students to engage their own experiences and knowledge to support the intellectual work of the lesson. This webinar will highlight the importance of surfacing students’ prior experiences and activating their prior knowledge in dual-language classrooms.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Inviting students’ prior experiences and knowledge: Why is it so important?
- Student-centered activities to incorporate their prior knowledge and experiences: How can we do it?
How to Engage Dual Language Elementary Students with High-Quality Texts
Date: June 17, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
This webinar will build from the webinar, How to Prepare Dual Language Elementary Students to Engage in Conversations Around Central Ideas with High-Quality Texts, and introduce dual-language educators to teaching and learning approaches and processes that support elementary students’ abilities to access and engage in disciplinary literacy practices with high-quality, complex texts. Instruction designed to ensure high-quality interactions with texts allows students to develop metacognitive and metalinguistic practices while building and practicing their understanding of language.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- The critical thinking and literacy practices needed to succeed in the 21st century
- A research-based approach to meaningfully engaging elementary dual-language students with high-quality texts that lead to:
- the development of metacognitive and metalinguistic practices;
- deepened understandings of key concepts and themes within and across texts; and
- support rich understandings of language
Supporting Secondary English Learners in the Science Classroom
Date: June 22, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
Oral language development and disciplinary discourse are indispensable for the development of knowledge and growth in language proficiency. Drawing upon recent recommendations regarding evidence-based instructional practices, science teachers will learn about ideas and activities for developing an English Learner’s oral language by interacting with peers and engaging in the learning and doing of science and engineering.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Introduction to oral language development and its importance for English Learners
- Asking questions and defining problems
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- Engaging in argument from evidence
Facilitating Secondary ELA English Learners’ Oral Language Development While Engaging in Distance Learning
Date: June 24, 2020
Time: 4:00 p.m. (PT)
Based on the premise that learning takes place through social interaction, participants of this webinar will consider the difficulties that distance learning presents for English Learners. Participants will receive tangible tools and processes for supporting oral interactions and language development of secondary English language arts students in distance learning environments that promote literacy development.
The following topics will be addressed in this session:
- Introduction to oral language development and its importance for English Learners
- Modeling of three ways to scaffold and support English Learners’ oral language development in distance learning