PD

Professional Development

TLDR 

Demystifying complex Texts:  

What are complex texts and how can we ensure English learners can access them? 

 

A complex text has three factors: quantitative, qualitative, and reader and task. Quantitative is word length, word frequency, and sentence length. Qualitative is text purpose, structure, language conventions and clarity. The last part is the reader’s background and the purpose and complexity of the task. 

Quantitative is easier to measure so it is usually used, and not the reader’s interests.  

A text is difficult for English learners depending on their prior experience and/or the instruction. 

Students won’t be engaged when (1) the background knowledge isn’t activated, (2) there’s not enough scaffolding, and/or not developing their metacognitive skills. 

Metacognition is having the awareness of what is and is not understood in the text. Metalinguistic awareness is how language is used in different types of text. 

Two ways of making text more accessible for English learners are pedagogical scaffolding and text engineering. Pedagogical scaffolding is when the teacher has students engaged in activities before, during, and after reading. They give them opportunities to make sense of, analyze, and connect to the new content. 

Learning becomes easier when background knowledge is built or activated. 

de-mystifying_complex_texts.pdf
Copy of MagicSchool Level 1 & 2 CertificateS
AS Foundation Certificate_.pdf

"...a productive, practical set of ideas and tools for developing collaborative groups in becoming effective and better equipped to resolve complex issues around student learning. ...to develop the resources and capacities of the organization and of individuals to cohesively respond to the changing needs of students and society."

Workshop Model Writing Conference Structure

Research: Talk with the writer about how their work is going by asking open-ended questions that prompt the child to talk about themselves as a writer, not just their writing. This conversation helps determine what to teach and should take 2 minutes or less. You might begin by saying “Talk about what you are working on as a writer today.” 

Decide: Quickly determine what to compliment, what to teach (stick to just one teaching point), and how to teach it. If there are 2 or 3 things you want to teach that child, then you could ask yourself these questions: 

-What would help most at this time? 

-What would bring quick success? 

-What would be a stretch, a risk or a challenge? 

-What is not likely to come up in whole class instruction? 

Then, deliver your compliment and bridge into your teaching point. This might sound something like, “One thing that I can tell you are working hard on as a writer and that you are doing great with is _________. Now, can I give you a tip to help you become an even better writer?” 

Teach: Incorporate the use of a mentor text (a published book, your own writing, or even student writing) to provide an example of the teaching point. Teach the same type of concepts that you do in mini-lessons; author’s craft, organization, conventions, etc. This portion of the conference is the longest part, around 4 minutes, and most of it should be spent coaching the writer by using active engagement. Transitioning into active engagement might sound something like this, “Let’s try this together and then you can give it a try on your own.” or “Okay, now you try.” 

Link: Wrap up the conference by restating the teaching point. I always leave my writers with a reminder of the teaching point written on a sticky note so they can stick it to a page in their writing folder. This provides an ongoing reference and sets the writer up to connect the teaching point to future work they will do. 

Retrieved from: https://theprimarypal.com/how-to-structure-successful-writing-conferences/


Culturally Responsive Teaching

Designing Learning for Multilingual Learners Through Linguistics

 2022

This task was a synthesis of the text, Envisioning TESOL through a translanguaging lens: Global Perspective. To view on the Canva site, select the linked title and go to the URL. Once there, increase the size using the zoom sliding bar in the bottom right corner. You can also view the animated version on YouTube by selecting the video. 

Application Task 2: Research Poster 

This group project delved into the idea of teachers using different corrective feedback techniques with their multilanguage learners.  You can view the entire poster by selecting the linked image. Once there, you can increase the size by zooming in. 

Week 8: Instructing SLA through Linguistics 

This group project looked at second language acquisition through instructed SLA and Bilingualism. You can view the entire concept map on the Canva website. Once there, increase the size using the zoom sliding bar in the bottom right corner.


Concept Map 


Pragmatics.mp4

Week 7: The Nature of Language Systems. A What Works Learning Experience for Pragmatics.    

This task looked into how pragmatics could be the focus of a language learning experience. 

Week 6: Individual Differences & Learner Variability  

This task looked into the importance of motivation in second language acquisition. First, I read and outlined Anjomshoa and Sadighi's article. Next, I created a meme to attempt to show my humorous interpretation of integrative motivation. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xbcGOViltuYbr02JBs9YQkvWxMnUhKOK4iJ5DcKKkos/edit?usp=sharing

Week 5: Second Language Acquisition (SLA) 

This group task first looked into what teachers have to provide to ensure multilingual learners’ acquisition of the target language. Then we created a KLEWS chart to show our thinking. 

Week 4:  Progressing Language Proficiency

In this group-of-two task, we analyzed a student's writing sample to determine how to progress the writer's proficiency to the next level. To view the entire Padlet, select the image and open in a new tab.

Week 3: School Discourse Contexts (CLIL) 

In this pair-of-two task, we considered, how might we collaboratively ensure intentionality when teaching academic language to multilingual learners in the discourse context of science? To view the Prexi, select the linked image and open in a new tab. 


Week 2: Academic Language & The TLC

My task was to explore the Teaching and Learning Cycle (TLC) then use a Creative Questions thinking routine to consider 

Week 1: My Language Learning and Teaching Story

After reading up on systemic functional linguistics (SFL), I created my introduction. 

Educational Collaborative for International Schools (ECIS)

 2017

My poster presentation: How I collect evidence of student learning with anecdotal notes using Google Sheets. The aim of this poster session is to share how to effectively collect evidence of student learning through anecdotal notes using Google Sheets. 

My purpose for using anecdotal notes: I collect evident on student learning and progress to assist with planning instruction. I find areas where students could use additional help and I plan lessons and mini-lessons based on my findings. I use my case notes to write end-of-term reports. I include textual evidence of learning, next steps, and I hyperlink photos and videos in the reports for parents to see.

How I take notes: I use a Chromebook and an iPod while working with students to gather evidence like notes, photos, and videos.I take pictures of their work and videos of the students explaining their work. I scribe exactly how and what students tell me. I create the grade levels in separate tabs. I organize the sheet with students by class. I fill a column with red between each class. I start a new notes column  for the new grading period. I paste the links of the pictures and videos into the students’ case notes to be hyperlinked later. The visual evidence I collect is a huge reminder for me to be able to remember everything the students do.

  

Presentations attended:

Paul Kei Matsuda

Linda Li 

Deborah Short

Jim Cummins

Holly Marshburn EAL Certificate.pdf

Facing a changing student demography where multilingual, English learners are now the majority of students enrolled in international schools?

This ten-week online course focuses on the study of language and applied linguistics and how they influence instructional practices in international-school settings. Participants plan a culminating action-research project to present at a simulated, online symposium on the teaching and learning of English learners in international school settings.