Tomorrow, I’ll be moderating an edweek.org webinar that will highlight some instructional strategies and supports to help teachers bridge the gap between acquiring language and truly mastering academic content for their students who are English-language learners.
This, of course, is driven by the widespread adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards that will, more than before, demand sophisticated uses of language that will challenge ELLs and their teachers.
You can register and start submitting your questions now before joining us for the 90-minute session at 2 p.m., Eastern time.
Presenters are Lily Wong Fillmore, professor emerita at the University of California, Berkeley; Gabriela Uro, the manager of ELL policy and research at the Council of the Great City Schools; Lynne Rosen, the director of language and cultural equity in the Albuquerque public schools; and Rebecca Blum-Martinez, professor of bilingual and ESL education at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. They have put together a great presentation that will focus in large part on the need for teachers to use complex texts for ELLs, and how, in an ELL-rich district like Albuquerque, teachers are being prepared to shift from using oversimplified texts to challenging ones.
The webinar dovetails with a story I wrote last month about specific efforts underway in Albuquerque to ensure that ELLs won’t be forgotten as the shift to the new standards requires that all students, regardless of their English-language proficiency, be able to read and comprehend complex texts across all content areas.