General Course Requirements

1. Participants must attend all four group meetings:
   1. the initial organizational meeting* held at the beginning of the workshop,
   2. a second meeting the following week,
   3. a meeting in week seven (7),
   4. and a meeting at week thirteen (13). The facilitator will inform participants of the time and place of all four meetings.
2. To earn 60 inservice points, all assignments must be completed within eighteen weeks of the established start date as provided by the facilitator.
3. Participants must complete the pre-test, all activities, the case-study/final activity, the Staff Development Evaluation (Form 63-11-03), and the Inservice Follow Up Form before points will be awarded.
4. Participants must demonstrate increased competency of 80% to receive points for the component.

* Participants should establish cooperative groups at the initial meeting to expedite jigsaw activities. These groups may collaborate via e-mail or face-to-face meetings.

Technical Requirements

1. Participants must have access to a computer with Internet connectivity, printer, and MS Word.
2. Participants must have an active e-mail account.
3. Many of the documents you need to read are in the Adobe portable document format (pdf). Participants will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these pdf documents. Follow the preceding link to download the reader. Detailed installation instructions are also provided. When you click on a link to a pdf document, the reader will open in your browser and then open the document. You can then read the document on line or print it for later use.

Course Objectives:

General:

The purpose of this component is to assist teachers in developing attitudes, skills, and knowledge which will enable them to identify students who are Limited English Proficient (LEP) and to provide and justify effective instruction for LEP students. Upon successful completion of the component, participants will be able to modify curriculum and offer instruction and evaluation compatible with student language diversity.

Specific:

1. Recognize the need to provide services for LEP students and for relevant training.
2. Demonstrate an awareness of the extent to which culture permeates every aspect of our being—thinking, feeling, valuing, and interacting with others.
3. Distinguish between visible, surface characteristics of culture and the many subtle, invisible manifestations of culture known as deep culture.
4. Examine characteristics of one’s own culture and how this influences our interactions with and expectations for students.
5. Recognize the stages of cultural adaptation for newcomers to any culture and demonstrate awareness of the behavioral characteristics that may be associated with each state of adjustment, appearing as classroom problems.
6. Be aware of the wide diversity within any given cultural group and how to use cultural information without depending on stereotypes and preconceived ideas concerning cultural characteristics.
7. Recognize the influence that home, school, and community relationships have on academic achievement and student adjustment to school.
8. Utilize student and parent background characteristics to promote effective parental involvement.
9. Develop strategies and activities that promote parent, school, and community relationships within the classroom.
10. Develop appropriate and positive expectations for students’ progress in language learning in accord with the processes of first and second language acquisition, cognitive development and age of the learner.
11. Plan instructional activities that are appropriate to the stage of language acquisition of the students.
12. Adapt classroom activities and procedures so they maximize second language acquisition and learning, taking into account similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition.
13. Assess students’ oral language output in the classroom using a structured observation instrument correctly.
14. Develop instructional activities that are appropriate for students’ oral language competence.
15. Discuss the process of literacy development and identify various stages of literacy.
16. Describe similarities in the process of language acquisition and literacy development.
17. Identify the many uses of language and literacy and the importance of early exposure to the complete range of language uses.
18. Recognize opportunities for promoting literacy across a broad range of uses, utilize these opportunities, and design and implement appropriate literacy activities.
19. Utilize instructional approaches and techniques that integrate language and curricular content learning.
20. Analyze and utilize strategies that combine language and thinking skills that are related to the content of the curriculum.
21. Develop a lesson plan within a thematic unit using strategies designed to teach language and content simultaneously.
22. Develop strategies that infuse multicultural information throughout the curriculum.
23. Discuss the role and function of assessment in the education of Limited English Proficient students.
24. Identify and select appropriate types of tests for language minority students and for the particular goals of testing.
25. Analyse various assessment techniques and instruments designed to measure students’ academic progress and adapt these so they are appropriate for ESOL students.
26. Develop content-area assessment instruments which effectively monitor ESOL students’ mastery of academic material.
27. Use a variety of alternative assessment techniques appropriate for monitoring ESOL students’ progress.
28. Identify the kinds of information necessary for adequate analysis of any learning problems encountered by ESOL students and suggest appropriate instructional changes.
29. Conceptually integrate all sections of the course and note how they fit together or complment each other.
30. Decide which techniques are appropriate with which students in order to work toward course goals.
31. Justify those decisions (#30 above) based on information from various domains.
32. Carry out those decisions (#30 above) with participants’ students.