Institute to Support High-Leverage Writing Instruction for Students Learning English as a New Language, with a Focus on Stages of Language Acquisition

Wednesday, November 4 - Friday, November 6, 2020
Institute will be offered virtually through Zoom.



Grade: K-5
Hours: 11am-5pm Eastern Standard Time
Featuring: Amanda Hartman, Alexis Czeterko, Marie Mounteer, Shanna Schwartz
Payment: Purchase orders for this institute can be made out to: Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, 525 W 120th Street, Box 77, New York, NY 10027

Learning language is complex. It doesn’t happen all at once, but in stages. Understanding the nuances of each stage and then prioritizing what to teach is tricky work. This institute will empower you to analyze your students’ writing and design high-leverage instruction that will foster language acquisition and move your writers forward in dramatic ways.

You’ll start by studying the phases of language acquisition alongside student writing. You’ll conduct a deep dive into student work, analyzing pieces from a range of students. As you name out strengths, you’ll also identify next steps and then work to create an instructional plan that puts students on a trajectory to dramatically support both their language and their writing development. You’ll think strategically about what to teach first, next, and after that so you support your students as both writers and language learners.

Knowing what to teach is heavy lifting; knowing how to teach it is just as critical. This institute will also help you to think about methodology and best practices that will help your students to take on their new learning. You’ll see demonstrations of different methods of teaching, try these methods out yourself, and think through when they might be most helpful. Oral rehearsal and shared writing, for example, can provide access to writing goals while also creating opportunities for productive and receptive language development; you’ll get opportunities to try both. You’ll also think about tools that can support your teaching. You’ll annotate mentor texts for language structures and rehearse ways to use those mentor texts as teaching tools. You’ll also think about your charts and how they can best support the range of language learners in your room.

While much of this work will focus on writing, it is really writing as an entry point for all language development. So, for part of this institute, you’ll also think about how to take the work you are doing in writing workshop and transfer it to other areas. You’ll think about written language versus oral language, helping students to think about the reciprocity between the two and when there might be disconnects.

Our goal is to leave you inspired, empowered and energized to teach in response to your particular students.

Cost

$650/$600 NYC DOE

Where

This institute will be offered online, in real-time via Zoom, and will not be recorded for later distribution. We will accept attendees until the institute has reached capacity.