Teacher preparation programs

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sunflower03
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 1:29 am

Teacher preparation programs

Post by sunflower03 » Sun Nov 13, 2011 4:20 pm

Many teachers in my school district have limited cultural/educational understanding of the ELL population, and how to effectively teach them. They want to either quickly identify them as special education or do not know what strategies to implement in order to help them. I feel that teachers may need to become more educated about ELL students. Teacher preparation courses may enhance teacher understanding and prepare them to teach such a diverse population in a more meaningful and successful way. I believe that having professional development throughout the school year, on ELL culture, policies, and strategies would benefit all teachers’ and administrations’ understanding of the ELL population as more and more are entering our schools. It may also be beneficial for all novice teachers to take ESL courses as part of their teacher certification. In addition, a teacher preparation program should be required for all tenured teachers. I believe that this preparation would help teachers and administrators gain a more cultural understanding as well learning strategies to teach this diverse population.

satter06
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 1:04 am

ESL Professional Development

Post by satter06 » Tue Nov 15, 2011 5:56 pm

I agree that teachers, especially new teachers should all have some knowledge of ESL and how to teach English learners. English learners face many challenges and it becomes even harder for them when teachers do not know how to assist them. Having professional development for teachers so that they are aware of the difficulties that ELLs face and how they can work around them, would not only help the ELLs, but it would also help the teacher teach more effectively.

suarez07
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:57 am

Post by suarez07 » Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:52 pm

I was talking to my bilingual teachers a few weeks ago about presenting a quick session on SIOP planning to our regular education teachers. They were supportive of the idea and felt that our regular education teachers should be informed of some ways to offer instruction to an ELL population. Afterall, they are getting mainstraemed into their classroom. Studies and different types of research indicate that most (or all) teachers will at some point cross paths with an ELL students. ESL, Bilingual, and regular education teachers should all definately receive, and be expected to use other teaching methods when they are teaching a curent ELL or a mainstreamed ELL.

mlordon
Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:36 am

Post by mlordon » Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:04 pm

Our district has made it part of the teacher evaluation process. In reality, the same sheltered instruction techniques that are part of any teacher education program can be utilized with ELL's in main classroom settings, and teachers should be mandated to demonstrate their use of these best practices instructional techniques during classroom observations.

Additionally, it should be a duty of the ESL or BE teacher to bring educational opportunities either through PD time or faculty meeting time to educate their fellow teachers in the importance of using these techniques for their LEP students - and even demonstrate a few.

Curriculum supervisors, academic achievement teachers and any district reading or literacy personnel can be a source for PD as well.

lek72
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:39 am

Post by lek72 » Tue Nov 29, 2011 7:36 am

I agree that general education teachers need to be trained on how to help the ELLs acquire the second language--English. Current general ed teachers can be trained through Professional Development (PD) and Professional Learning Communities (PLC), but make sure the trainers are enthusiastic and not going to deliver a boring presentation. When the presentation and/or presenters are "boring," the teachers will not be engaged and will not learn anything.

As for prospective general education teachers, I hope that in the near future they will be required to take a few courses in TESOL (Teach English to speakers of other languages) in their teacher-prep programs. This will help them be prepared to effectively help ELLs acquire English in their general ed classroom. Moreover, this knowledge will help those general ed teachers be on the same page, so to speak, with the ESL teachers. They can easily come up with the same teaching goals and approaches.

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