Our Productive PD Meetings

At the High School for Teaching and Professions we meet for Professional Development sessions. In my opinion these sessions are at their most professional and productive when we discuss issues that effect our specific classrooms. Recently one of our discussions in the History Department centered around the needs of our English Language Learners (ELLs). Tom Lopez opened the discussion by asking several questions about his freshmen students in general education classes. These questions are open for discussion:

How can we be sure ELLs are connecting with the content they are reading?

What can we do if ELL students are not fluent in their native language?

Where can we find content in languages other than english?

Are there strategies that can support ELLs in content classes?

Once again I am turning to LDOnline.org to start the discussion. These articles discuss ELLs and learning disabilities. Keep in mind I am not saying ELLs are learning disabled but strategies for students with learning disabilities and ELL center around slowing down the processing of content, and focusing on finding supplemental strategies to processing materials (like using audio and visuals).

See these articles:

A Guide to Learning Disabilities for the ESL Classroom Practitioner
By: Christine Root (1994)


http://www.ldonline.org/article/8765


Effective Reading Instruction for Struggling Spanish-Speaking Readers: A Combination of Two Literatures
By: Roxanne F. Hudson and Stephen W. Smith (2001)


http://www.ldonline.org/article/6363


More to come, let me know what you think, sign up for the feed if you would like to get my posts as the infrequently come out.

Rockey