WIDA and Teacher Preparation: UNC Charlotte Faculty Resources

WIDA and Teacher Preparation: UNC
Charlotte Faculty Resources Development
Dr. Joan Lachance
Assistant Professor of TESL
Jlachance@uncc.edu
The Shapes of Teacher Preparation with
UNC Charlotte
•  The UNC Charlotte College of Education enrolls over
3000 graduate and undergraduate students in professional
education programs. Our programs are regionally
accredited and approved by the NC Department of
Instruction
•  Leading force in teacher preparation in North Carolina
•  Programs include those leading to initial licensure, add-on
licensure, as well as doctoral studies
•  Strong partnerships with NCDPI and the Charlotte
Community
ELs and Critical Pedagogy: The
Intersections for Language and Culture
•  EL Student Diversity
•  Teacher Demographics
•  A Focus on Equality vs.
Equity
•  Student-centered teaching
and learning
•  Critical Pedagogy for 21st
Century Skills in Teaching
and Learning
ELs: The K-12 Context in North Carolina
60000
50000
40000
Born in US
30000
1st Generation
20000
10000
0
Gr K-5
Gr 6-8
Gr 9-12
The Context of Teaching in an Urban
Setting
Enrollment Statistics in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Language minority students
30,371
English language learners (ELL) Pre-K–12
14,830
Native languages spoken by students in CMS
169
Countries represented in CMS
157
h"p://www.cms.k12.nc.us/cmsdepartments/ci/ells/ic/Documents/Fast%20Facts.pdf ELs: The K-12 Context in North Carolina
ELs: The K-12 Context in Charlotte
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Spanish
Vietnamese
Arabic/Egyptian/Lebanese/Syrian
French
Jarai (Vietnam Central Highlands)
Russian
Korean
Nepali
Hmong/Homng-Mien/Hmongie/Chaug (Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Laos)
Hindi/Indian/Urdu
The Historic Focus on Academic Language
Development
The New Focus on Academic Language
Development
ALL teacher candidates are asked to understand
academic language development
edTPA for Teacher Candidates
•  A portfolio system for
teacher candidate
assessment (program
completion)
•  Tasks 1: Planning
•  Task 2: Instruction
•  Task 3: Assessment
*Academic Language
Development
What are the Essentials For Teachers
Candidates?
•  What do ALL teacher candidates need to know
and understand about working with English
Learners?
•  How will these notions also support native
speakers of English who are still acquiring
academic English?
The Need for Support
•  Teacher preparation coursework—how can we
add more when there is no room to add more?
•  Finding creative ways to support both faculty
and students
The Moodle Modules
•  Designed to be used by both faculty and
students
•  Specific Topics
•  Resources within each module
•  Accessible information (can be pulled into
current courses)
•  Small increments
Ideas and Voices
•  Think about the topic on
your card
•  What would you say is
most-important for
teacher candidates to
know about this topic?
•  What would you tell the
professor instructing the
class?
WIDA—An Overview
•  What are these
standards and why do
we need them?
•  How they work with
content standards
•  Focus on shifting to
what students CAN DO
Second Language Acquisition—The Basics
•  The relationships between
languages
•  The importance of being
multilingual (cognition)
•  The true understanding of
how languages are acquired
•  Learning language through
content
•  Understanding the domains
of language
WIDA’s CAN DO Philosophy
The Socio-cultural Context—The Heartbeat
of the Classroom
•  The context of school
•  The context of the
classroom
•  Cultural connections
and community assets
•  Funds of Knowledge!!
•  Tapping IN for
meaningful lessons
Understanding English Learners: Getting to
Know your Students
•  Understanding interests
and backgrounds
•  What are the students’
goals for learning
English?
•  What do students LIKE?
•  What are the levels of
students’ language?
The Features of Academic Language
•  Understanding Language
Functions
•  Understanding Word/Phrase
levels, Sentence Levels, and
Discourse Levels
•  What exactly will the students
DO with the language in the
lesson and how will they USE
it?
WIDA—Understanding the English
Language Development Standards
Model Performance Indicators and
Transformations
•  Helping candidates
understand the
relationship between
MPIs, PIs, and specific
language objectives for
lessons
Academic Conversations in the Classroom
•  Promoting engagement
•  Understanding the
connections between
speaking and writing
•  Applying language for
academic oracy
More language supports!
Language Support—the Importance of
Engagement
•  Multiple supports within
each lesson
•  Connections to PIs
•  The importance of peer
interaction as a support
•  How to truly scaffold
instruction
Connections to edTPA
•  English as an Additional
Language
•  Portfolios is all areas
within education
•  A system of rubrics—
independently scored
for Tasks 1-3
Connections to edTPA
•  Creating a focus of
appreciation for
diversity
•  Focusing on cultural
relevancy
•  Viewing students’
experiences as assets
•  ACADEMIC
LANGUAGE
In the end…
•  Faculty and teacher candidates need support
for how to bring academic language
development to life in the classroom.
•  This approach to providing WIDA resources
will support this development.
Questions? Comments?
“Language is a process of free creation; its laws and
principles are fixed, but the manner in which the
principles of generation are used is free and
infinitely varied.
Noam Chomsky
Dr. Joan Lachance
Assistant Professor of TESL
Jlachance@uncc.edu
Thank You!!
Photo by Arik Hanson