Why You Should Present at #MADPD

You’ve never presented before? That is perfect! This is your chance to do something brave.  If you present all the time, you should be there as well.  We will have a great day of sharing with and learning from a global network of educators.

Emily Francis, Derek Rhodenizer and Peter Cameron join me this week on the podcast to answer all you want to know about the event. You can listen to that show right here:

I feel strongly that we should ALL be presenting at this conference!  If you are apprehensive, just take the leap! This is our chance to practice what we are preaching to our students or the teachers that we support.  We ask them to take risks every day.  Let’s put ourselves out there too.  Let’s take a risk and share something that Makes a Difference in education.

Truth be told, it’s not even very much of a risk.  YouTube Live is the platform and it is just a matter of watching a short “How To” video if you don’t know how to launch a Live broadcast.  And the founders have you covered!  They have short videos for us!

So in this podcast, Emily helps me interview Derek and Peter, who are the founders of #MADPD.  The three of those folks are excellent members of any PLN, by the way,  so be sure to follow them.

Here is the link so you can go ahead and submit that proposal!   Basically, #MADPD is an all day, online education conference that is happening May 6th.  It is the 2nd annual conference and should be bigger and better than ever.  The first #MADPD had over 60 presenters from around the world and those videos are still being played on demand and will continue to be out there for people to use.   Isn’t it amazing that we can be sharing with the world??

I appreciate Emily Francis helping me interview the guys  because she is a great teacher to represent the ESL community.  If you have listened to my show, you know that I mention Emily all the time. She has her own immigration story that will inspire you and your students.  Emily has some great questions and then gives us her take on why teachers of ELs should be presenting at this innovative conference.  One of my favorite reasons she mentions is that we all need to be advocating for our English learners.  If you have an idea that will help other teachers that work with English learners, you are advocating for those students and for the teachers that teach them.

The founders impress upon us that they are looking for teachers who are new to presenting.  This is the type of opportunity that will offer value to all of us.  We all have something that is making a difference.  You may think that something you are doing is known by everyone, but that just isn’t the case.

Derek makes some great points about why this is especially cool for presenters.  One example is that everything is YouTube based on our own channels so presenters retain the rights to the videos.

I love this effort because it is purely to help each other become better educators.  We all have a wonderful opportunity to learn so much from this event.  I know I’ll be trying to get better at a YouTube live chat this time around and that is just one benefit.  There will be so many presentations and I’m thrilled to have access to them all.

I hope you have a chance to listen to the show. Thanks to Peter, Derek and Emily for helping us break this down for teachers of ELs.

One final note!

We don’t just have a moral imperative to share. We have a moral imperative to GET GOOD at sharing! – Dave Burgess on the Ed Podcast 

I am thinking that Dave is on to something here.  So hurry and get your proposals in.  You are guaranteed to get it accepted.

See you on May 6th!

Carol

PS: Would you like more support?  I’d love to come work with you and your staff! Simply reach out to me or Kathy Belanger:  kathy@johnseidlitz.com

In the near future I will be presenting at the NABE conference,  as well as the ISTE conference and I’m a proud spotlight speaker at the Abydos writing conference. 
I’m attending SXSW as well so please reach out if you’ll be at any of these!

You can also join me for two upcoming workshops in Texas.  The information for those is below.  We’d love to see you!

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BAP021 – Tan Huynh on How Lessons Fail ELs

Do you want to avoid pitfalls that fail our English learners? Tan Huynh is here to help!

 

 

Tan Huynh joins me to explain this popular infographic about teaching practices, expectations and equity in learning. In the podcast we share thoughts on each of these actions.  You can listen to the show right here.

Tan gives credit Todd Finley’s tweet for inspiring this infographic. Here is that tweet https://twitter.com/finleyt/status/956393795553320962

The show is available on Youtube and the link is at the bottom of this blog post. The following are a few quotes and thoughts from the conversation.

1. Speaking For Too Long: 

“The more we talk, the less they learn.” Tan explains that what he means is that students need to speak to process what is being said.  Best practice would be for the teacher to take breaks in their direct instruction so students can speak and process what they are hearing.

2. Not Breaking Task into Steps: 

Breaking tasks down is what is meant by explicitly teaching something.  Students need us to make the directions comprehensible and manageable. “You wouldn’t shove an entire pizza in your mouth, would you?  No.  We normally break it down into manageable pieces.”  That analogy holds true for how we offer tasks to students.   We can offer students this structure and still allow them to hit grade level standards.  If we don’t show English learners the structure or the steps, our tasks can become overwhelming.

3. Teaching Without Visuals: 

“When we speak, words come spewing out and they flood the room.  But  images are anchored and stay in one place.”  Tan and I talk about the cognitive difficulty of processing what we hear compared to processing a visual.  We also reflect on one of my newcomers, Uri Hernandez.  In this 4 minute video, Uri tells us that visuals and gestures are the most helpful thing a teacher can do in content classes to help students who are learning English.

4. Not Teaching Language:

Tan describes this as making language explicit.  The different disciplines have different language structures. Sentence frames allow us to help English learners speak like scientists, mathematicians, historians, etc.  We need to offer them the language they need to accomplish the learning tasks.    Example: “My hypothesis of __________________ suggests that ____________________________.”

5. Restricting Home Language Use: 

Tan tells us that if we don’t allow home language, we are only welcoming half the child.  We talk about the English learner needing to use their native language  to negotiate meaning.  We also mention that our language objective should help us move the language acquisition of our students and so we should  be comfortable allowing some native language use.

6. Not Differentiating:

The standard can be met and mastered even if the work product is different.  This is another example of equity.  By allowing students to show mastery in different ways, we are providing access to the curriculum for all language levels.  We can differentiate other things as well such as time allowed or length of assignment.

Here is the Google Hangout of this show if you want to watch the unedited version:

Thank you for visiting this blog and for your interest in this podcast with Tan.  Remember to check out his website at www.empoweringells.com so you can find more Bathroom Briefs as well as great blog posts.  In fact, Katie Gardner just wrote a guest blog on using technology in elementary and  Jess Bell wrote a guest post on Talking Points, a technology that allows you to write your parents in their own language.  Both of these educators are from our online PLN. We hope you will join us on Twitter.  We are learning so much from one another!

***  GET YOUR PROPOSAL in for #MADPD  Check out this request for presenters and know that your proposal WILL get accepted.  We should all be presenting at this “Make A Difference PD” online conference in May.  The proposal window is closing soon!

Big Thanks to Tan Huynh for all he does for ELs and the teachers who teach them!

Virtual High Five!

Carol

PS: Would you like more support?  I’d love to come work with you and your staff! Simply reach out to me or Kathy Belanger:  kathy@johnseidlitz.com

In the near future I will be presenting at the NABE conference,  as well as the ISTE conference and I’m a proud spotlight speaker at the Abydos writing conference. 
I’m attending SXSW as well so please reach out if you’ll be at any of these!

You can also join me for two upcoming workshops in Texas.  The information for those is below.  We’d love to see you!

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Four Steps to Boosting Achievement with Visitors (in real life or virtual)

Language comes more quickly when we are compelled to use it.  Are there people in  your community with stories that mirror those of your students? Help your English learners (all students) realize how important they are with people who want to meet them and can inspire them.

Business professionals, restaurant owners, managers in your local stores, college students? They will likely come speak to your class and are usually flattered to be asked.

I am always on the lookout for  people who can connect with my students to open their minds to the world of possibilities that are available to them.

 Over the past two years, we’ve hosted many!

Our latest visitor is George Bamfo who works in sales for LESCO Architectural lighting.  My friend, Kristi Warren, mentioned to me that her coworker was from Ghana (many of my students are also from Africa).  George has an inspiring story that includes receiving a college scholarship for playing football.  Like everyone I have ever asked, he agreed to come speak to my students.  Check out this 2 min video of George Bamfo’s visit to our classroom:

To make the most of our visitor experience, I stick to a 4 step process we call DDCR or DISCUSS, DISCOVER, CONNECT, REFLECT.  These are the steps I follow:

  1. DISCUSS:  Tell your students that a special person is coming to speak to them.  Show your students pictures and give an overview of the guest, their profession, why they should be a good visitor.

2. DISCOVER:  Learn what your students know and also have students research the visitor’s profession or life. (We found out one of our students from Mexico was a champion chess player!)

  • Teach key vocabulary so students have comprehension and allow them to speak in their native language  to negotiate meaning.  (I  use Kahoot to teach vocabulary with visuals)
  • Solicit questions from your students!  Have students enter these into a shared Google Slides presentation (fixing up English spelling or grammar errors for them).  Practice their pronunciation of their authentic questions.

3. CONNECT: Connect virtually and/or in person.  Before meeting, share the presentation with your visitor virtually and ask that they provide you answers to be typed into the presentation.  Any pictures you can find together will be helpful to your ELs.

  • Create a Selfie Kahoot that incorporates questions about the visitor and also questions about your class.
  • On the day of the visit, allow your guest  to co-present with your class.  They can help read slides, choral read and come up with new questions.
  • Play the Kahoot with your guest after their presentation.

4. REFLECT:  After the visit, debrief with students orally and then in writing to cement lessons learned about perseverance,  growth mindset, teamwork, etc..

This method of DISCUSS, DISCOVER, CONNECT, REFLECT has been serving me quite well for authentic learning opportunities. I strive to help my students grow in a connected world.  I’m able to bring in others in person or virtually who can help guide my students in learning and in life.

Our #EduPartners give us hope, pride and many times their journeys are full of lessons they can share and messages that our immigrant students need to hear.

Wondering if people will come? Over the past few years we have had visits from ESL teacher Emily Francis, Champion’s Game authors Saul Ramirez and John Seidlitz, Doctoral Student and teacher Katie DiGregorio, Equine Archaeologist Dr. Carolyn Willikes, President of the Council of Texas Archeologists Dr Jon Lohse, historian  and authorDr. Paul Spellman, the founders of Pledgecents, Bryan McAuley of the Texas Historical Commission and  others.

Next week we will welcome Benjamin Yagan who was my nurse in the hospital and is originally from Kenya.

We have had more connections virtually, these are the ones who have physically come to our classroom.  It’s worth mentioning that I have paid nothing to any of these visitors.

One lasts thing is that I always make sure my students know that one day I will be calling on them to come back and tell their success stories to newcomers.

Just  as we say in this card, we appreciate George Bamfo and all the visitors who have taken the time to come meet our students.  

We have SO many people out there who are eager to help us educate and inspire our students.  I appreciate the visitors and also want to be sure to thank Ms. Paula Gomez who has been coming once a week to volunteer and also Georgia Henkel, a student aide that helps during 6th period in my room.  If you’d like volunteers, check out this post that includes a 5 minute video you can share with your community:  BRING ON THE VOLUNTEERS

One more huge thanks to the scholars for being amazing as always!  I’m super proud  of all of you! – Ms. Salva

PS: Would you like more support?  I’d love to come work with you and your staff! Simply reach out to me or Kathy Belanger:  kathy@johnseidlitz.com

PSS: Are you presenting at #MADPD?? Check out this request for presenters and know that your proposal WILL get accepted.  We should all be presenting at this “Make A Difference PD” online conference in May.  Stay tuned for a show all about this in a few weeks.

In the near future I will be presenting at the NABE conference,  as well as the ISTE conference and I’m a proud spotlight speaker at the Abydos writing conference. 
I’m attending SXSW as well so please reach out if you’ll be at any of these!

You can also join me for two upcoming workshops in Texas.  The information for those is below.  We’d love to see you!

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BAP020 Nancy Motley Breaks Down Talk, Read, Talk, Write

“If we want our students to read and write rigorous English, we need to give them opportunities to read and write rigorous English.”Nancy Motley during her Keynote at the VirtuEL17 conference.
https://soundcloud.com/voiced-radio/nancy-motley-author-of-talk-read-talk-write


But how?? Nancy is my guest this week on the podcast and she is here to talk about her popular  book, Talk, Read, Talk, Write.  You can listen to the show right here. 

Nancy was an award winning secondary teacher and now a consultant for Seidlitz Education.  She has developed a variety of professional development resources and is a highly sought after consultant.

In this show she explains how she developed the TRTW routine and we talk about how this method of teaching can help your language learners gain literacy and participate meaningfully in every content area.  

Nancy breaks down the routine and explains the purpose for each of the steps.  She also gives us great tips for helping students grow in how they collaborate with one another.  Here are a few gems from the show!  These are some great quotes that were tweeted out when Nancy was speaking!

TALK #1

We want every single child to be able to engage in this conversation regardless of their academic background.”  Nancy shares her #1 avenue for this in the show.

READ

“Student need to be reading to learn vs. listening to me to learn…”

During a the Read component, we may say “Your purpose  for reading this is…”

“Text can look a lot of different ways.  Lately I’ve been suggesting that teachers consider student notes as text.”   They can be reading their notes for purpose in the Read component.

TALK #2

Are we asking dialog worthy questions?  “We need very specific discussion questions before I move students to check-in conversations.”  Nancy tells us that we want questions that are “… open ended but text dependent.”   This second talk is about offering opportunities for students to speak to their peers to process what they have read.

**BONUS: Nancy offers some additional ideas about growing our students in how they talk with each other.

WRITE

The final component is when our students will be writing about their learning.  Motley acknowledges that this will, of course make our students better writers, but there is more payoff when students reflect in writing.  Whether this is completing a sentence stem or writing a paragraph, it is “…an opportunity for the student and the teacher to see where they are at with the learning.”  It also allows “…students to be  with and among the content longer.”

WOW!  I would really encourage you to listen to the show if you are only reading this post.  Nancy’s passion and the way she explains all of this in more detail is certainly worth our time.

If you’d like to see even more about the routine, check out this youtube video where she explains #TRTW during her keynote speech at the VirtuEl conference:

This routine and her book are incredibly popular.  You can purchase the book at www.seidlitzeducation.com or on amazon.  If you get the book, you may be interested in checking out the #ELLCHAT_BKCLUB book study questions.  Thanks to Dr. Katie Toppel, all of the questions from the book study are available online at this site:  http://ellchatbkclub.blogspot.com/

To supplement your study of this book or this routine, we have another video of Nancy as well.  In this Live Google Hangout, she plugs in with teachers who are reading the book in the chat.  Just like every time we hear from Nancy, there are new take-aways for us to consider.  Thanks to Tan Huynh for hosting this hangout.  He advises that you start watching at the 5:50 mark.

I’m so happy to have had Nancy on the show.    I’m grateful that she keeps taking time out of her schedule to collaborate with our PLN and for everything I have learned from her.

And I’m grateful for you too.  Thank you for listening and please reach out if you have any questions or comments about the show!

Have a great day and know that you are awesome!

Carol

PS: Would you like more support?  To book me to come work with you and your staff, just reach out to me or Kathy Belanger:  kathy@johnseidlitz.com

PSS: Are you presenting at #MADPD??  Check out this request for presenters and know that your proposal WILL get accepted.  We should all be presenting at this “Make A Difference PD” online conference in May.  Stay tuned for a show all about this in a few weeks.

In the near future I will be presenting at the NABE conference,  as well as the ISTE conference and I’m a proud spotlight speaker at the Abydos writing conference.  I’m attending SXSW as well so please reach out if you’ll be at any of these!

You can also join me for two upcoming workshops in Texas.  The information for those is below.  We’d love to see you!

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You Don’t Need to Buy More Resources or kill yourself making them.

Do you teach an ESL class?  Do you teach a content class with newcomers? You don’t have to spend endless hours creating materials for your Newcomer ESL classes.

Take a look at this 4 min video. It is an overview of what my NELD (Newcomer English Language Development) high school class looked like last year.

What do you notice?  Many things jump out to me. Authentic opportunities to use English. Collaborating with peers. Reflecting on their learning. Co-created, high interest text and more.  Support for decoding while we also support critical thinking.

It’s no wonder they are highly engaged and making great progress.

For content teachers, the highest priority needs to be your subject and grade-level learning.  But we also need to move language in content classes.  If you haven’t seen this video with Ms. Stokes of Spring Forest Middle School, please check it out.  These 3 minutes underscore one technique for teaching SIFE students in state assessed classes.  And they actually help teach the others!

 

Are you at a loss for how to structure a class like this? Are you or your teachers frantically creating worksheets because there isn’t enough out there?  That used to be me but let’s reconsider what our students really need:

They need opportunities to listen, speak, read and write in the target language

They need to be involved at grade level.

They need to be engaged and participating.

They need to collaborate with others outside of our classrooms.

They need to feel important.

This blog has many ideas to help you achieve these things for your students.  Check our the videos page to see more examples of how this can look.  Nowadays I am constantly challenging myself to find ways to have my students connecting with others and then reflecting on their thinking.  I also want to create opportunities for cross curricular learning. Our upcoming field trip is an example.  This blogpost outlines the steps I’m taking. 

 

I hope these videos and step by step outlines add to your ideas for how to move away from formulaic curriculum materials and more toward authentic learning.  Reach out if you have any questions!

Hugs!

Carol

PS:  Sometimes we need someone to come look at our situations and help develop a plan.  We need to look at our scope and sequence (or develop one) and then see practical ways to help students engage with the plan. We need examples of these activities and how they can boost grade level learning without exhausting the teacher.

I am now working with districts to show teachers how to do these thing.  I can work with you to structure the newcomer class. Or help with inclusion for newcomers or SIFE in content classes.   If you are interested in consulting, just reach out or send this blogpost to your director or ESL support team.

You can email me at carolsalva1@gmail.com.

If you have read this far, I know you are doing great things for your students or your teachers. You are the type of person that goes the extra mile to find more resources to support them.  My purpose with this participar offering is just to make your life easier in that endeavor!

 

BAP019 Dr. Katie Toppel of #ELLchat_BkClub

Do you want personalized professional development where you can interact with the authors of the books you’re studying?  Well, now you can do that for free with #ELLChat_BkClub and this week we hear from one of the co–founders, Katie Toppel, Ed.D.  I interviewed Dr. Toppel this week and you can listen to the whole show right here:

Katie is a K-5 English language development specialist from Oregon and an awesome contributor to any PLN.

Katie shares tips for teachers of English learners and talks about how she and her team are ensuring that language development is happening throughout the school day vs. just  during their designated ELD time. We talk about her current role in a school that used to only have pull-out as an ESL model.  Katie was able to make a case for changing their model and as a result, was granted permission to begin co-teaching which has proven beneficial for the students.  This lead her to begin reading Andrea Honigsfeld book, Collaboration and Co-Teaching for English Learners: A Leader’s Guide.

Katie also explains how reading PD books like this, and wanting to collaborate with other educators about them, is what lead her to create an online book club.  She, together with Tan Huynh, started the popular slow chat, #Ellchat_Bkclub.  I’m a big fan of the chat!  I’ve participated in several rounds and I’m grateful that the group did a round on Boosting Achievement.  As an author, I gained a great deal of insight on how teachers were using the book and their input helped me better the work that I do.

Katie and Tan have created a highly effective personalized PD opportunity for teachers of ELs with this ongoing chat.  And you can jump in any time!  I would check it out even before you get the book we are studying.  We both agree that you can gain a great deal of insight by just following the posts.

For those that want to join in, check this out! Katie did a guest blog on Larry Ferlazzo’s site that gives us all we need to know about joining and participating. a guest blog to help teachers who might want to know more about how to join the chat: PD in Your PJs, How to Navigate #ELLchat_BkClub by Katie Toppel, EdD. 

I’m super grateful to have Katie in my PLN because of how she has brought us all together and also because of all that she is sharing. I was thrilled to have her stay with me in Houston for the TxTESOL State conference.  I picked her brain the entire time and now I can call her my friend.

Actually, we can all be grateful that she came to the conference.  She not only came to share and learn with us, she took the QSSSA strategy that we love and added to it.  This is a video where Katie explains the technique and how she added a twist at the end for her students to practice a bit more oral language.  She calls it QSSSA+


We also spent some time talking about the importance of a safe atmosphere for our ELs to take risks.  If we want our students to take risks with language, we want to create an environment where they have opportunities to practice the language.  This QSSSA+ is a great way to have all of your students speaking authentically and then practicing and repeating responses in unison.  She compares this strategy to the “Simon Says” technique that Carlota Holder presented in our #VirtuEL17 conference.

Katie was also a presenter in that conference and you can watch her session right here:

Katie also makes sure that we have the website for the book club.  There you can find links to all the books we have studied so far:

I’m so grateful to call Katie my friend.  She is the type of person that lifts you up and helps you realize that we can come together to make profound changes to the way we are serving our language learners.  She is out there making a difference in the world and proving that together, there is no stopping us.

Thanks again, Dr. Katie Toppel!

Before I sign off, I want to shout out to Diana Delaney, Amanda Grobe & Chrissie Driskel for the great meet up in Atlanta this week.

 It was a thrill to see you guys and hear Diane Staehr Fenner as the keynote for the Georgia ESOL conference!  I enjoyed presenting about Boosting Achievement an Using Technology with ELLs.

For anyone who wants to join me for a full day of these trainings, please join us in Houston or DFW area in March of 2o17.  You won’t regret it!  Below are details.

Thanks again for listening and stay awesome!

Hugs!

Carol

PS: Would you like more support?  To book me to come work with you and your staff, just reach out to me or Kathy Belanger:  kathy@johnseidlitz.com

See also these opportunities:

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