Success with Multicultural Newcomers and English Learners

Educators at schools throughout the country are asking, "How do I properly address the needs of our Newcomers?" Although there are programs and materials specifically targeting English learners in general, they do not seem to be working well for Newcomers on their own. Therefore, the focus of this webinar is to describe the range of Newcomers (from never schooled to highly schooled in their countries) and how instruction, social-emotional strategies, and structural alignments can address their specific needs.

Through their longitudinal studies and work with hundreds of schools, Margarita Calderón and Shawn Slakk, authors of the book Success with Multicultural Newcomers and English Learners: Proven Practices for School Leadership Teams, have found the best way to teach vocabulary, discourse, basic reading comprehension, and text-based writing integrated with content areas and texts. The authors will share how not only ESL teachers, but also all core content teachers in a school can easily integrate vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing into every subject. Establishing a whole-school climate for Newcomers and all students entails training all teachers, counselors, coaches, staff and administrators in the school.

A framework for ongoing professional development, coaching, and collegial activities will be presented. The discussion will include

• a planning tool and the flow of strategies throughout a lesson;
• samples of words, phrases, sentence frames to teach before, during and after reading;
• language tools for students;
• starting to read and write from the first day they enter a classroom;
• ways of forming partnerships and teams, and language structures to ensure learning and the development of social and emotional skills; and
• how to assess and keep track of learning progressions.

Margarita Espino Calderón, Professor Emerita, Johns Hopkins University, has served on national preschool to 12th grade literacy panels and as an advisory board member of the National Research Council, the Education Testing Service, WIDA, the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth, and the Carnegie Adolescent English Language Learners Literacy Panel. She has authored, coauthored, or edited more than 100 books, articles, and chapters, is an international speaker, and conducts comprehensive professional development programs throughout the United States and abroad.

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Shawn Slakk, vice president of operations and senior consultant, Margarita Calderón & Associates, where he and his colleagues train teachers and administrators how to consolidate language, literacy, and content for English learners and all other students. Slakk is coauthor and developer of professional development sessions focusing on whole-school implementation, administrative support, and coaching.

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