WABE Winter Institute

This workshop will focus on traditionally marginalized students and how our schools and systems can work to create safe and inclusive spaces for ALL our students. There will be a focus on understanding the ways our systems inherently disenfranchise and alienate students and families, and what we can do (as administrators and teachers) to mitigate this marginalization. Participants will dig into ideas of power and privilege and identify next steps to create change in their schools (at the district, school, and classroom level).

District ELL programs develop based on shifting populations and compliance requirements. Learn about a district case study in which a rapidly growing ELL population has inspired major changes in the ELL program model. Key elements include shifting towards GLAD PD for Secondary gen ed teachers, and ELD instruction provided by ELL teachers rather than by EAs. Reflect on your district’s ELL evolution, and share next steps towards better practice with other districts on this path.

GLAD has been traditionally embraced at the elementary level.   In Highline in the past three years there has been increased interest from middle and high school teachers who want to implement GLAD strategies in their classrooms across all content areas.   Participants will learn how Highline has strategically promoted GLAD with middle and high school teachers and bilingual paraprofessionals.  Participants will also see examples of how strategies are being implemented in content classrooms across the district and have time to identify and plan actionable steps in their own districts.

"Academic language," "academic vocabulary," and "academic talk" are at risk of becoming educational buzz words, lacking the depth of meaning required to truly understand their implications for students. Our secondary schools are filled with Long Term English Learners because they have experienced a lack of opportunity, access, and engagement with true academic language development. This session will outline the different components of academic language, discuss the urgency of teaching Tier II vocabulary, and provide practical strategies to build academic language in any content classroom. Time will be provided to talk about application of the strategies and you will walk away with resources in your hands.

Sheltered Instruction is an approach which authentically integrates language and content learning. The dual goals of Sheltered Instruction are to provide access to mainstream, grade-level content, and to promote the development of academic English language proficiency for all learners. SIOP is an approach which presents a coherent, specific, field-tested model of sheltered instruction that specifies the features of a high quality sheltered lesson which teaches content material to English learners, and is proven to be beneficial for ALL learners. Participants will learn about high yield best practices of Sheltered Instruction which increase academic language development for all learners. Participants will actively take part in tasks that can be applied to a variety of different grade levels and content areas.