Session 1: Analyzing My Literacy Background

LA 1.1—Teachers click on the link to get a literacy inventory to fill out and then discuss in pairs. Each person then completes the literacy timeline, and then they discuss that in their pair group. The pair then turns to three questions and discusses those. When the discussion of the questions is finished, each person in the pair takes time to write two statements. The first asks them to write about their personal literacy statement; the second asks them to write a literacy education practices statement. Have teachers join into a group of 4 and ask them to share their two statements with each other. Then you ask teachers to share with the whole class. 

LA 1.2—Now that teachers have discussed literacy, they now will consider expanding their views of literacy. First they consider myths and realities about literacy beliefs and current pedagogy and you will lead a discussion regarding it, so be sure you look at it in advance. There are three different videos they watch, and there is a note-taking sheet for each. Then they are asked to revise their literacy education practices statement based on this learning. 

LA 1.3—Teachers review the TELL tools on line. Let them know that when the first one comes up, they may need to move the slide at the bottom of the screen to center it. Then they just scroll down to see them all.  The Meta-Goals and Strategies chart is used to understand the Standards for Effective Pedagogy. Then they consider the other tools. You can determine whether you want to go through this as a class lead by you, or if you want them to do it in groups and then finish with a class discussion. Just keep in mind that they may need some help. 

LA 1.4—Teachers are to work individually as they review common assessments used to assess and place ELs. Then they sit in small groups and fill in the form in the link in instruction #2. After this, you lead a class discussion eliciting findings the groups have made, and you need to write them on the board. There are two questions to guide this discussion. 

HW 1.1—This is the beginning of the reflection assignments, one for every week from session 1 through session 7. Read through this for this first week, and then just remind them to do it after each session. It is meant for them to try something they have learned in the courses in their classrooms and then reflect each week about how it worked and how they plan to incorporate this into their work. 

HW 1.2—This activity asks you to assign each person to one of the readings listed in the activity. Be sure you assign an even number of teachers to each article. They are all about reading. Each person reads their article by answering the questions at the bottom of the activity. They need to be ready to share the article in session 2. 

HW 1.3—Teachers will review the WIDA Performance Definitions of English Proficiency. This prepares them to participate in session 2. 

HW 1.4—Teachers read two article summaries about first language acquisition. Then they need to answer the three questions in the activity and bring those answers to class next week.  

HW 1.5—Teachers will preview the three links in the activity which are contained in this activity. They explain the three parts of the final project. They should write down questions they have about what they have read through and bring them to class in session 2, where you will begin with a short amount of time to answer questions. Be sure you’ve read through them so you understand them as well.  

This content is provided to you freely by Equity Press.

Access it online or download it at https://equitypress.org/tell_facilitator_guide/session_1H.