Educ Cultural & Ling Diversity: Developing Curric for ELs

Prepares students who intend to teach in a K-12 classroom environment or similar setting by exploring language acquisition theories, instructional methods, and lesson planning for English language learners. Prerequisite: ECLD 1560, ECLD 2020, minimum Junior standing; or Instructor permission.

Prereqs enforced by the system: ECLD 1560 AND ECLD 2020; Online asynchronous; Open to degree and PACE students.

In the last decade, the increase in student population of English language learners in the state of Vermont has increased by 90%. Addressing the steady influx of New Americans in to the school system has been a challenge, but schools have responded to making students feel comfortable in their surroundings amidst the urgent need to also prepare its teachers for addressing the cultural and linguistic needs of these children. This course aims to prepare students who intend to teach in a PreK-12 classroom environment/ESL setting by exploring language acquisition theories, instructional methods, and lesson planning for English language learners. Pre-requisite: This course is an elective in the Education for Cultural and Linguistic Diversity (ECLD) minor (both pathways). You must have completed ECLD 056 and/or ECLD 102; or be admitted with permission from the course instructor. This course is part of a pilot program that will be using Brightspace, UVM's new learning platform that's replacing Blackboard in Fall 2023. Since only a limited number of courses will be piloting Brightspace this coming semester, you are still likely to have courses in Blackboard as well. For more information on Brightspace: go.uvm.edu/brightspace-pilot

Students will gain a deeper understanding with: • Theories of literacy development and the relationship of oral language development to reading and writing development • Implications of CCSS on second language instruction and learning • A variety of instructional approaches for, and ways to assess, teaching listening, speaking, reading, writing, and critical skills (i.e. academic language, functional linguistics, SIOP)

1. Book review -- You will select a narrative or memoir based on the experiences of a new American/immigrant/refugee/undocumented immigrant child from the provided list and read it independently throughout the semester. Your review of the book, due at the end of the semester, will consist of an essay or a multimodal project. 2. Lesson plans -- Lesson plans and assessments (20%) Several times throughout the semester, you will be asked to design a lesson plan that targets a specific skill, or to create an assessment to evaluate students’ mastery of a specific skill. Your total points for these activities will be earned according to rubrics which will vary among assignments and so will be shared in advance of each assignments’ due date. A unit that accommodates learning for ELLs & personal teaching framework -- You will develop a unit based on your content area(s) concentration and grade level. These lessons will attend to vocabulary and language usage, particularly in the content areas. You will be able to use what you learned about SIOP and various other instructional methods to scaffold English language learners.