Meaningfully Teaching Multilingual Learners grants 15PDPs in English as a Second Language toward License Renewal.
This course is intended for paraprofessionals, teachers, and all other education support staff to build a deeper understanding of bilingual students' diverse needs. The course will address the areas of language, literacy, and culture and support participants to carry out a Final Project for meeting the diverse needs of a chosen Focal Learner. The Language focus will be on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) Theories, the WIDA English Language Proficiency Levels along language domains, types of instructional supports along varied language and literacy levels, language development, and understanding how to value students' giftedness. The Literacy focus is on understanding critical literacies and conducting multiliteracies observations to draw on students' literacies in the classroom. The Culture focus is on defining culture, collecting information about a learner's cultural funds of knowledge, examining culture’s relationship with identity, power relations, language, and literacy, addressing issues in multilingualism, and understanding culture to address the affective filter. Mini assignments will assist with the development of the final focal learner project. Meeting the needs of English Language Learners with documented special needs will also be a focus of this course.