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Professional Learning

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Professional Learning

Office Hours and training activities are designed for Pennsylvania educators and students or faculty members in PA institutions of higher education. Participants must register with their respective education institution’s email address.  

  • PDE Office Hours

    Facilitator:
    Bob Measel, Title III Director and Bilingual Education Advisor, Pennsylvania Department of Education and Julia Puza, Bilingual Education Advisor, Pennsylvania Department of Education
    Description:
    PDE's English Language Development Office Hours is an open forum for educators across the Commonwealth to engage in Q&A with PDE staff, content experts, and ELD colleagues across the state. All educators in PA LEAs are encouraged to attend, including ESL Specialists, PreK-12 content teachers, building and district level administrators, paraprofessionals, specialists, and Intermediate Unit personnel. Office Hours are not eligible for Act 48 continuing education credits.
    Act 48 Eligible:
    No
    Intended Audience:
    All PA Educators and Administrators
    Registration:

  • EL Accountability and the Future Ready PA Index

    Description:

    This tutorial is meant to introduce you to the Future Ready PA Index (FRI) and how the EL Indicator in the FRI is calculated.

    Act 48 Eligible:
    2 hours
    Registration:

  • English Learner Reclassification Tutorial

    Description:

    This tutorial is meant to help you plan for reclassification.

    Act 48 Eligible:
    2 hours
    Registration:

  • New EL Coordinator Training

    Description:

    This tutorial is meant to help you plan for meeting your responsibilities as an EL Coordinator and for implementation of your language instruction educational program (LIEP). When you complete this tutorial, you should have a collection of resources including the information that is covered along with your notes, a plan for addressing areas that need attention, and contacts for assistance if needed.

    Act 48 Eligible:
    2 hours
    Registration:

  • The EL Screening, Identification, and Placement Process

    Description:

    This tutorial will cover the EL screening, identification, and placement process.

    Act 48 Eligible:
    2 hours
    Registration:

  • Collaborative Practices for Reaching and Teaching English Learners with Disabilities

    Facilitator:
    Jennifer Voorhees, M.Ed., ELD Instructor of English Learners with Disabilities, Commonwealth Charter Academy
    Description:
    English learners with disabilities must receive both disability related services and instruction to meet language acquisition needs. Schools, however, often struggle with this implementation, especially when resources are limited. In this session, learn how one PA school used a combination of instructional approaches and collaborative practices to meet the needs of more than 200 English learners with disabilities in kindergarten through 12th grade. Special emphasis will be placed on how this school met the needs of students whose disability-related needs prevented them from participating in the traditional ELD classes. Recommendations for improving your own program and creating more collaborative practices will be provided. 
    Act 48 Eligible:
    1.5 hours
    Intended Audience:
    ESL Specialists, Special Education teams, Reading Specialists, K-12 classroom teachers, school administrators 
    Registration:

  • Finding Our Roots, Rooted in Strength: Culturally Responsive Teaching with Multilingual Learners

    Facilitator:
    Andrea G. Kolb, Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Chief Education Officer at WITF, Inc.
    Description:
    We are in an era of great debate about the role of culture in school learning. Recognizing culture as a cognitive construct means that culturally responsive teaching is not an intervention or a specialized program but, rather, is directly rooted in learning theory. In this workshop, we will think about how culture is inherently tied to prior knowledge, building background, vocabulary acquisition, and sensemaking. This requires us to position culturally responsive teaching as truly student-centered pedagogy that affirms and leverages students’ diverse language practices and identities in order to teach them.
    Act 48 Eligible:
    2 hours
    Intended Audience:
    All educators
    Registration:

  • Analyzing Assessment Data for English Learners

    Facilitator:
    Bob Measel, Title III Director and Bilingual Education Advisor, Pennsylvania Department of Education
    Description:
    This training is meant to introduce you to the Future Ready PA Index (FRI) and how the EL Indicator in the FRI is calculated, how to set individual growth targets for ELs, and how to analyze language growth and academic achievement data for ELs in program evaluation. The specific topics of the training include:
    • Accessing the Future Ready PA Index (FRI)
    • Identifying how the EL Indicator in the FRI is calculated
    • Identifying the implication of the EL Indicator for your school
    • Examining the role of the EL Indicator in the overall state accountability system under the state’s approved consolidated ESSA plan
    • Analyzing data for ELs from various types of assessments
    • Using data for program evaluation and Instructional decision-making. 
    Act 48 Eligible:
    3 hours
    Intended Audience:
    ELD and federal programs administrators, building principals, ESL Specialists
    Registration:

  • Designing a High School Course Sequence for ELs and SLIFE

    Facilitator:
    Kate Fritz, M.Ed., Director of Curriculum & Instruction, School District of the City of York
    Description:
    Designing an LIEP that provides every support that high school English Learners need while ensuring that the program does not create inadvertent inequitable barriers to rigorous, standards-aligned, and grade-level instruction can feel like walking a tightrope. Intentional program design that aligns program resources and course requirements with the needs of the student population, including SLIFE and LTELs, is imperative. In this session, educators will learn about the journey of one South Central PA school district to redesign their high school’s ELD program for equitable access - in an effort to successfully walk the tightrope.
    Act 48 Eligible:
    1.5 hours
    Intended Audience:
    District curriculum directors, high school principals, high school teachers and ESL Specialists
    Registration:

  • WIDA: Uncovering and Leveraging Students’ Home Literacies in the Classroom

    Facilitator:
    Maya Martinez-Hart (WIDA)
    Description:
    The purpose of this workshop is to create an online Professional Learning Community that supports participants’ collaboration and fosters ownership of their learning. Over the course of 15 weeks, participants engage in 6 modules (5 asynchronous and 1 synchronous) that each consist of 3 sections: Explore, Make it Work, and Share. They select ideas to try out in their classrooms and share their experiences with colleagues in online discussion boards and one online meeting.
     Format: Five self-paced modules and one online meeting or a sixth module. Each module is two weeks in duration. Online meeting not to exceed 60 minutes. Online meeting will not be recorded. Facilitator lightly moderates discussions.
     Live Webinar: April 18 | 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
    Enrollment Deadline: February 5, 2024
    Course Ends: May 17, 2024
     UPLOAD YOUR CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
    Act 48 Eligible:
    20 hours. Educators must complete all aspects of the workshop and submit their WIDA certificate of completion to be awarded Act 48 credits.
    Intended Audience:
    This virtual workshop is designed for classroom teachers who are ready to try out new ideas in their classrooms and share what they learned with a group of online colleagues.
    Registration:

  • WIDA: Mathematical Meaning-Making: Collaboration for Equity

    Facilitator:
    Edith Nava (WIDA)
    Description:
    This workshop explores the importance of equitable engagement in math conversations for multilingual learners in a two-part webinar series.  By engaging in this workshop, participants will build their skills in: 
    • Recognizing characteristics of equitable classroom spaces where multilingual learners engage in deep mathematical discourse
    • Structuring supports and scaffolding that build students’ repertoires for communicating their math questions and ideas
    • Deciding when to guide students toward more precise mathematical language
    Participants will be prompted to prepare for the first webinar and to complete post-webinar tasks. Elementary and secondary classroom videos provide content and support for post-webinar tasks that encourage participants to collaborate with a colleague. Discussion boards provide additional collaboration opportunities during the six to eight weeks of the workshop.  Format: One self-paced module, two webinars, discussion boards, and collaborative tasks. Two live webinars not to exceed 75 minutes each, scheduled one week apart. Alternate tasks available for participants not able to attend the webinars. Enrollment Deadline: March 19, 2024
    Live Webinar 1: April 2 | 3:00 – 4:15 p.m.
    Live Webinar 2: April 9 | 3:00 – 4:15 p.m. UPLOAD YOUR CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
    Act 48 Eligible:
    4 hours. Educators must complete all aspects of the workshop and submit their WIDA certificate of completion to be awarded Act 48 credits.
    Intended Audience:
    This virtual workshop is designed to support mathematics educators and language specialists who share their learning with colleagues through collaboration or coaching.
    Registration:

  • Scaffolding Strategies to Support Language Development

    Facilitator:
    Christin Adams, M.Ed., Staff Development Facilitator, Carbon-Lehigh Intermediate Unit Andrea Salgado O’Brien, ESL Facilitator, Allentown School District
    Description:
    In this presentation, we will delve into the art of supporting English learners through effective scaffolding strategies. Discover how to nurture language development across all content areas with a versatile toolkit of instructional techniques. In this session participants will learn practical methods for creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment that empowers English learners to thrive.
    Act 48 Eligible:
    1.5 hours
    Intended Audience:
    Classroom teachers, Reading Specialists, ESL Specialists, Special Education teams
    Registration:

  • WIDA Professional Learning Self-Paced Courses

    Description:

    We are excited to once again be able to offer all PA educators access to WIDA’s full catalogue of online self-paced (asynchronous) courses! The following courses will be available beginning September 1, 2023 through August 31, 2024. 

    • Developing Language for Learning in Mathematics
    • Engaging Multilingual learners in Science: Making Sense of Phenomena
    • Exploring the WIDA PreK-3 Essential Actions
    • Home Languages in the Classroom (ICMEE)
    • Making Language Visible in the Classroom
    • Newcomers: Promoting Success through Strengthening Practice
    • Reframing Education for Long-term English Learners
    • Social Studies: Engaging Multilingual Learners through Inquiry
    • The WIDA ELD Standards Framework: A Collaborative Approach
    UPLOAD YOUR CERTIFICATE(S) OF COMPLETION *Please note that Act 48 credits will be processed monthly. All certificates must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on August 31, 2024.
    Act 48 Eligible:
    Yes, various
    Registration:

  • Reclassification Training Module

    Description:

    This training resource is meant to help educators use Rubric 1 (Speaking, Listening, Interaction, and Reading) to complete evaluations of their ELs’ language use for reclassification by providing video examples of students using language at various grades and proficiency levels. This training also provides additional criteria and resources that can be used in conjunction with reclassification Rubric 1 to help in decision-making.

    Please review the Reclassification, Monitoring and Re-designation of ELs guidance at www.education.pa.gov/englishlearners prior to completing this training.

    Act 48 Eligible:
    No

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