Multilingual Learners

Design Technology and Engineering Education (DTEEL) Curriculum

Design Technology and Engineering Education (DTEEL) for bilingual English Learner Students is a K-5th grade curriculum focused on language development through engineering design and problem solving. Each grade level includes a series of units focused on different aspects of engineering: Materials, Structures, Mechanisms, and Work & Energy. The last two grade levels add units that synthesize these engineering components with a Systems focus on Systems. Each lesson includes instructional strategies to strategically integrate language use and engineering content.

Author/Presenter

The DTEEL Team

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2018
Short Description

Design Technology and Engineering Education (DTEEL) for bilingual English Learner Students is a K-5th grade curriculum focused on language development through engineering design and problem solving. Each grade level includes a series of units focused on different aspects of engineering: Materials, Structures, Mechanisms, and Work & Energy. The last two grade levels add units that synthesize these engineering components with a Systems focus on Systems. Each lesson includes instructional strategies to strategically integrate language use and engineering content.

Talk is the Ticket to Teaching Math to English Learners

This article describes one mathematics professional development program designed to support all K-5 students' engagement in productive mathematical discussions, in particular emergent multilingual learners.

Malzahn, K., Sztajn, P., & Heck, D. (October, 2019). Talk is the ticket to teaching math to English learners. The Learning Professional, 40(5).

Author/Presenter

Kristen Malzahn

Paola Sztajn

Daniel Heck

Year
2019
Short Description

This article describes one mathematics professional development program designed to support all K-5 students' engagement in productive mathematical discussions, in particular emergent multilingual learners.

Activating Math Talk: 11 Purposeful Techniques for Your Elementary Students

Many mathematics teachers agree that engaging students in high quality discourse is important for their conceptual learning, but successfully promoting such discourse in elementary classrooms—with attention to the needs of every learner—can be a challenge. Activating Math Talk tackles this challenge by bringing practical, math-specific, productive discourse techniques that are applicable to any lesson or curriculum.

Author/Presenter

Paola Sztajn

Daniel Heck

Kristen Malzahn

Year
2021
Short Description

Activating Math Talk is a resource for promoting high-quality math discourse in grades K-5. The content of the chapters and discussion questions within are meant to spark conversations among teachers, teacher leaders, administrators, and education faculty about how to get all students, in particular emergent multilingual learners, talking about math in productive ways. It presents both a theoretical and practical lens and offers useful frameworks, techniques, and other supports for mathematics instruction.

Thinking Beyond the Score: Multidimensional Analysis of Student Performance to Inform the Next Generation of Science Assessments

Conventional assessment analysis of student results, referred to as rubric‐based assessments (RBA), has emphasized numeric scores as the primary way of communicating information to teachers about their students’ learning. In this light, rethinking and reflecting on not only how scores are generated but also what analyses are done with them to inform classroom practices is of utmost importance.

Author/Presenter

Lourdes Cardozo‐Gaibisso

Seohyun Kim

Cory Buxton

Allan Cohen

Year
2019
Short Description

Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics and Latent Dirichlet Allocation analyses, this study utilizes an innovative bilingual (Spanish–English) constructed response assessment of science and language practices for middle and high school students to perform a multilayered analysis of student responses.

Next Generation Sheltered Instruction to Support English Learners in Secondary Science Classrooms

Using findings from a 4‐year research and development effort, we propose an updated model of sheltered instruction for science classrooms that leverages the opportunities provided by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to better support multilingual learners in middle and high school science.

Author/Presenter

Cory Buxton

Linda Caswell

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2020
Short Description

Using findings from a 4‐year research and development effort, we propose an updated model of sheltered instruction for science classrooms that leverages the opportunities provided by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) to better support multilingual learners in middle and high school science.

Teacher Agency and Professional Learning: Rethinking Fidelity of Implementation as Multiplicities of Enactment

In this paper we use practice theory, with its focus on the interplay of structure and agency, to theorize about teacher engagement in professional learning and teacher enactment of pedagogical practices as an alternative to framing implementation research in terms of program adherence and fidelity of implementation. Practice theory allowed us to reconsider assumptions about characteristics of effective teacher professional learning, and to rethink our own notions of agency.

Author/Presenter

Cory Buxton

Martha Allexsaht‐Snider

Shakhnoza Kayumova

Rouhollah Aghasaleh

Youn‐Jeng Choi

Allan Cohen

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2015
Short Description

In this paper we use practice theory, with its focus on the interplay of structure and agency, to theorize about teacher engagement in professional learning and teacher enactment of pedagogical practices as an alternative to framing implementation research in terms of program adherence and fidelity of implementation.

Urban Ecology Curriculum for English Learners Module 2 : Patterns of Urban Land Use (2nd Edition)

The Urban Ecology Curriculum for English Learners is an interdisciplinary, standards-based, upper elementary/middle school curriculum designed to bolster English language and literacy learning for Long Term English Learners (LTELs)1, or students “at risk” of becoming LTELs by providing access to rigorous, STEM content. The curriculum emphasizes locally-relevant field studies focused on engaging students in scientific study through the “four ways of knowing science”: understanding science, talking science, doing science, and acting on science.

Author/Presenter

The Urban Ecology Curriculum Team

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2017
Short Description

The Urban Ecology Curriculum for English Learners is an interdisciplinary, standards-based, upper elementary/middle school curriculum designed to bolster English language and literacy learning for Long Term English Learners (LTELs)1, or students “at risk” of becoming LTELs by providing access to rigorous, STEM content. Module 2 explores patterns in urban land use.

Urban Ecology Curriculum for English Learners Module 1: Introduction to Urban Ecology (2nd Ed.)

The Urban Ecology Curriculum for English Learners is an interdisciplinary, standards-based, upper elementary/middle school curriculum designed to bolster English language and literacy learning for Long Term English Learners (LTELs)1, or students “at risk” of becoming LTELs, by providing access to rigorous, STEM content. The curriculum emphasizes locally-relevant field studies focused on engaging students in scientific study through the “four ways of knowing science”: understanding science, talking science, doing science, and acting on science.

Author/Presenter

The Urban Ecology Curriculum Team

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2016
Short Description

The Urban Ecology Curriculum for English Learners is an interdisciplinary, standards-based, upper elementary/middle school curriculum designed to bolster English language and literacy learning for Long Term English Learners (LTELs)1, or students “at risk” of becoming LTELs, by providing access to rigorous, STEM content. Module 1 provides foundational knowledge and experiences for students, as well as a through description of urban ecology as a science.

Making Mathematical Thinking Visible

For English language learners, diagrams can be a powerful tool to develop and communicate mathematical understanding. Imagine being a 6th grade student who is still learning English, sitting in a mathematics classroom and trying to navigate the lesson. You might wonder: What is the teacher saying I should do? Did my classmates solve it the way I did? Will the other students laugh at me when I try to explain how I solved the problem?

Author/Presenter

Johannah Nikula

Jill Neumayer DePiper

Mark Driscoll

Year
2019
Short Description

This article describes how diagrams can be a powerful tool to develop and communicate mathematical understanding for English language learners.

Understanding Science and Language Connections: New Approaches to Assessment with Bilingual Learners

We report on the use of bilingual constructed response science assessments in the context of a research and development partnership with secondary school science teachers. Given the power that assessments have in today’s education systems, our project provided a series of workshops for teachers where they explored students’ emergent reform-oriented science meaning-making in our project-designed assessments.

Author/Presenter

Cory Buxton

Ruth Harman

Lourdes Cardozo-Gaibisso

Lei Jiang

Khanh Bui

Martha Allexsaht-Snider

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

Authors report on the use of bilingual constructed response science assessments in the context of a research and development partnership with secondary school science teachers.