Bilingual educators are highly qualified to instruct learners in bilingual or dual language programs. These individuals, though, often do not have ample opportunity to practice their literacy instruction skills during their teacher preparation programs to meet the needs of emerging bilingual readers and writers. As NCE graduate and bilingual reading specialist Dora Guzman ‘14 notes, students “learning to read [and write] in two languages, especially in English and Spanish, require an authentic approach to teaching literacy” and this is essential to support future bilingual reading specialists accordingly. NLU and two district partners have been collaborating to creatively respond to this need.
The first partner in this effort was Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 (D202). One of D202 Linguistic and Diversity department’s many goals was to ensure all of their educators, including those Bilingual and ESL teachers working with English Language Learners, had a strong foundation in teaching both reading and literacy skills to their students across content areas. Recognizing the quality of NLU’s Reading and Language program, D202 partnered with NLU in 2019 to develop a grant-funded pathway for 10 current, experienced bilingual educators in the district to earn their Reading Teacher and/or Reading Specialist endorsement.
“NLU has been a thoughtful partner, collaborating with our district to find unique professional advancement pathways for our educators. This partnership allowed us to offer NLU’s nationally recognized literacy program [...], which will provide [these bilingual educators] with additional knowledge, resources, and tools to support our schools' diverse community of learners,” said past D202 Director of Linguistics and Diversity, Michelle Olivarez-O’Shea. As to why NLU, she noted, “NLU does not follow trends but follows research which makes the instruction powerful. NLU will also push an educator to their full potential by ensuring the individual understands WHY something is being done and what specific research reinforces that instructional practice.”
News of this successful initiative spread, and NLU began building a similar pathway for bilingual educators in Community Consolidated School District 15 (CCSD15) that serves learners from Palatine, Illinois. NLU collaborated with CCSD15 Assistant Superintendent of Multilingual Program, Renee Urbanski, to build a cohort of 15 bilingual educators – an opportunity that Urbanski says has been invaluable to the district, its educators, and its students.
With insight and input from district leadership, NLU thoughtfully co-designed and built elements of the program to specifically focus on the needs of these bilingual educators:
- Utilizing feedback from both partners, NLU faculty Dr. Jason Stegemoller and Maria Marquez designed an elective course in Spanish literacy development, biliteracy and translanguaging for educators to use in their literacy instruction for bilingual learners. While developed as a pilot specifically for these cohorts, this course is available to all educators looking to earn their ESL and/or Bilingual Education endorsement.
- Course instructors, such as alumna Dora Guzman, modified their curriculum, communication, and support structures accordingly to be more responsive to the needs and experiences of these educators and their learners.
- Every Reading Teacher and Specialist candidate completes a summer practicum experience, a four-week intensive where candidates tutor two PK-12 learners - putting everything they’ve learned in the program into action, as one candidate noted. NLU partnered with district leadership to recruit students from their schools to participate, making further connections between the educators and learners from their own district.
During an informal listening session, candidates shared how they became closer to one another from their experiences together, building a community. They noted how they appreciated learning about different children’s literature types, which opened their eyes to different genres and helped them build out their library. They also touted the program’s strong professors and how they ultimately developed the exact skills they’d wanted from the start. O’Shea indicated at the end, several cohort members told her how the program changed their thinking and made them better instructors.
In May 2022, NLU celebrated the D202 cohort’s completion through an informal graduation ceremony at the district, celebrating each of the candidate’s success. CCSD15’s students will complete their program in winter 2023, when NLU will similarly celebrate their achievement.
As their first cohort draws to a close, Urbanski reflects, “Our teachers' knowledge of research based instructional practices and assessments in the area of literacy for multilingual students has grown exponentially [...], and the number of tools and strategies at their disposal to help striving readers has multiplied. We are already seeing the impact on our student data and are confident this program is helping us to position our learners for a bright and literate future.”
Regarding the success of these partnerships, long-time NLU Reading faculty and Summer Practicum Director, Dr. Mary Hoch, shares, “We’re thrilled to have co-developed this opportunity with two forward-thinking districts to support their bilingual educators and learners. We hope to continue to build out this pathway for more districts in need as the population of dual and multiple language learners in Illinois continues to grow.”
Original source can be found here.
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