On August 13th & 14th, Wood Dale 7 Bilingual teachers worked with Dr. Soltero on the continuation of the development of the Spanish Language Arts curriculum. Teachers learned instructional strategies related to teaching ELLs. Part of the discussion related to bridging instruction from Spanish to English so that students are successful at gaining English proficiency.
August 15th, specialists and classroom teachers continued learning about the WIDA standards (learning standards for ELLs) and the Model Performance Indicators (MPIs). MPIs describe WHAT students can be expected to process and produce at a given proficiency level within reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Teachers revised their grade level integrated units to add specific instructional strategies and activities for ELLs. The WIDA standards and MPI's were used to to help them with this process.
Thank you to the many teachers who took advantage of this professional development! Many commented that it was beneficial and appreciated the opportunity to improve their instruction for ELLs.