ACT-ESL: News

June 2008: ACT-ESL completes its first Summer Institute

During the last two weeks in June 2008, 57 secondary content teachers from Chesterfield and Henrico Counties completed the first ACT-ESL Summer Institute. The VCU grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Education aims to train secondary content teachers to work effectively with ESL students in their classes. The 30-hour training includes sessions on SIOP, CALLA, assessment of ESL work, cultural impact, needs of ESL students, communicating with ESL families, among other topics.

VCU professor Dr. Seonhee Cho (also Principal Investigator of the grant) and ACT-ESL Specialist Ms. Leslie Bohon, both former secondary school teachers, provided the bulk of the training for the Summer Institute. Guest speakers who provided demonstrations for the SIOP training included professionals from Fairfax, Loudon, and Chesterfield schools: Anita Bright, Gail Sue Kasun, Melanie Bartolf, Theresa Barthel, and Sharon Hoffert. VCU faculty Drs. Jacqueline McDonnough, Leila Christenbury, Gabriel Reich, and Valerie Robnolt also provided expertise on resources for teachers of ESL students.

The next steps for these graduates will be three observations for coaching and mentoring from their prospective Technical Assistant. The Technical Assistants are veteran content teachers from the Richmond area, each with dozens of years of experience. They continue to be active in their field through government work, curriculum development, and mentoring. Our Technical Assistants are Barbara Lange (Math), Joel Dexter (Social Studies), Mary Jo Dailey (Science) and MJ Weatherford (English). Future steps for the graduates will include conference presenting and building learning communities in their schools for support of colleagues in working with ESL students.

Congratulations to the first class of ACT-ESL Summer Institute!