ACT-ESL: News
June 2009: ACT-ESL completes its second Summer Institute
During the last two weeks in June 2009, 54 secondary content teachers from Chesterfield County completed the second ACT-ESL Summer Institute. The $1.2 million 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. The fifty-four secondary teachers teach in 12 schools, including Carver, Chester, Elizabeth Davis, Falling Creek, Manchester, Providence, and Salem Middle Schools, and James River, L.C. Bird, Meadowbrook, Monacan, and Thomas Dale High Schools.
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, Suzanne Thompson, Melanie Bartolf, Theresa Barthel, and Michael Bolling. VCU faculty Drs. Jacqueline McDonnough, Leila Christenbury, Gabriel Reich, and Valerie Robnolt also provided expertise on resources in the content areas.
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), Peggy Stevens (Science) and MJ Weatherford (English). Future steps for the participants will include conference presenting and building learning communities in their schools for support of colleagues in working with ESL students.
Beyond the classroom observations, there are many professional development opportunities for our participants. This year, we are starting participant scholarships. There are six (6) available scholarships ($300 each) for classroom-based research. The purpose of the scholarships is to build a learning community among the participating teachers and build a capacity to contribute to ELL student learning beyond the ACT-ESL training period. In addition, presentations at professional conferences are eligible for full financial support from ACT-ESL.
Congratulations to the second class of ACT-ESL Summer Institute!