ENL Seminars

For Teachers

Academic Language for English Learners: What Teachers Need to Know

This five hour online seminar will help general education teachers target and improve academic language for all learners across disciplines and grade levels, particularly those who are learning English. Participants will identify the differences between social and academic language, analyze the academic language demands of a text, and examine research-based strategies for targeting academic language development in all domains of language.

Advocating for English Language Learners Within the Scope of State and Federal Law

In an ever-shifting political and regulatory environment, teachers have more responsibility than ever before to not only teach but advocate for ELLs and their families. This seminar will familiarize participants with laws and regulations regarding ENL education both historically and in the present day, as well as those laws and regulations that are germane to many ELLs and their families, including but not limited to issues related to immigration and civil rights. Furthermore, participants will learn of support services available to ELLs and best practices in advocacy.

Culturally Responsive Classrooms

In order to meet the needs our diverse student population, educators must possess the mindset and skills needed to foster a positive learning environment for all students as it is critical to their academic success. Culturally responsive instructional practices honor and support this diversity, connecting learning to students' cultural and linguistic background while building on prior experiences. As a result, educators create an inclusive environment that is accessible and relatable to all students. In this seminar, participants will learn how to build on their current practices to create a culturally responsive classroom for their students. The goal of culturally responsive teaching is to instruct in a way that ensures involvement in cognitively demanding tasks that foster independent learning by increasing student engagement and strengths-based mindset.

Educating for Equity

An equitable educational setting is not something that we create and then it is done. Rather than a single destination, equity is derived from the conscious actions we take every day. Every choice we make is a decision on how we will include our students and honor their identities in our daily practices. This seminar will assist participants to identify inequities in schools and examine ways in which educators can move beyond the comfort of what they have always done in the effort to create a more culturally affirming and culturally responsive environment that fulfills the promise of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

Equitable Assessment: Implications for Instruction of English Learners

Assessment is a powerful tool for teachers as the results are a quantifiable measure of students’ knowledge of the content. As an integral part of the teaching and learning cycles, assessment is a key focus for the teachers of English learners as it influences future instructional practice. This online seminar will guide participants through understanding the critical role both formative and summative assessments play and exploring practical assessment strategies for validly measuring English learners’ knowledge in various content and grade-level classrooms.

Establishing an Optimal Co-teaching Classroom with English Learners in Mind

What do teachers need to know and do prior to stepping in front of students as a co-teaching team? Participants of this online seminar will learn how to create a positive relationship by building a foundation for collaboration, welcoming the strengths and contributions each teacher brings to the partnership, and exploring ways to establish a presence where there is trust and respect. Through the co-teaching models for various classroom environments, participants will gain planning strategies to aid all students to learn at higher levels.

Finding Success with Long-Term ELLs

Like any other student population, ELLs are not a monolith by any means. Instead, they are a student demographic made up of students with a dizzying array of gifts and needs. One subgroup within this demographic is Long-term English Language Learners, or LTELLs. In this seminar, you will understand the determination of an LTELL, explore research-based recommendations of effective approaches that maximize their strengths while addressing their needs, engage with promising practices for instruction that support LTELLs in classrooms, and consider suggested districtwide programmatic policies.

Growing Great Minds with Growth Mindset

The perspective a person brings when doing anything in life can certainly impact their desired outcome.  As educators, we want our students to discover a passion for learning that they can carry with them long after they leave our classrooms. Fostering a growth mindset will teach our students to understand the importance of mistakes and how to use them to their best advantage as mistakes prompt us to explore alternatives in the classroom and in life. Simply changing the way we interact with ourselves and others will open an endless world of possibilities.

Helping English Learners Succeed with a Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) Framework

In a highly political climate of compliance in schools and a growing diversity in schools, teachers are required more than ever to implement culturally sustaining evidenced-based models of support that address the needs of students who are English language learners (ELLs) and those with disabilities. In the past, teachers have waited for students to fail before referring them to the student support team in their schools. Today, MTSS offers a prevention approach rather that a "wait to fail" method as it provides appropriate and responsive instruction for multilingual learners (MLLs) with and without disabilities in schools. In this seminar, you will look at how MTSS offers a tiered system of culturally-sustaining instructional practices, data-informed problem solving and academic and linguistic progress monitoring to address the needs of all learners, specifically those of multilingual learners with disabilities.

Inclusive Classrooms for Newcomer ELLs

Newcomer ELLs are recently-arrived immigrants representative of a range of languages, cultures, school experiences, literacy skills, and immigration circumstances. While they face myriad challenges to adapt and succeed in their new home and schools, they bring with them a world of culturally diverse experiences and knowledge. Guided by Eight Promising Practices, educators will learn ways to create a classroom environment that promotes diversity and inclusion, social-emotional well-being and development, models encouragement, support and resilience and engages newcomer ELLs with high-quality instruction.

Increasing Multilingual Learner Family Engagement

Families are a critical component of their child’s success in school. Their responsibilities include providing a healthy environment and teaching lifelong learning habits that will enable academic success. We know that students whose families are engaged in school communities have a more successful educational experience. This seminar will focus on what culturally sensitive engagement looks like for multilingual learner (MLL) families and how to create an effective plan for your school or district.

Intervention and Identification: Supporting ELLs with Ability Differences

Although all students demonstrate a wide range of strengths, needs, and social characteristics, the increasing diversity among English language learners (ELLs) presents puzzling questions for education professionals. This is especially true of ELLs who, despite receiving appropriate language-related supports and services, still do not demonstrate adequate growth or achievement in school. In these cases, we ask the question: Is this issue related to language acquisition or to disability? In this online seminar, you will explore critical issues related to interventions for ELLs who present unique learning challenges, as well as the assessment and disability identification processes which occur once intervention is proven ineffective.

Redesigning Teaching Through Instructional Technology

Technology has the power to fundamentally change and even reinvent how instruction is delivered, as well as how we provide appropriate instruction for students with a wide variety of needs. However, technology, like any other tool, requires knowing how and when to use it in order to maximize its efficacy and provide opportunities for true inquiry. In this seminar, we will explore K-12 appropriate models for working with ALL students (e.g. ELLs and students with disabilities), demonstrating when and how to strategically use technology in any scenario (e.g. classroom, hybrid, distance learning, etc.), as well as standards-based best practices for fundamentally redesigning instruction using technology across the curriculum.

Scaffolding Strategies to Provide Equitable Access

Scaffolding is a term that comes from psychologist Lev Vygotsky's theory of the Zone of Proximal Development. Scaffolds consist of temporary supports that amplify rather than simplify and are used to help an English language learner/Multilingual learner work just beyond the level that can be achieved independently. Today, scaffolding is an essential practice as it allows educators to identify the needs of each ELL/MLL and provide them with supports to build on prior knowledge, internalize new information, and ultimately master grade-level content and skills. (7 hours)

Strategies for SIFE Success!

Students with Interrupted/Inconsistent Formal Education (SIFE) are English language learners who enter U.S. schools at least two years below grade level in reading and/or math in their native language due to underschooling. These learners bring with them rich cultural and life experiences, but are doing double the work in learning English and academic skills simultaneously. Teachers looking for support in how to address the intense needs of this population will benefit from this course. In this seminar, participants will examine common characteristics and experiences of the SIFE population, and learn how to design classroom environments and apply specific strategies that honor students’ backgrounds to foster SIFE success.

Transforming the Lives of Students with Trauma-Informed Schools

Designed for K-12 educators and school-related professionals, this 5-hour online seminar addresses how trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) impact students' abilities to form trusting relationships, learn new concepts and self-regulate their behaviors in and out of school. The impact of early trauma on brain development and early attachment will be explored. While the topics addressed are relevant for supporting and sustaining the needs of ALL students, time will be spent examining trauma specifically experienced by ELLs such as the impact of prior experiences, pre-flight, flight and post-flight, and how to create a safe and supportive environment that is conducive to learning. The ideas presented will provide a new lens through which to see maladaptive behaviors and provide the necessary tools and strategies to support student healing and growth, both academically and social-emotionally.

Translating IEP Goals into Classroom Accommodations

Education in NY state has shifted to become progressively more inclusive for students thus requiring more collaboration between educators. Classroom teachers are faced with a wider array of abilities and proficiency levels in the classroom and are asked to differentiate curriculum to best meet the needs of all students. As the number of students with IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) in the classroom has increased, so has the expectation that classroom teachers will help students to meet IEP goals while maintaining a rigorous standards-based curriculum. This online seminar will offer accommodations that remove barriers and provide equal access to learning for all students with special needs in the general classroom setting including English language learners with IEPs.

These seminars can be used to meet CTLE hours and C.R. Part 154 Language Acquisition requirements.

For districts wanting to request online seminars for their educators, download our Online Seminar Request Form.

For Teachers:

Collaborative Identification of English Learners with a Disability
Available as a three hour session

Participants will examine the many facets of identifying English learners with special needs. Federal regulations and New York’s CR Part 154-3 regulations will form the foundation of this session. Participants will analyze a case study and apply concepts and tools acquired throughout the course. Enriching discussion will focus on the collaborative process of identifying ELs who have a disability. Many practical resources and tools will be provided for educators to utilize from throughout the collaborative process of identifying ELs with a disability.

Collaborative Identification of English Learners with a Disability - 6 hour
Available as a six hour session

Historically, there has been a problem of over- and under-identification of English learners for special education. Participants in this six-hour seminar will simulate a team approach model using a case study as a way to address the issue. This collaborative process will include a review of state and federal regulations, an analysis of student behavior to distinguish a language difference versus a learning disability, a discussion on how the RtI process might look different for English learners, parent support at IEP meetings, and the use of data leveraged to design a program for English learners identified with a disability.

Co-teaching: Building the Partnership
Available as a three hour session

What important things do co-teachers need to know prior to stepping in front of students together? Participants of this workshop will experience and embed strategies to develop a positive co-teaching partnership, learn how to apply the co-teaching models for various classroom environments, and gain planning strategies to ensure the learning of all students at high levels. Please bring a laptop or device, headphones and upcoming lessons/unit plans to the session. It is highly recommended that ENL and content teachers take this seminar with their co-teaching partner.

Co-teaching: Strengthening the Collaboration
Available as a three hour session

You’ve been co-teaching together for a while…. Now what? This session aims to provide co-teachers with the “next steps” in co-teaching. Participants will revisit ways establish a collaborative relationship that truly represents a shared curriculum. Co-teachers will walk away with concrete steps for intentional reflection, effective communication, and thoughtful planning. Beyond this, co-teachers will also become equipped to rise above pitfalls and challenge each other to take their teaching to higher levels, where ALL students are bound to thrive. Please bring an upcoming lesson/unit plans to the session. It is highly recommended that ENL and content teachers take this seminar with their co-teaching partner.

Creating a Culturally Responsive Classroom
Available as a three hour session

In order to meet the needs our diverse student population, educators must possess the mindset and skills needed to foster a positive learning environment for all students as it is critical to their academic success. Culturally responsive instructional practices honor and support this diversity, connecting learning to students' cultural and linguistic background while building on prior experiences. As a result, educators create an inclusive environment that is accessible and relatable to all students. In this seminar, participants will learn how to build on their current practices to create a culturally responsive classroom for their students.

Designing Effective Instruction and Learning for English Learners
Available as a three hour session

The five high-leverage principles presented in this seminar synthesize the work of leading scholars and educators and reflect basic practices that can improve teaching and learning for English learners across the content areas. Participants will examine evidence-based instructional strategies that can be incorporated into daily lesson plans and routines as well as determine effective ways to teach and assess both language and disciplinary content. Through building upon students’ background knowledge, incorporating academic language functions, designing and scaffolding deeper learning tasks integrating all four domains, and providing opportunities for student participation, teachers will help EL students become proficient in English and achieve rigorous state standards.

Educating English Learners in Elementary Classrooms
Available as a three hour session

This seminar, designed for elementary teachers, focuses on language acquisition and the challenges ELLs at different proficiency levels face in the mainstream classroom. Teachers will experience a variety of research-based strategies and modifications and learn how to apply them in lesson plans that foster the academic achievement of ELLs in their classes.

Establishing Inclusive Classrooms Where Newcomer ELLs Thrive
Available as a three hour session

Newcomer students are recently-arrived immigrants representative of a range of languages, cultures, school experiences, literacy skills, and immigration circumstances. Many speak little or no English and may lack any formal education in their native countries. In order to meet the unique academic, social, and emotional needs of these students, participants will begin by identifying who their newcomers are. Guided by Eight Promising Practices, participants will learn ways to create an inclusive classroom for newcomer ELLs with spaces that embrace the voices of linguistically diverse communities and provide pathways for authentic learning opportunities. As the demographics of our classrooms continue to reflect the political climate and refugee resettlement of our country and the world, we need to educate others, advocate together, and elevate our ELLs.

Including English Learners: Strategies for Academic Success
Available as a three hour session

With so much attention focused on helping English learners meet grade-level expectations, teachers are looking for what works. In this seminar, participants explore four research-based recommendations for engaging English learners in subject area instruction. Participants will view real life classroom examples and experience practical hands-on activities that can be applied across grade levels and content areas.

Increasing Family Engagement to Promote the Achievement of ELLs
Available as a three hour session

What are some approaches educators can use to develop effective partnerships with bilingual families? In this session, you will examine ways to increase family engagement and improve the home-school connection with the families of our English learners while taking into consideration the four stages of immigrant parent involvement.

Increasing Family Engagement to Promote the Achievement of ELLs - 6 hour
Available as a six hour session

In this six hour session, participants will examine a multitude of ways to develop effective home-school partnerships with the families of our English learners. Initial activities work to increase familiarity with the diverse cultures of the community in order to identify their needs, create a more welcoming school environment, and develop culturally responsive, two-way communication. The culminating activity will be to create an engagement plan in accordance with the requirements in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that targets specific academic outcomes for ELLs while strengthening the meaningful engagement of diverse families. While this training is ideal for school- or district-based teams, it is still relevant and useful for individual educators.

Instructional Supports for English Language Learners
Available as a three hour session

English language learners are the fastest growing student population in schools, and they must be considered when the NYS Next Generation standards are being implemented. Geared for general education teachers, this seminar will help participants design effective content-area instruction while they explore research-based strategies, instructional guidelines and resources for helping ELLs succeed.

Language Acquisition and Learning
Available as a three session

How does language development affect learning? Through exposure to research literature and information on language acquisition theory, you will gain a deeper understanding of the intersection of language and learning. Educators will be guided to reflect on how language development affects instruction and learning in their own classrooms.

Planning for the Success of ELLs in Content Classes 
Available as a three or six hour session

This seminar provides the opportunity to examine research-based strategies and approaches that assist ELLs in meeting rigorous grade-level standards through a step-by-step breakdown of the lesson planning process that includes scaffolded language and content objectives. Participants will experience a variety of motivating and engaging instructional strategies that can be strategically applied to lesson plans as a way to increase academic language production and content comprehension for ELLs.

Promising Practices for Long-Term ELLs
Available as a three hour session

In this seminar, participants develop an understanding of who our ELLs are and learn about strategies, frameworks, and even policy recommendations that both engage with the gifts that LTELLs possess and work to address their needs.

Scaffolding Instruction Across Language Proficiency Levels
Available as a three hour session

Participants will be introduced to the theories that influence best practices; explore different forms of scaffolding and
best ways to use them; examine different language levels and what to expect from students at those levels; learn how
to use formative assessments to inform instruction and understand and implement the steps for scaffolding.

SIFE Success: Know Your Students and Strategies!
Available as a three hour session

Help! I have a newcomer in my classroom! What should I do? Teachers can start by taking this foundational seminar on Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) students and spend time exploring characteristics of SIFE students to better serve their needs in the classroom. During this seminar, participants will learn how to design classroom environments and apply specific strategies that both honor students backgrounds and support the intense needs of this population in order to foster SIFE success. This also provides a strong knowledge base for future learning opportunities on SIFE literacy, differentiation and culturally responsive instruction.

Supporting and Sustaining the Social-Emotional Needs of English Learners Who Experience Trauma
Available as a three hour session

This seminar, designed for all educators who work with English language learners (ELLs), will address the multitude of trauma that many ELLs have experienced prior to and since their arrival to the US. Immigration, under the best of circumstances, involves separation, loss and challenges to one’s identity. Many of our recently-arrived ELLs present with traumatic stressors most educators have not dealt with before. Participants will leave this seminar with strategies to help students who have experienced trauma, tools to support ELLs’ social and emotional healing, growth and well-being, and ways to build trusting relationships with this fragile cohort.

Supporting and Sustaining Social-Emotional Needs of English Learners Who Experience Trauma - 6 hour
Available as a six hour session

This 6 hour seminar, designed for all in the educational community who encounter English Language Learners (ELLs), will address the topic of significant trauma many ELLs have experienced prior and upon their arrival. Immigration under the best of circumstances includes separation, loss and challenges to one’s identity. Many of our recently-arrived ELLs present with traumatic stressors most educators have not dealt before. The impact of early trauma on brain development and early attachment will be explored. When is it appropriate to activate prior knowledge when it includes violence, war, lack of basic needs, disruption in human development, and/or separation from family? What do educators know about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) that can improve their pedagogy? This seminar will provide the necessary tools and strategies to support ELLs’ healing and growth, both academically and social-emotionally.

The Impact of Culture on Student Achievement
Available as a three hour session

In addition to learning a new language, ELLs have to adjust to a new environment and culture while learning new academic skills and content knowledge. Explore the impact of culture on academic achievement, and identify factors that contribute to a culturally responsive classroom in this engaging session.

Understanding English Language Learners
Available as a two hour for New Members or three hour for veteran teachers

As a teacher, what can you do with students in your class who are learning English? How can you help them succeed? This seminar focuses on understanding the stages of verbal acquisition and identifying variables that influence the language acquisition process for ELLs. Strategies that have been shown to successfully engage ELLs are examined and instructional and assessment accommodations are demonstrated.

These seminars can be used to meet CTLE hours and C.R. Part 154 Language Acquisition requirements.