Virginia Training Notes

Notes on Training  Questions, Challenges, and Tips

This list was compiled from the January 10, 2007 training of trainers of Teaching Reading to Adult English Language Learners in Spotsylvania, Virginia. 

Issues to think about

--In what ways (and using what language) can trainers offer feedback to participants’ presentations of reading lessons?

--How can trainers effectively set up peer critiques of lessons?

--The Virginia trainers suggested setting up an observation template—perhaps one that focuses on the four essential elements  of good reading instruction mentioned in the training.

--What are ways to steer participants to use good and appropriate materials when planning and developing reading lessons?

One way to do this is to (with publisher permission and one time only) take only the text of a reading from a textbook—not the ancillary exercises.  This forestalls teachers just going through the set exercises and thinking they have “planned “ and  “done” a lesson that meets the needs of learners in their classes.

--In Virginia, trainers need to be able to explicitly connect the reading module with the VA reading standards. I think you decided that the appropriate place would be after Part 5 (Demonstration: Reading lesson)  and before Part 6 (Practice: Creating reading lessons)

(Note: After your trainings have begun, please share  how  this connecting of the standards and the module worked)

What if?

--What if you are training working with a “multilevel” groups of teachers—some of them are experienced teachers who have explicit academic, K-12, or other knowledge related to reading instruction and second language acquisition and others are new to teaching adults, ESL, and English (for example, former middle-school math teachers)

The trainers suggested that they need to bring their knowledge of working with multilevel groups to bear—enlist the help of the experienced teachers; more than one of you mentioned that it always appropriate to refresh oneself on a topic (especially since it feels good to be an expert)    

--A related question was what if someone is an expert (or thinks he or she is an expert) and promulgates inappropriate strategies for reading instruction?  Specific examples include:

• controversies about use of  nonsense words,
• extensive choral readings, chants, and other aloud activities,
• using context to understand meaning,
• grouping vocabulary words such as antonyms, appropriate reading material and dictionaries.

 --Another related issue is how to deal with an aggressive participant who really seems bent on derailing the workshop.  You are all experienced trainers and probably have dealt with this before; but for further discussion, look at Information for Trainers from the Draft CAELA Guide.

Questions that  workshop participants may ask
--How does reading instruction—as explained in the reading workshop—fit into to teachers’ and programs’ needs to teach other the other skills (e.g, listening, speaking, and writing).

The general answer that we came up with in the training (and before in the original reading workshop trainings in  Fairfax County in 2004 and 2005) was to talk about the need for balance with the skills and with the activities in class—all reflecting learners’ expressed needs and paying attention to intake and in-class evaluation of learners’ English proficiency

-- Is a teacher supposed to get all the elements of good reading instruction (schema activation, phonological processing, vocabulary recognition, syntactic procesing) in every reading lesson?

Trainers thought that this question could be answered by saying that based on the text and learners' needs and interests, the amount or importance of the elements would vary

 

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For more information about the CAELA state capacity building initiative and the upcoming CAELA Guide, please email caela@cal.org