STAFF DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING SERVICES
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Course 110: A Book Study, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Understanding the connection between language, literacy, and school achievement 
This book study of sociolinguist Brice Heath’s decade long study on the language patterns of 3 distinct socioeconomic groups provides a foundation to  understand how language significantly varies between cultural groups, how  language and the form of school (expected behaviors) of schooling is most closely aligned to students representing the mainstream culture, and how these differences have a profound effect on school achievement. ​

Course 120: A Workshop, Culturally Responsive Teaching: Understanding the connection between language, literacy, and school achievement
This workshop presents the work of sociolinguists Shirley Brice Heath, James Paul Gee, Annette Laureau, and educationalists Lisa Delpit, Courtney Cazden among others, to provide a foundational understanding as to how language varies between cultural groups, how language and the form of school (expected behaviors) of schooling is most closely aligned to students representing the mainstream culture, and how these differences have a profound effect on school achievement. ​

Course 210: Academic Language: An Introduction
This workshop provides an overview of the language of school. Jim Cummins’ work in Cognitive Academic Language (CALP) and Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) will be presented as a foundation to explain the differences between social and academic language along with the research of Frances Christie and Beverly Derewianka which provides a trajectory of the expected development of academic language in school. Staff will interact with a variety of text, including that from their own curriculum, and will work to deautomatize their own comprehension of complex text. ​

Course 220A: Academic Language: Accessing Resources to Develop Language Objectives that Support Content Objectives
All teachers are language teachers. Learn how to accelerate academic growth for English Learners and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CAD) students by teaching language through the content. In this part 1 of 2 workshop series, participants will become familiar with WIDA Consortium resources and the English Language Development (ELD) Standards. This knowledge will be used in course 220B to write language objectives that support the content standards and objectives. 

Course 220B: Academic Language: Writing Language Objectives to Support Content Standards and Objectives
The vehicle of all instruction regardless of content area is language. To successfully teach the content, we cannot assume proficiency in the language of instruction for all students. Thus, all teachers are language teachers. Learn how to accelerate English Learners’ and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse students’ academic growth by teaching language through the content. In this part 2 of language objectives workshop series, participants use their knowledge of the levels of language, the ELD standards, and other WIDA consortium resources to write language objectives that support content standards and objectives.  
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Course 310: Breaking Down Academic Language:  A Focus on Vocabulary
This course uses Isabel Beck and Margaret McKeown’s work in tiered vocabulary instruction to determine what words from the content curriculum provide the greatest utility to accelerate student growth. Universal themes are introduced to further enhance vocabulary selection by drawing connections across disciplines and cultures. A variety of research based progress monitoring and assessment strategies are learned and practiced. 

Course 320: Breaking Down Academic Language:  A Focus on Oral Language Discourse
This course focuses on the speaking and listening patterns of academic and social conversations. By dissecting their own conversational patterns, participants learn and apply strategies to develop students’ conversational skills as a way to foster academic language and thought. Traditional cooperative learning strategies are re-analyzed to include explicit teaching of the expected academic discourse patterns. 

Course 330: Breaking Down Academic Language:  A Focus on Language Organization (Syntax)
This course demonstrates how language organization, or syntax, adds a critical layer of text complexity in academic language which impacts comprehension of text. An interactive functional review of basic English grammar provides a strong knowledge base for participants. Specific strategies are then studied to teach participants’ students to read closely for syntax patterns in order for them to successfully comprehend complex text of the varying content areas.
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Course 340: Breaking Down Academic Language:  A Focus on Text Organization (Linguistic Genre)
This course explores the 14 linguistic genres  identified by extensive linguistic research as the most common text types used in English speaking schools. Participants will use their knowledge of syntax from course 330 to identify the grammatical patterns along with text organization patterns to categorize the texts they use in their curriculum. Strategies are applied to teach these common text types to reduce the students’ cognitive load when approaching and comprehending text. Genre based rubrics are presented as progress monitoring tools for productive and receptive skills.  
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