Professional Development

The Training for All Teachers Program provides professional development to K-12, public school educators and administrators throughout Connecticut.

Our Basic Workshop

For educators with little to no training in best practices for ELs

The workshop consists of four stand-alone but interrelated modules and a follow-up applied component. Each module consists of 2.5 hours for a total of 10 hours of instruction, which can be delivered in two, three or four sessions. The topics of the modules are as follows:

1. Laying the Foundation: Debunking the Myths about English Learners
2. Making Content (Input) Comprehensible
3. Engaging the English Learners: Creating Opportunities for Interaction
4. Sheltered Instruction: Putting it All Together

By participating in the workshop, teachers will learn the best practices for English learners. They will learn how to make modifications in the curriculum in the content areas and instructional strategies to enhance opportunities for engagement for their ELs.

 

Man in classroom

 

Our Advanced Workshop

For completers of the Basic Workshop

In addition to the basic trainings listed above the Program offers an advanced training. The advanced training is comprised of four modules, each approximately 2.5 hours, which are interrelated, but not necessarily interdependent. Topics include: literacy development for English learners, assessment practices for English learners, peer coaching, and how to differentiate between learning disability and language development.

 

Teacher and students

Summer Curriculum Institutes

Given the reality that many school districts struggle with limited PD days and planning time for teachers, the training is offered during the summer.  The basic modules 1-4 are offered every summer as well as the more advanced modules.  Districts have creatively scheduled trainings overlapping with summer school to provide teachers the opportunity to register for weeklong sessions that combine two days of advanced training and direct application of their newly learned skills in the summer school classrooms with emergent bilinguals.

The summer curriculum institutes are intensive weeklong sessions where smaller groups of educators are paired with EL Coaches (veteran CT teachers w/ MS TESOL degree + certification) who provide support and feedback in lesson planning and delivery.  Teachers work collaboratively with their EL Coaches delivering during the morning summer school sessions and planning subsequent lessons in the afternoon on the remaining three days of the weeklong experience.  This model was launched three years ago and has been proven enormously successful for both teachers and administrators.  If interested in discussing this model, please contact Marisa Ferraro, ferrarom4@southernct.edu