Winter doldrums relieved by a day of sunshine promising spring. What’s that Midwestern saying? If you don’t like the weather, just wait—it will change. Luckily weather has only affected one of our grant activities this year. Our second TACIT orientation had to be rescheduled because of the big December “blizzard” that closed schools throughout the state one lovely Friday morning. We rescheduled this group and met in January here in Bloomington. We are delighted to have ICP alumni, and other dedicated and enthusiastic Indiana teachers, moving into the TACIT program. Kathy Deckard will provide more TACIT information in her section of the newsletter.
Hope you are seeing good things with your students right now. This long stretch prior to spring break allows us an extended period to accomplish a lot because we have such few interruptions. Just think, if/when Indiana changes the ISTEP testing date, then we all would be looking forward to that rather than having an opportunity to really teach our kids.
 Here in Bloomington we are happily busy with our spring class and ICP Workshops. Such good forum discussions are certainly keeping all of the instructors on our toes. Thanks to everyone for so seriously grappling with the issues in the articles. We are anticipating a “great finale” from our last ICP cohort. Heather and LeeAnn are traveling to Indianapolis, Carmel, and Plymouth for SIOP Workshops and making alumni visits to last year’s cohort members, as well.
Reflections from Fall Professional Conferences:
 In November, the National Council of Teachers of English had its annual conference in Pittsburgh, PA. In the sessions dealing with ESL issues, I was glad to find that many of the experiences that we provide in our programs were affirmed. An unusual session, which included Yvonne and David Freeman and Dan-Ling Fu, was a panel and participant conversation on ESL issues in elementary and secondary classrooms. (TACIT participants have read the Freemans’ work in their courses.) It was quite a treat for classroom teachers to have first-hand access to these presenters. Another focus in several sessions was on the success of bilingual programs which help children become literate and academically successful both in English and in their first languages. This idea has become quite familiar to ICP folks this semester.
Those of us who are English-only speakers can be a bit intimidated by a bilingual program, but the bottom line, I believe, is to honor children’s home languages and cultures. Several of our participants have indicated how much kids appreciate teaching their teachers words in their own languages. The students do realize that our efforts are sincere, and this small act shows our respect for the experiences and knowledge that they bring to our classrooms.
 After Thanksgiving I headed to Washington, DC, for the OELA (Office of English Language Acquisition) Summit sponsored by the US Department of Education. (This is the agency that funds both the ICP and TACIT grants.) The focus of this conference was to showcase exemplary ESL programs, and there are definitely some good ones highlighted. Although most conferees were grant recipients, others came to find out how to put together a successful application for funding.
 The keynote speakers, Carlos Cortes, whose Jewish-Cuban heritage has greatly influenced his professional career; Harold Hodgkinson, who provided national demographics on immigrant students; and Janet Zadina, who demonstrated applications of brain-based learning In ESL contexts, were excellent, being both informative and entertaining.
 One very significant point that arose from Dr. Hodgkinson’s presentation had to do with the changing demographics of students who are entering US public schools today. He cautioned that as the population of our nation changes, teachers have a broad responsibility to educate citizens who are capable of playing active and well-informed roles in our society. The students in our classrooms today will soon be making decisions—or choosing not to—that will ultimately impact our lives, as well as their own. In other words, our young students need to become caring and compassionate people, as well as broadly literate citizens who can contribute to our society economically.
 We have been talking in our forums recently about broad definitions of literacy that encompass so much more than decoding and comprehension. Realizing the personal import of the demographic statistics Dr. Hodgkinson provided revealed to me a completely new urgency regarding how critical our role is in educating ELL’s.
The links below will provide background about the ideas shared by Cortes, Hodgkinson, and Zadina at the OELA Summit Conference.
Hodgkinson:
http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kgol0012.htm
http://www.doe.state.in.us/ipla/pdf/Notes-HHodgkinson.pdf
Cortes:
http://www.speakersrus.com/speakers/cortescarlos.htm
The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach About Diversity (Multicultural Education Series (New York, N.Y.).)
by Carlos E. Cortes ( Paperback - February 2000)
The Making and Remaking of a Multiculturalist (Multicultural Education, 13)
by Carlos E. Cortes ( Paperback - August 2002)
Zadina:
http://janetzadina.com/
http://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/T@S/2006/ZadinaSpeech.html |
