Professional Development for Newcomer Teachers
Who: Mountain View Whisman School District (MVWSD) & Heartwise Learning
Goal: To help newcomer teachers kick-start their program by incorporating research-informed practices and strategies into their curriculum and planning.
Heartwise Teammate: Kendra Fehrer, PhD and Cristina Lash, PhD
This training series was designed to build teachers’ capacity to lead targeted instruction for newcomers in the inaugural year of MVWSD’s newcomer program in four elementary schools.
What We Did: We first systematically sought input from newcomer teachers and district administration to identify key areas of need and interest in professional development (PD) for teaching newcomer students. We then designed a customized year-long (14 sessions) PD series on research-based instructional strategies to support newcomer students’ connectedness, multilingual development, and engagement in academically rich content.
Each session built on teachers’ existing expertise by providing new knowledge, opportunities for ongoing discussion and reflection, concrete strategies, and time for collaboration, feedback, and experimentation with lesson planning (e.g. “lab time”). Heartwise instructors also modeled numerous “teacher moves” and sample lesson plans, as well as provided real examples from the field… all within a safe and trusting environment that supported teachers’ authentic learning and growth.
Results: Teachers left our series having developed the foundations of a comprehensive scope and sequence of lesson plans for the year, reflecting research on the science of learning and development, social-emotional learning, and multilingual development.
Teachers felt more confident in their newcomer teaching skills, including: supporting students’ L1 and L2 language use in the classroom (e.g. translanguaging); incorporating trauma-informed, resilience-building practices into academic lessons; and leveraging students’ social-, linguistic- and cultural-assets to strengthen English-language learning.
Teachers also reported that they had developed new habits to support their ongoing learning and resilience, and felt better equipped to support student connectedness and confidence.
Heartwise Presents…
Newcomer Teacher Professional Development Workshop Series
Newcomers–immigrants in their first years of U.S. schooling– are a fast growing population in schools across the country. Despite increasing representation in our school communities, many teachers and administrators struggle with effectively supporting our newest language learners.
Join a community of peers who care deeply about helping their newcomer students succeed in the classroom and beyond, as we better make our classrooms and schools work for our newest learners.
Participants will gain:
New knowledge and research-based strategies to help newcomers engage in grade-level content, in a safe and supportive environment.
Time to learn or strengthen newcomer teaching skills, such as:
differentiating grade-level instruction across different levels of English proficiency;
leveraging students’ home languages and building their linguistic toolbox on the way to learning English; and
incorporating students’ and families’ funds of knowledge to strengthen family partnerships and make learning engaging.
Sample lesson plans and activities that model differentiated instruction and asset-based curriculum.
Time to collaborate with other teachers and instructors on lesson planning and experimenting with new strategies for newcomers in a safe learning space.
