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** University of Massachusetts Boston **

** Graduate College of Education **

** EDC G 649: Sheltered English Instruction (SEI) for Urban Mainstream Teachers **

** Summer 2011 **

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Welcome to EDC G 649, Sheltered English Instruction (SEI) for Urban Mainstream Teachers. The goal of this course is to provide you with the tools you need to make research-based decisions regarding English Language Learners (ELLs) in your school or district. To that end, the course will answer some key questions: =====


 * ===== Who are the ELLs in our districts; what are their assets and needs? What can we learn from them about ourselves, our systems, our cultures, power, legitimizing myths, identity, and what counts as knowledge, learning, and good instruction? =====


 * ===== How do students learn second languages? How can our classrooms and districts support that learning? =====


 * ===== How do we help ELLs to be successful in mainstream classrooms? =====


 * ===== How do we observe and analyze ELL instruction in ways that can provide dynamic, useful feedback for our teachers? =====

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By the end of this course, you will see yourself as necessary, and (I hope) passionate teachers of English language. No matter what content you or your colleagues teach, this course will show how the demographics of our districts have inaugurated you an English teacher. Many of us have not been prepared for such a role; we might balk at the idea of teaching reading, writing, or speaking while also juggling the demands of our course content. This class will honor those tensions while challenging assumptions about ELLs and how best to instruct them. =====

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This course will encourage you to leverage your classroom and school leadership for the benefit of one of the most misunderstood and maligned student populations—the ELL population. It is my firm belief that we have the honor to learn from these students, to raise the bar of our instructional practices, and to make wiser decisions about how to work with them. I hope you’ll join me this semester as we read the research, meet ELLs in our districts, plan effective lessons, and observe sheltered instruction classrooms. Let’s work together to uncover the benefits of ELLs in our schools and our districts. =====