Co-Teaching Clinical Practice Model: How California secondary teacher education

programs can address the needs of Long-Term English Language Learners

Anne Ren Elsbree, Pat Stall, Annette Daoud, California State University San Marcos
Critical Questions in Education Conference, San Diego February 16, 2015
Coursework
- Effective
Teaching

Digital Age
Teachers &
Learners

Dispositions

Social
Justice and
Equity

Clinical
Practice

1.

Faculty
Collaboraton

Co-Teaching Clinical Practice Model

a. Based on Special Education Co-Teaching Model (Villa, Thousand, & Nevin, 2013)
b. Co-Teaching Training & Co-Teaching Cycle: Plan, Teach/Assess, Reflect
http://community.csusm.edu/course/view.php?id=9

2.

Differentiation & Equitable Pedagogies

a. Teachers must know their EL students, select appropriate language and content
standards, and then select the proper resources and materials (Daoud, 2015)
b. Differentiate content, process & product based on student readiness - language
proficiency level, learning profile and interests (Tomlinson, 2004)
c. Differentiation process: 1) student information, 2) differentiation, 3) appropriateness of
differentiation, 4) assessment criteria, and 5) monitoring and adaptations (Elsbree,
Hernandez, & Daoud, 2015).

3.

Clinical Practice Supervision Supports

a.
b.
c.
d.

Cluster: Placed in cross subject area teams at school site (2 Schools: Fall/Spring)
Site Liaison: Teacher at school site supports teacher candidates
University Supervisor: Observes Co-Planning, Co-Teaching & Co-Reflection
Cooperating Teacher: Begins leading the planning and teaching, but slowly supports
teacher candidate to take lead in planning and teaching

Presentation Notes/Talking Points

We are professors that co-teach in a secondary education program in North San Diego
County. We partner with local school districts that serve up to 75% English language learners. Our
single subject program is a 5th year credential program that provides co-teaching clinical practice
over an entire academic school year. We focus on how to provide our teacher candidates the
knowledge and skills to support English language learners because educational legislation and
policy have failed our most vulnerable students.
The effects of the 1998 California Proposition 227: Anti-Bilingual Education Initiative divided
educational access, and as a result many Latino English learners were not provided effective
instruction and as a result were not making equal achievement gains as their English Only counter
parts. At the secondary level, the majority of English learners (ELs) can be characterized as long
term English learners. While there are variations in the definitions provided by researchers,
common characteristics of long term English learners or LTELs are: they have been enrolled in
U.S. schools for approximately 6 years or more; they generally have grade point averages of below
a 2.0; and they have not attained a proficiency level in reading and writing skills needed for
academic success in content area classes (Olsen, 2010). Long term English learners perform at
much lower academic levels than immigrant students who come to U.S. schools with a range of
prior schooling experiences from their home countries (Callahan, 2005). One challenge facing
secondary ELs is placement the classes in which they are placed are often not those, which are
required for future attendance in four-year colleges. Secondary English learners often take multiple
English as Second Language (ESL) or English language Development (ELD) classes thus limiting
their access to mainstream content classes (Barron & Sanchez, 2007; Callahan, 2005;
Rumberger & Gandara, 2004). Unfortunately, it is often the case that the curriculum in ESL or ELD
classes is not challenging enough or aligned to college-track classes for long term ELs to transfer
the information learned and be successful in their content area classes.
Additionally, the academic demands for secondary ELs in content area classes are much
more complex than those needed for success in elementary schools. At the secondary level,
content in textbooks and that presented in content area classes are done so through an
increasingly complex level of academic language or the specialized level of vocabulary, grammar
and skills of secondary content area classes. For secondary English learners, particularly long
term ELs, attaining and practicing a level of academic English is required for any level of success
in content area classes. Secondary ELs come to content area classes with a wide range of
backgrounds and experiences in school that require a varied level of scaffolding to access the
content. To help ELs be academically successful, content area teachers should understand their
students literacy and content knowledge, previous academic experience in U.S. schools and their
knowledge of the English language (Dutro & Kinsella, 2010).
Single Subject Program
- Social Justice and Equity at the Center
- Faculty Collaboration integrates coursework, dispositions, digital age teaching & learning
with major focus on clinical practice
Co-Teaching Clinical Practice Implementation
Co-Teaching Clinical Practice Model: Sp Ed model, CoTeach Training, Cylce
Differentiation & Equitable Pedagogies: Get to Know EL, Differentiation, Process
Clinical Practice Supervision Supports: cluster, onsite liaison, univ sup, coop tchr