Upcoming Conferences & Workshops

Supporting Newcomers In Our     Schools

with Barbara Marler

From Newcomer to Leader: Creating the Infrastructure for Success

The unique needs newcomers and their families bring to the schoolhouse door can be different from those to which we're accustomed, requiring us to adapt our approach. Sometimes, their needs and their concerns are ones that we have not previously contemplated at any time in our careers or in other cases, we have faint memories of a time long before when we were called upon to usher in brand new members of our school and classroom communities.

In most cases, our current systems of support are coming up short in meeting these needs. We feel the need to shore up what we have; it is just not passing muster. We need to make our support systems more equitably robust, more culturally relevant, and more linguistically responsive for the newcomers in our care. Tweaking existing support systems and establishing some new support systems is the solution: creating the infrastructure that will support and advance excellent teaching and instruction is our responsibility.

Participants will:

• Review current their repertoire of language assistance services (bilingual, ESL, and dual language programming), as well as their current menu of student support services.
• Gain new or refreshed insights and skill sets to help them tweak current support systems and/or design new support systems to better meet the needs of newcomers and their families in their care.
• Identify ways to optimize these systems and reallocate resources to better meet newcomers’ needs.
• Leave the workshop with beginning action plans that fully support their newcomers’ orientation, acclimation, and acculturation efforts, lay the foundation for newcomers’ optimal language development and academic growth, and create fertile ground for belonging and future student leadership.

Barbara Marler has 40+ years in bilingual/ESL education as a national-level consultant in ESL/Bilingual/Dual Language education, cabinet-level administrator, and K-8 teacher. In the 1990s, Dr. Marler conceptualized and supervised a separate-site Title VII Newcomer Program in the northwest suburbs that served as a model for the state and the nation. As a result, she served as a liaison and advisor to ISBE and Illinois public schools in the early 2000s on the topic of newcomers. More recently, she led her former district in the development of an overlay of newcomer services in response to a sudden influx and since retirement has been consulting with multiple districts and entities on the topic of newcomers. A published author, Barbara specializes in the areas of ESL/Bilingual program design, MTSS & SPED for Multilingual Learners, valid and reliable assessment plans for Multilingual Learners, and manageable program evaluation protocols for TBE/TPI programming. Dr. Marler holds a doctorate in Educational Change Leadership and has licenses in the superintendency, general supervision, elementary education, and ESL.

Audience: District and building leadership: central office assistance superintendents and directors, principals, assistant principals, deans, lead teachers, building leadership team members, interventionists and instructional coaches.

Supporting Newcomers In Our Classrooms

with Carly Spina

Come explore the unique academic and SEL needs of our newcomer students. Learn and practice inclusive structures and routines, instructional moves and strategies, and tools that provide meaningful supports to students across grade levels and content areas. Strategies will include Total Physical Response (TPR), Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM), Sentence Patterning, This or That structures, Language Experience Approach (LEA), and other innovative ideas.

Harness strategic use of translation and interpretation (and their limitations!), tech tools and resources (with time to practice and design), and have embedded time to collaborate and share ideas. Teams may be seated together to help facilitate job-embedded discussions and implementation planning. Master ways to move beyond our current practices to best reach, connect, and make an impact with our Multilingual/English learner students.

Participants will leave with a digital toolkit of resources to take back to their schools.

Carly Spina has 17 years of experience in Multilingual Education, including her service as an EL teacher, a third-grade bilingual classroom teacher, and a district-wide Multilingual Instructional Coach. She is currently a Multilingual Education Specialist at the Illinois Resource Center, providing quality professional learning opportunities and technical assistance support to educators and leaders across the state and beyond. Deeply passionate about equity and advocacy, Carly is an active member of the multilingual education professional learning community. She has spoken at various national conferences and events and has received several awards over the years. She is the author of Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners.

Audience: Teachers, instructional coaches, and curriculum administrators. PLC teams, assistant principals, principals, interventionists, lead teachers