Orchestrating classroom interactions that significantly improve an English learners’ second language and literacy skills is both a science and an art. Simply providing text-dependent questions and opportunities to “turn and talk” with peers never yields impressive results. Students at every age and reading level serve to gain from informed guidance in targeted language to achieve a range of communicative goals within lesson interactions, from justifying points of view to comparing and building upon others’ ideas.
In this recorded edWebinar, drawing on extensive experience serving bilingual-bicultural youths and English learners in both elementary and secondary classrooms, Dr. Kate Kinsella details the language demands posed by text-dependent scholarly interactions, and provides classroom-tested guidance and practical resources to help all students become more agile and confident communicators.
While this edWebinar was presented to an audience of educators in Latin America, and may include specific regional references to such, educators worldwide are welcome to join and benefit from learning of the tools and resources available to enhance academic interactions with English learners.
About the Presenters
Kate Kinsella, Ed.D. is an emeritus teacher educator at San Francisco State University and a highly sought-after speaker and consultant to school districts within and outside of the U.S. Her 30-year career focus has been equipping youths from diverse backgrounds with the academic communication, reading, and writing skills to be truly college ready. A teacher’s teacher, Dr. Kinsella maintains active K-12 classroom involvement by writing curricula, conducting research, teaching demonstration lessons, and coaching teachers and administrators. She is the author of multiple widely used instructional programs to support English learners and striving readers, including READ 180, English 3D, Language Launch, and the Academic Vocabulary Toolkit. Dr. Kinsella has served as the lead scholar and pedagogy guide on three recent successful U.S. Department of Education-funded research initiatives to improve educational outcomes for K-12 multilingual learners.
Samuel Roman has more than 20 years of experience in education. He served as an English as a foreign language teacher working with students with young children, teenagers and adults. He later became Educational Consultant and Teacher Trainer for an international educational publishing company. Shortly after moving to Guatemala, he joined Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2016 and is currently Territory Lead for Latin America.