Agenda Monterey, CA September 14–16

Wednesday, September 14

6:30–8:00 a.m. Registration

x Continental Breakfast

8:00–10:00 a.m.

Introduction—Luis F. Cruz

x Keynote—Anthony Muhammad Overcoming the Achievement Gap Trap: Eliminating Bias and Ensuring Equity

10:00–10:15 a.m. Break

10:15–11:45 a.m. Breakouts

11:45 a.m.–1:15 p.m. Lunch (on your own)

1:15–2:45 p.m. Breakouts

2:45–3:00 p.m. Break

3:00–4:30 p.m. Breakouts

Thursday, September 15

7:00–8:00 a.m. Registration

x Continental Breakfast

8:00–9:30 a.m. Keynote—Luis F. Cruz Why the Urgency to Eliminate the Achievement Gap for Latino and Hispanic Students?

x

9:30–9:45 a.m. Break

9:45–11:15 a.m. Breakouts

11:15 a.m.–12:45 p.m. Lunch (on your own)

12:45–2:15 p.m. Breakouts

2:15–2:30 p.m. Break

2:30–3:30 p.m. Panel Discussion A Q&A time with presenters. Receive practical answers to your most pressing questions.

x

Friday, September 16

7:00–8:00 a.m. Continental Breakfast x

8:00–10:00 a.m.

Interactive Keynote & Team Planning Time—Luis F. Cruz & W. Richard Smith En la Unión Está la Fuerza: Working Together to Eliminate the Achievement Gap for Latino and Hispanic Students

x

10:00–10:15 a.m. Break

10:15–11:30 a.m. Team Sharing and Closing Keynote—Luis F. Cruz & W. Richard Smith Closing the Knowing–Doing Gap: Developing Next Steps

x

Breakouts at a Glance

Presenter & Title Wednesday, September 14 Thursday, September 15

10:15–11:45 a.m.

1:15–2:45 p.m.

3:00–4:30 p.m.

9:45–11:15 a.m.

12:45–2:15 p.m.

Margarita Espino Calderón

Teaching Language, Literacy, and Content to Newcomers in Secondary Schools

x

Teaching Drafting, Revising, and Editing in Grades K–12

x

Teaching Vocabulary and Discourse in Grades 6–12

x

Instructional Strategies to Teach Reading to ELs

x

A Whole-School Approach to EL Success

x

Luis F. Cruz

What Does an Inclusive, Healthy School Culture Look Like for Latino and Hispanic Students?

x

Seven Golden Rules for Latino and Hispanic Parents in the 21st Century

x

A Hands-On Experience: The School We Have Versus the School We Need

x

The Role of the Site Leader in Predominantly Latino/Hispanic Schools

x

Parents Can Contribute to Effective Implementation in the Common Core

x

Alicia Duncan

Strategic Oral Language Development for Young Learners at School and Home

x

But What Can They Do? Assessment, Progress Monitoring, and Goal Setting

x

Filling the Gaps and Holes: Building Background for Elementary Learners

x

Filling the Gaps and Holes: Building Background for Secondary Learners

x

Your Brain on Culture x

Linda Mira & Laura Reyes

Using Tiered Vocabulary in K–5 to Summarize Informational Text

x

Using SDAIE Strategies to Support the Needs of Your K–5 English Learners

x x

Using Visuals to Build Vocabulary: From Pictorial to Writing in Grades K–5

x

Student-Driven Text Talk in Grades K–5

x

Visualizing to Comprehend Literature

x

Hector Montenegro

Parent–Teacher Home Visits: Ensuring Meaningful Communication With Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Parents

x

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and English Learners (ELs): Strategies That Ensure Success for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations

x

Creating Powerful Parents Through Thinking and Learning

x

Anthony Muhammad

All Means All: Creating an Egalitarian Culture

x

Elephants in the Room: Eliminating Barriers to Effective Collaboration

x

W. Richard Smith

Meaningful Parent Involvement Focused on Love, Support, and the Future

x

Moving the Long-Term English Learner (LTEL) to Meaningful Fluency: The Critical Challenge for California Schools

x

Agenda is subject to change.

Session Descriptions

Margarita Espino Calderón Teaching Language, Literacy, and Content to Newcomers in Secondary Schools Newcomers are a diverse group of students entering upper elementary or secondary grades. Some are highly schooled and others have had limited or no previous education. Margarita Espino Calderón presents instructional strategies that help teachers integrate vocabulary, reading, and writing to accelerate learning. Learning outcomes:

Acquire the understanding to pre-teach vocabulary as a precursor to reading.

Learn strategies to integrate a newcomer into reading pairs.

Gain tools to initiate writing. Teaching Drafting, Revising, and Editing in Grades K–12 English learners can develop writing skills from the day they arrive in school. Margarita Espino Calderón shares evidence-based instructional strategies that engage beginning writers in expository and narrative text structures. Participants learn how to use a variety of strategies to help students:

Compose a first draft.

Revise and edit through fun activities.

Write a powerful conclusion and a great title. Teaching Vocabulary and Discourse in Grades 6–12 All students need to learn academic language—early and aggressively. If ELs need to learn 3,000 to 5,000 words per year to keep up with mainstream students, it is necessary to have a systematic way to teach words during each lesson. Participants learn how to:

Select Tier 1, 2, and 3 words and phrases that undergird mastery of more words.

Pre-teach five words or phrases in 10 minutes at the beginning of each lesson.

Teach more words and phrases during and after reading. Instructional Strategies to Teach Reading to ELs In response to the diversity of ELs’ language and literacy skills, Margarita Espino Calderón offers instructional approaches that work with different levels of proficiency. Participants experience how reading instruction can reach ELs and all students in a classroom before reading, during reading, and after reading. A Whole-School Approach to EL Success Due to the ever-growing number of ELs and non-ELs not reading at grade level, schools are turning to whole-school approaches focusing on professional development on EL instruction for all teachers,

administrators, counselors, and parents. When all receive the same information that develops new knowledge and skills relevant to ELs’ improvement in academic language, literacy, and all subjects, ELs and all students accelerate their learning. In this session, participants:

Using specific tools, analyze the basic components already in place and those to be addressed.

Recognize instructional strategies that can also be used by counselors.

Identify instructional strategies that can also be used by parents.

Luis F. Cruz Keynote: Why the Urgency to Eliminate the Achievement Gap for Latino and Hispanic Students? The Latino and Hispanic student population continues to grow, yet these students continue to have the highest high school dropout rates of all ethnicities in the United States. What consequences does this pose for the nation’s future? Is there a solution? How must schools and districts reculture and restructure to meet the needs of all students? Dr. Luis F. Cruz kicks off the institute by making a strong case that the achievement gap for Latino and Hispanic students must be eliminated. In this keynote participants:

Get a glimpse into the latest research that shows why closing the achievement gap for Latino and Hispanic students must be a priority in US schools.

Become acquainted with best practices to achieve this aim—practices that will be emphasized throughout the institute.

Gain exposure to a multi-dimensional approach to eliminating the achievement gap for Latino and Hispanic students.

What Does an Inclusive, Healthy School Culture Look Like for Latino and Hispanic Students? While a multitude of schools and districts around the nation have focused their efforts on purchasing a “silver bullet” program to instantly increase learning for Latino and Hispanic students, high levels of learning for these students can only be found within the context of culture within organizations. The key to generating a “healthy school culture” focused on the achievement of Latino and Hispanic students is found in the collective attitude, expectations, and values that adults in the building have toward them. How do prevailing sentiments influence policies, practices, and procedures affecting these students? How does leadership mold the collective mindset of educators and generate an innate desire to increase learning for these students? Dr. Luis F. Cruz describes the organizational steps necessary to generate high levels of learning for all learners, especially those of Latino or Hispanic descent. Learning outcomes:

Recognizing what is meant by “healthy” and “toxic” school cultures that positively or negatively affect learning for Latino and Hispanic students

Identifying how school culture influences the policies, practices, and procedures that work for or against the academic achievement of Latino and Hispanic students

Understanding how effective leadership ensures the formation of a healthy school culture designed to generate high levels of learning for all students

Seven Golden Rules for Latino and Hispanic Parents in the 21st Century The research on Latino and Hispanic student achievement has identified effective parent involvement as a key ingredient. But what does effective parent involvement look like in the 21st century? How do schools work with diverse Latino/Hispanic parent populations to generate partnerships that promote learning for these students? Do we seek parental involvement or parental empowerment? Dr. Luis F. Cruz draws on his experience as an academic scholar and successful educational practitioner to provide participants with simple yet effective steps in interacting with parents at the school or district level. Participants at this session:

Learn an effective way to serve diverse parent communities via an easy-to-use, color-coding system.

Explore structures to create partnerships between schools and Latino/Hispanic parents.

Learn the seven essential skills for parents that generate and sustain academic success. A Hands-On Experience: The School We Have Versus the School We Need Dr. Luis Cruz leads participants through a guided experience of taking a hard look at the school or district they represent and envisioning the school that students need to be successful. Learning outcomes include:

Examining hard truths within schools that inhibit Latino and Hispanic student progress

Identifying key stakeholders in the community who can work as partners

Acquiring strategies for developing a school where all students are successful The Role of the Site Leader in Predominantly Latino/Hispanic Schools Research confirms that the role of the principal is essential in ensuring the academic success of Latino and Hispanic students. Today, principals need to focus their attention on distributing leadership throughout the organization. Effective leadership in schools today must extend beyond the principal to include a team of educators focused on generating influence, productivity, and support throughout the organization. But what does a team of educator leaders look like? Who constitutes this type of team? And, more importantly, what purpose do members of this team promote? Dr. Luis F. Cruz provides insights on the type of site leadership that is needed to generate high evidence of learning for Latino and Hispanic students. As a result of this session, participants:

Are encouraged to redefine leadership as a collective rather than individual focus.

Learn what effective leadership entails.

Recognize the practical steps teams must take to increase specific aspects of learning for Latino and Hispanic students.

Parents Can Contribute to Effective Implementation in the Common Core Administrators and teachers are preparing to implement the Common Core, but parents can also play an important role. Luis F. Cruz has worked with parent communities nationwide to implement the four Cs of the Common Core: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Creating a three-

pronged approach, with administrators, teachers, and parents, schools can best prepare students for success within the Common Core. As a result of this session, participants:

Learn how to prepare their own children or prepare parents to work with their children to foster thinking skills and promote Common Core implementation.

Identify resources parents can provide in school reform efforts.

Recognize the importance of including diverse parent communities in educational reform efforts.

Luis F. Cruz & W. Richard Smith Keynote: En la Unión Está la Fuerza: Working Together to Eliminate the Achievement Gap for Latino and Hispanic Students This institute unveils the dire need for a multifaceted approach that schools seeking to eliminate the achievement gap for Latino and Hispanic students might take. In this interactive and team-planning session, Luis F. Cruz and W. Richard Smith initiate a conversation with participants to further clarify the importance that leadership, instruction, parent involvement, and social-emotional learning play in increasing learning for all students, specifically Latino and Hispanic students.

Learning outcomes:

Discovering means to eliminate the achievement gap for Latino and Hispanic students

Gaining insights on the role leadership, instruction, parent education, and social-emotional learning play in eliminating the achievement gap for Latino and Hispanic students

Beginning the process of developing an action plan and understanding the urgency of reculturing at schools and districts

Keynote: Closing the Knowing–Doing Gap: Developing Next Steps If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. This is the theme of the closing keynote and team-sharing time. Teams have an opportunity to begin formulating an action plan to implement back at their school or district. Luis F. Cruz and W. Richard Smith provide guidance to ensure the learning and strategies attained at this institute are transformed into action when participants return to their site.

Participants at this session:

Work collaboratively to develop an action plan for implementation upon their return.

Identify individuals and teams to spearhead the implementation of knowledge and strategies learned at this institute.

Gain advice and support from the presenters at the close of the institute.

Alicia Duncan Strategic Oral Language Development for Young Learners at School and Home The development of oral language is well-documented as an indicator for future success in literacy and academic language development. In this session, Alicia Duncan moves from theory to application as participants analyze the types of languages students must develop, plan ways to enhance descriptive,

explanatory, and narrative language, and prepare students’ language for literacy. Parent resources for supporting language development and support materials for parent education are provided. Participants at this session:

Use an oral language rubric to analyze the language growth of ELs.

Identify key teaching strategies to move students to higher levels of proficiency.

Plan the integration of oral language development into preexisting classroom structures. But What Can They Do? Assessment, Progress Monitoring, and Goal Setting Can-do descriptors help educators focus on strength-based instruction by identifying, planning, and grouping students based on what they can do. This key instructional resource has been expanded and revised in 2016. Alicia Duncan shares ways to fully use the descriptors to support planning and monitoring language growth for students. Participants at this session:

Explore the key uses of can-do descriptors.

Identify and intentionally group sample students based on language development.

Track student progress and set goals for moving them to higher levels of proficiency. Filling the Gaps and Holes: Building Background for Elementary Learners Elementary-level students with limited or interrupted formal schooling face additional challenges mastering content along with learning English. In this session, targeted toward elementary-level educators and administrators, participants look at several ways to build background knowledge based on student experiences, previous learning, and prerequisite vocabulary to access elementary content. Learning outcomes:

Establishing an instructional toolkit with various ways to build background knowledge

Examining example anticipation guides for elementary students

Planning differentiated anticipation guides for varied levels of proficiency that can be implemented immediately

Filling the Gaps and Holes: Building Background for Secondary Learners Secondary students with limited or interrupted formal schooling face additional challenges in mastering content along with learning English. In this session, targeted toward secondary-level educators and administrators, participants look at several ways to build background knowledge based on student experiences, previous learning, and prerequisite vocabulary to access secondary content. Learning outcomes:

Establishing an instructional toolkit with various ways to build background knowledge

Examining example anticipation guides for secondary students

Planning differentiated anticipation guides for varied levels of proficiency that can be implemented immediately

Your Brain on Culture How do cultures shape brains and brains shape cultures? How do we respond as educators and parents to the changing nature of the brain as it is exposed to various cultural environments? Neuroscientists are discovering through brain imaging that culture goes beyond observable behaviors; culture affects how our brains function. In this session, participants explore the deep cultural values that are often invisible but affect students’ perceptions of school, classrooms, and learning. Learning outcomes:

Understand the hidden “deep” cultural values of various learners.

Examine how cultural values play out in the classroom and family structures.

Plan for incorporating dynamic interactions and structures for giving students the tools they need to navigate cultural diversity.

Linda Mira & Laura Reyes Using Tiered Vocabulary in K–5 to Summarize Informational Text Linda Mira and Laura Reyes offer instructional strategies to give Latino and Hispanic students the autonomy and confidence to interact and collaborate using deep word knowledge in a classroom setting. These techniques change students’ perspectives of writing and build their ability to articulate themselves through writing with certainty. This session explains how through rich vocabulary and graphic organizers Latino and Hispanic students can produce writing pieces of which they can be proud. Participants learn simple and effective instructional strategies to:

Equip students with skills necessary to summarize informational text by analyzing text structure.

Involve students in discussions centered around rich vocabulary.

Incorporate tiered vocabulary in discussions that engage students and provide them with a knowledge base for writing.

Using SDAIE Strategies to Support the Needs of Your K–5 English Learners This session exposes participants to a variety of SDAIE (Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English) strategies that can be used across the curriculum to move Latino and Hispanic students into, through, and beyond instruction. Using SDAIE, educators can make content instruction comprehensible and core curriculum accessible for English learners by promoting communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. These strategies give Latino and Hispanic students multiple opportunities to share and collaborate confidently with peers in a safe environment by lowering their affective filter. Using Visuals to Build Vocabulary: From Pictorial to Writing in Grades K–5 Learning vocabulary is an ongoing process for Latino and Hispanic students achieved through authentic interaction, systematic repetition, and context. Students can also retain vocabulary they find useful and relevant to their subject matter through visuals, context, cooperative learning, and technology. Exposure to rich vocabulary and opportunities to interact collaboratively equip students with the tools needed to articulate their thoughts in writing. Participants learn:

Simple and effective instructional strategies to build vocabulary using easy, accessible visuals

How to involve students in discussions centered around rich vocabulary

How to incorporate rich vocabulary and graphic organizers that will engage students and provide them basics to develop a well-published writing piece

Student-Driven Text Talk in Grades K–5 Environments full of rich, student-driven discussions substantially increase learning for Latino and Hispanic students at the elementary level. Linda Mira and Laura Reyes provide participants with protocols to create discussions that increase students’ opportunities to communicate and collaborate. These discussions create a rigorous learning environment of engagement and participation in which students think critically and build on one another’s ideas. Visualizing to Comprehend Literature Students who visualize as they read can recall what they have read for longer periods of time by using words to create mental images. Visualizing also engages students in meaningful reading experiences that encourage them to continue. This session provides participants with a variety of hands-on visualizing tasks that help increase reading comprehension for Latino and Hispanic students.

Hector Montenegro Parent–Teacher Home Visits: Ensuring Meaningful Communication With Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Parents Based on Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, school districts must take affirmative steps to ensure students with limited English proficiency can meaningfully participate in educational programs and services. Consequently, school districts and schools feel responsible to develop meaningful communication with parents of ELs in a language they can understand and to adequately notify parents of information about programs and services available in the school. In districts across the country, teachers are participating in model in-home visits. Unlike home visit programs that focus on truancy and behavioral issues, these visits are aimed exclusively at opening communications with parents of ELs and culturally diverse populations. This new focus seeks to narrow the teacher–parent divide while providing teachers glimpses into factors that shape student learning before and after school. In this session, participants:

Identify the evidence-based process for model parent–teacher home visits.

Recognize the resources that make this program successful.

Gain strategies to ensure their program has success similar to that shown by preliminary research: better attendance, higher test scores for ELs and diverse populations, greater parental involvement, fewer suspensions and expulsions, and increased parent–teacher trust.

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and English Learners (ELs): Strategies That Ensure Success for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Populations It is essential to focus on students’ social and emotional development and the learning preferences of ELs while working on rigorous standards. All students need to feel their culture and language are valued

while educators ensure a sense of belonging and opportunities to contribute to their school. Instructional approaches that afford students opportunities to practice SEL competencies result in intrinsic motivation, a safe and caring learning environment, peer and family engagement, and improved classroom management and teaching practices. This session introduces the five SEL core competencies and demonstrates how to integrate these competencies into every classroom. In this session, participants come to:

Understand SEL core competencies and their importance on student achievement.

Recognize school-based structures that produce an inclusive culture for ELs.

Acquire strategies for integrating self-management, relationship skills, and decision making in the classroom.

Creating Powerful Parents Through Thinking and Learning Increasing the levels of parent engagement among the underserved EL population has gone largely unimplemented by key education reformers (Ramirez, 2010). There are too few capacity-building models that result in sustainable knowledge for parents and equitable partnerships among Hispanic parents, their EL children, and the schools their children attend (Tierno, 2016). Hector Montenegro focuses on a new study on parent training engaging brain-based learning with 40 Hispanic mothers in the second fastest growing city on the border, Laredo, Texas. The experience formulated over nine months became a life-changing experience as noted by the parents who shared the tremendous new thinking and learning, what it meant to them, and how it created the secondary impact on the learning of their EL children and families. Participants learn:

How to highly engage school communities and Latino and Hispanic parents for thinking and learning improvement of their EL children.

The highly interactive and exciting, practical and brain focused activities that build on how the brain forms thinking and develops learning using a myriad of quick and easy activities from hi-tech to low-tech!

How to scaffold brain-based learning activities with key strategies that will help parents to build purpose, develop social capital responsibility, develop emotional responsibility and focus on how to build their thinking skills in order to help their children’s.

Anthony Muhammad Keynote: Overcoming the Achievement Gap Trap: Eliminating Bias and Ensuring Equity In this keynote, Anthony Muhammad addresses the reality of social biases manifested in educational practice. The achievement gaps we observe in schools indicate a larger social bias which, if not acknowledged and addressed, will continue to leave millions of children behind. Race and culture don’t determine student success, but educator attitudes and assumptions about race and culture doubtlessly have a bearing on student success. Learning objectives:

Understanding how socially constructed norms create school expectations for Latino and Hispanic students

Recognizing how biased policies and structures perpetuate achievement gaps

Acquiring strategies to challenge and change these norms in theory and practice All Means All: Creating an Egalitarian Culture This session addresses the behaviors of a transformational leader. Anthony Muhammad discusses the issue of staff resistance to change and the leader’s role in building consensus. He addresses four key areas: communication, emotional intelligence, training support, and accountability. As a result of this session, participants learn:

How to build consensus for change

How to construct and protect productive collaborative relationships

The balance between support and accountability Elephants in the Room: Eliminating Barriers to Effective Collaboration Many educators are placed into teams, but due to personal and professional drama that prevents them from focusing on students’ needs, may never make progress. A house divided cannot stand! Anthony Muhammad leads an examination of psychological and sociological barriers that can arise and interfere with a school’s or a team’s ability to move forward. As a result of this session, participants clearly understand what it takes to create a highly collaborative culture. Other learning outcomes include:

Recognizing the barriers to effective collaboration

Gaining strategies on how to prevent and overcome these barriers

Leaving with practical tools to immediately address issues that hinder progress

W. Richard Smith Meaningful Parent Involvement Focused on Love, Support, and the Future Parent involvement is a critical building block in English learners’ growth and development, but how do educators develop it? W. Richard Smith presents proven strategies and approaches that promote and deepen parent support for English learners and focus parental love and dreams toward defining the future with and for their children. Participants learn how to develop successful and meaningful parental involvement beyond the primary years and into high school using explicit outcomes. Moving the Long-Term English Learner (LTEL) to Meaningful Fluency: The Critical Challenge Long-term English Learners (LTEL) have finally been recognized as a subgroup of students who desperately need our focus and support. W. Richard Smith presents strategies and programmatic approaches that define the learning needs of LTEL students and promote learning and language development. Emphasis is placed on differentiation strategies and expended learning for these students.

Learning outcomes:

Leave with researched-based progress monitoring and a data-based focus for LTEL students.

Learn how a professional learning community approach focused on best practices, differentiation, and intense interventions works with LTELs.

Gain insight into the district and school-wide supports and strategies to address LTEL students from Pre-school through high school.