ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCES
RESOURCES | ONLINE LEARNING RESOURCES
In light of the current health crisis and the move to distance learning, the QTEL initiative at Wested has initiated a project of transforming lessons and other helpful materials in to a digital format keeping QTEL's key idea of fostering quality interactions in mind.
We hope you find these materials useful in your teaching practice and are eager to hear your feedback.
HOW TO SUPPORT ENGLISH LEARNERS IN DISTANCE LEARNING?
Remote learning has become the new normal, and educators have been racing to best serve students in distance learning environments. Among these students, English Learners are a group that will require rigorous, well supported content instruction with ample opportunities for language development so that they are not left behind. While multiple organizations have offered extensive lists of resources, educators need to consider how these resources meet the needs for English Learners by asking themselves,
“What does this resource offer that can benefit English Learners?”
The Quality Teaching for English Learners' initiative at WestEd encourages you to keep the focus on the instructional methods that teachers employ in a distance learning format rather than the specific tools and platforms.
With that in mind, here are a few suggestions on how to support your English Learners in distance learning.
SUPPORTING ENGLISH LEARNERS DURING SCHOOL CLOSURES CONSIDERATIONS FOR DESIGNING DISTANCE LEARNING EXPERIENCES
While a fair amount is known about effective instructional practices for students who are English learners, less is known about how these practices might look different in a distance learning context compared to the classroom.
This brief, produced by QTEL's Elsa Billings and WestEd's Rachel Lagunoff as part of a collection of Crisis Response Resources, is designed to help educators make this critical shift from in-person learning to distance learning. It does so by identifying and explaining the value of four key practices that are known to be effective in meeting the instructional needs of English learner students.
After describing each practice and providing illustrative examples of what the practice can look like in a standard classroom, the brief offers some suggestions for how the practice might be applied in different types of distance learning contexts.
DIGITAL CURRICULUM
Persuasion Across Time and Space
These lessons created by QTEL and developed under the auspices of the Understanding Language initiative at Stanford have been adapted to be used in a remote learning environment. The materials are licensed under Creative Commons for reuse with attribution.
We offer the materials in easily accessible digital formats that can be freely copied and used with classes of students. At the same time, we offer a range of flexible options for fostering interaction among students.