QTEL News: Working Together to Improve Lessons
As the leaves turn and the first quarter of the school year winds down, professional development calendars are filling up again. This month, we highlight a signature model we offer: Collaborative Lesson Inquiry Cycles (CLICs).
Teacher Corner
In this WestEd webinar, Haiwen Chu and Monique Evans unpack the Collaborative Lesson Inquiry Cycle (CLIC) model. During a CLIC, teacher teams plan a lesson together, observe and teach the lesson, and then debrief and refine the lesson together. CLICs bring to life ideas developed in QTEL’s Building the Base institute and offer teams a clear structure to improve together. In one Bay Area math classroom example, teachers watched students' language shift over a single lesson about rational functions—from everyday terms like “the U group” to precise vocabulary like “vertical asymptotes.” That shift matters because it provides evidence of deeper conceptual understanding taking hold in real time, not of just new words being memorized.
As one teacher who participated in a CLIC this fall put it, “This process helped me examine my instructional practices more closely and think intentionally about how I can create opportunities for students to use academic language, build on one another's ideas, and take greater ownership of their learning.”
Leading with Purpose
For leaders, CLICs offer something rarer than one good lesson: a repeatable structure for building shared teacher expertise. Haiwen Chu frames the model through five domains of teacher expertise—vision, knowledge, practice, motivation, and reflection—all surrounded by context. Lasting improvement happens when teachers reflect continually and collectively. In the featured example, a cohort of teachers engaged in three CLICs throughout the year; by the end, teachers described real shifts, moving away from individual worksheets toward tasks that require students to co-construct understanding together.
If your team has completed Building the Base and is ready for the next step, QTEL can help you design and facilitate a CLIC for your site—reach out to talk through what that could look like.
Watch the full webinar or read the transcript.
Team Highlights
Join our team at these upcoming conferences and webinar to explore practical approaches to supporting Multilingual Learners.
edWebinar
Presentation: Quality Math Talk for Grades 6–8: Building Curiosity and Risk-Taking, Not Anxiety
Presenters: Haiwen Chu, Lindsey Tropf
Date: Thursday, October 22nd
Time: 2:00 PM EDT
This free webinar explores classroom routines that foster curiosity, reasoning, and meaningful discussion in grades 6–8. Learn how approaches developed to support English Learners can create stronger learning opportunities for every student. Register here.
National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics
Presentation: Teacher-driven Capacity Building for Multilingual Learners: Collaborative Lesson Inquiry Cycles
Presenters: Haiwen Chu, Monique Evans
Date: Wednesday, October 28th
Time: 7:45 AM
Explore insights from over 15 cycles with 20 teachers in 3 districts engaging more than 200 students. Examine observation tools for quality interactions that drive iterative improvements as teachers lead the conversation.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Presentation: Engaging Multilingual Learners in Quality Interactions: Structured Sorting Tasks
Presenter: Monique Evans
Date: Thursday, October 29th
Time: 4:30 PM
Experience a sorting task and analyze how intentional design focused on structure, grouping, and language can support access to rigorous mathematics for Multilingual Learners.
Presentation: Activity Design to Broaden Participation for Multilingual Learners: Applying Basic Research to Classroom Practice
Presenters: Haiwen Chu, Monique Evans
Date: Friday, October 30th
Time: 8:00 AM
Learn how the structure of activities increases Multilingual Learner participation in discourse. Apply ideas about distributing information to amplify the language and learning opportunities of tasks.
CMC-South Mathematics Conference
Presentation: Jigsaw Projects to Challenge and Support Multilingual Learners
Presenter: Monique Evans
Date: Saturday, November 7th
Time: 12:15 PM
Expert jigsaws challenge and support Multilingual Learners to develop language while exploring math and building mathematical identity and authority. Experience an expert jigsaw and gain tools to design them for your classroom.
Upcoming Opportunities
2027 QTEL Winter Institutes
Join us at the 2027 QTEL Winter Institutes, January 11–14 in Washington, D.C. Choose from two institute offerings designed for educational leaders, instructional coaches, and educators committed to advancing learning for English and Multilingual Learners.
Plus, refer five or more colleagues from a neighboring district and earn institute credit for your district. Registration is now open, but spots are limited.
Choose from two institute offerings:
Leadership in English Learner Education: Designed for site and district leaders who want to deepen their understanding of high-quality instruction for English and Multilingual Learners and strengthen their capacity to lead instructional improvement efforts.
Coaching for QTEL Implementation: Designed for educators who have previously completed a QTEL Building the Base or disciplinary institute and are ready to expand their expertise in instructional coaching and QTEL implementation.
