Methods used to teach English learners Methods used to teach English learners (March 25, 2005)

In August 2002, the Mountain View-Whisman School District launched a plan geared toward providing teachers new methods and tools to help improve student success.

The plan, called strategic schooling, is essentially a reading, writing and counseling campaign aimed at giving educators different ways to tackle classroom teaching.

Students participated in focused writing and reading exercises that would help improve their vocabulary. And teachers would meet weekly to give each other support and hash out ideas and learning strategies that were working in their classrooms.

"I was searching for a packaged solution to improving student learning in our district," Marcela de Carvalho, director of English language learner programs. "But I was still looking for something that beefed up our English language learning."

De Carvalho didn't have to look long. The Santa Clara County Office of Education introduced GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) last year. The model provides teachers with research, theories and strategies that specifically targets English learners. GLAD, now used in more than 120 school sites around the country, has a proven and nationally recognized track record for helping to strength student literacy, academic achievement and cross-cultural skills.

There is nothing really surprising about the model. For instance, one of its goals under reading and writing is: "Reading that stresses the purpose and joy before the skills; that begins with writing and reading one's own language; continues with immense amounts of being read to (and) time for silent sustained reading."

Mountain View-Whisman participated in a GLAD training in June 2004 and teachers immediately fell in love with the model, de Carvalho said.

"I couldn't believe it. The kids were engaged -- they were learning," de Carvalho said of that initial training session. "It was just incredible. This is pretty powerful."

She added that the model is now being implemented across the district. The cost of the GLAD training is being covered through money from the federal government that is earmarked for professional development.
-- Julie O'Shea

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