WEBINAR ELLs (English Language Learners) face manifold challenges in the current teaching construct across 46 states in the country in spite of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) applied there. The standards, by their own admission, do not attend to the challenges faced by the ELLs in accessing support for improving knowledge or skill accumulation. ELLs need to develop reading and writing skills and fluency, vocabulary and literacy components that empower and enrich knowledge to assess and complete complex tasks. Effective teaching methodologies for ELLs, or for any population of students is therefore very similar. According to the academia and studies in the field of education and effective teaching methods involve providing the learners with clear well-structured tasks, goals and objectives, opportunities to interact with others, adequate practice, retraining when needed and, frequent assessment mainly along with other tools. Research in this field of English learning and teaching effectively affords many constructs and methods that are and have been in use, yet the outcomes do not prove them to be successful. Effective teaching methods need to be revised, even reinvented, in order to meet the challenges faced by ELLs, or for that matter any learning population.

The Event

Dr. Maria G. Dove and Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld delivered the interactive web-based seminar on co-teaching models as the research...

Such students are bound to find the proposed constructs, or part thereof, or a combination of certain parts useful in learning the language effectively (ESL Teaching Methods). In addition, deliverance by Dr. Rebecca Stobaugh might prove helpful in getting a clearer picture of the seven steps proffered by Dr. Dove and Dr. Honigsfeld for effective teaching and thereby meaningful learning. In introducing the concept of co-teaching, Dr. Stobaugh elucidates what it (co-teaching) is and what it is not supposed to be. Co-teaching, according to her is doing the job collaboratively- two teachers co-plan, co-instruct and co-assess. They 'do not' divide tasks among themselves where one plans and other teaches, or divide students into a group between them, or one observes the others' teaching. Also, as against traditional teaching, where the methodology is to pass information and 'instruct' in the strict sense of the word, in co-teaching, the aim is to 'engage' the students, collaboration between student-teacher and between teacher-teacher, to get better outcomes. Co-teaching would strive to see that students leave the classroom with least queries, thus, satisfied. The aim is to achieve collaboration and engagement towards better outcomes and scores for the learners (CEBS WKU).
New methods learnt about at the event

The speakers made the session easier to understand and follow the concepts by using pictorial elucidation. They spoke collaboratively, each adding to, and accentuating on the premises built by the other, which was both engaging and easier to comprehend. The basic concept was, as I understand, the seven steps towards effective teaching that would help the ELLs. The speakers explained the advantages as well as potential drawbacks of the proposed seven steps. Through engagement with the audience they made the session interactive and evoked responses that underlined the main points of consideration in the…