MDE Folio NS Graduate: Overview

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (NS)

Graduate/Master’s Level Endorsement for Certified Teachers

Phase I, Overview

Cover | Overview | Requirements | Summary

Spring Arbor University

May 31, 2012

Program Claims and Guiding Philosophy

The mission of the MA TESOL – ESL Endorsement program is to equip individuals with the essential elements of forging effective relationships with people and children from diverse backgrounds.

The graduate faculty and staff of the School of Education understands the importance of developing understanding and effective communication across cultures in order to participate critically in the affairs of the contemporary world. Students seeking the graduate TESOL endorsement will have a unique opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of and respect for individuals from other cultures and develop the ability to communicate effectively while teaching English.

Spring Arbor University’s TESOL graduate endorsement program is aligned with the guidelines and standards of the Michigan Department of Education, TESOL national standards and National Board Teaching Professional Standards for Teaching English as a New Language. The program is designed to provide candidates with communicative proficiency and competence in English, as well as cultural proficiency in understanding the role of culture and identity, linguistics, second language acquisition theories and methods, language education guidelines and challenges, assessment and evaluation of English-language learners of ages 3-18, and the role of the professional ESL teacher in K-12 settings. This program is an “endorsement” option for teachers who hold a teaching certificate in Michigan and pass the MTTC.

The program requires 24 credit hours for the Endorsement (and 33 for the completion of the MA in TESOL). The required laboratory coursework is assessed using an observation tool specific to the Sheltered Immersion Observation Protocol. Courses are offered with a combination of online and face-to-face laboratory experiences and evaluations. Four of the courses have a 10 hour laboratory requirement for field work, which must be completed at two different levels: elementary and middle school/high school. Faculty model a variety of teaching methods, and instruction about strategies and approaches to address the various learning styles of students. This is a topic studied and discussed in a number of classes in the program. Candidates are instructed to note how the mentor teacher uses technology effectively, makes multiple assessments, presents content using various approaches, and manages the classroom while adjusting instruction to diverse levels of English-language learners. Candidates for certification are more specifically prepared to use a variety of approaches through the course work for general second language acquisition methods (TSL502), Sheltered Immersion (SIOP) for Content Area Teachers (TSL509), and Literacy for K-12 ELLs (TSL506). Additionally, a final 30 hour Practicum Teaching experience is also completed in an ESL setting at the level of the candidates certification. The TSL600 Capstone Research Project, Practicum and e-Portfolio course requires a research paper and artifacts for each of the sections of the Michigan Standards for ESL endorsement.

Candidates will:

1. Emerge from the program with deep subject matter knowledge as evidenced by good performance in each course in the program, on a comprehensive electronic portfolio based on the major practicum experience, and on a key literature review of an important concept in TESOL.
2. Identify learner needs and design targeted instruction based on the identified need.
3. Create instruction to promote the development of reading and writing skills for English Language Learners.
4. Use a SIOP (sheltered instruction, observation protocol) model for literacy instruction in content areas
5. Design appropriate personal professional development plans for continued growth of educators based on personal assessment of performances of ESL students based on TESOL and NBPTS.

Field Experiences

There are five different courses that have required field experiences: TSL 501, 502, 506, 509, and 600. In graduate education, student teaching has a different connotation than it does for undergraduates. The administrative rules for certification for certified teachers adding an endorsement at the same grade level as their existing certificate, R 390.1129(4), do not describe a need for a student teaching experience. This is the target population for the candidates who would emerge from this program, hence there is no student teaching per se.

TSL 600 would be the equivalent of “student teaching,” while the four 500-level courses would encompass the equivalent of “pre-student teaching experiences.” Candidates would work with ELLs in their own classroom to fulfill the field expectations of the courses. However, if a candidate does not have English language learners in their classroom, they would be expected to fulfill the field requirements by working with ELLs in another classroom, and would have to make arrangements for the care and teaching of their own students. For example, TSL 509 requires ten hours of observation and participation in a science, social studies, or math classroom with ELLs; if this situation does not exist within the candidate’s classroom, he or she will have to spend the ten hours in a different classroom.

During laboratory teaching assignments that are part of TESOL coursework, the candidate will be evaluated using the SIOP (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol) model for lesson plan development and execution. This protocol is included in the course syllabus for each of the 500-level courses with a field component. The field experience assignments are generally turned in weekly. Some are case studies, and some are lessons presented with evaluation using the SIOP model and reflections. In the capstone course TSL 600, students spend the first few weeks focusing on a practicum where a university supervisor will travel on-site and provide at least two written evaluations to the course instructor. Students in TSL600 are also asked to submit 3 videos of their teaching that the course instructor will evaluate. TSL 600 also has an e-portfolio with requirements to present artifacts from their current teaching that are examples of achievement in each area of the standards. There are assignments for drafts of these documents so the professor can provide feedback to the students about the appropriateness. There are reflections due for each section of the National Board standards in which the student reflects on how well they have been able to meet the standards. The artifacts in the e-portfolio specifically address the Michigan ESL standards.

Technology

The entire program is offered online, which requires candidates to be sufficiently adept and reflective in the use of technology for learning in an online environment. All graduate programs at Spring Arbor offer students the option of taking an introductory course in online education (no tuition, no credit) prior to the start of the first course.

Instructors model a variety of instructional approaches to address the various learning styles of our students concentrating on communicative activities. We make substantial use of technology, such as video- and audio MP3 files, synchronous meetings using Elluminate LIve and Skype, PowerPoint, internet sites for speaking and listening activities and Blackboard. Candidates see these approaches and can adapt them to their own teaching to create and provide online resources or utilize the technology in a classroom setting.

The candidates’ TSL 600 portfolio will contain examples of the use of technology to support English language learners, such as the preparation of screencasts prepared by the candidates for use with English Language Learners (ELLs).

Program Structures

Consistency and Alignment

Each course syllabus contains a table that lays out a crosstalk between the 2010 TESOL/NCATE standards, the NBPTS standards for TESOL, the State of Michigan’s NS standards, and how students demonstrate their proficiency in each standard in that particular course.

Program requirements for the graduate NS endorsement program include verification of English proficiency for speaking, reading and writing at program application and in the program during TSL501; since candidates are preparing to teach English, being a good model of English speaking and writing is important. Program applicants will submit a one page writing sample based on a prompt related to their career goal in undertaking this program. Performance on the sample will be acceptable with a rating of Advanced High or above on the ACTFL rubric used to evaluate written language proficiency. The applicant will also be required to successfully complete a face to face or video (e.g. Skype) interview with an SAU undergraduate speech instructor, for assessment of reading and speaking. Performance on the interview will be acceptable with a rating of Advanced High or above for speaking and Advanced High or above for reading on the corresponding iACTFL rubric. FInally, the instructor for TSL501 will assess writing, reading and speaking proficiency through regular course assignments, which includes a Skype conference between the instructor and each student. The undergraduate Professional Skills and Dispositions form will be used to record the fulfillment of these requirements for each student. If a student does not pass the English proficiency requirements by the end of this course, a remediation plan will be established and a second verification of English proficiency will be made during the student’s final course in the program. Performance at the level of the same ACTFL ratings used in the writing sample and oral interview is required.

The SIOP Lesson Plan Evaluation tool is used to assess the candidates in the methods courses and in the Practicum Teaching experience. During their Practicum teaching, they also plan, execute, and report on a series of lessons that are sandwiched pre- and post-intervention assessments of student learning around a unit of instruction. The e-Portfolio requires candidates to provide evidence of assessment tools created and how they were used to guide instruction. Candidates are asked to self-evaluate their skills on each of the nine subsections of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for Teaching English as a New Language. These three components together will allow for consistent assessment across courses, field experiences, faculty, and supervisors.

The School of Education has identified its Effective Teaching Model with eleven integrated components. The English as a Second Language Endorsement program course objectives intersect with the Content Knowledge domain by preparing candidates through course work in second language acquisition theories and applications, knowledge of the linguistic and phonological structures of English language. Pedagogy is a large focus in this minor, as specific knowledge about how to use research based methodologies for promoting English language development and content knowledge simultaneously. Diversity is integrated through readings and discussions of the cultures, ethnicities and communication styles of the different language groups in the world. Management and Organization is addressed through the planning and preparing of a variety of assignments and activities in 40 hours of classroom lab application. Candidates are involved with Assessment knowledge is developed through application of various language assessment tools as part of the course assignments reflection / response papers written about the lessons they have presented with students.

Finally, the director of the MA TESOL endorsement program and other MA TESOL faculty work closely and communicate frequently and regularly with the School of Education and the University as a whole through informal and formal meetings including School of Education faculty and graduate faculty meetings, Graduate Council and other University governance bodies to align goals and objectives across the curriculum and to assure excellence in the preparation of our graduates.

The training of teachers to understand, empathize and develop the English language skills of children in elementary and secondary schools of our nation is an imperative which Spring Arbor University will promote through the preparation of highly qualified Michigan Teacher Certified candidates for the endorsement in ESL, English as a Second Language. The director of the program is a member of the national TESOL organization, and stays current in the area through news and articles on their website, discussion on their listservs, and attendance at their annual conferences. All three full-time SAU faculty have undergone some recent training in aspects of TESOL, including SIOP training. The two adjunct faculty who are full-time K-12 ESL or ELL teachers undergo professional development as part of their job; the other two adjunct faculty who are predominantly higher education professionals also teach online for other institutions, and keep abreast in the field in order to teach satisfactorily.

Student Diversity

This is an online program offered to teachers who hold a current Michigan teaching license. As such, candidates for the program will be recruited from the ranks of Michigan teachers. We plan to recruit students by advertising the program in targeted (search-term based) Internet advertisments, radio advertisements, leaving printed program information at schools near our face-to-face graduate program locations in Jackson County, Lansing, Kalamazoo, Lambertville (Toledo area), Petoskey, Gaylord, and Dearborn (Detroit area), and emails to existing undergraduate students and education alumni.

Each course in the graduate TESOL Endorsement Program requires candidates to interact directly with speakers of other languages. There are focused assignments and general lab hours required to expand the candidate’s exposure to adults and children from other cultural backgrounds. The candidates are exposed to a variety of diversities, which include but are not limited to: racial and cultural diversity, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity, gender and sexual diversity, socially marginalized, ELLs, and those with special needs, to name a few.

A course in Cross Cultural Communication provides historical overviews as well as modern perspectives on themes such as issues of indigenous people and immigrants, the roles and voices of women, economic and political issues of the poor and marginalized populations.

Candidates are also evaluated according to the way that they work with diverse students during methods class and Practicum teaching. Evaluation criteria for diversity used in methods classes and student teaching may be noted in the relevant section of the SIOP Lesson Evaluation.

Faculty Information

The faculty involved in teaching the program are identified in the following table; links go to the MDE profiles for each one. There are seven faculty members who will teach courses, three are full-time (including the director), and four are adjunct. All faculty, including methods instructors and university supervisors, have an advanced or terminal degree relevant to the field of ESL or world language, an ESL endorsement, SIOP training, or significant experience in working with English language learners. Some of the faculty listed will also be involved in supervision.