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Micro-Credentials
In the essentials group:
- The Essential Endorsement is designed for all educators hoping to provide more equitable learning experiences for all students. This micro-endorsement consists of the six individual micro-credentials pictured representing the discrete skills educators need to provide a rigorous, engaging, and effective education for multilingual learners. In Rhode Island, educators earn the state ‘Multilingual Learner Endorsement’ upon completion of this ExcEL micro-endorsement.
Essentials 1: Connecting the Stages of Second Language Acquisition to Instruction
- All teachers are teachers of language. By knowing the characteristics of each stage, the educator can more effectively plan instruction that makes content comprehensible to students.
- Candidates will develop a basic understanding of the five stages of second language acquisition (SLA) theory.
- Candidates will learn to apply effective instructional strategies that support candidates at each stage of language acquisition.
- Candidates will promote and implement developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies for addressing diverse approaches to learning.
Essentials 2: Implementing Instructional Strategies for English Learners
All teachers are teachers of language. When educators apply appropriate instructional strategies, they make rigorous, grade-level appropriate academic content accessible for English Learners. The key is understanding a range of research-based strategies that make content comprehensible and facilitate language learning and thoughtfully applying them to match student needs.
- Candidates develop a basic understanding of research-based strategies that make content comprehensible and facilitate language learning.
- Candidates can scaffold learning in ways that make rigorous, grade-level appropriate academic content accessible for English Learners (ELs).
- Candidates will promote and implement developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies for addressing diverse approaches to learning.
Essentials 3: Utilizing Equitable Assessments for English Learners
- All teachers are responsible for language instruction. Teachers need to design and adjust assessments in order to make sure they are appropriate for English Learners (ELs). These assessments in turn can be utilized to monitor student progress, provide constructive feedback to students, and drive instruction.
- Candidates understand that language and content are interrelated in assessment.
- Candidates develop and implement equitable assessments that address developmental language and content in their classrooms.
- Candidates will promote and implement developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies for addressing diverse approaches to learning.
Essentials 4: Supporting Student Voice for English Learners
- Teachers must create a set of conditions in which EL students have a voice in the decision-making process about their own learning and issues that affect their daily experiences in school.
- Candidates understand the 4 conditions that support student voice for English Learners in the educational community.
- Candidates develop and implement a set of conditions in which EL candidates have a voice in the decision-making process about their own learning and issues that affect their daily experiences in school.
- Candidates will promote and implement developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies for addressing diverse approaches to learning.
Essentials 5: Fostering Positive School Cultures and Family Engagement for English Learners
- School culture results from both conscious and unconscious perspectives, values, interactions, and practices. Students, parents, teachers, administrators, and other staff members all contribute to their school’s culture, as do other influences such as the community in which the school is located, the policies that govern how it operates, or the principles upon which the school was founded.
- Candidates understand the 4 principles characterizing a welcoming, inclusive and safe school culture for English Learners and their families.
- Candidates develop and implement programs or strategies promoting a welcoming, inclusive and safe school culture for English Learners and their families.
- Candidates will promote and implement developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies for addressing diverse approaches to learning.
Essentials 6: Ensuring Professionalism Through a Multi-Cultural Lens
- Creating a positive learning environment that is respectful and responsive to the learning needs of all students is necessary for students to succeed.
- Candidates understand the emerging pedagogical issues related to classroom instruction for English Learners and their impact on instruction and assessment.
- Candidates understand the pressing social justice issues related to English Learners and their impact on student and family engagement and success.
- Candidates develop and implement programs or strategies promoting a welcoming, inclusive and safe classroom and school culture for English Learners and their families.
- Candidates will promote and implement developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies for addressing diverse approaches to learning.
- The Advanced Endorsement provides in-depth learning for educators who choose to become specialists in the delivery and administration of programming for multilingual learners. Participants master the skills needed to design and deliver effective programs that meet the diverse needs of multilingual learners in diverse settings. The discrete skills addressed in this micro-endorsement are aligned with national and state teaching standards associated with certification for ESL, TESOL, and Dual Language educators.
In the advanced group:
Advanced 1: Defining and Implementing Effective Programs and Curricula
- There are many educational approaches and models that have shown to be effective, including English immersion, sheltered instruction, bilingual, and dual language programs. Effective educators of ELs understand the approach used in their school or district, clearly understand the program goals, and can articulate how federal, state, and local regulations are met through the model in use. Effective educators of ELs also successfully align instruction, curriculum, and assessment to support achievement of the programmatic goals for students and have accountability mechanisms in place to monitor student progress toward those goals.
- Candidates can articulate the program model used in their school/district, including clear program goals that address academic outcomes and language outcomes.
- Candidates can articulate the federal, state, and local regulations that impact the EL candidates they are working with.
- Candidates can align instruction, curriculum, and assessment to support achievement of the programmatic goals for EL candidates.
- Candidates can Implement accountability mechanisms to monitor EL student progress toward program goals.
Advanced 2: Working with Newcomers
- When educators implement systems of support for newcomers to aid academic achievement and language acquisition, students will feel more comfortable in their experience and thrive both socially and academically.
- Candidates understand the 6 areas of support needed to ensure newcomers can thrive in the school community.
- Candidates develop and implement programs or strategies promoting a welcoming, inclusive and safe school culture for newcomer candidates and their families.
- Candidates will promote and implement developmentally, culturally and linguistically appropriate strategies for addressing diverse approaches to learning.
Advanced 3: Identifying and Addressing the Special Needs of English Learners
- The popularity of Response to Intervention (RtI), Planning and Placement Teams (PPT), or other forms of data teams at many schools has brought attention to the needs of EL students; but without a deep understanding of the relationships between language acquisition and learning disabilities, interventions may be ineffective, and even detrimental, for students. ESL specialists must be involved to provide specialized knowledge and advocate for EL students at all levels of intervention as well as during and following any referral and IEP process.
- Candidates participate in a data meeting (RtI, PPT, or IEP) focused on a struggling EL student. In the meeting, take on the role as the EL specialist/advocate. As part of the team process gather information relative to student needs and EL status by describing specific, observable behaviors with which the focus student has difficulty.
- Candidates can develop a list of potential EL interventions, based on the challenges identified by the team.
- Candidates prioritize, select, and implement interventions, and follow up to evaluate the impact of interventions.
- Candidates develop a critical reflection on student progress as the result of intervention.
Advanced 4: Assessing Dual Language Programs
- Dual Language education is an effective approach to developing language proficiency and literacy in English and a partner language. A dual language program is often referred to as additive bilingualism, as its aim is to keep the native language intact. Educators must understand the foundations of Dual Language/Biliteracy Education and the concepts of bilingualism and biculturalism and apply this knowledge to create an effective learning environment for students in the Dual Language/Biliteracy program. The Dual Language/Biliteracy teacher understands processes of first- and second-language acquisition and development, instruction and assessment, and applies this knowledge to promote students’ language proficiency in their first language (L1) and second language (L2).
- Recognize the characteristics associated with high-quality dual language programs.
- Evaluate curriculum in dual language programs for alignment with standards and assessments.
- Evaluate instruction in dual language programs to ensure it addresses the goals of bilingualism, biliteracy, and sociocultural competence.
- Evaluate assessment and accountability protocols in dual language programs to ensure they require the use of multiple measures in both languages to assess students’ progress toward meeting bilingualism and biliteracy goals as well as curricular and content-related goals.
Advanced 5: Incorporating Linguistic Analysis into Teaching English
- Linguistics is the study of languages and is of great importance to language teachers, including those who provide instruction on the English language. Linguistics helps teachers convey the origins of words and languages, their historical applications, and their modern day relevance. Linguistics helps students understand regional dialects and colloquialisms. It also helps students identify the origins of sayings and phrases that have evolved over time, but sayings that may not have the same relevance or meaning in contemporary society. A basic understanding of linguistics and some formal study of the structure of the target language allows language teachers to help the language learners they teach understand how the target language is organized and make connections with their own language(s).
- Identify the linguistic features of standard American English (phonology, orthography, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics).
- Analyze how similarities and differences between English and home languages impact student’s English language development.
- Capitalize on similarities and differences between English and students’ home languages to build metalinguistic awareness.
Advanced 6: Teaching English Learners in a Socio-Cultural Context
- Central to language acquisition in school are the surrounding social and cultural processes occurring through everyday life within a student's past, present, and future, whether at home, school, community, or the broader society. A student's success at school is impacted by community or regional social patterns such as prejudice and discrimination expressed towards groups or individuals in personal and professional contexts, as well as societal patterns such as subordinate status of a minority group or acculturation versus assimilation forces at work. These factors can strongly influence the student's response to the new language, affecting the process positively only when the student is in a socioculturally supportive environment. In this micro-credential, you will evaluate your own culturally responsive teaching practices, create a strategic plan to improve your culturally responsive teaching practices, and implement the strategic plan.
- Understand a framework of culturally responsive teaching for multilingual learners and know how the five principles support student success.
- Use the framework for culturally responsive teaching for multilingual learners to identify areas for improvement in your own practice.
- Reflect on your own worldview and biases and know how these practices may advantage some students and disadvantage others.
