Audience & Purpose

     The intended audience for this professional development (PD) course is Round Rock High School general education teachers who serve Emergent Bilingual (EB) students. The course is designed to serve high school teachers of all disciplines. This PD is intended to support teachers improving in the TTESS 2.2 & 2.4 dimensions regarding the differentiation of instructional design to serve students' needs. The course is also rooted in the English Language Proficiency Standards (Texas Administrative Code, 2007). An outline of the course will be included in the introduction module to give students an understanding of the overall course. 

Course Structure

      This will be a primarily online course that students will complete following the deadlines provided. The course will be hosted on the Google Classroom LMS to be accessible to students at all times. The online nature of the course will allow teachers in different buildings and departments to interact despite physical and scheduling barriers. 

      Students will be self-directed in their learning. The assessments are developed to guide teachers in the implementation of new ideas into their own instructional practices. Using these assessments, students will be guided into the development of a learner's mindset to improve their practice. By developing a learner's mindset, the students in this course will continue to develop their instruction beyond their time in this course (Harapnuik, 2020). Many of the activities are discussion activities that are shared with peers to help teachers develop a broader perspective beyond their own. 

      The role of the teacher in this course is to be a facilitator and mentor. As students complete assessments, the teacher will provide feedback as needed following the students’ self-evaluation of their performance. As the designer of the course, I will have curated resources to support teachers in completing the application and creation of assessment activities. 

     This PD is designed to be started at the beginning of a semester. While the initial course is only 5 sessions, there is a semester-long implementation phase that will follow up with teachers. This will ensure that students will be supported in adapting their ideas to work in their own classroom. 

Type of Learning

    This course is intended to improve the instructional practice of teachers from all disciplines. Therefore the focus is on the outcome of how teachers implement their learning in their instructional planning. While there are evidence-based best practices, nearly all assignments in the course do not have a single right answer. This may frustrate students who take the course because they are being pushed into deeper learning (Harupnik, 2021-c). Students must use their prior knowledge of teaching their discipline in addition to the new knowledge on best practices for supporting EBs to complete assignments with novel solutions unique to their classroom needs. As a primarily outcomes-based learning course, there will not be specific competencies evaluated for proficiency (Harapnuik, 2021-b). In module 1, teachers will take an assessment of their learning on the foundational knowledge of EB students. However, the assignments after Module 1 require participants to develop unique products to serve their classrooms. Therefore grades will not be given on assignments after Module 1. Feedback and support will be provided to support participants in meeting the learning outcomes. The effectiveness of the course will be determined using walkthroughs, observations, and T-TESS Evaluations.

Design Approach

     The design approach for this course is rooted in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Students will first explore new information before applying it to their own instructional practice. Following the integration into their discipline, teachers will evaluate the effectiveness of their practice and that of their peers. Toward the end of the course, students will demonstrate their learning by creating a lesson plan that features the language objectives and instructional supports presented in the information. This is constructivist in nature as teachers will use their prior knowledge and expertise in their discipline and expand on it with their learning regarding EBs. Teachers are not expected to adopt specific strategies in their entirety, but to adapt them to fit within their current instructional practices. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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                                      (“Top 7 Instructional Design”, 2021)

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Assessments

The course will primarily use assessments as learning. Assessments as learning put the responsibility of learning on the student, including the evaluation of how they can improve through continual reflection (Harapnuik, 2021-a). Students will complete formative assignments throughout the course in which they integrate their learning into their current instructional practice. Many of these assignments will be submitted in a discussion format where students will give and receive peer feedback. Students will evaluate their performance and that of their peers, giving them the opportunity to reflect. Using feedback and self-evaluation, students can revise their work to improve the outcome of their instructional practice. There will be one assessment for learning in Module 1 to ensure students have the foundational knowledge of EBs to be successful in the course. During the implementation phase, students will continue to reflect on their learning and adjust their products to suit the needs of their classroom. Discussion boards will allow dynamic interactions between students to address the challenges by problem-solving through collaboration. Students will be evaluated by instructional coaches and administrators outside of the course through walkthroughs, observations, and conferences to determine the effectiveness of the course. 

 

Implementation Plan

     This PD is designed to be started at the beginning of a semester. The first 5 modules should be completed during in-service days at the beginning of the year. After the initial modules, there will be an implementation phase that will follow up with teachers throughout the semester. One tenant of effective professional learning is that teachers should be supported through the implementation of ideas learned into their instructional practice (Gulamhussein, 2013). This phase will ensure that learners will be supported in adapting their ideas to work in their own classroom.