To receive CTLE credit, listen to the audio recording and complete the Quiz for the podcast episode.

Episode 10

Joy Scantlebury

Assets Based Pedagogy: Tapping into your Students’ Magic

Today we welcome Joy Scantlebury as she discusses how immersive classroom experiences and “living the language” led to her career as an educator of ELLs who’s been refining her craft for 15 years.

A prevailing theme in Joy’s work is using students’ cultural resources and languages to enhance their learning experiences, and in this episode, she highlights the benefits of bringing these resources into the classroom and shares specific examples of how you can also implement this asset based and student centered methodology with the plethora of resources your ELLs bring into the school environment. She unpacks how to recognize and foster organic, “magical moments” as opportunities for students to learn and play a crucial role in their academic development. To better understand how to use your students’ goals, aspirations and passions to empower and encourage them on their learning journeys, listen in now!

Episode 9

Tatyana Kleyn & Daniela Alulema

Eye on Immigration: Advocating for your Students’ Humanity

Do you have enough information on immigration policies, struggles, and realities to support your immigrant PreK- 12 students? In this episode, Dr. Kleyn and Ms. Alulema tell us all about CUNY IIE - City University of New York Initiative on Immigration and Education. Find out how to access CTLE courses to enhance your knowledge on immigration. Discover the multimodal and multilingual resources that the initiative provides to highlight the strengths of mixed status immigrant communities. Learn about the distinction between being an actor, ally or accomplice when it comes to advocacy work. The vision for this initiative in the coming years, which includes a focus on policy change, is also revealed. Both women share how their personal backgrounds led them to advocate for immigrant student populations and push for better support for ELLs to assist them in developing their multilingualism. We delve into the initiative’s guiding pillars: “Learn, Act & Advocate,” and discover how these pillars lead to the centering of people, their stories, and humanity.

Episode 8

Babi Kruchin

Upgrading: A New Way to Look at Assessment

Does receiving a grade help students focus on becoming better writers or getting better grades? What is the concept of ungrading and how is it implemented? How can you stop students from making “superficial changes” to a writing text instead of digging deeper to improve their writing? What is portfolio assessment, and what are the advantages of it? These questions and more will be addressed as Babi Kruchin, Columbia University ESL Lecturer, discusses her methods for inspiring students to improve their writing skills by truly understanding and internalizing the criteria necessary for better academic writing.

Babi discusses the challenges and benefits of ungrading and peer feedback methodology, and gives specific examples of how it could be implemented at ANY school level. She explains how “reading with guidance” is valuable when breaking down the conventions of an academic writing sample, and how to scaffold this activity to promote confidence in your students’ writing skills. Learn the difference between “assessment of learning” and “assessment for learning,” and how you can use this knowledge so that students can take ownership of their academic writing development and become “a community of readers and writers” who are also able to self-assess in order to develop.

If you want to establish a “toolbox” to help your students grow in their writing abilities, this episode is for you!

Episode 7

Samantha Pugh

From Invisible to Visible: Changing the World One Student at a Time

Are you “Illuminating the voices of the voiceless” through your teaching? If not and you want to know how, listening to this episode is a must!

Principal Samantha “Power” Pugh kicks off this episode by giving us a wealth of information on the Off School Grounds (OSG) educational leadership group, including over 150 principals, superintendents, school leaders, and chancellors. She highlights her head, hand & heart leadership style and shares how the simple questions “How are you doing?” and “Are you okay?” can be transformative in the lives of students and administrators, particularly in underserved communities.

Principal Power discusses moving from invisibility to visibility due to the care and mentorship of her early educators, and how knowing your purpose can open the door to widespread impact.

Find out about the triple tax on women principals of color and the tools to combat it, as well as ideas on how to turn trauma into triumph.

Whether you’re a principal, an administrator, or an educator thinking about becoming a leader, Principal Power Pugh has some answers for your burning questions.

Episode 6

Luciana de Oliveira

All About LACI- A Language-Based Approach to Content Instruction

In this episode, Dr. Luciana C. de Oliveira takes us on a deep dive into the teacher education model called LACI- a Language-based Approach to Content Instruction, featured in her latest book: Supporting Multilingual Learners’ Academic Language Development: A Language-Based Approach to Content Instruction. She unpacks the ways teachers can “take advantage of students’ linguistic repertoires,” and discusses how teachers can implement literacy in multi-modal ways to encourage “message abundance.” Learn about the 6 C’s of support for scaffolding material in a multilingual classroom and how elementary teachers have implemented LACI using these C’s.

Dr. de Oliveira believes that “language and content are learned simultaneously,” and speaks more about this notion in this episode as she describes “the language of schooling” and its importance in debunking the idea of simplifying texts.

How are you making your classroom “high challenge/high support” for your MLLs? Consider this question as you listen in today!

Episode 5

Tasha Austin

Dispelling the Myth of Mimicry as a Measure of Success
What kind of world does your teaching create? In this episode, Tasha Austin gives all educators food for thought to ponder this question. She challenges us to think about how separated communities inside the school building could be more diversified and inclusive environments that lend equal support to all learners. Tasha unpacks the idea of the “mimicry” of a standardized version of English, and takes apart the premise that there is one form of any language that is better than another. In doing so, she discusses how she fine tuned her critical lens of what language is and how it functions. She urges educators to “stop policing your own English and model authentic language practices” in order to demonstrate the value of language varieties.

Episode 4

Monica Baker
Creating a Multilingual, Multiage Summer Program that Shines

In this episode, join Monica Baker on an educational summer experience that is anything but your traditional summer school. How can you bring together multilingual learners ranging in age from 3 to 16 in an atmosphere that cultivates support, engagement, leadership and a thriving classroom community dynamic? Ms. Baker has the answer! Listen in as she breaks down the specifics of her multilingual, multiage summer program and talks about the celebration of multilingualism. Monica wants to make sure that all languages are valued, and through this program and her general approach to teaching, encourages students to be proud of being multilingual.

Episode 3

JPB Gerald
Curing Antisocial Language Teaching
In this conversation, Dr. JPB Gerald discusses how he began the study of decentering whiteness in language teaching, explores the structures at play that can demotivate students, and dives into the thought-provoking content in his book, “Antisocial Language Teaching: English and the Pervasive Pathology of Whiteness”. He offers possible ways to tackle the issues prevalent in our field, and shares how solidarity among educators plays an important role. If you have a burning question about how you can shift your mindset to better understand and support your ELL’s, listen in now!

Episode 2

Heather Rubin
Creating Digital-Age Learning Ecosystems
In this episode, find out what digital age learning ecosystems are, and how to use technology to build them! Heather Rubin discusses how these ecosystems provide students with a voice and a choice, highlights a seamless, effective way to integrate learning methods for the 21st Century, touches on the 5 Cs for 21st century learning, and dives into why viewing and visually representing are literary skills. She also discusses What exactly is a project based technologically infused learning journey and how can we bring parents into the digital fold to be part of their children’s learning journeys? Tune in to find out!
One thing to think about as you listen to this episode is, “Are you preparing your students to be digital citizens of the world?”
Episode 1

Dr. Helaine Marshall

Implementing SOFLA: An Interactive Online Learning Experience

We kick off the first episode of this season with Dr. Helaine W. Marshall! She discusses the origins of SOFLA, the Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach. Find out what it means to make online teaching “warm” and how SOFLA contributes to this. Learn how to get students excited about doing work outside of class through the “movie trailer” step in SOFLA, and finally, discover how to implement this innovative, international approach to online learning that creates social presence between student peers. In addition, Dr. Marshall shares information about her role in ongoing cases with the Department of Justice to fight for equity & assist districts with serving ELLs, and discusses the Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm® (MALP®) and how this model, which she developed, helps SLIFE and the larger context of linguistically and culturally diverse learners. Get ready to have your burning questions about this, and more, answered on today’s episode!