I was sold on the course right after the first class when I saw my English Language Learner's reaction to the first lesson. He was delighted with the tailored vocabulary learning. That was all I needed to invest more in the course.
The course had many highlights including the following:
- Direct response to a need: teaching ELL's better.
- A terrific instructor.
- An amazing class of teachers--I was so impressed and humbled by the quality of their share and presentations.
- Terrific teaching strategies that can be used to boost all students' learning across all disciplines. (I was especially interested in the ways you can use the strategies presented to develop The Standards of Mathematical Practice. )
The main strategies that educators implemented with their final projects included the following:
- Seven-step vocabulary process.
- Sentence and paragraph frames.
- Shared reading strategies.
- Focus on text features, think aloud, and "think notes." (close reading strategies)
- Write around.
- RAFT
- ratiocination
I look forward to integrating more of the strategies I learned during the RETELL course in the months to come, strategies that will build student investment and learning.
