ELSF Developer Institute: Effective Instructional Materials for English Learners

About the Institute

The English Learners Success Forum Institute is the nation’s only professional learning institute designed exclusively for content developer professionals. It is a place to learn about research-driven approaches in materials development for diverse learners, stay on top of best practices and current understandings, and network with others, who like you, make a difference in the lives of students.

Exceptional Keynote Speakers

Harold Asturias

Director of the Center for Mathematics Excellence and Equity at Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley‍

Jeff Zwiers

Senior Researcher at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the director of professional development for Understanding Language‍

Rebecca Blum-Martinez

Professor, Bilingual/ESL Director, Latin American Programs in Education (LAPE)

Plus other special guest speakers

What other content providers are saying

“A wonderful opportunity to find ways to deepen the resources we provide to teachers who are supporting language learners in their classroom”

“We are excited to partner with someone who has contacts and resources and depth of knowledge about English language learners”

What other EL experts are saying

“Many math teachers say to me ‘I’m not a language teacher’, but I ask them to then think about, ‘Where are students going to learn the language of mathematics if it is not in the mathematics classroom?’”

“The work that I’m doing with [ELSF] is really exciting because what they’re focusing on is helping curriculum developers create the materials that are going to give our English Learners the opportunities to learn the content (the mathematics) and the language they need in very coherent ways.”

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What’s it like to attend?

For all Attendees

All learners, including our nation’s 4.8 million English learners, need opportunities to engage with meaningful core content and to develop grade-level analytical skills while learning English.  This institute will provide content providers with the tools, methods and mindset to:

• Develop a common language and shared vision for improving academic success for diverse learners using ELSF research-based guidelines created by esteemed EL scholars and practitioners
• Plan and implement high-quality, asset-based learning strategies into core content that meets the needs of English Learners
• Leverage tools developed by EL experts to analyze and refine current core materials
  

For returning attendees

• Deepen understanding of the ELSF Guidelines as well as the expertise to plan and implement asset-based learning strategies into core content that meets the needs of diverse learners
• Increase the expertise of content providers to guide and support the professional growth and capacity of educators to create deliberately crafted and scaffolded learning experiences for ELs

Attendee Requirements

The ELSF Institute has two learning pathways: K-12 ELA and math. Each pathway has two levels. Level I is for new content provider teams and Level II is for returning content provider teams. Each organization must commit to sending a minimum of three attendees and a maximum of ten per content developer team with at least one attendee being a writer. Each content provider organization may send more than one team (math and ELA or multiple grade teams). Other content area providers (Science, social studies, etc)  are encouraged to attend, but must choose between ELA or math pathways.

Registration

How to register

Content Developer Badge: $800 per person

Follow this link to register for the ELSF institute. Be sure to have the names and titles of all attendees from your organization. Then proceed to this page to purchase tickets.

Hotel and travel costs covered by attendees: Look for a follow-up email linking to discounted hotel prices at site of institute.

Location

The event will be held at the Crowne Plaza Minneapolis Northstar Downtown in Minneapolis, MN.

About ELSF

ELSF’s nationally recognized staff and consultants have expertise that supports K-12 core content providers in refining instructional materials to improve EL student learning outcomes. We believe that our review process goes hand in hand with deepening the expertise of content providers to provide meaningful grade-level learning materials for EL students and the educators who teach them.

Three foundational ideas guide our work at the English Learners Success Forum.  

1. First, we believe that scaffolded and high-quality instructional materials matter for EL student outcomes: if students can access grade-level materials, they will be afforded equitable opportunities to learn and graduate ready for college and career.
2. Second, EL students, regardless of language proficiency, can engage with intellectually rich, grade-level learning academic content given adequate instructional supports and environments.  This belief drives our materials’ improvement work.  
3. Finally, we believe that educative materials put into the hands of our nation’s teachers will have a huge impact on how they teach our ELs.

Our tools and resources are free and downloadable

As part of our commitment to making available high quality, grade-level content accessible to all students, including the nation’s growing English learner population, all of our tools and resources (including our ELA and math Guidelines) are free, downloadable, and editable.