Indicator 4b

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities and Teacher Leadership

Teachers maximize support student learning by developing and demonstrating professionalism, collaboration, and leadership by:

4b. Collaborating to develop and sustain a professional learning environment to support student learning

Professional development opportunities for pre- and in-service teachers will need the collaboration among content, practice, language development and literacy experts. Effective ongoing professional development is needed to strengthen the learning of strategies and practices to ensure college and careers readiness of ELs (Santos, Darling-Hammond, and Cheuk 2011). Through structured collaboration that focuses on English learners, educators can ensure that they are meeting the needs of their students more fully and creating a culture of high expectations and high levels of support for English learners. 
Specific practices and strategies that allow teachers to collaborate around and build best practices to meet the needs of English learners may include:

• Deepening the knowledge of needs and strengths of individual English learners through collaborative data analysis, examining student work with protocols, effectiveness of differentiated supports for English learners (e.g., assessment formats, instructional approaches, modifications), and using the CELP Standards.
• Discussing and planning for the needs of individual English learners.
• Actively participating as an advocate for English learners, educating colleagues, and challenging assumptions.
• Collaborating effectively through a co-teaching or other model.

Sample “Might See” for 4b

An observer might see:

• The teacher leads team meetings or participates in a protocol for examining student work of English learners.
• The teacher develops different ways to more effectively map English learners’ progress to language goals and shares with his or her grade-level team.
• The classroom teacher and ESL teacher work together to design a co-teaching model that addresses student needs and instructor strengths.
• At a team meeting, the teacher suggests that English learners can engage in high-level conversations with sufficient supports.

Sample coaching and reflection questions

• In what ways might you share responsibilities of planning for or instructing ELs effectively?
• When it comes to your ELs, how might you model professional responsibility in practice and planning?