Classroom teachers have an opportunity to affect the lives of the children in their classrooms including students who are Culturally & Linguistically Diverse. This class focuses on each of the English Learner Professional Development Standards in Colorado and meets the requirements for CDE’s “Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Education training or professional development (PD)” for license renewal. Within this class, teachers will actively participate in online learning throughout six modules to build capacity to create access and opportunity in the regular classroom for language learners. Teachers will apply this learning to their own classrooms through discussions, reflective journals and a variety of assignments. This course is appropriate for teachers K-12. Teacher librarians, instructional coaches, and administrators are invited to join; they will be asked to work in a discipline of their choice.

Upon completion of this course, the participant will be able to:

• Define concepts of culture, diversity and equity and apply them to their classrooms.
• Apply major theories, concepts and research for literacy development for CLD students within unit and lesson planning.
• Apply major theories, concepts and research about language acquisition and development within unit and lesson planning.
• Explain the different “typologies” of language learners with a specific focus on students who are considered “newcomers”.
• Explain considerations for literacy and reading development and best practices in the classroom.
• Apply tiers of vocabulary to unit planning.
• Explain and implement sheltering and scaffolding strategies to both teach the English language and support content learning. 
• Identify and adapt materials within existing district curriculum to be culturally responsive in the classroom.
• Explain and apply summative data from the WIDA Access assessment within lesson and unit planning.
• Identify and adapt formative assessments to support learning for CLD students.
• Explain the importance of collaboration and make a plan for collaboration in their school.
• Synthesize the learning in the class to create a unit guide for language learners.