Alliance For Catholic Education

This month, the ENL team sits down with Priscilla Wong to discuss Anthony Zavagnin’s article "The Rising Number of Chinese Students in American Catholic High Schools" from the October 17, 2016  edition of America Magazine. You can find the article here: http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2016/10/17/rising-number-chinese-students-american-catholic-high-schools. Priscilla is a campus minister at Notre Dame and has worked with Chinese students in American Catholic school settings for decades. Over the course of our next two podcasts, Priscilla offers insights into what schools can do to help Chinese students build rapport with teachers and classmates, adjust to faith-filled settings, develop oral language skills, and become engaged members of a learning community.

This year's 15 on the 15th series features podcasts designed to help you digest short articles (no more than 15 minutes of reading required!). This 15-minute recipe for success is a pinch of insightful reading and a dash of engaging discussion that tastefully blends together research and classroom practice.  In this month's conversation, Katy Lichon and Clare Roach discuss how to develop the vocabularies of ELLs as they unpack the findings in "Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades" from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the What Works Clearinghouse. The conversation shares five key vocabulary expansion strategies: 1. Remember the Backdrop 2. Take the Bull by the Horns 3. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words 4. Repeated Exposure 5. Build Linguistic Bridges Listen in on the conversation and consider how best to serve the English language learners in your school. Read the article here: https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/200740

To mark a series of January Church feast days that offer special inspiration to Catholic educators, we are pleased to publish three short podcasts discussing the lives of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John Neumann, and St. Andre Bessette. The third and final podcast in this series comes from ACE's Director of Spiritual Life, Fr. Lou DelFra, csc, who sits down with Emily Lazor to discuss the life of St. Andre Bessette, the first canonized saint from the Congregation of Holy Cross. Interested in similar reflections? Pick up a copy of "5 Minutes with the Saints, More Spiritual Nourishment for Busy Teachers" at ace.nd.edu/pages/5-minutes-with-the-saints.

To mark a series of January Church feast days that offer special inspiration to Catholic educators, we are pleased to publish three short podcasts discussing the lives of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John Neumann, and St. Andre Bessette. The first podcast in this series comes from ACE's Coordinator of Policy and co-author of Lost Classroom, Lost Community, Nicole Stelle Garnett, who chats with Sarah Perkins about the life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and her impact on Catholic schools in America. Interested in similar reflections? Pick up a copy of "5 Minutes with the Saints, More Spiritual Nourishment for Busy Teachers" at https://ace.nd.edu/pages/5-minutes-with-the-saints.

To mark a series of January Church feast days that offer special inspiration to Catholic educators, we are pleased to publish three short podcasts discussing the lives of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John Neumann, and St. Andre Bessette. The second podcast in this series comes from ACE's Senior Director of Teacher Formation and Education Policy, John Schoenig, who joins Bill Schmitt for a conversation about the life of St. John Neumann, as well as Blessed John Henry Newman and their contributions to Catholic education. Interested in similar reflections? Pick up a copy of "5 Minutes with the Saints, More Spiritual Nourishment for Busy Teachers" at https://ace.nd.edu/pages/5-minutes-with-the-saints.

In this month's installment, the ENL Team takes a closer look at serving Vietnamese students in our Catholic schools by reading "Vietnam: Cultural Background for ESL/EFL Teachers." The discussion includes a guest, Sr. Kim Tran, O.P., a Dominican sister and a graduate student in Notre Dame's Master's in Divinity program. Sr. Kim shares her insights about what Catholic schools can do to better serve Vietnamese students, the second-largest community of language learners in Catholic schools. The article can be found here: http://www.vietnamesestudies.org/uploads/4/5/8/7/4587788/vietnamforesolteachersvs2002.pdf

In this month's installment, the ENL Team looks at the blog post “A Strength-Based Approach to Teaching ESL” from the Cult of Pedagogy website. The discussion focuses on six approaches teachers can take to celebrate English learners and implement an additive approach to teaching these extraordinary students. Blog post can be found here: http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/strength-based-teaching-esl/ More info at enl.nd.edu.

In this month's installment, the ENL Team looks at de Jong and Harper’s article, “Preparing Mainstream Teachers for English-Language Learners: Is Being a Good Teacher Good Enough?” The discussion focuses on the five stages of language acquisition, the development of oral language, assessing ELLs, and supporting the development of writing skills!

In this month's installment, the ENL Team breaks down Claude Goldenberg's article "Teaching English Language Learners: What the Research Does - and Does Not - Say". The discussion focuses on pages 14-22 of Goldenberg's text and highlights the benefits of having parents speak in their native tongue at home, the concept of "transfer", and the 7 S's that help new vocabulary "stick" for your students, among others!