Teaching Philosophy

As a teacher educator, I try to enact with my students the same kinds of teaching strategies and
methods I want them to use with their students. Thus, we will use the best practices for guiding the
learning of English Language Learners (ELLs) to teach you about how to develop both content and language knowledge and skills at the same time. I believe that concepts for teaching are the tools that guide our teaching. (A link to the tools we will use in this course and their explanations can be found here.)The concepts we teach in this class can be used to guide your teaching. Finally, teaching is fundamentally relational. This means that it is important that we have open, honest relationships with each other wherein you can reveal difficulties in understanding you have and I can be open with you about the things you need to learn to be the good teacher you have the potential to become.

Course Description

This course provides you as a preservice teacher with learning experiences that allow you to apply all the things you have learned about cultural difference, legalities, second language acquisition, developing second language literacy to teaching English Learners (ELs) content and language together, and assessing both the language development and learning of the ELs you are teaching.  You will learn Instructional methods, strategies, and materials for integrating curriculum content and language instruction. The assignments and activities in the class allow you opportunities for teaching, creating, and adapting lesson materials to meet the needs of in a multicultural context.Students will learn to develop activity centers that engage ELs in learning vocabulary and concepts
within various disciplines. Students will practice and design strategies for teaching content and language. Students will
learn about SIOP and the Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy in order to develop stronger content instruction.In TELL 440,  teacher candidates develop the skill to build second language learners academic prowess in a second language by attending to the development of subject matter learning and language and literacy development simultaneously. During this course, teacher candidates will draw on all the skills they have learned about promoting language and literacy development in a second language by building Multiple Simultaneous Diverse Learning Activities (MSDLAs) for K-12 teachers to use in their regular classrooms. It is the responsibility of the teacher candidates to find materials and modify them in ways that will provide general learning support for students. The teacher candidates will use TELL tools particularly the Standards for Effective Pedagogy to support them in constructing MSDLAs

At the end of this course, teacher candidates will have studied methods for creating culturally responsive curriculum, including Multiple Simultaneous Diversified Learning Activities (MSDLAs) and Text Modification. MSDLAs are also called activity centers in some of the professional literature, although they are technically two distinct concepts. They will also have created curriculum according to the specifications they studied. In addition, they will have studied the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) and presented material to class members using principles of SIOP. 

Prerequisites

 At this point, you should have completed all TELL courses and requirements except TELL 450 and TELL442R (the practicum). 

Materials

Grading Scale

Participation & Attendance Policy

Each week you will receive participation points. These points cannot be made up. Further some additional activities will be completed in each session and these also cannot be made up except through arrangement with the course instructor.

Alert: You cannot make up participation points if you miss class and you cannot, except under certain conditions, get partial credit for assignments completed during class time. Finally, since there are ten sessions, each class missed usually reduces your grade by 10%.

Essentially we are saying:

Be here. Be prepared. Engage.

Classroom Procedures

In this course, we use socio-cultural theory as our theory of instruction. We use the format we do for two reasons. First, we think this theory reflects how we learn best. We, in fact, fundamentally believe that learning is socially constructed. 

Second, in this course, every activity we engage you in provides the model for an activity structure, strategy, or pedagogy that will best support your second language learners. Thus, we use the activities, strategies and structures we believe best support the learning of the ELs or Emergent Bilinguals you will teach in becoming literate and in enabling them to reach their potential and achieve their life dreams. 

University Policies

Honor Code

 In keeping with the principles of the BYU Honor Code, students are expected to be honest in all of their academic work. Academic honesty means, most fundamentally, that any work you present as your own must in fact be your own work and not that of another. Violations of this principle may result in a failing grade in the course and additional disciplinary action by the university. Students are also expected to adhere to the Dress and Grooming Standards. Adherence demonstrates respect for yourself and others and ensures an effective learning and working environment. It is the university's expectation, and every instructor's expectation in class, that each student will abide by all Honor Code standards. Please call the Honor Code Office at 422-2847 if you have questions about those standards.

Sexual Misconduct

 In accordance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Brigham Young University prohibits unlawful sex discrimination against any participant in its education programs or activities. The university also prohibits sexual harassment-including sexual violence-committed by or against students, university employees, and visitors to campus. As outlined in university policy, sexual harassment, dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking are considered forms of "Sexual Misconduct" prohibited by the university.

University policy requires all university employees in a teaching, managerial, or supervisory role to report all incidents of Sexual Misconduct that come to their attention in any way, including but not limited to face-to-face conversations, a written class assignment or paper, class discussion, email, text, or social media post. Incidents of Sexual Misconduct should be reported to the Title IX Coordinator at t9coordinator@byu.edu or (801) 422-8692. Reports may also be submitted through EthicsPoint at https://titleix.byu.edu/report or 1-888-238-1062 (24-hours a day).

BYU offers confidential resources for those affected by Sexual Misconduct, including the university's Victim Advocate, as well as a number of non-confidential resources and services that may be helpful. Additional information about Title IX, the university's Sexual Misconduct Policy, reporting requirements, and resources can be found at http://titleix.byu.edu or by contacting the university's Title IX Coordinator.

Student Disability

 Brigham Young University is committed to providing a working and learning atmosphere that reasonably accommodates qualified persons with disabilities. If you have any disability which may impair your ability to complete this course successfully, please contact the University Accessibility Center (UAC), 2170 WSC or 422-2767. Reasonable academic accommodations are reviewed for all students who have qualified, documented disabilities. The UAC can also assess students for learning, attention, and emotional concerns. Services are coordinated with the student and instructor by the UAC. If you need assistance or if you feel you have been unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of disability, you may seek resolution through established grievance policy and procedures by contacting the Equal Employment Office at 422-5895, D-285 ASB.

Academic Honesty

 The first injunction of the Honor Code is the call to "be honest." Students come to the university not only to improve their minds, gain knowledge, and develop skills that will assist them in their life's work, but also to build character. "President David O. McKay taught that character is the highest aim of education" (The Aims of a BYU Education, p.6). It is the purpose of the BYU Academic Honesty Policy to assist in fulfilling that aim. BYU students should seek to be totally honest in their dealings with others. They should complete their own work and be evaluated based upon that work. They should avoid academic dishonesty and misconduct in all its forms, including but not limited to plagiarism, fabrication or falsification, cheating, and other academic misconduct.

Plagiarism

 Intentional plagiarism is a form of intellectual theft that violates widely recognized principles of academic integrity as well as the Honor Code. Such plagiarism may subject the student to appropriate disciplinary action administered through the university Honor Code Office, in addition to academic sanctions that may be applied by an instructor. Inadvertent plagiarism, which may not be a violation of the Honor Code, is nevertheless a form of intellectual carelessness that is unacceptable in the academic community. Plagiarism of any kind is completely contrary to the established practices of higher education where all members of the university are expected to acknowledge the original intellectual work of others that is included in their own work. In some cases, plagiarism may also involve violations of copyright law. Intentional Plagiarism-Intentional plagiarism is the deliberate act of representing the words, ideas, or data of another as one's own without providing proper attribution to the author through quotation, reference, or footnote. Inadvertent Plagiarism-Inadvertent plagiarism involves the inappropriate, but non-deliberate, use of another's words, ideas, or data without proper attribution. Inadvertent plagiarism usually results from an ignorant failure to follow established rules for documenting sources or from simply not being sufficiently careful in research and writing. Although not a violation of the Honor Code, inadvertent plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct for which an instructor can impose appropriate academic sanctions. Students who are in doubt as to whether they are providing proper attribution have the responsibility to consult with their instructor and obtain guidance. Examples of plagiarism include: Direct Plagiarism-The verbatim copying of an original source without acknowledging the source. Paraphrased Plagiarism-The paraphrasing, without acknowledgement, of ideas from another that the reader might mistake for the author's own. Plagiarism Mosaic-The borrowing of words, ideas, or data from an original source and blending this original material with one's own without acknowledging the source. Insufficient Acknowledgement-The partial or incomplete attribution of words, ideas, or data from an original source. Plagiarism may occur with respect to unpublished as well as published material. Copying another student's work and submitting it as one's own individual work without proper attribution is a serious form of plagiarism.

Respectful Environment

 "Sadly, from time to time, we do hear reports of those who are at best insensitive and at worst insulting in their comments to and about others... We hear derogatory and sometimes even defamatory comments about those with different political, athletic, or ethnic views or experiences. Such behavior is completely out of place at BYU, and I enlist the aid of all to monitor carefully and, if necessary, correct any such that might occur here, however inadvertent or unintentional. "I worry particularly about demeaning comments made about the career or major choices of women or men either directly or about members of the BYU community generally. We must remember that personal agency is a fundamental principle and that none of us has the right or option to criticize the lawful choices of another." President Cecil O. Samuelson, Annual University Conference, August 24, 2010 "Occasionally, we ... hear reports that our female faculty feel disrespected, especially by students, for choosing to work at BYU, even though each one has been approved by the BYU Board of Trustees. Brothers and sisters, these things ought not to be. Not here. Not at a university that shares a constitution with the School of the Prophets." Vice President John S. Tanner, Annual University Conference, August 24, 2010