Practicum experience prepares candidates to teach multilingual learners

A new summer teaching experience provides Central Michigan University students in the Teaching English Learners (TEL) TEL programs intense hands-on experience and puts them on the path to earning an ESL teaching endorsement necessary to qualify them for high-demand teaching jobs. 

This practicum experience took place for the first time last summer when twelve students – eight pre-service and four in-service teachers – spent four days in a Dearborn elementary school and intermediate school, teaching students who speak English as an additional language.

Through this experience, they satisfied an important Michigan Department of Education requirement to qualify for an English as a Second Language (ESL) certification, said April Burke, a professor in CMU’s teacher and special education department. Teachers with an ESL certification are in critical demand.

Few districts offer a better example of how in-demand they are. Dearborn Public Schools has the largest number of students who speak English as an additional language in Michigan.

Most Dearborn summer school students speak Arabic as their home language, and many came to the United States from Yemen, said Susan Stanley, principal of Salinas Elementary School, where Burke’s students taught. Dearborn teachers are required to get their ESL credential.

Stanley said the demand for ESL teachers is high and growing.

“It’s really a marketable and important degree in any district,” she said.

One of the students who participated in the TEL Minor practicum experience was Kayla Hernandez. Spending four days teaching at Salinas Elementary taught Kayla that successful ESL teachers work together with others to create a supportive learning environment for students who might otherwise struggle.

“Collaboration plays a big part in making English learners successful,” she said. While there, the CMU TEL Minor students learned from Dearborn’s teachers, co-taught with peers and developed lesson plans.

In the TEL program courses, students learn how to teach the English language while simultaneously teaching subject areas like Math and Science, using methods that make the content accessible to multilingual learners.

Some of the most valuable lessons learned were about the children, their home lives and how the Yemeni people in Dearborn create a community supportive of each other, Hernandez said. If one child struggled, the other student came together to help that person.

Part of what made the experience so valuable was the attitude CMU’s students brought when them, said Stanley, the Salinas school principal.

CMU’s participants said they received valuable hands-on experience.

“Completing the Teaching English Learners (TEL) program at Central Michigan University significantly improved my experience,” said Melanie Royster, a teacher with Oxford Community Schools. “The advanced courses gave me a deep understanding of best practices for supporting ELL students, including practical strategies for language acquisition, culturally responsive pedagogy, SIOP framework and differentiated instruction.

“The insights and skills gained from the TEL program were also evident in the teacher I observed in Dearborn, making the experience relatable to my learning.”