Live workshop: 10 April 2025, 4pm ET

Meet the Presenters:

Maria Cieslak  Maria Cieslak, the Associate Director of Professional Development Content at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C., facilitates workshops on Newcomers, Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE), Long-Term English Learners (LTELs), MTSS, academic language, STEM and Digital Literacy for Multilingual Learners. With over three decades of experience in education and a specialization in language acquisition and diversity, Maria brings a wealth of knowledge and practical strategies to support educators in effectively reaching and teaching multilingual learners.

Ruth McMullen Ruth McMullen, a Consultant for the Center of Applied Linguistics, Washington, D. C., specializes in PreK-12 Language and Literacy. Through her company, TCB Consultants LLC. offers professional development across various educational levels. With advanced degrees in linguistics, she has taught nationally and internationally, developing programs for organizations such as McDonald’s and L'Oréal USA, while inspiring future educators at various institutes.  Ruth's unwavering dedication to multilingual learners and equitable education drives her mission to empower educators and create inclusive educational landscapes.

Explore engaging, game-based strategies to enhance multilingual learners’ academic language development. Participants will experience and analyze various hands-on classic games that promote vocabulary acquisition, structured conversations, and critical thinking in content areas, with a special focus on supporting newcomers in elementary settings. 

• Developing Language Through Play: Create meaningful opportunities for communication and reinforce language structures. 
• Engage in Interactive and Content-Based Learning: Using games to support vocabulary discussion skills, and subject-specific language. 

• Scaffolding for Newcomers: Adapting games to build confidence, promote social interaction, and develop foundational academic language skills for young learners.

Live workshop: 24 April 2025, 4pm ET

Meet the Presenters:  

Maria Cieslak  Maria Cieslak, the Associate Director of Professional Development Content at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C., facilitates workshops on Newcomers, Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE), Long-Term English Learners (LTELs), MTSS, academic language, STEM and Digital Literacy for Multilingual Learners. With over three decades of experience in education and a specialization in language acquisition and diversity, Maria brings a wealth of knowledge and practical strategies to support educators in effectively reaching and teaching multilingual learners.

Ruth McMullen Ruth McMullen, a Consultant for the Center of Applied Linguistics, Washington, D. C., specializes in PreK-12 Language and Literacy. Through her company, TCB Consultants LLC. offers professional development across various educational levels. With advanced degrees in linguistics, she has taught nationally and internationally, developing programs for organizations such as McDonald’s and L'Oréal USA, while inspiring future educators at various institutes.  Ruth's unwavering dedication to multilingual learners and equitable education drives her mission to empower educators and create inclusive educational landscapes.

Explore how schema theory and oral language development can transform secondary Newcomer classrooms, making content more accessible and communication more effective. This session will provide practical strategies to build upon students’ background knowledge, strengthen academic speaking skills, and support their ability to navigate different language contexts. 

• Building Schema for Comprehension: Activate and develop content, linguistics, and formal schemata to enhance learning. 

• Developing Orality for Academic Success: Strengthen students’ speaking and listening skills to support engagement and understanding. 
• Enhancing Pragmatic Skills: Teach students how to adapt their language use in different academic and social contexts. 

Live Meeting: 08 May 2025, 4 PM ET

Meet the Presenters:  

Dr. Deborah Short  Deborah J. Short, PhD, founded Academic Language Research & Training and provides professional development on academic literacy, content-based English, and sheltered content instruction. Dr. Short has directed research projects and program evaluations related to English learner education and co-developed the research-validated SIOP Model for sheltered instruction. A National Geographic Learning author for 20+ years, her publications include Reach Higher, Lift, Panorama, Inside, and Edge, along with SIOP Model books (Pearson), The 6 Principles books (TESOL), and professional journal articles. She has presented in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South America, the Middle East, China, and New Zealand. She taught ESL/EFL in the U.S. and DR Congo and is a past president of TESOL International Association.

Newcomer students benefit from key strategies and supports as they navigate new school environments and expectations. This webinar presents techniques and tools that help these multilingual learners engage in the classroom and develop academic English language and literacy skills.  

Attendees will:

• Explore scaffolds and supports that bolster multilingual newcomers’ academic English language and literacy skills
• Discover techniques, activities, and resources that engage multilingual newcomers in the classroom

Live workshop: 22 May 2025, 4pm ET

Meet the Presenters:  

Dr. Laura Alvarez  Laura Alvarez, Ph.D., is Elementary Literacy Faculty at Alder Graduate School of Education. She has over 20 years’ experience as an elementary and middle school teacher, teacher educator, and researcher focused on supporting multilingual students and their teachers. Alvarez’s research focuses on language and literacy development, integrating language and disciplinary learning, and how teachers conceptualize language in their practice.

The opportunity to help newcomer students excel can be both rewarding and challenging! This webinar will explore effective strategies and showcase in-classroom tools that may open a new world of accessible activities for your elementary newcomer students as they begin their English language learning journey. 

Attendees will learn:

• Strategies to build newcomer students’ listening and reading comprehension skills
• Protocols to engage newcomer students with reading and listening comprehension activities in different content areas

Live workshop: 05 June 2025, 4pm ET

Meet the Presenters:  

Luis Javier Pentón Herrera Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, Ph.D., is an award-winning Spanish and English educator and a best-selling author. In 2024, he was selected as the 2024 TESOL Teacher of the Year, awarded by the TESOL International Association and National Geographic Learning. He is a Professor (Profesor uczelni, in Polish) at Akademia Ekonomiczno-Humanistyczna w Warszawie, Poland, Co-Editor of the Contemporary Perspectives on Learning Environments book series (IAP), Co-Editor of Tapestry: A Multimedia Journal for Teachers and English Learners, and Associate Editor of Language Teacher Education Research. Further, he is a Fulbright and English Language Specialist with the U.S. Department of State. Previously, he served as the 38th President of Maryland TESOL from 2018 to 2019, and earned the rank of Sergeant while serving in the United States Marine Corps (USMC). Two of his professional accolades include the ‘30 Up and Coming Emerging Leaders in TESOL’, awarded by TESOL International Association in 2016, and the J. Estill Alexander Future Leader in Literacy Award, awarded by the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) in 2018 when his dissertation was chosen as ALER’s 2018 Outstanding Dissertation of the Year. Dr. Pentón Herrera’s current teaching and research projects are situated at the intersection of identity, emotions, and well-being in language and literacy education, social-emotional learning (SEL), autoethnography and storytelling, refugee education, and language weaponization. His books can be found in the University of Michigan Press, Routledge, Springer, Brill, De Gruyter, TESOL Press, Bucharest University Press, and Rowman & Littlefield. Originally from La Habana, Cuba, Dr. Pentón Herrera enjoys creative writing, playing with his two doggies, Virgo and Maui, and running in his free time. You can connect with Dr. Pentón Herrera on his Instagram: @luisjavierpentonherrera and on his website https://luispenton.com/

Fenglan N Yi-Cline Fenglan Nancy Yi-Cline, Ed.D. (易凤兰博士), is a first-generation immigrant teacher-educator of color who serves as the Multilingual Education Program Specialist in the Kent School District, Washington, a teaching associate in the Multilingual Learners Endorsement Program at University of Washington, and an adjunct instructor in Seattle University’s ELL Academy. She is also an English Language Specialist with the U.S. Department of State. As an English language learner herself, Dr. Yi-Cline became a language educator in1999. Since then, she has had vast experience including university, district, and classroom levels, in various US states and abroad, with the last decade dedicated to teaching newcomers and coaching teachers in culturally sustaining and humanizing pedagogy. Guided by her unique practitioner researcher lens and passion for educational equity, Dr. Yi-Cline centers her work on integrating newcomers’ multifaceted identities into curriculum and pedagogy to ensure their success in U.S. schooling and beyond.

Newcomer students thrive when their educational experience honors their unique identities and addresses their social-emotional learning needs. This webinar offers practical strategies for integrating newcomers’ rich backgrounds into everyday classroom practices.

• Educators will learn to employ culturally sustaining pedagogy and use social justice standards to critically evaluate their curriculum, ensuring that instructional approaches are inclusive and effective.
• Explore how to deepen connections with multilingual families and communities to enhance advocacy and support for newcomers.