Professional Learning for New York State Educators

Online and In-Person Training

What we offer:

1) Training on the Bridges sheltered curriculum for SIFE with Developing Literacy (SDL). SDL learners have home language literacy at a third-grade level or lower.

2) A 6-session interactive course on Developing Responsive Classroom Communities for SIFE and Newcomer Learners. All teachers who work with Newcomer learners are eligible to participate.

All Bridges professional learning opportunities provide CTLE hours.

Who we serve:

Teachers and administrators across all regions of New York State. To date we have served over 1,000 educators.

Sheltered Curriculum Training

Teachers entering the Bridges cohort are required to attend at least 1 full cycle (4 sessions throughout the school year) of training for each of the courses they are teaching. Administrators from schools that are new to the cohort attend 2 administrator trainings.

Stand-Alone ENL Teacher Training

Teachers attend four sessions designed to target language and literacy instruction and practice in a centers-based learning model:

  • Introduction to Stand-Alone ENL
  • Leveling Readers
  • Small Group Reading & Writing Instruction
  • Conferencing & Progress Monitoring

Integrated ENL/ELA Teacher Training

These four sessions support teachers to implement our language arts-based curriculum, Integrated ENL/ELA, designed to build academic thinking, language, and literacy for SIFE with Developing Literacy:

  • Overview of Curriculum & Resources
  • Developing Active Readers
  • Writing Instruction & Evidence-Based Feedback
  • Targeted Language Instruction

Administrator Training

We offer professional development to bilingual administrators at the school, district, and regional level in order to strategize and plan around:

  • Intake and assessment procedures for SIFE with Developing Literacy

  • Support in implementation of the curriculum alongside teachers

Participants walk away with resources – and a community of practitioners to contact when setting up systems for their schools.

2021-2022 Cohort

If you have SIFE Learners with Developing Literacy at your school and are interested in joining the 2021-2022 cohort of teachers, sign up for the Orientation to Bridges Programs. Email [email protected] to register.

6-Session Introductory Course

Developing Responsive Classroom Communities for SIFE & Newcomer Learners

ENL/Content-area teacher teams attend 5 dynamic synchronous sessions, as well as a follow-up PLC. Asynchronous tasks are assigned between sessions to build on instruction and encourage classroom application. Optional follow-up remote coaching is also available.

THE ONLINE COURSE TARGETS:

  • Training on intake & assessment protocols for SIFE.
  • Practical methods for understanding SIFE learners in their classrooms.
  • Key instructional and social-emotional learning (SEL) strategies that can be used in ENL and content-area literacy classrooms.
  • Key collaboration methods to effective partnership among content and ENL teachers, counselors and administrators, and families, where applicable.

Professional Development Videos