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The Governor’s Institute for English as a Second Language

For the third summer (2003, 2004, 2005), Immaculata University, College of Graduate Studies, hosted The Governor’s Institute for English as a Second Language. The Institute program was organized by The Pennsylvania Department of Education (Barbara Mowrey, Director) and Chester County Intermediate Unit (Melody Wilt, Site Director).  Teachers and administrators from all around the state were on campus July 17-22, 2005.

The goals of the Institute were for teachers and administrators to:

• Learn from nationally recognized authors and presenters research-based instructional strategies for teaching and assessing English language learners in the Pennsylvania Academic Standards.
• Explore the research-based model of Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP).
• Understand the cultural challenges and issues facing English language learners through engaging presentations, simulations and field trips.

Preference was given to district teams of three to five teachers and administrators., with  teams including ESL and classroom educators. This preference was designed to increase the potential for impact in a school or district once the participants returned home. There was no charge for the Institute, lodging or meals.  Participants could earn two graduate credits.

The SIOP model enables teachers to use their core curriculum by modifying instructional techniques so that content is understandable to English language learners. Students taught by teachers using this protocol have performed significantly better on academic assessments.

The field trip activities involved visits to a mushroom farm and a migrant education program, ending with lunch in Mexican restaurant, all in the Kennett Square area of Chester County.

The Coordinator for the Cultural & Linguistic Diversity (CLD) Program at Immaculata University participated as in informal facilitator (as she did the previous institutes) and identified content, materials, other professional resources that could further enrich the CLD Program.

A special surprise this summer was attendance at the Institute by one of the first graduates from the Immaculata/ Marywood Bilingual/ Bicultural Studies Master’s program, Christina Myers van Hartogh, now of Beaver, PA. She did her Master’s in the program under the inspired guidance of the founder of our program, Sister Mary Consuela, graduating in August, 1981. Christina, like many of our other graduates, recognized early the value of training in meeting the needs of bilingual children in the school system long before competency training was required by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (July 2002). Even after many years of teaching she was still interested in continuing her professional development through the strong support now being provided by the PDE at the Institute. [See photo]