Linking Listening & Speaking with Reading & WritingWhen multilingual learners struggle to participate, the instinct is to reduce talking time. Valentina Gonzalez says that's the wrong move, and it might be making things worse. In this video, she shows how weaving structured speaking into reading and writing instruction builds the language confidence students need to unlock literacy. |
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WITH VALENTINA GONZALEZ Educational Consultant |
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The Science of Reading for Grades 4–12The Science of Reading revolution has transformed K-3 classrooms, but if you teach middle or high school, most of it wasn't built for you. Dr. Jenny French breaks down what striving secondary readers actually need, why the standard interventions fall short, and how to use tools like Scarborough's Reading Rope to finally diagnose what's going wrong. |
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WITH DR. JENNY FRENCH Educational Consultant |
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Cultural Responsiveness Always and All YearEarly in her career, Holly Sawyer turned down a student's request to build a project around his home country. She's thought about that moment ever since. In this video, she reframes cultural responsiveness as something personal and year-round, not a unit, not a month, and shares how she opens each school year with identity work that gives every student room to be seen. |
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HOLLY SAWYER Secondary EL Teacher |
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Newcomer Multilingual LearnersNewcomer multilingual learners are one of the fastest-growing groups in U.S. schools, and one of the most underserved. Valentina Gonzalez pushes back on the deficit narrative and makes the case that these students bring real assets to your classroom. She walks through the four things every newcomer needs from day one, and how to start delivering them. |
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WITH VALENTINA GONZALEZ Educational Consultant |
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Decodable Readers in the Secondary ClassroomThe biggest obstacle to fluency instruction with striving secondary readers isn't the skill. It's the books. Hand a 15-year-old a text written for a 7-year-old and you'll lose them before you start. Dr. Jenny French explains how to build real fluency practice with older students using age-appropriate materials, and which specific strategies work in secondary classrooms. |
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WITH DR. JENNY FRENCH Educational Consultant |
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Background KnowledgeBackground knowledge is what makes new learning stick, like velcro. But for multilingual learners, teachers often mistake a different kind of knowledge for no knowledge at all. Valentina Gonzalez shares practical strategies for activating what students already know and building what they're missing before you ever open the main text. |
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WITH VALENTINA GONZALEZ Educational Consultant |
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What's Behind AIIf your students aren't part of building AI, the technology will be built without them. And it will show. Holly Sawyer brings this to life in a hands-on Google Teachable Machine lesson where students build their own image recognition models and see firsthand how biased data produces biased results. A practical, eye-opening entry point for AI literacy in any classroom. |
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HOLLY SAWYER Secondary EL Teacher |
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Top Reasons to Use The Story of America in Secondary ClassroomsHistory teacher Chris had a problem most secondary teachers know well: content-rich material that struggling readers couldn't access. In this video, he shares why Saddleback's The Story of America series changed that, and why the fiction titles in particular do something most history resources don't even try. |
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Long-Term English Learners (ELs)Six or more years in an ESL program, and still not reclassified. Long-term English learners are often the students who fall through the cracks, and the standard approach of blanket placements isn't working. Valentina Gonzalez explains why individualized instruction and transparent goal-setting are the real path forward, and what high-quality teaching across all content areas has to do with it. |
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WITH VALENTINA GONZALEZ Educational Consultant |
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Build a Unit With Me!Holly Sawyer doesn't just talk about unit planning. She walks you through one, live. Watch over her shoulder as she builds a 2-3 week unit from scratch, from choosing a central text to the final student-produced project. If you've ever wanted to see how an experienced ELD teacher actually structures instruction, this is it. |
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HOLLY SAWYER Secondary EL Teacher |
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Echo and Choral ReadingSome of your students dread being called on to read aloud. Echo and choral reading take that pressure off, and the research backs them up. Valentina Gonzalez explains why these two strategies are especially powerful for multilingual learners and how to use them in any subject area as a bridge toward independent reading. |
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WITH VALENTINA GONZALEZ Educational Consultant |
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