From Isolation to Collaboration - Disha Gadhia

From Isolation to

Collaboration gives educators an opportunity to share with one another their skills and knowledge in order to both engage and ensure the success of their multilingual learners (Calderón, M, et al., 2020). There are many different ways that educators can make the shift from isolation to collaboration. Some suggestions are:

• Join a PLN (Professional Learning Network) through a social platform such as Twitter or Facebook

• Join or help start a PLC (Professional Learning Community) to establish a collaborative school culture & collective purpose for learning

• Join or create a Collegial Circle where teachers commit to meeting regularly to discuss questions, share concerns, and offer solutions to one another

• ELL teachers schedule peer observations of one another to observe teaching-learning processes in the classroom and see learner outcomes

• Start a book study to learn, discuss, and determine how best to implement new instructional strategies or ideas.

Some questions to consider when thinking about which strategy is right for you are, which idea(s) is a possibility at your current school, which idea(s) do you think you will be able to implement in your current routine, which ideas) sound the most interesting to you?

Which strategy will you choose to start making the shift to collaboration?

References

Calderón, M, et al (2020). Breaking down the wall: Essential shifts for English 

learners’ success, Corwin.