English Language Learner Institute Addresses Local Need

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Janie Weber, from left, Tina Hoisington, Gentry Collier, Lynette Terrell, Joyce Pennington, Kelly Buckley, Judith Sapsford, Scott Sullivan and Leanna Medal took part in the English Language Learner Advanced Institute on June 22-24 at the University of Arkansas.

The Northwest Arkansas Writing Project put on a three-day intensive seminar June 22-24 at the University of Arkansas to improve instruction for English language learners in the area's schools.

Five local teachers, a University of Arkansas at Fort Smith professor and a University of Arkansas student took part in the English Language Learner Advanced Institute funded by a mini-grant from the National Writing Project.

Lynette Terrell and Kelly Buckley, teachers in the Springdale and Rogers school districts, respectively, led the seminar. Participants were Gentry Collier, who teaches eighth-grade English language arts at Washington Junior High School in Bentonville; Tina Hoisington, who teaches fifth- and sixth-grade English at Old High Middle School in Bentonville; Leanna Medal, a UA student who volunteers with the Ozark Literacy Council and plans to teach English as a second language to adults; Joyce Pennington, a first-grade teacher at Walker Elementary School in Springdale; Judith Sapsford, an ESL teacher who divides her time between Washington Elementary School and McNair Middle School, both in Fayetteville; Scott Sullivan, who teaches eighth-grade English at Washington Junior High; and Janie Weber, an assistant professor of education at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith. Weber collaborated with Chris Goering, director of the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project, on the grant proposal to conduct the institute. The writing project is based in the College of Education and Health Professions.

According to Terrell, she and Buckley had three primary objectives for the institute:

• To gain greater knowledge of the local population of English language learners and how to help them.
• To create a cadre of teacher-consultants – the designation earned by teachers after completing the writing project's summer invitational institute – who are prepared to provide inservice work geared toward writing-focused ELL instruction in areas served by the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project.
• To create a Web site and brochures describing the demonstrations this cadre of teacher-consultants can give to teachers throughout northwest Arkansas.