A group of 46 DMPS teachers were back in the classroom as learners this week. They were continuing a process that began back in June to become certified Guided Language Acquisition Development (GLAD) educators. The training provides teachers with strategies to promote language acquisition, high academic achievement and 21st century skills.
“It is beneficial to DMPS for our educators to receive GLAD training because it teaches them how to teach language and literacy through content,” said Theresa Routh Chapman, the Elementary ELL Curriculum Coordinator at DMPS. “GLAD strategies are a way to intentionally add language practice and development into instruction which allows our Multilingual students and others to have greater access to grade level learning.”
This week the teachers were at Hillis Elementary School. It is the first in-person GLAD training since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each morning they are observing in the back of a classroom while DMPS GLAD trainers demonstrate strategies with the help of summer school students. In the afternoons the educators debrief and deepen their learning as a large group with the support of their trainers.
“Part of this training that teachers really appreciate is the ability to see how this approach works with real students,” added Chapman. “This is a unique aspect to the GLAD training that allows teachers to visual how the strategies fit together.”
The new group of teachers will join about 150 educators at DMPS who previously received GLAD training.
For more information about Guided Language Acquisition Development, visit the Be GLAD web site.
