Gretchen Oliver

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Assistant) at Siena College

Now, more than ever, all educators need the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to support content, language, and literacy development for multilingual learners. This chapter reports on a self-study of an online teacher education (OLTE) program with a focus on the interactions among teacher-learner and teacher-educator participants and the ways in...

In this Teaching Issues article, we make the case for using Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs) to get a better picture of ELLs/MLLs learning progress and language development and thus, contributing to more equitable learning environments in both instruction and assessment practices. An Integrated Performance Assessment allows learners to use...

This alternative perspectives paper presents an argument for prioritizing the curriculum and instruction of English language development courses for multilingual learners (MLLs), a program model known as "stand-alone English as a new language (ENL)" in New York state schools. We propose a more systematic approach to curriculum development for stand...

With the growing population of culturally and linguistically diverse students in K-12 schools, explicit English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL)-focused leadership is needed to support culturally responsive teaching practices, as well as provide socially just and equitable educational opportunities for all students. This study focuses on how on...

In the era of college and career readiness standards, all students are required to develop discipline-specific thinking competencies which demonstrate not only their conceptual understandings, but also their ability to comprehend and use academic language. This task is even more arduous for English language learners (ELL) as they are expected to le...

A growing body of literature has highlighted the importance of disciplinary and interdisciplinary language teaching for ESOL learners. With the emergence of new standards, which emphasize the integration of various language skills and competencies across content areas, the need for teachers to understand and be able to effectively teach ESOL learne...

Twenty‐first‐century approaches to professional development for language teachers reflect a constructivist learning paradigm. Instead of traditional seminars, workshops, or training sessions, new professional development models aim to be sustained, teacher‐centered, collaborative, and discursive. The use of current technologies can facilitate profe...

Schools have a responsibility to provide a high quality education for all students, helping them to meet rigorous academic standards, specifically the Common Core Learning Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards. Yet, for culturally and linguistically diverse students, the demands of lear...

This chapter uses the theoretical perspective of dialogism to examine how two suburban secondary math teachers use technology in the classroom to enhance language and content knowledge development for English learner students. Data for this study includes teacher lesson plans, transcripts of recorded lessons, and teacher reflections and is analyzed...