1. ELLs in Texas: What Teachers Need to Know
PLC Guide
Introduction Meeting
This is the first of the PLC meeting guides developed for use with the text, ELLs in Texas; What Teachers Need to Know. Each participant should have a copy of the book to use in the meeting as well as to refer to in order to complete the activities and learn more.
Before beginning this first meeting, you may want to explain to the participants that each of the PLG Guides is organized in the same way.
We begin each session with a Put It On The Table exercise. Usually, this activity will ask for participants to reflect on and share some aspect of the last exercise from the previous meeting. Following this, the guides will all incorporate the organizing structure of Nancy Motley's Talk, Read, Talk, Write book.
For each of the components, there are specific tasks to complete that target a concept, a strategy, or the use of an activity designed for teachers of ELLs.
At the end of the PLC meeting, there is a final activity - Make It Real, which provides participants with an opportunity to practice or further reflect on their learning. This is the activity that will be accessed in the next session's Put It On The Table opening slide.
Click here to view a video from the authors 1

2. Put it on the Table Complete the following stems:
I’ve helped an ELL by…
Our campus helps ELLs when we…
Prepare to Share - you can write your response, share it in a small group, or share it with the whole group.
Explain to the participants that the use of sentence stems to support speaking and writing is a valuable linguistic accommodation for ELLs. We have found that other students benefit from these as well. Many teachers report that student participation is problematic in traditional secondary classrooms. Students prefer active to passive instructional settings and will quickly become comfortable using stems in structured conversations or structured writing activities.
Classroom Tips: Stems should be posted and read aloud. If you are teaching ELLs with a range of English language proficiency, consider creating stems that are differentiated in complexity;  for example, one for beginners/intermediates and one for advance/advanced high ELLs. Students can choose which stem to use. 2

3. Talk 1 Look at the Six Elements of Expertise on p. 10.
Survey the Table of Contents on pp. 7-8.
The Element of Expertise I want to learn more about is…
Most of our TALK tasks are meant to be short in duration. If time is not an issue, the amount of time or the groupings for sharing can be changed. For example, you could ask for participants to share with a partner. After each of the two shares their stem/response, they could move on and join with another pair and discuss the responses as a quartet.
Finally, each group could present their favorite stem/response to the whole group.
Classroom Tip: Students like variety and movement. They should stand and then move on your signal. Consider developing multiple grouping/responding options to keep it fresh for the students. ELLs benefit from repeated sharing where they can practice pronunciation in a low-risk setting. They can also use someone else's response if they prefer it to their own. 3

4. Read Read pp. 9-12 (Introduction) Highlight anything you find
Interesting
Helpful
Make sure the participants have highlighters and post-its for this activity. Have the participants give you a signal when they are ready to proceed, such as placing their highlighter at the top of their desk. Participants will share their responses on the next slide.
Classroom Tip: Students rarely have all of their supplies on hand. It would be great to have boxes with highlighters and post-its ready to access for reading activities. 4

5. Talk 2 Share 1-3 pieces of information with the group.
I highlighted __________.
I selected it because…
In this case, it is suggested that each participant share with the whole group. This can be changed to meet the needs/size of the group and the time you have available for the meeting. 5

6. Write
We will be meeting regularly to read and discuss ELLs in Texas: What Teachers Need to Know.
I hope the information in this book will help me to…
Allow participants about two minutes for this quick-write. Tell them that their response can be two to three sentences.
Classroom Tip: Quick-write responses of two to three sentences are a great formative assessment for a lesson. It will make things go smoothly if you develop a short response form that you can reproduce in quantity and pass out as needed. 6

7. Make It Real
After each meeting, you will have the opportunity to practice what you’ve learned through activities, collaboration, and reflection.
Prepare to Share – at the beginning of the next meeting we will each share one short story of challenge or success that we have experienced as a teacher of ELLs.
Explain to participants that the purpose of this task is to allow time for reflection. and to plan their response for the group.
Classroom Tip: ELLs benefit from additional time to process their thoughts and organize them in English. Allowing them to have time not just to reflect and organize their thinking, but also to rehearse their response in terms of confidence, prosody, and pronunciation is a welcome accommodation. 7