Ongoing Projects

Proyecto Maestría: Masters Project in Bilingual/Bicultural Education

View the current BBE special degree (Proyecto Maestría) information at www.edb.utexas.edu/education/departments/ci/programs/bbe/studentinfo/cstudents/grad/degrees/specialmaster/

Dr. Deborah Palmer and the Program in Bilingual/Bicultural Education, in collaboration with the Austin Independent School District (AISD), are the recipients of a five year Title III No Child Left Behind National Professional Development Grant to increase the number and enrich the quality of bilingual and ESL educators in the Austin area. The grant supports teachers in two ways:

1. Proyecto Maestría:Each June, a cohort of 12 experienced bilingual teachers from Austin area schools will come to UT in a group to earn Masters degrees in Curriculum and Instruction: Bilingual/Bicultural Education. In exchange for their commitment to serve their districts as mentors and teacher leaders for a minimum of three years following graduation, they will receive approximately ¾ scholarships to support their graduate study.
2. BESI: Each summer, a special Bilingual Education Summer Institute will provide (with scholarship) 25 teachers with the coursework to earn bilingual or ESL endorsements. Participants will take four courses over the course of one summer. These teachers will be supported as they move from mainstream classrooms into bilingual or ESL settings.

Bilingual teachers with a minimum of 5 years’ experience are eligible to apply to Proyecto Maestría. Further information and application materials: contact Shawna Matteson, smatt@mail.utexas.edu or Deb Palmer, debpalmer@mail.utexas.edu.

Certified and practicing PK-12 teachers with an interest in bilingual/ESL education (and Spanish proficiency in the case of bilingual) are eligible to apply to BESI. Courses connected to the summer institute will be able to apply towards a masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction. Further information and application materials: contact Deb Palmer, debpalmer@mail.utexas.edu

Technology Integration in the EC-4 Bilingual Program

Dr. Haydée Rodriguez, Clinical Assistant Professor in Bilingual Education teacher preparation, has been working hard to keep our undergraduates connected through two exciting projects.

Project PORTAL

The Providing Opportunities for Relevant Teaching and Access to Language (PORTAL) Project uses technology to put student teachers into the classrooms of practicing master bilingual educators. Using videoconferencing, students watch an AISD teacher give a lesson in a real-time classroom setting. Later, the teacher comes to talk with the students and answer questions about her lesson, the choices she made and how to apply bilingual principles of learning in the classroom.

Project VIDA

The Vigorous Instruction Delivers Achievement (VIDA) Project is a collaborative and jointly funded effort between the University of Texas and Austin Independent School District, in which UT bilingual education student teachers are paired with Austin ISD mentor teachers and work together with students to integrate writing and science bilingual education with technology. Mentor teachers receive a refurbished laptop loaded with software and training materials for their classrooms.

Field-based Funding Initiatives

Drs. Jim Hoffman and Beth Maloch

Drs. Hoffman and Maloch were awarded funding for their Field-Based Funding Initiative. The Reading Specialization/Concentration program at The University of Texas at Austin has been offered as an “option” to students seeking elementary certification for over forty years. One of the critical components of this program has been the commitment to field-based teaching and learning. This field-based component typically includes an intensive reading tutorial experience. Just over ten years ago, Dr. Hoffman developed a handbook (“The Longhorn Readers”) to guide this tutorial experience. Over the years, this handbook has been used in conjunction with tutorials in other cohorts and in graduate classes.

The funding awarded for this project will be used to revise this Handbook. Drs. Hoffman and Maloch’s efforts to revise the Reading Tutorial Handbook will focus on two areas:

1. The content, strategies, and references that support the various components of the Handbook will be updated.
2. The following technological developments will be made to update the Handbook in terms of attention to the use of technology to support the teaching in the tutorial and the use of technology to support the learning of our undergraduates.
   
   1. Strategies for integrating laptops into the current tutorial routines,
   2. New instructional routines that promote the use of computer technologies and “new literacy” to support learning from text,
   3. Videotapes of lesson routines that can be used to support the use of critical components, and
   4. Procedures for the tutorial experience that will enhance communication, feedback and reflection (e.g., lesson planning, reflections, sharing of materials and resources).

The development team for this project will consist of two cohort coordinators, Drs. Hoffman and Maloch, two TA’s, and two current cooperating teachers (both are graduates of the UT Reading Specialization program). Together, they will conduct an action research project and gather data on the use and the impact of the revised tutorial handbook on the learning of the UT students enrolled in Dr. Hoffman’s cohort (starting Spring, 2006), the Master Reading Teacher Institute (Summer, 2006), and Dr. Maloch’s cohort (starting Fall, 2006). They will use the data to plan for a fully randomized experimental study in the Spring of 2007.

The revised Tutorial Handbook will be made available to all course instructors.

Dr. Cinthia Salinas

The funding awarded for Dr. Salinas’s field-based project will be used in relation to the EDC 370 Social Studies Advanced Methods and EDC 350s/650s Social Studies courses.

Collaborative examinations of the vital relationship between late arrival immigrant students/second language learners (14 years or older) and the social studies curricula (Americanization/citizenship) are essential in preparing future teachers. This qualitative case study project employs the lens of university researchers and expertise of classroom teachers in providing an analysis of the traditional curricula that are often enacted in increasingly ubiquitous late arrival high school immigrant centers and/or designated ESL classrooms. An examination of exemplar teachers (in AISD and Hays CISD) planning and practices (via interview and artifact collection) provide teacher educators with an opportunity to emphasize American citizenship as a unique cultural, historical, and transformative curricula through the broader use of World Geography Studies. In addition to identifying materials and resources that pre-service teachers can find particularly relevant for their students, the inclusion of effective second language learner instructional strategies will be studied and introduced to pre-service students.

The linguistic and cultural diversity of student populations in public schools remains a focal point for our teacher education program. The complexity of teacher decisions regarding curriculum and instruction deserves greater attention in our social studies teacher preparation program. This field-based project targets social studies teachers and those successful approaches that can be included in teacher preparation and in preparation for field experiences.

Dr. Mary Lee Webeck

The funding awarded for Dr. Webeck’s field-based project relates to preparation for a new course, EDC 370M: Middle Grades Methods. It is a course listed as a requirement for certification in the UTeach Liberal Arts 4-8 program. It is possible that the course may involve both Social Studies and Language Arts teacher certification candidates in first offerings.

During the spring of 2006 semester, Dr. Webeck will be preparing to teach a new course for teachers seeking middle grades certification. The course will likely be taught for the first time in the fall 2006 semester. She proposes a project this semester to facilitate the establishment of this new course. Two graduate students who have interests and experience in teaching and administration in middle grades will be working with Dr. Webeck. The graduate students will assist Dr. Webeck in conducting a thorough review of literature related to research and theory of middle school and middle grades teaching and learning. Additionally, they will search out and contact instructors of current middle grades courses at other institutions with established middle grades certifications programs. They will survey these instructors to ascertain their understandings of the strengths and weaknesses of the courses they are teaching or have taught.

Three classroom teachers currently working in diverse classroom settings, and who are recognized for exemplary middle grades teaching, will also be involved in course preparation. These teachers represent three districts: Austin ISD, Round Rock ISD, and Leander ISD; that serve diverse students. The teachers will spend two days at UT and work with the rest of the team to create a course syllabus and class activities to prepare UT students to teach and meet needs of current middle grades students.

Additionally, each of the teachers will beasked to prepare a video presentation of her classroom, its organization, and the resources available in the room. The team work-sessions will be recorded during the days they work at UT. The people involved in the development of this course will be asked to co-author an article with Dr. Webeck about planning and development of the course.

Dr. Webeck hopes to teach on site at a local middle school when the new middle grades course is taught, which will enable the students to work in social studies/language arts classrooms synchronously with their instruction in social studies/language arts methods. Dr. Webeck’s goal is to move the course(s) she teaches to a field-based setting where she knows the members of the staff and administration. This initiative will be helpful in establishing that relationship.

Results of the initiative will be shared in a proposed session at the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies in November 2006. Additionally, a publication is planned about the construction of this course for middle grades teacher preparation.

Dr. Jo Worthy

The funding awarded for Dr. Worthy’s field-based project will be used in relation to the Reading Difficulties course. The award will allow Dr. Worthy to purchase materials that she will make available to instructors of reading difficulties who teach classes in schools. These materials will include supplies for tutoring students in the practicum portion of the class as well as resources for instructing interns. They will be housed in an office in SZB 334 and will be available to be checked out and taken to the schools where the classes are taught.

Teaching the reading difficulties class requires specialized materials and supplies that are not available through the teacher preparation program. Providing instructors with access to these materials will make it easier to teach these classes in the field.

All instructors of reading difficulties will have access to these supplies and materials. Additionally, experienced instructors will communicate together to improve the quality of the course and to mentor new instructors in teaching the course and using the materials. The non-consumable materials will be used over a number of years.