ELL Shadowing as a Catalyst for Change

ELL Shadowing is a professional development experience that calls upon educators to monitor the educational experiences and opportunities for engagement of an ELL over the course of 3 - 4 hours – either in a single classroom or from class-to-class. Participants use a protocol to document the speaking, listening, reading, and writing opportunities for ELLs at 5-minute intervals over the Shadowing period. The Shadowing experience provides a method by which qualitative data on an ELLs opportunities for listening, speaking, reading, and writing can be objectively collected. Moreover, it offers self-reflection for educators by which they begin to see how their instructional interactions affect student use of academic language. Most importantly, it has been shown to create a sense of urgency among educators to increase opportunities for academic language production by ELLs. In this respect, it becomes an entry point for larger, systemic improvement.<br /><br />This comprehensive guide to the Shadowing process includes background on the importance of oral language development, information on preparing for the Shadowing experience, the complete ELL Shadowing protocol, and a guide to debriefing, analyzing and reflecting on the Shadowing experience. The final chapter takes readers through the process of preparing a personalized professional learning plan for ELL instruction.