We envision a hybrid professional development offering that acknowledges and prioritizes educators as learners, while honoring ELLs, students performing below grade level, and economically disadvantaged students as the ultimate center and focus of the work. Professional development should help build learning communities across districts by accommodating and connecting diverse audiences across roles and content areas (e.g., teachers, instructional coaches, principals, and district administrators), and by providing safe learning environments that support reflection on practice outside of any formal evaluative protocols.

Watch to learn about our new professional learning courses on complex thinking and communications across content areas.

Inaugural Courses: Complex Thinking and Communication Across Content Areas

Today’s college- and career-readiness standards require considerably higher levels of academic language mastery and cognitive functioning across the curriculum than ever before. Few, if any, professional development efforts have focused on helping teachers who serve high-needs students to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to meet these new instructional standards.

The Council of the Great City Schools, with the generous support of the Leona Helmsley Charitable Trust, has therefore initiated its learning platform and developed a set of courses focused on expanding the capacity of teachers to support high-needs students in their acquisition and use of the complex thinking and communication skills required by college- and career-readiness standards in both English language arts and mathematics.

Click here to download the brochure for additional details.

Teaching ELLs with Linguistic Frames

This video features a sheltered English class with a mix of first and second grade English language learners demonstrating strategies from Dr. Lily Wong-Fillmore to support acquiring and using academic language through instruction with complex text.

About the 3Ls™ Approach

Click here to download the 3Ls™ Learning, Language and Literacy informational guide. Learn more about the approach by reading Maryann Cucchiara's article in Learning Forward's Journal The Learning Professional. 

    Instructional Practice Guides

a. Choosing “Juicy” Complex Excerpts and Sentences

b. Juicy Sentence Play

             Connections to ELD Standards and Frameworks

Connecting 3Ls™ to English Language Development Standards & Frameworks