An Institute Designed for Middle School and High School ENL, ELA and Reading Teachers 
Providing Science of Reading (SoR)-Aligned Foundational Literacy Instruction 
in English as a New Language for SIFE ELLs with DR. Nancy Cloud

3-PART SERIES | ONLINE 
10.24.2026, 11.07.2026 & 11.21.2026

REGISTER

PRESENTER: NANCY CLOUD, ED.D., PROFESSOR EMERITA, RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE 

AUDIENCE: This institute is designed for ENL and Bilingual Teachers, Paraprofessionals, Program Coordinators, Literacy Specialists and Special Educators, and School Leaders | Grades 6-12

A Padlet with Specialized Resources on the Topic Will Be Provided to Participants 

SATURDAY | OCTOBER 24, 2026 | 9AM-12PM

SESSION I | FOUNDATIONS  

• What We Know About Secondary SIFE ELLs
• Why a Dedicated ENL Literacy Class is Needed and for Whom 
• Collecting the Essential Data Needed to Plan Responsive Instruction
• Motivating SIFE ELLs
• What Secondary Teachers Need to Know About the Science of Reading (SoR) to Teach Foundational Literacy Skills to their SIFE ELLs
  • Important Differences Between Emergent Readers Who are Monolingual English Speakers and ELL/MLL Emergent Readers
  • Scarborough’s Rope Revisited (to Frame Initial/Emergent Literacy Instruction for SIFE ELLs); Current Research on the SoR for ELLs
  • Expanding Your Knowledge of the Science of Reading to Consider Implementation with MLLs (ELLs, Emergent Bilinguals)—Considerations and Implications from New York State’s SoR Toolkit for Teachers of MLLs
  • 7 Key Components of a Comprehensive Literacy Program for MLLs (Oral Language Development, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, Comprehension, Writing)
• Providing Systematic Explicit Instruction; Structured Literacy that is Well-Designed; Intentional
• Approaches to Designing/Delivering Emergent Literacy Instruction for SIFE ELLs
• Initial Literacy Instruction in Students’ Home Languages or English:  Challenges and Opportunities
• Maintaining the Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Framework Guidelines When Implementing Initial Literacy Instruction
• Resources for Teachers

SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 7, 2026 | 9AM-12PM 

SESSION II | APPLICATIONS 1 | DESIGNING ENL LITERACY UNITS; BUILDING PHONICS/PHONEMIC AWARENESS; VOCABULARY; ORAL LANGUAGE SKILLS

• Designing a Dedicated Emergent Literacy Class for SIFE
  • Approaches to Designing/Delivering Emergent Literacy Instruction for SIFE ELLs
  • Designing ENL Foundational Literacy Instruction that Aligns with Your School’s ELA Curriculum
    • Align to an ELA Curriculum Theme Under Study
    • Align to Key ELA Texts Being Read in a Unit (Genre)
    • Align to a Particular Unit’s ELA Skills and Strategies
  • Let’s Look at an ELA Grade Level Unit:  Creating a Parallel SIFE Unit: Introduction and Overview (Purpose, Skills, Activities, Teaching Strategies)
  • Finding Texts that SIFE ELLs Can Access
  • Establishing Objectives:  What Should Be Included in Every ENL Literacy Unit 
     
• Building Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Skills | Aspects to Consider
  • Phonological/Phonemic Awareness and Phonics and ELLs
  • Understanding Recoding Approximations Typical of ELLs (Resources for Teachers to Understand the Sound System ELLs Bring to the Process); Auditory Perception of Sounds of a New Language
  • The Alphabetic Principle and Teaching Sound-Symbol Relationships in English
  • Addressing Decoding-Encoding and Handwriting/Keyboarding
  • Where our Phonics Objective Fits in a Scope and Sequence for Phonics Instruction
  • Major Strategies for the Teaching of Phonemic Awareness and Phonics

(Elkonin Boxes, Counting Sounds, Dictation; Blending Lines, Flip Books & Foldables, Pocket Chart Activities, Decodable Stories and Books)

• What About Sight Words and Patterned Readers?
• Helpful Phonics Tools for Teachers
• Building Vocabulary | Considerations for SIFE ELLs
  • Choosing Words (Why the Tiers Aren’t Helpful); the Need to Teach ELA Words (character, theme, imagery, etc.) and Words Used in Activity Directions
  • How Many Words?  Watching the Volume of New Words to Ensure Acquisition
  • Using Semantic Anchors (Related Words; Networks of Words) and Other Principles to Follow with Beginners
  • Building Cross-Linguistic Bridges; Metalinguistic Awareness of How Words Work
• Building Oral Language | Vocabulary PLUS+
  • It’s More than Vocabulary, But Vocabulary Matters
  • Teaching Words and their Meanings; Teaching Words Using Graphics and Visuals
  • Morphological Analysis and the Teaching of Word Families
  • Working at a Sentence Level (Word Order, Conjunctions, Phrases, Clauses)
  • Ensuring Speaking and Writing Opportunities
• Strategies for Teaching Vocabulary to SIFE Students (Visualizing Vocabulary/Picture Dictionary, Vocabulary Notebooks, Foldables, Graphic Organizers, (Next time PWIM); Using Words in Sentences).    
• Resources for Teachers

SATURDAY | NOVEMBER 21, 2026 | 9AM-12PM

SESSION III | APPLICATIONS 2 | BUILDING COMPREHENSION, FLUENCY, WRITING SKILLS

• Understanding and Building Comprehension Skills for SIFE ELLs
  • What Affects Reading Comprehension in a Second Language? 
    • Text, Reader, Task
    • Text Characteristics to Look For
    • Things That Affect Reading Comprehension in a Second Language
  • Three Types of Comprehension (Literal, Inferential, Critical)
  • Considering Background Knowledge, Culture and Life Experience of SIFE ELLs in Relation to Texts
  • Importance of Thematic Instruction and Use of Text Sets (Teaching Across Texts) for Beginning Readers
  • Using Picture/Photo Books in the Secondary Classroom
  • Using an Integrated Skills Development Approach with Text Sets
  • Major Strategies for Building Comprehension Skills
    • Choosing Within-Range Texts; Form Text Sets
    • Ask Leveled Questions Based on Proficiency
    • Teach and Practice Global, Problem Solving and Support Strategies for Beginning Readers
    • Use Anchor Charts
    • Use Simple Graphic Organizers to Monitor Comprehension (Note Catcher, Word Maps, Plot Diagrams, etc.)
    • Teach Early Text Annotation Strategies
  • Other Things to Consider
    • What About Using Children’s Books/Early Fiction Designed for Younger Students with Preteens and Teens?
    • Teach ELA Concepts with Within-Range Texts
    • Cross-Linguistic Supports for Comprehension
• Understanding and Starting to Build Fluency for SIFE ELLs
  • How Proficiency Affects Fluency
  • What Contributes to Fluency (Accuracy, Rate, Prosody)
  • Rate:  A Minor Emphasis for Emergent ELL Readers and Why
  • When to Expect Fluency
  • How to Begin to Work on Fluency
• Connecting Reading to Writing for SIFE ELLS
  • The Writing Rope Model of Writing
  • Early Writing Skills, Tools, and Tasks (Teaching Handwriting/Letter Formation)
  • Building Connections Between Reading, Writing and Speaking:  Picture Word Induction Model (PWIM)
  • Making Your Classroom a Supportive Environment for Early Literacy Learning
  • Using Dictation and Dictogloss, Fill-in Writing, Writing and Drawing, Sentence Scrambles, Copy Cat Writing, Creative or Personal Writing, Patterned Writing, Guided Writing
  • Supports for Emergent Writers: Models/Mentor Texts, Word Banks, Sentence Frames; Guided Writing Protocols
  • Early WITsi Strategies (sentence combining, sentence expansion with prepositional phrases)
  • Giving Feedback:  How Much, When
• Bringing It All Together:  Using an Integrated Skills Development Approach
  • What to Work On In a Foundational Literacy Unit--Revisited
  • A Template for Designing ENL Literacy Units
• Resources for Teachers

The NYS Statewide Language RBERN is an approved Sponsor of CTLE pursuant to Section 80-6 of the Regulations of the NYS Commissioner of Education. All participants must fully attend all required parts of the professional development and be actively engaged in the learning process (as demonstrated in the breakout rooms and/or chat discussions) in order to be awarded CTLE credit.