Pacific Resources for Education and Learning

Building Capacity Through Education

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PREL provides services that support and strengthen language teaching and learning in multilingual contexts (K–adult). We offer collaborative processes to develop or review bilingual language policy planning at entity or department levels. We give practical assistance to schools using the vernacular and/or English as a second or foreign language for instruction. Our services creatively promote learning through languages while enhancing the linguistic vitality of the languages of home and school.

Workshops

Language Policy Review

Audience: Policy Makers
Engage in the review process to assist ministries and departments of education with bilingual programs to affirm or rethink their language policy and its current impact on schools. Clarify language corpus, status, and acquisition concerns for the local language and learn how English can be strengthened through an additive approach to bilingual programs. Develop and implement a plan that supports teachers’ professional development to increase the bilingual potential of all learners. Information draws on a process developed by PREL staff used to help review the language policy in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

Comprehension, Culture, and Bilingual Kids

Audience: Teachers
Learn how to use both traditional and school-based stories to extend children’s knowledge of how the local language and English work to make meaning (comprehension). Explore similarities and differences between stories and languages to deepen children’s comprehension of narrative, while building on, and valuing, the cultural knowledge and practices they bring to the classroom.

Developing Local Language Materials for Early Readers

Audience: Teachers, Literacy Specialists
Developing materials in the students’ vernacular will facilitate literacy growth in the early grades. Learn to create materials purposefully, understand how students develop as readers, understand the characteristics of texts, and grasp the issues regarding the local language.

English Language Development Across Content Areas

Audience: Principals, Teachers, Curriculum Specialists
English language development occurs in every class throughout the school day, not just in English/language arts classes. Understand fundamentals of second language acquisition, scaffolding and presentation in content areas for increased comprehension and participation by English language learners.

English Language Learners (ELLs) and Secondary Schools

Audience: Principals, Teachers, Curriculum Specialists, Policy Makers
ELLs, especially newly-arrived immigrants, present instructional and organizational challenges for secondary schools. How can students participate in content courses that are cognitively appropriate while gaining English language proficiency? What about credit accrual in high school? Explore instructional models that serve school and student needs.

Improving Achievement: Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP)

Audience: Teachers, School Administrators
SIOP provides a proven model for teachers to addresses the learning needs of ELL, SPED, and other struggling students through implementing proven research-based strategies. For teachers, professional development will include using the SIOP model to address language and content learning for at-risk students across subject areas. Additional sessions can be provided for school administrators to build their capacity as instructional leaders and coaches to more effectively support classroom teachers in implementing the SIOP approach.

As a result of the training provided: (a) teachers will be better prepared to meet the needs of all students in their classrooms, thus ensuring students gain content knowledge while developing their language abilities; (b) students will be able to comprehend content area subject matter and meet age-appropriate English language goals (reading, writing, speaking, thinking) to attain grade-level content standards; and (c) school administrators and other instructional leaders will have increased capacity to support the classroom implementation.

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Programs

Assistance for the Comprehensive Educational Development Mindanao (ASCEND Mindanao)
Nā Hoa Ho`ōla (NHH)
Pacific Comprehensive Center (PCC)
Parent Information and Resource Center—FSM (PIRC FSM)
Parent Information and Resource Center—RMI (PIRC RMI)
Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific (REL Pacific)
Territories & Freely Associated States Education Grant Program (T&FASEGP)

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Websites

Nā Hoa Ho`ōla (NHH)
Pacific Area Language Materials (PALM )
Pacific Comprehensive Center (PCC)
Pacific Language Early Readers
Picturing Science
(Teaching Educators About Micronesian Students (TEAMS )
Telling Stories: Using Drama and Multimedia with ESL Students 

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Products

Print

Books:
Coral Reef Alphabet Book for American Samoa
Island Alphabet Books

Brochures:
Conversation With Parents About Language: Languages Open Doors to Success and Wisdom

Magazines:
Pacific Educator 2004 Vol. 3(3) - English Language Learners

Papers:
Assessing Early Reading: Change, Culture, and Community in a Pacific Island School
Culturally Responsive Schools for Micronesian Immigrant Students
Historical Perspective on Title VII Bilingual Education Projects in Hawaii
Literacy in Indigenous Communities
Lost in Translation: From English to Pacific Languages in Early Reading Assessment
The Language Question in Pacific Education: The Case of the Republic of the Marshall Islands
Standards-Based Instruction for English Language Learners

Multimedia

CDs:
Pacific Language Early Readers

DVDs/VHS Tapes:
English Language Development in the Bilingual Classroom
First and Second Language Literacy: From Research to Practice
Teaching Reading in the Vernacular

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Contact PREL

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