Meet Our Consultants

Margarita Calderón & Shawn Slakk

Consulting Expertise:

• Teaching academic language, reading comprehension, and writing in content classrooms
• Teaching language, reading, and writing in the ELD/EL classroom
• Whole-school professional learning on meeting instructional and programmatic needs of ELs
• Advancing achievement of Long-term English learners
• Site administrator, LEA, and SEA professional development focused on implementation, coaching, PLC support, and evaluation of language acquisition
• Dual language implementation and program analysis

Maria Dove & Andrea Honigsfeld

Consulting Expertise:

• Co-teaching for English learners
• Teacher collaboration and partnership building
• Instructional strategies for English learners
• School leadership for diverse learning communities
• Instructional coaching

Diane Staehr Fenner

Consulting Expertise:

• Scaffolding content instruction for English learners
• Integrating academic language instruction in content teaching to support ELs
• Developing ELs’ literacy skills
• Empowering all teachers to advocate and lead for ELs
• Supporting coaching for all teachers of ELs

Margo Gottlieb 

Consulting Expertise:

• Assessment as, for, and of learning in classroom and large-scale contexts
• Academic language development and use
• Curriculum design within linguistically and culturally sustainable frameworks
• Standards-referenced teaching and learning with multilingual learners in mind
• Education of multilingual learners for the twenty-first century

Tonya Ward Singer

Consulting Expertise:

• Raising rigor and results of core literacy learning for ALL students
• Integrating academic language development and collaborative conversations into every lesson every day
• Using asset-based mindsets and strategies to increase EL engagement and motivation
• Redesigning EL instruction to accelerate EL learning and prevent long-term ELs
• Igniting core teacher agency and shared ownership to ensure ELs thrive

Ivannia Soto

Consulting Expertise:

• ELL shadowing, which has been recognized by the Education Trust-West as a “promising practice”
• The CA ELA/ELD Framework and standards
• How to introduce and reinforce the explicit needs of Standard English learners
• Academic Language Development Certification: a two-year teacher-leader process leading to recognition/ICLRT certification focused on academic language development
• Building dual language instructional expertise

Debbie Zacarian

Consulting Expertise:

• Strengthening instructional and leadership practices, preK-college
• Enhancing family-school partnerships
• Using a strengths-based approach with ELs living with trauma, violence, and chronic stress
• Identifying and working with ELs with differences and disabilities
• Policy analysis, writing, and strategic planning