University of Houston-Clear Lake
Collaborative Teaching of English Language Learners (CTELL)
Advisory Council Meeting
February 26, 2009-11:30 am
Bayou 1235
Minutes
In attendance at the meeting representing partner districts were:
1. Bel Sanchez, Director of Migrant/Bilingual/ESL Services, Alvin ISD
2. Cindy Stamps, Coordinator of Federal Programs, Clear Creek ISD
3. Patty De La Cruz Valenzuela, Director of Bilingual/ESL Programs, Deer Park
ISD
4. Gloria Gallegos, Associate Superintendent, Pasadena ISD
5. Helen Drab Stigant, Instructional Specialist, Pasadena ISD
6. Denise Pineault, Instructional Specialist, Pasadena ISD
7. Aldo Prado, Instructional Specialist, Pasadena ISD
8. Michelle Espinoza, Instructional Specialist, Pasadena ISD
9. Caryl Wilson, Interim Asst. Director Secondary ELL Programs, Clear Creek ISD
10. Audrey Cooper, 7-12 Bilingual/ESL Instructional Specialist, Texas City ISD
University of Houston-Clear Lake staff in attendance included:
1. Judith Márquez, CTELL Co-Director
2. Laurie Weaver, CTELL Co-Director
3. Norma Minter, CTELL Faculty Representative
 Welcome and introductions of new CTELL Advisory Council Members
District representatives and UHCL staff in attendance introduced themselves.
 Update on CTELL UHCL Faculty Professional Development—Laurie Weaver
A total of 26 faculty members have attended three professional development sessions
between October 2008 and February 2009. The topic of Session III was sheltered
instruction. The session was held on February 11, with a make-up session on
February 18.
 UHCL Faculty Field Trip to Pasadena—Laurie Weaver
Plans are being finalized for the faculty field trip to Pasadena. The faculty will meet
at the Pasadena ISD Administration Building where they will be given an overview of
the program by Gloria Gallegos, Associate Superintendent. Then they will visit one of
three high schools—Pasadena High School, Pasadena Memorial High School or Sam
Rayburn High School. Observations of sheltered instruction classrooms will be
scheduled at each high school. Other advisory council members expressed an interest
in accompanying the faculty on the field trip.
 Update on CTELL Spring Class—Judith Márquez
SILC 5931: Research Topics—Coaching & Mentoring started with a face-to-face
session on January 20, 2009. There have been three face to face classes. The class
meets face-to face approximately every other week. The students have
implementation and reflection assignments for the weeks when they are not on
campus.
Three of the implementation & reflection activities have been completed
o Write a description of your district, your school, teachers, students, etc. What
are your professional goals? Which of the elements mentioned in your
descriptions might affect your goals for implementation of sheltered
instruction and your coaching? How might your implementation and coaching
be affected by the various elements? What are some of the obstacles to
reaching your goals? What are some of the resources you can access to help
you reach your goals?
o Partner with a teacher/coach/mentor that is willing to be observed or to
observe you, depending on your level of experience and expertise in sheltered
instruction and coaching/mentoring. Schedule and conduct a pre-observation
conference. After conducting the pre-observation conference, write a
reflection describing the conference. Was the conference effective? In what
way? What were some of the positive aspects? What elements could have
been improved? What could you have done differently? What might you do
differently next time?
o Work with the same partner as in Implementation Activity #2 to carry out the
observation and the post-observation conference. Write a reflection on the
observation and post-observation conference. Were the observation and
conference effective? In what way? What were some of the positive aspects?
What elements could have been improved? What could you have done
differently? What might you do differently next time?
Topics to be covered in the SILC 5931 class include: introduction to coaching; setting
goals; SIOP observation cycle, roles of a coach/mentor; building trust; coaching over
time & building capacity; collaboration; impact of sheltered instruction on students.
Challenges:
Absences
 Robert Martínez. Is he going to withdraw?
 Absences due to doctor/dentist appointments, illness, surgery
 Update on Research—Laurie Weaver for Carol Carman
Data collection on most of our grant is running smoothly. One area, however, on
which we need to focus is making sure that the public school students are benefiting
from the SIOP training of their teachers. To do this, we’re going to need some district
information. It’s important for us to collect information to determine how our ELL
students scored before their teachers received training, as well as how they are doing
after the training. This will be an ongoing process throughout the grant’s term.
What we need:
 A list of content-area teachers in your district who teach ELLs who are not grant
participants this year. We’re particularly interested in those you would have
nominated for participation in this training if you had the chance. This will be our
comparison group of teachers for this year.

For each ELL student taught by our current participants, we need TAKS scores
and TELPAS ratings from 2007 and 2008. If you don’t have some of the scores,
that’s ok, but we need as much of this information as you can find. When
reporting the scores, please list each student by ID# rather than name, for
confidentiality purposes. These data will be our pre-test data.

For each teacher you name in the first list, we need the same TAKs and TELPAS
information from 2007 and 2008 for all of their ELL students as well. This will
become our comparison group.
We realize that collecting this information may take some time. If you could collect
the needed data and email it to carman@uhcl.edu by the end of this semester, you’d
be providing a great service to help us show how effective this training is.
 CTELL Language Institute – Summer 2009—Judith Márquez
The first CTELL Summer Language Institute was held on July 31, 2008. We need to
set a date for the next institute. A tentative date of Saturday, August 8, 2009 was set.
Keynote speaker for the first institute was LouAnne Johnson, author of Dangerous
Minds. Suggestions for possible keynote speakers: Lin Kuzmich. She does
presentations on brain research and differentiation of instruction. Gloria Gallegos will
provide contact information for her.
The first institute was ½ day with five different concurrent sessions repeated.
Participants were able to attend two sessions. This time we hope to have a whole day
institute with more presenters, including our students.
More than 100 people registered for the institute; approximately 85 attended. There
was no charge for the institute, parking or refreshments. If we have a whole day, we’ll
have to have lunch available. We’ll have to figure out logistics for that.
 Application for Cohort 2 (See attachment.) — Laurie Weaver
The new application form will be sent out electronically to all CTELL Advisory
Council district representatives. Completed applications and documentation are due
by May 28, 2009.
 Grant coordinator needed—Judith Márquez
Since Norma Minter had to step down as our grant coordinator, we are now searching
for a replacement.