SEAL (Sobrato Early Academic Language) is a powerful English Learner-focused approach to education rooted at the intersection of research and educational equity. Since 2008, SEAL has partnered with dozens of districts to provide comprehensive professional development to school district leaders, principals, and teachers.

Dual Language programs are uniquely poised to have meaningful and substantive impact on educational equity for English Learners, providing both access to intellectually rich, high quality instruction, and affirming, inclusive school environments.

SEAL’s professional development ignites changes in systems and practices that support language development, literacy, and engaging, joyful learning— for English Learners, and ALL students. We are especially thrilled to share our plans to expand our Dual Language Program professional learning offerings to school leaders and teachers of Preschool through 6th-grade settings.

Dual Language Teacher Pedagogy Series

The DL Teacher Pedagogy Series is a comprehensive two-year professional development series on the pedagogy and classroom strategies for biliteracy, bilingualism for DL teachers and coaches. There will be a series of virtual learning sessions and twice yearly in-person Bilingual Convenings to learn about best practices for DL classrooms. The content will ground educators in bilingual pedagogy, the three pillars of DL, how to strategically coordinate and scaffold authentic literacy instruction in both languages, capitalizing on transfer, cross-language connections and the power of the bilingual brain. Participants will also engage in professional learning around implementing effective Designated ELD within a DL classroom, and how to leverage and celebrate students and families cultural and linguistic assets.

Dual Language Leadership Series

The DL Leadership Series for administrators, coaches, and teacher leads is designed to support the design, planning, improvement, implementation and sustainability of high quality DL programs. Participants will explore a variety of topics as they develop their site/district action plan, particularly with equity, continuous improvement and collaboration in mind. The series includes virtual sessions and twice-yearly Bilingual Convenings. Participants will also have access to all the teacher sessions to attend.

Technical Assistance

Paired with the DL Leadership Series, SEAL provides an additional layer of support through our deeper, customized one-on-one engagements with our Bilingual Consulting Team. We meet with administrators or DL leadership teams to assess the types and depth of services required, develop an individualized district/site plan, and then engage in the required professional learning and thought-partnering to create, grow, or improve existing bilingual programs.

For pricing, questions, or more information, please contact Corina Sapien at Corina@seal.org

Learn more about our offerings