SEI MTEL awesomeness

Teachers in Massachusetts have to become certified in teaching English Language Learners (ELLs, students whose native language is not English). The state set up a course (RETELL) to cover this, but by all accounts it's a nightmare and a lot of work. So one workaround is to pass a teacher test on Sheltered English Immersion (SEI). And if the choice is to give up my Mondays all fall or spend half a summer half-studying in my hammock... well, yesterday, I took the SEI MTEL exam, and it stunk. The post from here is really only of interest to teachers contemplating taking it themselves, so read on at your own risk of mortal boredom.

I didn't know how to study. When I took the English MTEL, there was a list of hundreds of authors to be familiar with, and without years to read a book by everyone, I just Wikipedia-ed a couple of facts to get me through. The SEI's test objectives had terms to memorize, but most of the test was more about knowing how to react to classroom situations: "If you're trying to teach this, what's the best strategy for ELLs?" That means if you know best practices for ELLs, most questions can be reasoned through. There were a few really specific questions about laws -- "What does Title III of No Child Left Behind say?" -- but most of my studying on morphemes and rhetorical registers and the pragmatic approach to language acquisition was possibly not helpful to my test-taking.

The huge surprise was the open response. The sample open response online discusses a five-part open response that should total around 1500 words. Then they give you a sample question with five parts. I assumed this was it, and with no description or mention of Parts 2-5, I studied hard for Part 1. Mid-test, I discovered four more parts, each with 5-7 parts. I exceeded my allotted 1500 words.

First you choose a mentor text to analyze. In Part 1 you identify tiered vocab, analyze the text at the word/sentence and discourse levels, and set content and language objectives. Hard, but I'd prepared. For the parts I did not know were coming, you design and describe two vocab lessons, a reading lesson, a writing lesson, and assessment of everything. For each, you justify your choices, and you connect it all to the objectives and the other lessons. And you differentiate each for various English Language Development (ELD) levels.

What I wrote was all good teaching, but not necessarily good ELL-specific teaching. But I think I BS-ed my way to a 3 out of a possible 4, and I feel semi-confident enough about the multiple choice parts that I don't think I'll have retake it. But if I do, and you're contemplating it, here's my advice:

• Learn the associated laws. There were two hyper-specific questions about NLCB and a Massachusetts ballot measure. I took a good guess at both, but it was a prime "you know it or you don't" question.
• Have a sense of two ways to teach vocab, and what you might do for a reading and writing lesson on a provided text, and know how you'd assess it all.
• Learn the ELD levels and how to differentiate for each, enough that you can write about adapting a lesson for an emerging or bridging student.
• Be able to identify the Tier 1, 2, and 3 vocab, and look at how they do it on the sample. Theirs is a great, if intimidating, study guide.
• Just know the general gist of what SEI is all about, how they believe it's best to educate ELLs. Most questions were like, "How do you handle this situation?" and they were easy to me, but I took my grad school SEI course relatively recently and I incorporate a lot of best practices for ELL into my teaching anyway. So make sure you get what it's all bout.
• Read the questions carefully and figure out what they're really asking; most have 50 words with only five that really matter. Take your time, you can reason a lot of them through.

I'm a good test-taker -- I breezed through Communication & Literacy, worked hard but passed English and Social Studies, all on the first try. You have four hours for SEI, and I assumed I'd be done in two or so; instead I finished with just 10 minutes to spare. Unquestionably the hardest MTEL I've taken. But I'm optimistic. And hopefully my guinea piggery will help you, too. Anything to avoid RETELL!

UPDATE: I passed! By the skin of my teeth, but I'll take it. So that gives my advice added juice, no? Also, I heard RETELL is still terrible. It ain't fun, but I definitely prefer my way.