Professional Learning
The resources Ruslana shares are immediately applicable. Teachers walk away with a deeper understanding of the relationship between content and language and how to leverage that in the classroom through planning, instruction, and assessment.
- Gwyneth Dean-Witte Fastnacht, South Dakota Title III Consortium Coordinator
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Common Instructional Challenges and How We Help
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Stalled Literacy Results
Literacy efforts are stalled and the impact shows across every subject area. We help you move by giving teachers and students the specific language keys they need for literacy, math, science, social studies, and other subjects.
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Science of Reading Gaps
SoR initiatives are a vital start but they often neglect the oral and written language tools that diverse learners need to bridge the gap from decoding to actual meaning. We help you build a more comprehensive literacy approach by integrating the linguistic scaffolds that turn word recognition into true academic power.
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HQIM Curriculum Gaps
You have invested in high quality curriculum but there is still work to do to make it work for all learners. We help you identify HQIM scaffolding gaps so teachers make grade-level content accessible without simplifying the rigor.
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Instructional Silos
General education teachers feel unequipped to lead multilingual learners and specialists feel isolated from the core curriculum. We help you bridge the divide with a shared toolkit that empowers every educator to support every child.
Westerlund Consulting services provide solutions to pedagogical challenges through the following services
Professional Learning — Workshops, institutes, and multi-session training that help educators understand academic language and apply Visible Language™ strategies in their classrooms.
Visible Language™ Toolkit Training — Direct training on how to use the Visible Language™ Toolkit to identify the language demands of lessons, texts, tasks, and assessments.
Instructional Coaching — Individual and team coaching for teachers, instructional coaches, principals, and district leaders focused on improving language-rich instruction.
Curriculum & Instructional Design — Reviewing, developing, and strengthening curriculum so academic language is intentionally taught alongside content.
School & District Consulting — Helping schools and districts build sustainable systems for multilingual learner support, academic language development, and instructional improvement.
Leadership Development — Professional learning for principals, district administrators, and instructional leaders on how to recognize, support, and evaluate effective language-focused instruction.
Keynotes & Conference Presentations — Engaging presentations on academic language, multilingual learners, systemic functional linguistics, instructional leadership, and equitable access to rigorous learning.
Online Professional Learning — Self-paced and cohort-based courses through the Visible Language™ Academy, including individual lessons, modules, certificates, and continuing professional development.
Customized Professional Development — Programs tailored to a district's curriculum, student population, strategic goals, and professional learning priorities.
Curriculum & Materials Review — Evaluating existing instructional materials for language demands, accessibility, scaffolding, and opportunities to strengthen student language development.
Train-the-Trainer Programs — Preparing district leaders, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders to deliver and sustain Visible Language™ professional learning internally.
Strategic Partnerships — Collaborating with universities, publishers, education agencies, nonprofits, and professional organizations to develop resources, courses, research, and educator training.
Learning Online or In Person
Flexible options that fit your situation and schedule:
Custom Program: Tailored sessions and coaching for your staff, in-person, online, or blended.
Self-Paced: Online modules on your own time.
Online Class: Facilitated courses for deeper collaborative learning.
Practice Bites: Short "video bites" for a quick instructional refresh.
Digital Downloads
Ready-to-use implementation guides and instructional scaffolds.
Books & Articles
Published works that translate deep theory into classroom-ready strategy.
Not sure where to start?