Jo Gusman is both an outstanding teacher of emerging bilingual students and an outstanding professional development provider. She began her teaching career in 1974 as a bilingual education instructional assistant, and later became a Bilingual Education teacher. In 1981, her career led her to the nationally known Newcomer School, where Jo worked in a multilingual setting with refugee and immigrant non-English speaking children. It is there where she developed her many Brain-Based ESL Strategies™. Because of her extensive experience and exceptional work with English language learners, she has received numerous awards from organizations such as the National Hispanic School Board Association, California Reading Association, and the California Association for Bilingual Education. She has been featured on national television (NBC) in a five day news series titled, “The New Kids in Town.” In addition, Jo received recognition for her teaching excellence from President Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Department of Education.
Jo is the creator of the Foundation-Frameworks-Tools School Improvement Model© and author of Response to Instruction and Intervention: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Frameworks, Processes and Strategies, and Accelerating Your ELs Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary Development, and Reading Fluency. She is a co-author of ACCESS: Building Literacy Through Learning, a content-area program specifically designed for English language learners, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and Read 180: Strategies for Teaching Reading to English Language Learners, Scholastic.
Jo is featured in several professional development programs such as, “Multiple Intelligences and the Second Language Learner,” “Optimizing Intelligences: Thinking, Emotion and Creativity” and most recently, “Every Teacher – A Teacher of English Language Learners,” which features her Foundations-Frameworks-Tools© ELL Program Model.
Jo taught Introduction to Bilingual Education, Foundations of Curriculum, and Language and Literacy courses at California State University, Sacramento from 1988-2005. She was also an instructor at the Multiple Intelligences Institute at the University of California, Riverside.
Jo is the founder of New Horizons In Education, an education consulting company dedicated to assisting school districts design and implement highly effective language and literacy programs for their bilingual-biliterate students and their families. Presently, Jo provides Foundation-Frameworks-Tools School Improvement and Transformation guidance, EL Program Quality Reviews, ESSA implementation technical support, biliteracy, language acquisition, and Mind-Brain-Education Science seminars. Jo shares her many ideas with administrators, teachers, students, parents, and policy makers throughout the world. Her seminars are fast-moving, energetic, and focus on scores of research-based practical ideas and materials participants can use immediately.
Jo grew up in a family who experienced the challenges that farm working, non-English speaking families face. She truly understands the complexities and multiple variables that surround English language learners. Therefore, it is always her intention to provide seminar participants with practical ideas, inspiration, and a vision that all students are highly intelligent and can be successful in all aspects of their lives, regardless of race, gender, or socio-economic level.
Categories: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Educator, Educator - AEIs Most Popular Educators, Educator - Literacy and Reading, Educator - RTI / MTSS / PBIS, Educator - Virtual Learning, Hispanic
