Susan Atkins
Location
Room 1302 A
610 E. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1259
Susan Atkins is the Lead Faculty for the English Language Development (ELD) coursework in the Educator Preparation Program. She also is a Research Specialist with TeachingWorks. Most of Susan’s work centers on preparing teachers to work with multilingual learners. As a Marsal School lecturer, she teaches literacy and language courses to students pursuing the additional MDE PK-12 ESL teaching endorsement. Susan directs the ELD abroad program to Cuernavaca, Mexico in the Spring term. In her work with TeachingWorks, Susan creates teacher education curriculum materials and tools to support novice teachers in developing their practice with multilingual learners. She collaborates on several projects with partners using high-leverage practices and frequently provides professional development in university and school-based settings.
Susan honed her own practice as a bilingual teacher in California. For 10 years, she taught brilliant Spanish and English speaking students of all different backgrounds and proficiency levels. It was imperative that Susan made content accessible to all of the students in her classroom, and now she has spent her career ensuring that other teachers can do the same. Susan believes all multilingual learners deserve high-quality access to a full education and are given the opportunity to showcase their assets in the classroom. She enjoys supporting novice teachers in this work so that they are adequately prepared to educate all students.
Upon moving from California to Michigan, Susan worked as a Title III program administrator, and English Language Development teacher, and then joined the staff at Mitchell Elementary School, where she collaborated with a U-M team through the Mitchell Scarlett Teaching and Learning Collaborative. Susan has presented at the TESOL International Convention, La Cosecha Dual Language Conference, and the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) Annual Conference. She is a consultant for the Center for Applied Linguistics, a national nonprofit in Washington, D.C., and for the Michigan Department of Education SIOP Trainer of Trainers program. She consults on various other projects related to instruction for multilingual learners.
Susan holds a master’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley and received her teacher bilingual certification in California.
