Time to Act: An Agenda for Advancing Adolescent Literacy for College and Career Success

Presents a vision for literacy instruction from fourth through twelfth grade; examines the challenges; outlines the elements of success, including professional development and use of data; and lays out a national agenda for change based on case studies

Educational Considerations, vol. 26 (2) Full Issue

Educational Considerations, vol.26 (2) Spring 1999 - Full issu

Adolescent Literacy and the Achievement Gap: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here?

Reviews research and program initiatives focused on improving adolescent academic achievement by targeting literacy. Provides ideas for collaboration and coordination of funding efforts to improve the literacy achievement of under-performing adolescents

The role of content and language in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) at university: Challenges and implications for ESP

In a context characterized by the increasing presence of CLIL programs in universities with a tradition of ESP courses, we analyze the case of a university in Catalonia (Spain) with regard to the position of CLIL and ESP. As CLIL programs are promoted to improve students' language proficiency in English, we explore the importance of language learning in these programs and the implications derived for ESP. Data were obtained from institutional documentation, class observation, and lecturer and student views on CLIL expressed in focus groups and a questionnaire. Findings show imprecise guidelines for CLIL implementation. Although we can observe an institutional shift from ESP to CLIL, the latter courses do not generally include language support. Lecturer and student perspectives provide useful insights for action that can be taken by ESP course designers to adapt courses to make them more relevant to students' discipline-related needs. Faced with these findings, we propose engaging in collaboration with content lecturers to develop graduates' proficiency in English. This collaboration can take place both through the integration of language in content courses and through the integration of content in ESP courses to make them more relevant to disciplines' communicative needs. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Postprint (published version

K-12 TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF PREPAREDNESS AND TRAINING TO PROVIDE INSTRUCTION AND SUPPORT TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

The increased number of English language learners in the general education classroom created the need for teachers to be knowledgeable about how to instruct and support English language learners. Due to the minimal extant literature related to K-12 teachers’ preparedness and training, specifically regarding English language learners, the purpose of this qualitative, interpretive study was to examine the perceptions of Tennessee K-12 teachers related to preparedness and training to provide instruction and support to English language learners in the general education classroom. I emailed the questionnaire to 63 potential participants and received questionnaire responses from 44 (69.84%) K-12 teachers. I analyzed the data using open, axial, and selective coding to generate three themes for my first research question and two themes for my second research question. K-12 teachers believed college coursework fell short of providing strategies, knowledge, and skills on instruction to English language learners in the general education classroom. Teacher preparedness could be improved with additional coursework and focused professional development related to English language learners in the general education classroom. Results also included K-12 teachers reported the need for more professional development to feel adequately prepared to provide instruction and support to English language learners

Bilingual teacher welfare.

This study was developed because there is very little research covering the topic of bilingual teachers. Literature that describes how bilingual teachers view their role within the whole school environment, what makes their career unique from other teachers, their perspectives on bilingual education, their needs, and the issues most affecting them, was lacking. Therefore, this study attempts to fill that gap within the literature. Through qualitative in-depth interviewing, the participants in this study were encouraged to discuss the issues and topics most relevant to them from a set of interview guide questions. Two groups of participants, former bilingual teachers and teachers currently working in a bilingual program, were selected to add breadth and depth to the research findings. The literature review chapter sheds light on what little data is available that is relevant to the target group and brings forth gray areas which need to be studied. Further, this chapter provides an overview of multiple issues which affect the field of bilingual education, but which do not currently consider the perspectives of bilingual teachers. This section was incorporated in order to provide solid background information as well as to allow the participants to give their views on some of the topics. This study documents the following general findings about bilingual teachers at Westpoint School District: (1) Most people who pursue a career in bilingual education are native speakers of the language in which they teach and have previous teaching experience in their native land. (2) Political threats to bilingual education are causing former bilingual teachers to leave their program, seeking job security. (3) Bilingual teachers\u27 workloads are greater than average because of the lack of resources, the absence of support personnel, dual language teaching, student-related issues, the lack of student academic support programs, and having to implement the goals of the program. (4) A bilingual teacher\u27s role entails performing the duties customarily performed by support personnel as well as implementing the goals of bilingual programs and student academic support programs. (5) Participants in this study perceive a lack of professional equality between bilingual teachers and other educators

Learning Linguistics, Teaching for Change: Preparing Secondary Educators to More Equitably Teach Disciplinary Literacies

This dissertation explores ways to better prepare secondary teachers in the United States for more equitably teaching disciplinary literacies to English language learners (ELLs), a current goal of many teacher educators, literacy researchers, and applied linguists that is echoed in federal and state-level education policy. Specifically, it investigates the affordances and constraints of using a critical social semiotic approach to secondary teacher education for this purpose. The dissertation is structured as a set of three research papers, each of which addresses a different aspect of this topic. The first paper draws on existing literature to explore how a critical social semiotic approach has been used in recent K-12 teacher education and professional development efforts across the United States and to what effect. The second and third papers are empirical studies that seek to build on and add to this body of literature. Data for these papers was collected in the context of a mandated one-semester course designed to prepare secondary pre-service teachers across content areas to better support the disciplinary literacy development of students designated as ELLs. The second paper draws on pre- and post-course survey data to explore changes in 55 secondary pre-service teachers’ literacy teaching practices after they were introduced to a critical social semiotic perspective, specifically how they gave feedback on disciplinary writing. The third paper takes a more longitudinal approach to studying professional development in this same group of pre-service teachers. It combines qualitative case study and quantitative survey methods to more holistically explore what kinds of knowledge, beliefs, and practices these teachers developed over two years as they experienced multiple and, at times, contradictory discourses about language, language learners, and literacy teaching and learning during their pre-service programming, student teaching experiences, and first year of in-service teaching. Cumulatively, this dissertation contributes to existing research in teacher education, literacy studies, and applied linguistics by offering a comprehensive literature review and additional empirical information regarding the opportunities and challenges of using a critical social semiotic approach to supporting secondary pre-service teachers’ development as disciplinary literacy teachers and, possibly, change agents

Ensuring Equity and Excellence for English Learners: An Annotated Bibliography for Research, Policy, and Practice

Ensuring Equity and Excellence for English Learners: An Annotated Bibliography for Research, Policy, and Practice is comprised of over 350 annotations from both recent and seminal literature (released between 1984–2021) that have significant implications for research, policy, and practice for English learner (EL) linguistic, social, and academic achievement. This annotated bibliography serves as a resource for researchers, policymakers, educators, and advocates who are working for equity and excellence for ELs. The authors provide a comprehensive selection of works focused on theory, research, and practice. The annotations are a result of purposeful searches of 23 topics in empirical and theoretical articles from peer-reviewed journals, books, book chapters, and reports from leading scholars in the field. Among the topics addressed relevant to EL education are broad areas such as: bilingual teacher preparation, teaching and professional development, university and district partnerships, digital learning for ELs, social emotional development, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and English Language Development (ELD) for elementary and secondary level students. The Integrated ELD (content instruction) topic is subcategorized according to specific disciplines including: English language arts, history, mathematics, science, visual & performing arts, and STEM. In order to provide additional information for readers, each annotation includes: (1) the source description (e.g., book, journal article, report), (2) type of source (e.g., empirical, guidance, theoretical), and (3) keywords.https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ceel_annotatedbibliographies/1001/thumbnail.jp

Western Oregon University 2018-2019 Course Catalog

https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/coursecatalogs/1021/thumbnail.jp