Program Models, Pre-service Teachers, and Emergent Bilingual Instruction

It is estimated by the year 2030, over 40% of the K-12 population in U.S. schools will be children whose first language is not English (U.S. Census Bureau, 2007; Shin & Ortman, 2011). This situation has potential academic consequences for emergent bilingual students (EBS) attending schools without adequate accommodations. The issue of teachers who are underprepared to meet the needs of EBS contributes to the academic consequences absorbed by this K-12 population, and to the social and cultural cycle of oppression for this marginalized group. Thus, integrating knowledge, skills, and dispositions (KSDs) beneficial for meeting the needs of EBS becomes imperative for pre-service program models. This dissertation served as a ship navigating the deep and wide learning opportunities offered by three distinct pre-service program models. Participants from three program models: Intentionally Integrated, Traditional, and Student-Selected Add-On asserted ways in which their program model provided learning opportunities for development of KSDs beneficial to EBS. Differences in program models shaped pre-service teachers’ opportunities to learn the KSDs required for working with emergent bilingual students, which in turn, determined what they enacted in classrooms. As such, program model opportunities interrupting the cycle of oppression for EBS emerged from the study. This interruption reemphasizes why intentional integration of learning opportunities useful for developing KSDs beneficial to EBS must occur pre-service program models

Virtually Uncharted Waters: How a Global Pandemic Has Taken Pre-Service Teachers out of Physical Classrooms and Perpetuated Pre-Identified Gaps in Preparedness for Working With Emergent Bilingual Students

COVID-19 has changed the way of life for nearly every individual in the US. One of the greatest causes of familial and systematic turmoil has been the transition of K-12 schools to the uncharted waters of remote learning. When COVID-19 forced the termination of practicum placements for pre-service teachers, it also limited the opportunity for pre-service teachers to have in-person exposure to Emergent Bilingual Students (EBS), an essential piece of creating Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions (KSDs) needed for their future classrooms. In this essay, I look back at research addressing the KSD gaps created through the lack of exposure pre-service teachers have when it comes to working with EBS. Building on previous research related to the KSDs gained from practicum placements with EBS, pre-service teacher gaps are identified, pandemic perpetuation of gaps are put forth, and potential solutions are named

Phylogeny in defining model plants for lignocellulosic ethanol production: a comparative study of Brachypodium distachyon, wheat, maize, and Miscanthus x giganteus leaf and stem biomass

The production of ethanol from pretreated plant biomass during fermentation is a strategy to mitigate climate change by substituting fossil fuels. However, biomass conversion is mainly limited by the recalcitrant nature of the plant cell wall. To overcome recalcitrance, the optimization of the plant cell wall for subsequent processing is a promising approach. Based on their phylogenetic proximity to existing and emerging energy crops, model plants have been proposed to study bioenergy-related cell wall biochemistry. One example is Brachypodium distachyon, which has been considered as a general model plant for cell wall analysis in grasses. To test whether relative phylogenetic proximity would be sufficient to qualify as a model plant not only for cell wall composition but also for the complete process leading to bioethanol production, we compared the processing of leaf and stem biomass from the C3 grasses B. distachyon and Triticum aestivum (wheat) with the C4 grasses Zea mays (maize) and Miscanthus x giganteus, a perennial energy crop. Lambda scanning with a confocal laser-scanning microscope allowed a rapid qualitative analysis of biomass saccharification. A maximum of 108-117 mg ethanol·g(-1) dry biomass was yielded from thermo-chemically and enzymatically pretreated stem biomass of the tested plant species. Principal component analysis revealed that a relatively strong correlation between similarities in lignocellulosic ethanol production and phylogenetic relation was only given for stem and leaf biomass of the two tested C4 grasses. Our results suggest that suitability of B. distachyon as a model plant for biomass conversion of energy crops has to be specifically tested based on applied processing parameters and biomass tissue type