Social To Academic

University-school district partnership helps teachers broaden students’ language skills

Vol. 29 No. 1

Jennie Perez began the 2003- 04 school year with apprehension. Over the summer she had been assigned to teach a mainstream 4th-grade class. Perez (a pseudonym) had experience teaching younger students, including English language learners (ELLs), but she was new to teaching older students to read and write denser, more academ- ic texts. Although her curriculum materials were new and aligned with state standards, she was worried that they would not be accessible to most of her students, half of whom were ELLs and all of whom struggled with reading and writing in academic ways. During the previous year, nearly all of the 4th graders attending this school scored at the “failing” or “needs improvement” levels on the state-mandated English language arts exam. As teacher educators and literacy researchers working in public schools,

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Schleppegrell, M. & Go, A. (2007). Analyzing the writing of English learners: A functional approach. Language Arts, 84(6), 259- 538.

Willett, J., Harman, R., Lozano, M.E., Hogan, A., & Rubeck, J. (2007). Transforming standard prac- tices to serve the social and academic learning of English language learners. In L. Verplaetse and N. Migliacci (Eds.), Inclusive pedagogy for English language learners: A handbook of research-informed practices. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

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Learning Forward is the only professional association devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development. We help our members plan, implement, and measure high-quality professional learning so they can achieve success with their systems, schools, and students.

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