Multilingual Learners Professional Learning

Culturally Mediated Writing Instruction for Adolescent English Language Learners

By Leslie Patterson, Carol Wickstrom, Juan Araujo

Download “Culturally Mediated Writing Instruction for Adolescent English Language Learners”

Excerpt

One of the greatest challenges facing U.S. middle and high school teachers is the need to improve academic success among English language learner (ELL) students. Both the high school dropout rate and the college-enrollment rate provide compelling evidence of this need. This report documents one attempt to meet this challenge, a National Writing Project advanced institute focused on improving academic writing among adolescent English learners. The institute engaged teacher-consultants in exploring and implementing “culturally mediated writing instruction” (CMWI), a set of research-based principles and practices. The ultimate goal was to improve students’ academic writing, but this report also documents the diverse and sometimes-surprising ways that these teachers integrated CMWI into their classrooms.

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Multilingual Learners Professional Learning

Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners

This 2007 report by the Carnegie Foundation and the Center for Applied Linguistics identifies challenges faced by adolescent ELs in meeting grade-level academic expectations. It also provides recommendations for teacher education, educational research, school administrators and policy makers, along with instructional approaches likely to increase student achievement. The downloadable PDF would be an excellent resource for teacher-leaders designing professional development programs, developing grant proposals, doing advocacy work, and developing knowledge about teaching middle/high school ELLs.

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