Content area
Because of the tremendous growth and heterogeneity in ELL populations, there is heightened complexity in how to support ELLs, and many teachers in the state where this study is based often do not have the necessary background to support these students. Many teachers have never been exposed to students who speak another language. Until recently, there was no required course at the local university for preservice teachers about the intricacies of ELL students in the K-12 classroom. Moreover, the only required ELL training for mainstream classroom teachers is a once a year required training of about 45 minutes. The purpose of this dissertation research is to support teachers in integrating language instruction in their everyday content lessons by exploring the potentials of the E.L. Achieve CM Training Program and identifying ways in which the PD might influence teachers’ pedagogical practices. This study followed the development of seventeen mainstream and ELL teacher participants before, during, and after a week-long, CM training program. It examined teachers’ pre-training experiences as a needs analysis for understanding of their current processes and practices, explored teacher’s during-training attitudes, examined using an SFL-based attitude framework (Martin and White, 2005), towards the training program and how they incorporated their new knowledge into their lesson plans, and utilized narrative inquiry (Clandinin, 2006) to document a focal teacher’s journey of implementing training concepts over a period of eighteen weeks immediately after the CM program. There were three key findings: mainstream classroom teachers miss language instruction as a key element for English language learners of all levels when preparing lesson plans; professional development that supports student achievement must align with a teacher’s content and allow the teacher to fully engage in the process of developing the strategies; collaborative, supportive, long-term professional development is impactful to teachers pedagogically and takes time and persistence. These findings have important implications for future practice by demonstrating that all teachers can and should include explicit language instruction into their daily lesson plans. However, to do this in the most effective way, teachers must be provided with long-term professional development with meaningful mentorship, collaboration, and accountability.