"I Had No Experience": Rural Elementary Teachers Expand Their Practices for Teaching Emergent English Learners

• In Event: 75.023 - Focusing on the Cultural Assets of Students: Reimagining Teacher Work With English Language Learners

Abstract

Through a formative and design experiments approach (Jacob, 1992; Reinking & Bradley, 2004, 2008), we investigated the ways that four elementary teachers modified their instructional practices to support emergent English learners in their classrooms—a new teaching context for each teacher as this rural school and district enroll very few English learners. Through iterative coaching cycles, teachers developed, implemented, and evaluated goals related to vocabulary development, use of students’ native languages, and visual supports (Carlo et al., 2004; Gersten & Baker, 2000; Krashen, 1985; Sayer, 2013; Vardell, Hardaway & Young, 2006). Findings focus on students’ progress, teachers’ progression with goals, and academic and social contexts that support students’ multicultural learning and critical consciousness (Banks & Banks, 1995; Paris, 2012).

Authors

• Alisa Leckie, Georgia Southern University

• Amanda Wall, Georgia Southern University