Exploring Collaborative Professional Learning Experiences for Supporting English Language Arts Teachers in Disciplinary Literacies Instruction

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Discussion, Discourse, and Collaboration in the English Language Arts Classroom

Abstract

This study investigates English Language Arts (ELA) teachers’ learning in collaborative professional development (PD) contexts across three years of a multi- institutional, federally funded Design-Based Research (DBR) project purposed to support inquiry in disciplinary literacies (DL) instruction in 6th-12th grades. In a research-practice partnership with university researchers in the Midwest, ELA teachers participated in a research design team to co-design and implement literature interventions for secondary classrooms. A two-year Teacher Network served as a professional learning community to build teachers’ capacity to design curriculum, instruction, and assessments to engage students in meaningful DL learning in conjunction with a research design team of teachers and researchers. This study examined teachers’ learning in DL pedagogies and the professional development that supported them.

Author

• Angela Joy Fortune, The University of Illinois at Chicago