Teacher Preparation for Linguistically Diverse Classrooms ─ A Resource for Teacher Educators

Teacher educators today need knowledge and practical ideas about how to prepare all pre-service and in-service teachers (not just bilingual or ESL specialists) to teach the growing number of students in K-12 classrooms in the United States who speak native languages other than English. This book is at the forefront in focusing exclusively on the preparation of mainstream classroom teachers for this population of students. Part one provides the conceptual and contextual framework for the book, including a comprehensive discussion of relevant demographic trends and an analysis of national and state policies. Part two presents examples of initiatives in different institutional and geographic settings, highlighting three essential elements of teacher preparation: curriculum content, program design, and program coherence.
Meeting a pressing need among teacher educators left to figure out, largely by trial and error, how best to prepare non-specialist classroom teachers to work with ELLs, this book both contributes to the research base and provides practical information to help readers envision possibilities they can apply in their own settings.

Tamara Lucas is Associate Dean of the College of Education and Human Services and Professor of Educational Foundations at Montclair State University.

Foreword, Ken Zeichner

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I. Conceptual and Contextual Foundations


1. Language, Schooling, and the Preparation of Teachers for Linguistic Diversity, Tamara Lucas

2. English Language Learners in American Schools: Characteristics and Challenges, Guadalupe Valdés and Martha Castellón

3. Preparing Teachers for English Language Learners: The Policy Context, Ana María Villegas and Tamara Lucas
Part II. Developing Teacher Expertise for Educating English Language Learners


Curriculum Content


4. A Framework for Preparing Linguistically Responsive Teachers, Tamara Lucas and Ana María Villegas


5. "Accommodating Diversity": Preservice Teachers’ Views on Effective Practices for English Language Learners, Ester J. de Jong and Candace A. Harper

6. Systemic Functional Linguistics, Teachers’ Professional Development, and ELLs’ Academic Literacy Practices, Meg Gebhard, Jerri Willett, Juan Pablo Jimenez, and Amy Piedra

7. "We’ve Let Them in on the Secret": Using SFL Theory to Improve the Teaching of Writing to Bilingual Learners, María Estela Brisk and Margarita Zisselsberger


Program Design


8. Preparing Teachers to Reach English Language Learners: Preservice and Inservice Initiatives, Constance Walker and Karla Stone

9. Fostering Collaboration Between Mainstream and Bilingual Teachers and Teacher Candidates, Karen Sakash and Flora Rodriguez-Brown

10. The Growth of Teacher Expertise for Teaching English Language Learners: A Socioculturally-Based Professional Development Model, Aída Walqui

11. Toward Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teacher Education: The Impact of a Faculty Learning Community on Two Teacher Educators, Mileidis Gort, Wendy Glenn, and John Settlage


Program Coherence



12. Toward Program-Wide Coherence in Preparing Teachers to Teach and Advocate for English Language Learners, Steven Z. Athanases and Luciana de Oliveira


Conclusion

13. Toward the Transformation of Teacher Education to Prepare All Teachers for Linguistically Diverse Classrooms, Tamara Lucas, Montclair State University

About the Authors

Index