Pre-Service Teachers: An Analysis of Reading Instruction in High Needs Districts Dual Language Classrooms

Authors : Michael WHİTACRE, Zulmaris DİAZ, Joy Esquierdo

Pages : 0-0

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Publication Date : 2012-12-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Pre-service teachers need opportunities to apply theory and connect to best practices as they teach in classroom settings be it, whole or small group. For many pre-service teachers often times their experience is limited to simply watching instruction or working with small groups of students insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(Pryor & Kuhn, 2004);. The student teaching experience is a critical component of the teacher preparation program. Through the use of the English Language Learner Classroom Observation Instrument insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ELLCOI);, and researcher observation the hope is that these will aid in bringing to light the instructional activities used by pre-service teachers during reading instruction with ELLs. This study explores how pre- service bilingual teachers connect theory into practice by examining their instruction in the following categories: Instructional Practices, Interactive Teaching, English-Language Development, and Content Specific to Reading as listed in The English Language Learner Classroom Observation Instrument insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ELLCOI); developed by Haager, Gersten, Baker, and Graves insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(2003);. To capture these instructional events video tape recordings of eight South Texas pre-service teachers were taken during a reading language arts lesson in order to observe instruction in high need districts’ dual language/bilingual classrooms. Data were compiled to capture the nature and quality of instruction on key essential elements, as well as reading instructional practices specific to the teaching/learning process in the dual language classroom. The findings portray the results of the ELLCOI with bilingual/ESL pre- service teachers and how they make sense of their instructional practices as a means to instruction in one-way dual language public school classrooms
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