Pre-Service Teachers: An Analysis of Reading Instruction in High Needs Districts Dual Language Classrooms
Pre-Service Teachers: An Analysis of Reading Instruction in High Needs Districts Dual Language Classrooms
Yazar: Whitacre, Michael; Diaz, Zulmaris; Esquierdo, Joy
Dergi: International Journal of Instruction, Vol. 6 No. 1, 2014

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 (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 (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  (ELLCOI) developed by Haager, Gersten, Baker, and Graves (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

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 (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 (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  (ELLCOI) developed by Haager, Gersten, Baker, and Graves (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