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Teachers And English Language Learners Experiencing The Secondary Mainstream Classroom: A Case Study, Amanda M. Ruiz

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

The number of linguistically and culturally diverse students entering public schools is increasing (Echeverria, Short & Powers, 2006; Williams, 2001) and mainstream teachers are responsible for making content comprehensible for these students (Clegg, 1996; Georgia Department of Education, 2008); however, test scores and graduation rates indicate that English language learners (ELLs), across the nation, are consistently underperforming on content based assessments and failing to complete high school (Carrasquillo & Rodriguez, 2006; Cruz & Thornton, 2009) . Using a constructivist lens and the concept of the instructional dynamic (Ball & Forzani, 2007), this dissertation presents the experiences of the mainstream teacher …