| This year long study focuses on the social context and instructional scaffolding deliberately developed by an exemplary teacher in supporting the literacy development of English language learners (ESL) in a literature-based urban high school classroom. Research in second language contexts has highlighted the importance of a challenging curriculum, of building a highly literate community, and of the instructional scaffolding needed to develop high literacy in the classroom. This study is informed by Vygotsky's developmental theories on learning and ZOPED, Bakhtin's views on dialogism, and Langer's ideas on literate thinking. Findings indicate that both social context and instructional scaffolding are critical to the development of high literacy in the classroom studied. The social context requires all students to collaborate in groups every day, using English, or their native language as a support. Students are scaffolded in how to work in a group, required to read and think deeply about literature. Over the year, students come to internalize ways to discuss and ways to think and transform their role to scaffold others. They learn English, are expected to become highly literate thinkers, and learn to participate in a highly literate community. This study extends the field by showing that English language learners can achieve at academically high levels. It emphasizes the power of using a literature-based curriculum in developing a highly literate community. This study's detailed descriptions of a successful approach to developing literacy will be invaluable to teachers, curriculum developers, teacher trainers and scholars in the field of literacy learning for English language learners. The way English language learners are nurtured and scaffolded within the social context powerfully affects how literacy is supported or impeded in the classroom. |
