AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY: EAL AND CONTENT TEACHERS COLLABORATING TO SUPPORT ALL STUDENTS AT A SECONDARY SCHOOL A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction University of Regina By Trudy Lynn Keil Regina, Saskatchewan April, 2015 Copyright 2015: T.L. Keil UNIVERSITY OF REGINA FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH SUPERVISORY AND EXAMINING COMMITTEE Trudy Lynn Keil, candidate for the degree of Master of Education in Curriculum & Instruction, has presented a thesis titled, An Action Research Study: EAL and Content Teachers Collaborating to Support All Students at a Secondary School, in an oral examination held on April 1, 2015. The following committee members have found the thesis acceptable in form and content, and that the candidate demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of the subject material. External Examiner: *Dr. Megan Madigan Peercy, University of Maryland Supervisor: Dr. Andrea Sterzuk, Curriculum & Instruction Committee Member: Dr. Warren Wessel, Adjunct Committee Member: Dr. Twyla Salm, Curriculum & Instruction Chair of Defense: Dr. Marilyn Miller, Adult Education/Human Resource Development *Via SKYPE Abstract As the number of English as an Additional Language (EAL) students increases in Saskatchewan schools, there is a need for language and content teachers to work collaboratively. This study describes the implementation of an action research project involving the researcher as an EAL teacher collaborating with three content teachers and another EAL teacher serving as a “critical friend” (Costa and Kallick, 1993). Teachers used the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2008) for structuring specialized instruction. Data included pre- and post-interviews, lesson plans and reflective journals. Grounded theory informed the theoretical framework and the data analysis. In order to reflect upon the progress of collaborative efforts, the Five Levels of Collaboration developed by Davison (2006) were used. Findings show that teachers developed professionally and were able to better support EAL students. One of the primary recommendations includes the necessity of administration to timetable common preparation times or teaching times. Establishing such supportive structures allows for collaborative partnerships to exist which provide teachers with greater opportunities to develop professionally for the purpose of better supporting EAL students. Keywords: collaboration, content, EAL, SIOP ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Andrea Sterzuk for her positive encouragement, constructive feedback and continual support throughout this process. Life brought along its challenges during the past couple of years but there was never any judgement and only reassurance. A huge thank you to both Dr. Twyla Salm and Dr. Warren Wessel for their wisdom, guidance and kindness. If there was an all-star team for thesis committees, I think I got it! iii Post-Defense Acknowledgements A special thank you to Dr. Peercy from the University of Maryland for agreeing to be my external examiner. I appreciated the opportunity to discuss my thesis with an academic with extensive expertise in the field of collaboration between EAL and content teachers. iv Dedication The completion of this project would not have been accomplished without the support of my friends and family. In particular, I would like to mention my parents, Fern and Vern Keil for always expressing interest and asking me how my thesis was going even when I felt like burying my head in the sand and pretending it didn’t exist. They reminded me and pushed me and that’s what I needed to keep going. Thank you to the research participants who volunteered their time to work with me and ensure the success of this study. Also, an enormous thanks to the people in my life who have helped support me in various ways: Heather Nelson, Brenda Baisley, Curt Keil, Jeremy Thorson, Amanda Pereira, Cindy Hock, Yasemin Birgan-Deacon, Barb Hilts-Most, Steve Nash, the April 2010 Mommies and everyone else who has offered a kind word of encouragement over the past couple of years. The list is almost endless but I’d like to give special recognition to all those who ever “liked” a thesis-related Facebook post. Every bit of encouragement helped. The biggest thanks goes to my beautiful children, Connor and Aleena, who probably think that Mommy will have a thesis to work on for the rest of their lives considering I’ve been working on it for a large part of theirs. I love you both with all my heart and you are the inspiration for everything I do. To Connor and Aleena v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iii Post-Defense Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... iv Dedication ............................................................................................................................ v Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ vi CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION................................................................................. 1 Research Questions .......................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER TWO - LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 10 Importance of Collaboration .......................................................................................... 10 Potential Barriers to Collaboration ................................................................................. 15 Content Teachers’ Perceptions of EAL Students and TESOL Training ........................ 20 Ways in Which Administrators can Promote Collaboration .......................................... 27 Models of Collaboration for Sheltered Instruction ........................................................ 29 CHAPTER THREE -METHODOLOGY .......................................................................... 37 Rationale for Methodology ............................................................................................ 37 Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 38 Context of the Study ....................................................................................................... 38 Participant Selection ....................................................................................................... 39 Action Research Methodology ....................................................................................... 41 Data Collection Methods ................................................................................................ 44 Pre- and post-interviews. ............................................................................................ 44 Lesson Plans. .............................................................................................................. 44 Reflective journals. ..................................................................................................... 45 Timeline ......................................................................................................................... 46 Grounded Theory Methodology ..................................................................................... 47 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................. 50 CHAPTER FOUR - FINDINGS ........................................................................................ 53 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 53 Collaborating with Beth ................................................................................................. 55 Beth’s pre-interview. .................................................................................................. 56 Collaborative interactions with Beth. ......................................................................... 59 Beth’s post-interview. ................................................................................................. 64 vi Collaboration with Rebecca ........................................................................................... 66 Rebecca’s pre-interview. ............................................................................................ 67 Collaborative interactions with Rebecca. ................................................................... 70 Actions taken and explanations of the actions with Rebecca. .................................... 71 Rebecca’s post-interview. ........................................................................................... 76 Collaboration with Kayla ............................................................................................... 78 Kayla’s pre-interview. ................................................................................................ 79 Collaborative interactions with Kayla. ......................................................................