This study explores an immersion teacher professional development experience centered on analyzing and redesigning secondary Spanish immersion instructional materials to include a language focus. Analysis indicated that participants teachers developed content and language knowledge for teaching, but the modified materials were not sufficient for supporting transfer of knowledge to practice.
Secondary immersion teachers in the United States face particular challenges when attempting to integrate content and language in their instruction, in part due to the lack of appropriate pedagogical materials in the target language (Cammarata & Tedick, 2012; Fortune, Tedick & Walker, 2008; Hernández, 2015). Because pedagogical materials used in secondary immersion classrooms are often translations of English-medium materials or developed for native Spanish speakers, they are not designed with the intention of supporting content and language integration (C/LI). This study takes a materials perspective on immersion teacher education, exploring the roles that pedagogical materials might play as barriers or supports as secondary Spanish immersion teachers attempt to apply new knowledge to their classroom practice. This presentation reports on a year-long design-based research study (McKenney & Reeves, 2012) in which the researcher collaborated with two secondary Spanish immersion teachers – one social studies, one language arts– to analyze and redesign their materials to support C/LI in their instruction. Language-focused instructional cues were embedded into existing, content-based instructional materials. A modified lesson study framework (Lewis, Perry, & Murata, 2006) was employed to organize two cycles of collaborative materials analysis, materials redesign, classroom instruction, and lesson reflection. The goal of this design-based research was to provide immediate professional development (PD) while simultaneously studying how that PD and the redesigned materials shaped the teachers’ understandings and enactments of C/LI. Data sources include interviews, audio-recordings of collaborative work sessions, video-recordings of lessons, and field notes. Preliminary analysis indicates that the teachers developed new understandings of C/LI in their unique subject areas grounded in an emerging specialized language knowledge (Morton, 2016). However, despite using materials that provided guiding frameworks for integration during instruction, the teachers at times struggled to translate their understandings into practice, demonstrating only an emerging knowledge of language and teaching (Morton, 2016).
