Scaffolding the Academic Success of Adolescent English Language Learners: A Pedagogy of Promise

This book is the result of a decade-long effort, in such school districts as New York City, Austin, and San Diego, to implement challenging instruction specifically in classrooms that include English learners.

Classroom vignettes, transcripts of student interactions, and detailed examples of intellectually engaging lessons provide a concrete picture of the instructional approach developed by the Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) initiative.

Underlying the QTEL approach and giving it coherence and power are three strands of instructional theory - sociocultural learning theory, sociolinguistics, and cognitive psychology. Through clear and frequently wry examples, readers also learn just what these theories have to offer the classroom teacher, in particular the teacher of English learners.