An innovative developmental reading experiment: Integrated collaborative teaching and thematic curriculum

Abstract

Native English speakers (NES) and English language learners (ELLs) in developmental reading courses
have always been instructed separately in one large urban community college, even though they
profit from learning and interacting together (Rochford & Hock, 2010, 2014). Because college-level
academic English is a complex linguistic register for both groups, they must secure a new academic
vocabulary, rhetorical patterns, and metacognitive awareness. Thus, during an intensive intersession,
two professors integrated these populations, developed a thematic curriculum, and engaged in
collaborative teaching activities. The results indicate that the advanced ELLs, who typically score 20
percent less than the NES on the ACT Compass Reading exam, greatly benefited from the mixed
grouping as they produced scores that were comparable to those of their NES counterparts.