I propose to examine the extent to which current standards and trends in teaching composition to high school students support language acquisition for mainstreamed intermediate English learners.  I will explore several questions using both primary and secondary sources.  Do current educational aims for teaching high school writing allow for instruction conducive to second language acquisition?  To what extent do standardized assessment rubrics reflect student progress in writing?  What are some “best practices” for teaching composition to English Learners?  What approaches and strategies do mainstream teachers utilize to help English learners meet state standards for writing?

Primary Sources:

I plan to use interviews with colleagues, my observations of English learners in mainstream classrooms, my personal experience as a writing teacher of English learners, student interviews and writing samples and ethnographic studies.    

Secondary Sources:

I plan to use current high school texts Holt’s Literature and Language Arts and Hampton Brown’s Edge, California State Standards for writing, the English Language Arts Framework and the the Map of Standards for English Learners;  also, the work of scholars such as, but not limited to, Jago, Atwell, Freeman-Freeman, Richard-Amato, Graves, Elbow, Cummins, and Krashen.