Chapter 17: Summer Book Clubs For English Language Learners: Teacher Collaboration for Promoting Academic Achievement

The epiphany described here by Angela Wilson¹—an English as a second language (ESL) teacher—provided a new direction for academic achievement among English language learners (ELLs) at Southeast High School (SHS). Of the five 12th-grade ELLs at SHS in 2005-06, only one graduated. A major obstacle to graduation was credit accrual, a situation that concerned Angela and her fellow ESL teacher Jane Harris.

Angela and Jane discovered that many ELLs started their fall semester English class with an almost insurmountable point deficit from not having done the summer assignments. To help ELLs meet expectations, Angela and Jane collaborated with English teachers in creating summer book clubs that fostered language development and offered accessible academic content.