Teachers’ Perceptions of Integrated Reading-Writing Instruction for Emergent Bilinguals

Abstract Integrated Reading-Writing Instruction (IRWI) is an approach for English Language Arts (ELA) instruction that has gained much attention since the adoption of college and career standards. Previous studies have shown that connecting reading and writing during instruction positively affects students’ literacy outcomes as related cognitive processes are engaged in the construction of meaning. This qualitative study of five 4th grade elementary ELA classrooms serving diverse students, including emergent bilinguals, explored the transition from the previous form of writing instruction to IRWI, or analytical text-based writing in elementary classrooms when implementing college and career standards. The findings indicated that IRWI introduced several affordances for the five teachers’ instruction, such as an explicit connection between reading and writing, and for their emergent bilingual students, overall improvement of reading comprehension and preparation for more college-like writing. Also, participating teachers reported several disadvantages for their emergent bilingual students stemming from how IRWI was implemented in the district. These disadvantages included the absence of creativity and genre variety for writing instruction, writing that was dependent upon English reading comprehension, and difficulties with teaching how to write evidence and elaboration.