My interest in second language learning

stems from the fact that I am an immigrant

from Brazil who learned English and Spanish

as an adult. Also, for many years I have taught

and worked with families of second language

learners in different settings (pre-school, private

and public schools, and community centers).

I'm currently working on:

PERC Project: Envisioning the Future and Understanding School Achievement Possibilities for English Language Learners.

I am currently the Principal Investigator of a study designed to improve the

literacy achievement of bilingual students in 3rd and 4th grades at Mammoth

Elementary School entitled Envisioning the Future and Understanding School

Achievement Possibilities for English Language Learners. This project was funded

by the Pima Educational Collaborative Research and will be completed by

April 1st, 2008.  The purpose of this research project has been to examine the

impact of an inquiry-base teacher development program on the academic literacy

achievement of recent-immigrant ELLs (less than 2 years in the U.S.). For this study,

I have followed the Design Research Methodology (Brown, 1992; Collins, 1999) in

order to derive theoretical suppositions relating to the process of literacy learning

by bilingual students as well as the means by which this process is supported 

(Cobb, et. al. 2003). This is being accomplished by addressing research questions

as related to the enactment of interventions. Then, through detailed description

and analysis of these interventions, researchers in collaboration with practitioners

in the field, have been able to expand the base of usable knowledge (Lagemann, 2002)

teachers can draw upon in their classrooms.  Following this approach, for this study I

have been particularly interested in examining a series of interventions (e.g., teacher/researcher study groups) in relationship to: 

      (a) shifts in teacher thinking about language and literacy learning for L2 students

      (b) the design and innovations of pedagogical practices

      (c) the ways by which these shifts in thinking and innovations in practice brought about               new forms of language and literacy learning.