http://www.evernote.com/shard/s88/sh/50fa39c6-21e4-4116-abe5-8a07ce5278b8/70dab8a2f47dad604499833c42ff93ff

This article provides a framework for developing a literacy program that specifically focuses on the needs of Generation 1.5 learners in the United States. Forrest describes Generation 1.5 learners as those who share "characterists of both first- and second-generations immigrants," (106). Of particular issue with Generation 1.5 students is that even though they have the U.S. cultural sophistication of native English speakers, they tend to lack the academic language, in both English and their home languages. Forrest recommends that high school literacy programs frame their programs around the following three areas of focus: curriculum centered, learner centered, and educator centered.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20068318

The authors of this article focus on the specific and unique needs of high school students who are recent arrivals to this country and thus, beginning readers and writers of the English language. Engagement in reading and writing was used as the method for literacy improvement for this population. For this study, engaged literacy practices consisted of two parts: 1.) self-selected reading and 2.) teacher-directed literacy activities. After their year-long study in a 7th/8th grade ESL classroom, the researchers found that they were able to increase student engagement in literacy activities. However, they texts that they found to be accessible to these students were substantially below their grade level. The researchers admit that it would have been an enormous challenge to provide the students with grade level material without also including their first-language into the instruction.

This study occurs over a period of eight years and follows 55 secondary teachers as they take part in professional development in cognitive strategies approach to reading and writing and then implement those strategies in their classrooms. The cognitive strategies approach, an intervention program developed by the UCI Writing Project, focuses on how readers and writers construct meaning from and with texts. This approach suggests that teachers provide systematic and explicit guidance in the cognitive strategies that are utilized by effective readers and writers. The authors state that the "aim of the project was to help students develop the academic literacy necessary to succeed in advanced educational settings," (275). Students were placed into two groups, the "Pathway students" who received cognitive strategies interventions and the control group. According to the study "pathway students not only grew more from pre- to post-test, but also wrote better essays on the post-test and received higher scores than their counterparts in the control classes," (289). http://www.evernote.com/shard/s88/sh/ebcc6b46-f96b-4912-adfe-880d00e4c81e/2b3ed2a99dda281a4071c0fc3d20b990