Laurent Cammarata

Integrated content, language, and literacy instruction in a Canadian French immersion context: a professional development journey

ABSTRACT Although immersion programs are very popular in Canada, they are complex to implement and not as successful as we would hope them to be when it comes to the development of students’ language skills. This article reports on the findings of a case study conducted within the context of an ongoing five-year grant funded project in Western Canada whose overarching goal was increased student achievement through targeted professional development (PD) intervention. The specific intervention, a year and a half-long PD program based on an adapted integrated framework for curricular development (Cammarata, Laurent. 2016. “Foreign Language Education and the Development of Inquiry-driven Language programs: Key Challenges and Curricular Planning Strategies.” In Content-based Foreign Language Teaching: Curriculum and Pedagogy for Developing Advanced Thinking and Literacy Skills, edited by Laurent Cammarata, 123–143. New York: Routledge/Taylor Francis) and a Lesson Study model, was designed for 15 participating grades 6–12 French immersion teachers. It aimed at increasing their ability to craft and implement well-integrated instructional modules in order to better support students’ linguistic and literacy skills development during subject-matter instruction. Data collected for this study exploring teachers’ experience of appropriating and implementing the integrated approach included co-constructed lesson plans, classroom observations, focus-group debriefing sessions, and surveys. Findings indicate that long-term and sustained PD interventions organized around collaborative work can have a positive effect on teachers’ ability to counterbalance content and language/literacy instruction. Important variables to ensure success are discussed and implications for immersion PD are shared.

Restructuring the Teacher Education Program at the Campus Saint-Jean of the University of Alberta

The world is changing and teacher-training programs must be constantly renewed to meet the needs of future teachers who will have to face an educational situation that is increasingly complex. The Education Program at the Campus Saint-Jean (CSJ), a four-year baccalaureate program designed primarily to prepare students to teach in French-immersion and French first-language (or “Francophone”) schools, has recently undergone a major restructuring involving necessary changes to better meet the needs of future teachers who will work in complex linguistic-minority contexts that pose several unique challenges.

La Restructuration Du Programme En Éducation Au Campus Saint-Jean De L’université De L’alberta

Le monde est changeant et les programmes de formation des enseignants doivent constamment se renouveler afin de pouvoir mieux repondre aux besoins des futurs enseignants qui auront a faire face a un monde educatif de plus en plus complexe. Le programme de formation des enseignants au Campus Saint-Jean (CSJ) a recemment initie une refonte majeure visant a apporter les modifications necessaires pour mieux repondre aux besoins des futurs enseignants qui se preparent a oeuvrer dans un contexte linguistique minoritaire complexe imposant des defis tres particuliers.