Breaking New Ground: Teaching Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education in U.S. Secondary Schools

Today’s public schools are brimming with students who are not only new to English but who also have no schooling or a large break in their schooling. These students create unique challenges for teachers and administrators.

Breaking New Ground builds on the introduction to SLIFE presented in Meeting the Needs of Students with Limited or Interrupted Schooling (University of Michigan Press, 2009). Breaking New Ground introduces readers to and engages them in the implementation of an instructional model that has been developed over many years of working with SLIFE. Central to the instructional model and the practices presented in this book is the belief that teaching students with limited or interrupted education should in no way be considered remedial.

This book provides a complete presentation of the MALP (Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm) instructional model from theory to practice and guides readers to reflect on each element of the model, learn why and how it is essential and effective, and determine how they can use it in their own teaching of SLIFE. Breaking New Ground offers a new understanding of the SLIFE population, introduces a new instructional model, and teaches readers how to address the needs of their students using project-based learning infused with MALP.