Carol N. Dixon of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School publishes book about teaching English Language Learners (ELL)

Carol N. Dixon, Associate Dean of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, with Denise Nessel, an associate of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, has published Using the Language Experience Approach with English Language Learners: Strategies for Engaging Students and Developing Literacy (Corwin Press, 2008). A valuable reference for teachers, literacy coaches, and reading specialists, this resource presents the Language experience Approach (LEA), an effective instructional framework for teaching reading and writing to English Language Learners.

Roberta E. Dorr, Associate Professor of Education at Trinity University in Washington says that Dixon and Nessel “provide the tools teachers need to use this natural way of helping English Language Learners. The Language Experience Approach makes language and language arts accessible to the students in need of basic skills.”

Research-based and used successfully in practice, this method actively engages students by allowing them to construct their own texts and bring their personal experiences into the learning process. The authors:

Offer detailed, step-by-step directions for using the Language Experience Approach in English language instruction
Include examples of the kinds of texts that are generated by ELL students
Describe activities teachers can use with those texts to refine and extend learners' literacy skills

Dr. Dixon is the Associate Dean of Student Affairs at UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, where she has been a faculty member since 1973. Dixon has served as co-director of the South Coast Writing Project (SCWriP) and pursues research in the fields of literacy, family literacy, and classroom interaction.

[Carol Dixon is available for interviews; contact George Yatchisin at 805 893 5789]
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Carol N. Dixon of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School publishes book about teaching English Language Learners (ELL)