Understanding Language: Supporting Ell Students in Responsive Ela Classrooms: Principles in Practice

Melinda McBee Orzulak earned her Ph.D. as part of the Joint Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan, with a dissertation that offered ways to support new teachers in enacting linguistically informed principles that promote equitable learning.
Before graduate school at the University of Michigan, Dr. McBee Orzulak worked as a classroom teacher and department chair at secondary schools in Chicago, Boston, and Kansas City where she was inspired to explore the intersections between power and language in effective teaching interactions. She earned her master's degree from Tufts University as an Urban Teacher Training Collaborative intern and a bachelor's degree from Gordon College in English language, literature, and gender studies as a Kenneth L. Pike interdisciplinary honors scholar. She also holds a current Illinois standard secondary teaching certificate in English language arts, journalism, and sociology.