Five content area teachers participated in this year-long qualitative research study focused on developing a language-building approach to support literacy activities for marginalized students. A mixed methods design evaluated the impact of the professional development program with the teachers. Data included structured interviews with the teachers, classroom observations (including videotapes), anecdotal notes, and students' standardized test results before and after the applications of the new content area literacy approaches, which revealed notable changes in students' reading comprehension, vocabulary use, and discourse participation, and a significant difference in the students' achievement following the interventions. Implications for teachers include increased use of language modeling to meet students' specific literacy needs.