The purpose of this semester-long project was to redesign the ninth grade English language arts curriculum to include a literacy-based multicomponent intervention to meet the needs of developing readers, while simultaneously maintaining a rigorous curriculum challenging proficient readers in a general education classroom. I examined peer-reviewed studies focused on improving fluency, comprehension, and word study. I considered the effectiveness of literacy-based interventions used in the studies and adapted research-based instructional practices and processes to meet the needs of developing readers in my classroom. Specifically, I redesigned the curriculum at the ninth-grade level to include a high school appropriate multicomponent literacy-based intervention while maintaining the rigor of the ninth grade English language arts requirements. The curriculum was tested and continuously revised in five classes, involving 104 students and one teacher. This project was not considered a traditional research-based thesis, but rather an action-oriented "dissertation-in-practice" that focused on acknowledging and addressing education challenges teachers in a secondary setting face when supporting students lacking foundational literacy skills. Instead of engaging in a study measuring a curriculum's impact on struggling or developing readers, I researched literacy-based instructional practices, integrated those practices into the design of the curriculum, and reflected and adapted the curriculum to meet the immediate literacy needs of my students. The next step as a teacher researcher will be to analyze the redesigned curriculum's impact on student's literacy learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]