WORDS WERE ALL WE HAD: BECOMING BILITERATE AGAINST THE ODDS

Edited by: Maria de la Luz Reyes

ISBN: 978-0807751817, Pages: 192

This engaging collection examines the personal narratives of a select group of well-respected educators who attained biliteracy at a young age in the era before bilingual education. Their autobiographical accounts celebrate and make visible a linguistic potential that has been largely ignored in schools and underscores the inextricable and emotional ties that Latinos have to Spanish. Teachers can glean important lessons about the individual potential of their Latino students from the lived experiences of successful Latinos whose life stories dispel the myth that Spanish is an obstacle to learning. These stories offer hope for a new generation of bilingual learners.

BUILDING ON STRENGTH: LANGUAGE AND LITERACY IN LATINO FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES

Edited by: Ana Celia Zentella 

ISBN: 978-0807746035, Pages: 224

This book offers a new perspective on language socialization in Latino families. Tackling mainstream views of childhood and the role and nature of language socialization, leading researchers and teacher trainers provide a historical, political and cultural context for the language attitudes and socialization practices that help determine what and how Latino children speak, read and write. Representing a radical departure from the ways in which most educators have been taught to think about first language acquisition and second language learning, Building on Strength introduces the theories and methods of language socialization, as well as highlights the diversity of Latino communities.

THE BEST FOR OUR CHILDREN: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON LITERACY FOR LATINO STUDENTS

Edited by: Maria de la Luz Reyes, John J. Halcon

ISBN: 978-0807740064, Pages: 272

This watershed volume brings together the foremost leading authorities and scholars lending their individual voices to a single, urgent issue: literacy for Latino students. In a departure from traditional paradigms, Latinos examine their own lived experiences in U.S. schools and offer sound theories born from positions of expertise and first-hand knowledge as researchers and educators. Their discussions and critical perspectives on literacy for Latino students in grades K–12 touch on such topics as: encouraging biliteracy in the classroom, constructing theories of possibility, promoting critically literate youth, organizing teaching and learning to students’ potential, and linking literacy to lived experiences.

GROWING CRITICALLY CONSCIOUS TEACHERS: A SOCIAL JUSTICE CURRICULUM FOR EDUCATORS OF LATINO/A YOUTH

Edited by: Angela Valenzuela

ISBN: 978-0807756836, Pages: 208

To meet the needs of the fast-growing number of Latino/a English learners, this volume presents an approach to secondary education teacher preparation based on the work of the National Latino/a Education Research and Policy Project (NLERAP). It examines the knowledge, skills and predispositions required for higher education institutions to create curricula for educating Latino/a children, children of color and language-minority youth. The book includes: a community-based, university- and district-connected partnership model that fosters students’ critical consciousness; a framework for participatory action research (PAR) within teacher preparation that promotes community and societal transformation; and a curriculum premised on sociocultural and sociopolitical awareness.

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