Reimagining Language Instruction

Use this unique volume to transform the learning and teaching of language so that all students are empowered to succeed. This book offers insight into how to teach language—a core component of developing skilled readers and writers across all content areas—in ways that value the rich and diverse language assets students bring to the classroom. The authors provide guidance to help K–12 teachers move beyond current approaches to teaching language in the classroom to support equitable student outcomes in both linguistically diverse and linguistically homogeneous classrooms. The text provides a step-by-step process to uncover conceptions of language and its instruction that undercut opportunities to learn. Readers will gain new strategies for teaching the language of school tasks while integrating students’ distinctive language experiences as resources for learning. School leaders will learn how to implement a schoolwide exploration into teaching language that promotes equity, all while building collaboration among administrators, teachers, and students.

Book Features:

• Promotes linguistic equity by providing teaching strategies and whole-school practices critical for optimizing student success and access to instruction, assessment, and reading.
• Provides classroom examples that show readers how to engage in the core practices described in the book across developmental levels and academic disciplines.
• Includes reader-friendly and user-supportive features, such as text boxes that describe the principles that undergird the approaches.
• Offers classroom vignettes depicting common instructional challenges and tensions to show how teachers can engage in equitable, evidence-based practices for student success.
• Uses reflection questions to help readers track their developing understanding of ideas and to reflect on their own values and teaching goals.

Sabina Rak Neugebauer is an associate professor of literacy in the College of Education and Human Development at Temple University. Emily Phillips Galloway is an assistant professor of multilingual learning and literacy education at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. Christina L. Dobbs is an assistant professor and director of English education for equity and justice, at Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, Boston University.

“Teachers receive advice on how to value their students’ various linguistic capabilities and to avoid linguicism, which the authors define as ‘discrimination based on one’s language.’ Recommended.”

—CHOICE

“The ideas, information, and recommendations found in this book, Reimagining Language Instruction, are a way forward for making individuals, classrooms, and schools advocates for equity and for empowering varied linguistic communities in classrooms and beyond them.”
—From the Foreword by Robert T. Jiménez, professor emeritus, Vanderbilt University

“At a time when there are many questions about how to create language-rich environments that cultivate students’ literacy skills and their sense of self and belonging, comes a text with a framework and set of ideas and tools to do just this. This powerful author team tackles these complex questions with a clear, research-based, accessible approach. I strongly recommend this book for educators engaged in study, graduate students in education, and for those designing professional learning.”
—Nonie K. Lesaux, Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“As Neugebauer, Phillips Galloway, and Dobbs explain, language instruction can be a tool for oppression and marginalization or a mechanism for empowerment. Grounded in cutting-edge research, vivid classroom examples, and a multilevel approach, this text is essential to helping K–12 educators achieve the latter.”
—Michael J. Kieffer, associate professor of literacy education, New York University

Contents

ForewordRobert T. Jiménez  xi

Acknowledgments  xv

1.  Introduction  1
Language Awareness Inquiry  3
Conceptions That Promote Equity Versus Misconceptions That Limit Equity  4
Chapter 1 Reflection  8

Part I. Individual Inquiry: Dismantling Linguicism

2.  Language Hierarchies Versus Language Resources for Learning  13
Chapter 2 Reflection  18
Conceptions That Limit Equitable Language Instruction: Language Hierarchies  18
Conceptions That Promote Equitable Language Instruction: Approaches That Resist Language Hierarchies  21
Closing Thoughts on Valuing Diverse Language Resources for Learning  30
Chapter 2 Closing Reflection  30

3.  Language as a Dichotomy Versus Language as a Continuum  31
Chapter 3 Reflection  32
What Makes a Skilled Language User?: A Continuum Perspective  32
The Problem With Binaries in Language Teaching and Use  37
A Continuum Perspective to Begin Dismantling Language Hierarchies  41
Closing Thoughts on Promoting a Continuum Perspective  43
Chapter 3 Closing Reflection  43

Part II. In the Classroom: Practices That Support Linguistic Fluidity

4.  Language Beyond Words  47
Chapter 4 Reflection  48
Language: The Whole Is More Than The Sum of Its Parts  49
Moving Away From Vocabulary-Based Teaching  66
Chapter 4 Closing Reflection  69

5.  Promoting a Path, Not a Phase  70
Chapter 5 Reflection  70
School Text: Challenge and Opportunity  71
Classroom Language Conversations Across the Grades  78
Conceptualizing Language Awareness Across Grades  88
Chapter 5 Closing Reflection  89

Part III. Collective Inquiry: Forging Communities for Equity

6.  Taking a Collaborative Approach: Supporting Equitable Language Teaching Through Teams  93
Chapter 6 Reflection  94
Collaborating for Equitable Language Teaching  95
How Successful Teacher Teams Promote Equity Through Language Teaching  96
Forming Teams  114
Collaborating With Colleagues Who Focus on a Similar Content Area  114
Collaborating With Colleagues Across the Grade Level  115
Chapter 6 Closing Reflection  117

7.  Taking a Systemic Approach: Improving School Culture Through Collective Inquiry  118
Chapter 7 Reflection  119
Creating a Schoolwide Culture of Linguistic Equity  119
Learned, Changed, and Built  129
A Vision for Equitable Language Teaching  131
Final Closing Reflection  132

Glossary  133

References  137

Index  147

About the Authors  153