The Reading Turn-Around with Emergent Bilinguals

This practical resource will help K–6 practitioners grow their literacy practices while also meeting the needs of emergent bilingual learners. Building on the success of The Reading Turn-Around, this book adapts the five-part framework for reading instruction to the specific needs of emergent bilinguals. Designed for teachers who have not specialized in bilingual instruction, the authors provide an accessible introduction to differentiating instruction that focuses on utilizing students’ strengths, identities, and cultural backgrounds to foster effective literacy instruction. Chapters include classroom vignettes, teacher exercises, illustrations of powerful reading plans for the student and teacher, resources for culturally and linguistically diverse children’s literature, and tools to engage with students’ families and communities.

Book Features:

• Grounded in current theories and research in the teaching and learning of literacy as it relates to emerging bilingual learners.
• Accessible to K–6 educators, ESL and bilingual teachers, principals, literacy coaches, and curriculum developers.
• Borrows from the framework of Comber and Kamler’s (2005) “turn-around pedagogies”, which draws on student’s strengths and assets to support teachers in improving their classroom practices.
• Emphasizes student-centered practices that are rooted in a child’s identity as a reader and language learner.
• Based on Freebody and Luke’s Four Resources Model (1990, 1999) but also includes a “fifth” dimension that foregrounds issues of identity.

Amanda Claudia Wager is Canada Research Chair in Community Research in Art, Culture, and Education at Vancouver Island University. Lane W. Clarke is an associate professor of education at the University of New England. Grace Enriquez is an associate professor at Lesley University and co-author of The Classroom Bookshelf, a blog published weekly by the School Library Journal. Lane and Grace coauthored (with Stephanie Jones) The Reading Turn-Around: A Five-Part Framework for Differentiated Instruction.

“Focused on the student, and not the teacher, the book provides important guidance for teachers in ways directed not by educational policies, models, or curriculum, but instead by emergent bilingual readers themselves. This is accomplished by always starting with a student vignette, where we see emergent bilingual students grappling with breaking the code, making meaning, using and analyzing text. This is possibly the greatest contribution of this book.”
—From the Foreword by Ofelia García, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

"Emergent bilinguals are the fastest growing population in our schools, and this important resource equips literacy educators with tools for providing equitable literacy experiences for emergent bilingual students. The authors have done an exceptional job of presenting their turn-around framework in a way that not only puts forth a vision for effective language and literacy development, but also presents a practical approach for applying the framework in today’s multilingual, multicultural classrooms.”
—Jana Echevarria, professor emerita, California State University, Long Beach

Contents

Foreword Ofelia García xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1

Part I: Framework for Thinking about Emergent Bilingual Readers

1.  A Five-Resource Framework  7
Omar: Tuning Him In  7
What Does It Mean to Engage in Turn-Around Pedagogies? 8
Getting to Know Students Well: Connecting with Students and Families 10
Five-Resource Framework Explained 11
Four-Resource Framework Becomes Five 13
Using the Framework in the Classroom 15
Powerful Reading Plan (PRP) 16

2. Identity Matters 19
Ada: Opening Windows to Her Identity 19
What Is a Reading Identity? 20
Mina: Feeling Discomfort as a Reader 22
Getting to Know Students Well: Nurturing a Reciprocal Relationship 23
What Teachers Can Do: Turn-Around Strategies to Support Positive Identities 24
How the Turn-Around Impacted Mina 26

Part II: Code-breaking

3. Oracy Practices  31
Vu: Searching for His Voice 31
How Is Oracy a Code-Breaking Practice with Emergent Bilingual Learners? 32
Thinking Critically about Classroom Practice: How Can You Strengthen Your Students’ Academic Language through Oracy?  32
What are the Features of Oracy? 33
How Can Teachers Promote Oracy as a  
Foundation for Literacy Development?  35
Getting to Know Students Well: Assessing Student’s Oracy Practices 35
What Teachers Can Do: Turn-Around Strategies to Support Oracy Practices 36
How the Turn-Around Impacted Vu 40

4. Code-Breaking Practices 42
Natalia, Isabel, and Ana: Being Stuck on the Words 42
What is Code-Breaking with Emergent Bilingual Learners? 42
Thinking Critically about Classroom Practice: What Is Your Approach to Code-Breaking with EBs?  43
Getting to Know Students Well: Studying Their Code-Breaking Practices 44
What Teachers Can Do: Turn-Around Strategies to Support Code-Breaking Practices 46
How the Turn-Around Impacted Natalia, Ana, and Isabel 50

Part III: meaning-making

5. Vocabulary 55
Aziz: Struggling to Find the Right Word 55
How is Vocabulary Tied to Language Learning and Meaning-Making?  56
Thinking Critically About Classroom Practice:  
What Words Should You Teach? 58
Getting to Know Students Well:  
Illuminating What Aziz Brings to the Table 59
What Teachers Can Do:  
Turn-Around Strategies to Promote Vocabulary Knowledge 63
How the Turn-Around Impacted Aziz 67

6. Making Dis/Connections 69
Adama: Becoming Engaged through Connections 69
How Does Making Connections and Disconnections  
Support Meaning-Making? 69
Thinking Critically about Classroom Practice: How Can You Help Students  
Make Meaningful Connections and Disconnections?  72
Getting to Know Students Well: Tapping into Students’ Experiences  
to Make Connections and Disconnections 73
What Teachers Can Do: Turn-Around Strategies to Engage Connections and Disconnections to Texts 76
How the Turn-Around Impacted Adama: Meaning-Making as Part of Growing Literacy Identity 77

Part IV: Text-using

7. Exploring and Utilizing Genre 83
Consuelo: Questioning What She’s Reading 83
Why is it Important to Know Genres? 84
Thinking Critically about Classroom Practice:  
How Do You Support Genre Study? 86
Getting to Know Students Well:  
Learning What They Already Do With Genres  87
What Teachers Can Do:  
Turn-Around Strategies to Promote Genre Exploration and Use 90
How the Turn-Around Impacted Consuelo 96

8. Multimodal Tools 99
Sébastien: Finding Poetry in Nature 99
How Do We Support Text-Using in a Multimodal World? 99
Thinking Critically about Classroom Practice:  
What Is Your Approach to Multimodal Texts? 101
Getting to Know Students Well:  
Grasping How They Use Multimodal Texts 101
What Teachers Can Do:  
Turn-Around Strategies to Enhance Multimodal Text-Use 102
How the Turn-Around Impacted Sébastien 106

Part V: Text-Analyzing

9. Deconstructing and Reconstructing Text 111
Dalmiro: Accepting Representations  111
What Is Text-Deconstruction? 112
Thinking Critically about Classroom Practice:  
What Is Text Reconstruction? 115
What Teachers Can Do:   Turn-Around Strategies to Promote Text Analysis 116
How the Turn-Around Impacted Mr. Dimas’s Class 120

10. Reading for Social Justice 123
Miguel: Responding with Hurt and Anger 123
Why Read for Social Justice? 124
Thinking Critically about Your Own Classroom:  
What Role Does Social Justice Play in Your Reading Instruction? 125
Getting to Know Students Well: Supporting Issues That Matter to Them  129
What Teachers Can Do:  
Turn-Around Strategies to Develop Reading for Social Justice 131
How the Turn-Around Impacted Mr. Lara’s Students 133

Appendix A: Children’s Literature Resources 136

Appendix B: Blank Powerful Reading Plan (PRP) 138

Children’s Literature References 139

References 141

Index 149

About the Authors 161