Full Description
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 offer 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 homogenous 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.
Contents
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
