Following the mandates of state and national accreditation bodies and in keeping with what is considered best practices, teacher education programs nationwide require students to engage in early field experiences as part of preservice preparation. Accreditation bodies such as the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE,…

In this case history, the author describes how her journey as a reader evolved from a poor reader who did not like to read in elementary school into an avid trilingual reader in graduate school. Once she discovered the joy of reading, each language in which she read had its own purpose and emotional connection. She credits self-selected reading…

Rayenne Dekhinet, Keith Topping, David Duran, and Silvia Blanch describe a pilot project on the use of Internet-assisted reciprocal peer tutoring in foreign-language learning. The eight-week project connected Spanish-speaking English-language learners at a primary school in Catalonia with English-speaking Spanish-language learners at a Scottish…

This paper examines the impact of the Basque Law of 1986 on the status of Basque in schools in the Autonomous Community of Navarre. The sociolinguistic situation of Navarre is outlined, and changes in enrollment figures for the three principal language models (A, D and G) in infant and primary school in the different linguistic zones are examined…

This study examined the relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in English among Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) followed from fourth through fifth grade. Students' ability to decompose derived words while reading was assessed using an experimental task. Multiple regression analyses were used to…

Catalyst, a quarterly newsletter from the Institute's Communications Office, contains news, information, and features about the programs and services of the National Institute for Literacy. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Spanish-Language Publication for Parents of Young Readers Among the Institute's New Titles; (2) Director's…

Construct validity concerns for the IPT I Oral Grades K-6 Spanish Second Edition (IPT-S) as a measure of native oral language proficiency are examined. The examination included describing a subset of items that contributes most to overall score and native-language proficiency designation. Correlations between this subset of items and the overall…

This paper reports an evaluation carried out from 1999 to 2003 in 55 schools in the Basque Autonomous Community involving more than 10,000 secondary school students. The variables measured include achievement in Spanish, metacognitive skills, learning strategies and variables related to the students' family environment. The measurements were made…

Thousands of students in California learn English as a second language in schools that utilize exclusively monolingual--English Only--literacy programs. With such programs students do not have the opportunity to use the knowledge of their first language in order to acquire and master their second language. The project of cooperative bi-literacy…

This book contains a collection of formal and informal reading assessments for use with students in Grades K-12. These assessments assist the teacher in targeting areas of strength and weakness, in monitoring student reading development, and in planning appropriate instruction. Unlike large-scale achievement tests, the majority of these…

Art often becomes an effective tool for teaching history, as well as political and social justice issues. During the 1980s, the author had the privilege of visiting Chile where she was introduced to small fabric collages called "arpilleras," which, at the time, were known as "embroideries of life and death." Today, the…

The educational system in many schools fails to meet the academic needs of minority students. The dramatic shifts in student demographics are demanding changes in the ways teachers are teaching them. It is essential to understand the long term effects of past educational practices and bilingual programs. Research indicates that there are many…

This article recounts a community's struggle for access to biliteracy in one of the largest urban school districts in the country. The authors examine the roles school personnel assume, the symbols they employ, and the scripts they follow in their efforts to deny English Learners (ELs) access to quality programs and due process of rights. At a…

In this study, we explore language--specifically the use of Spanish, in a sixth-grade science classroom, where the district recognises English as the official language of instruction. The question guiding our analysis is: How is Spanish positioned in Ms. Cook's science class? Transcribed interaction from twelve weeks of videotaping is coded and…

Teachers in traditional bilingual settings confront strict program requirements under the guise of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), excessive assessment demands (state, district and program assessments in both English and Spanish), and negative attitudes about bilingual education from many in the political and public spheres. Since 1998, the passage…