In this article I examine the perceptions of third grade minoritized emergent bilinguals (Spanish/English) in a US classroom as they articulate how family members serve as a source of jocularity. By taking a sociocultural perspective on humor as a resource, I seek to render visible the relational and linguistic connections between these students…

This study aimed to compare the performance on the state assessment STAAR Reading between BLs in a one-way dual language program compared to the average scale scores of ELs in the state of Texas. The results of these data points taken in three different grade levels from the same group of bilingual learners demonstrate the beginning of positive…

This research uses a descriptive quantitative statistical design to examine campus-level results from the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR). The focus is on describing the achievement disparities between campuses that implemented Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) programs and those implementing Dual Language (DL)…

The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of instruction delivered in both English and Spanish using the "Preview-View-Review" (PVR) strategy on the language development of English Learners (ELs) newcomer students in Title I elementary school (matriculated in a large, urban southern school district). For this study, the…

Building on theories of cross linguistic transfer, reading proficiency of Spanish-speaking Emerging Bilinguals may be enhanced by providing tiered instruction through multitiered systems of support. To realize the benefits of this systems-level framework, technically adequate universal screening assessments to support teachers' decision making are…

Translanguaging in classrooms opens spaces for multilingual students to engage in learning across the full range of their linguistic repertoire. We argue that one result of translanguaging pedagogy is that it can transform the talk-for-learning in the classroom and create a corriente or flow of ideas that is more free and less constrained than…

In Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) and Response to Intervention (RTI) models, the reading achievement of English Learners (ELs) is assessed multiple times during the school year to monitor students' progress toward meeting grade-level reading standards. Most MTSS/RTI frameworks do not include a comparable system for assessing oral language…

This article proposes ways to authentically amplify writer's workshop for emergent bilinguals. Through the study of one bilingual teacher's mediation in teaching, we examined the affordances that translanguaging and transmodal practices have for emergent bilingual students' writing processes. In this case study, we focused on a writing sequence…

We examine how a third-grade bilingual teacher engaged in "translanguaging shifts"--the moment-to-moment changes in language practices--during instruction in response to students' language performances. We demonstrate how a teacher's high level of multilingual awareness connected to fostering classroom spaces with linguistic flexibility…

This article explores the placement practices of students into different educational programs in PreK-first grade, including two bilingual education programs and an ESL "mainstream" classroom. We then examine the discourse practices of four third-grade teachers and the school principal. Our findings suggest that initial program placement…

This study draws on research regarding content-based second language instruction and metalinguistic awareness, and observes a teacher who attempted to put the concomitant ideologies into practice. The research questions used to guide this study were as follows: a) How does a third grade bilingual teacher encourage and promote student linguistic…

This article provides an in-depth exploration of the language ecologies of two classrooms attempting to implement a two-way dual language (TWDL) program and its mediating conditions. Drawing on ethnographic methods and a sociocultural understanding of language, we examined both teachers' and students' language ideologies and language practices,…

This annual report provides information for the 2012-13 school year on grade-level retention and student performance in the Texas public school system. Student retention and promotion data are reported with data on the performance of students in Grades 3-8 on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) reading and mathematics…

Language immersion students' lexical, syntactic, and pragmatic competencies are well documented, yet their phonological skill has remained relatively unexplored. This study investigates the Spanish vowel productions of a cross-sectional sample of 35 one-way Spanish immersion students. Learner productions were analyzed acoustically and compared to…

Young monolingual children typically demonstrate frequent tense shifting during narrative development, whereas older children maintain a consistent narration tense. Therefore, inconsistent tense usage in older children could be an indication of overall limited language skills. However, information regarding tense use in bilinguals has been…