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…

Most educators are unfamiliar with ways to use comics and cartooning, thus classroom opportunities for students to engage in a medium they love are uncommon. In this study, I investigate integrating the language of comics into classroom learning strategies and research some of the ways writing//cartooning can help students negotiate conceptions of…

This paper focuses on meaning making as a process that can transform English learners' participation in mathematics. Using selected video transcripts from a one year long project in a fourth grade bilingual classroom, the paper documents the development of participation along a continuum of meaning making, from preparing students to transform…

Reading in the content areas of science, social studies, and current events is a difficult task that is even more elusive to Spanish speaking English language learners. There is a huge increase in children transitioning from their L1 (e.g., Spanish) to L2 (e.g., English) in classrooms across the US. These ELs face challenges due to a lack of…

The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary students' explanations of how physical features of the land influence the location of humanly defined structures including trade routes, such as the silk routes. The silk routes were a series of caravan trade routes that extended from Turkey to China and were located as far south as India and…

This paper discusses implementation of Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (CIRC) with bilingual 2nd- through 4th-grade students. The CIRC curriculum is intended to help students in the early grades acquire a variety of reading and literacy skills. The curriculum centers around "treasure hunt" units that last 5 or more days…

To further investigate the relationship between divergent thinking and bilingualism, 23 Anglos and 108 Mexican Americans from a semi-rural West Texas community and 24 Mexican Americans from San Antonio, enrolled in the fourth grade, of low socioeconomic status, and with an average age of 10 years 6 months, were divided into 5 experimental groups,…

A study investigated the writing strategies used by bilingual and monolingual students. Specifically, the study looked at field dependence vs. independence, possible differences in strategies employed by the two groups when using a word processor, the effects of strategy on the types of revisions made, and the types of revisions and cognitive…