Changes in the U.S. demographics over the past few decades reflect the growing diversity in American classrooms as more students come to school speaking, reading, or writing two or more languages. By building on students' full repertoire of linguistic and cultural resources, educators have the potential to transform literacy instruction in…

Text-related oral participation is ubiquitous in literacy and language instruction. As such, considering how invitations to these interactions are framed is critical, as this framing is directly implicated in the design of equitable classrooms. In this Teaching Tip, one common technique teachers have been encouraged to use--a class set of…

We begin this article with a brief look at opportunities to learn for the nation's growing numbers of Emerging Bilingual children. We briefly present the research literature that supports the use of children's languages other in English (LOTEs) in literacy instruction whether the children are participating in bilingual/dual language programs or…

This article illustrates how two fourth-grade bilingual teachers transformed their writing instruction for bi/multilingual learners by integrating a functional approach to language and literacy teaching and learning. The authors use a systemic functional linguistics genre pedagogy to explore and elucidate the teachers' innovative instructional…

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of writing in young dual language learners, who are children under 5 years old who are learning the dominant language and another language at the same time. Early writing has been associated with literacy outcomes in the later years of elementary school. The article presents samples of…

When a newcomer arrives, classroom teachers may wonder what to do. This article provides seven practical tips for getting started with a newcomer, nurturing healthy relationships, and facilitating learning experiences. Teachers can ease the transition for newcomers by attempting to perceive situations from the student's perspective. Awareness of…

In this Teaching Tip, we share three literacy activities for teachers working with emergent bilinguals. Leveraging students' heritage languages in instruction holds rich opportunities for literacy achievement. Translanguaging pedagogies encourage emergent bilinguals to use the full range of their linguistic repertoires when making meaning in the…

In this article, the author invites teachers of children who are bilingual, multilingual, and at promise for bi-/multilingualism to honor and build on their rich literacy practices. To do so, she challenges ideas and labels that continuously disempower bilingual and multilingual learners. Souto-Manning establishes the understanding that education…

The adoption of the Common Core in many states across the country means we need to explore instructional approaches that promote student language use in order to meet many of the complex linguistic standards that comprise the Common Core. In this Teaching Tip, we provide a blueprint for a 4-week collaborative discussion mini-unit that a second…