Teachers' sharing of picture books is a quintessential activity in early childhood classrooms, and has been found to be predictive of children's language and literacy skill development. Although most research, to date, has focused on the manner in which preschool teachers share text-based books with their students, recent work has recommended that…

The aim of this essay is to reflect on an alternative pedagogical model, family workshops, and see how they can serve as an unconventional approach to family engagement, as well as provide a practical recount of the work developed by the LISELL-B Project. This alternative and innovative model may serve as a practical guide for educators,…

Emergent Bilinguals (EB), particularly those of Latino descent, who have a moderate intellectual disability (ID) are arguably one of the most underserved and under researched populations. Although there has been an increase of evidence-based practices for both EBs and students with ID, there are still a limited number of empirical studies of EBs…

The purpose of this study was to compare reading scores of students and school systems using the Trilingual process (public charter district) to students and school systems using the Dual Language, Bilingual, and ESL process (public school district). Participants were low socioeconomic status Grade 3 Hispanic/Latinx students. Focused in this…

Background: Currently, most Latinx emergent bilingual (EB) students are educated in English-medium programs alongside English-dominant peers. Legally mandated social integration of EB students coincides with a prescriptive linguistic emphasis on content-language integration in ESL (English as a second language) programs; both integrative…

The case of two middle school science teachers engaged in a long-term professional learning project is used to complicate the story of teacher change and agency and the presumed relationships between teacher knowledge and practice. Becky and Kelly were highly participatory in all aspects of a multi-year professional learning project, yet, when…

This study evaluated the Science and Literacy Instructional Model aimed at helping primarily Hispanic bilingual/English Learners (ELs) and economically disadvantaged fifth grade students with science achievement as measured by high-stakes standardized science achievement scores. The model combined purposeful planning, innovative academic…

Teacher preparation is a complex process; also complex are the standards that define what novice teachers need to know and be able to do to effectively meet the needs of all of their students. Add the demographic shift in the student population, and there are additional demands on teachers to provide students with the education they need and…

This case explores how a monolingual teacher, embedded in a large urban school context, saw and understood her role in supporting emergent bilingual learners' development of mathematics discourse. Particular attention is paid to the classroom arrangements and curricular and instructional choices this teacher made to facilitate this development.…

Background/Context: Early childhood education in the United States is currently suspended between the belief that young children learn through dynamic experiences in which they are able to create and experiment, and the belief that young children's emerging literacy and math skills require formal instruction and assessments to ensure future…

An exploratory study of Latino majority elementary (LME) schools was launched to investigate if parents of English Language Learners (ELLs) are provided due process to biliteracy programs in low-income schools in San Diego County. The main research question of the study asked: How are the instructional programs in LME schools preparing Latino ELLs…

The U.S. storyline of emergent bilinguals has historically failed to highlight the mathematical and linguistic assets of this group; instead, it has primarily focused on providing support. To disrupt this narrative, a case study of one elementary teacher, Ms. Bristow, is presented. Ms. Bristow's discursive practices and pedagogy illustrate how she…

This article discusses a study that utilized a practitioner research approach to professional learning (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) that used student-created digital photo stories combined with focused teacher conversations guided by the NOT-ICE Teacher Discussion Protocol (Author, 2016) to explore why classroom teachers sometimes fail to…

In this article, we describe how students were invited to write and publicly read their "momentos de cambio" (moments of change) stories--memoirs in which they recount moments of significant change, both joyful and traumatic, in their lives. Drawing from elements of Latino critical theory, we conceptualize these stories in part as…

This practitioner-based book provides different approaches for reaching an increasing population in today's schools - English language learners (ELLs). The recent development and adoption of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (CCSS-ELA/Literacy), the…