Connecting Equity Literacy And Language

This book shows literacy professionals how to develop the dispositions and actions associated with advocacy-focused teaching. While portraits of culturally conscious literacy teachers are now readily available, becoming such a teacher continues to be a challenge. Drawing from 60+ years of experience working with teacher candidates and teachers in the city of Philadelphia, the authors argue that becoming an advocacy-focused literacy teacher requires making moral commitments to students and developing professional competencies that fuse literacy, language, and equity studies. Recognizing that educators can be overwhelmed trying to match the realities they face daily with the theory behind good practice, Connecting Equity, Literacy, and Language packs a lot of big ideas into one readable, concise book that is perfect for use in literacy methods courses. The text includes definitions and examples of equity concepts, relatable teacher vignettes, and "Pause and Reflect" boxes to encourage reflection and classroom conversation. Book Features: Examines the central problems of students' disconnection with school, spirit murdering, and the teacher education gap. Looks at inequities that have become normalized in classrooms and schools through standardized testing, literacy teaching routines and structures, and deficit-laced language about students and families. Discusses literacies and languages as cultural practices and the need to be vigilant about the linguistic violence that occurs when students' languages are delegitimized. Describes critically and culturally centered teaching frameworks. Provides vivid examples of advocacy-focused teaching.

This book shows literacy professionals how to develop the dispositions and actions associated with advocacy-focused teaching. While portraits of culturally conscious literacy teachers are now readily available, becoming such a teacher continues to be a challenge. Drawing from 60+ years of experience working with teacher candidates and teachers in the city of Philadelphia, the authors argue that becoming an advocacy-focused literacy teacher requires making moral commitments to students and developing professional competencies that fuse literacy, language, and equity studies. Recognizing that educators can be overwhelmed trying to match the realities they face daily with the theory behind good practice, Connecting Equity, Literacy, and Language packs a lot of big ideas into one readable, concise book that is perfect for use in literacy methods courses. The text includes definitions and examples of equity concepts, relatable teacher vignettes, and “Pause and Reflect” boxes to encourage reflection and classroom conversation. Book Features: Examines the central problems of students’ disconnection with school, spirit murdering, and the teacher education gap.Looks at inequities that have become normalized in classrooms and schools through standardized testing, literacy teaching routines and structures, and deficit-laced language about students and families.Discusses literacies and languages as cultural practices and the need to be vigilant about the linguistic violence that occurs when students’ languages are delegitimized.Describes critically and culturally centered teaching frameworks.Provides vivid examples of advocacy-focused teaching.

Extraordinary K–12 teachers show us what social equity literacy teaching looks like and how it advances children's achievement. Chapters identify six key dimensions of social equity teaching that can help teachers see their students' potential and create conditions that will support their literacy development. Serving students well depends on understanding relationships between race, class, culture, and literacy; the complexity and significance of culture; and the culturally situated nature of literacy. It also requires knowledge of culturally responsive practices, such as collaborating with and learning from caregivers, using cultural referents, enacting critical and transformative literacy practices, and seeing the capacities of English Language Learners and children who speak African American Language.

Teaching Climate Change to Children describes the journey of two literacy researchers to learn about climate change and support relevant literacy pedagogy for young children (pre-K–6). The authors argue that climate change and social justice are inextricable from each other; that children in the younger grades are capable of learning about climate change; and that reading, writing, and language study is well-suited to this work. Three anchoring themes are offered to support literacy climate pedagogy—interconnectivity, relationality, and action—with rich classroom examples and different entry points to engage with these themes, either by “starting small” or “going big.” The text includes chapters on the importance of taking an emotionally affirming stance and on the potential of incorporating arts-based methods. With love for the Earth and one another at its core, this accessible book takes a broad view of what it means to cultivate sustainable futures for our planet, for teachers, and for children in today’s schools. Book Features: A unique focus on teaching about climate change to young children, as opposed to adolescents. Insights drawn from a yearlong teacher inquiry group with classroom teachers and from literacy methods courses with preservice teachers. Explicit attention to the importance of humanizing and care-based practices in literacy climate pedagogy. Classroom examples collected across four urban public schools where teachers used the activities and resources discussed in the book. User-friendly textboxes with suggestions and questions to guide discussion, reflection, and action.

Drawing on an asset-based approach to adolescents and their literacy practices, this book is a powerful resource for secondary teachers across all content areas. The authors encourage a “widened lens” approach that considers varied perspectives and research findings when engaging in multiple and often competing initiatives, issues, and pedagogies. Using examples from their own and others’ classroom experiences, the authors explore numerous theoretical and practical understandings of literacy to inform classroom instruction. They discuss different theories of literacy instruction and the ways that sociocultural and cognitive approaches to literacy like the Science of Reading and Whole Language can work in concert with each other. Readers will find relevant information about adolescents’ multiliteracies, text selection and complexity, and meeting the needs of diverse learners. With suggested resources, teaching strategies, and discussion questions throughout, this is an ideal text for teacher education courses, professional learning communities, and professionals who want to learn more about how to support adolescents’ literacy development. Book Features: Research-based strategies to improve the reading ability of adolescents.Concise descriptions of current literacy approaches commonly referenced in educational policy and the media.Application suggestions with scenarios from middle and high school classrooms.Guiding questions to help beginning teachers reflect on their own literacy experiences and their adolescent students.Tables and a glossary of key terms to support readers’ understanding of complex concepts.

Use this unique volume to transform the learning and teaching of language so that all students are empowered to succeed. This book offers insight into how to teach language--a core component of developing skilled readers and writers across all content areas--in ways that value the rich and diverse language assets students bring to the classroom. The authors provide guidance to help K-12 teachers move beyond current approaches to teaching language in the classroom to support equitable student outcomes in both linguistically diverse and linguistically homogeneous classrooms. The text provides a step-by-step process to uncover conceptions of language and its instruction that undercut opportunities to learn. Readers will gain new strategies for teaching the language of school tasks while integrating students' distinctive language experiences as resources for learning. School leaders will learn how to implement a schoolwide exploration into teaching language that promotes equity, all while building collaboration among administrators, teachers, and students. Book Features: Promotes linguistic equity by providing teaching strategies and whole-school practices critical for optimizing student success and access to instruction, assessment, and reading. Provides classroom examples that show readers how to engage in the core practices described in the book across developmental levels and academic disciplines. Includes reader-friendly and user-supportive features, such as text boxes that describe the principles that undergird the approaches. Offers classroom vignettes depicting common instructional challenges and tensions to show how teachers can engage in equitable, evidence-based practices for student success. Uses reflection questions to help readers track their developing understanding of ideas and to reflect on their own values and teaching goals.

This new edition of the bestseller, Reading, Writing, and Talk, responds to the urgent need for creating language and literacy pathways that are inclusive, intentional, and center wholeness and belonging. The authors explain, show, and offer critical reflections on the development, teaching, and learning of reading, writing, and talk in early childhood and the early grades--across language practices, dis/abilities, and contexts. This second edition troubles whose reading, writing, and talk belongs in schools, offering insights into and examples of fostering belonging in the classroom. It elucidates the racialization of academic language and analyzes school-sponsored language and literacy curricula to demonstrate the power of expansive literacies and linguistic justice in practice. Readers will enter classrooms where teachers learn from and alongside children, families, and communities about identities, practices, values, funds of knowledge, and more. This update of the popular text offers a wealth of knowledge and examples to help educators truly and fully teach reading, writing, and talk for equity and justice. Book Features: Offers a warm invitation to shift mindsets and consider possibilities for furthering language and literacy development with young children. Brings to light powerful concepts like linguistic justice and communicative belonging through powerful classroom scenarios. Centers Black, Indigenous, and other children, teachers, families, and communities of color. Explains how oral language, reading, and writing develop and can be taught in the early grades across languages (bilingual, multilingual), abilities, and contexts. Focuses on constructing classrooms that foster belonging and on teaching for equity and justice.

The idea of storytelling goes beyond the borders of language, culture, or traditional education, and has historically been a tie that bonds families, communities, and nations. Digital storytelling offers opportunities for authentic academic and non-academic literacy learning across a multitude of genres. It is easily accessible to most members of society and has the potential to transform the boundaries of traditional education. As concepts around traditional literacy education evolve and become more culturally and linguistically relevant and responsive, the connections between digital storytelling and disciplinary literacy warrant considered exploration. Connecting Disciplinary Literacy and Digital Storytelling in K-12 Education develops a conceptual framework around pedagogical connections to digital storytelling within K-12 disciplinary literacy practices. This essential reference book supports student success through the integration of digital storytelling across content areas and grade levels. Covering topics that include immersive storytelling, multiliteracies, social justice, and pedagogical storytelling, it is intended for stakeholders interested in innovative K-12 disciplinary literacy skill development, research, and practices including but not limited to curriculum directors, education faculty, educational researchers, instructional facilitators, literacy professionals, teachers, pre-service teachers, professional development coordinators, teacher preparation programs, and students.