Is This English Race Language And Culture In The Classroom

This is the story of a white high school English teacher, Bob Fecho, and his students of color who mutually engage issues of literacy, language, learning, and culture. Through his journey, Fecho presents a method of “critical inquiry” that allows students and teachers to take intellectual and social risks in the classroom to make meaning together and, ultimately, to transform literacy education. Features the voices, beliefs, and struggles of urban adolescents and their teachers. “This is a book about what it means to care about both who you teach and what you teach. It is a book about what it means to understand the broader social purposes of schooling and education as possible sites for the advancement of human liberation and the cultivation of democracy. Is this English? Probably. But it is also life.” —From the Foreword by Gloria Ladson-Billings “At a time when most discussion of literacy focuses on either high-stakes tests or phonics, it is refreshing to read Bob Fecho’s journey in doing critical inquiry, crossing cultural borders, and engaging passionately and totally with high school students in an urban school.” —Sonia Nieto, author of What Keeps Teachers Going? “Issues of race and struggles with self-identity eloquently permeate this text. This book is a fascinating read about life in a small urban learning community. I highly recommend it to others.” —Jennifer Obidah, University of California, Los Angeles

This timely book takes a critical look at the teaching of English, showing how language is used to create hierarchies of cultural privilege in public schools across the country. Motha closely examines the work of four ESL teachers who developed anti-racist pedagogical practices during their first year of teaching. Their experiences, and those of their students, provide a compelling account of how new teachers might gain agency for culturally responsive teaching in spite of school cultures that often discourage such approaches. The author combines current research with her original analyses to shed light on real classroom situations faced by teachers of linguistically diverse populations. This book will help pre- and in-service teachers to think about such challenges as differential achievement between language learners and "native-speakers;" about hierarchies of languages and language varieties; about the difference between an accent identity and an incorrect pronunciation; and about the use of students' first languages in English classes. This resource offers implications for classroom teaching, educational policy, school leadership, and teacher preparation, including reflection questions at the end of each chapter.

Now in its third edition, the Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts—sponsored by the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English—offers an integrated perspective on the teaching of the English language arts and a comprehensive overview of research in the field. Prominent scholars, researchers, and professional leaders provide historical and theoretical perspectives about teaching the language arts focus on bodies of research that influence decision making within the teaching of the language arts explore the environments for language arts teaching reflect on methods and materials for instruction Reflecting important recent developments in the field, the Third Edition is restructured, updated, and includes many new contributors. More emphasis is given in this edition to the learner, multiple texts, learning, and sharing one’s knowledge. A Companion Website, new for this edition, provides PowerPoint® slides highlighting the main points of each chapter.

Distinguished multiculturalist Sonia Nieto speaks directly to current and future teachers in this thoughtful integration of a selection of her key writings with creative pedagogical features. Offering information, insights, and motivation to teach students of diverse cultural, racial, and linguistic backgrounds, this text is intended for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level students and professional development courses. Examples are included throughout to illustrate real-life dilemmas about diversity that teachers face in their own classrooms; ideas about how language, culture, and teaching are linked; and ways to engage with these ideas through reflection and collaborative inquiry. Each chapter includes critical questions; classroom activities; and community activities suggesting projects beyond the classroom context. Over half of the chapters are new to this edition, bringing it up-to-date in terms of recent educational policy issues and demographic changes in our society.

Like its predecessor, Dialects in Schools and Communities, this book illuminates major language-related issues that educational practitioners confront, such as responding to dialect related features in students’ speech and writing, teaching Standard English, teaching students about dialects, and distinguishing dialect difference from language disorders. It approaches these issues from a practical perspective rooted in sociolinguistic research, with a focus on the research base for accommodating dialect differences in schools. Expanded coverage includes research on teaching and learning and attention to English language learners. All chapters include essential information about language variation, language attitudes, and principles of handling dialect differences in schools; classroom-based samples illustrating the application of these principles; and an annotated resources list for further reading. The text is supported by a Companion Website (www.routledge.com/cw/Reaser) providing additional resources including activities, discussion questions, and audio/visual enhancements that illustrate important information and/or pedagogical approaches. Comprehensive and authoritative, Dialects at School reflects both the relevant research bases in linguistics and education and educational practices concerning language variation. The problems and examples included are authentic, coming from the authors’ own research, observations and interactions in public school classrooms, and feedback in workshops. Highlights include chapters on oral language and reading and writing in dialectally diverse classrooms, as well as a chapter on language awareness for students, offering a clear and compelling overview of how teachers can inspire students to learn more about language variation, including their own community language patterns. An inventory of dialect features in the Appendix organizes and expands on the structural descriptions presented in the chapters.

Reclaiming English Language Arts Methods Courses showcases innovative work in teacher education that fosters teachers’ capacities as reflective practitioners and public intellectuals; extends traditional boundaries of methods courses on teaching the English language arts, literacy, children’s and young adult literature; and embodies democratic and critical politics that go beyond the reductive economic aims and traditional classroom practices sanctioned by educational policies and corporate educational reforms. Featuring leading and emerging scholars in English language arts teacher education, each chapter provides rich and concrete examples of elementary and secondary methods courses rooted in contemporary research and theory, on-line resources, and honest appraisals of the possibilities, tensions, and limits of doing teacher education differently in a top-down time of standards-based education, high-stakes testing, teacher assessment, and neoliberal education reforms. This book offers important resources and support for teacher educators and graduate students to explore alternative visions for aligning university methods courses with current trends in English and cultural studies, critical sociocultural literacy, new literacies and web 2.0 tools, and teaching the English language arts in multiethnic, multilingual, and underserved urban communities.

The urgency to create equity in schools has never been greater, especially since legislators are considering the re-authorization of No Child Left Behind as a means to eliminating the achievement gap. Studies continue to show that increased standards, testing, and accountability have simply maintained the status quo. In response, this book proposes alternative ways of addressing these educational inequities, taking an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complex historical, social, and global issues that stand in the way of ensuring that all students have access to literacy - issues that policy makers and educators can no longer ignore. Literacy as a Civil Right assembles an impressive group of essays that broaden the conversation taking place about school reform, unmasking an ideology that maintains unequal relations of power in school and society. The ideas presented here will help readers re-imagine success in schools by understanding the possibilities that grow from a democratic vision of education. Together, this book provides an alternative framework to increased testing, offering a more humane vision of education that values agency, rigor, civic responsibility, and democracy.

The field of English language arts teacher education has experienced change over the past two decades. Changes in the discipline have produced a much more expansive understanding of literacy and of what teachers of English language arts do. This volume will focus on innovations in English language arts teacher education.