Writing The School House Blues

"This ethnographic study of a young African American boy's educational trajectory from Pre-K to second grade, examining how a district mandate to desegregate its schools altered the school-based experiences of Ta'Von and his fellow students. Taking a sociocultural perspective, the book examines the relationship between integration and social inclusion/exclusion, arguing that desegregation is not sufficient to create a truly inclusive schooling system. Citing instances of persistent inequality based on race, class, and gender, Dyson outlines how literacy, while complicit in both creating and magnifying these types of inequality/exclusion, can also be a powerful tool for remediating them and thereby creating truly inclusive spaces"--

Curating a Literacy Life spotlights the idea of curation as a process for inspiring student-centered learning with digital media. Young people need to learn to become purposeful collectors and, thus, curators of their own learning. In this book, Kist shows educators how to empower students as they make sense of all the books, videos, websites, and social media they access. Packed with ideas and activities developed over time in a high school setting, the author presents a model for learning to learn—a way of processing, making meaning, and repurposing all the texts around us. Kist demonstrates how curating can happen no matter where the teaching and learning are taking place, whether virtually or face-to-face, in school or out of school. Using Smart phones; a Netflix account, and access to a variety of YA, canonical, and media texts, this resource provides a foundation for becoming lifelong scholars and artists. Curating a Literacy Life is for both teachers and parents who are interested in helping young people harness, manage, and learn from the multiple messages and texts they encounter every day. Book Features: A powerful model to help teens make sense of and even repurpose the texts they encounter daily.Ideas for making use of digital media in ways that are meaningful to today’s students.Strategies for bridging the divide between in-school and out-of-school literacies. Activities developed during the author’s years as an instructional coach at Cleveland’s Glenville High School.

This book provides targeted suggestions that educators can use to ensure successful teaching and learning with today's growing population of transnational, multilingual students. The text offers insights based on the author's observations, interactions, and interviews with second-generation immigrant children, their families, and their teachers in the United States and South Korea. These collected stories give educators a better understanding of how elementary school children engage in language, literacy, and learning in and across spaces and countries; the forms of unique linguistic and cultural knowledge immigrant children build, expand, and mobilize as they move across contexts; the ways in which immigrant children position themselves and represent their identities; and how educators and researchers can honor these children's identities and unique talents. Featuring children's narratives, drawings, writings, maps, and photographs, this resource is a must-read for educators and researchers seeking to create more inclusive learning spaces and literacy practices. Book Features: Examples of students' literacy practices with insights for more effective teaching. Practical lessons gleaned from children engaging with language and literacy in flexible and dynamic ways in their everyday lives. Targeted suggestions to help educators better understand and utilize children's unique linguistic abilities and cultural understandings. Discussion questions and examples that challenge deficit perspectives of immigrant children and reposition them as multilingual and transnational experts. Implications for educators and researchers seeking ways to amplify young immigrant children's voices and leverage their knowledge.

"A number of academic texts address culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP), but very few focus on literacy practices that are culturally sustaining, unlike this one. Despite widespread interest among educators in culturally sustaining pedagogy, implementation of its practice is limited. This text provides authentic examples of culturally sustaining literacy pedagogy in real classrooms so that readers can see how CSP is enacted in practice, across multiple grade levels"--

Learn how to use literature and informational texts related to sports as an alternative or a supplement to a canon-centric English classroom. This practical book promotes an instructional approach that honors students’ knowledge of, interests in, and experiences with sports culture to advance literacy learning. Informed by his own experiences in high school classrooms, the author documents the distinct methods employed by four secondary English teachers in rural, urban, and suburban schools. Each narrative features the voices of teachers and students and details a range of activities that readers can adapt for their unique contexts. Whether teaching traditional English courses or those focused on the study of sports literature, teachers can use this book to tap into students’ sporting interests and foster critical readings of sports culture as a mirror to our greater society. Book Features:Adaptable methods for using sports-related content to foster the six language arts: reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing, and visually representing.Actionable ideas for going beyond sports fandom and, instead, reading sports culture through a critical lens.Implications for incorporating sports culture into the English curriculum, whether teaching traditional courses or a stand-alone sports literature class.Answers to frequently asked questions that can support teachers as they bring sports culture to the English classroom. “Luke Rodesiler demonstrates that moving beyond traditional canonical texts and topics contributes to an understanding that racism, sexism, inequity, and inequality of all kinds are current ongoing problems. When we expand our teaching to include new topics and new voices, we can invigorate our teaching in ways that make it matter more—in both the immediate and the long term.” —From the Foreword by Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Distinguished Professor, Boise State University

Situated against a backdrop of multiple global pandemics—COVID-19, racial injustice and violence, inequitable resource distribution, political insurrections and unrest—this timely and critical volume argues for a divestment in white privilege and an investment in anti-racist pedagogies and practice across early childhood contexts of research, policy, and teaching and learning. Featuring established scholar-practitioners alongside emerging voices, chapters explore key issues around equitable and inclusive practices for young children, covering topics such as multilingualism and multicultural practices of immigrant communities, language varieties, and dialects across the Black diaspora, queer pedagogies, and play at the intersection of race, gender, disability, and language. Thoughtfully and compellingly written, each chapter offers an overview of the issue, the theoretical framework and critical context surrounding it and implications for practice.

Learn how to teach multilingual students effectively and equitably with this practical and accessible resource. The authors share real-world examples from the classrooms of ESOL teachers, unpack the teachersÕ thinking about their instruction, and identify six core practices that are foundational to teaching multilingual students: knowing your multilingual students, building a positive learning environment, integrating content and language instruction, supporting language and literacy development, using assessment, and developing positive relationships and engaging in advocacy. The book focuses on how K–12 teachers can use these core practices in ways that humanize their instruction—positioning students as whole human beings, valuing the assets and resources they bring to the classroom, actively involving them in rigorous instruction that draws on their experiences and knowledge, responding to each unique learning context, and disrupting traditional power dynamics in education. This text will help pre- and in-service teachers of multilingual students to center equity and justice in their practice and understand how to move humanizing mindsets into action. Book Features: Identifies and describes core practices for teaching multilingual students.Offers opportunities to analyze teachersÕ instruction using core practices.Includes templates and additional resources that help teachers extend the use of core practices to their own planning. Supports teacher educators in preparing teachers to move humanizing mindsets to humanizing practices.Provides access to supplementary video clips depicting teachers as they engage in these practices and discuss their use.

Help adolescents learn and use the academic words that will assist them in school and beyond. The author argues that “words worth using” must matter to adolescents’ authentic work in the disciplines and connect to their lived experiences. Rather than using a model of vocabulary instruction that positions students as passive recipients who must simply memorize definitions, Townsend outlines a metalinguistic approach that shows students how to learn words by using them in ways that are meaningful to their identity, language background, and individual interests. The book provides research-based instructional routines to support adolescents as they learn and use new words in their disciplinary learning. It explores how academic vocabulary can position students as “insiders” or “outsiders,” and how culturally sustaining instruction can welcome all students into discovering and using language. Words Worth Using will be a popular resource for teachers who feel stymied by the sheer volume of words they are expected to teach. Book Features: An engaging exploration of adolescents and the kinds of powerful word learning that endure.Metalinguistic awareness as an underleveraged approach to helping adolescents develop word knowledge in engaging ways. A culturally sustaining pedagogy framework with specific attention to emergent bilinguals.“Words Worth Using” boxes that share the etymology and morphology of many important words throughout the text.A careful review and explanation of research accompanied by classroom anecdotes, real-world examples, and templates for teachers and instructional leaders to use in their own contexts.