Figure 2 - uploaded by Juan Araujo
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
Literacy educators may dismiss the recent outcry about the U. S. school "crisis" as an emotional and perhaps cynical bid for political gain and private profit, but the drop-out rate and college-going rate highlight an urgent, legitimate concern about whether all students are being served. Admittedly, multiple factors influence how and whether indiv...
Citations
... Table 2 includes the text set presented in the order we would use with our middle and high school students to develop the main themes of identity and agency, starting with books that our students may most relate to as mirrors and continuing with books that may serve as windows. Altogether, our goal is that this text set will help bi/multilingual learners "see" themselves, celebrate who they are, and develop critical literacy skills (Wickstrom, Araujo, Patterson, & Hoki, 2011). ...
In most cases, the curriculum chosen for wide-use does not mirror or address the pressing needs of bi/multilingual learners, especially for those who are in middle and high school settings. In light of this and the increasingly negative national discourse surrounding minoritized students, our focus in this article is to offer in-service teachers a heuristic for compiling a multi-genre, multilingual text set to support bi/multilingual students' positive identities and literacies practices. This text set is designed with the themes of identity and social justice in order to reflect the students' struggle to fully participate in the American Dream. It also describes how teachers can purposely plan for linguistic support in students' additional languages, language varieties, and English. Taken together, we believe that deeply exploring these compelling books from a critical perspective with linguistic scaffolds will allow teachers to foster robust multilingual literacy skills to address social justice in the classroom and beyond.
... The teachers in this study participated in a professional development approach called "Culturally Mediated Writing Instruction" (CMWI) funded by the National Writing Project (NWP) (Patterson et al., 2010;Wickstrom et al., 2011). For a semester the teachers were immersed in "research-based ideas and guidance" to support the writing needs of English learners in their ELA classrooms. ...
... As noted in Carmen's and Janet's classroom, teaching decisions based on specific instructional patterns and resources make a difference. Ball (2006) and others (Wickstrom et al., 2011) remind us that if we are to engage culturally and linguistically diverse students in meaningful instruction, writing topics ought to take into account and respect student voices and ideas. Janet's actions, in particular, remind us that teachers should create spaces where students have voice and choice, their ideas are respected, and they can ask for help anytime. ...
This paper presents the actions of two high school English language arts teachers as they engage in writing instruction with adolescent English learners. Using a naturalistic, qualitative methodology we investigate the actions two high school English language arts teachers engage in to meet the needs of their students. Findings suggest that embracing the students’ resources, building on linguistic knowledge, taking time to choose the right books and activities, being explicit about writer’s workshop and accepting its frenetic pace because it meets the students’ needs, and using the act of writing as a thinking activity, were the actions that made a difference to promote student success.
... Research question two states: How does translanguaging in the mode of writing support culturally mediated writing instruction? Sanctioning a space for translanguaging (Stewart & Hansen-Thomas, 2016) addresses crucial elements of culturally mediated writing instruction especially including the principles of strategic choices and the influence of identity (Wickstrom et al, 2011). Figure 1and 2 are the writing products of an intermediate and an emerging adolescent English learner who were using the Where I am from (Lyon, 1999) poetry construct as a mentor text to introduce themselves to their teacher and other students. ...
... Unlike a monolithic pedagogy, translanguaging does not limit transnational students. It is a " sin fronteras " [no borders] pedagogy (García & Li Wei, 2014, p. 43) that leverages transnational students' lived experiences, their culturally embedded knowledge and skills, and dares to " see " them as we teach them (Wickstrom et al., 2011). Especially now as schools confront standards-based reforms, educators must make brave decisions and take necessary risks that might deviate from the standardized curriculum that doesn't recognize non-English language skills. ...
... CMWI's theoretical underpinnings were based on a socio-literate approach, which supports students to "constantly be involved in research and into strategies that employ in completing literacy tasks in specific situations" (Johns, 1997, p. 15). Table 1 displays CMWI's principles and practices, which were explored in earlier publications (Patterson, Wickstrom, Roberts, Araujo, & Hoki, 2010;Wickstrom, Araujo, & Patterson, 2011). ...
... Teacher decision-making capacities were reduced to classroom management, attendance, and seating arrangements. Today, however, some teachers are realizing that effective instruction for their students goes beyond the structured curriculum at their disposal (Patterson et al, 2010, Wickstrom et al, 2011. ...
This article presents two case studies that document the decisions of two secondary English language arts teachers in ninth and eleventh grade classrooms who are working with English learners. These teachers were interviewed and observed in their classrooms during the spring semester to investigate their decision-making during literacy instruction. Findings suggest that when decisions focused on building relationships, inquiry instruction, and students' interests and mediated the resources around them, students deeply connected to the learning. One teacher saw students as instructional partners and overtly focused decisions on improved engagement and participation. The other teacher overtly and deliberately focused on empathy, caring and meaningful connections to help students make sense of their academic worlds.
... As students move to upper grades, these initial attempts will provide them a scaffolding source—something to hang on to. It is important to remember, nevertheless, that these opportunities are given to students in a place where they are encouraged to take risks and are rewarded for their performance (Wickstrom, Araujo, & Patterson, 2011). This scaffolding process must then continue throughout the PK-12 educational process and into college. ...
English Language Learners of all ages and levels face a challenge when they encounter academically rich texts. To understand more about what literacy practices work with these students and to explore effective supports to inform our preservice teachers, University of North Texas at Dallas faculty read and discussed Academic Language for English Language Learners and Struggling Readers (Freeman & Freeman, 2009). Three themes emerged from our reflexive discussions: Nurturing is developing readers and writers, nurturing is giving access to powerful language, and nurturing is preparing effective teachers for a labor intensive profession. As English language arts and content area teachers, it is crucial that we continue to work diligently toward identifying and implementing practices for English Language Learners that are challenging for this ever-growing population of students. We are colleagues working within bilingual, ESL, and grades 4-8 math and science teacher education programs. Situated in Dallas, we are constantly aware of the shortage of more than 100 bilingual teachers in Dallas ISD alone. Our Division of Education was recently awarded a federal grant to support the development of preservice teachers to fill these high-need areas. Our grant is helping us to connect with Dallas and four other districts that make up our immediate community. As part of this grant project, we were each presented with a copy of Academic Language for English Language Learners and Struggling Readers (Freeman & Freeman, 2009). The text provided us with a backdrop for engaging in organic discussions concerning the complexity of transforming education from a monocultural and monolingual perspective to education that is both multicultural and multilingual. It is through our in depth study of the Freeman and Freeman text as well as our ongoing collegial discussions about what practices work when instructing English Language Learners across content areas that we developed some key areas that we believe are critical to the success of English Language Learners, and, truly, to all developing learners. Three themes emerged from our reading, discussions, and analysis of our work with preservice teachers: nurturing is developing readers and writers, nurturing is giving access to powerful language, and nurturing is preparing effective teachers for a labor intensive profession. We discuss each of these themes in the following sections and then conclude by providing bulleted lists of actions that translate theory into the practice of nurturing readers.
