This dissertation explores the literacy abilities of Spanish-speaking bilingual children who are taught in English. They are a growing demographic, accounting for 9% of total enrollment in U.S. schools and 20% of enrollment in California. Their reading difficulties begin in pre-school and appear to persist throughout their academic careers. Literacy acquisition is crucial for both academic and career success. Bilingual children present an opportunity to study reading acquisition in a typically-developing child who comes from a non-monolingual language environment. In addition, this information can help guide educational policy to provide help where it is needed most. In order to identify areas of need, it is instructive to compare the bilingual children to their monolingual peers. These groups are compared not to belabor differences between them but to uncover areas that seem most vulnerable in the bilingual children. The monolingual children serve as a necessary reference point to gauge relative strengths and weaknesses in the bilingual children. Chapter 1 presents an overview of how reading and written expression develop in monolingual children, and how demographic and within- and cross-language factors affect this development. In Chapter 2, demographic and English language factors are explored in a cohort of 67 monolingual and 65 SEB bilingual from first through fourth grades. Chapter 3 is an examination of the impact of words that share form and meaning (i.e., train/tren) or form but not meaning (i.e., pan/pan, which means bread) cross-linguistically on single-word processing in the same cohort. Chapter 4 provides a detailed analysis of the written narrative abilities of a larger cohort of monolingual and bilingual children. In Chapter 5, implications of the results and future directions are discussed. This dissertation presents a comprehensive exploration of the reading and written expression abilities of bilingual children. The results suggest that demographic variables may be more important than linguistic ones in explaining the reading challenges in the bilingual group. They also serve to highlight areas of particular need in the linguistic profile of the bilingual children.

Students whose first language is not English are the fastest-growing group in public schools in all regions of the United States. Almost 10 million children between the ages of five and 17 live in the homes and communities in which a language other than English in spoken and presently most schools in the U.S. are under-educating many English learners. The achievement of Hispanic students needs to improve dramatically over the next five years and this book describes the cornerstone elements for bringing about this change. The initial chapter introduces direct instruction to be used with reading and literacy programs. Chapters 2 and 3 provide excellent review of the literature in language development and address developing language instruction, listening, and speaking with Spanish-speaking students and offers what a comprehensive language development program should look like. Chapter 4 reviews academic language and literacy instruction while the next addresses the components of instruction in Spanish. Chapter 6 offers lesson plan suggestions for Spanish-speaking students, while the following two sections discuss components that transfer and do not transfer in Spanish to English reading instruction. Chapter 9 reviews English language development and provides lesson plans for implementing SDAIE programs. Finally, Chapter 10 discusses two-way bilingual immersion and shares actual classroom schedules and lessons. This unique text will help in the preparation of primary grade teachers throughout the U.S. so that they may be successful with Hispanic students entering the public schools with little or no English background. It will also be a useful tool for school districts’ staff development in addressing school improvement goals for increasing the achievement of Hispanic students.

How corn is harvested and made into tortillas.

This book addresses the preservice educators who are in preparation for their journey as dual language teachers in credential programs or certification courses and in-service teachers who want to achieve a higher level of knowledge and expertise in teaching Spanish.

Reading & Writing with English Learners offers kindergarten through fifth grade reading and writing educators a user-friendly guide and framework for supporting English learners in balanced literacy classrooms. Authors Valentina Gonzalez and Melinda Miller lead readers in exploring the components of Reading & Writing with English Learners with a special eye for increasing the effectiveness of instructional methods and quality of instruction to serve English learners. This book shares practical and effective techniques for accommodating reading and writing instruction to design learning that simultaneously increases literacy and language development. Reading & Writing with English Learners was written for: • K-5 Classroom Teachers • ESL Teachers • Reading and Writing Instructional Coaches • District Leaders Reading & Writing with English Learners includes: • the components of Reading & Writing Workshop • accommodations that support English Learners • high yield practices for Reading & Writing Workshop during remote teaching • the role of phonics • a culturally inclusive booklist • activities that support Reading & Writing Workshop And more!

A high level of literacy in both print and digital media is required for negotiating most aspects of 21st-century life, including supporting a family, education, health, civic participation, and competitiveness in the global economy. Yet, more than 90 million U.S. adults lack adequate literacy. Furthermore, only 38 percent of U.S. 12th graders are at or above proficient in reading. Improving Adult Literacy Instruction synthesizes the research on literacy and learning to improve literacy instruction in the United States and to recommend a more systemic approach to research, practice, and policy. The book focuses on individuals ages 16 and older who are not in K-12 education. It identifies factors that affect literacy development in adolescence and adulthood in general, and examines their implications for strengthening literacy instruction for this population. It also discusses technologies for learning that can assist with multiple aspects of teaching, assessment,and accommodations for learning. There is inadequate knowledge about effective instructional practices and a need for better assessment and ongoing monitoring of adult students' proficiencies, weaknesses, instructional environments, and progress, which might guide instructional planning. Improving Adult Literacy Instruction recommends a program of research and innovation to validate, identify the boundaries of, and extend current knowledge to improve instruction for adults and adolescents outside school. The book is a valuable resource for curriculum developers, federal agencies such as the Department of Education, administrators, educators, and funding agencies.

During the past decades, literacy has gradually become a major concern all over the world. Though there is a great diversity in both the distribution and degree of literacy in different countries, there has been an increasing awareness of the number of illiterates and the consequences of being illiterate. However, literacy is no longer seen as a universal trait. When one focuses on culturally-sensitive accounts of reading and writing practices, the concept of literacy as a single trait does not seem very feasible. A multiplicity of literacy practices can be distinguished which are related to specific cultural contexts and associated with relations of power and ideology. As such, literacy can be seen as a lifelong context-bound set of practices in which an individual's needs vary with time and place. This volume explores the use of literacy outside the mainstream in different contexts throughout the world. It is divided into four sections. Section 1 presents an anthropological perspective--analyzing the society and the individual in a society. Section 2 presents a psychological perspective--focusing on the individuals themselves and analyzing the cognitive and affective development of young children as they acquire literacy in their first and second languages. Section 3 presents an educational perspective--highlighting the variations in educational approaches in different societies as well as the outcomes of these approaches. Section 4 summarizes the studies presented in this volume. Both theoretical issues and educational implications related to the development of literacy in two languages are discussed. An attempt is also made to open up new directions in the study of literacy development in multilingual contexts by bringing these various disciplinary perspectives together.