Books

The bestselling book Biliteracy from the Start introduced the Literacy Squared model, an innovative framework designed to promote and enhance biliteracy in Spanish-English speaking children. Now there’s a follow-up book on biliterate writing, with an in-depth focus on seeing biliteracy as an asset, building on children’s strengths, and supporting students’ writing skills in both languages.

¡Qué BUENO! Is a book about the 50-year history of the BUENO Center for Multicultural Education at the University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥, Boulder.  It chronicles the building of pathways and access to educational opportunities for under-represented groups, particularly Latin@s to higher levels of education from the GED to the PhD.   Concomitant to increased access to education, the book documents the role that the BUENO Center played in research and the development of new knowledge about Spanish speaking children and families that influenced the movement for bilingual education in the U.S., and that resulted in the creation of the field of Bilingual Special Education.  Featured prominently in the book is Dr. Leonard Baca who led the BUENO Center for 40 years and has been aptly characterized as the gentle custodian of our collective dream for equal educational opportunities for Latin@s.  

Recent educational reform initiatives such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) largely fail to address the needs--or tap into the unique resources--of students who are developing literacy skills in both English and a home language. This book discusses ways to meet the challenges that current standards pose for teaching emergent bilingual students in grades K-8. Leading experts describe effective, standards-aligned instructional approaches and programs expressly developed to promote bilingual learners' academic vocabulary, comprehension, speaking, writing, and content learning. Innovative policy recommendations and professional development approaches are also presented.

Developed for general and special education teachers and service providers, this trusted resource offers a variety of research-based best practices, and includes

• Nine common misconceptions that can lead to wrongful placement of students in special education
• Theories of second language acquisition
• Select evidence-based methods for teaching reading to students learning English
• Issues to consider and techniques to use when assessing students for special education and making data-based decisions
• Role of cultural influences in reading instruction
• Expanded coverage of multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS)
• Readers will find helpful vignettes, checklists, and suggestions that support outstanding teaching practices and appropriate, effective use of assessment and referrals.

This book is written for any educator directly or indirectly involved in the K-12 education of culturally and linguistically diverse exceptional learners. It is appropriate for use with both practicing as well as pre-service educators in college or university courses that are designed to teach methods for assessing and educating culturally and linguistically diverse learners with disabilities.

Biliteracy from the Start: Literacy Squared in Action shows bilingual education teachers, administrators, and leadership teams how to plan, implement, monitor, and strengthen biliteracy instruction that builds on students linguistic resources in two languages, beginning in kindergarten.

Escamilla and her team present a holistic biliteracy framework that is at the heart of their action-oriented Literacy Squared school-based project. Teachers learn to develop holistic biliteracy units of instruction, lesson plans, and assessments that place Spanish and English side by side.

A practical, research-based guide, Teaching Reading to English Language Learners gives ESL teachers and grade-level teachers the information and strategies they need to support second language literacy development with their Culturally Linguistically Diverse (CLD) learners, in addition to the program the school already has in place. Throughout, the authors guide teachers to modify literacy instruction to address both the assets and the needs of their English learners. Included are strategies for converting research into practical application; illustrative student samples from multiple grade levels and language backgrounds; teacher insights; a look at the sociocultural, academic, cognitive, and linguistic dimensions of the CLD student biography; and a number of helpful pedagogical aids.

The power of systematic observation to inform teachers and improve instruction is well documented. However, until now, this work has only supported English language literacy, even though Spanish speaking students constitute the fastest growing group in American schools.  

Since the work was developed for use in the United States, explanations of theoretical concepts, procedures, research results, and directions to teachers are all presented in English. The observation tasks, examples of student responses, and directions for their administration appear in Spanish. Response and recording sheets are in both English and Spanish.

Collectively, this book expands the knowledge base of bilingual teachers in a way that enables them to be better observers of children's literacy behaviors and, in the process, improve instruction. Efforts like this are imperative if we are to realize the academic potential of Spanish speaking students in our country.

This expanded edition of the International Multilingual Research Journal’s recent special issue on translanguaging — or the dynamic, normative languaging practices of bilinguals — presents a powerful, comprehensive volume on current scholarship on this topic. Translanguaging can be understood from multiple perspectives. From a sociolinguistic point of view, it describes the flexible language practices of bilingual communities. From a pedagogical one, it describes strategic and complementary approaches to teaching and learning through which teachers build bridges between the everyday language practices of bilinguals and the language practices and performances desired in formal school settings.

A large and growing number of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in the US and around the world have the potential to develop bilingualism and biliteracy if supported in their immediate environment. At the forefront in focusing exclusively on biliteracy development in early childhood across a variety of languages, this book provides both findings from empirical research with young bilinguals in home and school contexts and practical applications of these findings.

Organized in two parts, it explores the multi-tiered instructional model found within the RTI framework and how to best implement it in the classroom setting. Beyond a theoretical perspective, it shows teachers which evidence-based interventions should be attempted based on specific achievement data and related progress scores. It includes reading, writing, and mathematics interventions that can be used for core Tier 1 instruction, supplemental Tier 2 supports and intensive Tier 3 interventions. Throughout the book, its emphasis is on using assessment data to make important instructional decisions that meet learner needs.

This book helps educators of culturally and linguistically diverse learners gain a deeper understanding of the interrelated educational factors of culture diversity, language differences and disability characteristics in order to avoid misidentifying learning differences as learning or behavior disorders. These concepts are typically addressed individually in different university courses and inservice trainings, yet an integrated understanding of behaviors associated with culture diversity, language differences and disabilities is necessary to more clearly discern learning differences from disabilities. Understanding one area and not the other (e.g., knowing about culture or linguistic diversity but not about special education and vice versa) provides educators with less than a complete picture of diverse needs, often leading to the erroneous misinterpretation of learning or behavior disorders.

Una obra llena de recursos para el estudio y la implementación de la educación bilingüe, especialmente el modelo novedoso de inmersión dual. Un libro repleto de conceptos, teorías y modelos útiles para los maestros, los teóricos, y las personas involucradas en la política educativa. Es un gran logro que este libro se publique originalmente en español en los Estados Unidos.