Teachers College Press Reimagining Language Instruction: New Approaches to Promoting Equity

Use this unique volume to transform the learning and teaching of language so that all students are empowered to succeed. This book offers insight into how to teach language—a core component of developing skilled readers and writers across all content areas—in ways that value the rich and diverse language assets students bring to the classroom. The authors provide guidance to help K–12 teachers move beyond current approaches to teaching language in the classroom to support equitable student outcomes in both linguistically diverse and linguistically homogeneous classrooms. The text provides a step-by-step process to uncover conceptions of language and its instruction that undercut opportunities to learn. Readers will gain new strategies for teaching the language of school tasks while integrating students’ distinctive language experiences as resources for learning. School leaders will learn how to implement a schoolwide exploration into teaching language that promotes equity, all while building collaboration among administrators, teachers, and students. Book Features: Promotes linguistic equity by providing teaching strategies and whole-school practices critical for optimizing student success and access to instruction, assessment, and reading. Provides classroom examples that show readers how to engage in the core practices described in the book across developmental levels and academic disciplines. Includes reader-friendly and user-supportive features, such as text boxes that describe the principles that undergird the approaches. Offers classroom vignettes depicting common instructional challenges and tensions to show how teachers can engage in equitable, evidence-based practices for student success. Uses reflection questions to help readers track their developing understanding of ideas and to reflect on their own values and teaching goals.