New Projects for 2024 and beyond
- Book proposal: The Science of Reading Comprehension in Thinking Classrooms
- Article - Professional Development Effective Practices and Organization
2022 NCTE Berry Research Award
I received funding from the National Council of Teachers of English to interview and observe English teachers to investigate how they make required English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum relevant to culturally and linguistically diverse students. I have spent time in several classroom to explore how ELA teachers build on units and lessons by listening to their students and incorporating engaging and interesting ideas students have mentioned. Through this study, teachers can imagine ways to integrate culturally responsive listening into their classrooms and public spaces. The idea for this project came from my struggles as a former English major and English language arts teacher to find materials that would engage the emergent bilinguals in my classroom in texts I was required to teach.
The first article from this work is in the submission process "Culturally Responsive Teaching in English Language Arts Classrooms: Connection Students' Cultures and Experiences to Curriculum" and the second article is in draft stages. All Findings will be shared at the 2024 conference of National Council of Teachers of English.
Previous Research 2017-2022
My dissertation study investigated strategies for developing an asset-based English curriculum for emergent bilingual secondary students. This research involved practitioner inquiry carried out over three years in credit-bearing language arts courses within a school in which the traditionally White enrollment was shifting to include many emergent bilinguals. The purpose for this practitioner inquiry study was to learn from students as they shared their life experiences, drawing resources from their stories to develop curriculum, school policies, and instruction in an emergent bilingual classroom. Data analysis focused on the immigration narratives two focal students created about their family’s journey and subsequent literacy projects based on tenets of funds of knowledge, students’ interviews, and their journal writings, in which they explained the struggles of migration. I argue that when relationships are prioritized with diverse students using a pedagogy of acompañamiento, classrooms become spaces where students can share family stories, life experiences, and funds of knowledge.
I have found that projects focused on family and community in literacy curriculum reveal a need for what Arao and Clemens (2013) call “brave spaces,” where “courage” and understanding may be necessary when sharing sensitive information with new audiences” (p.141), as well as a recognition of how immigration shapes lives. I advocate for an asset-based curriculum for English learners, where the texts they produce are continually assessed to design culturally relevant pedagogies for literacy learning.
My dissertation study investigated strategies for developing an asset-based English curriculum for emergent bilingual secondary students. This research involved practitioner inquiry carried out over three years in credit-bearing language arts courses within a school in which the traditionally White enrollment was shifting to include many emergent bilinguals. The purpose for this practitioner inquiry study was to learn from students as they shared their life experiences, drawing resources from their stories to develop curriculum, school policies, and instruction in an emergent bilingual classroom. Data analysis focused on the immigration narratives two focal students created about their family’s journey and subsequent literacy projects based on tenets of funds of knowledge, students’ interviews, and their journal writings, in which they explained the struggles of migration. I argue that when relationships are prioritized with diverse students using a pedagogy of acompañamiento, classrooms become spaces where students can share family stories, life experiences, and funds of knowledge.
I have found that projects focused on family and community in literacy curriculum reveal a need for what Arao and Clemens (2013) call “brave spaces,” where “courage” and understanding may be necessary when sharing sensitive information with new audiences” (p.141), as well as a recognition of how immigration shapes lives. I advocate for an asset-based curriculum for English learners, where the texts they produce are continually assessed to design culturally relevant pedagogies for literacy learning.