This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Miami-Dade County Public Schools Research Services, Virginia P. Collier, Alice Renton, Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz, Mary Birgit McVee, Eithne Dodwell, Nadine Ruiz, Heinz Kloss, Kelleen Toohey, and Guillermina Engelbrecht.
(1998). Unlock Their Lonely Hearts, Voices from the Middle. Argues that, for new immigrant children, literacy education that challenges students to speak and engage in meaningful work (not worksheets and handwriting practice) is the key to initiating them into American culture, to helping them feel this country is their home, and to unlocking their lonely hearts. Focuses on the special problems of Chinese students living in Chinatown. Descriptors: Acculturation, Bilingual Education, Chinese Americans, Cultural Pluralism
(1998). The Assessment of Special Educational Needs for Bilingual Children, British Journal of Special Education. Examines issues in the assessment of the special educational needs of children for whom English is a second language, and identifies notions that actually prevent good practices. Urges more attainable practices that focus assessment on the learning environment, including the "where,""with whom,""from whom,""when,""what," and "how" of the child's learning environment. Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Classroom Environment, Educational Environment, Educational Practices
(1998). Two Languages Are Better Than One, Educational Leadership. Instead of viewing English learners as a problem needing remediation, educators should build an enriched bilingual program for all students. In successful two-way programs, both language groups stay together throughout the school day, serving as peer tutors for each other. After five or six years, English learners can demonstrate English and native-language proficiency and outperform monolingual students on academic tests. (13 references) Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Cost Effectiveness, Elementary Education, Enrichment Activities
(1991). Classroom Inquiry and Navajo Learning Styles: A Call for Reassessment, Anthropology and Education Quarterly. Describes experimental K-9 bilingual-bicultural curriculum in Navajo studies emphasizing open-ended questioning, inductive/analytical reasoning, and student verbalization in both small and large groups, and discusses reasons why it has been well received by teachers and students. Findings challenge conventional view that these students are nonanalytical, nonverbal learners. Suggests educational application of such "learning styles" can perpetuate patterns of learned dependence. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Cognitive Style, Curriculum Development, Curriculum Evaluation
(1980). Literacy in Rural Bolivia–Implications for Bilingual Programs, Reading Teacher. Outlines teaching strategies developed in an inservice program for elementary teachers in rural areas of Bolivia; notes the importance of developing children's oral language skills, using the local environment as the basis for language experience lessons, and including community study in the curriculum. Presents ideas useful to teachers in other bilingual situations. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Community Study, Disadvantaged Environment, Elementary Education
(1998). The American Bilingual Tradition. Language in Education: Theory and Practice No. 88. The history of language policy in the United States is explored, focusing on the rights of language minorities. The first chapter presents constitutional and ethnolinguistic background information and gives an overview of the main categories of language rights. Chapter two describes the extent to which the federal government has or has not made use of and promoted languages other than English. The third chapter outlines American achievements in toleration-oriented minority rights, and the fourth examines minority rights extended to promote language use among post-independence immigrant groups. Chapters five through eight describe the promotive language rights granted in various geographic areas, including mainland United States (large old- settler groups and smaller groups of original settlers), outlying areas that became states, and overseas possessions that did not attain statehood. Contents are indexed. (Contains 694 references.) [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingualism, Civil Rights, Federal Legislation
(1998). Linking Schools, Human Services, and Community: A Puerto Rican Perspective, Social Work in Education. School-based linkage to social services helps to coordinate scarce resources and encourage community participation. A longitudinal study of Puerto Rican families with children in bilingual classes is reported. Recommendations for developing and sustaining school-linked services to better reach Latino communities in urban areas are provided. Descriptors: Agency Cooperation, Bilingual Education, Children, Community Involvement
(2006). Miami-Dade County Public Schools Statistical Abstract 2005-2006. The purpose of this document is to present, in summary fashion, statistical information on the status of public education in Miami-Dade County. Information is provided in the areas of organization, educational programs and services, achievement, and other outcomes of schooling. Also included are multi-year statistics on student population, achievement, staff, finances, and a summary of the results of research reports completed in 2005-06 and program evaluations completed in 2004-05. In addition, this document contains information on the indicators of educational and other achievements that will serve as baseline for planning purposes. This document also provides a means of comparison between Miami-Dade and the twenty largest school districts in the United States with regard to staffing levels, salaries, and expenditures per pupil. This "Statistical Abstract 2005-06" is intended to serve as a companion document to the "District and School Profiles, 2005-06" and the "Feeder Pattern Profiles, 2005-06". While the "District and School Profiles" provides statistical information describing some of the more important characteristics of individual schools in the Miami-Dade County public school system and the "Feeder Pattern Profiles" provides data aggregated for schools in a feeder pattern, this document provides a districtwide overview. [For the 2004-2005 edition of this report, see ED536324.] [More] Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Profiles, Public Schools, Public Education
(1998). "Breaking Them Up, Taking Them Away": ESL Students in Grade 1, TESOL Quarterly. Describes a longitudinal ethnographic research in a grade one classroom with second-language (L2) learners and Anglophones. Using a community-of-practice perspective, three classroom practices are delineated that served to differentiate participants and contribute to community stratification in which some learners were defined as deficient. The need for L2 educators to make groups more inclusive is emphasized. Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Classroom Techniques, English (Second Language), Ethnography
(1998). Cultivating the Natural Linguist. Spotlight: Montessori–Multilingual, Multicultural, Montessori Life. Describes Montessori's vision of young children as natural linguists and how home and school can support children's natural abilities in one or more languages. Presents five basic principles of second-language acquisition–related to educational environment, the acquisition process, components of proficiency, and cultural context and time–and describes how they can be successfully met in a Montessori environment. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Classroom Environment, Cultural Influences, Educational Environment
(1995). Vygotsky and Emergent Bilingualism, an Exercise in Metalanguage?, Multicultural Teaching. Describes the author's efforts to use the ideas of the psychologist Vygotsky to build on the home language skills of young bilingual children in England and to turn communication breakdowns into learning opportunities. Talking to children about the forms of speech and their roles in communication can accelerate conceptual development. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Bilingual Students, Educational Psychology, Foreign Countries
(1998). Instructional Strategies for Children with Limited-English Proficiency, Journal of Early Education and Family Review. Describes the Optimal Learning Environment (OLE) Curriculum, a resource for teachers of Spanish-speaking children, which looks for the upper range of the bilingual child's academic, linguistic, and social skills. Details principles governing the OLE curriculum, including the effect of students' sociocultural background and learning handicaps on oral language and reading. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Context Effect, Cultural Influences, Curriculum Development
(1998). Effects of Bilingual Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition on Students Making the Transition from Spanish to English Reading, Elementary School Journal. Hypothesized that Bilingual Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (BCIRC) would improve the achievement of second and third graders in Spanish bilingual programs during their transition to English by giving students opportunities to use language to find meanings and solve problems and by enabling teachers to apply well-established principles of cooperative learning. Test scores generally supported hypothesis. Descriptors: Bilingual Education Programs, Cooperative Learning, English (Second Language), Grade 2
(1998). Providing Quality Children's Literature in Spanish, New Advocate. Reviews the rationale and research that supports the development of literacy in children's first language. Discusses challenges educators face in using literature to support literacy development for Spanish speakers; discusses resources for teaching using children's literature in Spanish; and offers guidelines for teachers and librarians in choosing and using culturally appropriate books in Spanish. Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Childrens Literature, Class Activities, Elementary Education
(1998). No Habla Ingles: Exploring a Bilingual Child's Literacy Learning Opportunities in a Predominantly English-Speaking Classroom, Bilingual Research Journal. A monolingual English-speaking teacher and bilingual researchers analyzed the discursive practices in a third-grade classroom that affected the literacy learning opportunities available to a monolingual Spanish-speaking migrant student. Literacy learning opportunities were shaped and influenced by the specific contexts in which the student acted and interacted. (Contains 48 references.) Descriptors: Bilingual Education, Classroom Research, Cultural Context, Educational Practices