This book adds to the data about how low socioeconomic, linguistically diverse, urban children learn to read, write, and solve problems. The reader is challenged to examine language ideologies and to imagine a future that enables all students to develop their cultural and linguistic capital.
In the FOREWORD, we read: "At a national congress of educators in Chicago, shortly after Bertha gave me this book to read, a group of colleagues from Teachers College, Columbia University, gathered to discuss issues of multiple languages and of multiple multimodal literacies." This sentence may not be of particular interest to some readers, but it was not so to me. The reason was the mention of Teachers College, Columbia University, the graduate school of education from which I got my doctorate in the early 1980s. The mention immediately took me to the memories of the years I spent there and to the special concern for bilingual education at this reputable school.
The book is concerned with the education of Mexican American children: not just those who do not have proficiency in English, but also those who do and who live in the world of hybridity, where issues of language, culture and identity are part of the belief that no matter what programs using the native language are applied, they will result in failure.
In addition to hybridity, the author also discusses the problem of diglossia. Both problems are presented in the context of the stresses of sustainability of a model for teaching Mexican and Mexican American Spanish-speaking children. The complexity of biliteracy, the balanced literacy process, and the use of biliteracy in the content areas are powerfully treated in the book.
The book deals with the increasing number of linguistically diverse students in U.S. schools and how it continues to challenge the ways public schools are educating this population.
In chapter 1, readers learn about the theoretical perspective the author used in conducting her study and she reviews previous studies of two-way and dual language bilingual immersion programs.
The story of the restructuring of bilingual programs in chapter 2 describes the context and the process of development of the two-way program.
In chapter 3, the writer discusses the role, involvement, and participation of parents and the sociopolitical climate and context of the two schools where she carried out her study.
Chapters 4 through 6 describe the classroom life as the children and teachers in the two schools learn and teach. Chapter 4 details the language environment, instruction, and scaffolding strategies found in these classrooms.
Chapter 5 focuses on
examining how children developed biliteracy, especially in the early grades.
In chapter 6, rich examples of how children used their biliteracy skills across academic content are provided.
Chapter 7 is an account of the pressures of testing and accountability reported by students and teachers. This chapter also reports the performance of two-way students on the state test and on assessments of language and reading.
The important and instrumental roles played by the teachers in developing and sustaining the program is discussed in chapter 8.
The book ends with the retelling of a new policy analysis that asked the two-way participants to reexamine and justify its continuation.
The last chapter, 9, is an analysis of the continuing issues, challenges, politics, and policies facing the two-way bilingual immersion program.
The book is both useful and interesting to read.
المفضلات