Engaging Children and Families in Culturally Relevant Literacies

This article offers theoretical and practical strategies for engaging families, communities, and young children in culturally relevant and responsive early literacies. The authors highlight findings from data collected in their own classrooms and with families and communities for the Professional Dyads in Culturally Relevant (PDCRT) teaching project,[1] a collaborative research partnership (2013-2015) between teacher educator-teacher dads [2] aimed at generating, investigating, and documenting culturally relevant/responsive practices for early childhood contexts. [1]The PDCRT was initiated by Affirmative Action Committee of the Early Childhood Education Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). [2]University-School Partner

Learning Your Kids: An Action Research Approach to Home Visits and Teacher Practice

Due to demographic shifts suburban schools are having difficulty meeting the needs of students of immigrant, poor and working class families. Schools are forced with the difficult task of closing learning gaps with students who may have difficult circumstances. Literature indicates fostering a healthy home / school connection by conducting educational home visits may support schools ability to embrace the cultural wealth and social capital of students and their families. In a suburban elementary school, six elementary school teachers and the assistant principal formed a research team to explore the relationship between home visits and teachers' practice. The study focused on an overarching question: What is the relationship between home visits and teacher practice? The sub questions were: (1) What changes occur in teachers' thinking about students' contexts following home visits? (2) What changes occur in teacher practice following home visits? (3) How do teachers think these changes influences student learning? The action research study consisted of three distinct phases of work cycles. The phases were, Phase I, Initiation, Phase II, Duration and Phase III, Conclusion. The team investigated how home visits influence teachers' practice and their perception of students' learning. The team collected data through conducting home visits, group meetings, peer classroom observations, triad discussions and maintained journal notes, audio tapes, and electronic notifications. The findings were teachers' improved practice, teachers' professionalism and professional growth. These themes emerged from the home visits, classroom applications experiences and group meetings of the action research project. Keywords: cultural wealth, action research, home visits, teacher practice, professional development, students' home context

Elevating Student Voice: The Role and Importance of Literacy Coaches for K–12 Teachers

This position statement was written for K–12 teachers in order to focus on the role and importance of literacy coaches. The NCTE Executive Committee commissioned this work by approving a recommendation to archive Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches (2006). A literacy coach is positioned as an individual who serves both teachers and students in an effort to elevate their voices in literacy learning. Relationship building must be foremost for literacy coaches, as coaches should understand the learning styles and needs of each teacher and student in order to provide a differentiated, equitable approach to coaching and instruction (Morgan et al., 2019). The current statement highlights the following messages: (1) Literacy coaches support a collaborative learning process with the K–12 teacher to create an inspired environment of learning for the teacher and students in the classroom. (2) K–12 literacy coaches center student voice, rather than assuming a deficit approach. (3) Literacy coaches reach students across grade levels and a range of language levels, incorporating technology throughout their work, when applicable. (4) Literacy coaches balance the various roles of a literacy professional. (5) Literacy coaches elevate the work of content-area teachers. (6) It is important to create a culture that values a literacy coaching framework across a range of educational settings. Insights gleaned from previous NCTE position statements—including The Act of Reading: Instructional Foundations and Policy Guidelines; NCTE Position Paper on the Role of English Teachers in Educating English Language Learners; Position Statement on Indigenous Peoples and People of Color (IPOC) in English and Language Arts Materials; Definition of Literacy in a Digital Age; and Shifting from Professional Development to Professional Learning: Centering Teacher Empowerment—as well as Jim Knight’s (2004) and Cathy Toll’s (2005) literature on instructional/literacy coaching, along with disciplinary literacy scholars Elizabeth Moje (2008), Timothy Shanahan and Cynthia Shanahan (2012), Peter Smagorinsky (2015), Michael Manderino (2017), Paula Di Domenico (2017), and Regie Routman (2018) guided its creation