Project Results

Despite widespread research support for bilingual education, sheltered English instruction (SEI) or pull out ESL programs remain the most common models for teaching English Language Learners in the United States.  Teachers working in SEI and pull out models can leverage some of the tenets of bilingual education to build students’ home language proficiency and value home language practices of students as they also acquire English. Importantly, this allows teachers working in restrictive policy contexts to support student biliteracy. In this article, we discuss a bilingual bookmaking initative which supported the creation of biliterate communities of practice and incorporated technology platforms to facilitate ESL students’ biliteracy.  Importantly, the bookmaking initiative also shifted the ways that general education teachers viewed the participating students. Lessons from this experience may inspire bilingual, ESL and general education teachers, monolingual or multilingual themselves, to find ways to engage their emergent bilingual students in biliteracy.

About This Project

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The number of students who are not proficient in English in US public schools is at its highest in a century. Overall, US schools struggle to provide an appropriate education to these students, resulting in lower achievement levels for ELLs.However, as students with multilingual backgrounds, these children have the potential to be assets to US society for generations to come. Although researchers know that building on students' home language is critical for school success, teachers often have a difficult time doing this in practice. This project will experiment with the use of Storybird technology, which has the potential to allow students to use technology to create bilingual stories.

What is the significance of this project?

Children who attend US schools not proficient in English have lower test scores and higher dropout levels than other students. However, ESL students who are able to read and write on grade level by 6th grade have higher graduation rates, future earnings, and better life outcomes than those who are not. The use of the technology studied in this project may be critical in helping students make literacy gains in elementary school, when they are critical for future success.

What are the goals of the project?

1. Obtain funding to be able to publish 10 books created by students for the project.
2. Purchase 10 bilingual books for the school's library as model books for participating students.
3. Host an author's reception for participating students.