Literacy Teaching for Bilingual & Multilingual Students

Catalog description

Literacy is widely seen as one of the most important skills that children need in order to be successful in school and beyond, however the teaching of reading and writing are largely still approached from a monolingual paradigm even though the vast majority of classrooms have students who speak (and are often literate to varied degrees in that language) in at least one other language beyond the language of instruction. Therefore, it is essential that educators acquire the knowledge and skills to consider the development of literacy from a broader, less restrictive linguistic paradigm in order to engage and effectively teach reading and writing to their students who are bi/multilingual. Regardless of teaching context (e.g., grade level; bilingual or monolingual instructional setting, etc.) educators in this course are supported to move away from a monolingual paradigm in relation to literacy development in order to make strong and effective use of their students' literacy knowledge across languages. Participants will apply new learning to implement strategies (such as contrastive analysis, reading and writing opportunities in both languages, etc.) that supports the development and transference of literacy learning across languages.