Pride, Purpose, and Potential: Testimonios in a Third-Grade Classroom

• In Event: Roundtable Session 111
  In Roundtable Session: From Margins to Centers: Critical Pedagogies Across Contexts

Abstract

This qualitative study addresses what happens when bilingual students in an English language arts class engage in literacy practices designed to build on their linguistic and cultural knowledge. I argue that performing and writing,to testimonios enables students to identify their linguistic abilities and to expose deficit assumptions regarding their potential. Testimonios are personal narratives regarding lived experiences that are shared orally or in writing with the goal of supporting others who may be part of a similar struggle (Delgado Bernal, 2002; Fránquiz, 2003; Latina Feminist Group, 2001; Saavedra, 2011). Drawing on sociocultural perspctives on learning and Latina/o critical race theory, preliminary findings show that students identified varied purposes for bilingualism and used Spanish as a resource when writing testimonios.

Author

• Christina P. Denicolo, Wayne State University