Dynamic Bilingual Literacy Instruction in a Middle School Writing Workshop

• In Event: Dynamic Bilingual Literacy Instruction as Social Justice Practice: Educational Equity for Emergent Bilinguals

Abstract

I. Objectives
This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of a sixth-grade “English as a New Language” (ENL) writing workshop in a public school, focusing on the bilingual Spanish/English teacher’s modification of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Workshop (TCRWP) personal narrative unit when implementing bilingual pedagogy. This included using the students’ full linguistic and cultural repertoires, integrating culturally relevant texts, modifying pedagogical approaches, and sharing teacher demonstration writing. Research questions are:
1. What are the language ideologies that enable a teacher to enact modifications to an existing personal narrative writing curricular unit so as to take into account the complex linguistic and cultural practices of emergent bilingual middle-schoolers? What are the modifications implemented to the curriculum and pedagogy?
2. How does that bilingual pedagogy help bilingual sixth graders construct written personal narratives that build on their cultural and linguistic resources, and what are its effects?

II. Perspectives
Dynamic bilingual pedagogy that does not hold a strict language separation provides students with opportunities to self-regulate their linguistic repertoire and engage in critical thinking (Velasco & García, 2014). Edelsky’s (1984) findings from elementary writing workshops in bilingual settings reveal the need for more interaction with texts in Spanish. At the center of these practices is a question of social justice and how dynamic biliteracy can exist in all kinds of spaces. Bilingual instruction allows for student participation, elaboration, in-depth questioning and thinking of social issues, and a reading and writing connection (García & Leiva, 2014).

III. Methods
This ethnographic study consisted of five class sessions where I conducted participant observation in the classroom across the five-week personal narrative writing unit. Writing samples from the start and end of the unit were collected and analyzed along with students’ drafts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four focal students and the classroom teacher at the end of the school year after students had completed this narrative writing unit and other kinds of writing. I employed a cultural analysis of the discourse of the interviews (Quinn, 2010, p. 241). These were coded with “organizational,” “substantive,” and “theoretical” categories (Maxwell, 2013).

IV. Data Sources
The data sources included interviews and two “on demand” personal narratives, one was written at the start of the unit and the other at the end. The drafts were also analyzed. The classroom teacher’s charts, author’s craft analysis of mentor texts guide, and translations of texts were additional data sources.

V. Results
The findings show examples of dynamic bilingual literacy instruction and how the teacher’s purposeful pedagogical moves, modifications, and mentor text use, were all centered on a philosophy of bilingual teaching for social justice. The study also revealed ways of teaching that went beyond the TCRWP guide, considering the students’ languages and experiences.

VI. Scholarly Significance
Most studies on dynamic bilingual literacy focus on the elementary grades and there is a need for more studies that focus on writing within a middle school classroom.

Author

• Carla Espana, Hunter College