Enriched Project-Based Learning for Multilingual Classrooms: Students Lead With All Their Languages and Literacies

• In Event: Elevating Student Agency to Promote Equity and Authenticity in Student-Led Projects

Abstract

Purposes
We examine the use of an enriched framework for conducting project-based learning (PjBL) in multilingual classrooms. This framework stresses that core PjBL values, such as fostering authenticity and projects that are student-led, are best achieved when educators value, leverage and extend the strengths multilingual students bring to school, and support them in pursuing literacies and interests that are relevant to themselves and their communities. This study investigates the following research questions in an 11th and 12th grade English language development (ELD) class in which students created 3D-printed tactile picture books for children who are blind or have visual impairment:
-How do bilingual high school students’ develop as multimodal designers of tactile picture books for an audience of children who are blind or have visual impairment?
-How does the inclusion of multiple tools, modes and languages contribute to prolonged investment among students in an enriched project?
-How do students pursue their own interests and goals within a project’s broader goals?
Perspectives
Enriched PjBL for multilingual students builds on existing PjBL frameworks (Authors, year) while integrating perspectives and pedagogies responsive to the strengths and needs of multilingual students (Celic & Seltzer, 2013). We emphasize Universal Design for Learning principles for broadening access and engagement (Meyer, Rose & Gordon, 2014). We take a multiliteracies perspective, emphasizing the role of multiple modes and languages in meaning making (Smith, Pacheco & Khorosheva; 2021).

Methods & Data Sources
We investigated a six-week project involving 10 Spanish-English bilingual students and one ELD teacher. Data sources include field notes, written reflections, student work products and retrospective design interviews. We used critical multimodal discourse analysis to examine student products alongside interview data, centering the students’ voicing of their perspectives.

Results
Students displayed a range of literacies and competencies not commonly required, recognized or valued in a typical ELD classroom. Notably, students engaged in multimodal and multilingual composition using tools characteristic of maker education spaces, while working with unfamiliar design principles and constraints associated with tactile picture books.
Students reported various reasons for being invested in the project, including increasing access to enjoyable books for children who are blind or have visual impairment; the opportunity to compose bilingually for a bilingual audience; and interest in particular modes and tools—e.g., 3D design, sound design, and writing braille—with some describing a connection between a tool and an envisioned career.
Students exercised agency by emphasizing different languages, modes, genres, production techniques and audiences.

Scholarly Significance
Multilingual students are too often underestimated and, as a result, denied access to challenging curriculum that blends disciplinary rigor and student agency (Clark‐Gareca, Short, Lukes & Sharp‐Ross; 2021). We provide evidence that enriched PjBL can help address this by offering an alternative to skills-based ELD curriculum, and helping teachers see beyond deficit discourses that are perpetuated by excessive remediation.

Authors

• Benjamin Walsh, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Bridget Dalton, University of Colorado - Boulder