Evidence-Based Reading Instruction in Preservice Teacher Education: Analyzing Practices for Linguistically Diverse Practicum Settings

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Ten
  In Roundtable Session: Evidence-Based Reading Instruction From a Multilingual Standpoint (Table 9)

Abstract

Objectives:
We situate evidence-based reading instruction for multilingual students and in historically marginalized communities in the context of preservice teacher education. At a time of heightened policy oversight of early literacy education, as well as teacher preparation in the science of reading (e.g., NCTQ, 2020), the following questions guide our inquiry:
What instructional practices are constructed as “high-leverage” and essential in preservice teacher education, as aligned with state standards for teacher preparation? What are the theories or paradigms of the evidence behind such practices?
How can teacher educators analyze, reframe, and expand such routines to leverage multilingual readers’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and to support implementation in diverse practicum settings?

Theoretical Framework:
We draw from teacher preparation perspectives that center equity through “guiding principles” recognizing the resources of minoritized families and communities, as opposed to “best practices” (Cochran-Smith & Reagan, 2021). As Gabriel (2018) explains, theoretically-sound literacy instruction can be implemented flexibly when teachers adjust to support individual learners, and when they can explain and justify their decisions. The notion of responsiveness (Author, 2020) as teachers drawing on their knowledge of the reading process, and their students’ multiliterate repertoires, allows us to support future teachers to think beyond “just good teaching” (de Jong & Harper, 2005) in lessons implemented in diverse schools. Our vision of literacy builds on culturally sustaining and asset-based pedagogies (e.g., Gonzalez, Moll & Amanti, 2005; Paris, 2012), integration of multimodal and digital practices (e.g., Kress, 2009), and centering biliteracy and translanguaging practices (García & Kleifgen, 2019).

Methods:
We are a team of teacher educators redesigning literacy courses as we negotiate state legislation mandating science of reading content. Through practitioner inquiry, we examine our dilemmas of practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) as we prepare teachers in a licensure program with culturally and linguistically diverse endorsement, and in which candidates are placed in practicum sites serving multilingual students (speaking Spanish, Dari, Pashto, and other languages) in the Mountain West region.

Data Sources & Analysis:
The data set includes documents describing evidence-based reading practices aligned with state mandates. These include: (a) state-approved professional development materials; (b) teacher education textbooks; (c) state-approved K-5 reading curricula, and (d) structured literacy instruction in the International Dyslexia Association Knowledge and Practice Standards (International Dyslexia Association, 2018). We also examined meeting notes and course materials generated by our team. We curated a list of “high-leverage practices” (Burkins & Yates, 2021) that candidates can implement in their practicum sites.

Results:
Our analysis describes the affordances and constraints of the following practices for multilingual students, considering their initial development for English-monolingual classrooms: (a) phoneme-grapheme mapping; (b) high-frequency word instruction with attention to irregular spellings; (c ) multisensory phonics instruction; and (d) read-aloud routines informed by the Situation Model (Kintsch, 2005).

Significance:
As teachers and teacher educators negotiate policy mandates on reading instruction, this study illuminates sites of possibility to resist, reframe, and rethink teaching opportunities. We aim to generate resources for emerging teachers to always find ways to mobilize multilingual students’ repertoires and brilliance.

Authors

• Silvia C. Nogueron-Liu, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author

• Emily Johns-O'Leary, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author

• Kristen Driscoll, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author