“Everything I Do Is for My Mom”: Students’ Writing Priorities in Bilingual Literacy Intervention

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Renewing Writing Processes and Priorities (Table 8)

Abstract

This study explores integration of creative writing into bilingual small-group literacy intervention, investigating how students’ writing priorities relate to academic, linguistic, and social-emotional growth, and how students respond to the process of co-creating a holistic rubric. The author analyzed interview transcripts of four fourth and fifth graders at a two-way immersion elementary school, in addition to fieldnotes from small group sessions. Students expressed deep care for their audiences, integration of different learning areas, affirmation of multimodality, and commitment to their original goals. These findings exemplify the complexity and power of students’ literacy priorities, even when an instructional setting does not traditionally position them with agency, and asserts the value of soliciting student input to inform an asset-focused instructional design.

Author

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