Una Paraeducadora Bilingüe en ELA: A Bilingual Paraeducator Mediates a Library-based Reading Group

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 11:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Bilingualism desde el corazón to the enactment of languaging

Abstract

This paper centers Ms. Duran, a Colombian-born and career-long bilingual paraeducator as she works alongside three 8th grade bi/multilingual youth from immigrant and newcomer families in California. Drawing on a year-long ethnographic study, this paper asks: What are the language and literacy practices of a bilingual paraeducator in a library-based reading group? The author employs classroom discourse analysis to examine Ms. Duran’s facilitation of an English Language Arts (ELA) oral reading group based in the school’s library. Findings demonstrate that the language and literacy practices of Ms. Duran alongside youth include A) Text-oriented exchanges; B) Relational exchanges; C) Language-oriented exchanges; and D) Reading feedback as the group read, laughed, and interrogated their texts.

Author

• Elizabeth Castro, Central Washington University