Socorro G. Herrera

The need for teachers who have both the knowledge and the skills to teach students in special education, especially students who are emergent bilinguals, is more critical today than ever before. Assumptions about the assurances outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have led to practices that have limited the scope of opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. This book examines the intent of special education policy, challenges existing systems, and explores the promise of using biography-driven instruction to transform students’ learning and enhance their personal growth and community life. With a focus on inclusive practices for working with CLD students with disabilities and their families, the book examines decision-making processes for placement, access, instruction, assessment, and evaluation. The authors show how inclusionary practices create contexts and conditions for teachers to foster their students’ academic abilities through authentic cariño and an ecology of care.Book Features:Elucidates the challenges faced by educators and support personnel as they navigate and prioritize the needs of CLD students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms.Discloses the outdated, politically driven, inequitable, and inconsequential educational opportunities often afforded to CLD students receiving special services.Provides a framework for creating learning opportunities grounded in the six principles of IDEA and the personal and academic biography of learners and their families.Supports teachers and other staff to maximize four interrelated facets of the CLD student biography: sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic.Explores the multiple meanings of inclusion and academic engagement at the intersection of IDEA and biography-driven instruction.

The need for teachers who have both the knowledge and the skills to teach students in special education, especially students who are emergent bilinguals, is more critical today than ever before. Assumptions about the assurances outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have led to practices that have limited the scope of opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. This book examines the intent of special education policy, challenges existing systems, and explores the promise of using biography-driven instruction to transform students' learning and enhance their personal growth and community life. With a focus on inclusive practices for working with CLD students with disabilities and their families, the book examines decision-making processes for placement, access, instruction, assessment, and evaluation. The authors show how inclusionary practices create contexts and conditions for teachers to foster their students' academic abilities through authentic cariño and an ecology of care. Book Features:Elucidates the challenges faced by educators and support personnel as they navigate and prioritize the needs of CLD students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Reveals the outdated, politically driven, inequitable, and inconsequential educational opportunities often afforded to CLD students receiving special services.Provides a framework for creating learning opportunities grounded in the six principles of IDEA and the personal and academic biography of learners and their families.Supports teachers and other staff to maximize four interrelated facets of the CLD student biography: sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic.Explores the multiple meanings of inclusion and academic engagement at the intersection of IDEA and biography-driven instruction.

This popular resource has transformed classrooms for thousands of teachers by providing how-to guidance for success with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. It illustrates how to use strategies that recognize and leverage all the cultural and linguistic assets that students bring to their learning. This new edition situates biography-driven instruction at the intersection of culturally responsive teaching, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and antiracist education. Herrera provides updated vignettes and student work artifacts to reflect the diversity of learners in today's historically and culturally situated spaces. Teaching strategies, tools, and interactional processes provide practical, proven ways to restructure classrooms for relational equity. Increased attention on each learner's biopsychosocial history will help educators to cultivate classroom ecologies that nurture and challenge CLD learners to reach their potentials. With lesson planning and strategy templates, tips for grouping students, teacher reflections, assessment aids, a classroom observation tool, and more features to foster classroom and schoolwide change, this edition shows teachers and administrators how to take the next steps toward critical consciousness and authentic relationships that will accelerate content learning and foster more extensive use and development of language. Book Features:Lesson planning guide that can be used with any curriculum. Strategy tools and templates to foster engaged learning.Voices of CLD families that highlight benefits of asset-driven practices.Journaling process for critical reflection on assumptions and perspectives.Book study discussion guide to scaffold collaboration and goal setting. Classroom observation tool for coaching, mentoring, and self-assessment.

This popular resource has transformed classrooms for thousands of teachers by providing how-to guidance for success with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. It illustrates how to use strategies that recognize and leverage all the cultural and linguistic assets that students bring to their learning. This new edition situates biography-driven instruction at the intersection of culturally responsive teaching, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and antiracist education. Herrera provides updated vignettes and student work artifacts to reflect the diversity of learners in today's historically and culturally situated spaces. Teaching strategies, tools, and interactional processes provide practical, proven ways to restructure classrooms for relational equity. Increased attention on each learner's biopsychosocial history will help educators to cultivate classroom ecologies that nurture and challenge CLD learners to reach their potentials. With lesson planning and strategy templates, tips for grouping students, teacher reflections, assessment aids, a classroom observation tool, and more features to foster classroom and schoolwide change, this edition shows teachers and administrators how to take the next steps toward critical consciousness and authentic relationships that will accelerate content learning and foster more extensive use and development of language. Book Features:Lesson planning guide that can be used with any curriculum. Strategy tools and templates to foster engaged learning.Voices of CLD families that highlight benefits of asset-driven practices.Journaling process for critical reflection on assumptions and perspectives.Book study discussion guide to scaffold collaboration and goal setting. Classroom observation tool for coaching, mentoring, and self-assessment.

Starting from the premise that children learn better when their learning community respects their families and cultures, this thought-provoking resource shows what it means-and what it takes-to include today's diverse parents in their children's learning. Moving readers away from out-of-date practices that can potentially marginalize and devalue the cultural assets of families, the authors provide practical, ready-to-use strategies to help schools re-envision the meaning of parental involvement and engagement. Based on the research and K-12 teaching experience of three educators, chapters address contemporary issues such as the absent parent, homework, vulnerable populations, limitations of current school-based family programs, and pedagogies of hope. Book Features:Explores the multiple meanings of parental involvement and engagement.Examines the limitations of current approaches to parental engagement, particularly for language-minority parents.Reframes the conversation surrounding parental engagement to emphasize community and parental empowerment.Addresses the importance of parental engagement amid today's political discourse surrounding immigration.Includes vignettes, discussion questions, visuals, and engagement activities.

Starting from the premise that children learn better when their learning community respects their families and cultures, this thought-provoking resource shows what it means-and what it takes-to include today's diverse parents in their children's learning. Moving readers away from out-of-date practices that can potentially marginalize and devalue the cultural assets of families, the authors provide practical, ready-to-use strategies to help schools re-envision the meaning of parental involvement and engagement. Based on the research and K-12 teaching experience of three educators, chapters address contemporary issues such as the absent parent, homework, vulnerable populations, limitations of current school-based family programs, and pedagogies of hope. Book Features:Explores the multiple meanings of parental involvement and engagement.Examines the limitations of current approaches to parental engagement, particularly for language-minority parents.Reframes the conversation surrounding parental engagement to emphasize community and parental empowerment.Addresses the importance of parental engagement amid today's political discourse surrounding immigration.Includes vignettes, discussion questions, visuals, and engagement activities.

Completely revised and updated, this bestseller provides readers with a deep understanding of how the book’s strategies evolve and take shape in day-to-day classroom practice. The text includes explicit ties to reading and content standards, tips for involving parents, steps for gathering knowledge of a student’s background to advance learning, and a companion website.

In her new book, nationally known professional development consultant and literacy expert Socorro Herrera is joined by two colleagues to provide a framework for academic vocabulary and language instruction in today’s diverse classrooms. The authors present a set of strategies and tools that work effectively across all content to support enhanced comprehension and academic success. The strategies have evolved from over a decade of research and classroom observation to provide teachers with multiple avenues for making content accessible and relevant for all students, especially those who are culturally and linguistically diverse. Each strategy supports teachers in using what students already know as a foundation for integrating new vocabulary and building content-area language skills. The authors provide a thorough explanation of how to use each strategy to document student knowledge and learning throughout the before, during, after phases of the lesson.Drawing on current research about how the brain works, second language acquisition, and classroom communities, this user-friendly resource features:Filled-in samples of student work that provide evidence of what is possible.Teacher-to-teacher voices highlighting successful applications in secondary classrooms.Teaching tips to accompany every strategy.Templates for vocabulary-building student artefacts.