RBERNing Questions
RBERNing Questions is a professional learning podcast, produced by Mid-State RBERN, where we answer your most compelling questions about teaching, serving, and supporting multilingual learners. We connect teachers and leaders of English Language Learners (ELLs) and Multilingual Learners (MLs) with experts in our field who will address timely and specific questions relating to instructional practices, teacher collegiality, and outreach to students and their families.
If you are a K-12 educator, to receive CTLE credit for listening to this podcast, go to our website: https://midstaterbern.org/2023-2024-podcasts/.
To find out more about the Mid-State RBERN team, visit https://midstaterbern.org/who-we-are/.
RBERNing Questions
Translanguaging and Descriptive Processes: Using Children’s Literature as a Holistic Confidence Booster w/Cecilia Espinosa & Laura Ascenzi-Moreno
Episode Summary:
When Laura was growing up, “Spanish is a liability” was the societal idea that was so deeply ingrained in the immigrant community that at an early age, she was deprived of learning the very language that all of her family members spoke. For Cecilia, the fact that she did speak Spanish is what prompted a first grade student to suggest that she apply for a job at a school where “a lot of the students speak Spanish.” Both of these stories highlight how one’s identity around language can play a pivotal role in their professional paths. Now they both strongly advocate for more insightful pedagogy around bilingual education practices. Today’s episode sheds light on more expansive ways to integrate translanguaging into your instruction, causes you to shift your thoughts around what it really means to be literate and the variety of ways that literacy can be demonstrated in the classroom, and touches on the importance of choosing materials that better serve your students. Laura and Cecilia also give us a taste of the juicy resources provided in their book, “Rooted in Strength: Using Translanguaging to Grow Multilingual Readers and Writers.” Why should educators think of themselves as language policy makers? This and other thought-provoking questions will be answered in today’s conversation.
RBERNing Questions for this Episode:
1- What are Descriptive Processes? Can you give us some examples of them?
2- How does translanguaging and the implementation of these descriptive processes facilitate a viewpoint encompassing a truly holistic view of our students?
3- What do you recommend teachers do to sustain and nurture their students’ translanguaging capacities?
Resources:
Websites/Social Media:
https://mcmespinosa.wixsite.com/ceciliamespinosa
https://www.lascenzimoreno.com/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MCEspinosaCh
https://twitter.com/ascenzimoreno?lang=en
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilia-espinosa-5aab4416/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lascenzim/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/laura.ascenzimoreno
Publications & Other Media:
Always at the Bottom: Ideologies in the Assessment of Emergent Bilinguals:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1086296X211052255
Translanguaging and Responsive Adaptations: https://publicationsncte.org/content/journals/10.58680/la201829683
https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/teacher/books/rooted-in-strength-9781338753875.html
https://www.nysed.gov/bilingual-ed/classroom-practices-mll-ell-and-next-generation-ela-standards
https://www.cuny-iie.org/comprehensive-educator-modules
For webinars, podcasts, articles/chapters, please see the websites.
To find out more about Mid-State RBERN at OCM BOCES' services, listen to season 1 of the show with host Collette Farone-Goodwin, or to receive CTLE credit for listening to episodes, click here: https://midstaterbern.org/