Diverse Learners Top Hat Organizer
Article One: Navigating cultures and identities to learn
literacies for life: Rethinking adolescent literacy teaching
in a post-core world.
Literacy development is life-long and evolves depending
on the experiences of each individual.
Need to learn new ways of reading and writing.
Argued for access and opportunity for individuals who
didn’t have them at a young age.
Due to CCSS there is no more argument? Now attention is
needed in that area because students need to meet that
standard?
The CCSS doesn’t apply to social, emotional or cultural
development of young people.
Although CCSS has an important role in reforming
education, it can lack PURPOSE and meaning. For example
in texts students read or write. The CCSS doesn’t focus on
social, personal, and cultural connections. Simply looks
for results.
“Post-Core view”: helps students learn literacies for life.
Adolescent literacy needs to be about more than simply
learning how to read or write. Learning is always
influenced by social and cultural practices which students
bring into the classroom.
Teaching literacy requires teaching adolescents to explore
different cultural groups that they may experience in
school (and elsewhere).
Teachers and many others involved in the education
setting must realize that even students who seem to
struggle have different literacy practices, know multiple
discourses, and have access to background knowledge
that is rich. Students should be allowed to include their
different worlds into the standards instead of “learning
skills in isolation”. In order for this to happen, standards
need to be applied to real life situations and experiences
of students.
Don’t ask students to leave their knowledge and
identities behind.
In order for CCSS to be relevant it is important to discuss
the relationship between literacy and power that exists in
cultural groups. By doing this students will be able to
Article Two: Emergent bilingual students in secondary
school: Along the academic language and literacy
continuum.
The first quote of this article that called my attention
points out the fact that more bilingual students are
entering secondary education that “typically remains
steadfast in its monolingualism” (pg 438).
Opposes students being considered “deficient” because
of language.
Defines the term “emergent bilingual”: students who add
english (dominant state language) to their home
language, and become bilingual in the process.
Study focuses on students in the secondary level divided
mostly in two groups:
1. Students with interrupted formal education
(mostly refugees)
2. Students who are considered long term English
language learners.
Before this article not much information was published
about them.
“Emergent bilinguals perform below their peers… taking
many years to catch up academically, if they ever do”.
Studying the interconnectedness of bilinguals’ language.
It’s not always a person who has two languages
completely separated in their brain.
-translanguaging: fluid languaging practices of
bilinguals. Observing this in order to apply it to teaching
for students.
identify and fight inequality. “Teach them literacy for
life”.

Similarities

Focuses on research of secondary education students and both articles state that having research focusing on
secondary education can be hard. It is usually based on elementary education.

Both articles argue that it is important to go beyond the current beliefs and practices. Allows students to bring their
culture, language, and experiences to the classroom and apply them to their learning.

Current standards and beliefs need to evolve in order to better fit the needs of different students.

Research on these articles focuses on students’ cultural and literacy skills.

My Thoughts

In the article by Kate Menken, the term Emergent Bilingual is defined. I just want to point out that just because
students begin their education in the U.S. speaking a home language, the fact that they learn english doesn’t
necessarily make them bilingual. The school only nourishes English, their Spanish or Korean, or whatever home
language they speak must be nourished by their families and that doesn’t always happen. Not all of them become
bilingual, some students lose their home language because their parents have been traumatized by their experience
of not speaking english well, and therefore want their children to fully assimilate the U.S. culture by “speaking english
only” which causes them to lose their bilingualism. Other times the children simply become uninterested in their
home language and turn to English, because their home language was never nourished in school and other
institutions, sometimes (more often than not) it is ridiculized and frowned upon, so why must they work on keeping
it?. Therefore, our current system does a better job of erasing these kids' language than they do of making them
bilingual. Which in my opinion is the most ridiculous and ignorant thing to do.
 Although it is good that more attention is paid to secondary education reading and writing, I doubt the reason behind
it is good enough. The CCSS did have an impact on the evolution of this, but it doesn’t seem to be enough for
students’ needs and development. There is more to each student than meeting a standard in reading and writing. It is
all about how they learn and how much they are really going to engage in those lessons, and if we don’t understand
the way they learn than we may never really get to help them grow.

I like that both articles challenge the current way of viewing bilingual and cultural education and argue for integrating
students’ cultures, languages, and experiences into the classroom in order to make learning a life-long thing. It calls
for education that will carry on with students throughout their lives instead of just meeting standards.

References

Menken, K. (2013). Emergent bilingual students in secondary school: Along the academic language and literacy
continuum. Language Teaching, 46, pp 438-476 doi:10.1017/ S0261444813000281

Moje, B., Giroux, C., & Muehling, N. (2017). Navigating cultures and identities to learn literacies for life: Rethinking
adolescent literacy teaching in a post-core world. In K. Hinchman & D. Appleman (ed) Adolescent literacies: A
handbook of practice-based research.