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Book Chapter
Essay: Creating a Foundation Through Student Conversation
This essay discusses a pedagogical practice called Science talks. Science talks allow students to use their diverse language practices and life experience to understand scientific phenomena and allow teachers to see new connections between students�...
Book Chapter
What is culture? How does it figure into learning and teaching? What can educators do to make their classrooms sites of deep learning for all children? This essay examines the concept of culture, exploring how this concept has evolved historically an...
Book Chapter
Case Study: Using Students' Cultural Resources in Teaching
Teachers often want to incorporate their students’ cultural resources into the curriculum but do not know how. This case study describes what teachers participating in the Funds of Knowledge for Teaching Project, based at the University of Arizona,...
Book Chapter
A Teacher's Perspective: What Is Culture?
In her chapter, “What Is Culture?,” page 89, Norma González explains how the concept of culture has evolved historically and how it has affected education over time. As anthropologists continue to define culture in more dynamic ways, educators a...
Book Chapter
Essay: Learning a Second Language
What challenges face students who are learning a second language at the same time as they are learning science? This essay considers some of the difficulties associated with learning to speak, read, and write in a second language. Although the princ...
Book Chapter
Case Study: Using Two Languages to Learn Science
Often teachers ask their English language learners to confine themselves to using English as they explore ideas, frequently because the teacher does not know the child's first language. This case study tells the story of Jean-Charles who uses both hi...
Book Chapter
A Teacher's Perspective: Learning a Second Language
In “Learning a Second Language,” page 107, Ellen Bialystok explains the ways in which reading a science text in a second language makes learning more challenging. She explains that language is the core of science learning because it “is the pri...
Book Chapter
Essay: Programs for Teaching English Language Learners
Today's K-12 American classrooms are rich with students from families of diverse cultural, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds. An increasingly important dimension of diversity in contemporary schools is language and, in particular, the relativ...
Book Chapter
A Teacher's Perspective: Programs for Teaching English Language Learners
In their essay, “Programs for Teaching English Language Learners,” page 129, Fred Genesee and Donna Christian take an in-depth look at some of the most frequently used educational approaches for teaching students who are learning English. They de...
Book Chapter
Essay: Creating Culturally Responsive Learning Communities
The population of the United States is more ethnically and racially diverse than ever, a fact particularly evident among young and school-age children. This presents today’s elementary schools—including teachers, administrators, and policy makers...
Book Chapter
A Teacher's Perspective: Creating Culturally Responsive Learning Communities
In their essay, “Creating Culturally Responsive Learning Communities,” page 151, Eugene García and Okhee Lee begin with the idea that human beings construct knowledge by “applying knowledge of previous concepts to the new information that is p...
Book Chapter
Essay: What Is Equity in Science Education?
Concerns about equity often influence and drive decision making by educators and policy makers. How do these concerns—and different understandings of equity itself—affect the quality and form of science instruction available for English language ...
Book Chapter
A Teacher's Perspective: What Is Equity in Science Education?
In his essay, “What is Equity in Science Education?,” page 167, Walter Secada challenges our understanding of equity by raising questions about how different meanings of equity can influence science education for English language learners. He hig...
Book Chapter
Conclusion: Reconceptualizing Diversity in the Science Classroom
This book has discussed steps teachers can take toward reconceptualizing diversity as an intellectual strength in the science classroom. By way of closing, the authors outline a path for those interested in pushing their practice further. It involves...
Book Chapter
Essay: Using Students' Conversational Style
In the United States, science instruction is based on an idealized, Western view of scientific practice and on the language practices of a middle-class population. Unbeknownst to teachers, this orientation ignores much of the knowledge and experience...