Welcome!
Isn't it telling that we have adopted the word "viral" to describe the spread of media posts? It connotes infection, danger, and a need for inoculation while at the same time, many of us (including me on this site) hope that the content we disseminate will do just that—spread exponentially. The ongoing conversations that will take place on this page are intended to strengthen our information savvy and our capacities for nurturing information literacy in the members of our learning communities. I invite you to join the conversations and engage with me and each other to these ends.
Jacquelyn Whiting
Instructional Coach and Technology Integrator, Connecticut
Jacquelyn Whiting
Instructional Coach and Technology Integrator, Connecticut
Valuing Students' Linguistic Repertoires
by Jacquelyn WhitingThe term "multilingual learner" reframes how I think about students who are learning English. It creates a vision that is asset-based and not filtered through a deficit lens. I am not multilingual, or even bilingual, and I see this as a personal deficit. These students—some starting at very young ages—are developing capacities and proficiencies that make them valuable global citizens. By referencing their growth rather than their needs, we validate their identities and teach all students to value multicultural experiences and communities The deeper I dive into this collaboration and my own learning about culturally responsive teaching and multilingual learners, the more I realize how many layers of literacy are involved for both the students and the educators. Previously, when I planned information literacy lessons and considered obstacles to quality information access, I thought about vetting sources, understanding bias, crunching data, and even social-emotional self-awareness. This is the first time I have considered the language in which the information is constructed. Read More >>
Article
Classroom teacher Heather Kern shares an animal research project she implemented at her school and demonstrates how collaborative library lessons can be used to support and guide English Language Learners through the process of inquiry-based learning and research.
Webinars
How can we bring new approaches and perspectives into our practice to support our at-risk readers, like English language learners? Come listen and learn as Tracey Wong, School Library Media Specialist, details different ways to support and align teaching so English language learners are not linguistically isolated.
Feature
Science offers a unique space within which to focus on expanding equitable sensemaking opportunities for bi/multilingual learners because all students bring hunches about mechanisms—ideas about how and why things happen—that are valuable resources for making sense of scientific phenomena.
Feature
The school library is an essential component to developing strong biliteracy. School libraries provide a plethora of resources in various languages and reach students at their point of need. In the beginning of 2021, I was asked to help create a Spanish dual-language immersion (DLI) program and build a new K-5 library to support it.
Selected Reading
This excerpt from Larry Ferlazzo's English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies that Work focuses on the importance of building relationships in order to support student learning.