This volume brings together research carried out in a variety of geographic and linguistic contexts including Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and the United States and explores efforts to incorporate linguistic diversity into education and to "harness" this diversity for learners' benefit. It challenges the largely…

This guide for teachers in times of trauma was updated after the events of September 11, 2001--the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These traumatic events could cause refugees to experience trauma or become re-traumatized. For many refugees, their English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs are the places where they…

Describes a three-step plan is described that general and special educators can use to obtain assessment information from children with linguistically diverse backgrounds. The steps include identifying the assessment's purpose (which involves how students approach learning tasks, apply their knowledge, and attain final outcomes), knowing the child…

A discussion of school partnerships with linguistic minority communities (1) contextualizes and defines such partnerships, (2) notes the typical obstacles that prevent educators and communities from developing partnerships successfully, (3) highlights promising evolving practices associated with effective partnerships, (4) recommends future…

Twenty strategies are presented for enhancing the involvement of parents from diverse backgrounds, including: exploring parents' expectations, learning about the family's culture, providing communication in many forms, making use of casual contacts with parents, planning different times for conferences, involving interpreters, and linking…

It is argued that the increasing linguistic and cultural diversity in public schools requires teachers to be more sensitive to how children maintain effective cross-cultural communication, and be aware of barriers that affect interaction in culturally diverse classrooms. Sociocultural factors that shape the perspectives of all students should be…

The purpose of this handbook is to encourage citizenship teachers and tutors to teach in ways that will increase the likelihood that their students will pass citizenship tests and interviews. It provides an overview of the citizenship process and includes activity ideas and a discussion of the elements of good teaching on this subject. This…

An African American teacher of English discusses her own experience with black English as a barrier to academic success, her efforts to assure that her own students speak standard English and to understand why many teachers do not stress this and the need to understand why many African American students do not use standard English despite its…

This book explains that mainstream elementary classroom teachers with little or no English-as-a-Second-Language training can meet the needs of linguistically diverse students by integrating the teaching of English with the content areas of the regular curriculum. It begins with a strong theoretical underpinning for this practice, drawing on a…

This article provides an overview of the critical elements of emergent literacy, discusses specific strategies for using storybooks with preschoolers to facilitate language development and emergent literacy skills, and provides specific strategies for children learning English as a second language. Sample phonological awareness activities are also…

Offers suggestions on how to add the power of a free online translator, links, and multicultural search engines to a teacher's classroom home page. Describes the Alta Vista Babelfish online translation service that can be used to translate Web pages on a variety of topics written in German, Spanish, Italian, French, or Portuguese. (SLD)

As teachers encounter a wider variety of children and families than ever before, dealing with all the differences can be demanding. This book provides a collection of 45 readings reflecting the strong, continuing current of thoughtful work on teaching young children in a diverse society to help teachers and prospective teachers respond to the…

This book offers a framework designed to help teachers include bilingual learners in their curriculum planning. It considers what is needed for the curriculum to be accessible to all children. The 9 chapters are: (1) "Introduction" (Maggie Gravelle); (2) "'Jamaica's Find': Using a Story Book to Develop Ideas about Writing"…

This document aims to help teachers make the transition to standards-based teaching and learning. It describes the first phase of a 3-year applied research project on professional development for teaching to high standards in culturally and linguistically diverse middle schools. Standards-based teaching and learning requires teachers to reach a…

This volume in NCSET's Essential Tools series summarizes current research about transition issues and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) youth with disabilities. It offers information on how transition personnel can effectively support these youth by building on their strengths and enhancing natural supports available within their…