Oral language is foundational to literacy. Because their language is under construction, emergent bilingual students have unique needs related to literacy development regardless of the language of instruction. Knowledge teachers gain through formative assessment of student oral language can guide decisions about literacy instruction. The purpose…

Using running records as a lens to facilitate multilingual students' language and literacy development can help teachers recognize and build on students' linguistic capital. The authors analyzed 123 running records of Spanish-speaking first graders to begin to identify the types of language-related errors they made when reading. Using an assets…