Category: Published Writing

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I go beyond lesson plans to support my refugee students. Cuts to education hurt everyone.

These days school communities are expected by society to be not just places of learning but places of healing. Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s cutbacks to education, which include cuts to teaching positions and increases to classroom sizes, negatively impact all students. As the battle for scarce resources gets fiercer, we teachers are standing firm in …

Continue reading "I go beyond lesson plans to support my refugee students. Cuts to education hurt everyone."

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English Language Learners in Canadian Schools: Emerging Directions for School-Based Policies

This article attempts to provide ESL teachers, school administrators, and policymakers with a concise overview of what matters in promoting academic success among learners of English in Canadian schools. We review research focused on bilingual and biliteracy development, the nature of academic language, and the roles of societal power relations and identity negotiation in determining the academic achievement of English language learners (ELL). On the basis of this research, we propose the Literacy Engagement framework that identifies literacy engagement as a major determinant of literacy achievement for ELL and non-ELL students. In order to enable ELL students to engage with literacy, the framework highlights the importance of teachers scaffolding meaning, connecting with students’ lives, affirming student identities, and extending their awareness and knowledge of language across the curriculum. The application of the framework is illustrated with reference to the literacy and academic learning experiences of two ELL students in the Toronto area.