Making Meaning Through Translanguaging in the Literacy Classroom
In this Teaching Tip, we share three literacy activities for teachers working with emergent bilinguals. Leveraging students' heritage languages in instruction holds rich opportunities for literacy achievement. Translanguaging pedagogies encourage emergent bilinguals to use the full range of their linguistic repertoires when making meaning in the classroom. We describe three snapshots of three different classroom activities that welcome, leverage, and develop students' heritage languages in literacy instruction through translanguaging pedagogies. These activities include using text features with heritage language newspapers, summarizing when writing bilingual book reports, and using translating and home photos when creating eBooks. We conclude with implications for both student and teacher learning.