Cultivating Knowledge, Building Language: Literacy Instruction for English Learners in Elementary School (Research-Informed Classroom)

I have been trying to do a lot of what they write about in this book, at least conceptually. This tells me I've been on the right track, and shows me how to be more effective, with research to back up what I was finding to be necessary, based simply on practice and experience. I'm not saying I already knew all this. This is a very useful, practical guide for creating challenging units that get at deep content and language knowledge.

I'm reading this book over the summer in preparation for the coming school year. The authors have helpful insights into the needs of English Language Learners (and all learners). The information is presented in a way that makes it easy for me to see how I will transfer it to my classroom. I'm looking forward to putting my new knowledge to use this fall, and sharing with my fellow teachers.

I loved the inquiry-based learning approach to teaching science and social studies as a way to build "academic language" in populations of students whose reading skills languish after 2nd or 3rd grade.

This book is an amazing resource for educators at all levels, from classroom teachers to literacy coaches, administrators, and instructors of pre-service teachers. As a former coach and reading teacher who is back in the classroom, I find this book offers the insight and guidance that I need for my predominantly ELL 5th graders. Lesaux and Russ Harris present ways that teachers and school communities can re-think some of the ways we look at our English Learners as readers and move to a more holistic view of language learning and knowledge building. What is exciting about their approach is that they address a big gap in reading instruction that includes knowledge building and more academic language support in deep and thoughtful ways. They really open up a way of thinking about instruction that has been missing from a lot of professional conversations about closing the gap among different populations of students.In addition to providing a solid and very accessible way of bringing their research into classroom practice, this book is a practical workbook for implementing units of study to build academic content knowledge, word learning, comprehension and communication skills. Their suggestions are clear and easy to follow and would benefit many students, not just ELs. In my school, we are using this book in PLCs to help us rethink some of our RTI services, as well as tweaking general classroom practice to incorporate more academic content instruction.Teachers who struggle with ways to bring more content area instruction into their teaching will appreciate the way the authors break down the planning of unit cycles to make things manageable and actually do-able! I am excited by the work that is happening in my school as a result of this book and I think it will appeal to a wide audience. This book is a welcome addition to my professional reading collection.