Katharine Davies Samway - Supporting Newcomer Students: Advocacy and Instruction for English Learners

This is an outstanding book. It provides essential information about newcomers, their backgrounds, their needs, and their strengths; and it includes a step-by-step guide for supporting these youngsters in the classroom in todays uncertain world. Examples of how to teach both language and content are detailed, time-tested, accessible, and anchored in the wisdom of practice. It is a must-read for teacher educators, practicing teachers, and all future teachers.

Guadalupe Valds, Ph.D., Bonnie Katz Tenenbaum Professor of Education, Stanford University

In Supporting Newcomer Students the authors provide readers with a wealth of important and practical information using specific examples to show how to work successfully, meaningfully, and equitably with students of different language and cultural backgrounds in a variety of classroom settings. Chapters contrast common myths and realities about teaching newcomers and include multiple resources for teachers as they identify, assess, welcome, and teach language and content to their students and, at the same time, implement strategies to effectively advocate for them.

David and Yvonne Freeman, authors and Professors Emeriti, The University of Texas Ro Grande Valley

This book offers a wealth of instructional practices designed to support newcomer students, but it does so much more than that. As readers, we gain a deeper understanding of who these children are, the social, emotional, and economic supports they and their families need, and the rich diversity they bring to our classrooms. The authors cultivate within us the moral obligation to be these childrens advocates as well as their teachers.

Dr. Elizabeth Jaeger, Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies, University of Arizona

This book is a much-needed resource that speaks holistically to the needs of newcomer students. Grounded in the most current research, the authors write for both the teacher practitioner, providing concrete and actionable guidance on responsive instructional practice, and for the teacher advocate, with useful information and tools to promote the educational and immigration rights of students and families. Supporting Newcomer Students will undoubtedly become one of OUSDs core professional texts.

Nicole Knight, Executive Director of the Office for English Language Learner and Multilingual Achievement, Oakland Unified School District

NORTON BOOKS IN EDUCATION

SUPPORTING
NEWCOMER
STUDENTS

ADVOCACY
AND INSTRUCTION FOR
ENGLISH LEARNERS

Katharine Davies Samway,
Lucinda Pease-Alvarez,
and Laura Alvarez

A Norton Professional Book

Note to Readers: This work is intended as a general information resource for teachers and school administrators who work with students who are newcomers to the United States and their caregivers. Although the authors have extensive experience in the subject matter, neither they nor the publisher can guarantee that any educational approach, strategy or technique that this book describes or proposes will work with every individual student, parent or caregiver. None of the authors is a lawyer, and nothing contained in this book should be construed as legal advice. For advice about how to handle particular problems and situations that involve or implicate education, immigration or healthcare law, or for any other legal advice or legal questions, please consult an attorney with relevant expertise.

Names and potentially identifying characteristics of individual students and educators other than the authors have been changed. Any URLs displayed in this book link or refer to websites that existed as of press time. The publisher is not responsible for, and should not be deemed to endorse or recommend, any website other than its own or any content, including any app, that it did not create. The authors, also, are not responsible for any third-party material.

Copyright 2020 by Katharine Davies Samway, Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, and Laura Alvarez

All rights reserved

First Edition

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact W. W. Norton Special Sales at specialsales@wwnorton.com or 800-233-4830

Cover art: (school children) monkeybusinessimages / iStock Photo; (blue and gold background) andipantz / iStock Photo; (world map) Tasiania / iStock Photo

Production manager: Katelyn MacKenzie

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

ISBN: 978-0-393-71406-7 (pbk.)

ISBN: 978-0-393-71407-4 (ebk.)

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., 15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS

To immigrant children
and their families

Norton Professional Books with fill-in sections, after title page/frontispiece: This e-book contains some places that ask the reader to fill in questions or comments. Please keep pen and paper handy as you read this e-book so that you can complete the exercises within.

CONTENTS

We would like to thank the many K8 newcomer students and families in New York and California with whom we have worked. We have been inspired by and learned from their experiences, thoughtfulness, and resilience.

We are very grateful for the multiple opportunities we have had to work with many teachers, teacher educators, and researchers who so thoughtfully support newcomer and English learner students, in particular Beatriz Alvarez, Pilar Alvarez, Angela Barra, Jill Berg-Peterson, Hilda Bucio, George Bunch, Blanca Campillo, Sarah Capitelli, Kathy Davis, Concha Delgado-Gaitn, Carole Edelsky, Megan Hatschek, Rosemary Henze, Sarah Hudelson, Libby James-Pasby, Linda Kateeb, Jennifer Klem-Myers, Nora Lang, Teri Marchese, Andrea Maoki, Sydney Morgan, Betty Olson-Jones, Farima Pour-Khorshid, Pam Randall, Rachel Rothman, Luz Salazar-Jed, Sandra Schecter, Barbara Schmidt, Choji Schroeder, Judy Scott, Kyle Smith, Lydia Stack, Annie Swanlaw, Dorothy Taylor, Carole Urza, Guadalupe Valds, Lucia Villareal, Ada Walqui, Gail Whang, and Carrie Wilson. Thank you!

Many thanks to Antonio Alvarez, Jennifer Theakstone, and Joaqun Pellegrin-Alvarez for their help with photos and other images for the book.

In addition, we appreciate the support of the Norton staff, in particular Carol Collins, Mariah Eppes, and Jamie Vincent.

Finally, many thanks to our family members, Antonio, Brian-Martin, Joaqun, Marisol, Nathan, Patrick, Pilar, Tom, and Toms, who have supported us in our work over many years with immigrant children and their families.

OVER THE COURSE OF our combined careers, we have spent several decades as teachers, teacher educators, and researchers working to understand and enhance the educational opportunities of immigrant children and their families. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have engaged in this work as it has enabled us to gain important insights into the lives of a population that has made many important contributions to U.S. society. Immigrants have fueled our economy through their employment, spending, and tax contributions, and enriched our society as they have shared their cultures, values, and experiences. As people who have immigrated to the U.S. and/or are embedded in networks of friendships and family relations that include immigrants, we are grateful for the contributions immigrants have made to our personal wellbeing, understandings of the world, and decisions about what matters in our lives.