Maneka Deanna Brooks

Notes and Talk: An Examination of a Long-Term English Learner Reading-to-Learn in a High School Biology Classroom.

Abstract Long-term English learners (LTELs) are frequently characterized as struggling with academic reading in English. This paper moves beyond broad generalizations about this populations English-reading practices to a situated analysis of one ‘LTEL’ – Lizbeth Sanchezs – making meaning in her sophomore biology classroom. This analysis of Lizbeths reading practices reveals that she successfully navigates the primary reading practices through which she was expected to acquire new disciplinary knowledge. Although the examined reading practices were fundamental to academic success in her biology classroom, they are distinct from those predominantly portrayed as academic reading on standardized tests and in the research literature. Nevertheless, these findings provide an important counter-narrative about a population that is frequently represented as lacking both academic and linguistic ability. In addition, they illustrate the significance of how academic reading is conceptualized for recognizing and building upon the abilities of ‘struggling readers.’

Future Perfect?: Teachers' Expectations and Explanations of Their Latino Immigrant Students' Postsecondary Futures.

ABSTRACT Teacher expectancy research has demonstrated the greatest effects for members of racialized groups. Most research has focused on students’ near-term abilities; missing are understandings of how teachers perceive their students’ future trajectories. Drawing on social mirroring and attribution theories, this study investigates how 14 elementary, middle, and high school teachers of Latino immigrant students described and explained their students’ post-high school futures. Most teachers described their students as non-college-bound, with employment likely in the service sector. They attributed their students’ futures to family related explanations more often than to structural factors. The study’s implications emphasize the need to develop deeper understanding of structural inequalities that mediate students’ trajectories including schooling factors.

She Doesn't Have the Basic Understanding of a Language: Using Spelling Research to Challenge Deficit Conceptualizations of Adolescent Bilinguals.

This article examines the alternative English spelling practices of a student who is considered to be a long-term English learner. It draws on a theoretical framework that integrates a social perspective on spelling with a rejection of idealized conceptions of bilingualism. The analyzed English spellings presented in this article were identified in eight texts that the focal student composed during her English language arts class. Notably, this examination was contextualized within the focal student’s linguistic and schooling history. The resulting findings document that the focal student was a simultaneous bilingual who had a troubled history with formal schooling—the place where many young people learn spelling conventions. The predominant practice that characterized her alternative spellings was her use of conventional English sound-to-letter relationships to create a written echo of the speech patterns of her home, school, and community. When her alternative spelling did not reflect these Englishes, they typically illustrated her familiarity with the normative spelling of particular words. Yet the practices that characterized her spelling meant that they strayed from accepted conventions (e.g., transposition/omission/insertion of letters). The focal student’s alternative spelling practices illustrated her familiarity with the English writing system and the depth of her knowledge of multiple Englishes.

Struggling Readers? Using Theory to Complicate Understandings of What It Means to Be Literate in School

Theories guide many aspects of literacy research. In this article we describe four theoretical approaches that we have used in qualitative research with students who are perceived to struggle with reading in school, including: New Literacy Studies, Disability Studies in Education, Bioecological Systems Theory, and Cultural Historical Activity Theory. We provide a brief overview of each of the theories and then explain how we have used them to gain insights about students with whom we have worked in the context of our research. Although grounded in distinct perspectives, we argue that each of the theories are lenses through which we were better able to understand the complexities of students’ struggles with reading. We further argue that the theories are united in their ability to broaden the perspectives of researchers and teachers to better account for the social, cultural, and institutional factors that shape literacy teaching and learning in schools. We conclude by questioning the use of the term “struggling reader” and highlighting the implications of our individual theoretical frames and analyses for both research and practice.