Originally published in 1996. During the author's decade of critical ethnography in Carpinteria, California, she has illuminated the intricate relationships between Latino families as together they build a sociopolitical community to bridge family and school alliances. How they extend their learning from the social networks to the family arena and to the personal, and in reverse, represents their protean responses to the diversity and adversity in their lives. This life-story captures the collective and individual texts of the Latino children, their parents and educators used to empower themselves to transform discontinuity in an age where continuity is increasingly foreign.

Fifteen years ago, Concha Delgado-Gaitan began literacy research in Carpinteria, California. At that time, Mexican immigrants who labored in nurseries, factories, and housekeeping, had almost no voice in how their children were educated. Committed to participative research, Delgado-Gaitan collaborated with the community to connect family, school, and community. Regular community gatherings gave birth to the Comité de Padres Latinos. Refusing the role of the victim, the Comité paticipants organized to reach out to everyone in the community, not just other Latino families. Bound by their language, cultural history, hard work, respect, pain, and hope, they created possibilities that supported the learning of Latino students, who until then had too often dropped out or shown scant interest in school. In a society that accentuates individualism and independence, these men and women look to their community for leadership, support, and resources for children. The Power of Community is a critical work that shows how communities that pull together and offer caring ears, eyes, and hands, can ensure that their children thrive—academically, socially, and personally. It offers a fresh approach and workable solution to the problems that face schools today.

This book contains hundreds of accessible, teacher-written learning center activities. The GIANT Encyclopedia of Learning Center Activities is the eighth book in Gryphon House's GIANT Encyclopedia series. The learning centers in this book can either be permanent year-long centers or set up and removed according to the season or children's interests and needs. Through play, young children learn to communicate, interact, and expand their cognitive thinking horizons. The GIANT Encyclopedia of Learning Center Activities provides the resources to make play meaningful and educational for young children. This book offers: Over 600 activities and 47 learning centers, including familiar, permanent centers, such as Art or Blocks, and new and exciting centers, such as Farm, Space, Safari, Shoe Store, and Ice Cream Shop. Opportunities in each center for children to work at their own developmental level. Materials lists for each activity, step-by-step instructions, and related books, songs, and poems. Fresh new ideas from teachers who have used these activities in their own classrooms!

This book examines the linkage between literacy and linguistic diversity, embedding them in their social and cultural contexts. It illustrates that a more complete understanding of literacy among diverse populations and in multicultural societies requires attention to issues of literacy per se as well as to improving an educational process that has relevance beyond members of majority cultures and linguistic groups. The focus of the book is on the social and cultural contexts in which literacy develops and is enacted, with an emphasis on the North American situation. Educators and researchers are discovering that cognitive approaches, while very valuable, are insufficient by themselves to answer important questions about literacy in heterogeneous societies. By considering the implications of family, school, culture, society, and nation for literary processes, the book answers the following questions. In a multi-ethnic context, what does it mean to be literate? What are the processes involved in becoming and being literate in a second language? In what ways is literacy in a second language similar and in what ways is it different from mother-tongue literacy? What factors must be understood to better describe and facilitate literacy acquisition among members of ethnic and linguistic minorities? What are some current approaches that are being used to accomplish this? These are vital questions for researchers and educators in a world that has a large number of immigrants, a variety of multi-ethnic and multi-lingual societies, and an increasing degree of multinational activity. Beyond addressing applied concerns, attending to these questions can provide new insights into basic aspects of literacy.

New in paper! Geared towards the development and support of an existing library collection and to the creation of a new library serving Spanish-speaking young readers, this reference includes 1055 books in print that deserve to be read by Spanish-speaking children and young adults (or those wishing to learn Spanish). Schon's selection criteria include quality of art and writing, presentation, and appeal to the intended audience.

A little red-haired girl curls up by her grandmother to hear how, long ago, another little girl and her brother crossed the Atlantic and came to America.

Handbook to brining books together with children in grades K-8.