Beneath the Surface provides both a framework and specific pedagogical strategies for working effectively with students learning English. Ken Pransky asks teachers to take an honest look at who they are, what they know and believe, and what they do in their classrooms. The result is to encourage teachers to be genuinely empathetic andin the endexactly the kind of teachers we need for the twenty-first century. Sonia Nieto Author of Affirming Diversity, Fifth Edition You have culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in your classroom. Some or all are underachieving. Youre told you should teach differently, test more. You should make a stubborn achievement gap go away. But you just cant seem to make it work. With Beneath the Surface, youll learn how to help CLD students think and learn in more school-matched waysby first learning to think differently yourself. In Beneath the Surface. Ken Pransky combines important research with more than thirty years of experience to create a framework for thinking and strategies for practice that will help you:
learn who your CLD students are on their terms understand the process of learning in a deeper way, so that your teaching becomes more effective
explicitly support CLD students acquisition of school-matched English
identify and teach underachieving CLD students the secret skills that are essential for academic successand that are part of the upbringing of children from the literacy culture
help underachieving CLD students succeed in math as well as reading.
With Beneath the Surface you can begin closing the achievement gap. Youll see classroom learning in a whole new light, and find effective ways to act on your observations to the benefit of all your students. Youll help CLD students build the foundation of confidence, skill, and belonging that every student needs for independent achievement in school. Every student in your diverse classroom wants toand canlearn. Discover ways to help make it happen by looking Beneath the Surface.
