Teaching Young Learners in a Superdiverse World

This book documents a collaborative action research project in one school where researchers and practitioners worked together to develop multimodal literacies and pedagogies for diverse, multilingual elementary classrooms. Following chronologically from Lotherington's Pedagogy of Multiliteracies (2011), this volume picks up after teachers and researchers have learned how to work efficiently as a learning community to offer project-based learning approaches. This edited collection relates how teachers and students of different grade levels, language backgrounds, and abilities developed a shared agenda and created a framework for effective and inclusive practices. Contributors demonstrate that collaboration, creative pedagogical solutions and innovative project-based learning are all essential parts of learning and teaching socially appropriate and responsive literacies in a multimodal, superdiverse world.

Heather Lotherington is Professor of Multilingual Education at York University, Canada. Cheryl Paige is an education consultant and former principal of Joyce Public School, Canada.

Foreword Jim Cummins Introduction Heather Lotherington & Cheryl Paige Part I Contextualizing our learning community 1. Creating a culture of success at Joyce Public School Cheryl Paige 2. We speak your language Heather Lotherington & Farah Rahemtula 3. Learning as play Stephanie Fisher, Jennifer Jenson, Heather Lotherington, Stephanie Florence, & Chris Lee Part II Multimodal project-based learning for superdiverse learners 4. Designing collaborative learning spaces Rhea Perreira-Foyle & Heather Lotherington 5. Using disciplined improvisational learning to include students with challenges Stephanie Fisher & Brian Chandrapal 6. What if it flops? Learning as doing Laura Mae Lindo & Cheryl Paige 7. Welcoming parents into children's learning Cheryl Paige, Michelle Holland-Spencer, Lesley Wilton & Deborah Surtees 8. Global social justice perspectives in the superdiverse classroom: Focus on the refugee My-Linh Hang-Coleman, Buu Hang, Rhea Perreira-Foyle & Andrew Schmitt Part III Learning in the globally shifting educational landscape 9. Sharing authority for learning Heather Lotherington & Sandra Chow 10. 21st century learning as discovery Cheryl Paige & Heather Lotherington Conclusion