The need for teachers who have both the knowledge and skills to teach students in special education, especially students who are emergent bilinguals, is more critical today than ever before. Assumptions about the assurances outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have led to practices that have limited the scope of opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. This book examines the intent of special education policy, challenges existing systems, and explores the promise of using biography-driven instruction to transform students' learning and enhance their personal growth and community life. With a focus on inclusive practices for working with CLD students with disabilities and their families, the book examines decision-making processes for placement, access, instruction, assessment, and evaluation. The authors show how inclusionary practices create contexts and conditions for teachers to foster their students' academic abilities through authentic carino and an ecology of care. Book Features: Elucidates the challenges faced by educators and support personnel as they navigate and prioritize the needs of CLD students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Reveals the outdated, politically driven, inequitable, and inconsequential educational opportunities often afforded to CLD students receiving special services. Provides a framework for creating learning opportunities grounded in the six principles of IDEA and the personal and academic biographies of learners and their families. Supports teachers and other staff to maximize four interrelated facets of the CLD student biography: sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic. Explores the multiple meanings of inclusion and academic engagement at the intersection of IDEA and biography-driven instruction.
Socorro G. Herrera is a professor of curriculum and instruction and executive director of the Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy (CIMA) at Kansas State University. Diane Rodriguez is a professor and associate dean in the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University. Robin M. Cabral is an educational consultant with a background in district-level administration, bilingual speech language pathology, special education, literacy, assessment, and intervention development. Melissa A. Holmes is associate director of CIMA.
Contents Foreword ?ix Acknowledgments ?xiii Introduction ?1 Part I. Historically Centering the Student Through IDEA 1. ?Searching for Coal in a Gold Mine: Overlooking the Multifaceted Assets of the Learner ?7 In Search of Answers ?7 Beyond a Deficit Perspective: Exploring Gaps in Systems ?9 The Foundation of an Asset-Driven Agenda ?10 Conclusion ?12 2. ?Setting the Stage for Cognitive and Socioemotional Resilience: Reflecting on the Intersection of Policy and Systems ?14 IDEA: With the Best of Intentions . . . Have We Arrived? ?14 Response to Intervention: Moving Beyond Reductionistic Exercises ?19 Biography: Noticing and Documenting Learner Potential ?22 Conclusion ?23 Part II. Applying Biography-Driven Practices in Inclusive Classrooms 3. ?A Biography-Driven Individualized Educational Plan ?27 Moving Beyond Good Intentions Toward Documentable Impact ?28 Redefining Possibilities Through Equitable Instructional Delivery ?33 Creating Conditions and Situations for CLD Learners to Thrive ?34 "My Teacher Made Me Smart" ?40 Teachers Who See, Teachers Who Know: Observation, Facilitation, and Affirmation ?41 Building Blocks: Equity and Authentic Carino ?42 Conclusion ?43 4. ?Enriching Opportunities to Learn Through Collaborative Interaction ?44 From "Me" to "We": Community Processes and Shared Products ?45 Maximizing Joint Productive Activity to Respond to the Whole Child ?46 Fostering Joint Productive Activity Through i+TpsI ?52 Using BDI Strategies to Guide Interactional Processes ?53 Conclusion ?57 5. ?Creating Contexts and Conditions for an Inclusive Community Through Classroom Talk ?58 Catalyzing Learning Through Community: Caring and Learning in Action ?59 Beginning With Biographies: Equity Begins With "i" ?60 Situationally Speaking: The Ebb and Flow of Reciprocal Talk ?63 Collaboration: Affirmation as Equity ?66 Agency "I": Context, Conditions, and Situations ?67 Conclusion ?68 Part III. Reimagining Equity for All Learners 6. ?Real-Life Language Development: A Bridge for Inclusive Classrooms ?71 BDI as Treatment Context ?72 Conclusion ?83 7. ?The Power of BDI for Students With Low-Incidence Disabilities ?85 What's in the Label: Categorizing the Contradictions ?85 Social Model of Disability, UDL, and BDI ?89 Conclusion ?90 8. ?Reframing Our Thoughts and Actions Through an Exceptional BDI Foundation: A Call to Action ?93 With Dr. Natasha Reyes and Dr. Leonard Steen ? Exploring Perspectives of Referring Teachers ?95 Examining Practices and Perspectives of Child Study Teams ?96 The Elephant in the Process ?98 Conclusion ?105 Glossary ?109 Appendix A: Overview of Select BDI Strategies ?114 Appendix B: Template for Biography-Driven Goal Development Tool ?116 References ?117 Index ?124 About the Authors ?129
