Mobilizing community resources for literacy development

Though the 10- week reading program followed a consistent structure, the teachers evolved the design of the DLB experience in their classrooms based on observations, interaction with students, reflection and discussion relative to how the DLB tool supported curricular goals and the literacy experience and needs of their middle years students. [...] The project also helped to demonstrate how authentic integration can occur between English language learners and mainstream learning and language awareness was also developed through the readings and the conversations in which the students engaged with the guest readers and the teachers. [...] Through questioning, gestures, and feedback, teachers and readers were able to enhance student comprehension of the text, animate the reading and underscore the important elements of the book. [...] It is to this end that the research team at the University of Calgary has been involved in a research program that investigates the efficacy of using DLBs to support the literacy achievement of minority and mainstream students at the middle school level. [...] For example in each of the four classrooms there was at least one family in which Tagalog is spoken in the home, at least one family in which Spanish is spoken in the home, and in three of the four classes there was at least one family in which Urdu is spoken in the home.