Articles About Early Childhood and Bilingual Education

Hickory, Dickory, Dock…Critical Thinking and an Old Clock – Cultivating Thought with a Timeless Children’s Story

Juanita C. García, Ph.D., shows how adults can share the process of thinking with children in playful and meaningful ways that support their critical thought development and facilitate their making sense of the world around them. (January 2009)

Study Shows that Model Learning Community Bears Fruit for Young Children

Felix Montes, Ph.D., increased support for education at the preschool level can make a huge difference for low-income and minority students. He describes how IDRA’s early work to develop classrooms of excellence. (September 2006)

Literature in Early Childhood

José L. Rodríguez describes how to use literature and storytelling to activate prior knowledge and stimulate curiosity and ultimately help students begin to think critically. (February 2003)

The Joy of Preschool Reading

Bradley Scott, Ph.D., presents ways of activating students’ prior knowledge and raising their curiosity by building exciting, excellent classrooms that promote literacy. (March 2004)

Incorporating Intangible Cultural Heritage into Curriculum

Rosana G. Rodríguez, Ph.D., and Juanita C. García, Ph.D., give suggestions for educators and school personnel to consider in building culturally relevant curriculum. (November-December 2010)

Recalibrating Readiness and Instruction Based on Strengths of English Learners – Implications for Early Childhood Education Research and Practice

Much of the current research on early education of poor and minority children – although well intentioned – is biased and focused on family and children’s deficits and maladaptations as the causes for the lack of academic readiness and underperformance of a significant number of children in this country. Abelardo Villarreal, Ph.D., emphasizes the need to redefine readiness to integrate the strengths bilingual children bring to the classroom, and detail the need to adjust instruction to enhance their academic engagement and performance. (April 2015)

An Elementary School’s STEM Success Story – IDRA Technical Assistance Empowers Teachers with Strategies to Impact Student Learning

IDRA’s South Central Collaborative for Equity has partnered with Gus Guerra Elementary to engage in changing the campus culture to one that is child-centered, college going and highly engaged with parents and community. The major goals are to increase the school’s effectiveness in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and to increase academic language by particularly integrating the linguistic demands of the STEM areas into the curriculum. Nilka Avilés, Ed.D., and Juanita C. García, Ph.D., describe how the campus is succeeding in preparing primary grade students for upper elementary grades, middle school, high school and college. (September 2014)

Two-Way Dual Language Immersion Programs

For English learners to have an equitable education, programs must be in place that value languages other than English as means for learning the academic concepts required of successful students. Kristin Grayson, M.Ed., outlines how a two-way dual language immersion program can help make this a reality for English learners. (April 2012)