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Amid the COVID‐19 pandemic, students, families, and educators have faced unprecedented challenges. These challenges have disproportionately impacted racially/ethnically diverse, low‐income communities because of long‐standing health system, socioeconomic, and educational inequities. With closures of schools, libraries, and childcare centers, many students were disconnected from their community and did not have access to books. Parents' and educators' concerns centered around students falling behind academically and socially. In this article, we explain the motivation and rationale for a social justice initiative to provide students of color from low‐poverty areas with access to high‐quality multicultural children's literature at home. We describe our literacy partnership with a local after‐school program serving participant students and families, research underpinning the initiative, and our process for selecting high‐quality multicultural literature book sets and offer suggestions about how to facilitate comprehension and motivational support for home‐based reading. We also offer a list of recommended literature and discuss outcomes and implications of this project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little research on effective educational experiences for deaf and hard‐of‐hearing (d/hh) children in Jamaica. Using a formative and design experiment framework, in this project we explored the potential efficacy of an intensive literacy camp that provided professional development for d/hh adults working in classrooms with d/hh children, and provided literacy instruction for elementary‐age campers. We found that the children improved in all tested areas, and observations of d/hh adults provided evidence that with minimal training they were able to implement important facets of literacy instruction with the campers. Further research on these types of experiences and their potential for lasting impact after the camp is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authors featured in this department share anthropological perspectives and qualitative insights to redefine community in adolescent and adult literacy practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the course of a year, student authors in the Juntos NC Writing Project participated in the Literary and Community Initiative to write, publish, and share their lived experiences and identities as Latinx immigrants and first‐generation high school students in North Carolina. Throughout the publication process of their collaborative bilingual book titled The Voices of Our People: Nuestras Verdades, student authors actively engaged in pursuing advocacy and activism in three ways: (1) community space as an intentional space for advocacy, (2) writing as a vehicle for collective advocacy, and (3) publishing and sharing as an opportunity for youth activism. The participants' words and actions demonstrated how youth in community organizations can use literacy practices to collectively advocate for their community and become activists who write about and vocalize immigrant youth's strengths and needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parenting while transitioning out of incarceration, homelessness, or drug addiction has received inadequate attention despite the fact that these factors affect more and more of the U.S. population each day. This article is about a family literacy program implemented in a residential treatment facility where the fathers, most of whom were previously incarcerated and now receiving treatment for substance use disorder, have been parenting from afar with limited access to their children. Fathers participated in a family literacy program where they respond to children's literature with the intention of eventually reading with their children. Our research was guided by the following question: How do fathers who are separated from their children while in a residential treatment program, read and respond to children's literature in a small‐group setting? Findings reflect how fathers wanted to share their feelings about parenting and also consider their identities as fathers who were also addicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces parents' roles in the community Korean–English bilingual family literacy program named Family Storytime. It was offered at the Korean church for 30 minutes during lunch time on Sundays over 3 months. The Korean parents played two major roles: facilitators and participants. As facilitators, the parents advertised the literacy program to other Korean families, set up the room, managed children's behaviors, and assisted bookplay activities. The Korean parents were active participants who responded to the book, interacted with children, and gave positive feedback to children. The parents' heritage–language skills and funds of knowledge were valuable resources at the Family Storytime sessions. This study offers an example for how bilingual parents can be involved in family literacy in schools and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people in literacy classes sometimes think their teachers are not listening to them. The practitioners featured in this column listen to questions posed by their students and respond to them, with the goal of enhancing English language arts instruction for a range of young people and educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authors featured in this department share anthropological perspectives and qualitative insights to redefine community in adolescent and adult literacy practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authors and columns in this department explicitly focus on adult literacy, addressing issues of research, policy, and practice relevant to a wide range of adult learners in different contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching is a profession that requires ongoing professional development and learning. This ongoing learning can take place in professional learning communities, in structured professional development settings, and in literacy coaching contexts. This department highlights the ongoing professional development of literacy teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research that explored relations among information-processing skills as assessed by the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies and self-reported political efficacy for adults in the U.S. Topics covered include integration of experiential civic literacy learning and related informational text in adult education, service-learning standards for quality practice, and the College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.

The author encourages educators to ground disciplinary literacy instruction in the study of social issues that matter to the livelihoods of their students. Topics discussed include nature and location of knowledge, a case for civically engaged disciplinary literacy education, and the role of complex connected knowledge in solving social injustice.

Underresourced communities often have limited access to print and materials to promote children's early literacy development. Recognizing that the neighborhood is a unit of social change, organizations that engage families in early reading and learning with their children, therefore, have increasingly become part of the community landscape. Recently, efforts to promote early literacy have found families in a less conventional place: the local laundromat. The authors report on a study of six laundromats in low‐income communities, three of which were transformed to include literacy‐related play centers and three of which remained business as usual. Results indicated dramatic increases in literacy‐related activity among young children as compared with control sites, demonstrating the potential of these sites to enhance children's opportunity to learn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this qualitative case study, the authors explored the responses of seven Mexican American mothers during a bilingual (Spanish–English) parent book club with a chapter book from their children's elementary school literacy curriculum. The authors sought to better understand the findings of a previous study in which parents expressed new learning during comprehension‐related activities. Specifically, the authors examined how these women came to better understand their identities as literate individuals capable of assisting peers and their children's literacy learning. Analysis of interviews and book club session transcripts, written and artistic artifacts, and researcher reflective journal entries revealed that during reflective dialogue, participants assumed all of Brooks and Browne's (2012) homeplace reader positions (ethnic group, community, family, and peers) and the additional positions of empowerment and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examined how middle and high school students participating in a literacy‐and‐songwriting initiative in Detroit, Michigan, experienced moments of possibility that supported the youth in envisioning themselves as college bound. The authors explain how they drew from culturally relevant and sustaining educational approaches to design literacy instruction for youth of color that built from students' interests as strengths, challenging educational disparities related to college readiness and access. The authors describe three workshops that they facilitated with youth participants, examine and share examples of multimodal artifacts generated by youth participants during the workshops, and provide recommendations for adolescent and adult literacy educators seeking to enact similar approaches for supporting students' college readiness in their own work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The International Literacy Association is a global advocacy organization, and literacy is viewed as a human right worldwide. This department highlights research and research‐to‐practice at the international level to bring global best teaching practices to the forefront. Topics may include best practices for literacy instruction in Europe or other continents/countries, partnership and collaborative projects between international schools/teachers, and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the authors use Bourdieu's conceptualization of capital and data from two longitudinal case studies to explore how financial challenges impacted learning opportunities for two children in a high‐poverty urban community. Interview data collected from two African American families over a 10‐year period were analyzed with attention to the role of economic academic capital (resources and experiences that require financial investment and translate to school success) in children's school trajectories. Findings revealed that the families' homes, schools, and community lacked economic academic capital and that this dearth had dire consequences for the children's academic careers. However, the families could access other forms of capital, namely, embodied academic capital and social academic capital. These findings point to the important role that teachers can play when they act as advocates for students from low‐income backgrounds and their parents when they encounter educational and economic barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A university's literacy festival can promote reading and foster the idea that books make a difference, especially to undersupported students from Title I schools. A literacy festival featuring a variety of diverse authors presenting hands‐on workshops showcasing their literary craft can enable students from Title I schools to engage with the authors and can motivate students from diverse backgrounds to develop an excitement for reading. It can also motivate teachers and librarians to use literature that reflects their population to engage students in reading and can transform teacher candidates' understanding of students from diverse backgrounds. The authors describe how a university College of Education's literacy festival was implemented and explore how it provided an opportunity for children in low‐socioeconomic‐status communities to be exposed to books and authors of quality children's literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This department column explores digital and disciplinary literacies across learning contexts and disciplines within and outside of school. Digital enhancements will encourage readers to post questions, comments, and connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Most people have struggled with reading in one situation or another, depending on their appreciation for the content, their prior experiences, and the texts. This department column shares ways for educators to help literacy learners unlock their potential with instruction anchored in their skills, knowledge, ways of learning, interests, and attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Framing ethnography as a form of democratic inquiry, this study examines how the author worked with a group of Mexican and Vietnamese American adolescents to learn and apply ethnographic tools to interrogate language and literacy ideologies in their school and community. Examination of the students’ findings reveals circulating ideologies and narratives of English monolingualism in schools, as well as their own complex literacy repertoires that worked against Standard English deficit models. This study demonstrates the democratic potential of welcoming diverse students into their own ethnographic research for literacy learning. The study equally provides insights for teachers and researchers into the mundane ways that literacy and language ideologies are produced schools and how students work to resist these through their own practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is far more to the digital divide than meets the eye. In this article, the authors consolidate existing research on the digital divide to offer some tangible ways for educators to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots, or the cans and cannots. Drawing on Aldous Huxley's notion of a 'brave new world,' some digital divide approaches and frameworks require debunking and are strongly associated with first-world nations that fail to account for the differential access to technologies that people who live in poverty have. Taking a closer look at current realities, the authors send out a call to teachers, administrators, and researchers to think more seriously and consequentially about the effect the widespread adoption of technologies has had on younger generations and the role of the digital on knowledge creation and on imagined futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents data from a collection of yearlong case studies on resident multilingual writers' college admissions essays. The focal student in this piece revealed the challenges that such writers face in presenting themselves to college admissions officers. Exploring these cultural and linguistic conflicts, this analysis uses Goffman's performance theories, which argue that writers (re)construct identities in response to changing social cues. Literacy educators, researchers, and policymakers can use these insights to help resident multilingual writers balance the demands of academic audiences with their preferred forms of representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research which evaluated the clinical field experience of preservice teachers (PST) on achieving partnership literacies. Topics explored include the collaboration between PST and school-based educators on teaching writing, the opportunities offered by local schools which allowed PST to gain additional teaching skills, and the relevance of writing instruction to students acknowledged by PST.

Current standards and assessments emphasize the importance of a variety of genres in students' literacy diets, which has placed increased attention on informational texts. Unfortunately, young students' current exposure to and experiences with informational texts are often limited by the texts' availability, quality, and relevance to children's lives. One way to address these issues of access and relevance is to create and use informational texts in more authentic, culturally sustaining, and productive ways. This article draws on a research study to outline suggestions for making and using culturally sustaining informational texts with young students. In this research, culturally sustaining informational texts of two genres (procedural and informative/explanatory) were developed, read, and written with standard 2 (second year of formal schooling) students in Botswana. Students who used these texts in reading and writing lessons showed increases in abilities to read and write both genres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students learn best when their out-of-school literacy experiences are incorporated into daily classroom instruction. Teachers who participate in community-based initiatives, develop relationships and acquire knowledge and skills needed for this type of instructional practice. They get to know students, families, and community cultural brokers who can share experiential knowledge that influences literacy teaching and learning. When teachers become a part of the community, they are also able to prepare students to successfully negotiate cultural borders, improve academically, and serve their own communities. This commentary is a call to action for teachers to understand the benefits of community-based initiatives and become active participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most people have struggled with reading in one situation or another, depending on their appreciation for the content, their prior experiences, and the texts. This department column shares ways for educators to help literacy learners unlock their potential with instruction anchored in their skills, knowledge, ways of learning, interests, and attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]