This article argues that provisional language is important for creating a dialogic space between speakers, where ideas are open for discussion; where participants respect each other's viewpoints; and where the goal is to encourage and explore multiple perspectives. Whilst much of the research on children's talk in the classroom focuses on the…

Dialogic educators have designed strategies to facilitate dialogic teaching, such as establishing ground rules, employing talk moves, and structuring discussions. Though productive, such strategies rarely open dialogic space, in which shared meaning is created through an interaction that blurs the boundaries between participating voices. Dialogic…

Recess is an important and unique component of the school day, and yet there is a relative paucity of research on its impact on young children. Moreover, recesses are often perceived negatively by educators because they can detract from academic instructional time and, depending on the kind of play and interactions between students, may also be…

In this article, we demonstrate how playful learning serves to provide optimal learning opportunities through teacher-guided play. First, we describe the theoretical design principles that can be leveraged to support mathematical learning for students that have been underserved. Then, we provide concrete examples of evidence-based games that can…

This article examines the ways in which racist structures negatively affect students' social and emotional development and how social-emotional learning (SEL) may be a useful tool to push against racist structures to develop students socially and emotionally. We propose an ecological framework to examine how micro-, meso-, and macro-level…

The use of reward systems is common in education, particularly at the primary school level. Indeed, there are very few classes in primary schools in which such systems are not implemented. Token economy are used to encourage students to adopt appropriate target social and academic behaviors. However, consensus on their effectiveness is lacking. It…

In this article I introduce a framework that centers indigenous educational sovereignty in university-school partnerships. Developed from collaborative work with Indigenous Maya families who are migrants from Yucatan, Mexico, the framework operates from an understanding that Indigenous parents have knowledge that is important for their children to…

There is widespread consensus that parental involvement in their children's education contributes to the children's success at school. However, it is also recognized that non-dominant populations, particularly immigrant families, face language and cultural barriers, racism, poverty, and other obstacles to navigating school practices that many…

In this essay I view writing as a communicative practice, and ask how and in what ways teachers and students define the role of writing in relation to digital video composition. While there is much research on the importance of multimodal composition, and teachers are being encouraged to incorporate more digital making into their curricula, we…

Drawing from data generated in a third-grade classroom in the months following the 2016 US presidential election, this article zooms in on self-produced videos a child made of her writing process. Organized around 3 "takes" of the child's writing, the author provides readers a glimpse into (1) the child's composing in the videos, (2) a…

This article uses a lens of procedural literacies to theorize youth practices of digital game-playing, modification, and creation as digital writing. The concept of procedurality describes the ways that videogames and other digital media are composed of systems of processes--computational or otherwise, which define these artifacts in form,…

Humanizing family engagement practices seek to foster the community cultural wealth and funds of knowledge to working with and for immigrant families and communities. In this manuscript we explore asset-based theories for working alongside families and communities in our schools, with a focus on classroom examples for involving parents and…

The purpose of this article is to share specific methods employed to support preservice teachers as they engage in culturally sustaining nonfiction writing instruction with elementary children in an embedded methods course. First, we explore theories of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies. Next, we define culturally sustaining writing…

This article addresses the importance of supporting specific language practices of emergent bilingual students in classroom settings that are tied to the development of disciplinary knowledge. The author focuses on explanatory talk support in teaching by contingent responding and encouraging children to make meaning of mathematics concepts and…

In this article, we show how close attention to language throughout a socio-scientific investigation supports upper elementary Arabic-speaking students to learn English while participating in valued disciplinary practices in science. Engagement in reading and writing with a focus on language also enables them to bring critical perspectives to the…