Liberating Instruction: A Critical Bilingual Literacy Approach for Latinx Students

Abstract

This article reviews Dr. Carla España and Dr. Luz Yadira Herrera’s En Comunidad: Lessons for Centering the Voices of Experiences of Bilingual Latinx Students. Though a critical bilingual literacies approach, the language practices, experiences and cultural histories of Latinx students are centered for literacy instruction in grades 3-8. Before instruction begins, the authors support educational practitioners in creating equitable educational and language stances that hold students’ language practices in a strength perspective. Each chapter that follows details and explains a thematic unit of student that guides educators in creating lessons based on students’ experiences and are summarized within this review. Supports for incorporating translanguaging pedagogies are also provided. Guiding questions, bilingual texts, and alternative themes are included to fit the language model of any program serving multilingual Latinx learners. Suggestions for extending these units of study and practices into secondary classrooms and for other language and racial ethnic groups are also discussed.