"Translanguaging & Teaching: Opportunities for Teaching Candidates to Connect Theory to Practice"

Abstract: The presentation discusses a fieldwork assignment for teaching candidates to work with a bilingual child on a translanguaging strategy which they choose based on translanguaging theory and classroom observations of the child’s languaging practices. The use of translanguaging in the classroom is considered an equity-based pedagogical approach because it leverages the full linguistic repertoire of bilingual children in content-area teaching. Although teacher candidates learn about translanguaging theories in their teacher education programs, they do not necessarily always have opportunities to enact these practices during the fieldwork experiences they have during their first semesters in which they are expected to observe the teaching practices in a classroom. This presentation discusses the use of a fieldwork assignment in which incoming teaching candidates try out a targeted translanguaging strategy with a bilingual child which they choose based on what they have learned about this child's languaging practices through classroom observations and class discussions.