Word Work through a CSP/DSP Lens
Amy Tondreau, Laurie Rabinowitz · 2024
This chapter focuses on how to conceptualize word work instruction using a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP)/Disability Sustaining Pedagogy (DSP) lens. To provide readers with the tools to critically analyze word work instruction making it more identity-driven, the authors provide definitions of common word work terminology and examples of effective word work instructional structures. The authors emphasize that word work should be taught in small, data-informed groups that change flexibly depending on the content being taught, the methods being used, and the linguistic identities of students. The chapter then draws attention to multilingualism and bi-dialecticism in the teaching of decoding and encoding. The Teacher Voice in the chapter describes word work instruction in a bilingual setting, highlighting how CSP/DSP can be applied to sustaining a student&s;s linguistic identity while also giving him/her/them the tools to decode and encode White Mainstream English. Following this example is a brief exploration of contemporary research on approaches to word work. The chapter concludes by promoting a dynamic and responsive “researcher stance” for teachers, disrupting the neutrality of more traditional approaches to word work.