Social:
Author: Diane Zimmerman
School/Organization:
Francis Hopkinson K-8 School
Year: 2025
Seminar: Diverse Children's Literature: Literary Art, Cultural Artifact and Contested Terrain
Grade Level: 6-8
Keywords: Bilingual classroom strategies, Bilingual education, Bilingual picture books, children’s literature, cultural identity, culturally responsive teaching, Dual language learners, Emotional literacy, ESOL lesson plans, Family recipes Food stories, Inclusive literacy instruction for ELLs., Latinx children's books, multilingual learners, Newcomer students, social-emotional learning, storytelling, translanguaging
School Subject(s): ESOL
In this Unit, I used bilingual texts, excerpts, and food or other “How to” writings in an inclusive and authentic way. Incorporating Children’s literature and various teaching modalities. This unit had four primary goals: developing early literacy skills for World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment (WIDA) level one English language learners (ELLs) and newcomers focusing on improving the four domains of language acquisition; Reading, writing, listening and speaking. Striving for this, all the while, incorporating the street smarts of critical thinking and emotional understanding. Through diverse narratives, building vocabulary, and cultivating an appreciation of cultural diversity within an English- learning, Spanish-speaking population.
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How do I create an authentic learning environment for English Language Learners (ELLs)? How can I implement a teaching approach that accounts for the complex interplay of educational, cultural, emotional, and social factors—rather than reducing students to a single story? I love teaching ELLs, and I am constantly looking to grow in my use of authentic children’s literature and bilingual activities as meaningful teaching and learning tools. I am committed to contributing to positive change and academic achievement, and I continue to welcome the opportunity and the challenge of working as an English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) teacher for the School District of Philadelphia. My love of language and culture, coupled with formal ESOL studies and years of experience working with elementary, middle, and high school students, has shaped my practice and deeply informed my participation in this semester’s Teachers Institute of Philadelphia (TIP) seminar with Dr. Wanda Brooks: Diverse Children’s Literature: Literary Art, Cultural Artifact, and Contested Terrain. Throughout the seminar, I was especially moved by the work of Timothy J. Patterson and Jay M. Shuttleworth (2019), whose article in Social Studies and the Young Learner offers a framework for understanding how students make meaning from both narrative and illustration. Their work invites educators to ask not just what we are teaching, but how students are likely to interpret the material we present: “concerned with the meanings that students are likely to infer from narratives and illustrations…” (Patterson & Shuttleworth, 2019, p. 15). Looking closely at text through this lens has helped me reflect on the implicit messages our curriculum sends—and how to make space for more culturally conscious and inclusive narratives in my classroom. Working with students continues to be a source of inspiration. I am excited to implement this unit in my classroom as a way to honor and uplift my students’ bilingual abilities—particularly in Spanish—and to provide a platform for their stories, ideas, and personal knowledge through books, recipes, and other “how-to” narratives based on their cultural experiences and interests. Children’s literature is a powerful tool. It offers a unique combination of education, entertainment, emotional connection, and identity affirmation. As an ESOL teacher at Francis Hopkinson School, a Title I K–8 school in the Juniata Park neighborhood of North Philadelphia, I teach in a space shaped by both structural challenges and immense student resilience. One ongoing question I ask myself is: Where do students see themselves? Where can they hear each other? How do we support them in navigating and honoring both their home language and English? By integrating high-quality children’s literature, I aim to build meaningful foundations for literacy, critical thinking, emotional expression, and social interaction. This curriculum is designed to bring literature to life in my classroom, focusing on all four language domains—reading, writing, listening, and speaking—while remaining aligned with both WIDA and Pennsylvania Core Curriculum standards. Centering this curriculum around diverse children’s literature enables me to foster a classroom culture that values multilingualism, emotional intelligence, and reflective thinking. My hope is that this approach will have a lasting impact on my students’ academic growth as well as their confidence and identity development. At the end of the unit, I plan to gather student feedback and reflect on their responses to the activities. This feedback will guide the continued evolution of the curriculum, ensuring that it remains responsive to the students’ lived experiences, linguistic strengths, and voices. My primary goal is to support English Language Learners (ELLs) in developing their literacy skills across all four language domains: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. To do this, I use rich, engaging children’s literature that invites students into meaningful dialogue and creative expression. One key objective of my curriculum is to foster critical thinking, empathy, and self-awareness by inviting students to explore characters’ experiences, emotions, and challenges. Literature becomes a mirror for personal reflection and a window into different lives. As part of building cultural awareness, I am intentional about selecting texts that introduce students to a variety of cultures, traditions, and perspectives—broadening their global understanding and appreciation for diversity. Equally important in my classroom is emotional literacy. I strive to help my students recognize, name, and process their own emotions while developing empathy toward the emotions and stories of others. We do this through structured discussions, journaling, and group activities grounded in literature and shared storytelling. The structure of the curriculum is organized around a thematic unit that integrates diverse children’s books, bilingual poems, and student-centered recipes. Each week, I plan lessons that blend literacy development with cultural inquiry and emotional exploration. All units are designed to integrate reading, writing, listening, and speaking in ways that support both language acquisition and identity affirmation. Through this approach, I aim to create a classroom environment where students not only develop their English proficiency but also see their voices, cultures, and experiences honored and reflected in the curriculum.Curriculum Objectives and Possible Structure
In planning this unit, I prioritize differentiated instruction to meet the diverse needs of English Language Learners (ELLs). I aim to incorporate deep dives into sentence structure and word meaning, supported by visuals like images, diagrams, and charts to introduce new vocabulary and concepts. Graphic organizers will help students visualize relationships between ideas and aid comprehension. Read-alouds and audio materials—such as podcasts, music, and oral storytelling—will enhance listening comprehension. I frequently pair these activities with collaborative strategies like think-pair-share to give students the opportunity to reflect and process language in an interactive setting. One of the most engaging components of this unit is the hands-on recipe project, which invites students to use procedural language in meaningful, personal contexts. I plan to establish learning stations that students can rotate through at their own pace. These stations will target various modalities—reading, writing, listening—and accommodate different interests and learning styles. This structure will give students agency while reinforcing content in multiple formats. Supporting and celebrating students’ heritage languages is central to my teaching. I make it a priority to integrate my students’ home languages into the curriculum whenever possible. This includes encouraging students to share stories, phrases, and family traditions from their cultural backgrounds. I believe that honoring their linguistic identities fosters pride and enhances learning. When students can make connections between their first language and English, they develop a stronger grasp of both. I also strive to create a language-rich classroom environment. My classroom will include bilingual posters, diverse book displays, and visible resources in both English and my students’ heritage languages. Students are encouraged to express themselves in whichever language they feel most comfortable, especially during brainstorming and collaborative work. I will incorporate translanguaging practices—such as dual-language storytelling and bilingual group projects—to support content comprehension and validate students’ full linguistic repertoires. By combining collaborative learning and differentiated instruction, I hope to cultivate a dynamic and inclusive classroom where language acquisition is both rigorous and joyful. These strategies not only support ELLs’ development across the four language domains but also promote a classroom culture that values identity, creativity, and multiple ways of knowing. Ultimately, this approach strengthens the entire learning community, creating a space where all students can thrive.
Where Stories Become Language and Language Becomes Belonging When I think about my students—seated at their clustered desks, laughing softly in Spanish before morning announcements—I think about how much bravery it takes to show up every day and try again in a language that still feels foreign. So, I design our learning moments like bridges. Each activity is a crossing, inviting students from where they are into something new, without asking them to leave themselves behind. This unit is rooted in storytelling, food, and emotional connection. And in keeping with what I learned through Dr. Brooks’ seminar, I’ve structured the learning into narrative-rich, culturally affirming activities that invite my students not just to learn English, but to live in it—through their own stories, their own rhythms, their own heritage. Introduction to Children’s Literature: Finding Our Stories Focus: Story elements, visual literacy, genre exploration, building schema Narrative Purpose: This first activity is an invitation—to step into stories that reflect our lives, our families, our emotions. We explore characters, settings, and plots, but we also ask: Whose stories are told? Who is missing? Where do we see ourselves? We begin with picture books and short bilingual texts. I introduce the idea of books as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors (Bishop, 1990)—a core concept from the seminar that now shapes every title I choose. Students share a favorite book from home or childhood if they can. We celebrate that stories live in every language. WEEK 1: Names, Identity, and Personal Stories Day 1: Exploring Names and Identity Day 2: Character Connection – Maria Isabel’s Conflict Day 3: Solution and Self-Advocacy Day 4: Names Across Cultures Day 5: Culminating Activity – “My Name” Poems
Ada, A. F. (1993). Me llamo María Isabel. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. Ada, A. F., & Thompson, K. D. (1993). My name is María Isabel. Aladdin Paperbacks. Ada, A. F., Zubizarreta, R. (Trans.), & Garza, F. (Illus.). (1999). The lizard and the sun = La lagartija y el sol. Dragonfly Books. Bishop, R. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 6(3). Blum, I. (2021). Don’t be scared! = ¡No tengas miedo!: A dual language book. PlanetOh Concepts Verlag. Boatright, M. D. (2010). Graphic journeys: Graphic novels’ representations of immigrant experiences. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(6), 468–476. https://doi.org/10.1598/JAAL.53.6.3 Connors, S. P. (2015). Expanding students’ analytical frameworks through the study of graphic novels. Journal of Children’s Literature, 41(1), 32–40. Cook, D. F. (2019). Cooking class global feast: 44 recipes that celebrate the world’s cultures. Storey Publishing. Dahl, R. (1988). Matilda. Puffin Books. Dean, J. (2019). Dominican Republic: All around the world. Pogo Books. Dever, M. T., Sorenson, B., & Brodrick, J. (2005). Using picture books as a vehicle to teach young children about social justice. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 18(1), 18–21. Flores, A. (Ed.). (1987). Spanish stories: A dual-language book. Dover Publications. Fox, M., & Staub, L. (Illus.). (1999). Whoever you are. Scholastic Inc. Gonzalez, M. (Ed.). (2020). The golden age of Latin American poetry (J. Smith, Trans.). Penguin Books. Greco, G. (2023). Spanish and English short stories for fun and easy language learning: The dual-language storybook. GO Publishing. Jiménez, F., & Silva, S. (Illus.). (2015). La mariposa. Chronicle Books. Lauture, D., & Ruffins, R. (Illus.). (1996). Running the road to ABC. Scholastic Inc. Méndez, Y. S., & Kim, J. (Illus.). (2019). Where are you from? HarperCollins. Muñoz, I. (2005). Es mío = It’s mine. Scholastic Inc. Norman, L., & Palacios, S. (Illus.). (2023). Plátanos go with everything. HarperCollins. Patterson, T. J., & Shuttleworth, J. M. (2020). Teaching hard history through children’s literature about enslavement. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 32(3), 14–19. Reyes, R. (2020). The song of the soul. In M. Gonzalez (Ed.), The golden age of Latin American poetry (J. Smith, Trans., pp. 150–155). Penguin Books. Resnick, S. (Ed. & Trans.). (1996). Spanish-American poetry: A dual-language anthology. Dover Publications. Schlesinger, M., & Erdem, E. (2023, August). English learner (EL) home language and enrollment trends in the School District of Philadelphia: 2014–15 to 2022–23. School District of Philadelphia, Office of Research and Evaluation. https://www.philasd.org/research/ Witherspoon, J. (2012). English comes alive! Dynamic brain-building ways to teach ESL and EFL. Synapse Books. Wood, J. R. (2006). Living voices: Multicultural poetry in the middle school classroom. National Council of Teachers of English. Ada, A. F. (2002). I love Saturdays y domingos. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. de Anda, D. (2009). Let’s talk about your feelings / Hablemos de nuestros sentimientos. Parenting Press. Mora, P. (1996). Gracias / Thanks. Lee & Low Books. Tonatiuh, D. (2015). Funny bones: Posada and his Day of the Dead calaveras. Abrams Books. Ruurs, M. (2006). My librarian is a camel: How books are brought to children around the world. Boyds Mills Press. Alvarez, L. (2021). Where do you come from? Roaring Brook Press. Use bilingual stories and poems to model narrative structure. Incorporate vocabulary games and word exploration from texts. Support speaking through think-pair-share and read-aloud reflection. WIDA Can Do Descriptors (K–5) – Used to align lesson scaffolds to students’ language proficiency levels. Supports differentiation throughout the unit. Graphic Organizers – Including Venn diagrams, story maps, and sequencing charts. Integrated across Weeks 1–4 to help students organize thoughts visually. Bilingual Word Walls – Rotating thematic vocabulary in both English and Spanish, added weekly to support academic and social language. Chart paper and sentence strip pocket charts Markers, colored pencils, glue sticks, and visual labels Journals or writing booklets (for weekly reflections, recipes, and family stories) Multilingual labels for classroom materials to support print-rich environments Seesaw or Flipgrid (optional) – For recording bilingual oral responses and digital storytelling Google Slides – Used by the teacher to present mentor texts, vocabulary, and scaffolded examples Padlet (optional) – Used for community sharing of family food stories in Week 4Annotated List of Materials
Children’s Literature
A bilingual picture book celebrating family traditions and cultural identity across two languages. This book is used in Week 1 to support emotional literacy and cultural affirmation.
This bilingual book introduces feelings vocabulary with simple text and illustrations. It is used during Week 1 to build emotional literacy and oral language skills.
A poetic bilingual text that encourages children to express gratitude. It is used during Week 2 as a mentor text for language development and reflective writing.
A culturally rich book that introduces Mexican traditions and art. This book supports Week 3 discussions on cultural storytelling and artistic expression.
Used during Week 2 for community inquiry. This nonfiction text provides a global view of how communities value books and learning.
A lyrical exploration of identity and heritage, ideal for Week 2 activities on self-discovery and narrative writing.Multimedia and Visual Supports
Annotated list of Materials and Teacher Resources
Classroom Supplies
Digital Tools
PA Standards Alignment Grades 6-8 Unit Focus: Aligned Standards: Implementation Notes: Integrate culturally relevant prompts and text selections. Use dual-language recipes and ‘how-to’ texts to build sequencing and comprehension. Align rubric expectations with ELD level descriptors from PDE. WIDA ELD Standards Alignment Grades 6-8 Unit Focus: Aligned Standards: Implementation Notes: Scaffold story writing using sentence frames. Embed oral storytelling and heritage language in retelling activities. Pair texts with visual, auditory, and kinesthetic support (songs, charts, recipes). CCSS ELA Literacy Alignment Grades 6-8 Unit Focus: Aligned Standards: says explicitly.