Twenty teachers across four Rhode Island districts are testing ways to incorporate students' home languages into English-speaking classrooms through a University of Rhode Island study launched in September.
Project TRANSFORM involves Providence, Cranston, Cumberland and Woonsocket schools. It combines teacher training with a study of approaches intended to support multilingual students and strengthen relationships with their families, URI announced Oct. 27.
The approach is called translanguaging. In plain terms, teachers use students' home languages as resources for learning, according to the lab. Cassandra Santiago, a Ph.D. candidate working with participating teachers, described using bilingual read-alouds with books reflecting students' cultures when she taught first grade.
URI researchers Nicole King and Laura Hamman-Ortiz lead the project through the university's Translanguaging Lab. The Spencer Foundation funds the year-long study, which began in cooperation with the Rhode Island Department of Education.
In the spring, the first participating teachers are expected to begin coaching colleagues in their districts, according to the university's announcement.
The project is in its first year, and the announcement reports no results on student achievement.
The researchers say the aim is to help students learn grade-level material and English while making space for the languages they already use at home.