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Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators
From math,
literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling,
and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts
on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.
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Breaking Down the Wall
![Breaking Down the Wall - Book Cover](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/books/book-262951-v262951-139259-u63842868840000000.jpg?sfvrsn=db41dae5_0)
- Grade Level: PreK-12
- ISBN: 9781544342610
- Published By: Corwin
- Year: 2019
- Page Count: 240
- Publication date: October 08, 2019
Price: $34.95
For Instructors
When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.
Description
It was a dark and stormy night in Santa Barbara. January 19, 2017. The next day’s inauguration drumroll played on the evening news. Huddled around a table were nine Corwin authors and their publisher, who together have devoted their careers to equity in education. They couldn’t change the weather, they couldn’t heal a fractured country, but they did have the power to put their collective wisdom about EL education upon the page to ensure our multilingual learners reach their highest potential.
Proudly, we introduce you now to the fruit of that effort: Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners’ Success.
In this first-of-a-kind collaboration, teachers and leaders, whether in small towns or large urban centers, finally have both the research and the practical strategies to take those first steps toward excellence in educating our culturally and linguistically diverse children. It’s a book to be celebrated because it means we can throw away the dark glasses of deficit-based approaches and see children who come to school speaking a different home language for what they really are: learners with tremendous assets.
The authors’ contributions are arranged in nine chapters that become nine tenets for teachers and administrators to use as calls to actions in their own efforts to realize our English learners’ potential:
1. From Deficit-Based to Asset-Based
2. From Compliance to Excellence
3. From Watering Down to Challenging
4. From Isolation to Collaboration
5. From Silence to Conversation
6. From Language to Language, Literacy, and Content
7. From Assessment of Learning to Assessment for and as Learning
8. From Monolingualism to Multilingualism
9. From Nobody Cares to Everyone/Every Community Cares
Author(s)
![Margarita Espino Calderón photo](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/authors/contributor-524985-v524985-524985-u6385320000.jpg?sfvrsn=6179a5a_0)
Margarita Espino Calderón
One of her empirical studies “The Bilingual Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (BCIRC)” is featured in the What Works Clearinghouse. The Carnegie Corporation of New York funded her five-year study to develop Expediting Comprehension for English Language Learners (ExC-ELL) to train math, science, social studies, language arts, and ESL teachers on integrating language, reading, and content in core content middle and high school classrooms. With a Title III National Professional Development grant, she implemented “A Whole-School Approach to Professional Development with ExC-ELL” in Loudoun County, VA. She replicated this approach in 29 schools in TX and NC. She served on the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth, the Carnegie Corporation of New York Panel on English Language Adolescent Literacy Panel, among other panels and national committees. She has over 100 publications on language, literacy, and professional development.
![Maria G. Dove photo](https://us.corwin.com/Content/Img/no-image-available.png)
Maria G. Dove
![Diane Staehr Fenner photo](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/authors/contributor-678314-v678314-678314-u6384286860.jpg?sfvrsn=fc4ce515_0)
Diane Staehr Fenner
and her MAT in TESOL at the School for International Training. You can connect with her by email at Diane@SupportEd.com or on Twitter at @DStaehrFenner.
![Margo Gottlieb photo](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/authors/contributor-529311-v529311-529311-u6385137744.jpg?sfvrsn=dcb4a80b_0)
Margo Gottlieb
Margo Gottlieb, Ph.D., is a staunch advocate for multilingual learners and their teachers. As co-founder and lead developer of WIDA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2003, Margo has helped design and contributed to all the editions of WIDA’s English and Spanish language development standards frameworks and their derivative products. Being a bilingual teacher, facilitator, consultant, and mentor across K-20 settings, she has worked with universities, organizations, governments, states, school districts, networks, and schools in co-constructing linguistic and culturally sustainable curriculum and reconceptualizing classroom assessment policy and practice.
Margo’s passion has always been assessment in its many forms, starting with her dissertation, a K-12 multilingual test in Spanish, Lao, and English that integrated content and language. Since then, she was appointed to national and state advisory boards, served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar, and was honored by the TESOL International Association in 2016 for her significant contribution to the field. In her travels, Margo has enjoyed keynoting and presenting across the United States and in 25 countries. Having authored, co-authored, or co-edited over 100 publications, including 20 books and guides, Margo's 3rd edition of her best-selling book, Assessing Multilingual Learners: Bridges to Empowerment, is the latest addition to her Corwin compendium.
![Andrea Honigsfeld photo](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/authors/contributor-645426-v645426-645426-u6385137744.jpg?sfvrsn=e5a964bc_0)
Andrea Honigsfeld
Andrea Honigsfeld, EdD, is Professor in the School of Education at Molloy University, Rockville Centre, New York. Before entering the field of teacher education, she was an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher in Hungary (Grades 5–8 and adult) and an English-as-a-second-language teacher in New York City (Grades K–3 and adult). She also taught Hungarian at New York University. She was the recipient of a doctoral fellowship at St. John’s University, New York, where she conducted research on individualized instruction and learning styles. She has published extensively on working with English language learners and providing individualized instruction based on learning style preferences. She received a Fulbright Award to lecture in Iceland in the fall of 2002. In the past twelve years, she has been presenting at conferences across the United States, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates.
She coauthored Differentiated Instruction for At-Risk Students (2009) and co-edited the five-volume Breaking the Mold of Education series (2010–2013), published by Rowman and Littlefield. She is also the co-author of Core Instructional Routines: Go-To Structures for Effective Literacy Teaching, K–5 and 6–12 (2014), published by Heinemann. With Maria Dove, she co-edited Coteaching and Other Collaborative Practices in the EFL/ESL Classroom: Rationale, Research, Reflections, and Recommendations (2012) and co-authored Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners (2010), Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Grades K–5: English Language Arts Strategies (2013), Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Grades 6–12: English Language Arts Strategies (2013), Beyond Core Expectations: A Schoolwide Framework for Serving the Not-So-Common Learner (2014), Collaboration and Co-Teaching: A Leader’s Guide (2015), Coteaching for English Learners: A Guide to Collaborative Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection (2018), Collaborating for English Learners: A Foundational Guide to Integrated Practices (2019), Co-Planning: 5 Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners (2022). She is a contributing author of Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learner Success (2020), From Equity Insights to Action (2021), and Digital-Age Teaching for English Learners (2022). Nine of her Corwin books are bestsellers.
![Tonya Ward Singer photo](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/authors/contributor-685697-v685697-685697-u6384286884.jpg?sfvrsn=99088af0_0)
Tonya Ward Singer
Tonya Ward Singer is the founder of Courageous Literacy LLC, an organization that helps K-12 educators advance literacy and language learning in culturally and linguistically rich schools. Teachers and administrators describe Tonya’s work as groundbreaking, dynamic, practical, relevant, and impactful.
Tonya is the author of bestsellers EL Excellence Every Day and Opening Doors to Equity. She co-authored Breaking Down the Wall and literacy curricula for international publishers. Tonya has taught across multiple grade levels and excels as an international consultant helping schools build collective efficacy of all teachers through job-embedded, impactful professional learning.
Beyond her work in schools, Tonya co-facilitates dialogues in non-profit organizations committed to truth seeking and transforming legacies of racial oppression.
Contact Tonya at: @TonyaWardSinger
![Shawn Slakk photo](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/authors/contributor-739381-v739381-739381-u6384286884.jpg?sfvrsn=249fbfe8_0)
Shawn Slakk
Shawn Slakk is the CEO and Founder of ABCDSS Consulting Consortium and works with teachers, administrators, school & state agencies to offer strategies and supports for emergent bilinguals and their classmates both K-12 and adults. He is co-author and developer of new professional development sessions for all levels of educators, focusing on whole-school implementation, administrative support and coaching. As a former Certified WIDA Trainer and Title III SIOP Coach, Shawn brings a wide understanding of a variety of strategies and how they relate to ELs, language acquisition and lesson delivery.
He served as the Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners (RETELL) Coordinator for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education where he and his team were responsible for developing, implementing, training trainers and evaluating a Sheltered English Instruction endorsement course for administrators and classroom teachers. The RETELL endorsement is required in Massachusetts to obtain or retain an educator license with more than 40,000 teachers and administrators earning this endorsement. Throughout his career, Shawn taught ESL in grades K-University, Spanish across all grade levels and curriculums, and even once taught Japanese to K-2 students. He has served as an elementary and middle school administrator, served at the Central Office level as a district coach and as a state level coordinator. He started his teaching career teaching Adult ESL at Spokane Community College in Washington state.
Shawn’s curriculum and instruction doctorate from the University of Virginia will focus on supporting the needs and instruction of additional-language learners and teachers in reading and writing. He holds an MA in TESOL from Eastern Washington University, a Master of School Administration from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a bachelor’s in English and Spanish education from Whitworth University.
![Ivannia Soto photo](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/authors/contributor-634609-v634609-634609-u6384286848.jpg?sfvrsn=63d22f27_0)
Ivannia Soto
Soto has authored and coauthored 12 books, including The Literacy Gaps: Bridge-Building Strategies for English Language Learners and Standard English Learners; ELL Shadowing as a Catalyst for Change, a best seller that was recognized by Education Trust–West as a promising practice for ELLs in 2018; Moving From Spoken to Written Language With ELLs; the Academic English Mastery four-book series; the Common Core Companion four-book series for English language development; Breaking Down the Wall; and Responsive Schooling for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Together, the books tell a story of how to equitably engage and include multilingual learners by ensuring that they gain voice and an academic identity in the classroom setting. Soto is executive director of the Institute for Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Teaching (ICLRT) at Whittier College, whose mission it is to promote relevant research and develop academic resources for ELLs and Standard English learners (SELs) via linguistically and culturally responsive teaching practices/
![Debbie Zacarian photo](https://corwinpress.azureedge.net/sp-corwinpress-prod/images/default-source/authors/contributor-654019-v654019-654019-u6384286842.jpg?sfvrsn=6b8c6bff_0)
Debbie Zacarian
Dr. Debbie Zacarian, founder of Zacarian & Associates, provides professional development, strategic planning, and technical assistance for K-16 educators of culturally and linguistically diverse populations. She has served as an expert consultant for school districts, universities, associations, and organizations including the Massachusetts Parent Information Resource Center and Federation for Children with Special Needs.
Debbie has worked with numerous state and local education agencies and written the language assistance programming policies for many rural, suburban, and urban districts. Debbie served on the faculty of University of Massachusetts-Amherst where she co-wrote and was the co-principal investigator of a National Professional Development grant initiative supporting the professional preparation of educators of multilingual learners. Debbie also designed and taught courses for pre- and in-service administrators and teachers on culturally responsive teaching and supervision practices, multilingual development, and ethnographic research. In addition, she served as a program director at the Collaborative for Educational Services where she provided professional development for thousands of educators of multilingual students and partnered with Fitchburg State University in co-writing and enacting a National Professional Development initiative that supported STEM education. Debbie also directed the Amherst Public Schools bilingual and English learner programming where she and the district received state and national honors.
The author of more than 100 publications, her most recent professional books include: Beyond Crises: Overcoming Linguistic and Cultural Inequities in Communities. Schools and Classrooms; Responsive Schooling for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students; Teaching to Empower: taking action to foster student agency, self-confidence, and collaboration; and Teaching to Strengths: Supporting Students living with Trauma, Violence and Chronic Stress.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Dan Alpert
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Together . . .
A Note About Our Terminology
Chapter 1. Debbie Zacarian and Diane Staehr Fenner: From Deficit-Based to Assets-Based
Chapter 2. Shawn Slakk and Margarita Espino Calderón: From Compliance to Excellence
Chapter 3. Tonya Ward Singer and Diane Staehr Fenner: From Watering Down to Challenging
Chapter 4. Maria G. Dove and Andrea Honigsfeld: From Isolation to Collaboration
Chapter 5. Ivannia Soto and Tonya Ward Singer: From Silence to Conversation
Chapter 6. Margarita Espino Calderón and Shawn Slakk: From Language to Language, Literacy, and Content
Chapter 7. Margo Gottlieb and Andrea Honigsfeld: From Assessment of Learning to Assessment for and as Learning
Chapter 8. Ivannia Soto and Margo Gottlieb: From Monolingualism to Multilingualism
Chapter 9. Debbie Zacarian and Maria G. Dove: From Nobody Cares to Everyone/Every Community Cares
Index
For Instructors
When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.
Related Professional Learning
Related Webinars- Breaking Down the "Digital" Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners' Success in Any Learning Setting
- Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners' Success
Related Resources
- Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.