Imagine a middle school Reading and Language Arts classroom where newcomer emergent bilingual students (NEBS) are actively engaged, using technology to explore diverse literary worlds that reflect not only their own experiences and cultures, but also the the new world they’re navigating in the United States. They collaborate on interactive …
The Technology-Enhanced Project-Based Learning for Newcomer Emergent Bilingual (EB) Students innovation plan was conceived in 2022 when my business partner and I noticed a critical shortcoming in the education of EB students in our school district. Specifically, EB students were using the same computer-based Reading/English Language Arts curriculum that general education students were using, but the EB students had not yet acquired enough English to successfully work in the platform. Additionally, the program did not offer adequate linguistic accommodations for newcomer EB students. Therefore, we offered to use resources we created when we previously worked as Reading teachers to build a Reading/Language Arts curriculum specifically designed with EB students’ unique needs in mind. Although this was outside of our regular job duties and an immense balancing act, we were compelled to take action because we wanted to ensure the newcomers were given a better chance at success in middle school with content and activities that is linguistically accessible and authentically engaging. We also believe that language should not be a barrier to education.
