This book, authored by K-4 elementary educators, working at a publicly funded non-profit charter school, illustrates the power of culturally responsive teaching and learning as it becomes embedded in the New York State Education Curriculum. Educators, families, and community members contributed to this unique program with the goal of enhancing learning environments by applying the languages and cultures of their students in their classrooms. Strong, carefully attentive, school leadership encouraged culturally responsive teaching and learning with the belief that children in this urban, economically stressed area could demonstrate significant academic and social/emotional gains. Readers of this book will witness culturally responsive lessons, family interviews, and whole school events that honor languages and cultures represented in the school. Sample classrooms' culturally responsive lessons tied to the curriculum, are presented. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative student academic and affective gains are analyzed. Moreover, this book clearly demonstrates the talents, vision, and compassionate care given to children and their families by exceptional educators. A CRTL Montage was created for this book. It includes classrooms, children, teachers, family, and community members. Teachers collected CRTL experiences and presented them to Producer, Dean Meghan Miller and Director, Designer, Dean Pamela Smith. They also received support for the montage from Instructor Allen Lauricella, and Graduate Assistant Elizabeth Kenny, Syracuse University, Newhouse School.

The perspective espoused by this volume is that collaboration among universities, schools, and communities is a crucial element in ensuring the provision of optimal learning environment for both im/migrant children and their parents. Chapter authors share their practice and theorizing regarding the many questions that arise when schools and universities collaborate with communities and build supportive structures to nurture literacy among im/migrant students. Enlightened teaching and culturally aware approaches from teachers engender support and cooperation from parents. Enlightened leadership is a constant thread through all the endeavors that are chronicled by contributors, as are the implications for socially just outcomes of successful implementation of inclusive pedagogies. Writing about the Children Crossing Borders study which began in 2003, Tobin (2019) asserted that "the social and political upheavals surrounding migration has (sic) put increasing pressure on the ECEC [early childhood education and care] sector to build bridges between the host and newly arrived communities" (p. 2). Tobin recalled that the original grant proposal for the Children Crossing Borders described young migrant children as "the true transnationals, shuttling back and forth daily between the cultures of their home and the ECEC [programs]" (p. 1)-programs staffed by well-intentioned individuals who nevertheless may "lack awareness of im/migrant parents' preferences for what will happen in their children's ECEC program" (p. 2). To extrapolate from Tobin's summary of the findings of Children Crossing Borders, for both the true transnationals (the children) and their parents, "the first and most profound engagement they have with the culture and language of their new host country" (p. 1) may well be mediated by a teacher who is unaware of the intricacies of the community.

This book presents different practices and strategies for the English as an additional language classroom as well as units that could be adapted to various grade levels, English language proficiency levels, and linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The research, lessons, and concepts included in the book present innovative ideas in EAL education. The chapters are the result of a professional learning program for 30 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers from Brazil, held at the University of Miami's School of Education and Human Development in the Spring semester of 2018. The program, entitled "Six-Week English Language Certificate Program for High School English Teachers from Brazil (PDPI)," contained several components related to language development and methodology, including orality, reading, writing, linguistic and grammatical knowledge, and interculturality. The program was guided by the principle of multiliteracies, with a focus on English language development through new possibilities to participate in meaning making that incorporates verbal, visual, body language, gestures, and audiovisual resources.