Leveraging the “Learning Edge”

Through translanguaging pedagogy, the whole child is invited into engaging in literacies. While translanguaging is incorporated more frequently into day to day literacy instruction such as read alouds and writing, the area of assessment has been remained largely untouched by translanguaging pedagogy. In this essay, the critical connections between translanguaging, assessment, and teacher agency are explored. The transgressive elements of translanguaging pedagogy which are linked to equity are only possible if teachers take a critical and active stance—the learning edge. Teachers' knowledge of emergent bilinguals, reading, and translanguaging along with agency can pave the way for translanguaging in assessment. When teachers open up a space for translanguaging within reading assessment, they invite the entire child to demonstrate what they know. When assessments incorporate student translanguaging, an accurate view of emergent bilinguals' reading is possible because students can enable all of their language and social resources while reading.