Community as Curriculum297Although it is spring, snow blanketsthe schoolyard. Eight-year-oldAshish and his parents, dressed inlayers and shivering from the cold,are not used to this climate, havingarrived in Canada three weeks ear-lier from India. Bypassing theschoolyard, they enter ThornwoodPublic School and report directly tothe main office where Lynda Sliz,one of Thornwood’s English as aSecond Language teachers, isexpecting them. Indeed, she hasarranged for an Urdu interpreter toassist with the reception process.Ms. Sliz greets the family warmly.She escorts them to the librarian’soffice where they are able to talkquietly. There she initiates a discus-sion on school policies, routines,and expectations—traversing arange of subjects including thegrade-level curriculum,Thornwood’s safe arrival program,home–school book protocols, andappropriate clothing for gym.Through the interpreter, Ashish’sparents are encouraged to ask ques-tions regarding the new school sys-tem so that they can better supporttheir child at Thornwood. They arealso encouraged to raise anyconcerns they may have. Ashish isfree to listen and join in the discus-sion, to read a dual-language bookin Urdu, or to draw. Throughout theCommunity as CurriculumJim Cummins, Patricia Chow, Sandra R. SchecterEducators work together to develop activities that explicitlybuild on the resources and abilities that children bring to school.LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 297Copyright © 2006 by the National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.interview, Ms. Sliz addresses Ashishon matters about which he mayhave useful first-hand information.Because the lines of communicationbetween this newcomer family andthe school have been opened, andbecause from the outset the schoolhas proved responsive to theirneeds, Ashish and his parents willlikely feel comfortable in approach-ing Thornwood staff, including Ms.Sliz, with future concerns. Through-out the year, Thornwood willcontinue to communicate with thefamily, using excerpts from theschool’s Newcomers’ Guide toElementary Schools, available inUrdu as well as many otherlanguages. In addition, inThornwood classes, multilingual,multicultural, and multiperspectiveliterature is used to promote a senseof belonging and an understandingand appreciation for people who aredifferent from ourselves and tobroaden teachers’ and students’views of the world. By givingstudents opportunities to read,write, and speak in their firstlanguage, teachers allownon–native-English-speakingstudents such as Ashish to feel suc-cessful at a time of transition andrelocation when they mightotherwise feel inadequate orfrustrated by their inability toexpress their needs, thoughts, andemotions in English.Thornwood teachers did not alwaysunderstand language to be at thecenter of their focus on issues ofinclusion and equity in the waythey do today. This article describesactivities pursued at Thornwood inthe context of a project that soughtto develop a school climate inwhich the multilingual andmulticultural talents and abilitiesthat children brought to schoolwere explicitly built on and valued.We describe these activities by inte-grating two perspectives: (a) theperspective of a grade one teacher,Patricia Chow, who, together withher colleagues, initiated and imple-mented a variety of projects aimedat enriching students’ literacy expe-riences and forging stronger home–school connections, and (b) theperspective of two university-basedresearchers, Jim Cummins andSandra Schecter, who bothsupported and critically reflected on these activities in light of theirbroader implications forunderstanding children’s literacydevelopment and for developingschool-based language policies.We begin by situating our approachto school-based language policywithin a language-as-resource ori-entation to language planning. Wecontinue by reviewing the relevantresearch evidence on bilingualism.Then we highlight some innovativeapproaches developed by practition-ers in one local, particularizedschool setting, elaborating on theimmigrant, urban context thatinformed these innovations. Finally,we outline a framework for predict-ing the adequacy of educationalprovision for linguistically and cul-turally diverse students.ORIENTATIONS TOLANGUAGEPLANNINGRichard Ruiz (1988) has introduced a useful distinction between threeorientations to language planning: (a) language-as-problem, (b) language-as-right, and (c) language-as-resource. The language-as-problemorientation focuses on the resolutionof societal problems associated withlanguage learning or linguistic diver-sity. Provision of ESL programs forstudents who need support inEnglish-language learning is oneexample of this orientation.The language-as-right orientation isillustrated in the minority languagerights guaranteed to Canada’sofficial language minorities by theCanadian Charter of Rights andFreedoms. However, these legalrights are enshrined only for specificgroups in a particular context. Incases where no legal rights areenshrined with respect to language,we are left with the difficultquestion about the ethical rights thatchildren have to maintain anddevelop their home languages. In thepast, many educators activelydiscouraged children and parentsfrom using their home language forcommunication in the home (mostbrutally in the case of First Nationsstudents). To reverse this patterninvolves challenging assimilationistattitudes and practices that havelong been tacitly supported by thesocietal power structure. The realitythat, until recently, issues related toindividual and societal bilingualismand language maintenance rarelycrossed the threshold of teacher edu-cation programs is an illustration ofthis tacit support.Ruiz suggested that while problemand rights orientations are valid andimportant, they are insufficient as abasis for language planning inlinguistically diverse societiesbecause hostility and divisivenessLanguage Arts, Vol. 83 No. 4, March 2006Community as Curriculum298Development of literacy in two or more languages (additive bilingualism) constitutes a positive force in children’s educational and personal development. LA_March2006.qxd 2/8/06 9:29 AM Page 298Community as Curriculum299are often inherent in them. He rec-ommended giving greater emphasisto a language-as-resourceorientation in which linguisticdiversity is seen as a societalresource that should be nurtured forthe benefit of all groups. Thelanguage-as-resource orientationappeals