Meg Gebhard is Professor of Applied Linguistics and co-director of the Secondary English Education Program at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.

• FiguresTablesAcknowledgements1 Teaching and researching ELLs’ disciplinary literacy development in hard times: A critical perspectiveRationale: The making of a "perfect storm"My literacy biography: Learning (and not learning) to become a critical reader, writer, and thinkerA critical approach to understanding language, learning, and social change in U.S. public schoolsOverview of chaptersPraxis2 Celine’s questions: Race, immigration, and literacy development in schoolsCeline’s literacy practices: A case studyCrossing linguistic, cultural, and institutional boundaries in schoolsText/context dynamicsCeline’s educational backgroundMr. Banks’ feedbackRethinking the word "grammar" from an SFL perspectiveSummaryPraxis3 Skinner, Chomsky, and Halliday: Shifting conceptions of grammar and language learningSkinner: A behavioral perspectiveChomsky: A psycholinguistic perspectiveHalliday: A social semiotic perspectiveSummary and critique of different perspectives of grammar and approaches to language teaching and learning in schoolsPraxis4 Genres, registers, and the teaching and learning cycleText/context dynamics: Analyzing email requests sent to a professorSFL, genres, and registersSFL in action: The teaching and learning cycle in K-12 schoolsThe teaching and learning cycle and Martin’s genre theorySFL, genre theory, and the TLC in the context of U.S. school reformsACCELA’s approach to the TLCSummaryPraxis5 Registers: Critically analyzing field, tenor, and mode choicesField: Constructing content, ideas, and experiencesTenor: Constructing voice, social roles, and power dynamicsMode: Managing the flow of information SummaryPraxis6 Policies and practices to support ELLs’ disciplinary literacy development: A civil rights perspectiveTwenty-first century demographic changes in U.S. public schoolsStudents’ civil rights and approaches to language educationK-12 ESL program typesThe WIDA ConsortiumSummaryPraxis7 Shifting conceptions of equity: Standardization, accountability, and privatization in school reformNo Child Left Behind (NCLB)English-only policies and anti-bilingual education ideologiesCommon Core State Standards (CCSS) and the disciplinary literacy development of all studentsStandardization and accountability in teacher evaluationSummaryPraxis8 Placing the education of ELLs in a historic, economic, and political contextThe growth of the modern school system: Two faces of the Progressive EraThe schooling of immigrants in the 20th century The schooling of immigrants in the 21st centurySummaryPraxis9 Putting it all together: SFL in ActionText/context dynamics in U.S. public schools: A review of key conceptsTeaching and researching ELLs' disciplinary literacy development at Milltown HighImplications for classroom practice and researchSummaryPraxis

"This book is a highly significant contribution to second language research, showing a deep respect for the needs and interests of multilingual learners, their teachers and language researchers. Informed by a critical perspective on systemic functional linguistics, Gebhard provides readers with a highly accessible and graduated introduction to SFL-informed literacy instruction and critical discourse analysis. What makes the work unique is its use of highly contextualized examples of teacher and student textual practices across the curriculum; and also its widening circles of recommended practice across the chapters that move into consideration of the institutional and societal discourses that inform the teaching/learning culture in our public schools."— Ruth Harman, University of Georgia, USA "Meg Gebhard does a brilliant job of translating long histories of complex theories into digestible chunks to expand understandings about how language works, and how we can best support its development in school settings. Theoretical and practical aspects are closely entwined, and the information is incrementally layered for a final result that is both enlightening and easy to read. Each chapter ends with a praxis section that nicely supports practitioners into application. Through the theory, the praxis, and the technicalities of language – as well as the personal details in the case studies – Gebhard keeps this text deeply human, illuminating, and easy to connect to." — Fernanda Kray, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education