In this volume, Brisk, Burgos, and Hamerla offer educators of language-minority students assistance in addressing two perennial challenges: linking sociolinguistic theory and research to classroom practice and strengthening connections between home and school. Their offering comes as a collection of thoughtfully crafted, tested, and honed lesson plans through which teachers and students together study the linguistic, cultural, economic, political, and social factors that affect students and their learning in a bilingual and bicultural environment. They propose that close examination of the situational context of education in one's own community will benefit students, their families, and their teachers and, ultimately, promote learning.

Assuming learning by participants at multiple levels, the book is written for preservice and in-service teachers, and the lesson plans are designed for them to use with K–12 students in their own classrooms. An introductory chapter presents a model of the relationships among elements of situational context and describes the evolution and implementation of the approach covered in the book. Each of five subsequent chapters addresses one set of factors (linguistic, cultural, economic, political, or social) and includes three parts: Part 1 describes the real-life implementation of one lesson on that theme in Burgos' classroom, Part 2 describes theory and research on how those variables affect learning, and Part 3 offers detailed lesson plans for exploring those variables with a class. The plans specify objectives, rationale, time and materials required, and steps involved, and they include worksheets and evaluation rubrics. Especially useful throughout are the authors' recommendations of books for launching these activities with a variety of age groups as well as appendixes that include an annotated bibliography of relevant children and young adult literature and a concise description of some instructional approaches for introducing topics, organizing information, process writing, and working with older and younger students together.

Beginning with an exploration of linguistic situational factors in the second chapter, three lessons cover the nature and classification of languages (e.g., dialects vs. languages), differences in writing systems, and the social functions of language. In the corresponding lesson plans, students survey written and spoken language use in their school and community, journal their experiences with language learning, and chronicle their own language use throughout one day. In the chapter on economic context, students explore employment opportunities for bilingual and bicultural individuals, discover how these options might differ from those that were open to their parents and grandparents, examine changing patterns of immigration to the United States, and learn how these relate to attitudes toward particular groups of people. Lessons in the fourth and fifth chapters on cultural and political context expose students to the concept of culture, its complexity, and the issues that cultural and political differences can raise. The authors suggest tackling these challenging topics through activities using parent surveys, textbook reviews, graphic organizers, library and online research, and discussion of current events. Abstruse even to adults, some of these concepts might be only superficially comprehensible to many young students, as Burgos observed in her own class. However, the authors report that the activities and discussions provide valuable exposure through which students eventually see connections between their learning and the wider context.

Although touching upon a daunting array of complex topics, Brisk, Burgos, and Hamerla have kept a tight focus on application, refraining from extensive exposition of theory and research and keeping the book to a manageable length and appropriate depth. Intended for use in the context of graduate-level coursework, the book would complement well a more comprehensive exploration of theories and research on critical literacy, sociolinguistics, SLA, and bilingualism or biliteracy. In keeping with many current ideas about how to best serve language-minority students (e.g., González et al., 1995; Hornberger, 2003), the lessons frame students' first languages, home lives, and the sociolinguistic communities that shape them as resources to be drawn upon in support of students' learning and development. With students acting as informants and researchers, reflecting on their experiences, and initiating dialogue with parents, grandparents, and others in their own communities, they are likely to recognize both challenges and resources therein. As teachers learn more about students' worlds, they are better able to adapt the classroom and curriculum to draw upon home, community, and first language as resources. Although not specifically discussed in this volume, it is easy to see how these lessons in part might equip teachers and students to be agents of social and institutional change at least at the local level, and perhaps beyond.