Dr. Laura Kelly, associate professor of educational studies at Rhodes College, has received funding from the Spencer Foundation for her research project titled “Bilingual Book Clubs - A Culturally Sustaining, Translanguaging Approach to Support Biliteracy.” The grant provides support through August 31, 2026.
The Spencer Foundation has been a leading funder of education research since 1971, and with this grant Kelly and Rhodes students will contribute to the field of biliteracy education by facilitating weekly bilingual book club discussions in a local elementary school.
Elementary students, who speak both English and Spanish, will meet with the Rhodes researchers to read, discuss, and engage in word work (a translation protocol) with bilingual texts.
The research questions are: (1) How do bilingual students use all their languages to discuss and make sense of bilingual text? and (2) What instructional opportunities are created through bilingual book discussions?
The undergraduate research team includes education students who are in a pre-service teacher education program and are bilingual in Spanish and English.
Kelly, who joined the Rhodes faculty in 2018, was a classroom K-12 teacher for eight years before going into higher education. She held National Board Certification in Early to Middle Childhood Reading and Language Arts. In addition to bilingual education, Kelly specializes in elementary literacy and English as a second language.