
One of the main challenges that US schools face in educating English language learners is
developing their academic literacy. This paper presents case studies of two K-12 schools that
successfully employ high-technology environments, including laptop computers for each stu-
dent, toward the development of English language learners academic language proficiency
and academic literacy. In the first school, Latino fourth-grade students use laptops and other
new technologies for a wide variety of pre- and post-reading tasks as part of their effort to
transition from learning to read to reading to learn. In the second school, diverse immigrant
and refugee students at the middle school level combine technology use with Expeditionary
Learning to carry out community projects leading to the development of sophisticated prod-
ucts. In both schools, technology is used to engage students in cognitively demanding activity,
motivate independent reading, and provide scaffolding for language development, while the
researchers also made use of technology to document learning processes and outcomes. Taken
together, the schools offer valuable lessons for utilization of technology to promote academic
literacy among culturally and linguistically diverse students.