CUE July 2026 Newsletter

Two Books CUE Recommends for Summer Reading

Get fresh ideas for teaching while you have the time and energy to read during summer break. The UNC Center for Urban Education recommends these two reads.

Humanizing Pedagogies with Multilingual Learners

The first book we recommend this summer is Humanizing Pedagogies with Multilingual Learners: Transforming Teaching in the Content Areas by Kara Mitchell Viesca and Nancy L. Commins.

What It’s All About

This resource is aimed at general classroom teachers across grade levels who haven’t had formal training in TESOL, ESL, or bilingual education. This book offers a practical way to make instruction more equitable and humanize it in any subject area.

Each chapter follows the authors’ three-step cycle — Explore, Make It Work, and Share — moving from research and background knowledge into classroom application and then into professional sharing.

Topics covered include how teachers position and assess multilingual students, group them effectively, respond to the language demands of academic content, and build conceptual understanding and authentic classroom conversation.

What People Say About It

One reviewer described the book as “a love letter to teachers, students, families, and communities” that promotes relational, organic, and meaningful teaching and learning.

What CUE Director Dr. Rosanne Fulton likes about this book is, “Throughout the book, the authors encourage readers to think about two important questions:

How can teachers establish learning communities that support interconnectedness and openness among students so that all learners can thrive given language and cultural differences?

How can children within learning communities solve problems, think creatively, and develop confidence and competence simultaneously?”

Raising Capable Kids

The second book we suggest for your summertime reading list is Raising Capable Kids: The 12 Habits Every Parent Needs Regardless of Their Child’s Label or Challenge by Deborah Winking, Ph.D.

What It’s All About

One of the author’s own four children has a rare neurological condition, and that personal experience shapes the perspective she brings to the book. She organizes her guidance into 12 habits meant to help any parent or teacher help a child move past a diagnosis or label and grow into a resilient, capable, curious person.

Each habit pairs a concrete strategy with the neuroscience behind it, real family stories, and reflection exercises that help caregivers set expectations that stretch a child without overwhelming them and lean into a child’s own interests to build independence.

What People Say About It

One reviewer praised the book’s empowering reminder that “difference” does not mean “deficit,” and recommended it as a foundation any parent could build on.

Publishers Weekly called the tone “compassionate and sensible” and said the book offers real comfort to parents raising children with disabilities.

CUE Director Fulton said she hopes educators will read Winking’s stories and pass them along to families, noting that the habits Winking “provides concrete strategies for parents and classroom teachers” as everyone works to help students reach their potential. “The 12 habits are clearly defined and the author provides concrete strategies for parents and classroom teachers,” she added.

If you’d like to recommend a book for the CUE faculty/mentor book study group, please email Rosanne Fulton at rosanne.fulton@unco.edu. We appreciate your suggestions!