Authoring Multiple formas de ser: Three Bilingual Latino/a Fifth Graders Navigating School

Drawing from sociocultural and anthropological perspectives, I present 3 case examples of bilingual, Mexican-origin students enrolled in a transitional bilingual educational program in an urban elementary school. By using the theoretical constructs of figured worlds, authoring, and formas de ser (ways of being), I examine how student identities were in a constant and dialogic state of formation by the students themselves and others. I discuss how high-stakes testing and other schooling practices narrowly authored students behaviorally, academically, and linguistically-bringing about schooling environments where students' strengths and multifaceted formas de ser were all-too-often overlooked.