Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners: The Blog

 Need a more structured version of Think, Pair, Share for your students? Our multilingual learners need culturally-responsive, low-stakes opportunities for output.  3PS is a structure is best utilized for reflective questions, sharing our own thoughts/opinions on a topic, or discussing our own lived experiences. 3PS is a structure that includes ALL language domains in a short span of time: all students are listening, reading, speaking, and writing (and may also be viewing & representing, depending on what students do!).  Process: The first step here is to share the prompt (write it out and say it out loud) and then pause for 30-90 seconds. The think time/wait time is EMBEDDED into this structure. During this time, you can set a timer, stare at the ceiling, but don't allow students to raise their hands or write or speak- not quite yet. You might repeat a few words or phrases during this time.  Bonus: share a few different rewordings of your question, AND/OR offer ...

This is one of my FAVORITE strategies that encourages full-class participation with high engagement but low-risk. When done correctly, it is an inclusive structure that can allow entry points into content for newcomers, and can also be a structure that can build and cultivate classroom community.  You could do this as a classroom warmup as a "would you rather." You could do this as a review of previous content, or even an entry ramp into upcoming content.  I will begin by introducing the topic and asking the group if there are any "experts" on the topic. This allows the room to locate who to look at when they're not confident with their answer! In advance, I set up a quick slide deck with options and answers.  Here's a collection of ones that I've used in various teacher trainings - these can serve as samples to introduce the structure to adults. We do the structure in its entirety and then we unpack the benefits and cautions! Please note - I actually do...

  Continuing another session from our Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners book study tomorrow... and this is something that I mention - again, it hits a little harder right now. This is something that I will NEVER forget and will NEVER regret. Those awful moments when we have to strip the walls of instructional posters leaves the learning space feeling empty and sad. Even without those moments of state testing... sometimes, we just need to see that our community is still in our corner... I had asked folks in my students' communities to take a photo with an uplifting message. Something like YOU GOT THIS, or I BELIEVE IN YOU, or WE ARE CHEERING YOU ON. These folks included current and former teachers, principals, local firefighters, the village president, friends from local youth organizations and social service agencies, local engineering firms, all the "friends" we made over the course of the school year. I even tweeted celebrities to see what we might be able to come...

 Not a fancy post, but wanted to get these resources out for whoever might need/want them! :)  Grab all the printables here.  Want to edit the doc and add stuff or change the font? Just go to File and Make a Copy!  These are the magnets I bought to stick to the back. My TikTok is linked here. Here's an additional slide deck (not very cute) and a handout . What I like about these is that it has stems/frames for each component and also has synonyms. Don't forget about the power of synonyms! Right now, this handout is provided for more advanced proficiency levels. If I have time I'll get one made for beginning proficiency levels. 

 I love the "cringey" moments of realizing how much time I spent hyperfixating on a certain song or a specific group (umm hey, hey BEACH BOYS) throughout the year, and I love seeing what folks on social media spent time listening to this year when they share their "Spoty Wrapped" posts.  Here's a few templates for you to use and a few thoughts & ideas about how to use them.  Canva: This link was shared by a creator named Kayla Martin.  Here's another I found from "Figma"  A third from Kapwing In 2022, I shared this blog post that had a few thoughts & ideas for sharing these templates with students and reflecting on how much they've learned so far this school year, or throughout their whole calendar year. I also shared the idea of using a template to make posters that demonstrate how many languages you have in your school setting - listing them out and publicly bragging about your linguistic diversity is amaaazing. Love it.  In 2022, I ...

Our education systems have really grown in our capacities to prioritize the social-emotional health and mental well-being of our students. In many schools, there are dedicated blocks of time throughout a week where components of SEL are being implemented. Many schools have invested in stronger and richer professional learning opportunities to help educators as they support the SEL needs of their students. All of this is great and I hope that we continue to make this a priority. However, I want us to pause for a second. I’m a person who is a reflective languager- meaning I often pause to reflect on the language choices that I make. I also reflect on the language choices of those around me. I’ve written about this in multiple spaces about how the language choices we use often demonstrates our beliefs, and sometimes those things that are said about students we serve can demonstrate bias and lead to problematic practices that can go unchecked.  In the last few years, in educational spa...