Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners: The Blog

For students in 6-12 especially, we know they spend a lot of time consuming content online. I love bringing social media trends into the classroom in low-lift ways. There's a current TikTok trend that I could see having some value in our classrooms for building a sense of community, bonding, and getting to know each other (plus lots of languaging happening here as well! WOOT WOOT!). For us grownups reading this blog, check out the full breakdown on this trend by reading this blog post by Cosmopolitan . It's got a few samples for you as well. Again - that's a blog post for grown ups, not for our students - lol don't come at me.  Now let's see how we might do one for ourselves. I'll start! "Unfortunately, I do love... Wearing bright pink everywhere I go. Surrounding myself in neon colors no matter what the season. Stopping at 7brew for a very sugary caffeine-heavy pick-me-up.  Filling up shopping carts at online retailers then closing the screen. Laughing lou...

 AHHH MY NEW BOOK IS OUT! It's wild to say that. I had to rewrite this post like 6 times because I kept crying. To be completely honest, I feel a little weird celebrating this right now - because of everything happening in the world and in our country, it's hard to feel excitement. AND ALSO, I do feel that this book is needed right now. It's a very funky Both/And situation for me.  While I was writing this book, I was experiencing a lot of doom & gloom. I was digging up Supreme Court cases and civil rights laws, and I was wondering which ones would still be in existence by the time the book was published. That's deeply unsettling.  Like my first book, this feels very personal to me. I feel super vulnerable wondering how it will be received.  When Paul Gorski (AHHHHH! PAUL GORSKI?!?) reached out to me on social media to chat, my imposter syndrome was right there with me. I convinced myself several times, "He must think I'm someone else. There's no way he...

 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.