Moving Beyond for Multilingual Learners: The Blog

While we were all teaching online, many of us reached frustration points when we heard the chirping of smoke detectors in our students' homes that signaled that they needed to replace their batteries. I heard it too, as I taught students through the computer screen, and yes- my dog went wild when he heard it.  We can acknowledge the frustration. We can certainly remember how it gave us headaches during our hours of online instruction.  However, we can also empathize with families. Think of how that chirping likely disrupted sleep patterns during an already heavy time. Every time I saw a social media post about the chirping smoke detectors and how annoying it was for us as teachers, it got under my skin. I made a few posts on my social media feeds about purchasing batteries and sending them to families- and then I received some backlash for them, saying that doing that was beyond our role.  Well, it is late September, and next month is Fire Safety Month. Most fire departm...

 Here are some considerations to explore as we prepare for parent-teacher conferences.  Language Access is a Civil Right: Ensure that families are invited to the meeting in their preferred language and that families also know that interpreters can and will be made available during the actual meeting. Sometimes this takes extra time to coordinate, so early communication is key. Linguistically diverse families may need to be scheduled for their conferences FIRST to accommodate interpreters' schedules prior to scheduling English-speaking families. Coach your colleagues and teammates to speak in chunks and pause for interpretation. Take a few minutes once everyone is around the table to discuss things like who to look at ( should I be facing the interpreter when I speak, or to the family? ) while speaking, and set those norms together with the family. Allow for extra time in the schedule to allow for meaningful (and not rushed) interpretation time.  What do we call these meet...

 As a mom, I love and truly appreciate the moments where I get a Remind alert from my daughter's teacher. Today's message included a photo of her creating a landform model out of clay. I loved being able to see her in her classroom with her peers, doing cool things.  What's great about sending photos to families is that it provides an instant portal into the learning. I'm now a part of the class. I'm there with her, seeing what she sees, and "doing" what she's doing alongside her.  The best part? This photo provides instant language access for everyone. No one has to worry about translating text or even having literacy skills. The photo provides instant access. As an EL teacher, I truly wished I could have spoken the 63 languages of my students and their families. With a photo, I can. Sending photos to families is a powerful practice. I also must mention that I have a son who is in 8th grade, and we battle the same conversation that many other families...

  Sometimes, it's simply a matter of asking. Years ago, I noticed that our local public library had the entire multilingual children's collection the second floor away from the English Children's Collection. I asked why. They replied they didn't know. I shared that I'm a multilingual educator and that I thought it would be great to have all the kids' books together. I wasn't even aware that there were multilingual books available, and I wondered if there were families who also didn't know! If the books were all together, it shows that all literacies are valued, important, and visible in the community. Months later, I received an email that they moved the multilingual collection to the first floor, to be with the English collection. They created space and made the change. I'm sure it took a long time to figure out and then move everything around, but hey- they followed through. I appreciated it so much, and told them so. Sometimes, it's simply a m...

 Is your school looking for ways to create more opportunities for student interaction and oral language across content areas? Have you been SIOP-trained and you're looking for more tools to support component number 5 (interaction)? Take a peek at this tool kit you may wish to compile to support your work!  The link will take you to a page with a listing of potential tools you may wish to include, along with a photo and a link to purchase. There is also a column on the left that describes some ways in which you might use the tool in your classroom.  As you slowly try out and introduce tools to students, co-construct and establish norms for using the tools, like a t-chart of Ways We Can Use this Tool to Help Us Learn vs. Ways We Wouldn't Use this Tool To Help Us Learn. I like paying attention to labels like this instead of Correct vs. Incorrect labels.  Having students join you in creating the norms is a great way for students to see how much we trust and value their ...

 We inherit a lot in our schools. I follow a lot of educators on social media, and each August, I always see Instagram Stories or Twitter posts about a young teacher who inherits a classroom from a retired teacher. And usually, there is a lot of stuff left behind for the young teacher to sort through! Many times, there are lots of gems to be found, and other times, the recycling bin remains full for weeks as the new teacher finds items to discard.  Discarding what is no longer needed, or perhaps no longer relevant, or perhaps no longer desired- can be a really wonderful process. Decluttering has been a whole movement in recent years as folks discarded items that no longer brought them joy!  It is easy for us to find physical clutter because it is visible to us. We can see that filing cabinets are full or that closets don't close all the way. But what about our practices? How and when do we get to declutter the practices that are no longer relevant, no longer needed, no lo...

When I don't know how to do something, I use YouTube! I recently got a new laptop, so I'm learning how to do different things on it by searching YouTube videos. I found this one created by a wonderful kiddo who explained to viewers how to screen record. This kid has AWESOME skills! I don't know this child, and I don't know when he learned these skills, or who helped him create his channel or anything like that- but I just wanted to highlight his work here because he has skills and I wanted to share those skills to counter the deficit-laden narrative about learning loss. Kids are amazing. His channel has all kinds of things that are important to him, like gaming and trading cards and camp - but how powerful of an opportunity that platforms like this exist. Yes, there are rules and age restrictions. Yes, an adult needs to help facilitate and manage this. Yes, there are dangers in social media and platforms like this. But I continue to be blown away by what can happen when...

 As we approach the beginning of Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month, and as we also continue to acknowledge and appreciate Latinx heritage throughout the school year, I felt compelled to write a post of appreciation for the work of award-winning author & illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh.  Years ago, my son hurried home from first grade to share that my favorite author has been placed on the Monarch list! The book Dear Primo was nominated and my son was eager to get all of his classmates to put in their vote for his work.  I firmly believe that picture books are for all ages. By taking a look at some of the titles that Duncan Tonatiuh has released, the books can be used from primary school all the way upwards of high school and beyond.  Over the years, his work has had a tremendous impact on classrooms that I've taught. He has addressed a number of topics such as immigration and civil rights. He's also written across genres like historical narratives, myths and legen...

 I am waist-deep in reading Ratchetdemic: Reimagining Academic Success  (2021) by Christopher Emdin ( available on Amazon here ) and I was struck by SO MUCH, but this quote stood out to me this week: "The environment created in schools- what is celebrated and what isn't - can create the conditions for the type of pedagogy that takes root" (Emdin, p. 133).  Ratchetdemic: Reimagining Academic Success by Christopher Emdin (2021) Beacon Press Here was my initial brain dump after reading:  How are we encouraging innovation in multilingual programming?  Do we praise "fidelity" of language allocation plans or do we celebrate student-affirming translanguaging practices? While language allocation plans can help us strategically map out language usage and language development over years in a program, do we pretend we don't know what students are saying when they're not conversing in the "target language?"  How do we lift up educators who challenge our bi...