3) Classroom environment
What can I do to set up my classroom environment to support the learning of Multilingual Learners?
Website Article: Connecting Home & School Mathematics
This resource offers written and video examples of how teachers can partner with families to connect math with both school and home activities.Read More
Toolkit: Funds of Knowledge
This toolkit helps teachers adapt an asset-based lens and identify the knowledge that students and families bring into a school community, and how to leverage that knowledge for learning.Read More
Toolkit: Welcoming and Affirming Community
This link connects teachers to multiple resource toolkits across multiple grade bands. Topics include Social Emotional Learning, Family Partnerships, and Caring Communities.Read More
Video: Supportive Emotional Climate for Relationships
This video highlights the importance of language to make Multilingual Learners feel comfortable; if they hear their home language spoken and see their culture represented in the classroom, it will create a more warm and inviting environment for them. Another key item to foster a supportive emotional climate are positive interactions between the educator and the child.Read More
Video: Integrating Family, Culture, and Language in the Curriculum
This video shares examples for how educators can incorporate various strategies to inform their curriculum: Collaboratively create an environment that represents families through books in different languages, music, and providing utensils/food/dolls in dramatic play that celebrate diversity.Read More
Video: Integrating Home Culture and Language in Learning Activities and Environments
This video provides examples for what educators can do to create a supportive classroom environment for Multilingual Learners. Activities can provide opportunities for MLs and their families to learn about other cultures. Materials (dolls, labeling, books) should celebrate and represent the diversity of the children in the classroom.Read More
Video: Use and Display Culturally Familiar Content
This video shows educators how they can represent their children's diversity of languages and culture in the classroom.Read More
Video: Encourage Use of Home Language at Home and in Preschool
This video shares idea for educators to incorporate into their teaching to help encourage the use of children's home language.Read More
Video: Key Practices That Support Language Development—Particularly for Young Dual Language Learners
This video provides examples of key practices that support language development for young Dual Language Learners, as shared by dual language experts and educators. Practices focus on creating a supportive classroom environment by inviting children to participate in extended conversations, offering a variety of language experiences, and supporting vocabulary development through the use of labels.Read More
Booklist: libros en español—”espejos y ventanas”
For students to feel affirmed and visible at school, it is critical that their identities and experiences be reflected in the stories read in the classroom. This includes the language in which it is written. The books in this bibliography provide “mirrors” and “windows” into the myriad of identities for which we hold space. Through these books, listed in alphabetical order by title, students will have opportunities to see themselves and others and educators will have opportunities for rich discussion, follow-up lessons and exploration.Read More
Booklist: Spanish Literature for P1-3rd grade
This is a booklist of Spanish-language texts for 1-3rd grade.Read More
Booklist: Spanish Literature for PK-1st Grade
This is a booklist of Spanish-language texts for PK-1st grade.Read More
Strategy Overview: I am Poems
The portrait, persona, or “I am” poem is an autobiographical and descriptive personal statement. The poems are self-expressive vehicles for students to introduce themselves to others and describe themselves.Read More
Strategy Overview: Name Acrostics
This strategy engages students in writing free verse acrostic poems about themselves using the letters of their names to begin each line. The use of children’s names can bring personal meaning to writing; and valuing children’s names is a part of a strong, respectful classroom community.Read More
Strategy Overview: Self Portraits
This activity provides an opportunity for students to do their own exploration, reflection, and expression about themselves through a facilitated process of looking at themselves in a mirror, talking about what they see, and drawing a self-portrait. Young children are developing an awareness of who they are and what they look like and increasing awareness of human diversity.Read More
Strategy Overview: Family Empathy Interviews
A template designed to support conversation uncovering each family's "funds of knowledge" so teachers can design a culturally responsive and sustaining approach to instruction.Read More
Webinar: Family School Partnership—PreK
In this webinar video, building strong family partnerships is explained as well as providing some tangible strategies for early learning educators.Read More
Strategy Overview: Promoting a Sense of Identity
This strategy outlines ways teachers can work with families to promote children's sense of identity, connection to home language and culture, plus respect for diversity.Read More
Blog: Usable Knowledge- Multilingual Preschoolers
In this blog teachers are offered quick tips on how to create a classroom environment that supports the special needs of Multilingual preschoolers.Read More
Article: Supporting Language: Culturally Rich Dramatic Play
This article reviews how teachers of Multilingual learners can set up culturally responsive dramatic play areas to maximize language learning opportunities.Read More
Blog: Revolutionize Classroom Labels
This short blog offers 5 different strategies to push instruction “beyond the classroom label” and encourage interaction and engagement with bilingual classroom labels.Read More
Article: Classroom labels that young children can use: Enhancing biliteracy development in a dual language classroom
This article reviews numerous ways that labels in the dual language classroom can be co-created and interactive. These supports help Multilingual learners make sense of the classroom environment and develop language.Read More
Video: A Meeting At School
In this video, parents come into the classroom to help with a family project and discuss the language preferences of their children with the teacher. Collecting this type of information and exchanging language development goals for the child is key to partnering with families.Read More
Video: A Letter From My Mom
In this video, parents are encouraged to write a letter to their child and drop it in a classroom mailbox. Children sort the letters into student mailboxes and then read them with the support of the teacher.Read More
Video: English, Spanish, and Chinese, too
This video is an example of an interaction between a teacher and a child that respects and promotes all types of language learning in the classroom. The teacher and child read together and build a conversation about speaking in English, Spanish, and Chinese.Read More
Video: Engaging with Text and Narrative
This video begins by highlighting chants, songs, and intentional conversation that teachers facilitate to help young Multilingual Learners (MLs) to develop oral language. Further examples demonstrate how oral language can then transfer to written language and early reading opportunities. It is important for MLs to use developing literacy skills in authentic, print-rich learning contexts, where they feel ownership for their learning and knowledge.Read More
Blog Series: Beginning with Biliteracy-A Kindergarten Story
This series includes 10 blog posts that share information from a bilingual Kindergarten classroom perspective. Some posts are written in English and some in Spanish. They cover topics such as setting up a biliteracy classroom environment, making language connections and bridges for young learners, and instructional strategies for biliteracy.Read More
Strategy Overview: Ensuring the Presence of Each Child’s Language
This resource provides a comprehensive list and explanation of the actions teachers can take to acknowledge, affirm, and support multiple languages in the classroom. Included are tips for engaging with families as "language experts" and capturing their linguistic knowledge on a planning template, and phrase cards with basic greetings in 10 common home languages.Read More
Website Article: Choosing Diverse Books for Your ELLs – Tips for Educators
This article is a comprehensive collection of tips, video interviews, additional links, and resources to support educators in choosing books for diverse Multilingual Learners in the classroom.Read More
Transcript: Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors
This is a transcript and additional resource list that accompanies the short video "Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors."Read More
Video: Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors
This is a short video interview with Rudine Bishop Simms, who explains her widely-used metaphor of books as "Mirrors, Windows, or Sliding Glass Doors" for students. She speaks about the importance of students seeing themselves represented in the texts and materials chosen for classroom instruction.Read More
Blog: Tackling the Challenges of Implementing Diverse Libraries at Your School
Access to culturally relevant books is critical for Multilingual Learners. This blog offers tips and suggestions on how to build a more inclusive collection of books in school libraries. Many additional resources and tools are linked.Read More
Guide: Don’t Underestimate the Power of Contexts in Math Curricula
This guide helps teachers assess whether the context of specific math tasks is accessible and familiar for Multilingual Learners. In these resources, teachers can read about the dos and don'ts of situating math instruction in a familiar context for Multilingual Learners.Read More
Checklist: Supporting Emergent Bilingual Children in Early Learning
This checklist provides teachers with several strategies to support Multilingual Learners by providing students with a rich classroom environment that builds their home language and English skills. This resource encourages teachers to consider how to add labels, images, culturally relevant materials to the classroom for children to engage with. This checklist also provides a list of extra resources to learn more about supporting bilingualism, and is available in Spanish and Chinese.Read More
Guide: Selecting and Using Culturally Appropriate Children’s Books in Languages Other than English
This resource provides guidance on how to select culturally appropriate children’s books in Multilingual Learners’ home languages and how to share those books with children and their families. This guide also provides ideas for sharing books in languages that are not familiar to teachers and links to other book lists and digital libraries.Read More
Website Article: 5 Meaningful Ways to Support DLLs at Storytime
This resource explains how to adjust storytime experiences to ensure that Multilingual Learners (MLs) can fully benefit from these experiences. Intentional storytime experiences that incorporate children's home languages, visuals, props, and culturally relevant materials promote MLs' comprehension, vocabulary, and early literacy skills.Read More
Tip Sheet: Creating Environments that Include Children’s Home Languages and Cultures
This tip sheet provides guidance on how to set up the physical environment to include children’s home languages and culturally relevant materials. This tip sheet also provides examples of labels and materials to include in classrooms and why including these materials is important for Multilingual Learners.Read More
Educator Toolkit: My Name, My Identity- Creating an Inclusive and Respectful School Community
This digital book supports the socio-emotional learning of students by introducing example lesson plans that center on Multilingual Learners' identity. The resource includes videos, book lists, lesson plans, and many extension activities and further resources to help teachers build a healthy, asset-based community in the classroom.Read More
Website: Teacher Interactions and Strategies to Support Reading for Dual Language Learners
This resource provides many strategies that teachers can use to support Multilingual Learners’ reading and literacy skills.Read More
Website: Environment and Materials to Support Dual Language Learners
This resource describes the ways that teachers can set up their classroom environments to support Multilingual Learners. For example, teachers can include labels and other functional print in the home language and display and provide culturally relevant materials.Read More
Book List: Multicultural Books for Preschoolers
This resource provides a list of books that celebrate different cultures and includes multiple languages. Teachers can use this list to ensure that they are providing books that are in children’s home languages, and that depict the cultural and linguistic background of children in a positive light.Read More
Webinar: Supporting Dual Language Learners in the PreK Classroom
In this webinar, presenters discuss several strategies for supporting Multilingual Learners’ oral language and literacy development. Strategies include gathering information on children’s language and cultural background from families and talking with them about their language and learning goals for their children. Presenters also discuss how to display labels and functional print in multiple languages in the classroom, select content-specific words from texts and incorporate them into instruction, incorporate songs, and engage in interactive reading.Read More
App: Ready DLL
This mobile app is a comprehensive resource that teachers can use to support Multilingual Learners. It includes specific guidance on including labels and other functional print in both languages, engaging in interactive reading, and integrating reading, writing, listening, and speaking in multiple languages. The app also helps teachers learn key words and phrases in children’s home languages (Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, and Haitian Creole), and provides links to articles, tip sheets, videos, and webinars.Read More
Digital Book Collection: Level A (Vietnamese)
This is a collection of high-quality Level A books written in Vietnamese. This resource helps teachers access books that depict Vietnamese children's language and culture.Read More
Digital Book Collection: Level B (Vietnamese)
This is a collection of high-quality Level B books written in Vietnamese. This resource helps teachers access books that depict Vietnamese children's language and culture.Read More
Policy Brief: Culturally Responsive Teaching
This downloadable policy brief dives into the research and discussion of 8 competencies for culturally responsive teaching. An infographic on the website offers a good preview of the content.Read More
Strategy Overview: Si Se Puede
Si Se Puede is a set of strategies to elevate Multilingual Learners' perception of the status of their home language, countering the messages learners often receive about English dominance.Read More
Strategy Overview: My Name
Nothing is closer to a Multilingual Learner's identity than their name. This resource offers culturally relevant examples of how to engage in meaningful activities with children about their names.Read More
Video: Affirming Language, Culture & Identity
This video shares asset-based strategies for teachers to engage with families, develop the socio-emotional health of children, and set up a classroom environment to support Multilingual Learners. This resource focuses on preschool but the content applies to all grade bands. Examples come from dual language classrooms.Read More
Booklist: Mirrors and Windows Literature
The literature on this booklist depicts the diverse languages, cultures, and identities of Multilingual Learners. Teachers can find a short description, related themes, and some read-aloud links for numerous “Mirror and Window” books.Read More
Video: Personalizing Instruction through Environmental Supports
This resource explains several ways that teachers can provide high-quality language support materials. For example, teachers can display culturally relevant materials and labels in each language. Teachers can also learn key words and phrases in children’s home languages, including cognates, to emphasize the connection between English and the home language.Read More
Photo: Personalized Oral Language Learning (POLL) Boards
This resource shows photos of boards that include several oral language strategies. Boards include functional print in the home language and in English.Read More
Video: Environmental Supports
This resource shows the importance of displaying culturally relevant materials for Multilingual Learners in the classroom, including pictures of family members and important events in children’s lives. Educators highlight the value of children's identities being reflected in the classroom to help them feel included.Read More
