1B) Families and language development goals
Talk with families about their language and learning goals for their child. Ask families to share their thoughts on their child’s bilingual development and how this may relate to their goals.
Video: Being Responsive to Home Language and Culture
This video focuses on the importance for educators to remain flexible and responsive in order to support Multilingual Learners. Educators can create meaningful relationships with children and their families by getting to know them and respecting their preferences and practices (asking them about specific food needs as an example).Read More
Video: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Communication
This video reinforces an asset-based approach towards supporting Multilingual Learners. It highlights the importance of family engagement and social-emotional development strategies to help create a warm and inviting environment for ML children.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
Strategy Overview: Fostering Multilingual Pride
This strategy outlines ways teachers can foster multilingual pride with students.Read More
Video: Home Language
This video showcases different vignettes of families who have made an intentional decision to raise their children with with a home language different than English.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
Strategy Overview: 6 Ways Educators Can Overcome Language Barriers with Parents
This overview includes numerous ideas for educators who have difficulty communicating with parents of children who speak languages other than English. Resources are shared about how teachers and parents can connect, specific strategies are named, and data graphics share information about the types of activities in which parents are most likely to participate.Read More
Article: Tips for Communicating with Non-English-Speaking Parents
Teachers who only speak English may have a difficult time communicating with non-English-speaking parents. This article offers six simple tips to help connect with parents of all students, regardless of the language they speak.Read More
App: CDC Milestone Tracker
This is an app that can be shared with parents in both Spanish and English to help them keep track of major developmental steps that their children make from birth-5 years old.Read More
Tip Sheet: Our Community Poster and Family Foldable (in 26 languages)
These example resources come from Australia and have been translated into 26 languages. The Community Poster shares with families a few ideas on how to support early education in the home. The family foldable is a template for a communication "chatterbox" that can be used at home to develop oral language and discuss connections between school and home.Read More
Tip Sheet: Helping Children Read (Spanish)
This handout can be shared in both English and Spanish; it shares research and ideas about what families can do to support literacy and language development for their children from infancy to 6 years old.Read More
Tip Sheet: Helping Children Read
This handout can be shared in both English and Spanish; it shares research and ideas about what families can do to support literacy and language development for their children from infancy to 6 years old.Read More
Tip Sheet: Gathering and Using Language Information That Families Share
This tip sheet provides teachers with examples of questions that they can ask Multilingual Learners’ families to learn about their language, interests, and experiences. This tip sheet also discusses the information that can be gathered from conversations with families and why this information is so important.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
Website Article: Many Languages, One Classroom
This article offers explicit strategies for teachers who have language-diverse classrooms. Ideas are offered on how to partner with families and set up a culturally and linguistically responsive classroom environment.Read More
Strategy Overview: Supporting Bilingualism
Research has proven that the strongest foundation for academic success and high levels of literacy for Multilingual Learners is the development of both their home language and English. This overview describes strategies that schools, teachers, and families can use to support multilingualism.Read More
Strategy Overview: Family-Centered Goal Setting
This guide breaks down how to set simple, targeted, short-term learning goals in partnership with families. By engaging families in developing learning goals, teachers ensure that the goals are rooted in a shared understanding of the whole child, and prepare families to support their children in working toward their goals.Read More
Strategy Overview: Celebrating Bilingualism-Pathways to Biliteracy
This document offers a variety of examples for both classroom and school-wide implementation for a Seal of Biliteracy. Now that a biliteracy seal is available in California and other U.S. states, offering high-quality bilingual materials and structuring opportunities to celebrate bilingualism with students and families can begin as early as PreK.Read More
Tip Sheet: Special Topic & Mini-Strategy Workshops for Families
Workshops provide rich opportunities to talk with families about language development goals for their children, and to invite and prepare them to share their language and culture in the classroom. This document explains two different structures for family workshops.Read More
Template: Family Languages and Interests Interview Form
This resource contains a template of the Family Languages and Interests Interview that teachers can use to gather information from families on each child’s language and cultural background. Teachers can also use this interview form to talk with families about their language and learning goals for their children.Read More
Template: Family Languages and Interests Interview Form (Spanish)
This resource contains a template of the Family Languages and Interests Interview in Spanish that teachers can use to gather information on each child’s language and cultural background from children’s Spanish-speaking families. Teachers can also use this interview form to talk with families about their language and learning goals for their children.Read More
Video & Video Guide: Family Languages and Interests Interview (Spanish)
In this video, a Spanish-speaking teacher conducts the Family Languages and Interests Interview with a Spanish-speaking parent to gather information on their child’s language and cultural background. This interview also helps teachers talk with families about their language and learning goals for their children. The accompanying guide suggests moments in the video to pause to notice teachers’ practice, along with prompts for reflection and discussion.Read More
Video & Video Guide: Family Languages and Interests Interview
In this video, a teacher conducts the Family Languages and Interests Interview with a parent to gather information on their child’s language and cultural background. This interview also helps teachers think about how to talk with families about their language and learning goals for their children. The accompanying guide suggests moments in the video to pause to notice teachers’ practice, along with prompts for reflection and discussion.Read More
