9A) Hands-on, inquiry-based experiences in content
Provide hands-on, inquiry-based experiences to help give content and subject matter meaning and purpose.
Video: Outdoor, Indoor & Family Inclusive Learning Environment—PK Bilingual
This video shows the power of thematic instruction and rich learning environments in a bilingual PreK classroom.Read More
Video: Making Butter—Small Group Instruction
In this video, the teacher works on a hands-on project to make butter with Multilingual Learners. The small group instruction supports multiple opportunities to practice oral language and writing in an authentic context.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
Early Childhood Examples and Definitions for Multilingual Learners
This document illustrates how to integrate concrete representations, realia, and objects from home to support oral language and vocabulary.Read More
Curriculum Units: Mosaic Integrated Science, Math, and English Language Development
These are example curriculum units that integrate content learning with English language development. The units offer many instructional ideas to help teachers plan authentic, hands-on tasks for Multilingual Learners, and provide intentional context to practice content-based English language.Read More
Strategy Overview: Fractions, Factors, and Functions, Oh My! Are My ELs Attaching Meaning to Math Words?
This guide helps teachers plan meaningful activities to make math accessible, hands-on, build on students' prior knowledge, and be language-focused. In these resources, teachers can read about the dos and don'ts of math vocabulary instruction 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
Strategy Overview: Narrative Input
After a shared reading of a text, students retell, act out, and/or capture key vocabulary and content information with a variety of experiences. This multi-day strategy builds on student's storytelling and oral language skills.Read More
Strategy Overview: Organizing Learning Experiences
This resource provides extensive guidance on how teachers can use children’s interests to organize learning activities around themes, studies, or projects. Themes, studies, or projects help to integrate language and content learning for Multilingual Learners and provide them with extended opportunities to give language and content meaning.Read More
Video: Juicy Sentence Example with Butterflies (K)
This video is an example of a teacher facilitating a "juicy sentence" discussion with a group of kindergarteners learning about butterflies. The juicy sentence strategy helps Multilingual Learners access complex text through the study of a mentor sentence.Read More
Video: Shared Research Project- 1st grade
In this video, the teacher provides guidance on how to conduct research projects with Multilingual Learners to investigate a topic in which children are interested. The shared research project provides a hands-on, inquiry-based experience to help give content meaning and develop academic language and literacy skills.Read More
Video: Shared Research Project- 3rd grade
In this video, the teacher provides guidance on how to conduct research projects with Multilingual Learners to investigate a topic children are interested in. The shared research project provides a hands-on, inquiry-based experience to help give content meaning and develop academic language and literacy skills.Read More
Video: Shared Research Project- TK
In this video, educators provide guidance on how to conduct research projects with Multilingual Learners to investigate topics they are interested in. The shared research project provides a hands-on, inquiry-based experience to help give content meaning. The teacher uses a graphic organizer (a language-based support to help children develop writing) to help organize the information that children find.Read More
Video: Integrated & Designated ELD- Kindergarten
In this integrated ELD video, the teacher focuses on developing the academic English language that Multilingual Learners need to access content instruction. She uses chants, repetition, small group instruction, and numerous other supports.Read More
Strategy Overview: Shared Research Projects / Los proyectos de investigación compartidos
The Shared Research Project strategy is typically implemented midway through a thematic unit of study. The teacher preselects relevant topics and intentionally groups students into small research teams to research, take notes using supports like graphic organizers, and ultimately produce a piece of collaborative writing.Read More
Strategy Overview: Dramatic Play & Researcher Center
This resource describes how to implement dramatic play and researcher centers in classrooms with Multilingual Learners. Centers are tied to the thematic content of a unit and provide children with the opportunity to engage in hands-on, inquiry-based experiences that give content and language meaning and purpose.Read More
Video: Shared Research Project
This video provides guidance on how to support Multilingual Learners' content learning through shared research projects. A shared research project gives children the opportunity to participate in hands-on, inquiry-based experiences in small groups.Read More
Video: Center Extensions
In these videos, teachers discuss ways to align activities to an intentional message and anchor text to help teach target words. The videos also show how hands-on experiences help provide meaning to target words.Read More
