ACTION 2.2
Elevate students’ identities and home language and leverage funds of knowledge
We used to think...
Teaching must focus primarily on supporting students to understand academic content.
Now we know...
In order to create an environment that is intellectually and psychologically safe for all learners, including MLs, teaching and learning must incorporate students’ cultural and linguistic identities along with leveraging different learning styles and varied needs of each student.
Best Practice Strategies
To cultivate a supportive multi-language learning environment:
Teachers
Create a safe, inclusive environment by:
Elevating students’ cultural and language identities and viewing students through a strength based lens,
Embedding Social Emotional Learning throughout daily classroom practices and curriculum and literacy instruction
Designing classroom environments and classroom cultures that increase student confidence as multilingual readers and writers and lower students’ affective filter
Identifying and eliminating microaggressions and addressing social and emotional factors that may affect students’ language and literacy development.
Resources
Understanding Multilingual Learners
WIDA - Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
This article defines some of the assets that teachers should elevate in the classroom and links to strategies for creating a welcoming classroom.
Focus Bulletin: Language & Culture
WIDA - Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Article explores linguistic and cultural diversity in school, and how teachers, staff and parents can help multilingual learners feel welcome, confident, and prepared to succeed academically.
Distinction of Equity
Zaretta Hammond/Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain
Chart to understand distinctions between the three key areas when engaged in equity work. 1. Multicultural education, 2. Social justice education & 3. Culturally responsive education.
A Teacher’s Guide to Support Immigrant and Refugee Students’ Socio-Emotional Experiences
Californians Together
A professional development program that increases the capacity of teachers to address in-the-moment issues that arise as a result of teaching sensitive and emotionally laden topics.
Lowering the affective filter for ELL students facilitates successful language acquisition
Collaborative Classroom
A resource to understand steps to take to create an environment that is a welcom invitation for learning!
Lesson Plan: Classroom Environment
Multilingual Toolkit
A guide in creating an inclusive enironment for multilingual students in which they see themselves represented in the classroom.
Environmental Supports – Personalized Oral Language Learning (POLL) Strategies
Language Learning Project
This resource demonstrates strategies for setting up a classroom environment. Teachers can use this resource to learn about environmental supports that include materials, classroom organization, representations on the walls and throughout the classroom, the daily schedule, and all the ways that your environment promotes an atmosphere of inclusiveness and supports learning in ALL languages.
Classroom Management Mindsets
Tywanda Walker/Rita Pierson, Design Group
This Ted Talk video discusses the elements of a growth mindset when redirecting student behavior and giving educators tools to reflect on their teaching practice.