Emergent Multilingual Learners

We partner with educators across all levels in schools and districts to define and work towards a common vision of what it means to know, support, and teach Emergent Multilingual Learners.

During our professional development sessions, we engage educators as learners and study how rich content and cognitively demanding tasks, high-leverage instructional practices, and student-centered routines, support Emergent Multilingual Learners. We immerse educators in the kinds of text- and task-based instruction that improve Emergent Multilingual Learners’ knowledge and skills in reading, writing, and reasoning across content areas. This allows educators to reflect on current practices and learn new ways of working to engage Emergent Multilingual Learners in high cognitive demand instruction.

We study practices and routines that help students develop the habits of mind and skills needed to solve intellectually challenging problems and work through complex texts and tasks. These practices and routines invite students to collaborate with peers to deepen their understanding, knowing that questioning and exploration are routine ways for learning deeply.

Professional Development

Our professional development sessions and instructional materials help English language arts teachers of Emergent Multilingual Learners integrate oral and written language when working with texts and tasks. Through our work together, teachers will be able to

    • craft vocabulary lessons using different modalities (reading, writing, and speaking).
    • use instructional tools that support Emergent Multilingual Learners when working with complex texts and cognitively demanding tasks.
    • embed regular opportunities for Emergent Multilingual Learners to discuss content in pairs, small, and large groups during text-based tasks. (Read more about using talk with Emergent Multilingual Students in ELA classrooms)
    • craft writing opportunities for students to deepen and strengthen their comprehension of texts and topics.
    • develop tasks where students apply their academic language (both orally and in writing).
    • use formative assessment to craft activities for mediation when it is needed.

Additionally, we offer professional development sessions and instructional materials that help math teachers of Emergent Multilingual Learners

    • use instructional strategies that assist students in unpacking and comprehending the math tasks when they are students who are simultaneously learning math and English. (Read more about strategies to support Emergent Multilingual Learners in math classrooms)
    • leverage visual representations as a means of communicating mathematical ideas and understanding.
    • engage students in talk, even when the language of instruction is not the students’ native language.
    • formatively assess students’ math assets.

Our professional development for English language arts teachers and math teachers of Emergent Multilingual students is available through special request.