This blog post will tackle the tenth guiding principle in working with Multilingual Learners (MLs). This content has been adapted for this blog from the WIDA ELD Standards Framework. This guiding principle asks us to think about how multilingual learners use what they know about their home language and English to negotiate meaning, learn deeply, and communicate with others about their learning.
In today's blog post, I'd like to leave you with the idea that bilingualism (well, multilingualism) is a superpower that our MLs possess. We have high, yet reasonable, expectations for our students and meet them at their level. We build language-rich classrooms to support language acquisition and development. We think carefully about the read-aloud we choose and the personal stories we share as mentor texts. We differentiate and incorporate various strategies to reach our students. We create classroom communities where uniqueness is valued and physical and emotional safety is a priority. We do all of this to foster the growth of our students and for our multilingual learners, we’re building their superpowers! Our MLs will change the world because of you as educators.
I love this graphic below from the Centre for Educators of Bilingual and Multilingual Learners about the Superpower that being Multilingual is...
"Multilingual learners use and develop language to interpret and present different perspectives, build awareness of relationships, and affirm their identities." (WIDA 2020).
Photo and Content Credit to: Cummins 2001, Esteban-Guitart & Moll 2014, May 2013, Nieto 2010.
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