Multilingualism as an Asset to Your ClassroomOnline Teaching SeminarVirtual

What happens when you see your multilingual students as crucial members of your classroom community, rather than as struggling students who need to catch up? Let's reframe language learning as an opportunity, not just for your multilingual students, but for the whole class. By focusing on language awareness, we’ll learn to help language learners develop crucial linguistic skills while also building critical thinking skills and language agency for all of our students.

Session A: What does it mean to be multilingual?

We start by placing our language stories, and those of our students, in a broader context. We explore our hidden assumptions about language learning and learn about diffusing anxiety as a crucial pedagogical tool.

Session B: How can micro-moments have a macro-impact in our classroom?

This session focuses on observation as a new way to think about assessment and as a tool for teacher agency. We look at how micro-moments with students can have a macro-impact and explore the tiny cues students give us about their understanding, whether or not we share a language.

Session C: How can grammar be a tool for agency?

Here, we rethink grammar, seeing it as a tool for agency rather than a set of rules. We explore a new kind of translation, one that moves between different versions of English, and discuss how explicit metalinguistic conversations support language learning, a sense of audience, and critical reading and listening skills.

Session D: How can we provide multilingual learners with opportunities to showcase their thinking?

In this session, we separate reading, writing, and thinking. Our focus is not on how to simplify tasks and texts, but rather how to create opportunities for language learners to engage with reading and writing in age-appropriate ways. We examine methods and tools for working with texts that scaffold literacy while showcasing the brilliance of our multilingual students.

Session E: How can conversation be a site for thinking together?

Even the shortest conversation is rife with choices. In this session, we will discuss classroom interaction in terms of purpose, roles, and goals, and learn how to teach pragmatic skills to language learners while developing academic speaking skills for the whole class.

*This five-session series is designed to be experienced as a cohesive whole. Teachers are therefore encouraged though not required to attend all five sessions.

X credits for school members

CTLE available

Limited to 35 teachers