Kids Come in All Languages

Book excerpt: Everything you need to create a high-trust, high-achieving learning environment for multilingual students We have never known more than we do now about teaching multilingual students — nevertheless, we teeter on the edge of retreating to old-think practices. The next generation depends upon our getting this right, and this spare, salient guide helps ensure we do. Kids Come in All Languages provides teachers and leaders with all they need to design high-quality curriculum to support multilingual learners. With this book, learn to: Create a low-anxiety, high-expectation classroom climate that gives multilingual students access to engaging grade-level content Plan clear, cohesive lessons and tasks that motivate students to produce language, use critical thinking skills, and access complex texts Offer ample time for student-led talk that ramps up knowledge and amps up a sense of belonging Use heterogeneous, flexible grouping so children acquiring English don’t stall out in fixed-mindset, below-grade level groups And much more Teachers act like tributaries, helping learners access a wider stream of knowledge, and catch the swift current of wanting to learn. It’s time to envision this expansiveness for multilingual students. It’s time to design learning experiences with optimism for their futures.