Your guide to culturally and linguistically sustaining practices in your dual language classroom and school. It’s time to set the record straight: Multilingualism is a tremendous asset that must be nurtured and valued and the most effective pathway to multilingualism is dual language education. Despite significant evidence attesting to the cognitive, social/emotional, and economic benefits of multilingualism, the majority of our classrooms and schools are monolingual. Encouragingly, recent shifts in state policies have increased the demand for dual language programming in our schools. This increased momentum brings new challenges, including the need for more bilingually authorized teachers, high-quality instructional resources, and accurate assessment and accountability in the target languages of instruction. With contributions from ten experts in multilingual education, Breaking Down the Monolingual Wall outlines the systemic and pedagogical approaches necessary for successful multilingual and dual language programs. The book supports educators to: Shift the paradigm from one that is subtractive and deficit-based to one that is additive and assets-based Embed culturally and linguistically sustaining practices in their instruction Understand how to promote multilingualism in the context of teaching academic content Develop assessments as, for, and of learning in multiple languages. Lead high-quality dual language schools and programs Recruit and retain highly qualified bilingual educators Offering a comprehensive overview of bilingual policies and historical context all educators should understand, Breaking Down the Monolingual Wall is an invaluable guide to creating dual language learning environments that build on the precious assets of our multilingual students and families.

Your guide to culturally and linguistically sustaining practices in your dual language classroom and school. It's time to set the record straight: Multilingualism is a tremendous asset that must be nurtured and valued and the most effective pathway to multilingualism is dual language education. Despite significant evidence attesting to the cognitive, social/emotional, and economic benefits of multilingualism, the majority of our classrooms and schools are monolingual. Encouragingly, recent shifts in state policies have increased the demand for dual language programming in our schools. This increased momentum brings new challenges, including the need for more bilingually authorized teachers, high-quality instructional resources, and accurate assessment and accountability in the target languages of instruction. With contributions from ten experts in multilingual education, Breaking Down the Monolingual Walloutlines the systemic and pedagogical approaches necessary for successful multilingual and dual language programs. The book supports educators to: Shift the paradigm from one that is subtractive and deficit-based to one that is additive and assets-based Embed culturally and linguistically sustaining practices in their instruction Understand how to promote multilingualism in the context of teaching academic content Develop assessments as, for, and of learning in multiple languages. Lead high-quality dual language schools and programs Recruit and retain highly qualified bilingual educators Offering a comprehensive overview of bilingual policies and historical context all educators should understand, Breaking Down the Monolingual Wallis an invaluable guide to creating dual language learning environments that build on the precious assets of our multilingual students and families.

What will you do to promote multilingual learners’ equity? Our nation’s moment of reckoning with the deficit view of multilingual learners has arrived. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed and exacerbated long-standing inequities that stand in the way of MLs’ access to effective instruction. Recent events have also caused us to reflect on our place as educators within the intersection of race and language. In this innovative book, Sydney Snyder and Diane Staehr Fenner share practical, replicable ways you can draw from students’ strengths and promote multilingual learners′ success within and beyond your own classroom walls. In this book you’ll find • Practical and printable, research-based tools that guide you on how to implement culturally responsive teaching in your context • Case studies and reflection exercises to help identify implicit bias in your work and mitigate deficit-based thinking • Authentic classroom video clips in each chapter to show you what culturally responsive teaching actually looks like in practice • Hand-drawn sketch note graphics that spotlight key concepts, reinforce central themes, and engage you with eye-catching and memorable illustrations There is no time like the present for you to reflect on your role in culturally responsive teaching and use new tools to build an even stronger school community that is inclusive of MLs. No matter your role or where you are in your journey, you can confront injustice by taking action steps to develop a climate in which all students’ backgrounds, experiences, and cultures are honored and educators, families, and communities work collaboratively to help MLs thrive. We owe it to our students. On-demand book study-Available now! Authors, Snyder and Staehr Fenner have created an on-demand LMS book study for readers of Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity available now from their company SupportEd. The self-paced book study works around your schedule and when you′re done, you’ll earn a certificate for 20 hours of PD. SupportEd can also customize the book study for specific district timelines, cohorts and/or needs upon request.

Highlight the assets of English Learners in your classroom Students do better in school when their voices are heard. For English Learners, that means not only supporting their growing language proficiency, but also empowering them to share their linguistic and cultural identities. This practical guide, grounded in compelling research and organized around essential questions and answers, is designed to help all educators build on their current competencies to authentically harmonize home languages and cultures in the classroom. Inside you’ll find • The emotional, social, linguistic, cognitive, and academic rationale for incorporating cultural and linguistic assets • Creatively illustrated powerful practices with concrete examples of successful implementation • Myth-busting reflections to spark critical thinking about diversity, inclusive education, and family engagement • Curriculum connections tied to American and Canadian standards By recognizing and validating every student’s linguistic and cultural assets, you create a supportive environment for academic success.

What if multilingual learners had the freedom to interact in more than one language with their peers during classroom assessment? What if multilingual learners and their teachers in dual language settings had opportunities to use assessment data in multiple languages to make decisions? Just imagine the rich linguistic, academic, and cultural reservoirs we could tap as we determine what our multilingual learners know and can do. Thankfully, Margo Gottlieb is here to provide concrete and actionable guidance on how to create assessment systems that enable understanding of the whole student, not just that fraction of the student who is only visible as an English learner. With Classroom Assessment in Multiple Languages as your guide, you’ll: Better understand the rationale for and evidence on the value and advantages of classroom assessment in multiple languages Add to your toolkit of classroom assessment practices in one or multiple languages Be more precise and effective in your assessment of multilingual learners by embedding assessment as, for, and of learning into your instructional repertoire Recognize how social-emotional, content, and language learning are all tied to classroom assessment Guide multilingual learners in having voice and choice in the assessment process Despite the urgent need, assessment for multilingual learners is generally tucked into a remote chapter, if touched upon at all in a book; the number of resources narrows even more when multiple languages are brought into play. Here at last is that single resource on how educators and multilingual learners can mutually value languages and cultures in instruction and assessment throughout the school day and over time. We encourage you to get started right away. “Margo Gottlieb has demonstrated why the field, particularly the field as it involves the teaching of multilingual learners, needs another assessment book, particularly a book like this. . . . Classroom Assessment in Multiple Languages quite likely could serve as a catalyst toward the beginning of an enlightened discourse around assessment that will benefit multilingual learners.” ~Kathy Escamilla

Your Greatest Assets are Right Before Your Eyes: Your Multilingual Learners! Equity for multilingual learners (MLLs) means that students’ cultural and linguistic identities, backgrounds, and experiences are recognized as valued, rich sources of knowledge and their academic, linguistic, literacy, and social–emotional growth is ensured to the fullest potential. This ready-to-use guide offers practical, classroom-level strategies for educators seeking thoughtful, research-informed, and accessible information on how to champion equity for MLLs in a post-COVID era. Focused on the deliberate daily actions that all teachers of multilingual learners can take, this resource guide captures a compelling advocacy framework for culturally and linguistically responsive equity work, including Authentic examples of how educators understand and support MLLs through an equity lens Student portraits of multilingual learners’ experiences Accessible answers to essential how-to questions Robust professional learning activities Access to print and online resources for additional information Thoughtful probes throughout the guide help teachers develop student agency and foster pathways in their own practice and communication with multilingual learners.

It was a dark and stormy night in Santa Barbara. January 19, 2017. The next day’s inauguration drumroll played on the evening news. Huddled around a table were nine Corwin authors and their publisher, who together have devoted their careers to equity in education. They couldn’t change the weather, they couldn’t heal a fractured country, but they did have the power to put their collective wisdom about EL education upon the page to ensure our multilingual learners reach their highest potential. Proudly, we introduce you now to the fruit of that effort: Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners’ Success. In this first-of-a-kind collaboration, teachers and leaders, whether in small towns or large urban centers, finally have both the research and the practical strategies to take those first steps toward excellence in educating our culturally and linguistically diverse children. It’s a book to be celebrated because it means we can throw away the dark glasses of deficit-based approaches and see children who come to school speaking a different home language for what they really are: learners with tremendous assets. The authors’ contributions are arranged in nine chapters that become nine tenets for teachers and administrators to use as calls to actions in their own efforts to realize our English learners’ potential: 1. From Deficit-Based to Asset-Based 2. From Compliance to Excellence 3. From Watering Down to Challenging 4. From Isolation to Collaboration 5. From Silence to Conversation 6. From Language to Language, Literacy, and Content 7. From Assessment of Learning to Assessment for and as Learning 8. From Monolingualism to Multilingualism 9. From Nobody Cares to Everyone/Every Community Cares Read this book; the chapters speak to one another, a melodic echo of expertise, classroom vignettes, and steps to take. To shift the status quo is neither fast nor easy, but there is a clear process, and it’s laid out here in Breaking Down the Wall. To distill it into a single line would go something like this: if we can assume mutual ownership, if we can connect instruction to all children’s personal, social, cultural, and linguistic identities, then all students will achieve.