Reanna, Janet, and Jaimyka are early childhood educators who are recent graduates of the Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Diploma program in Aurora College in the Northwest Territories of Canada. They used storytelling and related follow-up activities to teach their Indigenous language, Tlicho, in their early childhood field placements in…

As part of a large study aiming to understand how kindergarten children in Colombia used translanguaging during independent play, Paula (the teacher) along with Dr. Moses (lead researcher) co-designed a 6-week play-based intervention that included a variety of learning experiences such as partner reading, small-group reading, and supported play,…

The field of multilingual learner education has become increasingly complex, with longstanding efforts focused on promoting "access" to multilingual learners being criticized for failing to "transform" systems responsible for these students' marginalization. This essay brings clarity to the complex terrain of equity for…

Equivalence is a concept that comes up across the entire K-12 grade span and in many different areas of mathematics. Students who are bureaucratically designated as "English Learners" can explore equivalence across their K-12 academic careers while developing language to connect ideas. Drawing on what is known generally from theory and…

On day one the author sets up the expectation that her kindergarten Spanish language immersion classroom will be a 100% target language environment. To accomplish this, the author implements several structures, routines, and expectations to maintain the immersion environment. Getting to know the students, modeling appropriate behavior, promoting…

In order to make assessments as widely accessible as possible, including to young learners from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of individual needs and characteristics, some developers of standardized tests have resorted to offering accessibility tools (e.g., magnifying/zoom) and accommodations (e.g., extended response time) to test takers.…

Multilingual learners (MLs), also referred to as English learners (ELs) in US K-12 public schools, and specifically newcomer MLs who have been in US schools for 2 years or less, are expected to learn the English language and reach grade level standards as their monolingual English-speaking peers. Mathematics education in the US has struggled over…

Meeting the needs of English learners (ELs) effectively must be an individualized, purposeful, and data-driven process. Progress monitoring can help practitioners to target their EL students' most significant academic and linguistic needs and, subsequently, develop and deliver instructional programming that may help students develop to their…

Learn how to teach multilingual students effectively and equitably with this practical and accessible resource. The authors share real-world examples from the classrooms of ESOL teachers, unpack the teachers' thinking about their instruction, and identify six core practices that are foundational to teaching multilingual students: knowing your…

This book follows four emergent bilingual students in an English-medium pre-kindergarten in the US as they navigate the social and linguistic demands of school. It illustrates how students' differing classroom social positions shaped their participation in interaction and, in turn, their English language learning across a school year. With a…

This article discusses the role of vocabulary learning in supporting multilingual students' participation in disciplinary practices and discourses in K-12 content-area classrooms. First, the authors discuss the strengths and limitations of incidental and intentional vocabulary learning. They then propose a new approach to vocabulary instruction in…

A distinguishing feature of English learners (ELs) centers on coming from homes in which a language other than or in addition to English is used, but bilingualism itself is not a risk factor for low academic achievement. Yet in the United States, ELs' reading achievement continues to lag behind that of their English-proficient peers. In this…

In California, multilingual (ML) teachers seeking Bilingual Authorization or ongoing professional development must confront the field's sedimentary tensions. Cultivating culturally sustaining approaches to language learning in PreK-12 school communities requires embedding humanizing practices at the core of ML teacher education and professional…

Given the great influence gender identity issues have in educational settings, it is critical to understand how students, especially in the K-12 context, are affected and how this contributes to their academic success. This article deals with the potential that lies in teaching topics of gender identity in the additional language classroom.…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page sheets on a variety of subjects. This fact sheet provides the following data on ELs in the United States over the 2017-2018 school year: (1) Percentage of Students Enrolled in K-12 Who Are English Learners; (2) English Language…