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Cultural event where we get to learn, authentically and not stereotypically, about the culture and languages of our community.

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Think about what brought you here today.  Choose what best fits your purpose.

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Think about what brought you here today.  Choose what best fits your purpose.

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A. I want to learn more about multilingualism.

B. I have ideas that I want to contribute to through discussion.

C. I want to work on the current project or start a new one.

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What is one thing that you have done/learned today to promote linguistic inclusion at WAB?

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What is one thing that you have done/learned today to promote linguistic inclusion at WAB?

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Project - Collaborating with Stakeholders: Parents 

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Project - Collaborating with Stakeholders: Parents 

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How do we make it easier for our families to connect with other families with same home language(s)

ACTION: Connect with Parent Link to gather information about exciting WeChat group and promoting them through WAB weekly Parent Link news (email draft)

How do we better promote the Mother Tongue program?

ACTION: Update website https://www.wab-edu.cn/learn/language-programs  (Irina Mach has been contacted)

Invite parents to come on campus to run activities/workshops in various home languages

ACTION: Form to create database of parents who are interested

=> https://forms.office.com/r/AMfv6U1eFC

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Ceci Gomez - Language Equity NEASC Webinar

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Ceci Gomez - Language Equity NEASC Webinar

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New England Association of Schools and Colleges

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Language Equity: Redefining our Language Learning Practices to Empower Multilinguals | #NEASCforum

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Suggested Topics for Discussion/only for your reference!

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Suggested Topics for Discussion/only for your reference!

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https://wabcloud-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/helen_avetisyan_wab_edu/EdgqxuX7_0RBs0zsC7dyzAYBmYXQkDkR4HaTIFpvKzkXvQ?e=ZlydqQ

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TRANSLANGUAGING GUIDE.pdf

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https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/co-teach/ell

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Co-teaching can be an exciting way to support English language learners' (ELL) success! It can also present many kinds of challenges. Here are some tips for ELL educators and classroom educators on how to make the most of their co-teaching partnerships.

These recommendations are based on our in-depth interviews with Katy Padilla, an ESOL Coach for Virginia's Fairfax County Public Schools district. In her prior roles as a classroom teacher and ESOL specialist, she worked in a number of collaborative settings and co-teaching partnerships, including at an elementary school that was designed as a professional learning community, Mason Crest Elementary. You can see Katy in action in the videos at the end of the interview!

Co-teaching ELLs: Strategies for Success

1. Get to know your partner teacher.

Ms. Padilla recommends that teachers start by spending some time visiting their co-teacher's classroom and getting to know their teaching style:

ELL educators can visit their partner teacher's room and watch how the classroom and teacher work. She says, "It's important not to start by jumping into suggestions. It's seeing where that teacher is coming from in order to understand, 'Where is my place in this room? What could be my place in this room?'"

Classroom teachers can observe the ELL educator co-teaching in another classroom or leading a small group lesson. That can give them some ideas about how the teacher is supporting students and working with other teachers.

2. Get to know each other's strengths.

Ms. Padilla notes that both partners bring different strengths to the partnership. The better acquainted each partner is with the other's strength, the more productive the relationship will be.

The classroom teacher might be managing lots of different student situations, strengths, and needs and extensive experience in classroom management.

ELL educators have deep expertise around supporting students' language development, identifying important language for content lessons, and differentiating instruction. They also have a holistic picture of ELLs' educational and social-emotional backgrounds. ELL teachers bring another lens to what classroom teachers are seeing, Ms. Padilla says, which can stimulate their ideas of how to address an issue.

Ms. Padilla also notes that sharing some positive feedback about some admirable skills or qualities is an effective way to build rapport, especially because establishing this respect and trust is one of the greatest challenges for a co-teaching team. "For example," she recalls, "when I was a classroom teacher, I didn't really understand what the resource teachers did. I thought, 'Oh, it's easy they just come in and help.' I never really had to think through the different dynamics, and because I wasn't going into other teachers' classrooms, I didn't realize that the resource teachers had to work with other teachers differently.

"At the same time, it's also easy for resource teachers to come in and say, 'I know what to do for these kids, and I know how to do it here.' But it's not always the case, and the ELL specialist needs to be looking for ways to provide support that can benefit all students in the room."

3. Develop a shared understanding of the ELL educator's expertise and role.

According to Ms. Padilla, many classroom teachers never have a chance to see what ELL educators do every day. That can lead to some difficult situations in which ELL educators end up in the back of the room or being asked to do menial tasks.

The team can develop that shared understanding by:

Co-planning a lesson together.

Discussing questions related to ELL instruction or support.

Talking about other prior co-teaching experiences.

ELL educators can also hold a professional development session on what the ELL teacher (or team) does and how they can work with colleagues.

Ms. Padilla says that creating a situation where the two teachers work together can help jumpstart the collaboration. "Ultimately, it's important to establish that you are equals in the room," she says, "because then the students start to see the team as equals too. It's not one teacher and an assistant. Both teachers are there to support all students, and everyone is on the same team."

4. Establish clear communication procedures.

Establishing open and clear communication is crucial, according to Ms. Padilla, because it's really hard to make co-teaching work without that consistent, effective communication. It's important to be very intentional and specific, she says, figuring out details such as:

How are we going to communicate?

When are we going to communicate?

When is it OK to make a change?

Are we flexible enough to make a change right before the lesson, or does it need to happen the day before?

For example, she says, with email, "I would send out an email, and not get a reply. Then I wasn't sure if it was not received well, or was it just not received at all. And so it was important to be able to say, 'You know, I really need to have a reply, and it doesn't mean that you have to agree with my idea, but I just need to know that you've gotten it.' That was a huge piece and really helped my teams work together effectively."

Another important piece is follow-through, she says, because it's important to be reliable, which helps establish trust. (This was an area where ELL educators in co-teaching situations have seen a lot of challenges while being pulled so much to cover for other teachers at the last minute during COVID-19.)

5. Be flexible with your co-teaching arrangements.

According to Ms. Padilla, there is a different dynamic in every classroom based on classroom environment, instruction, and personality and her co-teaching situations looked different from room to room.

"In one room," she says, "as the ELL specialist, I didn't lead as much, and I was supporting the students, so that could be me sitting on the carpet with them, making sure that they're following along and that they're getting it, but then I also had the opportunity to speak up and I still had a voice in the room. In another room, I often was in the front; I sometimes took the lead, and the classroom teacher was supporting the students. Other times we broke into small groups, or broke the class in half and we each took a group."

Co-teaching can take on a lot of different forms, she says, but in all of her teams, the teachers worked to establish that they were both there to support all students, which was part of the collaborative culture of this particular school where she worked: "ELLs are everyone's kids, and when we work as a team, I'm supported, she's supported, and we're both supporting the kids."

6. Be ready to try new things - and fail.

Being able to try things and fail is really important, says Ms. Padilla, as is being able to communicate about it afterwards and say, 'I really thought that would work, and it didn't.'" That vulnerability matters, she says, because that starts to open up the trust and both members are ready to take risks and try new things. "We also have to know that we have the safety of, 'I'm not going to judge what you're doing. And we're both here for the kids, and so we're both going to be trying new things. And some will work, and some won't, and that's OK. We'll move forward from that,'" she says. "It's always a work in progress. It's never done. That's kind of the exciting part. It always has the potential to grow and get better over time."

In addition, Ms. Padilla says, be ready to change! Co-teaching changes how teachers work together and sometimes how they work individually as they grow and learn during the year.

7. If co-teaching is new to your team, start small.

For teachers who are just getting started with co-teaching, Ms. Padilla recommends starting small. If your team is trying to figure out how to work together, start with small, short activities and lessons, and check in on what's working.

If you are an ELL educator or classroom teacher who is interested in trying a co-teaching arrangement, she says, "Find one teacher that you already have a relationship with, that you feel comfortable with, and work with that one teacher, and really focus on that is the one collaborative relationship that you're going to build."

She explains, "It can start by the ELL educator saying, 'You know you have these English learners in your room, and I would love to work with them, or see how things are going. Can I come in? I'd like to observe.' Or you can say, 'How do you think your class is going overall? Is there something that you'd like to work on that I can support you with?' That way you can get that feedback from the teacher. And then as you're looking at the data, such as observational data, you can come up with common goal."

For classroom teachers, it can start with a single question about how to address a particular topic or skill, even with a single student. Focusing on a tangible issue to work on together can often help the partnership get going.

8. Share examples of what's working with your colleagues.

Ms. Padilla makes a point to regularly share success stories with groups of colleagues so that people can hear what's working. For example, at the beginning of the school year, her team shares celebrations from the previous year. That could spark some interest from a colleague, she says, who might think, "'Maybe she'd want to try that out in my room. I'd really like for her to come try that because I know I need help in that area.'" And, she notes, that once teachers experience success, they're going to share with other teachers, she says, and a recognition of the benefits of collaboration can spread among the school community organically.

It's also important to share these successes with administrators so that they can provide more official support and resources for collaboration. The more voices that speak up on behalf of the benefits of collaboration, the more compelling the case becomes to make it a structured part of everyone's schedules.

Related Resources

These books offer lots of strategies for collaboration, co-teaching, and planning ELL instruction, assessment, and family outreach. These strategies can be adapted for a wide variety of settings and team structures.

Many of the titles are authored by the foremost experts on this topic, Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld and Dr. Maria Dove.

Co-teaching Best Practices from Drs. Dove and Honigsfeld

These resources on co-teaching were developed for New York State by Dr. Dove and Dr. Honigsfeld.

Dr. Holly Porter shares how her district moved entirely from pull-out to fully co-teaching. This conversation on Tan Huynh's Teaching ELs podcast provides practical advice at the district level and can also be applied to schools that want to move away from pull-out to co-teaching.

ENL Co-Teaching Checklist

For additional ideas, see this ENL Co-Teaching Checklist developed by New York State United Teachers.

Recommended Videos

Video bonus: You can see Katy Padilla in action in these videos, filmed in collaboration with the NEA:

Discussion Questions

What resonates from this article with you?

Can you think of a co-teaching situation you have been in where the dynamics helped or hurt the partnership?

What are some steps you can try to strengthen a co-teaching partnership you have?

What are your big takeaways from this article?

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Co-Teaching ELLs: 8 Strategies for Success

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Co-teaching can be an exciting way to support English language learners' (ELL) success! It can also present many kinds of challenges. Here are some tips for ELL educators and classroom educators on how to make the most of their co-teaching partnerships.

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https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/engaging-ell-parents-leaders

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The following strategies offer tips for helping ELL families learn about leadership opportunities in their school community and develop the confidence to step into those roles.

Supporting immigrant families

For related ideas, see the following:

15. Encourage ELL parents to take on leadership roles

A. What you need to know

While ELL parents may be underrepresented in leadership roles, some guidance and encouragement from school leaders can go a long way in building their confidence. It may be something small, such as soliciting ideas for school events, or something bigger such as asking them to serve on a parent advisory council or speaking at a school board meeting (Meyers, 45). Your parents know their children and community best, and they are likely to offer successful solutions to problems that the school community hadn't thought of before, particularly if they represent a large number of ELL families.

B. Reflection

Do your parent committees reflect your ELL population? Who is advocating for your ELL students?

C. Strategies

Make sure that qualified interpreters are available so that parents can feel comfortable communicating their ideas in their native language. The negative encounter experienced by a gentleman who spoke in front of a legislative hearing in Texas underscores the importance of having an interpreter who can communicate nuances and intent.

Consider developing a branch of the PTA for your ELL parents, organized by language. While it may seem to isolate or favor certain parents, it will allow ELL parents to become comfortable with the role the school is asking them to take on, to learn more about the school, and to build capacity. Once the parents feel more confident, bring them together with the larger PTA on a regular basis, and help the two groups communicate. (As in other cases, the way people respond to this step will depend on how you frame it. If people understand why you think it's beneficial for the entire school for ELL parents to become more involved in the PTA, they are more likely to support a separate ELL parent group. If you can organize such a group, sit in on a meeting to get a sense of what it's like to follow a PTA meeting in another language!)

As your ELL parents become more familiar with the school policies and environment, ensure that ELL parents are represented in the PTA and parent advisory groups.

Offer your ELL parents frequent and convenient opportunities to share input, ideas, and concerns with you and your teachers in a variety of venues (Houk, 67).

Encourage parents to attend and speak up at school board meetings, even with an interpreter.

Remind the school board members and district leaders to communicate policies/changes in your families' languages.

Take parent input seriously, and don't ask for it until you are prepared to listen. As Houk notes, "Parents should not be 'included' to rubber stamp school decisions, or to provide affirmation for school staff about decisions made with no real input (68)." The message parents send may not be what you want to hear (69) and this may require some more flexibility and cross-cultural understanding on everyone's part. However, once you begin to hear their good ideas, you will realize that the learning curve is worth it!

D. Example

Marla Hori from Skokie, Illinois describes a program in her district called "Bridge Parents." One or two parents are enlisted from each language group to serve as leaders in engaging other parents around school during coffee hours at the school or parents' homes. Marla also notes that these parents have helped the school as translators (40-41).

Video: Becoming the PTO President

Video: A crisis that created a leader

Video: "But I am the president"

Video: Immigrant families are rising to meet challenges

16. Look for ways to make parent leadership more sustainable

A. What you need to know

Parent leadership can be lost easily as students get older and transition to new schools. Think about putting a mentorship program in place to keep new parents engaged. The mentorship piece is essential because, in these roles, bilingual parents are asked to speak up and make decisions in a new cultural environment - and the cycle of building trust and respect must begin again.

B. Reflection

Think about your strongest parents at the school. How do you plan to replace them once their children move to another school? What barriers exist to developing bilingual leaders?

C. Strategies

Form a panel of ELL parents to address questions and concerns.

Designate parent leaders in each language group to engage other parents.

Brainstorm with your ELL parent leaders about ways to recruit and mentor new parents.

Learn from your parents' experiences and find out what they think will make a positive impact on future parents who are new to the U.S. school system.

As parents prepare to step away from leadership responsibilities, ask them if they would be willing to mentor new parent leaders who are joining the community.

Ask them for recommendations of other parent leaders that they have gotten to know.

D. Example

ELL parents serve on a district Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee (BPAC) in Illinois' District 65, as mandated by Illinois Administrative School Code. Parents on the BPAC help the district:

Review grant applications and implement grant activities

Organize Spanish classes for the community

Review standardized assessment data

Advocate for programming at school board meetings

Volunteer and tutor in classrooms

Organize school events.

The BPAC parents were also instrumental in successfully lobbying the school board for a new two-way immersion program despite the board's initial resistance (Yturriago, 50-51).

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The following strategies offer tips for helping ELL families learn about leadership opportunities in their school community and develop the confidence to step into those roles. Supporting immigrant families For related ideas, see the following: A.

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You can find  projects  we have started in this document.

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You can find  projects  we have started in this document.

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https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/you-are-already-leader-identifying-your-leadership-skills-behalf-ells

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You Are Already a Leader: Identifying Your Leadership Skills on Behalf of ELLs

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At this point in the school year, it’s a good time to hit the pause button and reflect upon how the academic year has been going. It’s also a point at which you can decide which goals you can set for the remainder of your work in the classroom this year to support your ELLs.In previous blog posts, I…

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Survey For Reflection and Action for ML Learners

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Survey For Reflection and Action for ML Learners

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https://www.colorincolorado.org/article/policy-and-accountability-requirements-survey-reflection-and-action

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This language policy survey is an excerpt from English Language Learners at School: A Guide for Administrators, 2nd Edition ( Caslon, 2012). The survey is intended to help schools/districts identify policies and procedures for ELLs that are in place, as well as the strengths and limitations of what already exists. In addition, the survey concludes with an opportunity for reflection about future possibilities and action items.

Read the following statements to guide your survey of the policies and procedures for ELLs that are in place in your school/district. Indicate the extent to which each of the following applies to your school:

DK - don't know
1 - strongly disagree
2 - disagree
3 - agree
4 - strongly agree
The school district/school has a language policy for ELLs and an implementation
plan that includes the following:

A mission statement that:

1. aligns the district's/school's policies, programs, and practices with all local, state, and Federal mandates

2. clearly articulates the district's/school's stance on languages other than English.

Procedures governing the uses of languages in the school system, including issues of:

language choice

translators and interpreters

languages of tests.

Defining criteria of the type(s) of program(s) that is/are implemented in the district/school, such as:

sheltered content-area instruction (SI)

specially designed academic

instruction in English (SDAIE)

English-as-a-second-language (ESL)

English language development (ELD) bilingual education (transitional bilingual education, dual language education),

heritage language programs

Procedures for the recruitment, retention, and professional development of all teachers, administrators, and staff who
work with ELLs.

Procedures governing all aspects of program implementation from placement to proficiency, including: testing accommodations

exit criteria based on multiple measures

promotion and graduation requirements

ways to address ELLs' special needs.

Procedures governing program monitoring and evaluation.

Strengths of our school district/school policies and procedures Future Possibilities Action steps
Reflection

Now that you have completed the survey, write down one to three strengths and future possibilities you identified through your review of your policies and procedures for ELLs. Then identify one to three concrete actions that you can take to improve those policies and procedures.

Acknowledgements

Our policy section is made possible by a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation. The statements and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors.

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Policy and Accountability Requirements: Survey for Reflection and Action

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This language policy survey is an excerpt from English Language Learners at School: A Guide for Administrators, 2nd Edition ( Caslon, 2012). The survey is intended to help schools/districts identify policies and procedures for ELLs that are in place, as well as the strengths and limitations of what already exists.

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https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-organization-blog/how-to-change-mindset-and-behavior

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Changing mindsets and behavior, one “nudge” at a time

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By using techniques such as “nudging,” it’s possible to change people’s behavior without limiting what they can do.

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https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED512636.pdf

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Collaboration practices to promote multilingual learning

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Collaboration practices to promote multilingual learning

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Collaboration from WIDA.pdf

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https://www.colorincolorado.org/advocacy-ells-recommended-resources

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Our first Facebook Live event featured Dr. Diane Staehr Fenner and Colorín Colorado Manager Lydia Breiseth discussing advocacy ideas for English language learners (ELLs). You can find the video archive of the event here, along with related resources mentioned in the chat.

Acknowledgements

This Facebook Live event was made possible by generous support from the National Education Association. For additional ideas on ELL advocacy, take a look at the NEA guide,All In! How Educators Can Advocate for ELLs.

Video Archive

You can see the video archive of the event below. All questions and comments from the live chat are available on the original post.

Recommended Books & Guides

The books on this list include a wide range of practical ideas for advocating on behalf of ELLs, as well as tips on developing leadership skills and encouraging a shared sense of responsibility for ELLs with colleagues and administrators. The booklist includes Diane Staehr Fenner's groundbreaking book, Advocating for English Learners: A Guide for Educators, published by Corwin Press.

How can educators and other stakeholders become more effective advocates for language-minority students? This National Education Association guide offers strategies, resources, and step-by-step instructions for navigating the real-life issues educators encounter every day. The guide also features general educators and ELL educators who tell stories about the students who inspired them to act.

Articles & Blog Posts

Advocacy & Leadership

Collaboration

Special Education

Getting to Know Your ELLs

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Advocacy for ELLs: Event Archive & Resources

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Our first Facebook Live event featured Dr. Diane Staehr Fenner and Colorín Colorado Manager Lydia Breiseth discussing advocacy ideas for English language learners (ELLs). You can find the video archive of the event here, along with related resources mentioned in the chat. This Facebook Live event was made possible by generous support from the National Education Association.

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EAL Online Tools.docx

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https://pamojaeducation.com/blog/promoting-multilingualism-ib-dp

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The International Baccalaureate (IB) states its mission as being "more than its educational programs and certificates," [1] going on to show that this is part of its desire to "create a better world through education"[2]. Significantly it locates the realisation of this aim in, among other things, "intercultural understanding".

In this article I want to look at the way intercultural understanding, and specifically its promotion through an acknowledgement of the importance of multilingualism, is at the heart of what makes the IB both unique and a rich, student centred educational programme.

Recognition of multilingualism is central to the IB's way of thinking. While this is not directly mentioned in the organisation's mission statement, it is implied in the attention to intercultural understanding. Elsewhere however, this connection is made explicit. In the IB learner profile, which is "the IB mission statement translated into a set of learning outcomes for the 21st century", the section "Communicators" notes that IB learners "express [themselves] confidently and creatively in more than one language." [3] In the implementation of Approaches to Teaching and Learning [4], multilingualism is one of the three aspects, along with "intercultural understanding and global engagement", that underpin the IB's belief in the importance of "international mindedness" [5].
The Bilingual Diploma
The theoretical position set out in these documents manifests itself practically in the IB Diploma Programme in a number of key ways. The first perhaps is through the Bilingual Diploma. This is awarded to students who:

"complete and receive a grade 3 or higher in two languages selected from the DP course studies in language and literature", or

"gain a grade 3 or higher in studies in language and literature and a grade 3 or higher in an individuals and societies or science subject, completed in a different language" [6]

Since 2014, a steady rate of around 22% of students are awarded this form of the Diploma [7]. A lengthy study of the Bilingual Diploma was commissioned by the IB in 2014, exploring its take up, the added value it is perceived to give students and how it can be developed and expanded [8].
Languages and literature
The IB is also unique in offering for no extra charge the opportunity for all students to undertake the study of the literature of their language, be it Dzongkha from Bhutan or Papiamento from Aruba, on exactly the same terms as the examinations for languages that are automatically available each session. This means taking on the responsibility of finding a paper setter and an examiner even when only one student worldwide may require the examination. Even in circumstances where no teacher can be sourced students can still take advantage of this offer, though only at Standard Level, through the School-supported self-taught programme the IB provides.
Languages and examinations
Finally, as well as supporting access to the IB Diploma for students undertaking the Programme in languages that are not their mother tongue, the IB offers all its examinations in English, French and Spanish. There are also increasing amounts of assessment material available in German and Japanese, as well as assessment support material available in Arabic and Chinese.
Facilitating the Bilingual Diploma
Schools may face significant challenges to promote bilingual course options. Their subject offering in studies in language and literature may be limited, or their teachers may not all be experienced in delivering courses in a different language. Online solutions exist to support schools' leadership and teachers alike. Pamoja has been working in close collaboration with the IB for the past 10 years, enabling schools to broaden their Diploma subject offering with courses fully taught online in English. There are still many ways in which teaching can leverage the opportunities inherent in online courses.

Particularly valuable here might be the way Pamoja's online methodologies provide an ideal environment to support those students for whom language development is a crucial part of their IB studies. Students who are English Language Learners (ELL) benefit enormously from the fact that Pamoja's course materials can be accessed ahead of the lessons and are furthermore available for reference and reinforcement throughout the duration of the course. In this way learning with Pamoja can support young people in developing their multilingual experience, positioning it clearly in support to the IB Learner Profile and showing its commitment to Approaches to Teaching and Learning strategies and skills.
Article written by Dr Andrew Flory, freelance educational consultant focusing on the IB Diploma Programme Did you know?
We are pleased to support schools in the delivery of IB Bilingual Diploma Programmes. This September we will be launching brand new IB DP courses including English A Language and Literature, both SL and HL. We also offer a range of Individuals and societies subjects including Business Management, ITGS and Psychology. See our full list of IB courses here.
Sign up to our monthly newsletter to keep up to date with all the latest Pamoja news.
[1] https://www.ibo.org/about-the-ib/mission/

[2] Op cit.

[3] https://www.ibo.org/contentassets/fd82f70643ef4086b7d3f292cc214962/learner-profile-en.pdf

[4] https://xmltwo.ibo.org/publications/DP/Group0/d_0_dpatl_gui_1502_1/static/dpatl/index.html

[5] https://xmltwo.ibo.org/publications/DP/Group0/d_0_dpatl_gui_1502_1/static/dpatl/guide-every-dp-teacher-is-a-language-teacher.html

[6] https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/assessment-and-exams/understanding-ib-assessment/

[7] https://www.ibo.org/contentassets/bc850970f4e54b87828f83c7976a4db6/dp-statistical-bulletin-may-2018-en.pdf

[8] https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/publications/ib-research/dp/bilingual-diploma-final-report.pdf

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Promoting Multilingualism in the IB Diploma Programme - Pamoja

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The International Baccalaureate (IB) states its mission as being "more than its educational programs and certificates," going on to show that this is part of its desire to "create a better world through education"[2]. Significantly it locates the realisation of this aim in, among other things, "intercultural understanding".

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https://wabcloud.sharepoint.com/:w:/s/Curriculum-Strategy/EXU7uxCgxkdBt0ZgVAnlzzEBmD8_lop-MI4BUp6lKRdL1A?e=RbginG&wdLOR=c52DB7B5C-8EE4-9B43-BEA9-F57B23446C8C

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How Multilingual is Our School PYP Audit.pdf

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https://blogs.ibo.org/sharingpyp/2015/02/24/culture-of-multilingualism/

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International School Carinthia is located in a stunningly beautiful, little-known part of central Europe referred to in German as the "Dreiländereck", where Austria, Italy and Slovenia meet. In former times, the languages from these regions intermingled as much as the cultures did. Despite wars and revised borderlines over the centuries, multilingualism and multiculturalism still abound here. This setting forms the context for the founding of ISC in Austria in September 2013.

One of the many working areas that arose immediately after the school's founding was the opportunity to develop a multilingual culture right from the start. Although the main language of instruction at ISC is English, ninety percent of the 55 students who began in PYP 1-4 last year were not native English speakers. Our faculty was faced with the challenge of helping our students acquire English while simultaneously celebrating and supporting their mother-tongue language development.

Thankfully, the IB has many supporting documents that speak to the theory and practice of multilingualism, but as many IB educators are so aware, they do not always 'translate' seamlessly to every school's context. Many of the ISC founding team members had taught in other international schools where multilingualism was only paid lip-service in policy documents with which the faculty only became familiar prior to accreditation visits, never to be seen again once the visiting team left the building. Some of us had also experienced imperialistic language policies where students' mother tongues were denigrated in order to support English language acquisition and learning. We had also seen that many of our students who were receiving no formal academic instruction in their mother tongue languages were foundering in all other taught languages in the school. How could we live the multilingual dream espoused by the IB and ISC's mission?

Enter Dr. Karin Martin. By chance, Karin, a linguist specializing in multilingual development in children and adults, settled in Carinthia at roughly the same time ISC was founded and was blogging about multilingualism on the Carinthian International Club blog. Based on ISC's affiliation with the Carinthian International Club, Karin and I became acquainted and developed a workshop series for teachers and parents to dispel myths about multilingual education and development, discuss best practices to foster and support multilingualism and develop the ISC Language Policy Philosophy. We followed up this workshop series with a parents' evening where Karin shared the latest research with parents, answered parents' questions about their children's language development, and discussed the path forward for ISC's language policy development.

She explained that, in spite of the amazing results coming from the research of different centers around the world, a serious lack of information can be found in schools and families. We discussed the following myth among many others: if you want a child to speak a second language, you should stop speaking your home language. Studies on the role of maintaining the first language in contexts of migration agree on the positive effect of this choice, which affects outcomes in school. Students who keep their first language show improved proficiency in both languages. The mother tongue definitely plays an important role in the overall development of a child. It is connected to emotional and mental growth, to cultural identity, and it provides the basis for learning another language.
We agreed that encouraging multilingualism means to promote the learning of more languages at the same time, and not at the expense of the first language. This is in line with a huge amount of research evidence, also showing that being able to communicate in different languages on a regular basis brings both linguistic and cognitive benefits to children.

Based on the positive outcomes of this process, and the many myths that still abound regarding multilingual development in IB schools, Karin and I presented the latest research and our journey at ISC at the IBAEM Regional Conference in Rome in October and received a lot of positive feedback and great ideas about how to nurture and foster a multilingual community right from the start at International School Carinthia. Now, Karin is a member of the ISC Language Policy Steering Committee as we turn the philosophy into policy and strive to put the theory into practice in a meaningful, coherent way moving forward. We look forward to sharing our progress in a future post here and welcome any ideas you may have to support us!

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James Brightman is the founding Director of International School Carinthia in Velden am Wörthersee, Austria. ISC is a candidate school for the Primary Years Programme in its second year of operation. Prior to his post as Director of ISC, James was the Secondary Principal at Strothoff International School in Frankfurt, Germany - a young IB school now offering the IB Continuum. With over 15 years of educational experience, James has taught every level from Kindergarten to university in the United States, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Austria. He is also happily married and the proud father of two multilingual boys, Johan and Aidan. www.isc.ac.at
Karin Martin gained her PhD in Linguistics at the University of Verona (Italy) in September 2013. She works at ISC as a member of the Language Policy Steering Committee and as Italian Mother Tongue teacher. She is self-employed in Austria, putting on conferences, training courses and consultant services on the topic of multilingualism. In her conferences she helps educators and professionals to appreciate the benefits of bilingualism and to find useful strategies to manage and promote it both at school and in the family. She underlines the importance of maintaining the mother tongue and she teaches effective strategies for learning other languages. www.karinmartin-linguist.com

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Developing a culture of multilingualism at International School Carinthia

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International School Carinthia is located in a stunningly beautiful, little-known part of central Europe referred to in German as the "Dreiländereck", where Austria, Italy and Slovenia meet. In former times, the languages from these regions intermingled as much as the cultures did. Despite wars and revised borderlines over the centuries, multilingualism and multiculturalism still abound here.

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https://rm.coe.int/autobiography-of-intercultural-encounters/16806bf02d

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Bilingualism Matters (An Opinion Article)

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Bilingualism Matters (An Opinion Article)

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http://www.bilingualism-matters.ppls.ed.ac.uk/growing-up-multilingual/

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Post by Miranda Garralda Wong
It's becoming increasingly common nowadays that children from primary and secondary schools are engaging with and learning to use more than one language. Across the world, policies have been shaped so to encourage the next generation to think outside of the box and be open to the possibilities of a different linguistic universe, and to therefore be conscious from an early age, of the cross-cultural other.

Whilst volunteering with Bilingualism Matters, I began to understand why. Bilingualism, or multilingualism, is not only cognitively beneficial because of the increased awareness of other linguistic worlds. In fact, research has shown that children who are able to speak more than one language tend to possess advantageous attention-switching skills and be strong communicators, due to their abilities to intuitively shift from one language to another. Bilinguals are also capable of observing other more subtle methods of communication which exist in all languages. For instance, the non-language specific method of reading body language and interpreting a person's emotions and feelings. It is not to say that monolingual children are at any disadvantage, in fact, as I will expand on my personal experience as a trilingual, being multilingual can be difficult for many reasons. But to be given the abilities and means to become a bilingual should be a choice available to all children, because its benefits are truly life-changing, and understandably useful in the globalised world we live in today.

I myself grew up in a multilingual home. My Mother is Chinese, and she spoke to me in Cantonese. My Father is Spanish, so he spoke to me primarily in Spanish. And I went to an English-speaking international school. Being based in Hong Kong, my school encouraged me to pick up Mandarin too. So all in all, I was writing, reading, speaking and listening to this colourful spectrum of languages, though without ever realising what the term 'multilingual' meant, or the fact that I was multilingual.

I'd be walking home with my Father on the streets after school where he could be talking to me in Spanish, but eavesdropping constantly into the conversations of two Cantonese-speaking school girls next to us, then bumping into my English teacher, to whom I address and converse with briefly about our final assignment deadline.

Sometimes, as many other multilinguals experience, the eavesdropping becomes difficult to control. Without consciously realising, I could be focusing too much into the thoughts of others, and forget where I'm going or failing to recall what I was thinking about beforehand. Then, there's the confused reaction I got sometimes, for sounding perfectly local when speaking Cantonese, and then being pointed out for looking different from native speakers.

It's not so surprising that I started questioning my identity from the age of 10, or that I struggled to fit in one singular national identity or stereotypical framework. Growing up multilingual had its disadvantages - it was hard to decide who I was, let alone where I wanted to go after high school. Needless to say, for a few years, I became quite introverted. I say now that those years were really important for me to discover where my boundaries were, and observe closely when and where I could say or do certain things that were acceptable in one culture, but not in another.

There was also a phase in teenage-hood when I desperately tried to fit into the group identity of my Cantonese-speaking side. Whether it be with family, friends or strangers, I remember wanting to be liked, and somehow found myself submitting to a more demure, naïve caricature, to maximise their acceptance of my differences. Only until university did I realise what I had been doing - the saying that language could shape your identity was certainly true, and I felt at that point that for each language I spoke, I had a different identity. Perhaps in some alternate universe I could have become a great actress. But maybe having 4 different roles is enough for now.

As a 21 year old, I can say multilingualism is more than an academic trait. Learning a language requires a kind of determination that can only truly be achieved when you identify with the culture that created it.

If anything, I share my experience to connect with others who feel similarly, and to show others what it meant to me to realise that I was growing up to be multilingual. My experience may be different from others who learn an additional language without being ethnically tied to its culture, but whether a language is learned academically or inevitably due to a child's multi-cultural upbringing, there is one fact which remains consistently true: The greatest gift of being multilingual is the psychological maturity and personal growth that comes with it. There are moments in life when I realise one thing after another, and it adds up to shape who I am and who I will be as an adult. The realisation that there is a wider world to discover exploded like confetti in my mind and allowed me to see the world through a different lens.

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Post by Miranda Garralda Wong It's becoming increasingly common nowadays that children from primary and secondary schools are engaging with and learning to use more than one language. Across the world, policies have been shaped so to encourage the next generation to think outside of the box and be open to the possibilities of a different linguistic universe, and to therefore be conscious from an early age, of the cross-cultural other.

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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14752409211059267

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language_and_learning in IB Programs.pdf

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https://empoweringlls.podbean.com/e/ep-65-dr-ofelia-garcia-the-joys-of-translanguaging/

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Add your discussion  minutes doc link here.

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Add your discussion  minutes doc link here.