1A) Families and language/cultural background
Gather information on each child’s language/cultural background from parents upon enrollment.
Video: Supportive Emotional Climate for Relationships
This video highlights the importance of language to make Multilingual Learners feel comfortable; if they hear their home language spoken and see their culture represented in the classroom, it will create a more warm and inviting environment for them. Another key item to foster a supportive emotional climate are positive interactions between the educator and the child.Read More
Video: Being Responsive to Home Language and Culture
This video focuses on the importance for educators to remain flexible and responsive in order to support Multilingual Learners. Educators can create meaningful relationships with children and their families by getting to know them and respecting their preferences and practices (asking them about specific food needs as an example).Read More
Video: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Communication
This video reinforces an asset-based approach towards supporting Multilingual Learners. It highlights the importance of family engagement and social-emotional development strategies to help create a warm and inviting environment for ML children.Read More
Strategy Overview: Family Empathy Interviews
A template designed to support conversation uncovering each family's "funds of knowledge" so teachers can design a culturally responsive and sustaining approach to instruction.Read More
Video: A Meeting At School
In this video, parents come into the classroom to help with a family project and discuss the language preferences of their children with the teacher. Collecting this type of information and exchanging language development goals for the child is key to partnering with families.Read More
Video & Video Guide: Bilingual Classrooms
This resource outlines strategies teachers can use to model and extend Multilingual Learners' oral language skills. Strategies include narration (describing what the teacher is seeing and thinking) and amplification (paraphrasing a child's statement in more complex and extended language and asking a follow-up question).Read More
Template: Language Presence in the Classroom
This simple form serves as a template for teachers to acknowledge and record the linguistic knowledge of families who are the "home language experts" for Multilingual Learners.Read More
Strategy Overview: Ensuring the Presence of Each Child’s Language
This resource provides a comprehensive list and explanation of the actions teachers can take to acknowledge, affirm, and support multiple languages in the classroom. Included are tips for engaging with families as "language experts" and capturing their linguistic knowledge on a planning template, and phrase cards with basic greetings in 10 common home languages.Read More
Website: Project 2Inspire
This is a website maintained by CABE, the California Association for Bilingual Education, and is a resource hub for the Parent and Family Engagement Program.Read More
Tip Sheet: Gathering and Using Language Information That Families Share
This tip sheet provides teachers with examples of questions that they can ask Multilingual Learners’ families to learn about their language, interests, and experiences. This tip sheet also discusses the information that can be gathered from conversations with families and why this information is so important.Read More
Webinar: Supporting Dual Language Learners in the PreK Classroom
In this webinar, presenters discuss several strategies for supporting Multilingual Learners’ oral language and literacy development. Strategies include gathering information on children’s language and cultural background from families and talking with them about their language and learning goals for their children. Presenters also discuss how to display labels and functional print in multiple languages in the classroom, select content-specific words from texts and incorporate them into instruction, incorporate songs, and engage in interactive reading.Read More
Website Article: Many Languages, One Classroom
This article offers explicit strategies for teachers who have language-diverse classrooms. Ideas are offered on how to partner with families and set up a culturally and linguistically responsive classroom environment.Read More
Checklist: Diversity of Experiences
This simple checklist helps teachers identify the diversity across a classroom of learners. Reflecting and gathering information about family and student backgrounds helps build relationships and trust.Read More
Strategy Overview: My Name
Nothing is closer to a Multilingual Learner's identity than their name. This resource offers culturally relevant examples of how to engage in meaningful activities with children about their names.Read More
Video: Affirming Language, Culture & Identity
This video shares asset-based strategies for teachers to engage with families, develop the socio-emotional health of children, and set up a classroom environment to support Multilingual Learners. This resource focuses on preschool but the content applies to all grade bands. Examples come from dual language classrooms.Read More
Template: Family Languages and Interests Interview Form
This resource contains a template of the Family Languages and Interests Interview that teachers can use to gather information from families on each child’s language and cultural background. Teachers can also use this interview form to talk with families about their language and learning goals for their children.Read More
Template: Family Languages and Interests Interview Form (Spanish)
This resource contains a template of the Family Languages and Interests Interview in Spanish that teachers can use to gather information on each child’s language and cultural background from children’s Spanish-speaking families. Teachers can also use this interview form to talk with families about their language and learning goals for their children.Read More
Video & Video Guide: Family Languages and Interests Interview (Spanish)
In this video, a Spanish-speaking teacher conducts the Family Languages and Interests Interview with a Spanish-speaking parent to gather information on their child’s language and cultural background. This interview also helps teachers talk with families about their language and learning goals for their children. The accompanying guide suggests moments in the video to pause to notice teachers’ practice, along with prompts for reflection and discussion.Read More
Video & Video Guide: Family Languages and Interests Interview
In this video, a teacher conducts the Family Languages and Interests Interview with a parent to gather information on their child’s language and cultural background. This interview also helps teachers think about how to talk with families about their language and learning goals for their children. The accompanying guide suggests moments in the video to pause to notice teachers’ practice, along with prompts for reflection and discussion.Read More
