Teaching Multilingual Learners: Tip of the Week

There are specific strategies that multilingual learners need during instruction to help them acquire language more effectively while learning content. These strategies do not need to be elaborate or time-consuming to implement. Educators who embed these strategies in their instruction to serve and support their multilingual learners academically make a greater impact on their success. This week our tip is to engage students in speaking opportunities to describe what they see in pictures. This strategy focuses on speaking and only takes 1-3 minutes. Have students share what they see in the Weekly Opener in their Wonders Unit with a partner. Students should be encouraged to elaborate on their sentences and add as much detail as possible. Students should focus on using complete sentences and descriptive language. Have students turn to another partner and practice describing something else in the picture. This activity can be done with any other picture ML students will encounter throughout the week.

Sentence prompts/stems can be used to help your multilingual students effectively communicate their ideas:

• In the picture I see…
• This makes me think of…
• This is like something I did when…

Responding to a Partner Prompts:

• I like how you said…
• You noticed… and I noticed….
• I also thought of…

This strategy can be used with your whole class and during small group instruction. Giving your multilingual students opportunities to speak and share what they see is critical in their development.

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