Episode Transcript
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Dr. Lisa Hassler (00:09):
Welcome to the
righter side of education,
research, innovation andresources.
I'm your host, r Lisa Hassler,here to enlighten and brighten
the classrooms in Americathrough focused conversation on
important topics in education.
In each episode, I discussproblems we as teachers and
parents are facing and whatpeople are doing in their
communities to fix it.
(00:29):
What are the variables and howcan we duplicate it to maximize
student outcomes?
Today's topic is on effectiveinstructional practices for
multilingual learners.
Dual language education providesinstruction in both English and
a target language, offeringacademic content in two
languages.
This model supports academicachievement, enhances cognitive
(00:50):
skills and fosters culturalawareness.
Research shows that students indual-language programs often
achieve superior outcomes andthere's a growing movement in
the US to embrace these models.
For instance, texas nowmandates dual language programs
in schools with significantpopulations of emergent
bilinguals.
This shift highlights the valueof linguistic diversity as a
(01:12):
strength to be leveraged, not achallenge to be overcome.
Joining me today to discusseffective multilingual learner
instruction is KatherineHamilton, the Senior Vice
President of Programs atEnsemble Learning.
Katherine brings a wealth ofexperience in promoting equity
and excellence for multilinguallearners.
She also serves as a charterboard chair, collaborating with
(01:33):
educational leaders and teachersto enhance achievement in
mathematics and beyond.
With a master's degree ineducation from Stanford
University and a bachelor'sdegree in economics from Yale
University, katherine iswell-equipped to provide
valuable insights on thisimportant topic.
Welcome, catherine, it's sonice to have you on today.
Katherine Hamilton (01:51):
Thanks for
having me.
Excited to talk about ourmultilingual learners.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (01:55):
Yeah, so how
do dual language programs
support multilingual learnersand what are the key benefits?
Katherine Hamilton (02:01):
What's
really wonderful about dual
language programs is that theybuild on the assets and the
funds of knowledge and obviouslythe language skills that
students have to then developthat bilingualism, that
biliteracy.
There's actually really greatresearch out there.
Thomas and Collier did like areally seminal study following
(02:23):
multilingual learners over kindof the course of their education
and what our hunch was.
But what their research reallyshowed is that not only do
students in dual languageprograms like develop and
acquire academic English, butthey actually end up
outperforming their English onlypeers even in English language
(02:46):
tests.
And we really believe and theresearch shows, that it's
because you are dipping intotheir language skills in their
first language and you arehelping them build connections,
kind of build that schemabetween the two languages.
So then they develop that graspof language very, very strongly
.
(03:06):
And on top of that, the culturalbenefits, the sense of
belonging.
If you speak another languageand you go to a school and the
overt or maybe implicit messagesare only English is important
here, you know it really hurtsyour sense of belonging.
But if you go to a school thatsays, wow, you are coming in
speaking Spanish or speakingRussian or speaking Chinese and
(03:30):
we're going to help you continueto build that and we're going
to help you build this academicEnglish.
Your sense of belonging is muchstronger and you know we see
those benefits also in parentengagement and so just all these
factors that support studentsto learn.
You know all language, allsubjects.
(03:50):
We really get supported sostrongly in dual language
programs.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (03:55):
Yeah, when I
would have a student that
English was their secondlanguage, I was always so
excited to talk to them andtheir parents about.
I understand that we'relearning how to read and all the
comprehension and the fluencyand the vocabulary, but please
don't stop learning youroriginal language.
Don't put that on the backburner.
Please read those books at hometo your child in that home
(04:18):
language, because being able tofoster both even though I had
noticed that the English mightcome a little bit slower or
wasn't as quick, at the end itdoesn't really matter, because
it just was a lag of a fewmonths and then they really just
caught right up, and so it wasa wonderful benefit to be able
to still keep that home languageflourishing, and the parents
(04:41):
are always really happy to hearthat.
So what effective instructionalpractices can teachers use,
then, to help multilinguallearners succeed in dual
language programs?
Katherine Hamilton (04:50):
There are a
couple of things I really think
of across the bat as, like theseare the key pieces, and one of
those actually is just thatstrategic separation of
languages and ensuring that youare hitting the percentage of
time that you spend in eachlanguage, to give that time to
practice, to learn, to acquirevocabulary, and so it's really a
(05:13):
lot of it that planning anddesigning your day to ensure
that you're teaching in theappropriate language of
instruction and then also havingthose visual cues for students
so they know that language ofinstruction, and then also
having those visual cues forstudents so they know that
language of instruction.
A lot of models use like redand blue.
Some of our partner schools uselike the colors of maybe
(05:34):
they're kind of like theirdistrict colors.
So we have a partner districtwho uses blue and green, and so
everything in one language isblue, including everything
written.
Sometimes even the teacher willput on like a hat or a scarf
when they're speaking thatlanguage and instructing in that
language, and then everythingin the other language is that
other color green, red and thatreally helps students separately
(05:58):
develop those languages andthen really strategically have
these moments of bridging andthese moments where you're
saying you know, here's what'shappening in each language and
it's maybe discussing phonicsand the different sounds that
maybe a letter would say, ordiscussing things like different
sentence structure where doesthe adjective go in each
(06:20):
language and really comparingthose languages, bringing them
together.
The second piece that we reallydive into immediately when we're
doing teacher professionallearning, we're doing coaching,
is oracy and the importance ofjust really really giving a lot
of time and space for studentsto speak each language in not
(06:42):
just formal ways but really alot of informal but structured
ways, and so ways for them toaccess practice lower the
effective filter so they'repracticing with peers and then
helping them when they maybe aresharing out to the full class
or a more formal way.
And when we do these oracypractices, often it might be
(07:03):
with a read aloud, maybetext-based, but it's really
saying if we want students to beable to speak this target
language, whatever language ofinstruction is, how are we
making the content reallyaccessible?
How are we providing a lot ofimages, total physical response,
how are we providing languageor sentence frames, Just a lot
(07:25):
of ways to make it accessiblefor students to really dive
right in and just practice,practice, practice that language
with their oracy.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (07:32):
Nice.
So what strategies do yourecommend for teachers that
honors and celebrates themultilingualism and the
multiculturalism within theclassroom?
Katherine Hamilton (07:42):
I think
there are a couple of layers of
this, because honoring themultilingualism should really be
central in a dual languageclassroom, because that's what
we're doing and we're reallycelebrating students becoming
bilingual, bicultural, havingthat high academic achievement
in both languages, and so itshould really be central.
(08:03):
And one of the things that wecan really do is be mindful of,
like within the classroom, whatare the things that we are
celebrating.
We do a lot of work in Texasthat still has a lot of their
state standardized testing isEnglish and it's about that
English proficiency and so beingreally mindful that you're not
just celebrating performance orimprovement in English
(08:24):
proficiency, but you're not justcelebrating performance or
improvement in Englishproficiency, but you're really
measuring, assessing andcelebrating student growth in
both of those languages.
The other piece that we reallyencourage schools to do is to
take that celebration of cultureand of language out of the
classroom and to the wholeschool.
Even if the whole school is notdual language immersion
(08:45):
classrooms, even parts of it,are really like bringing that
into the hallways, bringing itto the front of the school,
bringing it to assemblies andsaying we are a bilingual,
bicultural or multilingual,multicultural school and we're
going to celebrate those thingsJust like to your point around
engaging with parents andencouraging them to participate
(09:08):
in their native language theymight be acquiring English as
well if they're more recentimmigrants but really honoring
families to speak the languagethat is best for them and
support their studentacademically in whatever
language they want and sharingthe research with them.
And support their studentacademically in whatever
language they want and sharingthe research with them and
saying actually beingmultilingual is a superpower and
(09:29):
it will help you in all of youracademics.
We have to also be cognizantthat Spanish is not one language
, that there are many, there areregional phrases, there are
dialects, and so even within ourlanguage of instruction might
be in Spanish for a certainblock of the day, but even
(09:50):
inviting student input of youknow how is this said in your
home or where your grandparentslive and even bringing in and
honoring those differentregional dialects, regional
phrases and welcoming those intoa classroom, because we don't
want to set and be like this isacademic Spanish and this is the
(10:10):
only right.
Spanish Language is as valuableas it is used for people and we
really want to honor that.
So those are a few ways we talkabout celebrating and honoring
multilingualism andmulticulturalism.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (10:26):
So how can
schools design curricula then
that integrates contentinstruction across both
languages effectively?
Katherine Hamilton (10:33):
Yeah, we're
in a really interesting time
when you look at publishedhigh-quality instructional
materials that there's not a lotout there that a school can
adopt.
That's standards, aligned,language aligned, given kind of
your strategic separation oflanguages and your language
(10:53):
allocation.
And so it's really thinkingabout what are the standards for
English language arts, spanishlanguage arts, what are those
standards?
We're looking at what's thetargeted language of instruction
and really stacking thestandards, saying overall, what
is it that we're learning?
And starting from thosestandards and then layering on
(11:14):
in a dual language program alsoreally culturally responsive
texts.
Because if we're teaching in adual language classroom but all
of the texts are classicAmerican, you know, or English,
british, european texts, we'renot actually capturing that
whole piece of in all the goalsof bilingual education with that
(11:35):
bicultural work.
And so it's the standards, it'sculturally relevant, meaningful
text, yeah.
And then it's really looking atthose themes.
When you have that strategicseparation of language, then
when you're bridging across yourlanguages, what are those
themes that are coming out thatare reflected in both the
standards?
We're really excited.
(11:56):
The English Learner SuccessForum is a nonprofit that looks
at curriculum that's effectivefor multilingual learners and
they're doing some really greatlike advocacy and support work
to try to ensure that some highquality dual language curriculum
hits the market, you know,sometime soon.
Because when you can havereally strong, high quality
(12:19):
instructional materials and ateacher can really focus on
delivering those anddifferentiating and supporting
the students in their classroom,they're not having to reinvent
the wheel with the standardsindependently.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (12:31):
Yeah,
absolutely, because I could see
where that would be.
A very big obstacle to overcomeis if you want to be able to
have a program like that, butthen you don't really know how
to begin when it comes tocurriculum, unless a teacher
ends up adapting that, which isjust an extra burden.
So you may not get a lot ofcandidates taking that position.
But aside from the curriculum,what are some challenges that
(12:54):
schools might face whentransitioning to a dual language
instruction and how can theyovercome these obstacles?
Katherine Hamilton (13:00):
We're seeing
two big challenges kind of
across the field.
One is mirroring the overallchallenge of a teacher shortage
and teachers leaving theclassroom and when you, you know
, throw an additionalrequirement of a teacher being
bilingual and then passingadditional assessments or
(13:21):
getting additional classes,depending on the state
requirements, we really see ashortage of certified bilingual
teachers.
We're actually doing some workwithin a grant that we have in
Texas to pay for the teacherstests, because it can add up for
teachers to take all thoseexams and then provide
mentorship for them to beprepared for the exams, and so
(13:44):
we're seeing an increase, someadditional certified teachers,
and so there's hope there.
We just we need to get morepeople in the pipeline and more
people excited about teaching inthat that dual language setting
.
A second big thing that we areseeing is concern among families
about the value of duallanguage education.
(14:04):
I think because of society,because of bias, both implicit
and overt bias, there are manyimmigrant families who really
want to set their children upfor success and see English as a
pathway for that, and so formany families their belief is
like I don't care about theSpanish, I don't care about the
(14:25):
native language, I just wantthem to learn English because
here in the United States that'sgoing to set them up for
success.
So it's really sharing withthose families the value and the
benefit it's having thoseconversations like you had, of
saying actually you speakingSpanish, you reading in Spanish,
you using this native and homelanguage, is really valuable.
(14:48):
And here's why and here's whatthe research says.
And having them have to stepoutside of maybe the negative
experiences they had in schooland show them a promise of
something you know more positive, of course.
The third as I said that thatcurriculum is really challenging
.
Until I think we have somereally great resources, it can
(15:08):
be challenging.
For example, in California wedon't see a lot of schools
currently shifting to duallanguage programs.
It's either like historicallythey've been a dual language
school because they have a greatcurriculum set up that maybe
they've refined over time, butactually making that transition
can be challenging.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (15:27):
Do you see
that schools go to like one
classroom at a time or, you know, are schools going where
they're like campus wide?
What do you usually see?
Katherine Hamilton (15:37):
Well, we're
currently partnering with a
public school network in Dallasand they actually took a subset
of their schools based on thepopulation, based on the
emergent bilingual populationkind of around their schools.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (15:51):
Okay.
Katherine Hamilton (15:51):
And then
they're also rolling it out one
grade level at a time.
And so those students can kindof grow upwards and then they
can hire each year and work onthe curriculum like all those
things kind of, each year.
And so that's the rollout weoften see the dual language is a
(16:13):
component of the school.
It's not every classroom isdual language.
It's usually one, maybe twoclassrooms per grade level and
then there tends to be anon-dual language option as well
.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (16:25):
Do you see
that Spanish is more prevalent?
What other languages areschools going to?
Katherine Hamilton (16:31):
In our Texas
work they're all
Spanish-English dual language.
I live in Los Angeles andwhat's really interesting, there
are just a lot of differentneighborhood pockets of like
(16:53):
cultural communities and sothere are a lot of Korean
English dual immersion and soreally organically within the
community where there's a needand a desire, we see those other
languages.
Obviously, you know, withstaffing there's a challenge if
you have a less prevalentlanguage and really finding
those educators that arecommitted and prepared to serve,
(17:15):
but it is great to have such avariety and we do get to see
that in more multicultural areas.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (17:22):
So there are
layers of challenges, but
definitely doable, right Doableand worth the challenge when you
get it launched.
Katherine Hamilton (17:30):
absolutely
worth it.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (17:31):
Yes, and so
are these schools that are going
to these dual language programs.
They're going out of necessityand need, or is it because
they're just saying you knowwhat?
I really don't have anotherlanguage that's prevalent, but
what I would love to do is justcreate a dual language immersion
program to where maybe myEnglish speaking students are
going to be immersed in dualteaching of Spanish as well.
(17:52):
Do any schools do that?
Katherine Hamilton (17:58):
of Spanish
as well?
Do any schools do that?
Yeah, I'll use a local example.
The Pasadena Unified SchoolDistrict, just kind of right
outside of Los Angeles, hasshifted a lot of their schools
to dual language programs andpart of that is just providing
different opportunities andenrichment in their public
schools, and so those are moretwo-way programs, meaning that
you have about half of thestudents coming in you know,
(18:20):
knowing Spanish and about halfthe students coming in knowing
English, and then there's a realexchange, you know, between the
students and in the instruction, with the goal of those
students being bilingual,bicultural.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (18:31):
Yeah.
Katherine Hamilton (18:31):
So in Texas
they actually have a mandate.
If you have, I believe, 20 ormore emergent bilingual or
multilingual students, you haveto provide a dual language
program, and so that's why we'reseeing such a growth in Texas,
why a lot of our dual languagework is in Texas.
But the thing we do want to bereally cautious of as these
(18:54):
programs grow is that thefoundation of them is providing
an equitable educationalopportunity for emergent
bilingual students, and so we dowant to be cautious, and while
we believe being bilingual issomething wonderful for everyone
, we want to focus more onproviding that opportunity for
emergent bilingual students tobe in these bilingual programs,
(19:18):
versus for all students at thispoint, just because of the
prevalence of the program.
So we just want to be cautiousabout that equity challenge that
we do face.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (19:28):
Right,
focusing on the equity.
First, my son was actuallyenrolled in one in kindergarten,
english speaker but it wasSpanish as well and his cousin
was his teacher and they wouldoffer the content through both
languages and he reallyflourished and loved it.
And then we ended up moving.
So it's so sad that the schooldistrict that we went to did not
offer something like that, butin our particular one it was a
(19:50):
totally separate building and itwas one kindergarten, one first
grade and one second gradeclass.
And you had to start at thekindergarten level and then you
would work your way up throughit and then you would graduate
and then go on to the otherelementary school.
But I was very impressed bythat, and that was like 25 years
ago, and so to think that therewas something along those lines
then I'm hopeful that this canbe a little bit more mainstream,
(20:12):
because it definitely waswonderful for him.
So can you share a specificexample of a school's successful
transition to dual languageinstruction and the impact it
had on their multilinguallearners?
Katherine Hamilton (20:23):
Yeah, I'll
give a shout out to Maynard
School District.
It's right outside of Austinand they've put dual language
into all of their schools.
Nice, and a few things reallystand out to me as like what has
led to the success.
One is just the fantasticleader at their district, miss
Erica Galindo.
(20:43):
She has a passion, has a focus,she's just incredibly strong in
her leadership for duallanguage and saying you know,
this is what we are doing andthis is the way we're moving
forward with it, these are thesupports we're going to provide,
and so where we see thetransition work really well is
when you have that partnershipbetween a district leader and
(21:05):
then the school leaders and bothbeing very on board and moving
in the same direction and whatthey've really done there that's
been successful is said.
You know, yes, there are a lotof ideas and theories around
dual language, but we're goingto get really clear about what
dual language looks like atMainer ISD.
Here are our colors for ourstrategic separation of language
(21:26):
, here are our schedules andjust providing some of those
baseline.
This is the mainer way thatthen the district and the
schools are aligned on.
And then they've also beenreally thoughtful about that
roll up again where studentsstart early.
We supported in the last coupleof years a pre-K bilingual
(21:47):
program and so starting reallyearly with students and working
with them to support theirliteracy in Spanish but then
also helping them begin todevelop that biliteracy with
English.
And now they have pushed thosepre-K programs actually back out
to the elementary schools sothat all of those students have
(22:08):
an opportunity, all thosefamilies, to start at that pre-K
level and really thatcommitment starting young and
then rolling up into all theirelementary classrooms.
They just continue to pour intocoaching of teachers,
professional learning forteachers, support for principals
who are monitoring and leadingthis with school walkthroughs,
(22:30):
and so I think that theirtransition and really adoption
of dual language.
I put a lot on their leadershipand that amount of support that
they put towards it.
Dual language is a lot tolaunch and I think sometimes it
can be easy to be like, oh great, we're going to get a great
teacher and they're going to runit.
But really understanding thevision at a district and the
(22:53):
vision at a school helps thoseteachers really flourish.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (22:56):
It makes so
much sense for the pre-K because
we are starting them early withletter recognition and colors
and shapes and things like that.
Keep pushing it down, lower,lower, lower.
So it just makes sense that youwould want to start at the
beginning of their languagedevelopment.
Katherine Hamilton (23:10):
And also
from the beginning of their
schooling, they see that whothey are wholly is valued.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (23:16):
Yes.
Katherine Hamilton (23:16):
I'm coming
to school speaking Spanish and
that's valued and it's not.
Oh, I have to only speakEnglish at school.
And my younger son, he's two,and at his preschool they use
Spanish and English veryinterchangeably and it's just so
natural.
It's like, yes, this is how wespeak in Los Angeles, like in a
very multicultural place.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (23:39):
So what
strategies and advice can you
offer to teachers who havenon-native English speakers in
their classrooms but they don'thave access to a dual immersion
program?
Katherine Hamilton (23:49):
Yeah, I mean
, so many of our partnerships
are in schools that don't havethose programs, and it's
actually where I come from.
I was a high school mathteacher in the Northeast San
Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.
About 99% of my studentsstudents of color, many of them,
you know, bilingual or at leastspeaking a lot of Spanish, and
(24:09):
so the biggest thing that Ireally think about, first and
foremost, is that that culture.
What's the culture in yourclassroom?
Are you developing those warmrelationships?
And then are you setting thosehigh expectations and holding
students to those highexpectations and ensuring you
don't have any implicit bias?
(24:29):
It's a very easy thought tohave of.
If I see a student strugglingwith English, then in my head I
might say, oh, they're alsogoing to struggle with the math
and they're also going tostruggle, you know, with the
history concepts.
And we have to really decoupleat times, a student's English
language proficiency with theircontent knowledge and make sure
(24:50):
that we as teachers aren'tholding any of those biases that
don't make us bad people butare very natural biases to have,
and kind of along those samelines, I think it's being really
strategic about what's theacademic English language that
students need to access to workwithin your content and then to
(25:13):
meet the content learning goalthat you have, and so really
being explicit about theircontent and the English that
goes with their content, and howdo I really support students in
building both of those?
How do I provide thosestructured student talk
opportunities?
How do I give feedback?
How do I provide thosestructured student talk
opportunities?
How do I give feedback?
(25:34):
How do I provide opportunitiesfor students to write and just
really interact with thelanguage within your content?
A lot we're not going to.
You know, students aren't goingto be as successful as they can
be, and so that's the thinkingI really encourage for teachers.
But, more than anything, if youare a first year teacher, the
(25:56):
most important thing is to thinkabout the relationships and the
expectations you're setting foryour students.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:02):
Right, Just
keeping that equity piece.
Just because they may strugglein the language, does it mean
that they're not capable ofdoing high quality work and
master concepts outside of thelanguage or even in the language
?
And I think that that's verytrue of all students where you
just want to make sure that youalways hold a high bar because
they go to where you expect them.
Katherine Hamilton (26:22):
Yeah Well,
and I'll say you know, you made
me think that it's also not justfor our multilingual learners.
It's many of our students arelearning academic English.
So when we break it down and wethink of language in a way for
our multilingual learners, it'sgood for all students because
they all need to develop thatlanguage.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:44):
Absolutely.
Katherine Hamilton (26:44):
So I love
what you're sharing.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (26:46):
Where could
teachers or parents go to be
able to learn more about duallanguage immersion programs?
Or maybe they've got aclassroom and they need to have
a little bit of resources to sayI don't really know how to
approach this.
Where could they go for that?
Katherine Hamilton (27:01):
I will put a
plug for our work at Ensemble
Learning.
We are a national nonprofitreally getting to this laser
focus on equity for multilinguallearners, and so you can visit
our website at ensemblelearningorg and we do
complimentary calls witheducators to support and kind of
help.
You point you in the rightdirection.
(27:22):
I will say, if you're a teacherand you're like looking for
some great tools and someresearch that makes a lot of
sense, very hands on the work ofJeff Zweres, especially in.
He does a lot of work in math,but he does a lot of sense, very
hands-on the work of JeffZwiers, especially in.
He does a lot of work in mathbut he does a lot of general
work around student academictalk, and so it's Z-W-I-E-R-S.
(27:43):
Jeff Zwiers is just a wonderfulresource that we go to a lot.
I would also say ZarettaHammond's work for any of these
cultural pieces.
Her research and work is whatwe use in a lot of our
professional learning as well.
And if you're in California ornot, seal S-E-A-L is doing some
(28:04):
really wonderful work arounddual language, especially in
early learning, and they're justa great resource.
They have a lot of videos thatare always really helpful, and
so those are a few things that Iturn to.
And yeah, I do invite people tocome.
You know, reach out to Ensemble, because we I always like
invite people into our family oflike.
(28:25):
We all care about equity formultilingual learners, and so if
you want to be a part of thatlike, connect with us, and we
love to share resources.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (28:35):
That's
excellent.
Thank you so much for all ofthat, and thank you for joining
us today to discuss effectiveinstructional practices for
multilingual learners.
Katherine Hamilton (28:44):
Thank you so
much for having me.
Dr. Lisa Hassler (28:46):
Let's
strengthen our educational
environments to ensuremultilingual learners have equal
opportunities to succeed,support effective practices that
help them learn academicEnglish and grade-level content,
while celebrating theirlanguages and cultures.
If you have a story aboutwhat's working in your schools
that you'd like to share, youcan email me at lisa@
drlisarhassler.
com, or visit my website at www.
(29:11):
drlisarhassler.
com and send me a message.
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(29:33):
change.
So let's keep working togetherto find solutions that focus on
our children's success.