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Ask families to tell you about their children (through an interpreter if needed) and their children’s talents, personalities, interests, and goals.

Asking students to report on their partners’ answers holds them accountable to listen carefully and report back accurately – because their partner will also be listening to the answer!

To build empathy and understanding, ask the rest of the class for ideas on how to welcome new students and how it might feel to start school in a new country and in a new language.

Assign new ELLs a buddy who is friendly and patient. The buddy can show the student where to go and how the schedule works. Even if the buddy speaks the student’s language, never use the buddy as an interpreter.

Asking "Do you understand?" is not an effective way to check comprehension. To not disappoint their teacher, students may nod their head that they understand when in fact they may not.

It's critical to avoid making any assumptions about your students' countries of origin, the languages they speak, their cultural background, their prior experiences, or their immigration status, especially on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, or an

Whether you are in formal or informal collaboration partnerships, be clear about how team members wish to communicate (and when) and how to handle last-minute changes.

Consider the goal of your activity when you group students. Sometimes you may wish to pair students who speak the same language, while other times you may wish to have different language groups or skill levels together.

Students who are learning a new language may be ‘silent’ at first as they listen and learn. This is the first stage of language acquisition. Patience and small successes can build confidence. (Note: This may also be a sign of respect.)

These animated videos offer ideas on how families can celebrate language, culture, and special time together at home! This project features the artwork of award-winning illustrator Rafael López.

It’s critical to work with a skilled interpreter who knows the technical terms well, how to translate them to families, and the nuances within the terminology. Otherwise families may not understand the issue that the school is trying to address.

Families may need help with food, clothes, housing, medical care, or other basic needs and the school may have a social worker, advocate, or community partner who can help.

Keep in mind that culture can impact peer interaction. Some students may prefer working in groups to working alone. Others may be used to working within certain cultural norms. And students who may seem to have something in common may not.

Learn about some breathing or mindfulness strategies you can teach students to check in with themselves or calm down in difficult situations.

Create a place where students can go if they need to calm down with sensory-friendly items such as play-dough or a glitter jar. You can learn more about strategies on creating calm corners in the articles below.

Create a place where students can post thank-you notes for each other or for others in the school building either as a special activity or ongoing part of your classroom culture.

Some families may be actively using social media within their own communities.

Differentiation helps ensure that students at different language levels can still access grade-level content. There are lots of ways to differentiate and the better you know your students, the more effective your differentiation will be.

Smiling and using positive body language can go a long way in making students feel welcome and comfortable, particularly if they are newcomers.

Before starting a lesson, find out what students may know about the content through:

Talk with families to find out what will help support their engagement and what challenges they face, such as child care, transportation, internet access, or work schedules.

Sometimes, ELLs are thought to have a disability when they are still learning a language or have another issue (such as needing glasses). Other times, schools will hesitate to evaluate ELLs because they assume it’s a language issue.

Encourage students to work with students who share their home languages in group activities such as brainstorming background knowledge or discussing an opinion.

All families have the right to access information in their home language if their child is being evaluated for (or receiving) special education services.

Make sure that families have updated contact information for interpreters, their child's teachers, and other key adults at the school. Encourage them to share questions and concerns as needed.

All families can help their children become readers! These videos offer practical tips for all families on how to support reading at home. These videos are available in English and Spanish and feature early literacy expert Bernadette Pilar Zermeño.

Some families will already have relationships within their communities, neighborhoods, or faith institutions. Families also may already be texting, WhatsApp, or on social media.

There are many terms and acronyms used in the ELL world. It's important to get familiar with the terms used in your school, district, and state, which may be different than in other settings. A summary of some common terms is below.

If you are working with a colleague for the first time, learn about each other’s expertise.

Getting to know your students’ interests and talents can strengthen relationships with students, inspire ideas on how to engage students, and provide opportunities for hands-on learning.

Your families will possess a wide range of talents and skills, although they may not have been asked to share them before! Learn more about these skills and think about ways in which they can contribute to the community.

When asked for their favorite piece of advice, veteran ELL educators explain that getting to know ELLs builds a strong foundation for engagement and learning throughout the year. Look for clues about how long your students have been in the U.S.

ELLs can benefit from getting information in multiple ways. For example, when explaining something verbally, offer a summary in writing. This works well with classroom-based lectures and giving directions for assignments.

It can take time for students to learn how to work together. When introducing a new peer activity, model the activity and provide explicit instructions on how students should work together.

Remember that the schedule and routine may be new for students, especially if students have interrupted schooling. Use visuals and repetition to help students learn the schedule and what is expected.

Ensure that multilingual families have information in their home language about why the school needs updated contact information and how to update it.

All families have a right to participate in the IEP process and to have language services throughout that process.

It's important to find out what resources your district has for interpretation and translation.

Get to you know your partner’s style and strengths in different settings and brainstorm ideas on how you can work together.

Ask students to share information about their cultures and countries and look for ways to reference some of the topics they feel comfortable discussing, such as famous landmarks, holidays, or sports teams.

In this special video series , Henry Sales, an Indigenous Mam educator who was born in Guatemal

Keep in mind that the idea of the family-school partnership may be new to families coming from different cultures. It can be helpful to talk a little bit about the ways that schools and families partner together in the U.S.

There are a number of dynamic ELL professional communities online, as well as numerous blogs. There may also be networks for educators of ELLs in your district, region, or state.

Another reason that it’s important to collaborate is that the same behavior may have different causes.

Families may have had negative or even traumatic experiences in the past when signing official documents, particularly around the immigration process. Be sensitive to those concerns and answer families’ questions.

Families may be new to the idea of special education, and they may also be concerned about stigma or other negative impacts for their child. Explain that special education is meant to be a service of support for students.

It’s important to talk with a student’s family to understand whether the behaviors you are seeing at home are also present in school.

Sometimes schools will put ELLs in special education classrooms so “at least they’ll get something.” While there are some scaffolds and strategies that are useful for all students, including students with disabilities, the purpose of special education

Students who qualify for both special education and ELL services are legally entitled to both. Neither takes precedence over the other.

Learn more about cultural norms around education and communication (such as eye contact or gender roles) in your students’ cultures. You can ask family liaisons for tips or find resources that compile this information.

There may be some local resources you can tap into, such as professional ELL groups, community organizations serving ELL families, conferences, or local higher education institutions that with relevant expertise and programs.

Learn more about the ELL resources available in your state, the ELL policies and guidelines in your state, and the statewide organizations serving ELL educators and families.

If possible, talk with your ELL families about students’ previous educational experience and levels of reading and writing in the student’s home language.

Knowing your students’ home languages will help you provide language access to families and look for resources that can support students in the classroom.

The ELL teachers who serve your building can give you information about students’ current levels of English language proficiency (ELP) in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, as well as ideas on how to best use this information to plan instructio

Find out which countries your students come from if possible and learn a little bit about those countries.

Keep in mind that we use different kinds of language and levels of formality when we communicate (such as a text message to a friend vs. an email to a supervisor).

Find out if your school district offers ELL professional development or professional learning communities and whether there are other resources you can use.

Your school may have partnerships with organizations that address basic needs, health care, migrant and immigration issues, refugee services or other topics relevant to families.

The more you know about how families wish to communicate, the more successful your communication will be. Find out if your families prefer phone calls, text messages, social media updates, e-mails, or in-person conversations.

Getting students' names right is an important first step in getting to know your English learners.

Learn about families' schedules and cultural considerations that may impact who is available for communication with schools. Keep in mind that employers may have strict rules about answering phones or texts during shifts.

Share welcoming messages early and often by posting welcome signs in families’ languages, displaying flags and artifacts from families’ countries, and ensuring they know about resources or materials in their home language.

Look for books on different topics that you can add to your classroom library or include in the curriculum.

You may be able to find a range of materials in students’ home languages, including classroom resources, audio resources, and videos (or videos with translated closed captions).

Students’ home languages are an asset!  Students can use their native language along with their new language when writing and / or speaking with each other.

Building in regular formative assessment can you give you important information about what your ELLs are learning and can be used as part of your progress monitoring.

While informal assessment isn’t graded, it provides critical feedback on a student’s progress as well as guiding improvement to teaching and lesson planning.

Talk with your colleagues (such as ESL colleagues, classroom teachers, or other roles) about some ideas you might work together such as planning a lesson together.

Look for ways to develop students' oral language skills around academic content areas. This can be done through class discussions, small group work, project-based learning, and presentations.

Build in regular times to connect through circle time or advisory, or small group conversations that rotate on a regular basis.

If you are new to working with ELLs, find out if you there are ELL teachers in your school or district and how they support ELLs. Reach out to them with questions and find out how they collaborate with other teachers.

Sometimes students will share how they are feeling privately if they have the chance.

Find out which organizations have ties to your families and reach out to them to see if there are opportunities to work together or particular issues that it would be helpful to address together.

Language objectives highlight the language skills and goals that students will need to master a lesson. An ELL teacher can help you identify language goals for a lesson, such as:

Identify some concepts and key points that students may need to learn before the lesson. Keep in mind that ELLs may have different cultural references and experiences than students who have grown up in the U.S.

Keep in mind that ELLs and immigrant students may be bullied for a variety of reasons.

All families have the legal right to

Consider what it's like to learn a new language (and learn content in that new language!), to move to a new country, and to learn how to navigate a new culture.

Find out which staff speak families’ languages, how they partner with families, and how they collaborate with staff.

¡Pueden revisar y compartir estos recursos familiares en español! /

The following Spanish-language resources are available to share with families via text, message, social media, email, or however you communicate! 

Families can offer valuable insights related to their children during the special education process.

Take a look at your lesson to determine which words your students will need to master the content. Pre-teach these words with student-friendly definitions before the lesson so that students are comfortable with them by the time you start the lesson.

Let your colleagues know what is working for your students and share celebrations. If you wish to advocate for more collaboration time, go as a team to your administrator to share the benefits you are seeing.

ELLs can benefit from participation in enrichment, extended day, and extra-curricular activities such as sports and clubs.

It’s important for families to know not only about counseling options for children but any connections that the school has with mental health providers for adults as well – particularly in families’ home languages.

Refugee students have likely experienced displacement, hardship, and perhaps some level of trauma. Do not ask refugees to speak for their culture as a representative of that culture.

Students in migrant farmworker families may move around the country with growing seasons and may not stay in your class for the entire year.

Many Indigenous students from Latin America are enrolled in U.S.

Long-term ELLs (sometimes referred to as LTELs) have been in the ELL program for an extended period of time and have not yet been able to exit.

Students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE or SIFE) have not had consistent schooling for a variety of reasons including displacement, poverty, or instability.

Unaccompanied minors have usually come to this country without an adult caregiver, often making a dangerous journey north through Central America and Mexico on foot.

Look for times when you can meet with students in small groups in the classroom, at lunch time, or before or after school. Tell them a little bit about yourself as well and share some of your own stories with them.

Look for small ideas to try and build on successes. It doesn’t have to all happen at once!

Students may have regular care-taking responsibilities that include younger siblings, grandparents, or other family members/neighbors.

Many bilingual students may be translating for their families in day-to-day transactions, medical appointments, or more official settings.

Students may be helping to manage family finances, paperwork, services, tech support, or other responsibilities in their family due to their language skills, tech skills, or even due to their immigration status if they live in mixed-status households.

Students may be working part-time or even full-time shifts after school and in the evenings while juggling school work and other activities. This has been particularly common during COVID-19. Students make be working in order to:

Give students common phrases that can help them with class discussions around agreement, disagreement, building upon each other’s points, and sharing an opinion.

Some languages, like Spanish, have words that are similar in spelling and meaning to English words (computer / computadora). These words are often used frequently in content areas.

Help students get familiar with the words related to common emotions. Consider using a tool like a Mood Meter so that students can identify their emotions on a regular basis.

There may be adult education programs in your school district or community that offer English classes, GED preparation, citizenship classes, or other topics of interest to families.

Make sure families have information about any early childhood education or child care programs that are available to them for their younger children, such as Head Start or other preschool programs.

Consider how students need to use language in different content areas, such as:

Tools like TalkingPoints can support communication with families in multiple languages.

Translating school materials is an important first step. However, families with low levels of literacy may not be able to access these documents.

Focus on one new thing at a time. For example, when teaching ELLs new content, use familiar language. When teaching ELLs new language, use familiar content.

It’s essential to work with a team in questions of special education evaluation and services for ELLs. Different team members with varying perspectives will be able to work together to identify different factors or considerations.

You can ask students to answer a question on an entrance or exit ticket, or share one thing they learned from a lesson. This is a quick way to gauge student understanding.

Hands-on learning is a great way to give students some early successes while they are learning a new language. Activities can include art, building, science projects, or gardening.

Give students lots of chances to interact with the language they are learning and practice their speaking skills with academic language.

Help students learn prefixes and suffixes so they can look for patterns and clues in new words they are learning. For example, “octo-” means “8”: octopus, octagon, etc.

Projects and inquiry are a great way to engage students and allow them to follow a topic of interests. You can also use project-based learning as a a form of informal assessment.

Use scaffolds to support your instruction of ELLs, especially when building background knowledge and teaching new content.

Some common scaffolds include:

Students need practice with phrases and sentence structures in addition to vocabulary words. Sentence frames are a great way to give them that practice. For example:

·        The _____ is bigger than the ____.

Look for classroom materials in students’ languages, and allow students to use their home languages in group work. Review multilingual classroom materials with a native speaker when possible for accuracy.

Tools such as bilingual dictionaries and glossaries can help provide valuable support for students who learning new vocabulary and content.

A quick way to check in with students on their understanding of a concept is a thumbs up / thumbs down or holding up their fingers (0 is no understanding, 5 means,"I got it!").

“Turn and talk” activities are quick check-ins in which students turn and talk to a partner for a quick conversation about the topic of the lesson.

Invite students and families to share their culture with the class by bringing in photographs, flags, or mementos; telling a well-known folk tale; or sharing information about special celebrations.

Post welcome signs in students’ languages, as well as pictures with bilingual labels. You can also invite students to teach a few words to the class.