Creating Classroom Structures Supporting Multilingual Learners

The aisles of Target and Walmart are already lined with fresh pencils, notebooks, and backpacks, which can only mean it's back-to-school season. As teachers, it's time to begin thinking about classroom procedures, seating charts, and bulletin boards. We know that the first few weeks are critical to establishing the tone of our classrooms for the entire year.

I've previously written about building strong structures and routines in the classroom. Today, I want to share three simple structures that have made a difference in my classroom, especially with supporting multilingual learners (MLs).

I've spent most of my teaching career in schools with large ML populations. As a result, I am continually refining my craft to make my classroom more welcoming and accessible to ML students. My goal is to send a powerful message to my ML students (although these strategies benefit every student):

Your language belongs here. You can be successful here. You belong with all of us.

Create a Welcome Wall

My welcome wall represents the languages my students speak.

Before the students return, I sit down with my rosters and note the home language represented in my classes.

I write down the home languages spoken by my students.

Then, I write one word on my whiteboard: Welcome. Not just in English, but in every language spoken by my students. Every year, my students are delighted to see a small piece of home represented in the classroom. The Welcome Wall never fails to spark conversation.

"That's my language!" "Can you speak Vietnamese?" "What's are these other languages?"

A few minutes of preparation sends an important message to the students: you can show up as your full self. It's one of the easiest rapport builders I've found, and it often leads to great conversations during the first week of school.

Let Your Board Do the Talking

When students enter a classroom, there are two questions at the forefront of their minds.

• What are we doing today?

• What do I need?
  

For multilingual students, those questions can carry even more uncertainty. That's why I rely on simple visual supports posted at the front of the room.

I use laminated, magnetic icons to display the agenda (warm-up, partner work, quiz, etc. and necessary materials (notebook, pencil, Chromebook, ruler, etc.). These visuals reduce the language load before instruction even begins. Students can quickly orient themselves without relying on spoken directions, which lowers anxiety and helps everyone start class more confidently.

An added bonus? Students stop asking me, "Do we need calculators today?"

A quick look at the board tells students what we're doing and what they need for class.

Think Beyond the "ML table."

Seating charts are the bane of teachers' lives. As I often say, there are no good seating charts, just less bad ones. When seating students, many teachers intentionally seat multilingual learners, particularly those who speak the same language, together. I used to do the same thing, trying to help my ML students feel more comfortable and have a peer they could speak to in their home language for collaborative tasks. In some situations, especially for newcomers or when leveraging translanguaging (students using all their languages to understand and reason through a problem), partnering ML students can be a great instructional decision.

However, these groupings can easily fall into habits. My doctoral research, although not looking specifically at seating charts, showed that random student groupings were consistently associated with the highest mathematics achievement. It made me reconsider how often I grouped my ML students together.

Intentional Grouping > Habitual Grouping

When students collaborate with different peers, they are exposed to multiple ways of thinking and different approaches to problem-solving. It gives students opportunities to be both learners and leaders. Additionally, being grouped with native English speakers creates authentic opportunities for ML students to develop their listening and speaking skills which are essential for their academic success.

These three strategies create a powerful base for teachers to start the year supporting all of their students. Which one are you the most excited to try? Share in the comments!