For many of us, the first weeks of school are filled with tension. For me, the close of the summer months always meant calming the butterflies that signaled the beginning of a new school year. However, the fears that many multilingual learners [MLs] experience differ greatly from what I experienced and that many students and their teachers face.
I asked ML students and educators to ask the MLs they serve: What would have helped you when you first enrolled in school?
How can we help MLs navigate and negotiate a new language, culture, and school community in less anxiety-provoking ways?
Multilingual learners from across the country share some key ideas about what would have helped them acclimate to their new learning environment.
What’s the Most Difficult Time for MLs?
The majority of MLs shared that the most difficult times during the first few weeks of school were the following. The bus rides to and from school, lunchtime, and after school. Several MLs felt that by the time their bus arrived at school, they had shut down emotionally and could not focus on learning. Lunch and after-school time amplified and affirmed the same feelings. While the language barrier was a huge frustration, feeling isolated was a much more difficult emotional challenge.
The same students shared some recommendations for supporting MLs to feel less isolated and more socially engaged from the very first day of school. They suggest that we include the following strategies.
Provide a Buddy
It’s helpful to have an entry plan that includes a buddy.
One means to do this is to create a buddy plan by gathering information about the following: Which classmates ride on the same bus as the new MLs? Which have the same lunch schedule? Which might join the new student in the cafeteria? Â
Responses to these questions help us to pair students with a peer who is a multilingual learner, former ML, or American monolingual English-speaker. Buddy activities offer a sense of safety and belonging—something everyone wants as we enter a new and unfamiliar situation.
Find Common Interests
Along with pairing students with a buddy, multilingual learners offer an additional strategy for shaping and reshaping the first weeks of school and empowering everyone as valuable resources.
They suggest that we ask students to share what they like to do after school and outside of school. With the help of a translator, MLs can share their thoughts and learn from their peers. They can also find common interests that help us all to build community.
Offer Service-learning Activities
Also, they recommend service-learning activities to welcome new MLs. Everyone benefits when these are co-designed and co-implemented with multilingual learners, former multilingual learners, and, as importantly, American English-fluent peers. They can be the most beneficial when they occur during times when students report feeling the most isolated. Service-learning activities can include (to name a few) tutoring in content areas and extra-curricular activities (such as learning to play pickleball, an emerging sport in many American communities).
We have a much better chance to support multilingual learners to be successful in school when we engage in these strategies right from the start. MLs tell us that these can make the transition process less anxiety-provoking because they support students during the most difficult transitions: during bus rides to and from school, at lunchtime, and after- school. There’s no better time to think about using these strategies than right now as we prepare for a new school year.
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