Unlocking Multilingual Learners’ Potential

Diane Staehr Fenner, PhD, is the president of SupportEd (SupportEd.com), a woman-owned small business located in the Washington, DC, metro area that she founded in 2011. SupportEd is dedicated to empowering multilingual learners and their educators. Dr. Staehr Fenner leads her team to provide ML professional development, coaching, technical assistance, and curriculum and assessment support to school districts, states, organizations, and the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to forming SupportEd, Dr. Staehr Fenner was an English language development (ELD) teacher, dual language assessment teacher, and ELD assessment specialist in Fairfax County Public Schools, VA. She speaks German and Spanish and has taught in Berlin, Germany, and Veracruz, Mexico. Dr. Staehr Fenner grew up on a dairy farm in central New York and is a proud first- generation college graduate. She has written eight books on ML education (and counting), including coauthoring Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity and authoring Advocating for English Learners: A Guide for Educators. She is a frequent keynote speaker on ML education at conferences across North America. She earned her PhD in Multilingual/Multicultural Education at George Mason University and her MAT in TESOL at the School for International Training. You can connect with her by email at Diane@SupportEd.com or on Twitter at @DStaehrFenner. Sydney Snyder, PhD, is a principal associate at SupportEd. In this role, Dr. Snyder coaches ML educators and develops and facilitates interactive professional development for teachers of MLs. She also works with the SupportEd team to offer technical assistance to school districts and educational organizations. Dr. Snyder has extensive instructional experience and has worked in the field of English language development for over 25 years. She started her teaching career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea, West Africa. This experience ignited her passion for language teaching, culturally responsive instruction, and ML advocacy. Dr. Snyder is coauthor of Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity and contributing author to Breaking Down the Monolingual Wall. She served as an English Teaching Fellow at Gadja Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. She earned her PhD in Multilingual/ Multicultural Education at George Mason University and her MAT in TESOL at the School for International Training. You can connect with her by email at Sydney@SupportEd.com or on Twitter at @SydneySupportEd. Meghan Gregoire-Smith, MA, is a multilingual learner (ML) coach at SupportEd. In this role, Ms. Gregoire-Smith coaches ML educators and develops and facilitates interactive professional development for teachers of MLs. Ms. Gregoire-Smith began her career teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to young adults in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Her time in Ecuador sparked her love of language teaching. She then spent over a decade supporting MLs in Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Maryland, first as an elementary English language development teacher and then as an ELD Teacher Specialist. As an ELD Teacher Specialist, Ms. Gregoire-Smith wrote the K–12 ELD curricula, planned and delivered professional development around best practices for working with MLs, and provided coaching for ELD teachers new to the profession. Ms. Gregoire-Smith’s experiences as an ELD teacher and teacher specialist led to a passion for supporting educators of MLs through high-quality professional development and coaching. She earned her Master’s in TESOL from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. You can connect with her by email at Meghan@SupportEd.com or on Twitter at @MeghanGSmith.

Praise Pages
Dedication
Website Table of Contents
Foreword by Emily Francis
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Introduction
Chapter 1: Why You Need This Book to Support MLs
Chapter 2: Using a Culturally Responsive Framework to Leverage the Strengths & Meet the Needs of MLs
Chapter 3: Scaffolding Instruction for MLs
Chapter 4: Peer Learning: Fostering MLs’ Oral Language Development and Content Understanding
Chapter 5: Teaching Academic Language to MLs at the Word/Phrase Level
Chapter 6: Teaching Academic Language to MLs at the Sentence and Discourse Level
Chapter 7: Activating and Teaching MLs Background Knowledge
Chapter 8: Engaging MLs in Reading and Writing in the Content Areas
Chapter 9: Formative Assessment for MLs
Appendix A: Unlocking MLs’ Potential Unit Planning Template
Appendix B: Unlocking MLs’ Potential Unit Planning Template Completed Example
Appendix C: Classroom Checklist to Foster a Language Learning Environment for MLs
Appendix D: Culturally Responsive School Checklist and Goal Setting
Appendix E: Scaffolding for MLs Self-Assessment
Appendix F: Checklist for Supporting MLs’ Academic Language Development in Speaking and Writing
Index