How can teachers maximize engagement among multilingual students?
Just like any student, to get maximized in engagement from multilingual students would be to use their knowledge they have of other languages to teach you, or other students. Offer recourses in different languages, and talk to the child about what they need to make their life in your classroom easier. Whether that be by placing english around the classroom so they start to learn, or the other way around with their language on notes around the room to name objects. Help them understand that you as a teacher are willing to help them in any way that makes it easier for their learning or if they would enjoy teaching other students or yourself.
What are some effective ways to integrate multilingual instructional strategies into classrooms?
In the readings there are a few ideas that stood out to me, such as “Each day, teachers invite one or two students to share a word from their home languages with their classmates and explain why they chose that word and what it means. Over time, students and teachers learn a new collection of words in different languages” (Cummins 2019), which is something I mentioned above, as well as “School library collections have multilingual books for both students and parents to read at school and at home. School policies can ensure that libraries maintain a diverse and well-stocked selection.” (Cummins 2019). All are good ideas that can help our multilingual students in our classrooms without shaming or feeling shame on the students.
