Imagine (pre-Covid-19) being invited to a game night… when you arrive, there are snacks, cool fruity drinks, some new team games you’re excited to try with some fun-looking people you can get to know. Sure, the host invited you so you feel welcome, but not part of the group, you’re there, but not asked any questions about who you are, where you’re from, the games you already know, or what you did before coming to the party.
Doesn’t sound like much fun. Would you feel valued in this situation?
The bias towards monolingualism and monoculturalism happens in both concrete and subtle ways in our own schools, despite the diversity we see. It is the very tangible sense that many of our ELL students are not really part of the school’s teaching and learning mission from restrictions on primary language use, the language and cultural content of materials to the cultural events celebrated during the year. There is much evidence of the academic and socio-emotional benefits that multiculturalism and multilingualism provides (Gottlieb, M. & Soto, I., 2020). However, being aware of the evidence is not enough.
As educators, it’s our duty to make sure that all voices are heard and students are seen, valuing their “funds of knowledge” (Gonzales et al, 2013) and “funds of identity” (Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014) at curriculum and assessment level and with active community involvement. With the current global epidemic, our students are even more at risk of feeling isolated and it’s imperative that they are not also undervalued.
How can we break away from this deficit lens of bias towards monolingualism and shift to valuing the multicultural linguistic identities of our students in our new virtual world?
Below are a few I have tried and I welcome you to keep adding to the list!
★ Encourage translanguaging practices in the virtual learning space. Remind students to tap into their primary language knowledge when researching sources to find evidence; as a class, curate lists of digital bilingual tools and materials students can use.
★ Suggest reading lists of global literature that includes translations of popular titles and bilingual ebooks available from the online library. Collaborate with other like schools to share access to these books.
★ Include students into the assessment process, invite them to create math problems around new concepts using typical scenarios from home or help to create a single point rubric for assessments.
★ Assign group activities during Zoom classes using the ‘breakout’ function to encourage conversation that both models and allows for practice of academic language
★ Have students fill out a funds of knowledge form to help inform your planning and teaching.
★ Integrate dual-language creative writing tasks in poetry or narrative writing units, and have students perform them on Seesaw. Have others give feedback.
★ Create surveys inviting parents to comment on how language is used at home, at school and the community and use the data to inform the school language policy.
★ Draw from the funds of identity among our multinational and multilingual learners by creating a space where they can share their culture and language online, perhaps using food and recipes, since sharing dishes online is becoming part of our working from home life!
There are many ways to value our multilingual learners and their families, how will you choose to advocate for them?