Multilingual learners are one of the fastest growing segments of the U.S. student population, with nearly one in five students in public schools across the country speaking a language other than English at home.
Developing disciplinary literacy is vital to equipping students with the skills to deeply engage with content area knowledge and culture, according to experts from WestEd who presented literacy practices shown to support multilingual student success across content areas during an Aug. 7 webinar.
Annette Gregg, WestEd director of English Learner and Migrant Education Services, noted that when educators use strategies known to support multilingual students in fostering disciplinary literacy, they ultimately support all students in more meaningful engagement within disciplines.
“We want students to have a well-developed understanding of key ideas that they can use as they engage in critical thinking to generate new understanding and apply their knowledge and understanding to new and novel situations and experiences. That’s the powerful type of learning that we are really after,” Gregg said. “As educators, we inherently know that each subject has its own way of thinking and talking and reasoning through its subject matters. So, whether it’s justifying claims in math, or whether it’s analyzing cause and effect in history or describing different processes or making predictions in science, our students don’t just need the content, they really need to learn the different ways of using language explicitly, and they need to be supported in ways to practice using those different types of language. We call this disciplinary literacy, which is helping students read and write and think like experts in each subject area.”
The brief, 30-minute webinar emphasized not only the importance of disciplinary literacy, but of providing time and space for students to engage in disciplinary discourse and translanguaging (the practice of multilingual individuals using their full linguistic repertoire to communicate, rather than keeping their languages strictly separate), as well as ensuring language visibility in the classroom and providing culturally relevant materials and pedagogy.
Experts emphasized the importance of providing multilingual students ample opportunities to practice using the disciplinary language with their peers.
“We know that discourse doesn’t just happen on its own, right? Just putting students in groups or pairs doesn’t foster interactions,” Gregg said. “How are we fostering these opportunities? Do we have abundant opportunities for students to actually engage with their peers in meaningful interactions?”
Gregg stressed the importance of ensuring that students have regular chances to practice with open-ended questions. She also highlighted the need to structure discussion routines and protocols to make sure that all students are participating in conversations and have an opportunity to contribute their ideas, regardless of their level of proficiency in English.
WestEd is holding a series of 30-minute webinars from June through December featuring experts sharing research and evidence-based practices that help bridge opportunity gaps, support positive outcomes for children and adults, and build thriving communities. Catch up with CSBA’s recap of the July 31 webinar, “Reading and Writing Across the Content Areas: Helping Students Improve Comprehension in Grades K-5,” focused on disciplinary literacy and how it can be used at the elementary school level.
