I wanted to reflect on the experience of learning and implementing these skills in my classroom; however, this reflection turned into something deeper: an understanding and embracing of cultural diversity and practicing culturally responsive pedagogy.

Classroom Culture & Inclusive Strategies

Stephen Krashen’s (1982) theory on second language acquisition suggests that an individual’s emotions can act as a “filter” to directly assist or interfere with the learning of a new language. Krashen’s affective filter hypothesis posits that language acquisition varies with respect to the strength or level of the student’s affective filter variables: motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety (Krashen, 1982, p. 31). This means students with high motivation, positive self-confidence, and low anxiety tend to do better in second language acquisition while low motivation, low self-esteem, and debilitating anxiety lead to passive moods and negative emotions. Negative emotions act as a filter, impeding the brain’s ability to take in new information and acquire language. With positive emotions, the filter is open and language acquisition becomes possible.

While teaching multilingual students over the last three years, I have seen that when the affective filter is low, students feel empowered to participate in activities, make contributions to conversations, and take chances speaking in front of their peers. After incorporating strategies to reduce their affective filters, my Multilingual Life Science class for recent immigrant students transformed from a quiet and observant class to an active and vocal one. After just a few weeks I saw students begin to flourish: participating in class discussions, raising their hands to contribute to conversations, asking and answering questions, and advocating for themselves— such as asking for clarification or more time to complete written responses.

Many of my strategies have come from the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP), a widely used protocol among teachers of multilingual learners. SIOP is a research-based and validated instructional model that has been proven effective in addressing the academic needs of multilingual learners (Echevarria et al., 2023). SIOP has eight components of best practices for language and content instruction that are chosen based on the level of language acquisition for the student (see Resources). Within these components are a total of 30 specialized features to help tailor instruction to the individual student. The SIOP model offers multiple pathways for multilingual learners to demonstrate their understanding of the content, allowing for a more accurate picture of their knowledge and skill than is possible through one standardized test (Echevarria et al., 2023, p. 25). Making content accessible to students at their current level is key so they can effectively engage in the lesson. In my classroom, I utilized SIOP to help students focus on higher order thinking actions. I also used technology to make the lesson accessible to students in different ways, for example using text-to-speech, speech-to-text, read aloud, highlighting, visual aids and realia, videos with captions and playback speed settings, online dictionaries, and more. These instructional tools helped students achieve success.

Working with newcomer students requires understanding that culture is a part of the classroom. For example, some cultures rely more heavily on music and movement in the learning process—using songs to reinforce repetition and memorization (LAS Links Second Edition Instructional Strategies, 2022, p. 13). The repetition and mnemonic strategies are beneficial to multilingual learners, making a connection to the material, helping with memorization, and practicing oral production of the content concepts and vocabulary. There are countless videos and songs available online, so it is easy to provide that form of input for my students.

After my model presentation, one student conducted his research project on a vertebrate organism from Cape Verde. The opportunity to learn about science and geography at the same time was very purposeful, allowing the student to take pride in his nationality and country, and educating other students on Cape Verde’s location, unique climate, and biodiversity. His presentation served as an invitation to learn and bond with one another and reflect on the melancholy of living in a new and different country. They realized that they were not alone—many of them were going through a hard and challenging transition period, but they could count on each other for support, strength, and community.

Family Engagement

Family engagement is crucial to helping students succeed in school. During the pandemic, the school building was closed to the public, making family engagement difficult. This prompted me to create a virtual science scavenger hunt, which proved to be a successful family engagement activity. Teachers and administrators were actively engaged in a positive, productive, and socially and emotionally rewarding task. Parents learned about the impact that families have in building language skills (Figure 1). Everyone gave positive feedback and the principal asked that we continue the scavenger hunt as a yearly event.

Figure 1

Family Engagement Event: Reasons Family Engagement Is Important

Conclusion

Multilingual classes are very active, diverse, and loud. I often call my high school students “jumping beans.” My classes are in many ways like what you might expect from younger students: engaging in learning with a lot of freedom, moving everywhere, working at different rates, asking questions of peers, and chasing me down when they need me. Of course not all multilingual classes are like this; if you have only one or two multilingual students in a mainstream class this may look different. Those multilingual students might be quiet and reserved. In this case, it is important to make multilingual students feel comfortable, part of the classroom community, and have opportunities to practice the target language. They need to feel that the classroom community embraces their learning and accomplishments. Having many multilingual students in a class is very different. Establishing a classroom community where students are willing to make many mistakes is essential. As an educator that embraces cultural diversity and practices culturally responsive pedagogy, I have come to understand that “jumping beans” are students that are engaged and truly willing to learn.