The California Department of Education (CDE) Multilingual Support Division and the Region 15 Comprehensive Center at WestEd hosted a series of webinars about the new CDE publication, Improving Education for Multilingual and English Learner Students: Research to Practice. The series was designed to help engage educators with the publication and supporting their professional learning. The eight webinars aired from January through June 2021.
In each of the following archived webinars listed below, the publication’s authors—all national experts in multilingual and English learner education—presented important and detailed information about their chapters.
Webinars
Overview and Chapter 1: The Power and Promise of California’s Multilingual Learners
Date: Recorded on January 13, 2021
This webinar provided highlights from the overview chapter and chapter one. The presenters provided information from the chapter about California’s multilingual learner and English learner students, key CDE policies and resources that frame the book, and equity-focused universal practices emphasized throughout the book.
Chapter 1: The Power and Promise of California’s Multilingual Learners—A Deeper Dive for Administrators and Teachers New to the Field
Date: Recorded on February 17, 2021
This webinar provided a closer look at chapter one, which frames the subsequent chapters in the book. The presenters highlighted key parts of the chapter, including the state’s renewed commitment to multilingualism and multilingual learner students, the benefits of multilingualism, California’s vision for educational equity, the diversity within the multilingual learner student population, and universal practices emphasized throughout the book.
Chapter 5: Content Instruction with Integrated and Designated English Language Development in the Elementary Grades
Date: Recorded on March 3, 2021
This webinar highlighted four essential practices for quality teaching for multilingual learner students that are promoted in chapter 5: using English purposefully, interacting in meaningful ways, understanding how English works, and engaging in formative assessment. The presenters also provided overviews of classroom vignettes in the chapter that illustrate the four essential practices in action.
Chapter 3: Multilingual Programs and Pedagogy: What Teachers and Administrators Need to Know and Do
Date: Recorded on April 7, 2021
This webinar provided an overview of chapter 3, which offers guidance to teachers and administrators on conceptualizing, establishing, and improving multilingual programs and implementing research-based pedagogy in multilingual classrooms.
Chapter 7: Creating Schools and Systems That Support Asset-Based, High-Quality Instruction for Multilingual Learners
Date: Recorded on April 21, 2021
This webinar provided an overview of chapter 7, which introduces a framework for systemic continuous improvement that places multilingual learner (ML) students at the core and is guided by an assets-orientation and principles of high-quality ML instruction. The presenters showcased an example from the chapter of one system’s Aligned Continuous Improvement Model with a focus on articulation and alignment.
Chapter 6: Content and Language Instruction in Middle and High School: Promoting Educational Equity and Achievement Through Access and Meaningful Engagement
Date: Recorded on May 12, 2021
This webinar provided an overview of chapter 6, which includes information on Integrated and Designated English Language Development and effective school and district systems. The presenters highlighted six interacting instructional practices promoted in the chapter that are essential for multilingual learner students in the secondary grades and highlight classroom vignettes that illustrate them in action.
Chapter 2: Asset-Based Pedagogy: Student, Family, and Community Engagement for the Academic and Social-Emotional Learning of Multilingual Students
Date: Recorded on May 18, 2021
The chapter provided an overview of chapter 2. The presenters addressed key aspects of the chapter, including why asset-based pedagogy is an educational imperative for multilingual students. They also discussed several ways asset-based pedagogy can promote the social, emotional, and academic development of multilingual students.
Chapter 4: Early Learning and Care for Multilingual and Dual Language Learners Ages Zero to Five
Date: Recorded on June 22, 2021
This webinar provided an overview of chapter 4. The presenters presented evidence-based principles highlighted in the chapter for supporting the education of dual language learner (DLL) children, present classroom examples of how to best support the academic success of DLLs, and describe foundational family engagement and assessment practices that have shown to be effective for DLLs.