How can homeroom teachers effectively support multilingual learners using best practices?
In this enlightening episode of the Equipping ELLs podcast, we dive into essential tips for homeroom teachers to prepare their classrooms, specifically tailored for those teaching English Language Learners. We welcome to the show Risa Woods, who shares practical strategies that will help you create an inclusive and effective learning space for all students. Discover how to organize materials, incorporate visuals, and implement routines that support the unique needs of ELLs. This episode is packed with actionable advice to ensure you're ready to empower all students, fostering success from day one.
Hey, risa, welcome to the show. I'm so excited that you're here today.
Risa Woods
Hi. Thanks so much for having me. It means so much to be here.
Beth Vaucher
Absolutely. This is, you know what, there's a lot of downfalls of social media, but I think one of the best things is just the way that you get to connect with people all around the world that you would never have your past cross. And you've been someone that I've been following on Instagram for a while and just absolutely love your content that you're sharing and was super excited to have you on the show.
Risa Woods
Yeah, likewise. I mean, it's been so fun to listen to your podcast and just to see what you share on Instagram as well.
Beth Vaucher
Awesome. I love that. That's a plus about social media. So yeah, the connections that are made. Well, today, I really want to just dive into the practical tips for helping all teachers, and especially, you know, general ed teachers, of how can they, how they can set their school year up for really supporting ells naturally, easily, because we know when we start to focus and set up our routines and our structures in our classrooms, we really can do small things that make a big difference in supporting our english language learners. And a lot of times when we do that, all of our students actually really benefit from it. And so that's why I'm excited to have you sharing more about that today. But before we dive into that, I would love for you to just share a little bit more about your educational background, your cultural background, and give us a glimpse of who you are.
Risa Woods
al. And it wasn't until about:
Beth Vaucher
That's my teaching plan.
Risa Woods
Interpreters. Exactly. You got me. But, yeah, I realized quickly they needed support. And you had a whole episode on this, Beth, about the lack of teacher preparation, even in districts that have high populations of multilingual learners. And so I stepped out and created my own business to support these teachers. So I do professional development in schools, and I'm developing online courses. But I also created Instagram with, like, short, bite size practical tips for teachers. I know that teachers don't have a lot of time, so I just use that platform to kind of reach teachers and to help them in ways that I can try it, you know, within 10 seconds or less is kind of my goal. But it helps that I'm still in the classroom, that I'm still, I can still be relevant and. Yeah, that I'm a teacher and I know how, what it's like to be a teacher.
Beth Vaucher
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And we will make sure to share a link at the end in the show notes of your instagram so they can come follow you and find out more about. About what you are working on in your PD and different things like that. But I love that pivotal moment that I feel like you shared was going from frustration and maybe judgment because I know many of the listeners are the ell teacher in their school and they're feeling those same things of asking, are you the translator? You can't speak their languages.
Risa Woods
How many languages do you speak?
Beth Vaucher
Yes. All those questions that happen often. And I love that you didn't allow that to keep being where you're headed within that, that feeling of frustration, but really, you know, shifting it to curiosity and seeing how you could show up and better support these teachers. And so I think that that's a really, really powerful way to look at it and for us to all kind of take that on too, of how can we approach these things that are causing us frustration, because that's not going to lead us to anything that's helpful, you know, so how can we switch that and become more curious of how we can better support? So, awesome. I cannot wait to dive in. So as we get into this new school year, share with us some of those tips, you know, the most important things that all teachers can do to get set up for successfully teaching their multilingual learners.
Risa Woods
Yeah. So I kind of think of it in three stages, I suppose, depending on when you're listening to this or how much time you have. But I think of it in, before the school year starts, that first week of school, and then maybe that first month of school. So before the school year starts, I would, if you have time to look at your materials, look at your curriculum, ask yourself the question, who is being represented here? Is it, is it everybody? Does everyone have a seat at this table in the curriculum and my resources? And, you know, and if I'm a fourth grade teacher, how do my books have diversity? Is there representation of immigrant students? Is there a representation of multilingual learners? If I'm a math teacher, even what, you know, word problems, what kind of word problems do I use? Am I, you know, just last year I had a student I was working with a word problem on, and they were, it was talking about being on a yacht, which the word yacht is really hard to pronounce, but it's also just like, so irrelevant to the student. It's like, what's a yacht like? Well, I'm never going to know in my life. Here, I'll show you a picture. Yeah. So, yeah, just making sure that our materials represent the students that we have is a big one. When you're setting up your classroom look at your walls. Who's being represented? I don't like to put too much on the walls because I don't want to get too cluttered or too overwhelming. But a little bit of representation goes a long way. Providing labels for the classroom. So labeling the door, labeling the pencil sharpener, things like that. You can provide labels in English or English in another language, depending, and also setting up your classroom for linguistic opportunities. So I go back and forth. Groups sometimes it could be a little bit too much or, like, I. At least. At the very least, like partners. I like where a student, you know, maybe even a student who is a little bit quieter, can feel like they have a partner if you want to do groups, and that's. That's, you know, up to you. But just giving them opportunities so that they know, okay, when I come to this class, I'll have an opportunity to speak to a partner. I'll have an opportunity to. Or, you know, on the carpet to speak to someone. So setting up my classroom in those ways so that they have those. So that's. That's the first chunk is, like, before school starts and, like, wrapping my mind around those things, creating a linguistic rich classroom.
Beth Vaucher
I love that. Now, let me ask you one question before you go on. I feel like my listeners want to know more about this. So as you think through those partnerships or those groups, how do you, you know, do you let students work together in their native language? Do you try to partner students if they speak the same native language? Do you, you know, like, how do you go about. Do you have to get to know your students first before you really decide who their partner is going to be? Is it a set thing or do you change every class? Is it where you just are doing a lot of cooperative learning strategies so they're really talking with all the students? I'd love to hear a little bit more about your approach there.
Risa Woods
Well, first I'll say, I don't know if there's one right way, so take the pressure off all of us. What I do, obviously, I don't know the students usually when in my first day. So I try to partner with who? With language. With common languages or common cultures. But I also, you know, it's like a both. And I want them to feel comfortable and to be able to speak their native language. But perhaps I'll do activities where they are partnered with students that don't speak that same language. So I'll be maybe, you know, a lot of what I do is partner them with native speakers in class and then, you know, create activities so that they have that practice. So they aren't solely relying on their first language, but giving opportunities just to try English as well. So I think it's a both and. Yeah. And, you know, I've had students where, okay, these two are the only two that speak this language, but they hate each other. So, you know, it's definitely like getting to know your students as well and seeing, like, where they. Where they thrive. But I think I start the year off with partnering with native speakers.
Beth Vaucher
I love that. Yeah. And I think it's just giving, you know, our listeners permission to do what is working for you. Exactly. That, you know, it's a both and type of situation.
Risa Woods
Right.
Beth Vaucher
So I think just you have permission put people together to who do that natively, and you start to learn your students who Beth Vaucher
really benefit from maybe that initial conversation in the native language before they share out. And for those who maybe don't want that at all, that really is detrimental to them to do that.
Risa Woods
So it's kind of observing those interactions. Yeah. So that, I mean, that gets to the first week of school is, you know, obviously get to know your students, get to know who they are as learners, get to know them culturally.
I really like, speaking of the multilingual aspect, I really like, I don't know if you know, Doctor Jose Medina. He's a strong advocate for translanguaging in the classroom. And he has this practice that I did this year because I just heard about it this year. But having an anchor chart and asking students what languages they speak or what languages are in their repertoire and writing it all on the anchor chart could be the first week, first day, first few days and letting them know that whatever is in that linguistic repertoire they can use in that classroom. So instead of limiting them to only English or only, you know, saying, like, whatever is helpful for you in this classroom, I want you. I want you to use it. So opening that up even at the beginning, I think is really important so that students are like, oh, okay. Like, I don't have to leave one part of me at the door. I don't have to leave my identity at the door. Like, I can bring that here in this class classroom and it can be useful to me and it's a skill I have. So I really like that practice for the first week of school.
Another just like really practical thing is for the first day buses, especially when you have newcomers, it's kind of a scary thing just to send a newcomer out into the world and just hope, hope they make it to their house. So depending on what your district does. But what I like to do is I give students a sheet that says, like, my name is so and so I speak this. I am learning English. So that because a lot of, you know, just like a lot of teachers lack a lot of teacher preparation, a lot of bus drivers are not trained. They have these students, they don't know English. They don't know what to do. So I usually give out like, hey, this is my, you know, this is my teacher misses woods, and here's her cell phone number. So, like, if anything goes crazy, like, they can call me and say, hey, I don't know if this kid is where they're supposed to be or, you know, is this the right bus stop? And put the bus stop information on there as well. But just in case something happens, I like to give them my cell phone number. I don't, you know, check with your district policy about that. But yeah, yeah, that's like, one big thing is like, not just sending them off into the world, but like actually having them and making, having them feel safe as well. Yeah. And the last thing for the first weakest school is to consider, especially for general education teachers consider doing more activities that aren't so language based. So the two truths and a lie. I've been in classrooms where, you know, teachers do two truths in a lie. It's like, okay, you're gonna need to give me time with this student to, like, really do that. Like, versus, like, a more fun activity where they, you know, like, charades where they wouldn't have to, you know, necessarily put in so much cognitive thinking just to do this activity. So just a mix of those activities, I think is really helpful for teachers.
Beth Vaucher
No, I mean, I. Yeah, I think. I think it's really important to kind of slow down and take a look at what, especially when we're talking about newcomers at the beginning of year, you know, that first week of. Of really being mindful of those areas where they're going to get lost or it's going to be a lot of anxiety and they can't share that, you know, in the cafeteria, at recess, on the bus. And those are usually times when maybe some of those staff aren't as trained in how to make sure that the student who doesn't know his lunch code and doesn't speak English is able to get the lunch,
Risa Woods
doesn't know you're supposed to get one fruit and one vegetable.
Beth Vaucher
Yes, all those things. Exactly. A lot that, you know, if we. It just. It's really helpful to kind of walk through this and see, like, what are the things that could be really big moments that are, you know, can really be wounding to our newcomers because we're not thinking through of how to protect them and how to help them build that safe space. And so I think these are great, great points.
Risa Woods
Yeah. And even, you know, if you can sometimes I've, like, brought students down on my, like, on the lunch, the cafeteria's off hour to be like, okay, this is the line. This is what you grab, like, so it's a slower pace environment to try to model. Like, okay, this is what we do. Because, yeah, it is overwhelming. I mean, it's overwhelming for me as a teacher just going through the line, but, yeah, to be like, okay, this is where. These are the protocols in place. These are the. What we're expected to do.
Beth Vaucher
Yeah, I love that. So let's move into the first month. What kind of things should teachers be setting up?
Risa Woods
Yeah, having a conversation with caregivers is really important to me. For our district, they provide interpreters for us to have those conversations, but to ask them about the student, about their educational background, to ask about their family background or even, like, cultural norms, that would be the time that would. What are dietary restrictions that that student has or what? Like I said, educational background. Was a student in a refugee camp, was a student in an elite private school. Has a student had english classes before, or is this the first time being exposed to English? You know, all those questions that an english language development team usually would do, but maybe even take it a step further to ask about culture, to ask about. Yeah. What the student is nervous about or what is the student excited about? You know, that's something that I prioritize within the first month, and that's you know, having newcomers throughout the year is not just the first month of school, right? So, like, I had newcomers coming in May. So that's the conversation I had within the first month of meeting that student. And then lastly is creating, like, a welcoming committee of students. So if you have students that are really excited to meet new students to give tours or just, like, really friendly, having a group of students that, you know, can be, like, good leaders in that way and can welcome a new student, because, like I said, You're going to have students in November or October, you know, that aren't necessarily the being in the school year, that you can rely on those students to give them tours or to show them how to open a locker or where to put their things in the cubby. So those are some practical things that I do that first month. It's just to develop that committee and create expectations for that committee.
Risa Woods
committee.
Beth Vaucher
Amazing. And with the parents, do you do in person or on Zoom?
Risa Woods
I try to, yeah. Okay. I try to do in person, and it's not possible. Maybe for people, people who have a ton of kids on their caseload, but, yeah, as much as you can make it as personal as possible, it's always better to meet face to face, I think. But if not possible, then over the phone or in Zoom, I find Zoom is a little bit harder to navigate, but, yeah, as much as possible. A phone call is better than nothing, right?
Beth Vaucher
Yep. Establishing that solid home school connection from the beginning in their native language is really, really important. So I love that. Now, on your instagram, you share a ton of practical tips that really help teachers see. I think, you know, one of the best ways for teachers to learn how to support multilingual learners is to see in action, because you can read how to do different strategies. But once you see it and you. And this is what you do such a great job at, you make it very simple. It's simple things that make a big difference. And so, you know, I know you've done some novel studies and different ways that you've scaffolded those or the way you do read alouds. And so I would love for you to just share a few of your favorites that you are. They're kind of your go tos, and so that those who are listening can build up their toolbox of strategies to use.
Risa Woods
Right. So, yeah, with my. My background, I grew up, my dad's an immigrant. He spoke English, but there were so many things that, you know, like letters that would come to our house or phone calls or whatnot that would come, and he'd be like, okay, explain this to me. Like, in basic English, you know, like, I'd read, you know, from whatever the bill or, you know, you know, anything that comes to your house, these, like, official documents that come to your house for the DMV or, you know. And so a lot of my life has been taking this, like, really complicated English and breaking it down. So I think that's where, like, my personal experience comes from. Obviously, I have the educational, professional experience, but I think just my personal experience. So in the classroom, I try to be one of my like go to strategies is to be as concrete and direct as possible. So in your materials, in your wording, in the way you speak, if you can be as concrete, as indirect as possible. So, for example, if you're doing a narrative, you say, name a moment in your life where you felt scared. Name a moment in your life when you felt scared. Well, the student, especially a newcomer beginner, would be like, okay, name. I know name. Name is like my name, right? Like, there's that multi multiple meaning words. Then it's like, I don't know exactly what they're asking of me. Name a moment your life where you felt scared versus, like, when was a moment in your life you felt scared, or have you ever felt scared? Turning those statements into questions is really powerful and really, really easy to do. So I just try to make things, like I said, as concrete and direct as possible to eliminate any confusion. Another thing are gestures and facial expressions. Those are so powerful and so easy to do that. I mean, I think of how people learn English or Spanish from soap operas, from telenovelas, the expression that people have and the intonation in their voice, like, how that helps to learn. Like, that helps to build that. Like, increase the comprehensible input. And, of course, pictures. I really feel like pictures are underrated. They're like, oh, yeah, visual aids, but what else? But it's like, okay, but do you actually have visual aids? Well, I have a meme at the beginning of my slideshow. It's like, well, okay, that's another. Let's go back to the concrete and direct. Like, memes are funny, but, like, that actually doesn't explain what you're. What you're talking about in the slideshow. Like, oh, okay. Like, that's not the kind of visual we want. We want those direct, concrete examples when we use visuals. So those are my big three. Obviously, there's more, but I always go back to that, like, being as concrete and direct as possible is, like, kind of how I think of everything. When I, like, create or adapt a worksheet, I'm like, okay, what are the ways that this is not concrete? What are the ways that this is kind of confusing and maybe, like, has a little bit too much fluff or, like, instead of getting to the point or being direct. So, yeah, those are my big three.
Beth Vaucher
I love it. I think those are really powerful, too, to just really start to think that way as the school year begins of, you know, it starts with reflecting on our own ways of communicating. And I think we all, especially if we're native english speakers, we do some sometimes don't realize how much fluff we're adding in or how much vocabulary we're adding in. That's, you know, above their language level, and we should always try to push them a little bit. But I think that that's such a great point to really begin there with that very concrete, direct instruction is those foundational skills they need to build from there. And so and that's, I mean, the beauty now of having, like, chat GPT or things like that is running it through there and saying, hey, how can I make this more concrete? Where could there be confusion for even, like, cliches that we use commonly?
Risa Woods
Like, I, like, I was in a classroom once that said something. What was it? Something, oh, authors.
Beth Vaucher
Purpose? Yes.
Risa Woods
Author's purpose is as easy as pie.
Beth Vaucher
Pie? Yeah.
Risa Woods
Yeah. It's like. What does that mean? Like, you know, like, what is, you know, like those, like, little cliches, which are cute and, like, fun to incorporate. And I know they're easy for students to learn, but then it's like, wait, are we talking about pie? Like, what? I. It's amazing, you know?
Beth Vaucher
Yeah.
Risa Woods
So just trying to be as direct and concrete is, you know, maybe not say, to make lemons out of lemonade or make lemonade out of lemons. You know, things like that. That we say all the time that. Yeah, yeah. Just kind of trying to avoid those things and catching yourself, like you said, being reflective.
Beth Vaucher
Yeah. Beth Vaucher
And really, I mean, and I've heard the same thing. Okay. Visuals. I know visuals. You know, and it's like. But there's so many levels that you can use visuals for, so it's not just okay with my newcomers. Here's the vocabulary, and there's visuals to it.
Risa Woods
Right.
Beth Vaucher
I think, you know, maybe you can go into this a little bit, but, like, how are some different ways that you can use visuals for a level three student? Like, what are some ways that you use visuals and different just to give our listeners some other ideas?
Risa Woods
Something I don't see a lot is, like, when I adapt worksheets, I always put visuals in them. And, for example, I had this on Instagram of. It was a speech by. I don't remember who was. It was a primary source of speech, and I made the visual of the person speaking the speech and then a speech bubble. So it was like, the first. Like, the first round or the worksheet was just like a speech. And I created it so that, oh, I can see that this person is speaking. You know what I mean? Like, it was an actual person speaking, and this is the person speaking. And I put it in a speech bubble. So I think using visuals in worksheets is always helpful. I know a lot of people use, like, graphs and whatnot, but I would first make sure the student is familiar with those things, like graphs and tables, whatnot, that maybe this chart is actually not helping to increase comprehensibility, but it's actually hindering depending on the student. And I think, obviously, students need to know those things, but just knowing that some visuals hinder in that way.
Slideshows, even early on level three students, I think whenever you make a slideshow, instead of having a lot of text on the. On the slideshow and making it where you're just reading a lot of text, like, can you incorporate a picture? Can it, can it be spoken through a picture? And even for level three, like, if they don't have those, that background knowledge, especially in the social studies classrooms, if they don't have the background knowledge, like, visuals are always going to help. Yeah. So if you're trying to make it culturally, like, you know, I was in a classroom where the teacher was doing like, Super bowl activities, which is great. It's, you know, part of the culture, but living in Kansas, Exactly. Go, chiefs. So, yeah, so they were doing Super bowl activities, but I had students, they were like, level three, but they had only been the country two years. They didn't even know the Super bowl was. So, like, using that opportunity to create those visuals and, like, even just showing a little bit of the game or, you know, showing who the key players are, the key teams, like, you can do that with visuals to build background and to increase their comprehension. So. Yeah, I.
Beth Vaucher
Yeah, I love that. I love it. You know, even just your. Your first example you gave of creating the speech and adding it to a speech bubble with a person, and it's like, how powerful that is, you know, in comparison of getting a worksheet that's a bunch of words, and said, oh, this is a speech that was by Abraham Lincoln, let's say.
Risa Woods
Right? Yeah.
Beth Vaucher
Don't know who Abraham Lincoln is. Don't know what time this is happening. Don't know any of the background that's happening.
Risa Woods
Right.
Beth Vaucher
Then just having that visual of here's someone who's speaking, and these are the words said. So it's like, instantly those students are getting a framework as they dive into the text over having many things that are questions that are unanswered by just receiving a text, the more we can think about that, how can we set them up for success? By giving them more of this visually, so that when they go and work on the text, they already have that framework of where this is happening, who's saying it, you know, it really goes a long way.
Risa Woods
And they can see, you know, like, it wasn't yesterday. Right? Like, they can use the picture to kind of use those context clues of, like, okay, this looks like a really old picture, or this looks like, you know, from someone who doesn't look like he's dressing in clothes of someone that doesn't look like us today. So.
Beth Vaucher
Yes, exactly. I love that. Well, we're running out of time, Risa, but why don't you share your one last tip with my listeners of how they can really show up this year to support their multilingual learners?
Risa Woods
I think this is kind of a big one, but it's to try to. And I. Sorry, you thinking of. Speaking of chat, GPT chat GBT is a great resource for. This is to try to understand, like, not just linguistically, but culturally, how students. How we have to build those bridges. Like, yeah, I've had teachers where, you know, students or the teachers, like, the student is not participating in class. I was like, okay, well, you know, look at their cultural background, like, they come from a culture where, like, you know, they do just sit in the classroom, and they're expected to respect the teacher and to not disrupt or interrupt or, you know. And so I think it's really important to understand cultural differences and help build those bridges. So I use chats. GPT in that way to ask, like, okay, I have a student coming from Honduras. I have a student coming from Botswana or whatever it is. Like, you know, what? What are the cultural differences that they would see in the classroom? And it's that it's been very, very helpful to do that, to say, like, oh, well, you know, in this country, they go to school for. Only 4 hours a day. So like a student might be. Might struggle to be there for 7 hours a day or in this country, like, teachers are regarded with high respect. So it's like, it's not culturally appropriate to question your teacher, to even raise your hand to ask a question. Yeah. So that's been really, really helpful and super practical for me as I've learned different. You know, there's so many different cultures in our schools that it's been a great resource for that. So I think, yeah. Building bridges between that.
Risa Woods
that.
Beth Vaucher
That is such a great use case. I've never thought about that. But it's really true of really understanding the cultural. I see the schools here of a student who's living here in Panama and goes to the US and how different because I'm seeing it, but it's like from any country of what they've experienced and just bringing that into our understanding to begin with and then working with the students to see if that applies to them. But that is a great use case. I love that.
Risa Woods
Thank you.
Beth Vaucher
Yeah. Because it really is that respecting that cultural that they come from, helping them to preserve that while they also get to experience, you know, a new culture and acclimate to that
Risa Woods
learned how to operate within that culture to be successful. Yeah. Yeah.
Beth Vaucher
What an incredible job we have to, like I always say, teach the global community right in your own neighborhood. So.
Risa Woods
Yeah.
Beth Vaucher
Well, thank you so much, Risa. This has been absolutely amazing. Where can my listeners find out more from you?
Risa Woods
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram. My handle is risa woods. So r I s a w o o d s. W o o d s with an underscore.
Beth Vaucher
Okay. We will make sure to put that in show notes as well. And then if people want more about your PD and things like that. Do you have. Will you just share that on Instagram as well?
Risa Woods
Yeah, you can send me a message. I'll be. I'm updating my website right now.
Beth Vaucher
Amazing.
Risa Woods
Today as we speak. So I will be. But you can feel free to send me a message. But I am updating those things.
Beth Vaucher
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time and just for all that you are doing in the community of teaching multilingual learners. And we will talk again soon.
