Shorewood School District

Multilingual Learner (ML) Program

MISSION: The mission of the Shorewood School District Multilingual Learner Program is to prepare ML students for successful participation in American school and society.

ML Program Goals

We will provide:

Content-based, integrated English instruction in the context of appropriate grade level curriculum
Supportive instruction to help students develop the ability to communicate in English
Instruction to develop listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking skills for competence in social and academic English
An environment where all classroom teachers are skilled in supporting the multiple needs of ML students’ and their academic language and content skills, through collaboration with the ML teachers
An environment that encourages students to value and maintain their first language and culture
An environment that fosters insight into the diverse cultural patterns and heritage of the United States
A program aligned with the national and state ML goals and standards
Family engagement, first and foremost, by ensuring parents have information in a language parents understand
Family engagement that is ongoing, mutual, built on trust and respect, and focused on student learning and achievement (Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of WIDA)

How Will We Achieve Our ML Program Goals?

Check the ML Handbook for questions about:

Student Registration
Student Assessment
Assessments and Records
ML Placement and Leveling
Exiting Students from ML
ML Records
Standards Tests Guidelines and ML
Coordination of Title I and Reading Support and ML
Multiple Indicator Protocols
Monitor
Appendix (ML forms for parents in English and translated into our top twelve languages; Arabic, Chinese, Dari, French, Japanese, Korean, Nepali Russian, Somali, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese)

WIDA Guiding Principles of Language Development

These updated Guiding Principles of Language Development and Learning exemplify WIDA’s overarching and ever-present Can Do Philosophy (these guide and shape our ML teaching in the Shorewood School District).

Multilingual learners refers to all children and youth who are, or have been, consistently exposed to multiple languages. It includes students known as English language learners (ELLs) or dual language learners (DLLs); heritage language learners; and students who speak varieties of English or indigenous languages.

Multilingual learners’ languages and cultures are valuable resources to be leveraged for schooling and classroom life; leveraging these assets and challenging biases help develop multilingual learners’ independence and encourage their agency in learning (Little, Dam, & Legenhausen, 2017; Moll, Amanti, Neff, & González, 1992; Nieto & Bode, 2018; Perley, 2011).
Multilingual learners’ development of multiple languages enhances their knowledge and cultural bases, their intellectual capacities, and their flexibility in language use (Arellano, Liu, Stoker, & Slama, 2018; Escamilla, Hopewell, Butvilofsky, Sparrow, Soltero-González, Ruiz-Figueroa, & Escamilla, 2013; Genesee, n.d.; Potowski, 2007).
Multilingual learners’ language development and learning occur over time through meaningful engagement in activities that are valued in their homes, schools and communities (Engeström, 2009; Larsen-Freeman, 2018; van Lier, 2008; Wen, 2008).
Multilingual learners’ language, social-emotional, and cognitive development are inter-related processes that contribute to their success in school and beyond (Aldana & Mayer, 2014; Barac & Bialystok, 2012; Gándara, 2015; Sánchez-López & Young, 2018).
Multilingual learners use and develop language when opportunities for learning take into account their individual experiences, characteristics, abilities, and levels of language proficiency (Gibbons, 2002; Swain, Kinnear, & Steinman, 2015; TESOL International Association, 2018; Vygotsky, 1978).
Multilingual learners use and develop language through activities which intentionally integrate multiple modalities, including oral, written, visual, and kinesthetic modes of communication (Choi & Yi, 2015; Jewitt, 2008; van Lier, 2006; Zwiers & Crawford, 2011).
Multilingual learners use and develop language to interpret and access information, ideas, and concepts from a variety of sources, including real-life objects, models, representations, and multimodal texts (Ajayl, 2009; Cope & Kalantzis, 2009; Jewitt, 2009; Kervin & Derewianka, 2011).
Multilingual learners draw on their metacognitive, metalinguistic, and metacultural awareness to develop effectiveness in language use (Bialystok & Barac, 2012; Casey & Ridgeway-Gillis, 2011; Gottlieb & Castro, 2017; Jung, 2013).
Multilingual learners use their full linguistic repertoire, including translanguaging practices, to enrich their language development and learning (García, Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017; Hornberger & Link, 2012; Wei, 2018).

10. Multilingual learners use and develop language to interpret and present different perspectives, build awareness of relationships, and affirm their identities (Cummins, 2001; Esteban-Guitart & Moll, 2014; May, 2013, Nieto, 2010).

Complete bibliography available upon request