During October, we celebrate Bilingual Child Month! Today's early childhood classrooms are more culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse than ever, and teachers need to be equipped with the right strategies to support EVERY child and create a rich learning environment. Check out this list of resources to help you partner with each child and family to better understand varied cultural and language backgrounds, and ultimately help each child learn the lifelong skills they need to thrive.
Strength in Diversity
A Positive Approach to Teaching Dual-Language Learners in Early Childhood
This book offers teachers context, practical advice, and strategies to help young dual-language learners thrive. This includes the basics of second-language acquisition, effective teaching strategies and principles of instruction, and ways to engage the families of dual-language learners.
Connecting Right from the Start
Fostering Effective Communication with Dual-Language Learners
Grounded in research and strengthened by the author’s personal experience as a student learning English, Connecting Right from the Start helps teachers understand the culturally and linguistically diverse children in their classroom, as well as those with disabilities. This book gives teachers practical, proven skills such as ways to make DLLs feel more comfortable in the classroom and ways to challenge DLLs without overwhelming them.
Literacy for All Young Learners
In Literacy for All Young Learners, Mary Jalongo, PhD, offers 65 strategies to support literacy learning with children from preschool through the third grade. Each strategy is designed to be simple to use with all of the children in your classroom—from the not-yet-readers to the fluent readers—and each strategy is tied to the Common Core State Standards for kindergarten through third grade.
The Welcoming Classroom
Building Strong Home-to-School Connections for Early Learning
In The Welcoming Classroom, Dr. Johnna Darragh Ernst offers practical ideas for creating a welcoming atmosphere for families that will encourage them to participate in their children's learning community. Learn practical ways to connect with families from varied cultural and language backgrounds and abilities, gain new strategies for creating a home-school link to support learning, and create a richer learning environment by integrating unique family cultural perspectives.
Many Languages, One Classroom
Teaching Dual and English Language Learners
Even the most experienced teacher can feel a bit unsure about meeting the unique needs of children from different language backgrounds. Many Languages, One Classroom applies the latest information about best practices to all aspects of a preschool program. From using lists of key words and visual aids to using body language and gestures, the strategies you will find in this book are adaptable and easy to put into practice.
Many Languages, Building Connections
Supporting Infants and Toddlers Who Are Dual Language Learners
Many Languages, Building Connections outlines adaptable strategies that caregivers of children younger than the age of three need to feel confident that they know how language develops, how cultural differences can come into play, and how to assess an individual child's situation to provide appropriate support.
The Bilingual Book of Rhymes, Songs, Stories, and Fingerplays
With Spanish and English on each page, this collection of over 450 rhymes, songs, stories, and fingerplays provides the opportunity for building vocabulary and exploring the sounds of language-important skills for beginning readers!
Author(s)Pam Schiller, Rafael Lara-Alecio, Beverly J. Irby, Karen N. Nemeth, Johnna Darragh Ernst, PhD, Mary Renck Jalongo, Jennifer Chen, Lea Ann Christenson, PhD
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