I dare to say that working alongside colleagues had and still has the greatest effect on my professional growth and, therefore, my multilingual learners’ success.
What Is collaboration?
Collaboration can be defined as working together toward a common, overarching goal. When staff collaborates to serve multilingual learners intentionally, they come together to form a vision for success and devise daily actions for reinforcement. They understand what learners need and find ways to achieve those goals. However, collaboration does not have to take place in the same room or at the same time. It also does not mean that staff must do the same things.
Teachers who collaborate across departments to serve MLs understand that the responsibility of educating MLs is shared. One third-grade teacher remembers a new student from Korea who joined her class mid-year. The teacher was mindful of introducing the new student to each stakeholder who would interact with this child, the front office, the cafeteria, the nurse, the counselor, and all the specials teachers (art, music, physical education). This was important because the staff needed to know that a) we have a new student who needs to feel welcomed and b) this new student is acquiring English and speaks Korean.
While this may seem like a simple way to collaborate, it is important. Without this collaboration, new multilingual learners can be left feeling scared and confused. Raising the affective filter with feelings of fear and anxiety decreases the chances that learning will occur. On the contrary, when the affective filter is low, the ability to acquire language and learn content increases.
A high school teacher describes how, after noticing that several multilingual learners in his history class were struggling with the concepts, he asked to meet with the ESL teacher on his campus. The history teacher inquired about the students’ language proficiency levels and their backgrounds and asked questions about instructional practices for multilingual learners. This initial meeting led to future meetings (some face-to-face and others online and through emails). The two formed a mentorship and even began observing one another. They became comfortable enough that the history teacher observed the ESL teacher to gather new techniques he could incorporate into his own classroom, and the ESL teacher observed the history teacher to provide feedback on his implementation and instruction through the lens of multilingual learners and language acquisition techniques. Collaboration such as this comes at little to no cost, and it is a job-embedded method of personal development that reaps a myriad of benefits.
Collaboration Is Not Only Co-Teaching.
There are many ways to collaborate, especially in the interest of multilingual learners.
- Coaching: Instructional coaching of peers is a powerful way to increase teacher capacity for serving multilingual learners. Educators with special training in language acquisition can work side-by-side with general education teachers as they plan instruction. The guidance that coaches offer can contribute to a teacher’s instructional toolbox.
- Mentoring: Teachers who pair up and offer support to one another reap many benefits. A mentor teacher, who has more experience and knows the way, can be a GPS for newer teachers. Mentors can answer questions, offer suggestions, and help their partners when they need a “reroute,” all through the lens of a colleague who has traveled the same journey.
- Planning: When grade-level teachers plan together with language specialists (or ESL teachers), content and language goals can be met and lessons are more likely to be accessible to a greater range of learners. This type of planning also builds teacher capacity. As teachers gather in a common area and bring their knowledge together, each benefits from the others. Dr. Katie Toppel, an ELD specialist in Oregon, writes about collaborating with multiple teams in chapter 5 of the book Portraits of Collaboration: Educators Working Together to Support Multilingual Learners.
- Sharing: Sharing ideas and strategies with colleagues is a simple way to collaborate. When something works, share it! Creating a community of sharing with colleagues may increase the likelihood that they, too, will share.
Possible Collaboration Partnerships
Language specialists and:
- mainstream teachers
- special education teachers
- GT teachers
- art teachers
- music teachers
- P. E. teachers
- librarians
- counselors
- instructional coaches
- administrators
- families
- front office staff
- nurses
- cafeteria staff
- bus drivers
Altagracia H. Delgado, executive director of multilingual services at Aldine ISD, says, “Equity for multilingual learners asks if we are really collaborating in synergy to ensure that all students thrive.” It takes deliberately opening our minds, our classroom doors, and our lesson plans, but mostly our hearts, to share students, workload, responsibilities, successes, and all that comes between to serve multilingual learners on their paths toward greatness.
Seidlitz Education 