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<div class="gmail-td-post-header"><header class="gmail-td-post-title"><h1 class="entry-title">Reports Highlight Mother-Language Use and ‘Superdiverse’ Classrooms</h1><div class="gmail-td-module-meta-info"> <span class="gmail-td-post-date gmail-td-post-date-no-dot"><time class="entry-date gmail-updated gmail-td-module-date" datetime="2018-03-26T10:33:09+00:00">March 26, 2018</time></span></div></header></div><div class="gmail-td-post-content"><div class="gmail-at-above-post gmail-addthis_tool" style="clear:both"><div id="gmail-atstbx" class="gmail-at-share-tbx-element gmail-addthis-smartlayers gmail-addthis-animated gmail-at4-show"><span id="gmail-at-38bd0a59-e9b0-4204-b5b1-519d9c81f36f" class="gmail-at4-visually-hidden">AddThis Sharing Buttons</span><div class="gmail-at-share-btn-elements"><a tabindex="1" class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper gmail-at-share-btn gmail-at-svc-google" style="background-color:rgb(66,133,244);border-radius:0%"><span class="gmail-at4-visually-hidden">Share to Google Bookmark</span><span class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:16px;height:16px;width:16px"></span></a><a tabindex="1" class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper gmail-at-share-btn gmail-at-svc-facebook" style="background-color:rgb(59,89,152);border-radius:0%"><span class="gmail-at4-visually-hidden">Share to Facebook</span><span class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:16px;height:16px;width:16px"></span></a><a tabindex="1" class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper gmail-at-share-btn gmail-at-svc-twitter" style="background-color:rgb(29,161,242);border-radius:0%"><span class="gmail-at4-visually-hidden">Share to Twitter</span><span class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:16px;height:16px;width:16px"></span></a><a tabindex="1" class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper gmail-at-share-btn gmail-at-svc-print" style="background-color:rgb(115,138,141);border-radius:0%"><span class="gmail-at4-visually-hidden">Share to Print</span><span class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:16px;height:16px;width:16px"></span></a><a tabindex="1" class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper gmail-at-share-btn gmail-at-svc-compact" style="background-color:rgb(255,101,80);border-radius:0%"><span class="gmail-at4-visually-hidden">Share to More</span><span class="gmail-at-icon-wrapper" style="line-height:16px;height:16px;width:16px"></span></a><span class="gmail-at_flat_counter" style="line-height:16px;font-size:10.2px">10</span></div></div></div><p><img class="gmail-alignleft gmail-size-medium gmail-wp-image-129535" src="https://www.languagemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/diverse-300x196.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="196">Two
reports released by the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on
Immigrant Integration Policy point to promising approaches being
undertaken to work effectively in multilingual, multicultural
classrooms—an increasing reality with nearly one-third of the U.S. child
population age eight and under growing up with one or more parents
speaking a language other than English at home. The reports were
commissioned as part of a larger research project sponsored by the
center that is focused on understanding the needs of early-childhood
education and care (ECEC) programs that operate in “superdiverse”
contexts.</p><p>More U.S. communities are experiencing superdiversity in
early education and care settings as young dual-language learners
(DLLs) arrive with greater variation in origin, race/ethnicity,
socioeconomic status, and language spoken at home. This superdiversity
challenges ECEC providers to develop instructional strategies and
program designs that will better ensure the healthy development and
future academic success of DLLs, rather than relying on approaches used
in more homogeneous or bilingual settings.</p><p>In The Language of the
Classroom: Dual Language Learners in Head Start, Public Pre-K, and
Private Preschool Programs, researchers Megina Baker and Mariela Páez
examine teachers’ use of language across different contexts to highlight
effective practices and provide examples of exemplary teaching in
diverse classrooms. The report focuses on patterns of home language use
across different ECEC program types, drawing upon insights from
educators, caregivers, and parents and classroom observations in six
preschool classrooms in Boston to identify exemplary practices. The
second report examines the potential of a well-regarded pre-K–3
professional development model developed in California in recent years
to improve instruction and outcomes for DLLs in superdiverse settings
through intensive focus on young children’s academic language and
literacy development, both in school and at home.</p><p>In Supporting
Dual Language Learner Success in Superdiverse Pre-K–3 Classrooms: The
Sobrato Early Academic Language Model, authors Anya Hurwitz and Laurie
Olsen focus on the pre-K–3 SEAL model being used in more than 100
programs and schools in California. Piloted in 2008 in
bilingual/dual-language and English-instructed settings, the SEAL model
is designed to provide young English learners with language-intensive
support integrated throughout the curriculum, in and through academic
content.</p><p>“With so many children in the U.S. now being taught in
superdiverse settings, it is critical that teachers—particularly those
in pre-K–3 programs—are supported in understanding and using strategies
that assist young children in developing the academic language skills
they need to read on grade level and be positioned for future school
success,” said Margie McHugh, the center’s director. “Though the reports
we release today provide important insights and practices, research,
policy, and practice are generally lagging in this critical area, while
the number of early-childhood programs and elementary schools operating
in superdiverse contexts continues to grow.”</p><p>The report argues
that the teaching models that prevail in education today are inadequate
to deal with superdiverse classrooms. “In a field that has largely
focused on either bilingual/dual-language program settings or
English-taught settings without distinguishing the superdiverse context
or its implications, teachers of linguistically and culturally diverse
classrooms have been left without the explicit tools and support to
leverage children’s home languages and create classrooms that embrace
the cultural realities of student lives beyond the classroom,’’ the
authors write. “To focus solely on English misses an important leverage
point in language/literacy development for the DLL child.”</p><p>The two
reports conclude a three-part series on superdiversity. The first
report draws from MPI analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data to provide a
demographic profile of DLLs.<br> To download the SEAL model report,
visit
<a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/supporting-dual-language-learner-success-superdiverse-prek-3-classrooms-sobrato">www.migrationpolicy.org/research/supporting-dual-language-learner-success-superdiverse-prek-3-classrooms-sobrato</a>.
To download the Language of the Classroom report, visit
<a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/language-classroom-dual-language-learners-head-start-public-pre-k-and-private-preschool">www.migrationpolicy.org/research/language-classroom-dual-language-learners-head-start-public-pre-k-and-private-preschool</a>.</p></div>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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