Learning in a New Language: A Schoolwide Approach to Support K–8 Emergent Bilinguals, Jan/2020

Within today’s multilingual communities, a growing percentage of students are emergent bilinguals—bringing to school a home language other than English and thus poised to become bilingual as they acquire the new language. As a result, school leaders need to have essential background knowledge and a wealth of strategies at their fingertips to ensure that all students are prepared for college, career, and civic engagement.

In Learning in a New Language, author Lori Helman offers educational leaders a comprehensive and accessible guide to best practices for supporting students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in a school environment that embraces equity. Helman discusses:

1. Changing demographics that require educational leaders to enlarge and enhance their approaches
2. The importance of engaging families in forming a cohesive school community that contributes to student success
3. Fundamental approaches to creating equity for linguistically diverse students in the school change process
4. The role of language in academic learning and what makes learning in a new language unique
5. Evidence-based strategies for literacy and content-area classrooms
6. Practical tips for where to start in supporting emergent bilinguals in the classroom, and presents dozens of online resources for further exploration.

The responsibilities of educational leaders continue to expand as they work toward managing school sites and ensuring equity of student opportunity and achievement. Helman provides a one-stop resource for the foundational knowledge and practical guidance needed to strategically take on these responsibilities.

About the Author:

Lori Helman, PhD, is a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches and mentors graduate students, literacy specialists, and future teachers and serves as director of the Minnesota Center for Reading Research. She received her master's degree in education administration and supervision and her doctorate in curriculum and instruction (literacy education). During her career, she has been a bilingual elementary school teacher, a district literacy coordinator, a new teacher program development leader, a teacher educator, and an educational researcher. Helman's research is focused on literacy development, reading difficulties, effective teaching practices for multilingual students, and the implementation of schoolwide systems of support.