Settling Into the School Year: Fall 2024

During Hispanic Heritage Month, we invite you to join our QTEL team in taking a moment to honor the rich history, culture, and contributions of Hispanic students and their families to our schools and communities. As educators, this is an opportunity to celebrate diversity, promote cultural awareness, and highlight the important ways in which Hispanic Americans have shaped our world. Let’s take this opportunity to create inclusive spaces in our schools that embrace the unique identities of our students and recognize the value of their heritage in our classrooms and beyond.

As educators, we have daily opportunities to enhance students’ experiences with school. As you continue to settle into this school year, we wanted to share five ways to cultivate a nurturing environment for English Learners. We hope you find the ideas below meaningful and actionable, and our QTEL team looks forward to sharing updates and resources with you throughout the year.

My best,

Annette Gregg

Director, English Learners and Migrant Education Services

WestEd

---

5 Things to Consider as You Settle Into the School Year

Get to Know Your English and Multilingual Learners: Take time to get to know who your students are (their interests, strengths, and needs). This creates a supportive learning environment where English Learners feel valued and included. Strong teacher-student relationships are an important factor in students’ motivation, engagement, and academic success.

Engage Families: Provide families with regular opportunities to build home-school connections, share insights, and feel genuinely welcomed to collaborate in their child’s success. Ensure communication is available in the family’s home language and that family members know who to communicate with if they have questions about their child’s school experience.  

Set Ambitious Goals and Celebrate Accomplishments: Everyone wants to know that someone believes in them. By setting clear goals with students and celebrating their accomplishments, you create spaces where students are seen for who they are, and they have opportunities to reflect on their own growth. This builds confidence and demonstrates a mutual investment in their success.

Encourage Meaningful Talk Every Day: In order to gain confidence in communicating, students must have multiple opportunities every day to practice using English to express their ideas, think through problems with others, and refine their understanding. Plan for structured opportunities for students to work with peers in ways that both build upon their prior knowledge and expose them to the new ideas and language of others.

Demonstrate Vulnerability as a Learner: English Learners take risks each day as they explore ways to express their thoughts and questions in English. Demonstrate your own vulnerability by asking students to teach you a few words and phrases in their home language and then use that language in front of others. This builds a culture of mutual respect and shows your willingness to be a learner with your students as experts.