Importantly, multilingual learners may demonstrate what they know and can do in many ways, including through gestures, movement, drawings, or responses in their home languages and English.
Extended studies and multimodal strategies are not limited to a single part of the read aloud experience. Rather, educators can weave these approaches across the phases of interactive read alouds to help multilingual learners build language, content knowledge, and meaningful connections across contexts.
Enhancing Read Alouds for Multilingual Learners
Given the power of interactive read alouds, educators can intentionally use them to nurture multilingual learners’ language, literacy, and knowledge development. In the sections that follow, we identify practical strategies that educators can implement before, during, and after a read aloud to help each child grow across these areas. These are illustrated in the vignettes below in which a preschool educator applies these strategies to support his multilingual learners.
Before the Read Aloud
What texts should educators choose for the read aloud, and what do they already know about the multilingual learners in their classroom? Teachers should consider the following before the interactive read aloud takes place.
Select Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Texts
Mr. Jensen, whose primary language is English, teaches in a culturally and linguistically diverse preschool classroom that uses a projectbased curriculum. Children are currently studying the human body and movement, and he is planning experiences to foster children’ s oral language, vocabulary, and conceptual knowledge. As he plans, Mr. Jensen reflects on the questions children have recently asked about how their bodies move, such as“ Why does my heart go boom-boom when I run?” and“ Why do I have bones in my body?” He also consults his state’ s early learning standards. He decides to focus on vocabulary related to body movements and body parts through interactive read alouds, dramatic play, singing and movement activities, and small group conversations.
While looking through available books, Mr. Jensen comes across From Head to Toe, by Eric Carle. This text has many familiar concepts, such as animals, body parts, and various movements, that children can easily connect to their own experiences. This will allow him to build on prior knowledge while introducing new vocabulary and concepts in English and children’ s home languages. Furthermore, the book has been published in several different languages. This gives him an idea: In the next classroom newsletter, he asks for families who are interested in recording a read aloud of the book in their home languages to share with the class.
Culturally and linguistically responsive teaching draws upon the unique experiences, perspectives, and assets children bring into learning settings while avoiding deficit perspectives and stereotypes( Gay 2000; Lucas & Villegas 2013). Educators can help multilingual learners by intentionally selecting topics, texts, and instructional materials that reflect children’ s lived experiences, interests, and communities while also developing language and literacy skills.
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