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Helping children develop their American and native cultural identities together.
1. NAEYC Themes, Part 5: Value the Home Culture and Language


This blog’s theme of valuing the home culture and language complements Themes 2 and 3 nicely.  As Dr. Linda Espinosa stated in her session at NAEYC, “It is crucial that educators understand how best to effectively support the home language so that early literacy can be fostered in the home as well as school.”  Indeed, as I often state, L is for Literacy, not Language.  Development of language and literacy in the home language (or first language) facilitates the development of language and literacy in the second language.

“How can I support development of the home language if I don’t speak it?” you may ask.  Dr. Espinosa contends that pursuing such a feat is not beyond our ability.  For starters, simply having books available in the children’s home language allows the teacher to model respect for other languages and cultures.  Also, one center found that “by valuing young English language learners’ native languages, positive relationship [were] fostered between parents, communities, schools and teachers.” These relationships are important because family support has shown to be crucial in the successful transitions of their children.

Children between ages 5 and 10 are still acquiring the structures of their first language.  Teachers who help parents maintain home language acquisition contribute to a strong family relationship as the children grow.  (Once the children’s English level surpasses that of their parents and if they don’t learn their parent’s native language, how can the family communicate effectively with each other?)

Start with a Strategy

Dr. Eun Kyeong Cho outlined a strategy for working with immigrant children and families who are non-native English speakers.  She states that there are three principles that teachers should try to encompass while recognizing the difficulties teachers face in balancing these with your already numerous responsibilities.

1)   Find ways to enrich the experiences of all students in the class
2)   Utilize the opportunities that diversity and a multicultural environment bring
3)   Meet the needs of individual students and their families as partners of learning

Finally, as with previous recommendations from other NAEYC presenters, Dr. Cho recommends planning an effective strategy.

1)   For the Class: Plan for utilizing instructional methodology and activities to engage the multicultural nature of the class as an asset.
2)   For the Individual: Plan for how to assist individual students who may be having particular challenges adjusting to a new environment and life.
3)   For the Family: Plan for how to engage the Newly Immigrated family in the Newly Immigrated student’s schooling, respecting the family’s cultural norms and values.

Remember the key is to be deliberate, integrative and committed to your strategy!  You can do it and we can help!  Feel free to share on here what has worked for you and/or questions you may have.  Thanks!

Check out below for the sources of this blog:

1) Using standards-based curriculum to support language and literacy development for English-language learners.

Presented by:
Min-hua Chen, Education Specialist, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education;
Vicky Milstein, Principal of Early Education, Brookline Public Schools;
Min-Jen Wu Taylor, Pre-K Teacher, Brookline Public Schools;
James StClair, Kindergarten Teacher, Cambridge Public Schools;
Sandra Christison, Kindergarten Teacher, Boston Public Schools.

They haven’t posted their slides y

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