CABE2021

The causes of underachievement among multilingual and minoritized students go beyond simply a mismatch between the language of the home and the language of the school. It is obviously essential that schools support students in learning the language of instruction and catching up academically. However, it is equally important that schools respond to (a) socioeconomic factors that potentially limit academic success, and (b) the devaluation of students’ identities that results from societal stereotypes and racism in the wider society.
International research has highlighted seven sets of overlapping instructional strategies that respond directly to the causes of educational disadvantage among linguistically diverse, socially disadvantaged, and marginalized students. These strategies together, instituted across the entire school, provide high challenge and contextualized support for all learners:
• Scaffold comprehension and production of language
• Reinforce academic language across the curriculum
• Engage students’ multilingual repertoires
• Maximize literacy engagement.
• Connect with students’ lives and the knowledge, culture and language of their communities
• Decolonize instruction by means of transformative (culturally sustaining) pedagogies
• Affirm students’ identities by enabling them to use their language and literacy skills to carry out powerful intellectual and creative academic work

The presentation will discuss these instructional strategies and ways that schools can develop school-based language policies that support all students in academic learning.

Sponsored by Caslon Publications • CABE 2021 Gold Level Sponsor