Teaching Science with Multilingual Learners [Guest Post]

By guest authors Dr. Emily Adah Miller (Univ of GA), Dr. Emily Reigh (Univ of CA, Santa Cruz), and Dr. Jennifer Bateman (Univ of GA)

How can you adapt science curriculum to better meet the needs of Multilingual Learners (MLLs)?

                                                            Image: SDI Productions, IStock, Edutopia

Districts have adapted materials that were originally designed to be one-size-fits all and aligned with the NGSS. Many students have success with these materials and they can be easy to use. These curriculum materials give teachers time to plan for teaching without having to invent new investigations or think through scope and sequence. They also help teachers consider questions that will best help students connect the experiences in class with the scientific understanding they need to acquire.

But the materials may not be designed with MLLs in mind. MLLs have different strengths, background experiences, and cultural and linguistic resources from students who are not labeled MLL and one another. Materials may not include enough flexibility to address the unique needs of MLLs. The only way to determine how to best support MLLs in science is through thoughtful planning and in-the-moment adjustments that respond to what ML students are doing, saying and knowing. Material cannot predict how your students will respond. 

This resource provides five adaptation strategies for MLLs, which help teachers address what they are seeing in their classroom with what is provided in the curriculum. Each strategy is supported by empirical research that aligns what is known about teaching science with MLLs, with asset perspective, and current understanding about how students acquire language and scientific understanding simultaneously.

In the Moment Adaptations

• Use Multiple Modalities - Using modalities like speaking, writing, gestures, drawings, and visual models, help MLLs engage in science. Teachers can use these modalities as valuable ways for all students to express their thinking.
• Support Translanguaging - Encourage students to use all their language resources, rather than limiting them to English. By allowing a student to engage in practices and discuss a science concept in their home language, students deepen science understanding which transfers to activities in English.
• Promote Student Collaboration and Communication - Create opportunities for students to learn from each other by presenting complex questions and problems that require them to value different perspectives and problem solve.
• Expand Scientific Practices - Help students reflect on the scientific practices they engage in by allowing extra class periods to share work, reflect on how the practice did and didn’t “work” to explain the phenomenon.
• Technology Tools - Integrate technology in ways that promote exploration and discussion, by providing language supports, and offering students more control over their learning pace.