Links to Resources

Click on the topic that interests you to see links in that area.

Great Websites for Teachers and Families of Multilingual Learners

Toolkits and Publications for Teachers of Multilingual Learners

Great Websites for Teachers and Families of Multilingual Learners

Center for Applied Linguistics — This site promotes language learning and cultural understanding through free and paid resources for training, research, and practical supports.

Colorin Colorado–A bilingual site for educators and families of multilingual learners–This site contains many linked resources for multilingual learners, teachers, and families. It is fully accessible in Spanish and English. Here is a 90-second video for show families how to use the App to locate the Family Toolkit in various languages.

Diffit — This site differentiates text by reading level with the option of translating it into various languages. It generates various types of questions and supportive learning and thinking organizers for students to explore, analyze, or apply the concepts in the text or video you’ve first entered into this site.

Duolingo — Duolingo is a free app for learning 40+ languages through quick lessons. The lessons lead you through speaking, reading, listening, and writing exercises to build your vocabulary and grammar skills. With each practice session, you earn points to unlock new levels. The app uses research-based teaching methods and fun features to encourage daily practice at your personalized level and pace. For added motivation, you can invite friends using the app to compete for the longest streak of daily practice!

ED Research for Action — This site summarizes research findings about many topics about multilingual learners with many hyperlinks to various articles about each topic. There is a search bar to type in categories that may interest you for your setting.

English Learner Achievement Network — This link is to the ESL Resources on the website and houses links to many other websites and teaching tools in categories like Total Physical Response, Responding to Sentence-Level Writing Errors, Instructional Conversations, and many more topics. Some links are old and broken within the resources, but most are working for you to find good ideas for your classroom.

Global Cities — This site provides free materials to help teachers infuse global citizen knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors into their curriculum. Here are 2-minute explanations by educators with introductory videos for the Global Cities approach. There is a Codebook of Indicators and sample resources to work on project-based learning with appreciation of diversity, cultural understanding, global knowledge, and global engagement. Here is a 2-minute video explanation of using the Codebook and a 10-minute video of how to use the Codebook of Indicators. Finally there is a 3-minute video of students talking about what they’ve learned through Global Cities projects.

Global Refuge — This organization provides services for refugees and is based in Baltimore.

Harvard Immigration Initiative — This website from Harvard University contains briefs and PDF information sheets about issues related to immigrants on various topics of interest for educators.

ISL Collective — This site is made by Multilingual Learner Teachers or ESL Teachers who share their free worksheets, PowerPoints, and videos for other teachers to use. You can sort by grammar topic or general topics.

Literacy Partners — This organization offers free workshops online for Spanish-speaking parents and caregivers to offer monthly workshops to support literacy and engagement with their children at home. They offer free multilingual books to families who attend their virtual workshops.

Multilingual Learning Toolkit — This site contains videos, articles, research highlights, and other resources to support teachers of pre-K through grade 3 multilingual learners. It is a free site developed with a partnership of educators and foundations in California, and they are adding to the site on a continuing basis.

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition — This site from the U.S. Department of Education houses 25,000 resources to give clarification, toolkits, and briefs about many topics concerning multilingual learners.

Parents Place of Maryland — This link is a source for educators to share with parents with special needs children. Among other categories, there are “Coffee and Conversations” sessions for Spanish-speaking parents and for bilingual educators.

Reading Rockets — This page links to resources to support multilingual learners in creating a welcoming classroom, reading basics, and connecting with families of multilingual learners.

ReadWorks— This site provides free access to various texts that students can read online and translate portions or whole documents into various languages. The passages can be sorted by reading level and topic for the teacher to select. There are also comprehension and assessment questions that support each text. To see webinars about various ways to use decodables, daily articles, and thematic texts, click on the webinars link. An example of a search for materials to support Hispanic Heritage Month from ReadWorks.org is linked here.

Seal of Biliteracy — Here are some additional links to websites that give information and tips about gaining and testing for the Seal of Biliteracy to award students. The first two are for the Seal of Biliteracy in Maryland and the overview of approved assessments in Maryland. Next is a comparison of assessment resources. The last is a partial list of colleges in various states that award credit for earning the Seal of Biliteracy.

Social Justice and Education — This site has articles, blogs, and other resources to help educators who want to affirm the asset-based view of multilingualism in the United States.

Tips for Understanding Linguistics within Different Languages — This site helps to understand dialects, semantics, and pragmatics within different global languages your students might be speaking as their native language.

Toolkits and Publications for Teachers of Multilingual Learners

American Speech-Language Hearing Association Bilingual Service Delivery — This site has many ideas to support services, testing, and resources for multilingual students in need of speech and language support. There is also a one-page self-assessment of a Cultural Competence Checklist for clinicians and educators to consider for themselves.

Asset-Based Strategies and Approaches — A book chapter a from California report (Chapter 2) of Improving Education for Multilingual and English Learner Students is an asset-based approach to pedagogy for culturally and linguistically diverse students. The chapter includes rationale, classroom examples, and strategies for educators to adopt to be more asset-minded with their multilingual students.

Attendance Support for Multilingual Learners and Other Students — These links from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) are a series of four articles with other links about research-based practices for increasing student attendance and engagement:

CDC Toolkit for Schools: Engaging Parents to Support Student Mental Health and Emotional Well-being — This toolkit from the Center for Disease Control contains ready-to-use resources for schools to better communicate with families about the importance of physical and emotional health. This site includes topics on exercise, nutrition, emotional well-being, and other pivotal topics for parents with many links embedded to explore more on each subtopic. There are social media, newsletter, and email suggestions as well as resources to communicate with parents in live settings to share information that will help their child thrive in school and in life.

City University of New York Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals — This site links to many resources on culturally relevant books, translanguaging practices, and other relevant topics to explore.

Cultural Literacy–Avoid These Mistakes (from ED Week) — This article briefly explains some pitfalls to avoid in being truly culturally affirming and literate.

Early Childhood Culturally-Relevant Resources –Here a one-page explanation full of valuable links to resources with tips to be culturally relevant and support children and families of young multilingual learners.

ELEVATE Resources — This site from Towson University, Maryland houses a free, asynchronous learning sequence on the Science of Teaching Reading and Multilingual Learners Modules as well as other resources.

Family Toolkit from the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition — This toolkit contains ideas to share with families of multilingual learners. There is also a 2- part podcast: Part 1 English Learner Toolkit Podcast with panelists discussing how to use the toolkit with families and Part 2 English Learner Toolkit Podcast with panelists discussing how to use the toolkit for professional learning of teachers.

Glossary of Terms to Explain Multilinguals, Emerging Bilinguals, ESOL, etc.–Here a short article with a glossary of terms if you are confused with the many labels used in the US about multilingual learners.

Hispanic History Month Toolkit — This link shares many other resources you can click to for support of Hispanic History month and beyond for Spanish-speaking multilingual learners.

Infographic from Office of English Language Acquisition — This 3-page infographic is full of links to lots of other OELA resources to support educators in creating robust pathways to multilingualism for all of their students.

Less Commonly Taught Languages— This is a website through the Regional Research Lab housed at the University of Michigan with some templates for designing language assessments and downloadable online open resources that can help you with less commonly taught languages. You can also click on the Teaching a LCTL Novice Guide for lesson plans and tips for teachers.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education — This site contains many links to reports and toolkits you can explore as models from their state about topics like dual language immersion, students with limited or interrupted education, instructional units and videos for teaching multilingual learners, family resource ideas, and more.

Minnesota Department of Education Special Education Resources — This site contains many links to reports and resources you can explore as models from their state about topics like special education services, processes, and information.

Modules on Evaluating Bilingual Children — This site helps professionals choose appropriate tools to use with multilingual learners in understanding differences from disabilities.

Moving from Vision to Reality: Establishing California as a National Bi-lingual Education and Dual Immersion Leaders — This is a report by The Century Foundation that summarizes the policy and legal supports that California has built into guidance documents for the state to prioritize multilingual education. However, the report summarizes that action has not backed up the policies at a very intense rate, and it ends with recommendations to move forward in ways that would continue to set a national standard for multilingual education.

Newcomer Toolkit from the Office of English Language Acquisition — This booklet from the U.S. Department of Education contains 10 chapters of good information about newcomer students and families.

Oracy Toolkit from San Diego Schools — This site contains many ideas for educators to work on oral literacy of their multilingual learners.

Parity and Quality for Spanish Language Arts — This report from the English Language Success Forum explains key focus areas to ensure that Spanish resources in dual language classrooms represent high quality materials.

Promoting School Success for Immigrant-Origin Students — This report by Ed Research in Action is full of practices to use and avoid to support multilingual populations. It contains many hyperlinks to other websites and articles to dive deeper into topics that interest you within this report.

RAND Corporation Research Study on EL Achievement — This study finds that in states with newly growing multilingual learner populations, achievement of EL students is rising.

Research Summary on Immigrant-Origin Learners — This site from Ed Research for Action, the Annenberg Foundation, and other partners summarizes findings and links to articles and studies about the current state of multilingual learners in American education and evidence-based practices to improve educational outcomes for these students.

Research Summary on Supporting Multilingual Learners — This site from Ed Research for Action, the Annenberg Foundation, and other partners summarizes findings and links to articles and studies about effective and ineffective practices for educating multilingual learners.

Selecting Culturally Appropriate Texts for Multilingual Learners — This 6-page resource is full of tips for making sure books you use with your class are culturally affirming. It includes links to sites of books in various languages.

Secondary English Learners Learning Modules — This site contains 6 learning modules that schools or college courses could use to have secondary teachers reflect on topics like how to get students communicating more orally, approaches to constructing effective curriculum and assessment, and more. These modules were created by the National Research and Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners.

Translanguaging Key Understandings — This 3-page document by Dr. Lillian Ardell from Language Matters captures the key research and mindset shifts associated with using translanguaging in the classroom and valuing the culture and knowledge of multilingual families.

Unit for Secondary ESOL — This is an examples of a middle school social studies unit through the SERP Institute (Strategic Education Research Partnership) that partners with schools to develop curriculum and instructional approaches to support multilingual learners. For more resources, click on their website: SERPInstitute.org.

Translations of Books and Texts

African Storybook— This site allows you to read digital stories in English or various languages of Africa and surrounding countries. If you create an account with an email and password, you can also write and illustrate (or have students write/illustrate) stories to add to the site. There are video guides for how to use the site and create storybooks to add.

BITS–English Language Learners: Listen and Read — This site shows many digital books, stories, and articles with human narrators reading them aloud in English. The books included are for upper elementary and secondary readers and are meant to support multilingual learners with auditory read-alouds.

Bloom Library — This website contains free books you can click on to read (with some available in audiobook form) for different levels of readers in various languages. Choose your language and a book by level, then click on the READ button to go to click through the pages of the book.

Book Dash— This site has early childhood books created in South Africa that are written in English and many have translations you can choose for different African languages. You can freely read these books online or download and print copies with open-access for your students.

EPIC Books in Spanish — This site allows educators to create a sign-in for a free account that allows access to 20,000 digital books for your students to use. You must sign in with your school information in order to set up a free account.

Global Digital Library— This site allows you to choose your target language then presents books arranged by reading levels from which to choose. There are also math games for students to check their progress on various sorts of beginning math problems.

Global Storybooks — This link to the site contains many books for young readers in a variety of languages. The text are displayed page-by-page and include a sound button for a native language narrator to read the text aloud.

International Children’s Digital Library — This site contains full books in PDF form written in various languages.

Kita B World Bilingual Book Site— This site contains Southeastern Asian children’s books you can purchase for your school or classroom library.

Language Lizard Bilingual Book Site — This site contains free resources for educators of multilingual learners as well as links to buy children’s books in multiple languages.

Let’s Read–Digital Library of Children’s Books — This site is created by The Asia Foundation and contains over 10,000 digital books. Books are sorted by categories of genres and many contain a translate button to show the text in English or in one or many Asian country translations.

Spanish and English Bilingual Books with Dr. G — This is a playlist that contains 8 short books online read by the author, Dr. Gilda Martinez-Alba from Towson University. She reads the fun, short early reader books in English and Spanish with photos she’s included about the adventures of her 2 adorable dogs and other family adventures meant to engage young children. They could inspire your family or class to create their own online books with their own photos!

Storyweaver — This site allows you to set up an account to enjoy thousands of children’s stories online, in several languages and formats: Read, Download, Translate and Create! You can save stories from the site to your library and have your students create their own books.

Unite for Literacy— This site houses picture books on various topics to click on and hear translations of the English text read in over 50 languages.