In this episode, Khalil El-Saghir shares insight about supporting the educators of Multilingual Learners. His background is extensive! In the first half of this episode, we get to hear about where his passion comes from. The second half of the show ended up being a blueprint for an effective Language Assistance Program as he shares specific, essential elements every program should have.
You can listen to this show in your favorite podcast app or right here:
Listen to “BAP121 Keys to an Effective Language Assistance Program ft. Khalil El-Sagir” on Spreaker.
As promised in the show, here are links to some of the things we both mentioned:
Wayne RESA (A Regional Education Service Agency in Michigan)
NAELPA (The National Association of EL Program Administrators)
The SIOP Model (A proven instructional framework for making content comprehensible and developing academic language. The framework was developed by Dr. Jana Echevarría, Dr. MaryEllen Vogt, and Dr. Deborah Short)
Boosting Achievement: Reaching Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (A book I co-authored with Anna Matis)
Khalil’s email: (He offers it if you have questions)
Here are some of my favorite Khalil quotes from this show:
“You can’t be a good teacher if you can’t be a good learner.”
“We need to break down the silos. We don’t want walls.”
“Building a viable program is a journey, not a destination.”
“We want to make every classroom an EL classroom. It is enriching to everyone.”
“I am a language learner… [looking back] as an adult, I wish I would have had those scaffolds”
Key Elements for an Effective Language Assistance Program:
Khalil is clear that this is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are definitely important principles for a solid foundation:
- Establishing clear measurable objectives and goals
- Hiring teachers and staff who are qualified.
- Providing those teachers with ongoing professional learning on best practices PD
- Implementing instructional strategies and materials that reflect the cultural and linguistic diversity of students.
- Considering students’ backgrounds as an asset and implementing differentiated instruction tailored to their unique needs.
- Implementing differentiated instruction for all content areas.
- Employing multiple assessment tools to monitor progress and inform instruction.
- Fostering collaboration among educators, specialists, administrators, families, community organizations, and leaders.
- Providing access to grade-level content while developing English proficiency using scaffolding strategies.
- Ensuring adequate resources such as funding, materials, technology, and professional development opportunities.
- Encouraging districts to apply for available state and federal funds allocated for multilingual education through partnerships and consortiums.
- Regularly evaluating the effectiveness of the program based on data and feedback from stakeholders.
My big takeaways were that collaboration, continuous improvement, support networks, and ongoing learning are key components in creating a successful Language Assistance Program that supports both the academic success and language proficiency of students.
🙏🏽BIG THANK YOU to Khalil for reinforcing these important principles. It was such a good conversation for my learning journey.
At the end of the show, I mentioned that the ML Summit is coming up this summer again! Stay tuned for more on that! But you can go to the summit right now. There are SEVEN YEARS of past sessions right there for you!
Thank you again for tuning in to this podcast. I’d love to hear your thoughts about it.
Or just reach out to me at Carol@SeidlitzEducation.com if you’d like to know more about how we work with districts to support their teachers who teach Multilingual Learners.
Take good care,
Carol