Kids Come in All Languages: Visible Learning for Multilingual Learners

Everything you need to create a high-trust, high-achieving learning environment for multilingual students

We have never known more than we do now about teaching multilingual students ― nevertheless, we teeter on the edge of retreating to old-think practices. The next generation depends upon our getting this right, and this spare, salient guide helps ensure we do.

Kids Come in All Languages provides teachers and leaders with all they need to design high-quality curriculum to support multilingual learners. With this book, learn to:

• Create a low-anxiety, high-expectation classroom climate that gives multilingual students access to engaging grade-level content
• Plan clear, cohesive lessons and tasks that motivate students to produce language, use critical thinking skills, and access complex texts
• Offer ample time for student-led talk that ramps up knowledge and amps up a sense of belonging
• Use heterogeneous, flexible grouping so children acquiring English don’t stall out in fixed-mindset, below-grade level groups
• And much more

Teachers act like tributaries, helping learners access a wider stream of knowledge, and catch the swift current of wanting to learn. It’s time to envision this expansiveness for multilingual students. It’s time to design learning experiences with optimism for their futures.

Oscar Corrigan is currently an administrator and director of English Language Learner program at Health Sciences High and Middle College (HSHMC) in San Diego, California. He has experience teaching middle school social studies, high school history, supervising teacher candidates, and implementing restorative practices. He earned his master′s degree in Educational Leadership from San Diego State University and is a Leading Edge Certified teacher in online and blended learning. With his classroom experience, and as a doctoral candidate at SDSU, Oscar strives to implement instructional practices that best promote an equitable learning environment for students from diverse backgrounds.

Nancy Frey is a professor of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Her published titles include The Courage to Learn, The Art and Science of Coaching, How Scaffolding Works, and The Illustrated Guide to Visible Learning. Frey is a credentialed special educator, reading specialist, and administrator in California and learns from teachers and students every day.

Douglas Fisher is a professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a teacher leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. Previously, Fisher was an early intervention teacher and elementary school educator. In 2022, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame by the Literacy Research Association. He has published numerous articles on reading and literacy, leadership, and curriculum design, as well as books such as Your Introduction to PLC+, Welcome to Teaching, How Feedback Works, Teaching Reading, and RIGOR Unveiled. Fisher loves being an educator and hopes to share that passion with others.

John Hattie, PhD, is an award-winning education researcher and best-selling author with nearly thirty years of experience examining what works best in student learning and achievement. His research, better known as Visible Learning, is a culmination of nearly thirty years synthesizing more than 2,100 meta-analyses comprising more than one hundred thousand studies involving over 300 million students around the world. He has presented and keynoted in over three hundred international conferences and has received numerous recognitions for his contributions to education. His notable publications include Visible Learning, Visible Learning for Teachers, Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn, Visible Learning for Mathematics, Grades K-12, and 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning.