Megan: 00:01

Hello, everyone. Welcome to our podcast. My name is Megan DeSimone.

Brianna: 00:06

My name is Brianna Marcus.

Meagan: 00:09

My name is Megan Gallagher.

Megan: 00:11

This semester, Brianna, Megan, and I worked with multilingual students over Zoom. And through our experience tutoring the students, we have seen how important it is to create and design a learning environment that is responsive to multilingual students.

Meagan: 00:24

While working with multilingual students, it was always important to us that each student felt comfortable and confident to speak and use their voice during our lessons. In order to achieve this, we created material that was also being used in their classroom and used content they were familiar with. We used interesting videos and had interactive slides that correlated with what they were learning in school. This kept the students interested during our lessons, and they enjoyed interacting with us. We also included both English and Spanish on our slides in order to have linguistic variation and help every student understand our lesson despite their level of English.

Megan: 01:00

We also created an environment where students felt comfortable speaking their languages in the classroom. This is known as code switching or translanguaging, which allows students to blend multiple languages into their conversations. This also creates a responsive learning environment that respects each student's unique language.

Brianna: 01:20

By creating a comfortable environment where students have the ability to tap into both English and Spanish, we were actually able to get them to speak with us a great amount and even joke around with us. It was very pure seeing all of the kids feel like they can be themselves during our meetings and stay fully involved with our lessons.

Megan: 01:38

Today, we have special guest on our podcast, miss Rigolo. Miss Rigolo teaches the students we've tutored over Zoom, and we are very excited to have her joining us. With your experience teaching multilingual students, we would love to hear how you design your own classroom.

Miss Rigolo: 01:55

Okay. Well, in the very, very beginning before the kids, like, even start school, I make sure, like, my whole room is labeled. So, like, a lot of, you know, like, I label everything in English to start with. So the doors, the windows, the desk, like, anything you can possibly imagine. The computer, the smart board.

Miss Rigolo: 02:15

This way, they have, like, you know, something to refer to. And then, like, because I have all different grade levels that are coming in, like, a lot of my kids can already have, like, literacy in their native language, so then they start making the connections. I also like to make sure that all of my kids are represented. So I have, like, a ton of multilingual books, and I make sure that everybody, like, sees themselves in the materials that are around the room. What else?

Miss Rigolo: 02:41

I'll also, like, what I like to do is, like, before school even starts, like, once I have my kids, because, like, because E and L, like, we get our schedules later on, like, we don't always know who we're going to have right away. Once we have our schedules made and we have, we know who the kids are that we're seeing, it's kinda nice to, like, get to know them a little bit, like, outside of school. Are you guys familiar with, like, the funds of knowledge?

Megan: 03:07

No. I don't think so.

Miss Rigolo: 03:09

Okay. Me neither. Like the it's it's super important, like, when you're dealing with, like, multicultural, populations is that you really like, a lot of people look at them. They go, oh my god. They don't know English.

Miss Rigolo: 03:21

So they think that's a problem. But, really, it's not. It's, like, a good thing. And then, like, they think the cultures are different, so, like, you know you know they don't really connect very well. But one of the things that like we have to always remember is that like these kids come in with so many different experiences and so much to offer that we don't know about.

Miss Rigolo: 03:40

So we call that that like their funds of knowledge. Like they know stuff that we don't even imagine. So if you sent home like a little survey at the beginning of the school year, like asking questions like where where do your parents work? What are their foods? What traditions do you have that you want to share?

Miss Rigolo: 03:57

Like, little personal things about them that otherwise we may never know. The kid likes soccer. The kid likes baseball. You know, this way you have like things that you can sort of hang your hat on when you're talking to them and giving lessons that you might be to incorporate. So, I like to do that too.

Miss Rigolo: 04:12

I send out like a little survey that the parents can fill out for the kid and then also the older kids kind of I try to get their input to on their their little survey. The only thing I make sure is that, like, I try to plan out themes, which you guys know. But I try to plan

Megan: 04:27

out

Miss Rigolo: 04:27

themes. And what I like to do is come up with, like, the tier three vocabulary. Do you guys know what tier three vocabulary is? No. Okay.

Miss Rigolo: 04:37

Tier three vocabulary is, like, the words that are specific to, like, the content that you're teaching. So, like, in bi well, never mind. I couldn't come up with any biology. But, like so for example, in math, like, quadrilateral is only a word that you're gonna come across in math or, like, in social studies, like, declaration of independence. Like, all these different words that are in in, like basically, that you're only gonna learn them if you're learning that subject.

Miss Rigolo: 05:01

That's, like, tier three vocabulary. So, like, I like to have, like, a word wall with, like, that unit that we're doing. So we can introduce the vocabulary, and it's, like, there with a visual. So it's something for them to, like, look at when they're, you know, when they have to use those words. And then I also have I have three word walls going.

Miss Rigolo: 05:20

I have, like, my academic word wall, which I have all, like, my tier three vocabulary. And then I have another word wall that's, like, just, like, the sight words, you know, like, common words that the kids always see, like, and, of, as, we, things like that. And then my wall word wall is a cognate wall. And cognates are, like, words that, like, are pretty much almost exactly the same in, like, both languages. So, like, because I have kids who are Haitian Creole and I have kids who speak Spanish, we have multiple language word walls, and I also have kids who have friends.

Miss Rigolo: 05:52

So when, like, there's a cognate, I try to, like, identify as many in French as I can beforehand. But they're also very good at recognizing them once we start teaching them to, like, hear it. So every time we come across a cognate, we write it on an index card in both languages, and we put it up on the wall, and we sort of organize it according to people, places, things, actions, things like that so that they can start realizing that a lot of the language that they're going to be exposed to in English, they also can use their home language to help themselves, like, really understand a lot of things. And they start really keying into a lot of those words when they're listening and also when they're reading. So it really helps a lot with the language, and it also gives validity to, like, their home language.

Miss Rigolo: 06:38

And I always tell them, like, use everything in your brain. Like, we're not here just in English. We're here in every language possible because everything you have in your mind is gonna help you learn stuff. So tell me when to stop because I could probably go on for a really long time. What else?

Miss Rigolo: 06:55

Also, making sure that we scaffold all the lessons to make sure that the kids are getting the support that they need to be able to, like, complete the tasks at hand. So, So, like, making sure they have word banks, making sure they get a lot of opportunities to, like, learn the vocabulary that we need, and also giving them comprehensible input. Do you guys know what that is?

Megan: 07:16

No. We don't. No.

Miss Rigolo: 07:18

Okay. That's okay. There's this guy named Steven Crashin. He's, like, a a really, like, really very well known in, like, the ESL world. And one of the things that he brings up that's super important is this thing called comprehensible input.

Miss Rigolo: 07:33

And, like, when you're giving a lesson or talking to the students when they're, like, multilingual learners, you have to, like, make sure that they're able to get what they need out of what you're saying. So you you wanna use gestures. You wanna have pictures. That's why it's comprehensible. So, like, you're, like, supporting what you're saying with either gestures or movements or pictures, objects even so that they can sorta, like, get the gist of what's happening in the classroom all the time.

Miss Rigolo: 08:02

So that's a really, like, important part of, like, language is making sure that you're giving the kids, like, comprehensible input. Let's see what else. Like I said, I could go on. I also keep sentence starters around for the kids, as sentence frames. This way, like, they always have a way to, like, help themselves start a sentence or, like, you know, discuss things.

Miss Rigolo: 08:24

We do a lot of collaboration because the more we talk and we work together, the more we can get out of it. And a lot of our kids' cultures, like, really like, Americans are a little bit different because, like, we are all like, we're much more like I don't wanna say out for ourselves. It's the wrong words. But, like, you know, like, we we we focus a lot on, like, personal growth and, like, how we did something. But a lot of other cultures are more, like, collaborative.

Miss Rigolo: 08:48

Like, let's all work together, and we'll get things done. So it's nice to, like, also, like, have that reflected in in our classes that, you know, we're, like, working together. We're doing things together. We're gonna learn together, you know, besides our personal growth. What else?

Miss Rigolo: 09:04

Lots of visuals, making sure that we have visuals all over the place. We make sure that they have, like, a picture dictionary to refer to when they're doing their writing. We encourage translanguaging, which is, like, making sure that they use, like, every part of their linguistic repertoire. You know, mixing languages when answering a question is not a horrible thing if it's, like you know, if they're expressing what they've learned. You know?

Miss Rigolo: 09:29

It's like we have to make sure that we're really respecting their languages and their cultures. So I I think that's it. There's probably more, but in a nutshell

Megan: 09:39

Yes. Thank you so much.

Brianna: 09:42

Yeah. That was actually really interesting to listen to. And we wanna thank you so much for meeting with us today and sharing your design of the classroom and how you work with your students. It was a pleasure to hear all of the great things you have to say, and we loved meeting with your kids too and being able to form a connection with them and learn about how to run a class and teach students.

Miss Rigolo: 10:04

They they had so much, but they really loved it. They really loved being with you guys. So so thank you for that too. It really and everything you did was, like, so like, it, like, a 100% aligned with what we were doing, so it worked out so perfectly. It really did.

Miss Rigolo: 10:19

So I appreciate that too.

Meagan: 10:22

And thank you to everyone for tuning in to our podcast, and we'll see you next time. Thank you.

Miss Rigolo: 10:27

Alright. Thank you.