Non-Negotiables for Teaching English Learners

The other day, I posed a question to my Twitter PLN. I asked what their non-negotiables were for teaching English Learners. The responses were overwhelming. Just imagine if we set aside time as campus or district teams to develop non-negotiables and then live by them. This would be a great practice for ESL and bilingual teams. Here are some of the responses from Twitter followers: 

• Validate their identities
• instill confidence and empowerment in our multilingual students so they see their language skills as assess and superpowers
• all kids are our kids
• being bilingual and multilingual is an asset
• high expectation and compassion for all
• students have access to grade level curriculum with language scaffolds as needed or not
• every student engaged and accountable 
• teachers who want to teacher ELs , knowledgable, passionate, and learning too
• value and affirm the home language
• develop a culturally responsive classroom
• create an environment of acceptance
• use text that are culturally relevant 
• motivate students to tell their story
• understand that ESL is not special education or a learning disability
• build relationships with families
• set and maintain high expectations for learning and believe they are capable
• incorporate books and activities that represent ALL kids and all cultures 
• include visual and wait time
• embrace a positive mindset! They can and they will
• love and laugh often
• kindness, smile and create a safe space
• ensure active EL engagement in critical thinking tasks across the curriculum
• critical thinking is a transferable skill across languages-invite translanguaging
• every child brings something valuable to our learning community
• bilingualism is a superpower
• every child will rise to our expectations
• they each come with a story and we need to acknowledge that their story is an important part of their identity
• relationships matter-build safe and respected relationships the child and the family
• acknowledge and support cultural backgrounds
• provide the correct linguistic accommodations in order to meet their needs
• review vocabulary and build background
• use and pronounce their given name correctly
• use their prior knowledge
• don't allow failure
• reduce the affective filter
• praise success
• be responsive
• provide daily opportunities for speaking
• zero tolerance for anyone seeing to police their language

These statements above may help you and your team develop your own non-negotiables. I suggest that you gather as a group and discuss these and talk about what the most important items are. What do you all feel are not open for discussion? Some of these can be grouped together. Others may feel more like beliefs to you. You could even go ahead and list your group's belief statements. It's best to keep your non-negiables down to a short list. Narrow them down as much as you can. 

Non-negotiables: standards for our program that are NOT open for discussion

Beliefs: what you hold true

Once you have created your non-negiables and possibly your beliefs too, keep them at the forefront of your instruction and share them with all who need access. Administrators and mainstream teachers who also serve English learners need to know what is considered NOT open for discussion. If they are available to take part in the process of creating the non-negiables and beliefs, even better! Even if one representative from each grade level can participate, they can be the voice for their team. 

STEPS IN A NUTSHELL: 

THINK
1. Think about what's most important to you about the teaching of English learners
MEET
2. Meet as a team to curate a tight list of the essential standards by which every teacher on your campus will live by-this will be your list of NON-Negotiables
SHARE
3. Share it with all who serve English learners
ACT
4. Act on these non-negotiables in all that you do with students. Keep them at the core!

Happy creating!