Our literacy classrooms are culturally and linguistically rich. How might we harness that linguistic capacity to empower agentic readers, writers, and communicators?

Join us as we examine what translanguaging means and how it's changing the face of classrooms around the world in beautiful ways.

Translanguaging helps us appreciate the linguistic assets that our students bring into our classrooms and leverage those strengths to accelerate learning.

Together, we’ll explore: 

  • new global research around translanguaging and ways to apply it in our unique international settings 

  • ways to create a “multilingual ecology” in our classrooms and schools where all languages and identities are valued 

  • how to intentionally leverage plurilingualism in our lesson and unit design 

  • small but significant steps we can take in our reading and writing rituals and routines to embrace linguistic capacity 

  • specific strategies to support emergent and proficient plurilingual learners in a variety of teaching, learning, and assessment experiences 

  • …and more! 

Course curriculum

    1. Padlet

    1. PART 1 - Introduction

    2. PART 2 - What does the research say about the advantages of bilingualism? What is translanguaging?

    3. PART 3 - How might we develop a stance that supports translanguaging pedagogy and celebrates our students’ bilingualism?

    4. PART 4 - In what ways are schools around the world embracing translanguaging?

    5. PART 5 - How might we develop multilingual ecologies in our schools?

    1. PART 1 - How might we plan for translanguaging? How will our language choices impact students’ learning goals?

    2. PART 2 - How might we plan for translanguaging in reading workshop?

    3. PART 3 - What are the design principles that support translanguaging and how might we apply them to each phase of the writing process?

    4. PART 4 - What processes can we use when planning for translanguaging as a learning scaffold and for enrichment?

    1. PART 1 - How might we honor and highlight the phonetic similarities and differences between languages?

    2. PART 2 - How might we honor and highlight the grammatical similarities and differences between languages?

    3. PART 3 - How might we study vocabulary in a way that supports a multilingual ecology?

    4. PART 4 - A process for goal setting and final words.

    1. PART 1 - How might we establish positive partnerships with parents?

    2. PART 2 - What types of student groupings are most effective in a translanguaging classroom?

    3. PART 3 - What does translanguaging look like as enrichment?

About this course

  • $299.00
  • 17 lessons
  • 2.5 hours of video content

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Course Facilitator

Amber Birch-Trujillo

Amber Birch Trujillo is a teacher, learning coach, and consultant who is passionate about putting young learners at the heart of education. She has extensive experience embracing the principles of Reading and Writing Workshop philosophy and applying these principles to the unique and varied contexts within international schools. Amber has led teachers in the writing of beliefs-based and standards-aligned units of study and the development of reading, writing and language rubrics and continuums. She has a deep understanding of the complexities of working within diverse linguistic and dual-language settings and has experience helping schools develop workshop practices within host country literacy programs. Amber worked as a student-centered learning coach at the International School Nido de Aguilas for many years, where she designed and implemented a variety of professional learning structures to focus on student learning in order to transform teaching practice.