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Enhancing Learning Environments for Dual Identified Students: A Conversation with Katherine Hamilton

• Episode 198

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This month on Special Education for Beginners we are discussing the essentials of supporting multilingual learners in special education settings. Today, we are joined by Katherine Hamilton, Vice President of Programs at Ensemble Learning, to discuss creating inclusive environments that not only meet the educational needs of multilingual students but also celebrate their diverse cultural identities.

Talking Points:

Supporting Multilingual and Dual Identified Students:

  • Effective instructional practices and strategies that cater to both language development and the specific educational needs of students with disabilities.

Creating Inclusive Learning Environments:

  • Approaches to integrate students' multilingualism and cultural identities into the classroom setting, enhancing both their academic and social experiences.

Engaging Families and Fostering Collaboration:

  • Techniques to improve collaboration with families of multilingual learners, ensuring they are active participants in the educational process.

Addressing Common Misconceptions:

  • Clarifying misconceptions about the provision of ESL services alongside special education services, emphasizing the necessity of continued language support.

Practical Strategies for Educators:

  • Discussing real-world strategies that educators can implement to support academic English development while maintaining rigorous grade-level content.

Katherine's expertise highlights the importance of an inclusive approach that respects and utilizes the cultural and linguistic assets of students. For those interested in learning more about Ensemble Learning and accessing additional resources, visit her website at Ensemble Learning.org .

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Speaker 1:

Hello there, welcome back to Special Education for Beginners podcast. I'm your host, jennifer, and this month we are focusing on supporting second language learners. You might have noticed that there was not an episode last week. I wanted to do an episode on strategies to use in a classroom for ELL students, but my week was tragically interrupted with the death of a coworker. We had worked together for 16 years and not only was she a coworker and a friend, she was also the parent of one of my former students and the go-to teacher where I wanted all my students to be placed. Lisa had the heart for my special learners and she understood their unique challenges and strengths in a way that truly supported their growth and learning. Her dedication to ensuring every student felt valued and included was a cornerstone of her teaching philosophy, which resonated deeply with all of those who had the privilege of working with her. So thank you for giving me a moment to share that. It's important to honor the impact she had, not just on me but on many of our students. In a way, focusing on ways to support ELL students in special education can be a tribute to her passion for all student success. So next week I will share those strategies with you, but today we have a guest to help us learn more on the topic of supporting English language learners.

Speaker 1:

I'm pretty sure the need to learn how to support English language learners is something the majority of us have encountered throughout our careers, whether it's through professional development, classroom experiences or collaboration with colleagues. We have all learned how important it is to help these students succeed, but the responsibility of ensuring they receive the right support and navigating the challenges that come with balancing language development, grade-level academic content and individualized learning can feel really overwhelming at times, and when these students also have learning differences, the complexity of meeting their needs increases even further. That's why I'm thrilled to introduce today's guest, katherine Hamilton, who is here to help us better understand how to support multilingual learners while honoring and celebrating their unique identities. Katherine is the Vice President of Programs at Ensemble Learning, where she oversees program development and implementation with a focus on equity for all student groups. With nearly 15 years of experience in K-12 education, katherine has worn many hats math teacher, instructional coach, director of curriculum instruction and has led impactful Department of Education grants focused on leadership for multilingual learner, equity and dual language programming. In our conversation, we will discuss effective instructional practices for multilingual learners, strategies for dual identified students and learn how to create learning environments where all students feel seen, valued and supported. Catherine will also share her insights on how we can engage families and foster collaboration to best support these students.

Speaker 1:

I know this conversation will be packed with valuable insights, so let's get started.

Speaker 1:

Hey, special educator, are you overwhelmed by the absurd amount of paperwork on your to-do list?

Speaker 1:

Do you wish you had the skills to build a rock solid team with your staff? Do you find yourself scouring the internet for how to meet the needs of each student on your caseload? Well, hey there. I'm Jennifer Hofferberg, an award-winning veteran special education teacher and current instructional coach, who has walked in your shoes through each of these challenges and, yes, I have the metaphorical blisters to prove it. I have cried your tears and felt your pain, and now I'm here to support you in the way I wish someone would have been there to support me.

Speaker 1:

Listen in each week as my guests and I dish out practical wisdom to help you handle all the classroom curveballs that are thrown at you and learn how to laugh in spite of the chaos, to celebrate those small yet significant victories that only a special educator can understand. So are you ready? Wipe your tears and put on your superhero cape, because together we are going to learn how to survive and thrive in the ever crazy, completely overwhelming, laugh so you-you-don't-cry profession of being a special education teacher. Hello Katherine, thank you so much for being here today to share your expertise on this topic. I shared a little bit about you and your background, but would you introduce yourself to the listeners and share about your current role and your experience within the field of special education?

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited. Currently I am the vice president of programs at Ensemble Learning and we are a nonprofit dedicated to equity for multilingual learners. But I'm especially excited to be here talking to you today because we see such an overlap both in students who are dual identified those multilingual learners who have learning differences but also such an overlap both in students who are dual identified those multilingual learners who have learning differences but also just an overlap in the mindset necessary to support just the really diverse learners in our classrooms, at our schools. And so a lot of the work that we end up doing specifically for multilingual learners builds off of things I learned, not only serving multilingual learners I was a high school math teacher in Northeast Los Angeles, so about 99% of my students are Latinx and so many of them came to school learning academic English but also just thinking a lot about the students with learning differences that I had whether you know more directly, there were.

Speaker 2:

Whether you know more directly, there were kind of, you know, processing, auditory processing, visual impairments, but also students who are neurodiverse and just thinking a lot about seeing each student as the individual that they are and how we can support them. And you know, adding on the layer of how do we teach content, make that comprehensible to all types of learners, but then teach the academic language that goes with it. And you know, teaching multilingual learners, I think, has put that language in the forefront in a way that I think helps students with learning differences as well. No-transcript.

Speaker 1:

Well, it is so nice to meet you and it is very evident that you are passionate about supporting dual language learners and their families, and I know that the listeners will benefit from your knowledge.

Speaker 1:

I think often as teachers, we have some confusion about working with students who are A identified as English language learners, have some confusion about working with students who are A identified as English language learners and B what is our role once they have been identified as having a disability? And I think there's some misconceptions out there about once a child has an IEP that ESL services should just stop, but they don't stop being English language learners just because they have been identified with a disability. So hopefully we can clarify some of these misconceptions and have a great conversation about how to support ESL students. And just a caveat where I am, we call it ESL. I know, which stands for English as a second language. I know that there are many districts who use different terminology and so just I just want the listeners to know that we might use different wording, but it all means the same thing. Am I correct in that?

Speaker 2:

Correct and we use multilingual learner because it's very broad and kind of an umbrella term and so many of our students actually it's not their second language, it's like their third or their fourth, so we can even honor that and really tap into this idea of they're bringing these funds of knowledge of language. But absolutely we hear ESL, ell, english learner, english language learner, multilingual learner, all you know we're all talking about the same wonderful, you know, multilingual kiddos that we get to serve Great.

Speaker 1:

So, just so we have that clarified. So, just starting with the questions, how can teachers create a classroom environment that not only supports multilingual learners in acquiring academic English, but also celebrates and integrates their multilingualism and cultural identities?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think it really connects to kind of what we were just saying is that you know there are many terms in ESL ELD, english learner terms, esl, eld, english learner but the biggest piece is the mindset that I think school leaders and teachers bring that when we're looking at serving multilingual learners, we need to think of it as an asset that they are bringing the knowledge of another language into our classroom and really look from that asset-based lens and I think the starting point for that culture is to be welcoming of those other languages. And you know, unfortunately, in the past 20 plus years there have been some challenging, you know some challenging legislation in states where you're not allowed to speak languages other than English. But we're luckily seeing movement away from that and we're seeing teachers able to uplift and celebrate and make connections to the assets that students bring. And they're bringing linguistic assets. And so you know making that connection. You know when you're talking about vocabulary or a new word comes up in any subject, you know tapping into your bilingual students and saying, oh, how do I say this in Spanish? How do I say this in Vietnamese? You know asking them and shining, you know, a spotlight on them and having them celebrate. You know, when we bring in and say you are welcome here as you are, you don't have to speak perfect English, you are welcome here speaking Mandarin, speaking Spanish, speaking these other languages, we see students light up and able to be their full selves. So it's first kind of that openness and flexibility and just saying to them wow, it's amazing, you speak multiple languages, please use that.

Speaker 2:

And even you know, during instruction, if you have a turn and talk and a student is talking about academic content and it's easier for them to access that content using a home language, you know, making sure that students know that that's fine and, like I said, I taught high school math and when I had students who were, you know, newcomers or had much lower English proficiency, you know I would tap in and say can I have someone help me explain this in a different way to the student and really welcoming that, so that you are building content alongside that academic, that academic language. And then I think it's being really explicit. Also, you know in what's on your walls, what's in your messaging, what's in your library and are different students represented and are different students represented? You know I do this at home, really looking at my bookshelf and making sure, like we're uplifting for my own children who are preschoolers and early elementary like different ways brains work, and so we have books about neurodiversity. And then also, you know, people look differently, people sound differently, and you know, making sure that's a piece of what you see when you're in the classroom. And then the last piece would be, you know, making sure parents also feel like they can show up as their full selves in the classroom.

Speaker 2:

I know a lot of parents are hesitant to volunteer in the classroom if they don't speak perfect English and I think, really showing the value that all parents can bring to the classroom, whether it's volunteering, whether it's coming to a parent night, participating in parent-teacher conference. And this is where, like, leverage tools at your disposal Google Translate isn't perfect, but it's much better than nothing, and so, using that as you need to I don't speak Spanish fluently and I definitely don't speak Armenian, and you know I've been in situations, you know, in an Uber home from the airport and my driver pulled out his phone and, like, used Google Translate to translate in the moment and we had an amazing conversation. Wasn't perfect, but you know that effort and that excitement was there, and so those are a lot of those cultural pieces. It all starts with, you know, seeing our students and our families as whole humans with so many assets you know beyond. You know adding that academic English on. With so many assets, you know beyond. You know adding that academic English on.

Speaker 1:

There's so much to unpack there with what you said and I want to affirm that in my classroom, when I was a teacher, totally showing students that you accept them by, you know, engaging and trying to learn, trying to make them feel accepted and welcome in your classroom, that is so important.

Speaker 1:

And ditto on doing the same with the parents. When the parents think that you care about them and that you aren't going to judge them for not knowing English, they're going to get into those schools and they're going to be more motivated to be able to learn to communicate with you more. And it's not the barrier, it's just starting to break down that barrier and I think that's very important. We don't get to choose who's in our classroom, but we do get to choose how we treat them and how we accept them, and I think it's so important to let students and parents know that. So I'm glad that you mentioned that. So what specific instructional strategies or interventions have you found most effective in supporting dual identified students, students who are learning English as a second or, like you said, third language and they have been identified with a disability?

Speaker 2:

What's really great about a lot of our classrooms now we see a lot more inclusive models of special education. When I was teaching, it was in a full inclusion model in high school and what was really wonderful about that is that my collaboration with a special ed teacher really grew my instructional practice in thinking about how do we implement accommodations, what are different ways and modalities that we can present information, because a lot of the research around what works for students with learning differences and what works for students who are multilingual learners, about how our brain encodes information there's a huge overlap. A lot of that research is the same and it's around are we making input comprehensible? And we talk a lot about comprehensible input, meaning like are we using visuals, are we using realia? Are we providing opportunities, these bite-sized opportunities for students to take in information and then process it with peers through discussion, through different modalities and a lot of these things that we see in IEPs as accommodations. Maybe you know time processing time or information, you know, presented spaced out, giving room on a page for students to grapple with information in the same way will help our multilingual learners, because where a student with a learning difference, their brain might be encoding the information in a slightly different way, or their, you know, listening comprehension, auditory processing, might be slower. Very similarly, a multilingual learner might be taking in the information, translating it, trying to connect to the schema that they already have. And so it's really, you know, when I would think about, as a teacher, how do I communicate this complex? I taught geometry, which many people dislike. Yeah, how do I make this really confusing content understandable? I think about okay, how do I connect it to a real world topic? How do I connect it to a visual? How do I connect it to? You know, how do I provide the opportunity for them to like, play around and grapple with it? And so a lot of these multiple modalities and then processing time are going to be helping both groups of students as well as those dual identified students.

Speaker 2:

The other thing that we talk about a lot beyond that comprehensible input is then what are the scaffolds and supports to help students build that academic output? And so we think a lot about are you providing, like, sentence frames? Are you providing word banks? Are you modeling and being clear about the academic language that students need to use? And that's helpful beyond English learners, because I don't speak at home in an academic tenor with my four-year-old who's in transitional kindergarten, and so he will need to practice at school that academic language because most kids aren't speaking that at home, and so modeling and providing that. In the same way, a student with a learning difference often just needs that model and that support and maybe begins with a closed sentence and then we move into a sentence frame, and then we move into a sentence starter and thinking about the scaffolds we provide and then how we pull those away. But it all comes back, I think, to access and then to support. And I think, if you can think about those two things, our dual identified students, you know, have much stronger access to the content and the language and then have that support to be able to produce, you know, what they need to they are no longer receiving ESL services should be incorrect.

Speaker 1:

They kind of overlap. There might be a need for a student to receive both types of services, would you?

Speaker 2:

agree with that. Yeah, what's really challenging is, you know in a wonderful way, especially as a special ed parent as well, like I, am so grateful for all the legal supports and requirements for schools to provide special education services. It's really wonderful to ensure equitable educational opportunities for students with disabilities. There's not the same legal requirement for, like minutes for English language development and sometimes even credentialing. Sometimes even credentialing like you don't you might have to have a piece of your credential that shows you can teach academic language, but not every school in every state even has best special like english language development teaching.

Speaker 2:

Um, and so I think you know I'm I'm empathetic to teachers and to school leaders who are like, okay, we have clarity about how many minutes this child needs in their IEP and what services they need, and whereas English learner services can be a little murkier, it can be, oh, we recommend they have daily instruction, but there's not always the same minute requirement, there's not always that same piece, and so I understand. For schools it's easier to say, great, we're just going to provide these special ed services and it will be. You know, they'll get all the support that they need. And it is to the detriment of the student to not have that time and space to practice, explicitly practice, their academic language. And yeah, it's hard, it's hard, I get it, but but yeah, we they're. They're separate.

Speaker 1:

They still have separate time that's necessary for the kids and I think, the more that we educate special educators and administrators, that still needs to be provided. I know that there's not as many in my district. I can only speak for my district. I know that there's not as many ESL teachers as there are special education teachers, so I know that we are going to have to absorb some of that, and I think that we need more training, more instruction, more support in how to support our students who are learning English in the classroom. So how do you simultaneously develop academic English skills and have the students engage with rigorous grade level content?

Speaker 2:

I mean to your point about special education teachers really needing that support and the training and understanding. The first thing I want to say is special education teachers are amazing. They already think differently about where is this, where is each student at, how do I meet their needs based on you know, what they're working on and their grade level content. And so I just have to celebrate special education teachers because they bring the mindset in that's necessary already and that simultaneous work happens when we take the grade level content and we pay that special attention to's the content. So, you know, let's take a science standard, for example. What's the content that they're learning about? What's the phenomena, what's, what are we learning about with science? And then we also think about what's the English, academic English language that's happening. And when we pay mind to both of those pieces within a standard and within the curriculum, then we're able to kind of get more bang for our buck. We're able to really make sure we're embedding, you know, all four language domains, making sure that we're providing supported opportunities for students to read, students to listen and like process, and then students to speak, you know, and use their speaking and their language to practice that academic English, but also, you know, grapple with the content and build an understanding through discussion with one another and then ultimately to produce that writing.

Speaker 2:

So I think I mean one of the lowest hanging fruit is taking a look at you know what you're teaching.

Speaker 2:

Taking a look at your instructional materials, your standards, your curriculum and saying how can I make sure my students have that opportunity to engage in all four language domains during this content learning? And then the second piece is really thinking about what does grade level academic English look like and how can I provide those scaffolds and supports to get students there. And that's where we go back to not just like your content vocabulary, but how do we use academic language, like we talk about tier two words. These academic words, like analyze, explain that you know we don't use on the playground but students need to understand and be able to use, and the kind of the sentence structure. And how do we provide those scaffolds and supports for students to practice using that? So it takes educators being very deliberate about the content and the language together, but there are some ways that we can start without it feeling super heavy, just going back to that practice and that opportunity for students to engage in the four domains and the scaffolds and supports for them to produce that language.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think intentionally. I think that was the key word. I think we have to be intentional about doing this and not just thinking that it's just going to be easy, because I feel like no work in education is easy anymore. We have to make sure that we are intentionally trying to bridge this gap, and we talked a little bit earlier about parents and bringing them in. So how can schools and teachers effectively partner with the families of these multilingual learners, particularly those with the dual identified students, to ensure that their needs and their strengths are supported both in and out of the classroom?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think kind of to you know the first part of our conversation talking about that really inclusive welcoming environment. I think about, you know, as I go into my own child's IEP meetings as I advocate I'm an educator, I'm a native English speaker, I went through public schools in the US and I still find it challenging and so I think really not only just with language access and providing translated documents, but you know as much as possible having, you know, a bilingual staff member there so that the conversation can flow and can be you know any questions that parents have can really be answered and supported and kind of that comprehensibility on both sides. But I think it's you know, especially with all the intricacies of an IEP and then the intricacies of like language testing and maybe accommodations on tests and what it takes for a student to redesignate. There's just a lot of information and so really making sure that is communicated really clearly, like that pathway for parents of here's where your child is right now and here's the pathway to redesignate as fluent English proficient, here's the pathway to being able to get like a seal of biliteracy as they get older on their diploma and just being really transparent about that process both with the parents and with the students as they get older as well.

Speaker 2:

But the other piece you know that we talked about is like so trying to take a look, like step outside as a teacher and say, if I'm a parent who's not fluent in English, like how does it appear when I come to school, how does it appear when I'm at the PTA meeting, how does it appear when I go to school site council or back to school night and what are the barriers and how can we support that no-transcript? Do your parents come and read aloud in the classroom, ask them to read a bilingual book, have two parents come One reads it in Spanish, one reads it in English and students find you know the words that are similar or different or cognates, like there are great opportunities to build some of those language bridges and have parents contribute, not just get information from the schools too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like that piece about communication and I feel that a lot of times when we're in those meetings, whether the parent is bilingual or not, I feel like our communication has to be not necessarily brought down, but I think we have to be intentional about choosing the language that we use so that they can understand. You know, you use some of our educational words. Whether you're using it in English or another language, it is confusing, and so I think our communication has to be intentional, that we are putting it in layman's terms so that everyone can understand, and I truly, I totally agree with bringing the parents in and making multiculturalism important for students. I think if we do a better job of getting our kids to not see it as such a barrier that, like you said, an asset then we're going to be better in the long run. We do our best to educate and we do our best to help you know, everyone be able to communicate together, but we have to do it with a sense of acceptance.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. And it really what I say to students, you know, when I work with bilingual, trilingual students is I say you do realize, like you have this superpower, like there are jobs in this world, there are opportunities in this world I don't have access to because I only speak English. You actually have that access and that's amazing and really getting them to be excited and celebrate just the gift, you know, and we say superpower that bilingualism really brings.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think we've been in meetings with parents when they say I want my son to speak English, I want him to only speak English, and I mean I feel like everyone on the team's like no, no, no, we do not want him to lose his Spanish, we do not want him to forsake his first language, we want him to have both. And I think that's important for us. To communicate to families is yes, it is a superpower. It is amazing to be bilingual and I wish I was. I tell my kids that all the time. I wish I could speak both languages. So I think it's important to communicate that, yeah. So can you share some insights or outcomes from? I know that you've worked with the Department of Education and Grants, that you've led Ensemble Learning. Could you share some insights, particularly as they relate to leadership for multilingual learner, equity and that dual language programming?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think one of the biggest things you know, both of our grants that we've been fortunate to earn from the Department of Ed have focused on schools' leadership and mindset for supporting multilingual learners and one in non-dual language schools, kind of our more traditional schools, and then this current one we're working on in dual language schools.

Speaker 2:

And the biggest piece is that it takes leadership at all levels, leadership in the classroom from our teachers, leadership from, you know, coaches and instructional support and leadership from principals and district leaders to have that mindset around the importance of culture and instruction that is inclusive. And when you can shift that mindset and you can put the diverse needs of students. You know, while we focus on multilingual learners, it's the same for students with learning differences, it's the same for, you know, students with socioeconomic, different socioeconomic status. But when we can have a mindset around our schools need to be places that are inclusive for all types of learners. That's only when we can create, like ongoing, effective change. You know, we can do PD and we can do coaching with teachers till we're blue in the face. But if teachers then go into school and aren't supported with that inclusive mindset by school leaders, like we've seen it firsthand, that's, it's frustrating, it's when teachers leave their profession or leave their schools, and so, really, the importance of that mindset from leaders throughout the building. That's when we really see that lasting change.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, mindset is so important in every aspect of life, especially in education, when you've got so many different theories on different things. So having everyone on the same page and everyone buying in that it is important, because you've shown it. I totally agree with it. It is very important that our mindset is acceptance of everyone.

Speaker 2:

I just want to say one quick thing too is the other thing I just want to emphasize, because you kind of touched on, you know, especially special education teachers, and feel really overwhelmed. The other piece is really helping teachers and leaders simplify and have like one or two areas of focus. I think we go into these schools and we see, oh well, we're focusing on these eight strategies and these eight initiatives, and so the other piece is just really, you know, getting clear on what's going to be most important and supporting everyone across the building to do that. And you know we've talked today about a few different, whether it's a culture strategy around inclusivity or an instructional strategy around hitting your language domains, it's really about supporting teachers, celebrating what they're already doing, because they're doing you know they're 80, 90 percent of the way there and it's really about refining and supporting them.

Speaker 1:

I agree. Well, Catherine, thank you so much for sharing your time and your expertise with us today. Your passion for supporting multilingual learners and your practical strategies have given all of us so much to think about and, more importantly, so much to begin to apply in our own roles, and I like that. You said you know, take one or two things that you learned today and try to implement those. And you know you can't change the world in a day or in a school year. Just do your best every day, Change your mindset on how you feel about this. And you know, just take a little nugget that you learned today and try to implement it. Yeah, Before we close, can you share with our listeners where we can reach you if we wanted to learn more about ensemble learning? Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

And the best place to connect with us is our website, ensemblelearningorg. It's E-N-S-E-M-B-L-E learningorg, and I tell people to go there because we have a lot of blog posts, some tools, some resources, and then we offer free coaching, consultation, kind of helping people get on the right path, and so you can find my email, my colleagues' emails. We obviously have a heart for this, we have a passion for this and we're big nerds, and so if you want to connect, if you heard something today that is interesting that you want to implement and you just need a little bit more, please connect with us. It's what we do, what we, you know, work for, and you know we'll share with you planning, templates, examples, things like that to get you kind of on the right path. We also post a lot on our LinkedIn so you can find Ensemble Learning on LinkedIn and, you know again, get those resources and tools or connect with you know our team members.

Speaker 1:

Great. Well, I will put that link in the show notes. Well, thank you again, catherine. It's been a pleasure having you and getting to meet you, and I am so glad the listeners got to learn from you today.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you, I appreciate all that you're doing. We need so many more. You know strategies, supports for our students with learning differences, so I can't thank you enough and your listeners enough.