In addition to students' own literacy practices, these storytelling activities can also be key teaching opportunities for EL students because they use multimedia, therefore providing extra scaffolding through images, audio, and video. 

Why the change from cross-cultural understanding to sociocultural competence? Why not have a separate strand for sociocultural competence? This post takes a look at these questions through the lens of the 3 pillars of dual language (DL) education as expressed in the Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education, 3rd edition (Howard, et al., 2018). 

Thorough preparation is a critical first step in developing lessons that are both accessible and meaningful for EL students. Here are some tools to get started and stay involved! 

After nearly a year of facilitating online professional development for educators across the U.S., Canada, and in international schools, I have learned that figuring out online teaching tools is akin to the language learning experience itself. With enough practice, you gain confidence, proficiency, and get to interact with people you otherwise might not meet at home.

Fortunately for educators of linguistically and culturally diverse students, students can practice and apply all four language domains—reading, writing, listening, and speaking–using online technology.