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Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2015

Selected Works

Nancy L. Commins

Best Practices

Articles 1 - 1 of 1

Full-Text Articles in Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education

Responding To Linguistic Diversity, Nancy Commins Oct 2015

Responding To Linguistic Diversity, Nancy Commins

Nancy L. Commins

Second language learners arrive at every grade level with a variety of experiences and differing academic backgrounds. Responding to their learning needs means accommodating the entire range of students from monolingual English speakers to monolingual speakers of other languages, and a variety of bilingual profiles in between. This article discusses how schools adopt a "blue pathway" mindset for improving instruction for all learners. The blue pathway, which also leads to academic competence, represents best practice for second language learners--strategies and approaches that from the outset account for language proficiency and cultural diversity. Instruction on the blue pathway can be summed …