4 Essential Leadership Moves for Multilingual Learner Literacy Success
The conditions for strong literacy instruction do not happen by chance. They are shaped by the decisions leaders make about priorities, professional learning, collaboration, instructional expectations, and student access. This is especially true for multilingual learners (MLs), whose literacy success depends on inclusive school cultures that recognize their strengths while intentionally designing systems that support language development and academic growth (Staehr Fenner et al., 2024).
Multilingual learners, who represent 23% of the school-age K-12 population¹, are a vital part of our school communities. They bring valuable assets, including multilingualism, cultural knowledge, and diverse experiences. Yet too often, school literacy efforts are designed with a one-size-fits-all mindset, leaving educators on their own to figure out how MLs will access and engage with literacy instruction.
School and district leaders play a critical role in changing that reality. By intentionally shaping literacy systems, leaders can create conditions MLs need to thrive as readers, writers, thinkers, and communicators. In this article, I share four leadership moves that can make a meaningful difference.
1. Communicate a Clear, Inclusive Vision
As a leader, your words matter. What staff, students, and families hear from you has an impact. Think about how you express your goals and expectations for literacy achievement. What are the words that you use? Who is included in the messaging? A strong vision for literacy must explicitly include MLs, not as an add-on, but as central to the school’s mission.
To ensure you are prepared to communicate that vision consistently with students, staff, families, and the community, you can craft a short “elevator speech.” An elevator speech is a brief, clear explanation of your key message that can be delivered in the time it takes to ride in an elevator.
An effective literacy message should:
• Explicitly include MLs, using asset-based language that honors students’ home languages and experiences as strengths
• Set high expectations for both language and content learning
• Clearly articulate what high-quality literacy instruction looks like for MLs
Take a look at these two sample messages and consider if or how MLs are centered in each:
While MLs are not explicitly named in either message, we see them more clearly in the second message through its focus on the specific conditions needed for them to fully participate, develop language, and thrive as literacy learners. This distinction matters because leadership messages shape whether MLs are simply assumed to be included or intentionally considered in literacy planning and practice.
2. Support the Intentional Integration of Language and Literacy
Research suggests that multilingual learners experience stronger academic outcomes when language development is integrated into meaningful literacy and content learning rather than separated from academic instruction (August & Shanahan, 2006; Escamilla et al., 2022; Staehr Fenner et al., 2024). Too often, however, language instruction is narrowed to vocabulary lists or isolated grammar practice. While these elements have value, they are not sufficient on their own. MLs also need opportunities to develop academic language at the word/phrase, sentence, and discourse levels. This includes vocabulary and phrases, sentence structures, ways ideas are organized across texts and discussions, and the language functions students use to explain, compare, analyze, justify, and argue (Gibbons, 2015).
Typically, curricula already contain some opportunities for language development. Some opportunities are explicitly called out, while others may require a little more work and analysis on the part of teachers. For example, a teacher’s guide might ask students to “explain how the author develops a central idea,” a task that requires complex language such as cause-and-effect relationships, sequencing, and academic vocabulary. At the same time, the text itself may include dense sentences, discipline-specific vocabulary, and organizational features that can compound the challenge for MLs as they work to process the text and produce a clear, well-structured response. While the text and task present rich opportunities for language development, the specific language demands are often not clearly identified. By analyzing these demands, such as the use of transition words, complex sentences, and key academic vocabulary, teachers can provide targeted supports that make the task more accessible and productive for MLs.
Leaders play a critical role in making this work visible and actionable. They can create structures and expectations that support teachers in identifying and leveraging built-in opportunities for language development, as well as in analyzing texts and tasks to ensure they are focusing on and teaching the language MLs in their class need. For example, leaders can establish collaborative planning structures and PLC schedules that enable ELD teachers to participate as full instructional partners, while implementing common planning protocols that guide teams to analyze language demands, identify opportunities for literacy and language development, and determine appropriate supports for MLs. These structures help ensure that attention to multilingual learners becomes a routine part of instructional planning rather than an afterthought.
One practical tool leaders can share with teachers to support text analysis is the Checklist for Increasing Academic Language Awareness. This tool helps educators identify language demands at the word/phrase, sentence, and discourse levels and prioritize areas for instruction. Leaders might use the tool during professional learning, PLCs, coaching cycles, or curriculum planning to focus on one area at a time and model the alignment of instructional decisions with student needs.
3. Promote Student Conversations
In many classrooms, reading and writing receive significant attention while purposeful student talk receives far less. Yet productive academic conversations play an important role in learning, helping students process ideas, develop language, strengthen comprehension, and engage more deeply with content. For multilingual learners in particular, academic conversations are especially valuable because they support language development while also helping students make sense of academic concepts, process new ideas, practice academic language, and participate more fully in grade-level learning (Soto, 2021). These conversations can also serve as a bridge to stronger comprehension and writing by giving MLs opportunities to rehearse ideas before writing, discuss interpretations of texts, ask questions, and build academic language through interaction (Gibbons, 2015). Beyond these academic benefits, engaging in academic conversations with peers can also help MLs develop relationships and foster a stronger sense of belonging in the classroom (Staehr Fenner & Teich, 2024).
One impactful leadership practice to get a true sense of ML engagement in productive talk is student shadowing. Following the experience of a multilingual learner through part of a school day can reveal how often they are expected to listen silently versus actively use language for learning (Soto, 2021). With that clearer picture, leaders can then determine next steps to strengthen classroom discourse practices to ensure multilingual learners have regular opportunities to use language as a tool for literacy and learning.
4. Cultivate Collaborative Teaming that Leverages Expertise
Multilingual learners benefit most when educators collaborate to share and build on each other’s expertise. While classroom teachers often bring deep expertise in content standards, curriculum, and core literacy instruction, ELD teachers contribute specialized expertise in language development and designing access to rigorous learning for MLs. Reading specialists, special education staff, and coaches also contribute additional valuable perspectives. When these areas of expertise come together, MLs are more likely to experience instruction that is both rigorous and accessible.
However, collaboration does not happen simply because dedicated people work in the same building. Leaders must create the conditions for true collaboration through protected planning time, clear expectations for collaboration, shared access to curriculum and student data, and professional learning that builds common language and practices (Porter, 2024; Staehr Fenner et al., 2024). Just as importantly, leaders must help educators recognize the expertise they already bring and see collaboration as an opportunity to strengthen instruction together rather than divide tasks.
Recognize Your Expertise is a practical reflection tool educators can use to reflect on their strengths. This tool can help teams identify where expertise already exists, where additional support may be needed, and how responsibilities can be shared more intentionally.
When collaboration is left to chance, it often becomes inconsistent or superficial. When leaders intentionally design for collaboration and leverage the expertise of their staff, it becomes a driver of stronger literacy outcomes for multilingual learners.
Your Next Step
Without intentional leadership, multilingual learners can become invisible within broader literacy initiatives. By communicating an inclusive vision, supporting educators to intentionally integrate language and literacy, promoting academic conversations for MLs, and cultivating collaborative expertise, leaders can build the conditions that make equitable literacy success possible for all learners.
What step will you take to create conditions where MLs can fully participate and thrive as literacy learners? Share a comment below to let us know what you try and what you notice. We look forward to hearing about the literacy success of your MLs!
About SupportEd
SupportEd, LLC is a woman-owned small business based in Fairfax, VA specializing in Multilingual Learners (MLs). Founded in 2011 by Dr. Diane Staehr Fenner, best-selling author and ML expert, SupportEd meticulously crafts customized solutions to fit each client’s strengths, needs, and provides teachers and administrators the practical tools necessary to champion MLs’ success within and beyond the classroom. All SupportEd team members have prior experience in the classroom which enables the SupportEd team to provide realistic, actionable solutions. Services include online and in-person immersive professional development workshops, easy-to-implement tools and resources, and an array of supporting services. Visit supported.com or call (202) 660-1444 to learn more.
References
August, D., & Shanahan, T. (Eds.). (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the national literacy panel on language-minority children and youth. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Escamilla, K., Olsen, L., & Slavik, J. (2022). Toward comprehensive effective literacy policy and instruction for English learner/emergent bilingual students. National Committee for Effective Literacy for Emergent Bilingual Students.
Gibbons, P. (2015). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching multilingual learners in the mainstream classroom (2nd ed.). Heinemann.
Porter, H. (2024). Intentional co-teaching for multilingual learners: An equitable approach to integrating content and language. Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Soto, I. (2021). Shadowing multilingual learners (2nd ed.). Corwin.
Staehr Fenner, D. (2014b). What’s your “elevator speech” about your expertise with the Common Core for ELLs? [Web blog post]. https://www.colorincolorado.org/blog/whats-your-elevator-speech-about-your-expertise-common-core-ells
Staehr Fenner, D., Snyder, S., & Gregoire-Smith, M. (2024). Unlocking multilingual learners’ potential: Strategies for making content accessible (2nd ed.). Corwin.
Staehr Fenner, D & Teich, M. (2024). Social emotional learning for multilingual learners: Essential actions for success. Corwin
