Teaching Conceptual Understanding in Multilingual Classrooms - by Juliette Van Eerdewijk & Mindy McCracken

About the Book

This practical guide presents a concept-based curriculum designed to foster deep, enduring understanding for multilingual learners. With accessible theoretical explanations, classroom examples and sample lesson plans, it is ideal for pre-service and in-service teachers.

Book Synopsis

A practical guide combining theory and best teaching practices to enable teachers to support multilingual learners to reach a level of deeper, conceptual understanding.

This book guides educators through a concept-based curriculum designed to foster deep, enduring understanding for multilingual learners. The authors provide language scaffolds for this curriculum to allow all students to develop conceptual understanding and the ability to express it in multiple languages. The book opens with the underpinning theories of learning, offering an accessible overview of the relevant research from cognition, education and multilingualism. It offers examples of concept-based inquiry and translanguaging pedagogy, and proposes a combined approach that addresses the complexities of teaching new language learners. It concludes by addressing the challenges of implementing new curricula and offers advice for school leaders and educators on effective change management.

This practical resource includes sample lesson plans as well as access to videos and teaching materials online, allowing educators to easily adapt ideas to their own context for a more inclusive classroom environment. Designed for pre-service and in-service teachers, end of chapter reflection prompts and activities make this an ideal resource for teacher training and professional development programs.

Review Quotes

This book makes an original and immensely valuable contribution to educational policy and practice in linguistically diverse societies. The authors describe in a highly engaging way, using many informative visuals and instructional examples, how educators can transform their teaching practice and student outcomes by infusing effective EAL strategies, including translanguaging, into a broader framework of concept-based curriculum and instruction that motivates students to inquire deeply into complex content and ideas.-- "Jim Cummins, University of Toronto, Canada"

About the Author

Juliette van Eerdewijk is an Educational Advisor and Trainer based in the UAE. She has over three decades of leadership experience in education and is a certified Erickson and Lanning Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction trainer.

Mindy McCracken is the Primary English as an Additional Language Leader at the International School of the Hague, the Netherlands. She is a Teaching English in Multilingual Classrooms trainer with 20 years of teaching experience in international schools.