All students are more engaged when they feel connected, appreciated, and valued. They are more willing to take intellectual and emotional risks, so more learning is achieved. Teachers must work to accomplish this safe environment through consistent communication and messaging. Doing so takes time and patience but will create an atmosphere where students are excited about learning. To help with creating a safe classroom environment, teachers should also support ESL students when they are at home.  

Get to Know Your Families

Make a point to know who is in your class. Before communicating with families, find out about their culture. How long have they been in your school district? Who lives in the household? You want to have some background information before you talk to parents and learn their wishes for their children. 

Communication

Communicating often with your students and parents is vital. This communication can take many forms including email, phone calls, text messages, video messages, and even postcards in the mail. Making an effort to communicate with each family will take more time, but you want to establish trust with them. You want to show parents that you respect them and that you only want the best for their children. Communicating shows you value your students and families, so you are helping everyone feel more comfortable, so in a sense, you become part of the family. 

Cultural Competence

Show your curiosity about your students’ cultures. Ask questions and cultivate an appreciation for all cultures with your students. While your students are at home, you can have them create ways to share their culture. They may write out a recipe, or share a holiday tradition. Having your students talk and share their culture helps to get the entire family involved with learning. If you are conducting online classes, students can create videos showing them making a traditional meal, or performing a cultural dance. Students love sharing their culture and other students will learn so much.

Also, keep in mind that students are becoming bilingual, so it is okay for them to continue to speak their native language. You can get the families involved in learning by providing bilingual books when possible. Often, the entire family is learning English, so you can support them by offering opportunities to read together in both their native language and in English. 

Multiple Learning Opportunities

All students learn better when they can interact with the material in multiple ways. This may include reading, writing, speaking, drawing, and listening. Students will understand the new concept more in-depth if they can engage in at least two modalities (more is even better). So, if you have students in class, have them begin by listening to a story and then discussing it with a partner. When students are home, you can have them draw a picture connected to the story or create a treasure box filled with artifacts connected to the story. When you return to class, students can explain to the class how their drawing or each artifact connects to the story.