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  • Home
    • Annual Voices Journal Submission Guidelines
  • Annual Voices Journal 2025
    • Journal 2025 Picture Word Indicative Model (PWIM)
    • Journal 2025 Creating ESL Bilingual Units
    • Journal 2025 Creating Lessons for All through Picture Books
    • Journal 2025 Faculty Resources for ML Student Success
    • Journal 2025 Fostering Inclusive Environments
  • 2025 Spring Weekly Voices
    • Teaching Newcomers? Effective Writing Strategies for ELL Newcomers
    • Proposed Changes of HS Requirements for Districts and Students
    • Congratulations to April’s NJTESOL/NJBE Member of the Month: Daryl Perkins
    • Preserving Family Culture and Language: A Parent Workshop in Irvington’s Early Childhood Department
    • Trauma Informed Considerations and Strategies for Multilingual Learners
    • Addressing Student Trauma, Anxiety, and Depression
    • Free Resources to Explore and Use ChatGPT and AI
  • 2025 Winter Weekly Voices
    • Professional Development Opportunities in 2025
    • NJTESOL/NJBE Scholarships and Awards for your students and you!
    • Congratulations to January’s NJTESOL/NJBE Member of the Month: Brittany Fuentes
    • English Learners With Disabilities: The Rules Schools Have to Follow
    • 2024 Higher Ed Scholarship Winner’s Essay
    • 2024 Higher Ed Scholarship Winner’s Essay
    • Resources for Educators Pertaining to Immigrant Students, Families, and Preparation for Response
    • How to Identify and Serve English Learners with Disabilities
    • 2024 Raquel Sinai Newcomer Scholarship Winner’s Essay
    • How to Connect With English-Language Newcomers: Teachers Share Their Favorite Lessons
    • Congratulations to March’s NJTESOL/NJBE Member of the Month: Juliana Neno
    • 2024 Pedro J. Rodriguez High School Scholarship Winner’s Essay
    • NJTESOL/NJBE Spring Conference Invited Speakers
  • About Us
    • Mission Statement
    • Executive Board
    • Membership Information
    • The Hotlist
    • W25 January 21

Science of Reading Podcast 3:
Diagnosing Dyslexia in Multilingual Learners

With Francisco Usero-González

Usero-González begins the podcast by describing how kidney surgery before he was three caused him to have a significant stutter, which then affected his social-emotional development because he couldn’t articulate clearly. He became withdrawn and isolated at school, and although his parents did their best, they lacked resources and did not know how to help him. Then, while he was pursuing his PhD, he started working with tutors who reported issues with Pre-K students who had dyslexia. This ignited his desire to research ways to help these students.

He found that mastering one language with dyslexia is very difficult, and this increases when learning a second language. He shares the challenges of one of his ML students who had dyslexia. He explains that while she loved learning, when faced with reading, “..each page was a battlefield…because the words, they seemed to play tricks on her, like dancing and jumbling, to a song that she couldn’t hear….And there is another layer to this challenge, that cherished book of hers was in English….Mastering one language with dyslexia is really tough. Imagine adding a second language with its unique sounds and rules.” Thus, early intervention is essential and teachers need an understanding of the obstacles these children face. Because students have diverse needs in language, culture, and learning difficulties, one size solutions are inadequate. He emphasizes that, “Dyslexia is something beyond a language. It is something that our students bring with themselves. We need to give them all the tools and resources in order to help them overcome those symptoms.”

He also addresses the intersection between language acquisition and dyslexia and the necessity of observing students’ behavior to understand the child as a whole. In order to do this, “We need to promote collaboration, because we need to talk to the different teachers that the student has in order to see if it is indeed a second language acquisition issue or it belongs to the patterns, the symptoms, that a student with dyslexia might have.”

He also offers this advice. “It is very important for us to have this communication with parents and teachers and have them as our best allies. They are going to give us a lot of information that we maybe cannot track during our classroom time.”

He closes by noting the importance of translanguaging as a vital tool for MLs with dyslexia so they can use their full linguistic repertoire to communicate and to code and decode. Here is the link to his website where you can watch his TED talk on Bilingual Learners and Dyslexia.

Here is the link to Episode #3 – Francisco Usero-Gonzalez, Ph.D. discusses MLs and dyslexia

See below for episode #4.

Announcements

I am delighted to introduce this year’s PLC Series, Teaching Foundational Reading Skills to Multilingual Learners. This topic is near and dear to my heart, as I have been pursuing answers on how to teach MLs to read, especially those with reading difficulties and dyslexia, for the majority of my twenty years in education. In this PLC series we will explore best instructional practices for teaching foundational reading skills to MLs in English, as well as research and current topics in education pertinent to this topic. Join us virtually for our first PLC meeting October 29th at 5 pm for an overview of the Science of Reading and what it means for MLs in New Jersey. This PLC series will be helpful for any stakeholders who are interested in learning how to help MLs of any age crack the code of reading in English. We have already “sold out”, but the event will be recorded. We now have a waiting list & YouTube notification form for the PLC. Here is the link to the signup form.

Thank you and we look forward to embarking on this journey together!
Kathryn Tepedino, M.Ed, OG-T, C-SLDS
NJTESOL Executive Board Secretary and PD Chair
ML Specialist, Morris School District

Essex-Union Chapter Presents – Starting off Right – A Bilingual/ESL Conversation
OCTOBER 2, 2024, 4:30-5:30, Linden Public Library, 31 E. Henry Street, Linden, NJ 07036
A new school year is the perfect time for new beginnings
Let’s talk shop and plan for the future together! Everyone is welcome!

CABR (Countering Anti-Black Racism) Committee, Wednesday, October 16, at 7:00. Our Summer Book Study was “Black Immigrant Literacies: Intersections of Race, Language and Culture in the Classroom” authored by Dr. Patriann Smith. This month Dr. Patriann Smith will join us for a Q&A session during our October Meeting. Register on Eventbrite

Advocacy Committee: Thursday, October 17, at 5:00. Join us for discussions on issues that impact Multilingual Learners and their families in New Jersey. Register on the Google form to get a Zoom link.

We are so excited to inform you that our next Morris/Sussex Chapter meeting will be on Tuesday, November 12th at 4:15 online. Our fabulous WIDA rep, Maggie Churchill, will be presenting. Register here.

T-Shirt Design Contest – All NJTESOL/NJBE members and their students are invited to participate in this first-ever competition. The winning design will be featured on the 2025 Spring Conference t-shirts sold to raise funds for the NJTESOL/NJBE Scholarship Fund. Submissions are due by Nov. 15, 2024. See more information here.

Science of Reading Podcast 4:
Practical Strategies for Multilingual Learning

With Diane August, Ph.D.

“In this episode, Diane August, Ph.D. shares her journey and expertise supporting multilingual learners.”

Previously, based on faulty short-term research, it was thought that bilingual education was detrimental to language development. However, those studies failed to recognize that this process can take years. In 2006, August worked with a literacy panel of thirteen researchers to publish a 700 page report in which, “We found there is no indication that bilingual instruction impeded academic achievement, either in the native language or in English. What we observed on average, [was] that kids that were in bilingual programs did a lot better in literacy.”

Additional research published in 2017 built on and corroborated the results of the previous study. This report focused on topics such as effective programs, assessment, demographics, and students with disabilities. Based on this, August explains that MLs are a very diverse group, and to address this, educators need to consider home language, language of instruction, background knowledge, interrupted education, type of schooling, and individual factors including English proficiency.

On the subject of teaching children to read in a language they are learning, August acknowledges that strategies used in teaching English proficient children to read can help MLs. Phonemic awareness, explicit phonics, building from sounds to words, and word level skills are important, but teachers need to be aware that “There’s some sounds in English that aren’t present in a first language. Or there are letters that make different sounds in one language versus the other. So you just have to realize you have to take into consideration the kid’s language background when you’re teaching foundational skills.” She emphasizes that it is also necessary for students to understand what they are reading. They should be able to demonstrate knowledge about the content of the text and not just decode words without knowing what they mean.

In order to support older newcomers, August lists these strategies. Provide bilingual, side by side versions of the content, use labeled visuals, preview vocabulary, partner talk about the vocabulary, and define the vocabulary in the margins of the text. To help teachers know which words to select, use a word analyzer to find vocabulary that occurs frequently in a text, and focus on words that are necessary to understand the text. Conceptually complex words, which can’t be pictured, must also be explained. Since complex syntax is challenging for MLs, August recommends using the text they are studying to teach students to identify subordinating conjunctions, dependent and independent clauses, and then ask questions about the meaning of each of the clauses. Students also need help understanding referential chains in a sentence: who or what pronouns are referring to.

The podcast concludes with the importance of focusing on students’ assets. “Second language learners also come with a lot of knowledge in their first language, which is really important to consider. It’s not like they don’t have background knowledge.” Nevertheless, children need time to learn the language.

Here is the link to listen to episode 4 – Practical Strategies for Multilingual Learning.

This series of podcasts was recommended by Kathryn Tepedino.

See the August 27 Weekly Voices for summaries of the first two podcasts.

2024 Spring Conference Platinum Sponsor

Meet Our New NJTESOL/NJBE Executive Board Members

left to right: Jessica Duran, Secondary Bilingual SIG, Veronica Murillo, ESL/Bilingual PreK-K SIG, Kimberly Sharkey, Adult Education SIG, Keith Perkins, Ed.D., Supervisor SIG, Elizabeth White, ESL Secondary Representative

ARTICLES:

Meet Our New Executive Board Members

Science of Reading Podcast 3:
Diagnosing Dyslexia in Multilingual Learners
– with Francisco Usero-González
and
Science of Reading Podcast 4:
Practical Strategies for Multilingual Learning
– with Diane August, Ph.D.

Communication is KEY!
and
Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Has Consequences. What Schools Can Do to Help

Congratulations to October’s
NJTESOL/NJBE Member of the Month Kellie Cuccaro

and
Every Teacher Is a Language Teacher: Strategies for Supporting Multilingual Learners of English in the Mainstream Classroom– Naashia Mohamed

3 Ways to Ensure English Learners Benefit from the Science of Reading
-Leslie Villegas
and
Supporting Multilingual Learners in Developing Reading Fluency across the School Day– Kate Kinsella

Announcing the 2025 Spring Conference Keynote Speakers!

Congratulations to November’s
NJTESOL/NJBE Member of the Month Mrs. Singh

and
4 Ways to Support Long-Term English Learners – Sarah Said

Word Analyzer Vocabulary Tool
and
Online Dictionaries

Notebook LM
-Jessica Duran
and
5 Ways to Use AI-Generated Images in Your Classroom -Brent Warner

Inspirational Quotations
and
A Chorus of Reasons Why We Teach

Invitation to Write an Article for the Yearly Voices Journal
and
Padres con Poder/Parent Power Parent Expo

5 Ways to Bring Cultural Diversity into Your Classroom -Carol Higho
and
Defying Labels at Tables -Joyce Farr

Season’s Greetings from the NJTESOL/NJBE Executive Board

NJTESOL/NJBE Voices Editorial Board

Executive Director
Kathleen Fernandez

President
LeighAnn Matthews, Bridgewater-Raritan Public Schools

Past-President
Michelle Land, Randolph Township Schools

Layout
Dale Egan, Bergen Community College

Technology
Marilyn Pongracz, Bergen Community College

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