by Maria Lee

Introduction

School counselors play a vital role in supporting students in a multilingual learning environment by addressing their social, emotional, academic, and career needs. Counselors work to build strong family-school relationships through various strategies that foster communication, support, and partnership. The strategies are:

• Building Partnerships

• Counselors use asset-based language

• Interpreter 

• Technology

This article will share ways that schools have used these strategies, capitalizing on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Building Partnerships

Linguistically diverse students experience various issues within their schools.  These students and their families/caregivers need an advocate to help them negotiate the system and engage with families. School counselors are in the best position to promote partnerships with families because of their expertise in human development, collaboration, and systems change. School counselors have the skills to partner with students, school staff, and families to identify perceptions, procedures, and policies that obstruct the academic experiences of culturally diverse students.  

Many schools face the challenge of building partnerships with linguistically diverse families. An research by Aydin, Bryan and Duys shows that students in schools are more linguistically diverse. The study examines school counselors’ perceptions of their involvement in school–family–community partnerships with linguistically diverse families. School counselors, school personnel, students, families, community members, and other stakeholders work collaboratively in partnership to develop and implement school and community-based prevention and intervention programs and activities to improve children’s chances of academic, personal/social, career, and college success.  School counselors serve as liaisons between the school and the communities. Therefore, partnership practices are a fundamental function of school counseling programs.

Counselors Use Asset-based languages

Asset-based language highlights the strength of multilingual students, shifting the focus from language deficiencies to the benefits of being bilingual or multilingual. 

In A School Counselor’s Role in Supporting Emerging Multilingual Learners webinar, presenter Lezya Weglarz, a counselor, believes in building strong, meaningful relationships with students, families, staff, and the community. Weglarz acknowledges the strengths that students and their families bring, which is incredibly empowering and fosters trust among all involved. 

Being bilingual has many advantages. Weglarz had the privilege of speaking Spanish at home and later learning French. However, Weglarz believes many of her students view their bilingual skills as a disadvantage, often seeing it as a lack of English proficiency. Weglarz loves discussing with English Language Learners the numerous benefits of being bilingual. When Weglarz teaches graduate students, she always encourages them to highlight their bilingual or multilingual abilities at the top of their resumes and cover letters, since bilingual skills are valuable assets in various careers. Weglarz emphasizes the cultural richness that results from traveling and connecting with people around the globe.

Weglarz is concerned that many students may view lack of English proficiency as equivalent to low intelligence. Weglarz emphasizes that proficiency does not equate to intelligence. Weglarz wants to shift that perspective and highlight the skills they bring. There is a common belief that students cannot grasp the content until they have fully learned the English language, but there are certainly alternative methods to acquire such skills. It can be tough for a student to join a science or history class, but while there are obstacles, Weglarz believes there are effective strategies to help students master both the curriculum and language simultaneously.

Interpreter

Weglarz wants us to pay attention to the interpreters we select at our school sites. Weglarz explained that sometimes when families/caregivers visit, we call on our usual go-to person, but Weglarz wanted us to remember that just because someone is multilingual does not mean they are always the best choice for translation. As school counselors, we prioritize confidentiality, and it is vital that we ensure that the individuals we involve uphold this standard. Many discussions with families and caregivers are delicate, from mental health concerns to suicidal thoughts. These can be tough conversations, so we want to ensure that our translators have both the language skills and professional background. Weglarz noticed this concern arose when chatting with colleagues. Weglarz wants to avoid using siblings or other students to interpret, which is a clear boundary that we must maintain.

Technology

The article "What ELL Educators Need to Know as Schools Reopen: Webinar Resources" highlights initiatives from Roseville, MN Schools, specifically the Facebook Community Pages. Roseville Area Schools ISD 623, located in the broader Twin Cities region, caters to various communities. To better engage with families, the district has established multiple Facebook pages, which feature translated content and updates from family liaisons and educators specifically for ELL families. These pages were vital communication tools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more about ways to connect with multilingual families/caregivers here.

Recognizing that many families were already active on Facebook via their mobile devices, the Roseville schools capitalized on the platform's automatic translation capabilities. This insight led to the creation of a school Facebook page aimed at facilitating two-way communication with families and encouraging their participation in grade-level groups associated with the page. These private groups, accessible only to families of students in each grade, foster bilingual communication with educators at that grade level.

New Facebook Page

Dr. Karen Woodson, author of Creating Equitable Access for ELs in the COVID-19 ERA: A Case Study, describes her school’s journey towards equity and school improvement, and how staff were able to draw upon that journey once the COVID-19 pandemic began, to ensure that their hard-won success was sustainable.

Dr. Woodson is a recently retired Principal of a Title 1 Elementary school serving significant populations of ELLs, as well as a former district wide EL director of a major school system in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.

Dr. Wood explains what worked with the distance learning environment, and it is a new Facebook page for multilingual families. A new Facebook page was launched just a week after schools closed. Our conversations with families indicated that many already accessed Facebook via their mobile devices. With Facebook's built-in translation features, we recognized that establishing a school Facebook page would facilitate immediate two-way communication with our families and help them join the grade-level groups formed on the page. These private grade-level groups, restricted to families with children in that specific grade, allowed bilingual communication with all educators in that grade.

Teachers and counselors used private grade-level groups to:

• Communicate with families around instructional expectations

• Post videos showing families how to log into various portals used for instruction

• Provide encouraging communication related to self-care and social-emotional health

• Offer school-wide activities, such as a spirit week and a dress up day.

Below is what Dr. Karen Woodson wrote about her commitment to the families:

Dedicated to Family and Community Involvement

Our school counselors, alongside the parent and community engagement team, work tirelessly to reach out to every family. Working as a cohesive unit, they collaborated with families to promote consistent attendance, assess needs, and eliminate obstacles to learning. They made referrals for food and medical assistance, helped families access internet services, and offered direct counseling support to students. We also focused on bilingual English-Spanish counseling for students with limited English proficiency who had recently arrived in the U.S. from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. This was crucial, as our newcomers represented the most at-risk segment of our ESOL population, often living in cramped conditions with insufficient access to vital services and challenges in adapting to life in the U.S. (Woodson, 2020)

Before the pandemic, many families in high EL-impact schools faced substantial vulnerabilities that hindered learning. Issues such as acculturation, poverty, trauma, illiteracy, food insecurity, family separation and reunification, immigration status, overcrowded housing, inconsistent medical care, and limited Internet access highlight the enduring challenges that obstruct educational opportunities. Now, amid the pandemic, these long standing issues have intensified, as families in high EL-impact schools are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is vital for these schools to increase their efforts to address these barriers during the pandemic, as every student should pursue their path toward college and career readiness. (Woodson, 2020)

References

Aydın, N. G., Bryan, J. A., & Duys, D. K. (2012). School counselors’ partnerships with linguistically diverse families: An exploratory study. The School Community Journal, 22(1), 145–166.
Weglarz, L. (2022, May 9). A School Counselor’s Role in Supporting Emerging Multilingual Learners. A School Counselor’s Role in Supporting Emerging Multilingual Learners 

Lbreiseth. (2021, May 27). What ELL educators need to know as schools reopen: Webinar Resources. Colorín Colorado. https://www.colorincolorado.org/schools-reopening-ells/webinar 

Woodson, K. (2020, November 13). Creating Equitable Access for ELS in the COVID-19 ERA: A case study. Colorín Colorado.

To Further Your Learning:

Refugee and Immigrant Core Stressors Toolkit from Boston Children’s Hospital’s Trauma and Community Resilience Center