Diane Staehr Fenner – författare

Foster multilingual learners’ academic success, wellbeing, agency, and belonging

Though multilingual learners (MLs) comprise nearly 25% of the school-age population, the most widely-used social emotional learning (SEL) frameworks and programs lack an intentional focus on these students’ unique strengths and challenges. To foster MLs’ academic success and wellbeing, educators must consider students’ cultures, languages, assets, expectations, norms, and life experiences when integrating SEL practices.

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Diane Staehr Fenner and Mindi Teich break down how each of the five competencies in the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) SEL framework can be implemented with ML success in mind. Staehr Fenner and Teich’s practical and engaging guide provides SEL considerations that are unique to MLs, relevant research, easy-to-implement educator actions, and tools to seamlessly integrate SEL practices into content and language instruction. Additional features include:

MLs thrive when they are validated and supported to achieve their goals, empathize with others, build relationships, and make responsible decisions. The essential actions presented in this guide will enable you–regardless of your role or prior experience with SEL–to empower MLs to achieve academic and lifelong success.

Bring classroom content to life for multilingual learners

In this eagerly anticipated revision of their bestselling book, authors Diane Staehr Fenner, Sydney Snyder, and Meghan Gregoire-Smith share dynamic, research-backed strategies that every educator of multilingual learners (MLs) can add to their repertoire. Including more of what educators loved from the first edition—authentic classroom examples, a wide variety of research-based instructional strategies, and practical tools to implement across grade levels and content areas—this is the ultimate practical guide to unlocking the potential of MLs in K-12 classrooms.

With fresh graphics and eye-catching colors, this thoroughly revised edition also includes:

Situated within five core beliefs that frame the must-haves for MLs’ equitable and excellent education, Unlocking Multilingual Learners' Potential is a guide to research-based practices and a toolbox of strategies every educator can implement to make content accessible and increase language proficiency among MLs.

Equip yourself with the tools to champion equitable education for every multilingual learner

Multilingual learners (MLs) are our fastest-growing student population, yet they often lack a voice in their own education. Without intentional advocacy, systemic barriers stand in the way of their potential. Navigating these challenges can feel overwhelming, but this approachable guide can help build a shared sense of responsibility across your entire school or district. Diane Staehr Fenner and Sydney C. Snyder explore how to foster effective instruction, fair assessments, and robust family partnerships, among other topics.

This essential resource provides:

By actively disrupting inequities, you create a welcoming community where every child belongs. Discover how to advocate effectively so your students receive the joyful, empowering education they deserve.

Embrace the future by ensuring English Learners have a voice in school.

English Learners (ELs) are the fastest-growing segment of the K–12 population.  But ELs and their families—who are in the process of learning English and navigating an often-unfamiliar education system—may not have a powerful enough voice to articulate their needs.  Consequently, all teachers and administrators must advocate for this all-important diverse group of students who will become tomorrow’s workforce. This book demystifies the techniques of advocacy for ELs, including:  

ELs will continue to grow in number, and leaving them and their families voiceless is simply not an option. No educator can miss this essential book.

“In many ways, the history of American Education is the history of a quest for equality.  Dr. Staehr Fenner lends a human face to the experience of English Learners and encourages us to think in terms of what attributes ELs bring to their learning experience and how others can benefit from their presence in the classroom. This book is a promising, uplifting, and much-needed call for action!” — Rosa Aronson, Executive Director TESOL International Association, Alexandria, VA On-line book study–available now! Author Staehr Fenner’s company, SupportEd, has created an on-demand LMS book study for readers of Advocating for English Learners A Guide for Educators. The self-paced book study works around your schedule and when you're done, you’ll earn a certificate for 20 hours of PD. SupportEd can also customize the book study for specific district timelines, cohorts and/or needs upon request.

It was a dark and stormy night in Santa Barbara. January 19, 2017. The next day’s inauguration drumroll played on the evening news. Huddled around a table were nine Corwin authors and their publisher, who together have devoted their careers to equity in education. They couldn’t change the weather, they couldn’t heal a fractured country, but they did have the power to put their collective wisdom about EL education upon the page to ensure our multilingual learners reach their highest potential.

Proudly, we introduce you now to the fruit of that effort: Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners’ Success.

In this first-of-a-kind collaboration, teachers and leaders, whether in small towns or large urban centers, finally have both the research and the practical strategies to take those first steps toward excellence in educating our culturally and linguistically diverse children. It’s a book to be celebrated because it means we can throw away the dark glasses of deficit-based approaches and see children who come to school speaking a different home language for what they really are: learners with tremendous assets.

The authors’ contributions are arranged in nine chapters that become nine tenets for teachers and administrators to use as calls to actions in their own efforts to realize our English learners’ potential: 1.       From Deficit-Based to Asset-Based  2.       From Compliance to Excellence  3.       From Watering Down to Challenging  4.       From Isolation to Collaboration  5.       From Silence to Conversation  6.       From Language to Language, Literacy, and Content  7.       From Assessment of Learning to Assessment for and as Learning  8.       From Monolingualism to Multilingualism  9.       From Nobody Cares to Everyone/Every Community Cares