Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators
From math,
literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling,
and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts
on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.
Collaboration for Multilingual Learners With Exceptionalities
Illustrations by Carmen Nguyen and Colleen Wilcox
Discover strategies for effective co-planning, co-assessment, and co-teaching, and explore the importance of cultural responsiveness and equitable classroom-based approaches for multilingual learners with exceptionalities.
- Grade Level: PreK-12
- ISBN: 9781071910184
- Published By: Corwin
- Year: 2024
- Page Count: 216
- Publication date: July 17, 2024
Price: $39.95
Review Copies
Review copies may be requested by individuals planning to purchase 10 or more copies for a team or considering a book for adoption in a higher ed course. To request a review copy, contact sales@corwin.com.
Description
Discover models, strategies, and real-life stories to strengthen your collaborative practices.
Cooperation, coordination of services, and impactful collaboration are critical to the success of multilingual learners with exceptionalities. Written by experts in the fields of language and literacy development, equity, and special education, this practical guide emphasizes the power of partnership and inclusive pedagogy to transform educational practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Through six comprehensive chapters, the book offers strategies for effective co-planning, co-assessment, and co-teaching, while emphasizing the importance of cultural responsiveness and equitable classroom-based approaches for multilingual learners with exceptionalities.
Each chapter includes opening sketch notes offering a visual representation of key ideas, anchor and reflection questions, and additional resources for extended professional learning.
Other unique features include:
- Integration of Universal Design for Learning throughout the book with adaptations for multilingual learners
- Real-life scenarios of successful collaborative practices and innovations developed by educators of dually identified multilingual learners
- Leadership-specific recommendations to support the success of initiatives for multilingual learners withexceptionalities
- Essential tools and protocols to implement equitable classroom-based approaches for creating inclusive, collaborative learning environments
Both a practical guide and an urgent call-to-action, this book supports educators, districts, and communities to embrace collaboration, combine their professional expertise, and use shared voices to advocate for multilingual learners with exceptionalities.
Author(s)
Andrea Honigsfeld
Andrea Honigsfeld, EdD, is Professor in the School of Education at Molloy University, Rockville Centre, New York. Before entering the field of teacher education, she was an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher in Hungary (Grades 5–8 and adult) and an English-as-a-second-language teacher in New York City (Grades K–3 and adult). She also taught Hungarian at New York University. She was the recipient of a doctoral fellowship at St. John’s University, New York, where she conducted research on individualized instruction and learning styles. She has published extensively on working with English language learners and providing individualized instruction based on learning style preferences. She received a Fulbright Award to lecture in Iceland in the fall of 2002. In the past twelve years, she has been presenting at conferences across the United States, Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates.
She coauthored Differentiated Instruction for At-Risk Students (2009) and co-edited the five-volume Breaking the Mold of Education series (2010–2013), published by Rowman and Littlefield. She is also the co-author of Core Instructional Routines: Go-To Structures for Effective Literacy Teaching, K–5 and 6–12 (2014), published by Heinemann. With Maria Dove, she co-edited Coteaching and Other Collaborative Practices in the EFL/ESL Classroom: Rationale, Research, Reflections, and Recommendations (2012) and co-authored Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners (2010), Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Grades K–5: English Language Arts Strategies (2013), Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Grades 6–12: English Language Arts Strategies (2013), Beyond Core Expectations: A Schoolwide Framework for Serving the Not-So-Common Learner (2014), Collaboration and Co-Teaching: A Leader’s Guide (2015), Coteaching for English Learners: A Guide to Collaborative Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection (2018), Collaborating for English Learners: A Foundational Guide to Integrated Practices (2019), Co-Planning: 5 Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners (2022). She is a contributing author of Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learner Success (2020), From Equity Insights to Action (2021), and Digital-Age Teaching for English Learners (2022). Nine of her Corwin books are bestsellers.
Audrey Cohan
Dr. Audrey Cohan is the Senior Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Studies at Molloy University, Rockville Centre, New York. She has been at Molloy University for twenty-nine years during which time she served as Professor, Chairperson of the Education Department, and Interim Dean for the Division of Natural Sciences. Dr. Cohan has taught in the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. She began her career as a special education teacher in New York City working with students with special needs in both self-contained and resource room settings. Her first book, published in 1995, was titled Sexual Harassment and Sexual Abuse: A Handbook for Teachers and Administrators. This co-authored book was an outgrowth of her dissertation work, which focused on child sexual abuse within schools. Dr. Cohan co-edited a five-volume Breaking the Mold series about educational innovation with Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles about English language learners. The textbook published in 2016, Serving English Language Learners earned the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Most Promising New Textbook Award. Her other co-authored book publications include Beyond Core Expectations: A Schoolwide Framework for Serving the Not-So-Common Learner (2014), America’s Peace-minded Educator: John Dewey (2016), Team Up, Speak Up, Fire Up! Educators, Students, and the Community Working Together to Support English Learners (2020), and From Equity Insights to Action (2022). While at Molloy University, Dr. Cohan has been the recipient of the Faculty Leadership Award, the Faculty Recognition Award, the Molloy University Research Award, and the Distinguished Service Award.
Table of Contents
Dedication
About the Authors
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities and Program Models to Serve Them
Chapter 3: Collaborative Approaches to Identification and On-Going Assessment Practices
Chapter 4: Engaging in Collaborative Planning
Chapter 5: Co-delivering Instruction for Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities
Chapter 6: Capacity Building for Sustained Collaboration
References
Glossary
Reviews
"We Share the Students is a book with a most fitting name for any teacher with multilingual learners, however, it is especially relevant for those teachers who engage in collaborative instructional and assessment practices with multilingual learners with exceptionalities. Honigsfeld and Cohan artfully interweave the knowledge and expertise of language development and special education in their combined understanding of these students’ complex identities. By highlighting the multiple dimensions of Universal Design for Learning as a framework for creating inclusive collaborative learning environments, multilingual learners with exceptionalities add their voices to help authenticate the field where they once were silenced. This timely addition to your teacher collaboration library offers insight and inspiration for all educators who work at the intersection of these two marginalized communities."Margo Gottlieb
Author and Consultant
"Calling us to turn away from the 'your kids, my kids' mindset that has long thwarted collaborations in schools, this much-needed book equips teachers with concrete strategies and tools to work together in supporting multilingual learners with exceptionalities."Sara E.N. Kangas
Associate Professor, Lehigh University
"Honigsfeld and Cohan have put together a clear, concise plan that will lead to greater student outcomes for MLE’s through inclusive collaborative teaching. The idea of the three-way co-teaching builds capacity for the teachers when all are focused on designing learning experiences for MLE’s, and brings a new understanding to language deficits vs. language acquisition. The tables are digestible ways to share information to busy staff following a coaching session."
Alice Braunstein"Honigsfeld and Cohan have put together a clear, concise plan that will lead to greater student outcomes for MLE’s through inclusive collaborative teaching. The idea of the three-way co-teaching builds capacity for the teachers when all are focused on designing learning experiences for MLE’s, and brings a new understanding to language deficits vs. language acquisition. The tables are digestible ways to share information to busy staff following a coaching session."
Special Education Grades 1-6, NYCDOE, NY
"Honigsfeld and Cohan have drawn upon their considerable background knowledge to create the go-to reference book for teachers working with Multilingual Learners with exceptionalities. We Share the Students is filled with summary charts and figures, graphs, resources, ideas, suggestions, reflective questions, tools, protocols, mindful moments, and voices from the field to support each topic. The book addresses the key issues of collaborative planning, program models, collaborative approach to identification and assessment, co-delivering of instruction, and capacity building for sustained collaboration of multilingual learners with exceptionalities. A 'must-have' book!"Linda O’Konek
Former Elementary Schools Executive Director, Norfolk Public Schools, VI
"Drs. Andrea Honigsfeld and Audrey Cohan, both experts in their respective fields, have written an important contribution to the body of knowledge of transdisciplinary collaboration by focusing on multilingual learners of English with exceptionalities. This text, Collaboration for Multilingual Learners with Exceptional Students: We Share the Students, shares practical strategies for teams of Special Educators and MLL/ELL specialists to plan using Universal Design for Learning as a foundation, communicate clearer, and share their knowledge and perspectives with one another for improvement in teaching and supporting multilingual learners of English with exceptionalities. The text incorporates storytelling in each chapter with teachers’ perspectives, voices, and insights and provides solutions and tools/protocols for different grades and contexts. There is no higher recommendation that I can give this text than to indicate, I will be using it in my teacher education classes very soon."Kate Mastruserio Reynolds
Professor of TESOL, Central Washington University
"In a world where students with disabilities are often pressured to mask their true selves, I am so utterly grateful that this book was written. It is a significant step towards language equity and appreciating neurodivergence. Honigsfeld and Cohan provide an incredible framework for how to change the system and honor the child."Kelly Cray
Founder, The Autist Educator
ways to serve multilingual learners with exceptionalities. Their brilliant work brings clarity to the forefront so we may shift mindsets and practices
that integrate services in the most collaborative, innovative, and inclusive ways. Now, more than ever, this book provides the essential foundation we
require to elevate multilingual learners’ exceptionalities as assets within the language development processes. By using this guide, we may better offer, as the authors say, 'presence, dignity, and a most-expansive learning environment' to multilingual learners with exceptionalities through shared practices. This book is a must-have for every educator’s professional library!!"
"In this spectacular book Drs. Honigsfeld and Cohan guide us toward the long-awaited answers we need to the many crucial questions we have onDr. Joan Lachance
ways to serve multilingual learners with exceptionalities. Their brilliant work brings clarity to the forefront so we may shift mindsets and practices
that integrate services in the most collaborative, innovative, and inclusive ways. Now, more than ever, this book provides the essential foundation we
require to elevate multilingual learners’ exceptionalities as assets within the language development processes. By using this guide, we may better offer, as the authors say, 'presence, dignity, and a most-expansive learning environment' to multilingual learners with exceptionalities through shared practices. This book is a must-have for every educator’s professional library!!"
Associate Professor, Author, and Consultant. UNC Charlotte and Clover Seeds Educational Consulting
"How to best teach multilingual learners with exceptionalities is often clouded with a tug-of-war between Special Education and English Language Development. To overcome this, the number one best strategy really is collaborative practices. This book is a practical exploration of assets-based approaches to multilingual learners with exceptionalities that are inclusive of families, as well as the ecosystem of all professionals who serve these students. This is a game changer in planning for MTSS, and the pre-referral process as well as enacting culturally and linguistically responsive IEPS."Kelly-Ann Cooney
Co-Teaching Coach, Martha's Vineyeard Schools, MA
"There are so many touch points that make this an excellent book. Kudos and congratulations to Andrea and Audrey for a fresh and innovative approach that will serve global communities!"Majorie H. Haley, Ph.D
Professor of Education, George Mason University , VA
"The education of multilingual learners with exceptionalities requires a schoolwide approach. Honigsfeld and Cohan bring a whole new dimension to this work. Expert scholars on collaboration, they offer a strengths-based framework for bringing grade level, content, ELD, bilingual, dual language, and special educators as well as support staff, administrators, families, and local community members together. Their ground-breaking source for creating an environment for students with exceptionalities to thrive should be a staple in all our professional libraries."Dr. Debbie Zacarian
Author and Founder, Zacarian and Associates
"An outstanding guide from the voices we most need collaborating in education now. Dr. Honigsfeld and Dr. Cohan offer the opportunity to make a better world in collaboration with our community, with the research-based premise that by centering students who need us most --multilingual learners with exceptions in this case--we will better serve all students. Dr. Honigsfeld and Dr. Cohan exemplify how collaboration creates avenues of support for the many differing learning needs on any team. We've all heard about asset-based philosophies, but putting them in to action can be a challenge. Here, a great set of questions, tools, examples, and testimonies from the field to start processing our teaching strategies with assets in mind and in unity: the only way to make success systemic. 'Many hands make light work' comes to life as we accomplish the goals that the treasures need us to accomplish now. An essential bit of wisdom in preparation for teachers wanting to succeed at more than a minimum requirements with culturally and linguistically diverse students across the country."Myrna Muñoz
Executive Director, M&M Multilingual Equity Education Consultancy LLC
"I've found the perfect book! I'm thrilled about the potential for collaboration it brings as I introduce it to my team. With its insightful structure, practical tools, and meaningful content, it promises to enhance our support for multilingual learners. This book will enable us to share knowledge, expertise, and foster collective thinking. Huge thanks to Andrea Honigsfeld and Audrey Cohan for their timely contribution."Amy Brennan
Elementary Principal, Cutchogue East Elementary School, NY
"Have you wondered how to best service your multilingual learners with exceptionalities? If you answered, yes, then this book is for you. It explores the different ways to collaborate with the special service team to meet the needs of these students. I love how the authors include voices from the field to show us the strategies being used in actual schools and to hear teacher perspectives. In addition, they provide reflection questions at the end of each chapter to discuss with colleagues or use for your own reflection of your practices and what is best to meet the needs of your multilingual students with exceptionalities."Jennifer Frankowiak
Elementary ELD/Newcomer Teacher, Wes Bloomfield Schools, MI
It’s perfectly fitting that Andrea Honigsfeld and Audrey Cohan focus on language to dive deeply into Collaboration for Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: universally welcoming learners; rightful presence; educational dignity; expansive learning environments; multilingual consciousness; intersectional traps; asset-based lens. Afterall, language is definitional to culture and Honigsfeld and Cohan provide a much-needed dignified framework for collaborators to support multilingual learners with exceptionalities. This text is certainly needed in the increasingly diversifying field of education and I’m excited to use it to expand my graduate students’ knowledge in my course on co-teaching. The sketchnotes by Carmen Nguyen and the artwork by Coleen Wilcox give visual representation to the many complex concepts presented and add a great deal to the understanding of multilingual learners with exceptionalities. Well done!Gloria Lodato Wilson, Ph.D., Director, Secondary Special Education Programs
Hofstra University
"In their new book, Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: We Share the Students, Honigsfeld & Cohan thoughtfully and practically address the needs of students who are at the intersection of diversity and exceptionalities. They designed the book in an accessible and systematic manner that creates space for educators at any stage of their career (beginning through experienced) to engage with the content from multiple vantage points, making it a valuable resource for a wide range of stakeholders. While attending to the importance of addressing the needs of all students, they provide specific examples that educators can use to learn more about their students and create the most expansive learning environments to support student success."
David Forker, Ph.D."In their new book, Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: We Share the Students, Honigsfeld & Cohan thoughtfully and practically address the needs of students who are at the intersection of diversity and exceptionalities. They designed the book in an accessible and systematic manner that creates space for educators at any stage of their career (beginning through experienced) to engage with the content from multiple vantage points, making it a valuable resource for a wide range of stakeholders. While attending to the importance of addressing the needs of all students, they provide specific examples that educators can use to learn more about their students and create the most expansive learning environments to support student success."
Coordinator of EL Language Programs
"Working with multilingual learners with exceptionalities can seem like a steep hill to climb, but Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: We Share the Students is well organized, and each chapter breaks down various challenges and opportunities in a clear, concise, and straightforward manner. The graphic 'sketch notes' provide a visual overview of each set of topics, and features like 'reflections' and 'collaborations' contribute to parent partnerships and ongoing professional learning, bringing a strong real-world component to the text. I cannot wait to share this book with the graduate students in English as a new language at our school of Education!"Audrey Figueroa Murphy, Ed.D.
Associate Professor and Coordinator of Graduate TESOL and Bilingual Programs
"At last, a practical and informative resource that breaks down so many of the siloes between the fields of general education, bilingual/ESOL education, and special education! Grounded in universal design for learning (UDL), this book offers ideas and real applications that show what inclusive, integrated, multimodal classrooms designed with the learner in mind can and should look like.
With realistic vignettes and stories from real practitioners in classrooms and positions of school and district leadership, this book not only answers the “what” and the “why” of true collaboration at many levels, but also the “how”. Offering an approach that highlights the strengths of learners and the educators who serve them, the book illustrates the notion of a “multilingual consciousness” that centers language, culture and ability in new and innovative ways. Each chapter provides thoughtful questions for reflection and connection to the realities of today’s schools that take the reader “beyond the chapter”, offering a world of possibilities. The many resources included, from helpful checklists and protocols to suggested websites and research literature make this a complete guide for educators and school and district leaders wishing to implement new collaborative practices or hone their current practices in forward-thinking ways. All of this is greatly enhanced by the cleverly designed sketchnotes that introduce each chapter.Collaboration for Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: We Share the Students is a book that will open up new pathways to collaboration within classrooms, across school and district hallways, and across fields. It is a resource no district should be without."
Tamara Alsace, PhD"At last, a practical and informative resource that breaks down so many of the siloes between the fields of general education, bilingual/ESOL education, and special education! Grounded in universal design for learning (UDL), this book offers ideas and real applications that show what inclusive, integrated, multimodal classrooms designed with the learner in mind can and should look like.
With realistic vignettes and stories from real practitioners in classrooms and positions of school and district leadership, this book not only answers the “what” and the “why” of true collaboration at many levels, but also the “how”. Offering an approach that highlights the strengths of learners and the educators who serve them, the book illustrates the notion of a “multilingual consciousness” that centers language, culture and ability in new and innovative ways. Each chapter provides thoughtful questions for reflection and connection to the realities of today’s schools that take the reader “beyond the chapter”, offering a world of possibilities. The many resources included, from helpful checklists and protocols to suggested websites and research literature make this a complete guide for educators and school and district leaders wishing to implement new collaborative practices or hone their current practices in forward-thinking ways. All of this is greatly enhanced by the cleverly designed sketchnotes that introduce each chapter.
Collaboration for Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: We Share the Students is a book that will open up new pathways to collaboration within classrooms, across school and district hallways, and across fields. It is a resource no district should be without."
Educational Consultant and Associate Investigator for the CUNY Initiative on Immigration and Education
"My deepest gratitude to the authors for this wonderfully positive and forward-looking volume! This engaging book will serve as an excellent guide to organize systemwide collaborative practices in support of Multilingual Neurodiverse Learners and indeed all students. The authors provide authentic resources, frameworks and voices from the field that will help schools and school districts develop universally welcoming environments. The very strengths-based, student-centered voice in this volume will inspire readers to realize that collectively they can make changes that will optimize learning and wellbeing for the students they serve."
Cristina Sánchez-López"My deepest gratitude to the authors for this wonderfully positive and forward-looking volume! This engaging book will serve as an excellent guide to organize systemwide collaborative practices in support of Multilingual Neurodiverse Learners and indeed all students. The authors provide authentic resources, frameworks and voices from the field that will help schools and school districts develop universally welcoming environments. The very strengths-based, student-centered voice in this volume will inspire readers to realize that collectively they can make changes that will optimize learning and wellbeing for the students they serve."
Paridad Education Consulting and DePaul University, Chicago
Review Copies
Review copies may be requested by individuals planning to purchase 10 or more copies for a team or considering a book for adoption in a higher ed course. To request a review copy, contact sales@corwin.com.
Related Resources
- Access to companion resources is available with the purchase of this book.
- Explore Opportunities for Teacher Collaboration [Book Excerpt]
- Learn to Collaborate in Support of Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities [Blog]