E20 - Coherence by Design: High-Quality Instructional Materials for Multilingual Learners
Renae Skarin is an educational linguist with more than three decades of experience across K–16 education, dedicated to serving multilingual and English learners through classroom teaching, curriculum and program development, and classroom research. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys spending time in nature, gardening, and being with her horse and donkey.
In this episode, Renae Skarin explores what truly makes curriculum high quality for multilingual learners, arguing that language development must be embedded into the core design of instructional materials rather than treated as an add-on. The conversation highlights the importance of mapping content and language together, creating systemwide coherence across curriculum and professional learning, and positioning multilingual learners as capable apprentices in every discipline.
Key Takeaways:
Effective curriculum maps language demands alongside content goals across an entire unit. This helps students progressively build the vocabulary, structures, and discourse needed to express deep understanding.
Language learning is disciplinary. Students must be apprenticed into speaking, writing, and thinking like mathematicians, historians, scientists, and readers.
Strong materials alone are not enough. Professional learning, leadership vision, pacing guides, and assessment systems must all align to support effective implementation.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Welcome to Literacy Across Languages!
(01:37) Meet Renae Skarin
(08:05) Defining High-Quality Instructional Materials for Multilingual Learners
(14:43) Three Must-Haves in Instructional Materials for Multilingual Learners
(22:08) Aligning Language and Content Objectives Across the Curriculum
(26:25) Instructional Coherence for Multilingual Learners
(30:43) Overcoming the Supplementation Trap
(32:58) Curriculum-Based Professional Development for Teachers of Multilingual Learners
(36:42) Moving Beyond Language Proficiency Levels with Multilingual Learners
(38:48) HQIM in Action in the Multilingual Classroom
(42:53) Celebrating Multilingualism as a Superpower
(44:43) Takeaways for Teaching
Episode Resources:
Explore English Learners Success Forum tools and guidance to support curriculum review and implementation for multilingual learners.
Read Rethinking HQIM: An Educational Linguist’s Guide to Overhauling Curriculum on Renae Skarin’s blog to deepen your understanding of curriculum design for multilingual learners.
Revisit Episode 19 with Sally Baer on structured talk routines to strengthen purposeful collaboration and student discourse in your classroom.
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Keywords: multilingual learners, multilingual literacy, curriculum design, high-quality instructional materials, HQIM, language development, content and language integration, instructional coherence, disciplinary language, formative assessment, collaborative learning, student discourse, talk routines, curriculum mapping, language objectives, curriculum literacy, professional learning, teacher collaboration, ELD instruction, translanguaging, multilingual identity, biliteracy, systems alignment, school leadership, district leadership, literacy instruction, language acquisition, student engagement, equitable instruction, multilingual education