Building a Foundation of Joy and Belonging for Multilingual Learners

Do you remember what kindergarten was like? For many students, this is their first experience of school, and early school success is tied to their sense of belonging and joy in learning. Building a strong community and connection with peers motivates students and sets them up for long-term academic success. Amidst a complex national conversation, it's more important than ever that our schools serve as havens where every child can feel a deep sense of belonging.

For multilingual learners in dual language classrooms, long-term success means building competencies in two languages—both in their native language and in English—with the goal of transitioning into fully English-speaking classrooms. As the bilingual program manager for Distinctive Schools, I'm constantly thinking about how we can cultivate a sense of cultural pride and belonging, even after students have reached English proficiency. Our bilingual classrooms are designed to help Spanish-speaking students become fluent in English, while celebrating their competence in their home language and culture. Our classrooms are places of celebration where differences are important parts of our identities. When students feel a strong connection to their teachers and peers, they are more engaged and motivated to learn, which is why creating a welcoming and inclusive environment is so important.

Bravely Elevating Our Bilingual Program

Distinctive Schools was awarded a Bravely grant through NGLC to focus on creating more equitable learning experiences for our multilingual learners. We have intentionally designed this year-long partnership to build capacity in transformational design and coaching for our bilingual kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms at two of our campuses. Our team is working on a central question:

How might we use the K–1 curriculum as a foundation while creating learning experiences for bilingual students that foster belonging, reflect their cultural identities, and feel relevant to their lives?

Our goal is to infuse joy and cultural pride into our classrooms every day, beyond heritage months. We are brainstorming ways to bring students' stories and cultures into the learning environment, from inviting families to read culturally relevant stories to incorporating culturally related social-emotional learning (SEL) lessons. We want to take the wonderful cultural aspects our students bring from home and celebrate them within the school day.

With the grant funding and year of supports, Bravely is helping us set up students for long-term success by embracing their unique cultural experiences. We will be piloting these efforts in our bilingual classrooms to see if our approach is working. Each school community is unique; one has a strong, highly involved Hispanic community, while another is more diverse, with many different languages and cultures. This provides us with a great opportunity to explore various ways to celebrate cultural identity with the hope of scaling success from the year to other classrooms.

Looking Ahead

In October, our Bravely team will visit our schools to collect data through student and teacher focus groups. This data will help us understand how our students feel included, respected, and proud of their heritage. Our ultimate vision is to create a model that can be scaled to all our classrooms, ensuring that all our students feel seen, valued, and empowered as learners. We believe that by building this strong foundation in the early grades, we are setting our students up to not only succeed academically but also to maintain and grow their proficiency in two languages long after they exit the bilingual program.

Ultimately, our work through Bravely is about more than curriculum or data. It’s about a child’s smile when they hear a story from their home country read aloud, or the confidence students gain from seeing their family’s culture celebrated and valued at school. Because true academic success is built on a foundation of belonging, we are creating a blueprint for a learning environment where every student—regardless of their background—feels both included and authentically celebrated. Valuing and uplifting the rich tapestry of cultures in our schools helps students master a second language while ensuring they carry a deep sense of pride in their first. By uplifting our young learners now to embrace who they are, we are setting them up for academic success while helping them build a future where their identity is their greatest strength.

All photos courtesy of Distinctive Schools.