MULTILINGUAL LEARNER SHADOWING INSTITUTE

The California Association for Bilingual Education is honored to continue the legacy of Dr. Ivannia Soto as the official home of the National Center for Multilingual Learner Shadowing (NCMLS), advancing this work to support educators and students across the country. The Multilingual Learner Shadowing Institute offers a powerful, equity-centered approach that re-centers the lived classroom experiences of multilingual learners to drive instructional improvement. The protocol supports educators in examining: access to language, interaction, and academic voice; student engagement, belonging, and participation; and instructional decisions through a learner-centered lens. This results in equitable, targeted, and high-quality instruction responsive to the individual needs of multilingual learners. Participants will apply the Multilingual Learner Shadowing Protocol (MLSP) to identify student needs, analyze classroom scenarios to understand language development in practice, align Designated & Integrated ELD with core instruction, design language-rich, student-centered lessons, and build cross-linguistic connections across languages. Attendees will walk away with a clear, replicable process to identify multilingual learner needs and design instruction that actually responds, starting on day one of school. Registration includes two days of high-impact professional learning provided by expert facilitators, lunch and refreshments both days, a copy of the Multilingual Shadowing book, and classroom-ready tools, templates, and resources.