Reaching Multilingual Students Through Tutoring with Halley Bowman and Katherine Huete

On this episode of Trending in Education, host Mike Palmer talks with Halley Bowman, who focuses on curriculum and tutor training at Saga Education, and Katherine Huete, founder of the consultancy Estelita and a leader in scaling language support at Saga. We explore the powerful resurgence of high-impact tutoring, especially its critical role in supporting emergent multilingual learners (EMLs) in secondary math.

Halley shares Saga's unique model, which integrates dedicated, small-group tutoring into the school day, making this high-impact intervention accessible to all students and leading to astounding results, including the closure of up to 50% of the opportunity gap. She highlights the importance of the individualized, caring relationship between a student and their dedicated adult tutor.

Katherine, a former newcomer student who became a bilingual special education teacher, defines the shift to the more asset-based term, "emergent multilingual learner" (EML), which values all a student's languages rather than ranking them. We discuss the misconception that math is a universal language, needing no language support.

We delve into the concrete, "bite-sized" strategies SAGA uses to train its diverse workforce of tutors—from recent college graduates to career changers—to effectively support EMLs without needing a deep education background. These effective, implementable strategies include using visual aids to provide context and reduce language barriers , and offering sentence frames to help students articulate their mathematical understanding.

The conversation also emphasizes the value of translanguaging, where tutors encourage students to use all the languages in their linguistic repertoire to better cement knowledge. Finally, we address the role of AI in quickly generating translations and customized strategies, while emphasizing that the crucial human element of cultural responsiveness and building trust remains paramount.

Key Takeaways:

• High-Impact Tutoring is a Proven Solution: SAGA's in-school model closes up to 50% of the opportunity gap.

• Math is Not Language-Proof: Math contains complex language, and even differences in punctuation (like using a comma instead of a decimal) can pose barriers for EMLs.

• Small, Actionable Strategies Work: Tutors are trained using micro-learnings on implementable skills like providing visuals and sentence frames, which benefit all students, not just EMLs.

• Translanguaging is Empowering: Encouraging students to use all their languages (e.g., Spanglish) helps them grasp and transfer mathematical concepts more effectively.

• The Human Connection is Essential: Cultural responsiveness, including pronouncing a student's name correctly, builds the trust and respect that is fundamental to high-impact tutoring.

Why You Should Listen:

If you care about equity in education and the future of the teaching workforce, this episode provides a clear, evidence-based look at one of the most effective interventions available today. We offer practical, actionable insights into supporting multilingual learners in subjects often presumed to be language-independent.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

01:02 Meet Halley Bowman and Katherine Huete

03:00 The Evolution and Impact of Saga Education and High Impact Tutoring

06:16 Defining Multilingual Learners

08:06 Tutoring Strategies for Multilingual Learners

19:46 The Role of AI in Tutoring

23:26 Cultural Responsiveness in Education

25:04 Final Thoughts and Conclusion