Video

Ready for Success Series

This webcast is part of a year-long series of professional development opportunities focused on children who are dual language learners and their families. It serves as a summary of all the information discussed in previous webinars, with an increased emphasis on being culturally and linguistically responsive and on improving service delivery to children and families who speak languages other than English. The panel in this webcast refer to the resource handbook "Revisiting and Updating the Multicultural Principles for Head Start Programs Serving Children Ages Birth through Five." The handbook can found in the related materials section of this page. 

Ready for Success Series

This webinar presents the content and format for the year-long professional development series on dual language learners. Programs may find this presentation helpful in exploring strategies on how they may best serve children who are dual language learners and their families. The webinar focuses on the following categories: Program Design and Management, Responsive Environments and Curriculum, and Supporting Families. The webinar also includes a question-and-answer session and explores the Program Planning and Preparedness checklist.

Ready for Success Series

This Ready for Success installment focuses on early literacy development in dual language learners ages birth to five.  The webinar is presented in three segments and the panelists use the Child Outcomes Framework to provide suggestions that may help Head Start and Early Head Start program staff serve young dual language learners in both center-based and home-based settings.

Ready for Success Series

This webcast is the first in the professional development series on supporting dual language learners in Head Start and Early Head Start. The webcast introduces the Program Preparedness Checklist that emerged from the Dual Language Institute in 2008. The checklist was created to help programs improve outreach, services, and outcomes for Dual Language Learners and to provide high-quality environments that build on the diversity of the Head Start population. Head Start programs may view these suggestions and tips from programs that have implemented the Checklist to improve their support of dual language learners.

Ready for Success Series

Yvette Sanchez Fuentes, Director, Office of Head Start, leads this third installment of the professional development series in support of children who are dual language learners and their families. Head Start has a history of serving culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and the numbers have been growing rapidly with an estimated 3 out of 10 children speaking a language other than English within Head Start programs. This webcast, presented in both English and Spanish, focuses on oral language development through the use of four segments: Children Can Learn in Many Languages; Each Family is a World; Best Practices in Classes and Programs; and Making It Work: Everyday Examples.

Ready for Success Series

This webinar, as part of the Ready for Success series led by the Office of Head Start's Early Language Specialist, Sharon Yandian, focuses on assessing children's progress in learning English as a second language. Panelists discuss the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework as a tool in the assessment of expressive and receptive English language development in children who are dual language learners.

As the final webcast in the Ready for Success series, all concepts previously discussed are tied together. A panel of Head Start and Early Head Start experts, teachers, and parents focus on two successful programs that are culturally and linguistically responsive to children and families who speak languages other than English.

Dual Language Learners (DLLs) are children learning two or more languages at the same time, as well as those learning a second language while continuing to develop their first language. This webcast introduces Head Start employees to the various cultures and languages within the Head Start community, and helps them enhance school readiness of young children.

Language ability affects learning in all development areas and increases children's school readiness. Head Start teachers and staff may use this webcast to enhance children’s receptive and expressive vocabulary.

Assessment should drive curriculum when serving young English language learners. Linda Espinosa recommends that Head Start staff assess the environment and individual characteristics of each dual language learner in their care. Beyond assessing the child, Espinosa also encourages staff to affirm the language development expectations, methods, and models used in the classroom to interpret the development of the child.