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Blog
Time to complete:
2:30
Unlocking the gifts and potential of newcomer students
Blog
Time to complete:
2:30
Unlocking the gifts and potential of newcomer students
This blog was written by Sandra Medrano-Arroyo, National Director of Multilingual Learner Success.
Every year, classrooms across the country are enriched by the arrival of newcomer students—learners who are new not only to a school system but often to a new language, culture, and community. While they may face unique challenges, newcomer students bring incredible gifts that can expand perspectives, strengthen classroom culture, and inspire peers and educators alike.
The gifts newcomers bring
- Multilingualism: Many newcomers already navigate more than one language, demonstrating cognitive flexibility, persistence, and creativity in communication.
- Global perspectives: Their lived experiences provide authentic insights into different cultures, histories, and ways of thinking, broadening understanding for classmates, and us!
- Resilience: Adapting to a new environment requires courage, determination, and problem-solving skills—all qualities that help communities grow stronger.
- Unique talents and passions: Whether it’s in the arts, academics, sports, or leadership, newcomer students often arrive with interests and abilities waiting to be discovered and nurtured.
How educators can uncover these gifts
Newcomers come to your class with all sorts of experiences—different languages, school backgrounds, identities, and lives. Implementing some of these strategies from day one will ensure you can connect and build lasting relationships.
- Create a welcoming environment: Begin with warmth, patience, and genuine interest in students’ stories. Simple gestures of belonging—like learning to pronounce names correctly—send a powerful message of respect. Labeling classroom items like Mrs. Wilson did in our "Unspoken to Unstoppable: EL success begins with belief" film, helps students begin to take note of similarities and differences in the languages they know, and the one they’re learning.
- Listen to their voices: Provide opportunities for newcomer students to share about themselves through choice-based assignments, storytelling, or multimodal projects where language is not a barrier.
- Leverage multilingual skills: Invite students to use their home language in learning activities, and encourage peers to see multilingualism as an asset rather than a barrier. Provide them with time to process not only language and culture, but instructional routines as well.
- Partner with families: Families hold valuable knowledge about students’ strengths and aspirations. Building strong family-school connections can reveal hidden talents and foster trust. Find ways for them to share their hopes and dreams for their children, and then share these responses with the students to strengthen family connections.
- Celebrate achievements: Highlight progress—big and small. Recognizing milestones boosts confidence and reinforces the message that their presence enriches the entire learning community. Better yet, learn a few “praise-phrases” to acknowledge their accomplishments!
Moving forward together
When educators intentionally create spaces that honor the identities, languages, and experiences of newcomer students, they unlock doors to extraordinary potential. Every newcomer carries with them a set of gifts that, when recognized and nurtured, contribute to a more inclusive, innovative, and compassionate learning environment.
Welcoming newcomers is not only about helping them succeed—it’s also about recognizing how much they help us all grow.
Bilingual, bicultural, with strong Hispanic roots, and over 25 years in education, Sandra has served the needs of multilingual learners and their families through different roles in her career. With a desire to do even more for multilingual learners, she joined Ellevation Education in 2019 where she created instructional content for dual language programs and contributed to the development of professional learning modules. Sandra is committed to supporting multilingualism and multiculturalism as pathways of success for students and their families and can now be found advocating for multilingual learners on a national level.