Serving the Academic, Social, and Emotional Needs of Multicultural Newcomers

As newcomers--immigrant students who have been in the U.S. less than two years--arrive in record numbers, many school districts are looking for ways to best support these new arrivals. Serving the Academic, Social, and Emotional Needs of Multicultural Newcomers offers a research-based overview of newcomer students across the nation and provides specific strategies for helping them integrate into U.S. schools in a variety of settings (ESL, bilingual, mainstream/content classrooms). In addition to a brief overview of how newcomer programs can provide academic and social-emotional services for recently arrived English learners, the authors draw on their experience to offer five best practices for serving newcomers. Readers will learn how to:

• Collaborate with school professionals to create a program specifically to meet the unique needs of new arrivals.
• Provide intensive literacy, numeracy, and content area support, especially for students with interrupted schooling.
• Develop the classroom supports necessary for students to achieve academic success.
• Provide supports that address the physical, social, and emotional challenges of newcomers.
• Work with families and communities to support students outside of a school environment.

With reflective questions at the end of each chapter, this book is designed to be used as a textbook with study groups or as a self-study resource for professional development.

Brenda Custodio is Adjunct Professor at The Ohio State University.
Judith B. O’Loughlin is an Education Consultant at Language Matters Education Consultants, LLC.