Walk into any middle or high school classroom and you’ll likely see students working. Maybe they’re annotating a text. Maybe they’re listening to a lecture or answering questions in a journal. But what you won’t often see—especially from multilingual learners—is speaking . Not casual speaking. Academic speaking. The kind that builds confidence, builds vocabulary, and builds the bridge between language and content mastery. And here’s the real problem: We don’t have a system f

Experienced multilingual learners don’t need bunch more talk time — they need smarter talk time. One reason experienced multilingual learners plateau is simple: They’re not using enough academic language in real contexts . Many can decode complex texts and even write decently — but when it comes to explaining ideas aloud, they default to short, vague answers. Oracy doesn’t improve through isolated speaking activities; it grows when speaking becomes part of daily intellectua

We’ve all seen writing rubrics that emphasize structure, organization, and clarity. These elements are important. However, for multilingual learners—especially those hovering between intermediate and proficient—rubrics that ignore language use miss a critical opportunity. If we want students to grow as writers, we need to show them what strong academic writing looks like. That starts with embedding academic vocabulary directly into our rubrics . When done right, a rubric doe