Welcome to Teaching Elementary Multilingual Learners
Nancy Frey
CCLA Summit
January 29, 2026
Welcome!
PowerPoint for this session is available at www.fisherandfrey.com
Click on Recordings & Resources
Learning Intention�We are learning how to integrate AI into responsive, strengths-based ML approach to learning.
Success Criteria
I can explain the difference between “through the windshield” and “rearview mirror” work.��I can name at least two ways AI can help my team see patterns or plan instruction.
Notetaking Guide
Task | Input | Responses | Evidence | Support |
| | | | |
AI App? | AI App? | AI App? | AI App? | AI App? |
| | | | |
Photo by Greta Farnedi on Unsplash
Getty Images on Unsplash
Effective systems are anticipatory, not reactive.
We look through the windshield as well as the rearview mirror to navigate effectively.
Photo by Aubrey Odom on Unsplash
The impact of ML programs are diminished when design problems get in the way:
Incoherence isn’t intentional; it’s often the result
of people with good intentions trying to do too
many things.
Coherence begins with shared purpose, processes, and results.
Three Big Ideas:
1.09
Lesson Design
www.visiblelearningmetax.com
R=4
Tasks
Input
Responses
Evidence
Success
TIRES organizes instruction..
Evidence
Success
Input
Tasks
Responses
It’s not the order. We rotate the TIRES!
AI helps us navigate, track, and create.
Without a human in the loop,
AI is limited.
AI Helps us see. Educators decide.
Treat AI like an intern.
YOU direct, discard, revise, and deliver.
Build forward while we address gaps.
Illustration by Karacis Studio on Unsplash
Trajectory-changing schools understand that success requires a coordinated effort.
Meet Peter, a fifth-student who loves soccer and Roblox. His first language is Ukrainian. He is in the Gifted and Talented Education program.
In Action:
A Unified Effort to Succeed
Instructional coherence feels logical, predictable, and unified for students.
Interventions
Core/Tier 1 Instruction
Extended Time
High-Dosage Tutoring
Adapted from
Let’s follow Ana, a second-grade student.
Language Background: Multilingual learner; Spanish spoken at home and in the community
�Time in English Instruction:
2 years
Evidence: What are we noticing about how the student learns, engages, and makes meaning?
Success
Input
Tasks
Responses
Evidence
Team administers screening and diagnostic assessments:
Evidence
Strengths
Ana is not behind in her thinking. She is building the language to show what she knows.
Through the Windshield
Prepare Ana to succeed in upcoming Tier 1 instruction
Focus
“What language will Ana need to understand and use to fully participate in what’s coming next?”
Instructional Priorities
What This Looks Like in Practice (small group/1:1)
AI output
AI output
Rearview Mirror
Strengthen the tools that unlock comprehension
Focus
“What skills are currently making it harder for Ana to show what she understands?”
Instructional Priorities
What This Looks Like in Practice (Small-group/1:1)
Other AI prompts you can use
Team Data Meeting:
“Here are our fall screening results and diagnostic summaries. Identify patterns that suggest Tier 1 instructional gaps versus individual student needs.”
Root-cause Analysis:
“Based on these diagnostic results, what underlying sub-skills are most likely contributing to these screening outcomes?”
“Which students may be false positives from the screener based on diagnostic performance?”
TEAM TALK: Do you use AI to assist you in analyzing data? What might be benefits and cautions?
Evidence: What are we noticing about how the student learns, engages, and makes meaning?
Success: What does it mean to be successful?
Input
Tasks
Responses
Success Criteria
Incremental Success Criteria provide a ladder for students.
Illustration by Hammam Fuad همَّام on Unsplash
Katie Holt, 1st
Let’s plan incremental success criteria for Ana in science, an area of strength and interest for her.
Write incremental success criteria for a lesson for a second-grade ML student. She is learning about water in different places on the Earth, including solid and liquid forms. The SC should build on each other over a 25-minute lesson.
Ask
Context
Rules
Example
Prompt Engineering for Ana’s Lesson
Through the Windshield
Prepare Ana to succeed in upcoming Tier 1 instruction
Science Lesson focus: Water is found in different places on Earth and can be solid or liquid.�Language demand: Naming, describing, and explaining using simple sentences.
Incremental Success Criteria
I can use a sentence frame to describe where water is found.
I can say whether water is solid or liquid in my sentence.
I can explain one example using words and pictures.
(Example frame: “Water is found in a ___.” / “Ice is water that is ___.”)
AI output
Rearview Mirror
Lesson focus: Increasing use of science vocabulary
Incremental Success Criteria
I can read water words with short and long vowels.
I can match science words to visuals.
I can tell what a science word means.
I can use a science word when I talk.
Content words in textbook reading
AI output
Educator-facing:
“Write student-facing success criteria for a grade 4 math lesson on division. Make the criteria observable and usable across Tier 1 and Tier 2.”
Team Use:
“Compare these success criteria to the state standard and identify any misalignment or missing rigor.”
Student-facing use:�“What does success look like for this assignment?”
Other AI Prompts You Can Use
TEAM TALK: What are the advantages of having a chatbot propose incremental SC? Challenges?
Evidence: What are we noticing about how the student learns, engages, and makes meaning?
Success: What does it mean to be successful?
Input: What instruction honors strengths while supporting growth?
Tasks
Responses
Input
Show it.
Model it.
Make it clear.
Input Options
Considerations for Teacher-Driven Inputs
Let’s plan a think-aloud to use with Ana.
Script a teacher think-aloud for a second-grade ML student using this visual. She is learning about water forms on Earth in her science class. Use I-statements and ask her questions about what she notices and wonders.
Ask
Context
Rules
Example
Prompt Engineering for Ana’s Lesson
“I see water moving from the mountains into a river. I notice ice at the top where it is cold. I think the river carries water down to the ocean. This helps me understand that water can be ice, move in rivers, and collect in the ocean.”
“Now it’s your turn. What are you noticing? What are you wondering?”
AI-Generated Think-aloud with AI-generated Image
Other AI prompts you can use
Just-in-Time reteach:
“Provide a 3-minute reteaching explanation for students struggling with this concept, including one worked example.”
Language Demand:
“Identify key vocabulary and language structures students must understand to succeed on this task.”
Student-facing Support:
“Show me another example of this problem solved step by step.”
TEAM TALK: How might you use AI for generating new ideas for modeling in your subject?
Evidence: What are we noticing about how the student learns, engages, and makes meaning?
Success: What does it mean to be successful?
Input: What instruction honors strengths while supporting growth?
Tasks: What do students need to do to generate evidence?
Responses
Tasks: Assignments and Activities
Do it to learn it.
Tasks exist to produce evidence, not to fill time.
Poor tasks lead to misleading data.
Tasks at Tier 1, 2, or 3 often fail because tasks aren’t aligned to evidence needs.
If the task can’t generate the evidence you need, the task is the problem.
Support learners as they engage in learning by providing just-in-case and just-in-time scaffolds.
Juicy Sentences Protocol
Great City Schools
Follow-up questions: Identify the part or parts that tell us:
Photo by Tangerine Newt on Unsplash
Let’s plan a reading to use with Ana.
Generate evidence for me to listen for as a second-grade ML student engages with a juicy sentence protocol. I want to focus on listen-fors to gather evidence of learning and not learning. Here is my text and the questions I’ll use.
Ask
Context
Rules
Example
Prompt Engineering for Ana’s Task
Water moves across Earth in different ways. Water can be ice on mountains. When ice melts, the water flows into a river. The river carries water across the land. Many rivers flow into the ocean, where water collects.
AI-generated Image and Text
Water moves across Earth in different ways. Water can be ice on mountains. When ice melts, the water flows into a river. The river carries water across the land. Many rivers flow into the ocean, where water collects.
AI-generated Image and Text
AI-Generated Insights on Listen-fors and Look-fors During Sentence Analysis with Ana
Evidence She Has Not Yet Learned
Listen For and Look for
She answers each question in isolation
She can answer early questions but struggles later ones
She says things like:
This signals difficulty with:
Evidence She Has Learned
Listen For:
She answers questions using connected ideas, not one-word responses (e.g., “The river goes into the ocean.”)
Strong signal of learning:�She can move smoothly from Question 3 → 6 → 10 without sounding confused, because she sees the cause-and-effect chain.
Other AI prompts you can use
Task Design:
“Create Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 versions of this task that all generate the same evidence of learning.”
Task Audit:
“Analyze this task for cognitive demand and identify whether it measures recall, application, or transfer.”
Student-facing clarification:
“Can you restate this task in simpler language without changing what I’m expecting the student to learn?”
If the task can’t produce the evidence, the task is the problem.
TEAM TALK: How might AI-generated look-fors and listen-fors be useful for paraprofessionals and new interventionists?
Evidence: What are we noticing about how the student learns, engages, and makes meaning?
Success: What does it mean to be successful?
Input: What instruction honors strengths while supporting growth?
Tasks: What do students need to do to generate evidence?
Responses: How does the student show growth and understanding?
Responses
Show what you know.
Responses are informed by success, evidence, tasks, and input.
They are where learning becomes visible in real time.
This is rehearsal and practice lives.
Rehearsal and retrieval are key to making learning permanent.
These form a memory trace in your brain that makes each retrieval of information easier.
Roediger & Karpicke, 2006
Use success criteria as “Can I Questions” to promote retrieval and storage strength.
Let’s plan for retrieval practice for Ana.
Develop “Can I” questions for a second-grade ML student who is using the juicy sentence protocol. I want to promote retrieval practice and storage strength. Use the lesson I developed on water on the Earth and its forms.
Ask
Context
Rules
Example
Prompt Engineering for Can I Questions
Content Building (Science Understanding)
Can I explain how water moves from a mountain to the ocean?
Integration and Transfer
Can I tell the whole idea in one clear explanation?
Vocabulary and Language Skills
Can I explain a word using my own words?
Can I say a sentence with more than one science word?
Phonics and Word Work
Can I read the words water, river, ice, and ocean in sentences with no picture?
AI-Generated Retrieval Practice Questions
Other AI prompts you can use
Anticipating Errors:
“What misconceptions are most common when students attempt this task?”
Feedback Support:
“Provide feedback aligned to this success criteria without giving the answer.”
Student Rehearsal:
“Does my response meet the success criteria? What’s one thing I could improve?”
Responses aren’t the end—they’re the feedback loop.
Three Big Ideas to
Takeaway
Thank you for all you do for students like Ana and Peter, every single day.
www.fisherandfrey.com