Beyond "Can You Help with Homework?"—Unlocking the Power of Multilingual Families

What happens when we stop seeing language diversity as a barrier and start embracing it as our greatest classroom asset?

`I still remember the afternoon when a group of Vietnamese students approached me in my classroom. It was my second year of teaching, and I wasn't sure what to expect when they asked if I'd sponsor a Vietnamese Club. The school had clubs for Black and Chicano learners, but no Vietnamese faculty member existed to sponsor their cultural group.

What happened next transformed my entire approach to working with multilingual families.

One afternoon, about thirty students and several grandmothers showed up at my house to wrap spring rolls for carnival. Then, when they insisted I wear an ao dai for carnival, I realized something profound: these families weren't asking for help. They were offering partnership.

Pssst! Want to learn more with Dr. Berry? Watch this webinar.

The Invitation We're Missing

Next month, I'm hosting "Family Engagement 2.0—Partnering with Multilingual Families," and I want to share why this conversation matters more than ever. We've been approaching family engagement all wrong. We invite parents to help with homework, attend conferences, and support school initiatives. But what if we flipped the script entirely?

What if instead of asking, "How can families support our literacy goals?" we asked, "How can families co-create literacy learning with us?"

When Home Languages Become Classroom Gold

In my sixth-grade classroom, I had students who spoke English, Hmong, Tagalog, Spanish, and Chicano- and African American English. Initially, I worried about reaching everyone across such linguistic diversity.

Then I stopped trying to manage the languages and started leveraging them.

When we studied ancient civilizations, instead of requiring traditional essays, I invited collaborative graphic storytelling projects. The results stunned me. Their work about the Silk Roads contained cultural insights I'd never encountered in textbooks. Students drew on their own cultural knowledge, and their oral explanations revealed sophisticated understanding that their written English couldn't yet capture.

The breakthrough wasn't in overcoming their language differences! It was in honoring them.

The Questions That Change Everything

This led me to fundamental questions every educator should consider:

• How do our classroom texts reflect and honor students' language identities?
• When was the last time a family taught you something about their child's learning or cultural background?
• What would change if we viewed families' home languages as academic resources rather than obstacles?
• How might parent engagement look different if we started with family strengths instead of school needs?

Think about your multilingual students. Do you know what stories their elders tell? What cultural wisdom gets shared around their dinner tables? These aren't "nice to know" extras—they're untapped curriculum resources.

Beyond Translation Services

Most schools offer translation services and think they're being inclusive. That's access—and it's important—but it's not partnership. Real partnership happens when families become literacy co-educators, when home languages are celebrated as cognitive assets, and when cultural knowledge enhances everyone's learning.

I learned this when those Vietnamese grandmothers taught me more about resilience and community in one evening than any professional development ever had. They didn't need me to bridge their culture to school—they needed me to make space for their culture to enhance school.

Your Multilingual Families Are Waiting

I'm guessing you have multilingual families who could transform your literacy instruction right now—if you knew how to partner with them authentically. Maybe there's a parent or caregiver who could bring cultural context to your novel study, or a community elder whose storytelling tradition could enhance your writing unit.

The question isn't whether multilingual families can contribute to learning. The question is whether you're ready to move from traditional "parent involvement" to authentic partnership.

But how do you make that shift? How do you build trust with families who may have had negative school experiences? What does authentic two-way communication actually look like? How do you create space for home languages without losing academic rigor?

Join the Conversation

In our upcoming webinar, we'll move beyond theory to practical strategies you can implement immediately. You'll discover how to facilitate bilingual book clubs, transform home reading projects into community celebrations, and position families as educational partners.

The truth is, your multilingual families aren't waiting for permission to be literacy educators. They're already doing sophisticated literacy work at home. They're waiting for schools ready to accept their partnership.

Ready to transform family engagement? Join us for "Family Engagement 2.0—Partnering with Multilingual Families" and discover how authentic partnership can revolutionize literacy learning for every student.

What's one way a multilingual family has enriched your classroom? Share your story in the comments.

Almitra L. Berry, Ed.D. serves as the content expert for multilingual development in Perfection Learning's Connections: Literature program for middle school and as an educational consultant for the program, contributing expertise on culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Follow her on BlueSky @almitraberry for ongoing insights.