Each year, students enter our schools feeling the tension between nervousness and hope. For some, this new beginning also marks the start of their English language journey. Many bring with them past hardships and find themselves navigating an unfamiliar school system without the comfort of familiar faces or guidance. Meanwhile, that system keeps moving—constantly raising expectations, introducing more complex content, and pushing learners forward. For students learning English, the challenge is twofold: they’re expected to grow academically alongside their peers while also mastering a language that’s getting more complicated every step of the way. The target keeps moving.
Catching the Moving Target isn't just a guide - it's a deeply personal, practical roadmap for how school can transform the experience of immigrant and refugee students from one of confusion and isolation into one of connection, confidence, and accelerated learning. Integrating innovations in mainstream education with proven methods in second language acquisition, this book balances heart with strategy in an effort to make school meaningful from bell to bell.
Whether you're launching a newcomer program or reimagining your support for Multilingual Learners, Catching the Moving Target invites you to do more than follow policy - it calls you to lead with purpose. From providing a soft landing and proactively addressing barriers to designing a clear pathway to academic and linguistic growth, readers will learn how to comprehensively meet the needs of their newcomer students and families. This book is filled with replicable models that can be accomplished with existing resources, stories that highlight the need for improvements and actionable ideas for decision-makers, school leaders, and teachers.
Highlights:
- A fresh, human-centered perspective on the challenges facing immigrant and refugee students in schools.
- Practical guidance for creating a soft landing through Welcome Centers and culturally responsive enrollment processes.
- Step-by-step strategies for building newcomer programming with existing resources.
- Mastery-based learning frameworks that prioritize progress over pacing guides.
- Real-world classroom strategies to support early English acquisition.
- Student-centered assessment practices that move beyond traditional tests and honor language development stages.
