Melissa Craven, second-grade teacher from outside Cincinnati, Ohio, spent her Fulbright exchange developing tools and strategies to support multilingual students, work she says has reshaped her approach to teaching.
As a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher Award grantee, Craven was based at the UCL Institute of Education in London. Her project began with a practical problem: last year, her classroom included students from ten different home language backgrounds.
"This stems from a challenge I faced in my own classroom," Craven says. "I had ten home languages represented in my class. As a general ed teacher, I was trying to reach their varying needs while still presenting the curriculum in English, and making everybody feel comfortable about their home languages."
Craven arrived at UCL intending to build practical resources, materials to help English learners access the curriculum, and guidance for teachers supporting them. That plan shifted.
"My mindset has shifted since I first arrived," she says. "I had the intent of developing EAL tools to help English language learners. I do still want to help my newcomers, but my focus is less on the curricular aspects now, and more on helping those newcomers really feel settled."
The shift extends beyond newcomers. Craven now wants all her students, including English speakers with no second language at home, to engage with multilingualism directly.
"Children are naturally drawn to language, to playing with language," she says. "That ties in beautifully with learning about other languages, and how the interplay between languages works."
Craven says the welcome she received at UCL surprised her. "I've never worked in a university setting before in a professional manner," she says. "The professors and staff have welcomed me as a colleague, treated me with interest in my project right from the start." She had reservations before applying, chiefly, time away from her own classroom and school. "I feel like when I come back, I'm bringing so much more value to my program, my school, and the States in general," she says, "that it would have been a disservice not to go."
That value, she says, is already extending beyond her own classroom. Colleagues facing similar multilingual classrooms have begun turning to her for advice. "Teachers lack time and resources to really go explore ways to improve our teaching," she says. "Through the Fulbright, it's really transformed my own mindset. I feel like I can be a better advisor to other professionals."
Craven's message to anyone weighing up an application is direct. "I know it can be a little bit nerve wracking to try something new," she says. "But the reward balances it all out and makes it so worth it."
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Melissa Craven is a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher Award alumna. During her grant, she was based at the UCL Institute of Education, London, researching tools and strategies to support multilingual learners in English-led classrooms.