Collaboration for Multilingual Learners With Exceptionalities: We Share the Students

Discover models, strategies, and real-life stories to strengthen your collaborative practices.

Cooperation, coordination of services, and impactful collaboration are critical to the success of multilingual learners with exceptional needs. Written by experts in the fields of language and literacy development, equity, and special education, this practical guide emphasizes the power of partnership and inclusive pedagogy to transform educational practices for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Through six comprehensive chapters, the book offers strategies for effective co-planning, co-assessment, and co-teaching, while emphasizing the importance of cultural responsiveness and equitable classroom-based approaches for multilingual learners with exceptionalities.

Each chapter includes opening sketch notes offering a visual representation of key ideas, anchor and reflection questions, and additional resources for extended professional learning.
Other unique features include:

• Integration of Universal Design for Learning throughout the book with unique adaptations for multilingual learners
• Real-life scenarios of successful collaborative practices and innovations developed by educators of dually identified multilingual learners
• Leadership-specific recommendations to support the success of initiatives for multilingual learners with exceptionalities
• Essential tools and protocols to implement equitable classroom-based approaches for creating inclusive, collaborative learning environments

Both a practical guide and an urgent call-to-action, this book supports educators, districts, and communities to embrace collaboration, combine their professional expertise, and use shared voices to advocate for multilingual learners with exceptionalities.

Andrea Honigsfeld, EdD, is professor in the School of Education at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York. Before entering the field of teacher education, she was an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher in Hungary (Grades 5–8 and adult) and an English-as-a-second-language teacher in New York City (Grades K–3 and adult). She also taught Hungarian at New York University. She was the recipient of a doctoral fellowship at St. John’s University, New York, where she conducted research on individualized instruction. She has published extensively on working with multilingual learners and teacher collaboration. She received a Fulbright Award to lecture in Iceland in the fall of 2002. In the past 22 years, she has been presenting at conferences across the United States, China, Denmark, Japan, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates.

 She coauthored Differentiated Instruction for At-Risk Students (2009) and coedited the five-volume Breaking the Mold of Education series (2010–2013), published by Rowman and Littlefield. She is also the coauthor of Core Instructional Routines: Go-To Structures for Effective Literacy Teaching, K–5 and 6–12 (2014), Growing Language and Literacy (K-8 and 6-12, 2019, 2024 respectively) published by Heinemann. With Maria G. Dove, she coedited Coteaching and Other Collaborative Practices in the EFL/ESL Classroom: Rationale, Research, Reflections, and Recommendations (2012), Co-Teaching for English Learners: Evidence-Based Practices and Research-Informed Outcomes (2020), Portraits of Collaboration: Educators Working Together to Support Multilingual Learners (2022), and coauthored Collaboration and Co-Teaching: Strategies for English Learners (2010), Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Grades K–5: English Language Arts Strategies (2013), Common Core for the Not-So-Common Learner, Grades 6–12: English Language Arts Strategies (2013), Beyond Core Expectations: A Schoolwide Framework for Serving the Not-So-Common Learner (2014), Collaboration and Co-Teaching: A Leader’s Guide (2015), Co-Teaching for English Learners: A Guide to Collaborative Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection (2018), Collaborating for English Learners: A Foundational Guide to Integrated Practices (2019), and Co-Planning: 5 Essential Practices to Integrate Curriculum and Instruction for English Learners (2022). She is a contributing author of Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learner Success (2020), From Equity Insights to Action (2022), Digital-Age Teaching for English Learners (2022), Collaboration and Co-Teaching for Dual Language Learners: Transforming Programs for Multilingualism and Equity (2023), Breaking Down the Monolingual Wall: Essential Shifts for Multilingual Learners’ Success (2024), Collaboration for Multilingual Learners With Exceptionalities: We Share the Students (2024), Collaborative Assessment for Multilingual Learners and Teachers: Pathways to Partnerships (2025), and  Nine Dimensions of Scaffolding for Multilingual Learners (2026). Ten of her Corwin books are bestsellers.

Dr. Audrey Cohan is the Senior Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Studies at Molloy University, Rockville Centre, New York. She has been at Molloy University for twenty-nine years during which time she served as Professor, Chairperson of the Education Department, and Interim Dean for the Division of Natural Sciences. Dr. Cohan has taught in the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. She began her career as a special education teacher in New York City working with students with special needs in both self-contained and resource room settings. Her first book, published in 1995, was titled Sexual Harassment and Sexual Abuse: A Handbook for Teachers and Administrators. This co-authored book was an outgrowth of her dissertation work, which focused on child sexual abuse within schools. Dr. Cohan co-edited a five-volume Breaking the Mold series about educational innovation with Dr. Andrea Honigsfeld and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles about English language learners. The textbook published in 2016, Serving English Language Learners earned the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Most Promising New Textbook Award. Her other co-authored book publications include Beyond Core Expectations: A Schoolwide Framework for Serving the Not-So-Common Learner (2014), America’s Peace-minded Educator: John Dewey (2016), Team Up, Speak Up, Fire Up! Educators, Students, and the Community Working Together to Support English Learners (2020), and From Equity Insights to Action (2022). While at Molloy University, Dr. Cohan has been the recipient of the Faculty Leadership Award, the Faculty Recognition Award, the Molloy University Research Award, and the Distinguished Service Award.