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Multilingual Learners and Handwriting: Building Confidence, Language, and Literacy
Tuesday, November 11, 2025 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST
Presented by Dr. Nancy Akhavan, President and Founder, Nancy Akhavan Consulting, Inc., and Retired Associate Professional Emerita, Fresno State; Lisa Nix, Teacher on Special Assignment in Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Learning, Fresno Unified School District (CA); and Ariann Cooper, Reading Specialist, Fresno Unified School District (CA)
Sponsored by Learning Without Tears
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
Multilingual learners represent one of the fastest-growing student populations in U.S. schools, and handwriting instruction plays a surprisingly powerful role in their literacy journey. Fluent handwriting frees working memory, enabling students to focus on ideas instead of letter formation, while also supporting oral language, vocabulary, and confidence.
In this interactive edWebinar, Dr. Nancy Akhavan joins Fresno ISD instructional coaches Lisa Nix and Ariann Cooper to discuss how handwriting supports language acquisition, why automaticity matters for multilingual students, and how teachers can integrate culturally sensitive, developmentally appropriate handwriting instruction into daily practice. The conversation also explore how to lower the affective filter, tailor strategies to different stages of language acquisition, and use oral language-rich practices like interactive read-alouds to deepen learning. Viewers leave with actionable strategies to affirm and accelerate multilingual students’ literacy growth.
By the end of this edWebinar, viewers are able to:
- Explain how handwriting fluency supports multilingual learners’ oral language, writing, and confidence.
- Apply strategies that lower the affective filter and affirm multilingual students’ identities.
- Differentiate handwriting instruction by aligning it to stages of language acquisition.
- Integrate handwriting into multimodal literacy lessons that include speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
This recorded edWebinar is of interest to PreK through elementary teachers, school leaders, and district leaders.
About the Presenters
Dr. Nancy Akhavan has spent more than 35 years as an educator and consultant. Dr. Akhavan is the founder of Nancy Akhavan Consulting, Inc. She recently retired from Fresno State as an Associate Professional Emerita. Dr. Akhavan has been a bilingual teacher, principal of three schools, and a district administrator of a large urban district for ELA, math, social studies, science, and world languages. She also served as Assistant Superintendent Secondary Division in a large urban school district. Dr. Akhavan is recognized for her expertise in teaching literacy practices and has published thirteen books that focus on literacy instruction that increases student achievement. She has worked with districts and county offices in multiple states and internationally to increase student achievement in reading, writing, and in content areas. She continues to provide professional development for leaders and teachers in literacy K-12, early literacy, content area literacy, and English language development.
Lisa Nix began her career teaching 1st and 3rd grade for 14 years in Sanger Unified School District in California before earning her master’s in reading instruction. For the past decade, she’s been with Fresno Unified School District in California, supporting K–6 English Language Arts, with a focus on early literacy and foundational reading skills. She now coaches teachers, school sites, and academic coaches to strengthen literacy instruction across the district.
Ariann Cooper is a Reading Specialist and Instructional Coach for Fresno Unified School District in California, who collaborates with educators and school leaders to integrate evidence-based literacy practices, ensuring all students develop strong literacy skills and confidence as readers.
Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.
Join the Building Foundational Literacy Skills community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.
Learning Without Tears’ mission in today’s changing learning landscape is to ensure that the path to student success remains simple and fun. We provide child-friendly, hands-on, innovative instruction for early learning, handwriting, keyboarding, and writing strategies, and our programs reach more than 31 million students in Pre-K through fifth grade.
