Recalling her year as the "English-speaking unicorn" in a class of refugee and immigrant students representing a myriad of languages, the author tells how visiting students at their homes was the strategy that most helped her help students. From discovering that a betel-nut habit was causing one student's hyperactivity to seeing another family's willingness to shift furniture to promote their daughter's studying, El Yaafouri recognized that learning about students' families was the best foundation for differentiating instruction.