1. Looking at Core Instructional Practices in TWI through the Lense of the Biliteracy Unit Framework
Elizabeth Howard
University of Connecticut
Elizabeth Howard:
Two-Way Immersion Network, Catholic Schools
June, 2016

2. In the garden of dual language instructional approaches…
Counterbalancing
Teaching Learning Cycle
Biliteracy Unit Framework
Literacy Squared
GLAD
SIOP
TWIOP
…what plants do you choose ???

3. Start by bringing your attention to what’s below the surface
Counterbalancing
Teaching Learning Cycle
Biliteracy Unit Framework
Literacy Squared
GLAD
SIOP
TWIOP
‘The Big 5’ – Core Instructional Strategies

4. ‘The Big 5’ – Core Instructional Strategies for Dual Language Classrooms
Content-language integration (i.e. teaching language and literacy skills through content areas; formulating both language and content objectives for lessons; developing thematic units);
Providing comprehensible input (e.g. hands-on activities, visual aids, graphic organizers, slower speech, modified materials);
Promoting comprehensible output (e.g. modeling, interactive activities, sentence frames);
Building background (e.g. tapping into prior knowledge, pre-teaching vocabulary, providing concrete experiences);
Promoting metalinguistic awareness and fostering cross-linguistic connections (i.e. components of language and how they are the same and different across languages).

5. What do ‘The Big 5’ look like in practice?
Example 1: Teaching for Biliteracy (Beeman & Urow, 2013)

6. Components of the Biliteracy Unit Framework (BUF) (2-6 weeks)
Content area:
Theme/big idea: “I want students to understand that…”
Standards: (content and language)
Content targets (objectives)
Language targets (objectives) (English, partner language, and cross- linguistic)
Summative assessments

7. Components of the Biliteracy Unit Framework (BUF), continued
Building Oracy and Background Knowledge (linguistic resources, creativity, and funds of knowledge)
Reading Comprehension
Writing
Word study and fluency
Summative Assessment
The Bridge: Strengthening Bridges Between Languages
Extension Activity (in opposite language)

8. So what does it look like
So what does it look like? Some modest, real-life examples of emerging practice in kindergarten…

9. Example 1: Los sentimientos
Content area: social studies and language arts
Theme/big idea: We all have feelings. Our feelings change.
Standards: (content and language) Recognize values and attitudes that promote getting along with one another; Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities.
Content targets (objectives): SWBAT identify feelings from facial expressions
Language targets (objectives) (English, partner language, and cross-linguistic): Orally and in writing, SWBAT tell what they do when they have various feelings using the form “Me siento ____ cuando ______.”

10. Building Oracy and Background Knowledge
Shared reading of wordless picture book – together, students identify feelings and make faces.
Students play charades
to identify feelings.
In centers, students create
facial expressions using
playdough.
At morning meeting, students
sing, “Buenos días, ¿cómo
te sientes?”

11. Reading comprehension
Every week, we would
do a read-aloud focused
on one of the target
emotions of the unit.
Following a group
discussion about what
the main character did
when she felt angry,
students did ‘turn and
talk’ to tell their bilingual
partners what they do
when they feel angry.

12. Writing
Each week, following the read aloud and turn-and-talk about a specific emotion, students modeled the writing activity by dictating their conversations with partners to me, while I wrote them on the white board:
Me siento enojad_ cuando ___________________.
Students worked independently each week to write and draw their own experience of what they do when they feel the focal emotion.
By the end of the unit, all students had created a book about their feelings.

13. Word Study and Fluency Identifying ma/me/mi/mo/mu and sa/se/si/so/su
We noticed how the ending of some feeling words was different if the subject was a girl or a boy.
We noticed how the sentence began with a capital letter and ended with a period.
After writing their own pages, students read their pages to their bilingual partners.

14. Summative Assessment
The feelings book that each student wrote over the course of the unit served as the summative assessment.

15. The Bridge – promoting cross-linguistic transfer

16. The Bridge Focus
Marking sentence boundaries with a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and a period at the end is the same across English and Spanish.
Gender marking occurs in Spanish but not in English.

17. Extension Activity
Sing ‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’ and make up alternative verses for other feelings.

18. What examples did you see of ‘The Big 5
What examples did you see of ‘The Big 5?’ How could they have been integrated even better?
Content-language integration (i.e. teaching language and literacy skills through content areas; formulating both language and content objectives for lessons; developing thematic units);
Providing comprehensible input (e.g. hands-on activities, visual aids, graphic organizers, slower speech, modified materials);
Promoting comprehensible output (e.g. modeling, interactive activities, sentence frames);
Building background (e.g. tapping into prior knowledge, pre-teaching vocabulary, providing concrete experiences);
Promoting metalinguistic awareness and fostering cross-linguistic connections (i.e. components of language and how they are the same and different across languages).

19. Example 2: Los animales de la granja
Content area: social studies, science and language arts
Theme/big idea: Farm animals are alike and different.
Standards: (content and language) plural markers (E/S); informational writing (E/S); fiction vs. non-fiction texts (E/S); definite articles (S)
Content targets (objectives): SWBAT name body parts of farm animals, identify what they eat, and describe their life cycle.
Language targets (objectives) (English, partner language, and cross-linguistic): SWBAT use the correct definite article when referencing farm animals; SWBAT sequence information in a logical way; SWBAT distinguish fiction from non-fiction texts.
Summative assessment: informational brochures about each farm animal.

20. Building Oracy and Background Knowledge
During the first trimester, we visited the farm every Wednesday morning and spent time with the different animals and the farm workers. When we returned to the classroom, we used LEA to document what we had seen and done that day.

21. Reading comprehension
Starting in the 2nd trimester, half
of the class did empirical research
at the farm and the other half did
book research in the classroom;
the groups switched every week.
Class activities involved
fiction and non-fiction texts
on the focal animal.

22. Writing
After conducting empirical and book research, we used shared writing to record students’ observations.
The observations were transferred to sentence strips and put in order.
The sequence of the facts was used to create an informational brochure about each farm animal.

23. Word Study and Fluency The Bridge:
We noticed the use of the definite articles ‘los’ and ‘las’ and how they corresponded to ‘os’ or ‘as’ endings of farm animal names.
The Bridge:
We noticed that English did not require the use of the definite article and did not have different endings for male and female animals.

24. Extension Activity
Because this year-long activity did not follow the recommended structure of the BUF (all instruction in one language before The Bridge), there was no formal extension activity. Rather, instruction was integrated across languages throughout the year-long course of study.

25. What examples did you see of ‘The Big 5
What examples did you see of ‘The Big 5?’ How could they have been integrated even better?
Content-language integration (i.e. teaching language and literacy skills through content areas; formulating both language and content objectives for lessons; developing thematic units);
Providing comprehensible input (e.g. hands-on activities, visual aids, graphic organizers, slower speech, modified materials);
Promoting comprehensible output (e.g. modeling, interactive activities, sentence frames);
Building background (e.g. tapping into prior knowledge, pre-teaching vocabulary, providing concrete experiences);
Promoting metalinguistic awareness and fostering cross-linguistic connections (i.e. components of language and how they are the same and different across languages).

26. Example 3: upper grades
See handout and website

27. What examples did you see of ‘The Big 5
What examples did you see of ‘The Big 5?’ How could they have been integrated even better?
Content-language integration (i.e. teaching language and literacy skills through content areas; formulating both language and content objectives for lessons; developing thematic units);
Providing comprehensible input (e.g. hands-on activities, visual aids, graphic organizers, slower speech, modified materials);
Promoting comprehensible output (e.g. modeling, interactive activities, sentence frames);
Building background (e.g. tapping into prior knowledge, pre-teaching vocabulary, providing concrete experiences);
Promoting metalinguistic awareness and fostering cross-linguistic connections (i.e. components of language and how they are the same and different across languages).

28. Let’s give it a try!
Working with your grade-level partner or other teachers at your table, begin to generate some ideas for a unit that you could teach together using the Biliteracy Unit Framework. Record your ideas on the BUF planning template.
Be sure to incorporate ‘The Big 5.’