BRIDGE-BUILDING BETWEEN SPANISH AND ENGLISH

Theory and practice for teaching across languages

So, I went to Santa Fe with Kathy & Anabel….

La Cosecha 2014

This year, La Cosecha focused on Emerging Bilingual Students. (THAT’S OUR KIDS!)

We usually think about immersion happening in the Target Language, but we are all bilingual teachers…yup, even if you don’t speak a WORD of the other language!

What was this conference really about? (apart from the obvious)

We learned SO much…but

T & T to someone at your table about one thing that is ESPECIALLY challenging for you and your partner classroom when planning literacy units.

And because we are second grade rock stars…something that works really well when you plan your literacy units

Today we are going to focus on Literacy across languages.

Teaching for Biliteracy

The 2 (or more) languages that our students speak should be seen as complementary parts of their learning repertoire.

Even though YOU teach in one language, your kids are building skills across classrooms

Tender Puentes (Bridge Building!)

The Bridge is when teachers bring the two languages together, guiding students to engage in contrastive analysis of the L1 & L2 and to transfer the academic content from one language to the other (metalinguistic awareness)

The trick is finding opportunities to make these connections!

Literacy Squared The idea is a fluid, flexible, interaction within the

language and across languages.

*We need to help the kids see the similarities and differences between the languages. We know that there is a transfer.

Paradigm Shift

Not using the other language that a child speaks is also a deficit because you are missing out on knowledge the child has.

We need to make sure we are carefully choosing texts so that kids can make connections and raise their metalinguistic awareness.

We know MORE, not less…

What does that mean for our literacy instruction at Avenues?

Thematic Units! (integrating Reading, Writing & World Course)

Literacy happens in both classroom – we are all language learners

Extending and building cross-linguistic lessons purposefully (reinforcing is not the same reteaching)

Building skills requires support from both language teachers

So that means I have to actually work with my partner? Ugh!

• Collaboration• Open mind• Flexibility• Positivity – can

vs. can’t• Communicatio

n

Organization & Lesson Planning Make time to communicate verbally or in written

form Sharing: graphic organizers, writing paper Use common language for skills/labels Support goes both ways (Introductory lessons

SHOULD take place in both languages) Pacing Color code Be flexible! Reflection – what worked/what didn’t Revision

Collaboration at Avenues

Check out some things that our friends are already doing in Avenues.

Students have classroom rules that are:• the same content-wise and visually• introduced simultaneously, supported by all, and respected

always

Classroom Rules

Similar to rules, students understand they are held to the same class responsibilities.

Classroom jobs

Centers are part of what we do throughout all disciplines. Creating spaces and materials in our classroom that reflect continuity between classrooms facilitates the transfer process for students and creates a common language for teachers.

Centers – Placement and content

Students took stock of their water usage in both classrooms.

World Course: How much water do we use?

Students shared their ideas of how water get to the tap in Spanish and after research and inquiry wrote down what they had learned in English.

World Course: Before & After

Teachers modeled in both languages the process of writing a how-to book

How-to books – The beginnings of a unit

THAT ALL LOOKS REALLY GREAT, BUT CAN YOU GIVE ME A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE?

Unit Planning Across Languages

Teachers plan units together to know • What needs to be taught• Who teaches what

Curriculum Planning – Reading Workshop

Reading & Writing Unit:Fairy Tales: Grade 2

Immersion in the Genre.We wanted the kids to be able to identify the elements of a Fairy Tale (good & evil characters, problem and solution, magical elements, timeless/placeless settings, love, etc). In both languages!

-Our goal was to identify the elements of a Fairy Tale (good & evil characters, problem and solution, magical elements, timeless/placeless settings, love, etc).

We borrowed A LOT of books from the library and as we read, we noticed some things that all FT have in common.

In Spanish, another of our Reading goals was to practice retelling a story, and who doesn’t love to tell a fairy tale?

After we had spent time learning about Fairy Tale elements, we started to focus on the characters. Across languages we considered and inferred characters’ inner/outer traits, motivations and when applicable character change over the course of the tale.

In Spanish that was a little tricky…so we also learned about adjectives that we could use to describe the characters.

In English, we continued to really look closely at the Fairy Tales we were reading.

We talked about the plot (problem/solution) and identified what the characters wanted, the problem...as well as the solution.

And whenever we read an adaptation, we noticed what the author changed and what stayed the same.

Ready to write! We used graphic

organizers to plan our writing in both languages. We thought about the characters, what they wanted, the problem and the solution. We also thought about our setting.

In Spanish…We used what we knew about Fairy Tales and our retelling skills, we wrote and illustrated a retelling of a familiar Fairy Tale (The Three Billy Goats Gruff) in Spanish using the comic book format.

Sounds complicated? It was actually REALLY FUN!

First we figured out the characters and the order of events, making sure to include the problem and solution.

Next we drew what happened using comic book paper.

But characters talk….

So we added dialogue using speech bubbles.

Luckily, we had learned about adding dialogue to our stories in English!

Finally we put it all together.

And published our work

Meanwhile in English… We were hard at work

writing an adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood.

First we imagined and sketched our character in different settings.

Then we asked ourselves how the problem and solution might change or stay the same in a different setting.

Finally we drafted…Revised…making sure to include a strong lead/ending, dialogue, and sensory details. Edited some more…And published .

¡Muchas Gracias!