Two-Way Immersion Network

for Catholic SchoolsDay 2

Bilingualism, Language, and Literacy: Issues of development and assessment

Patrick Proctor, Boston College Liz Howard, University of Connecticut

Goals• Make links between first and second language

acquisition• Relate these links to assessment and instruction both

in the classroom and in the context of the broader TWIN-CS mission

• Provide greater detail regarding formative assessments and summative measures and how to use them to drive instruction and understand development

• Provide resources to help with decision making and program implementation

• Develop and implement strategies to identify, grow, and maintain significant funding prospects to support  the TWIN program over time

Objectives• Understand basics of first and second language

acquisition, and bilingualism• Make links between first and second language

acquisition, bilingualism and TWIN-CS evaluation goals

• Articulate similarities and differences between formative and summative measures and consider how they can be used to further program goals

• Identify assessment approaches that are sensitive to language of instruction and that leverage bridging to promote expression of knowledge

First and Second Language Acquisition

Literacy Development and Bilingualism

Key Terms• Oral language proficiency

– Phonological processing– Syntax/grammar, vocabulary,

morphology, semantics– Pragmatics

• Orthography = how a language is written down

• Decoding = taking written language and converting it to linguistic form

• Comprehension = Understanding

Monoliterate Developmental Considerations for Literacy

• Watch video:– What elements of emergent literacy are

present in the following clip?

PLEASE SEE VIDEO LINK ON WEBSITE

And then…

[Please see video link on website]

The Code

Monoliterate Developmental Considerations for Early Literacy

• Age 5 – School begins– Foundation of oral language proficiency

alongside concepts of print• Word-level skills instruction (grades K –

2)– Alphabetic principle– Sound symbol relationships– Sight words (e.g. the, of, and, you)– Introduction of simple and decodable texts– Word level skills are rote and finite!!

Orthographic Considerationsin Initial Literacy Instruction

• Native English-speaking children were better at reading and spelling pseudowords (e.g., plyger, norpt) in English than Cantonese children, but there were not differences in reading/spelling real English words (Wang

& Geva, 2003). Why might that be?– Orthography (the way language is written

down) is salient for bilingual learners• Spanish-English share many letters and sounds

in common• Chinese-English share none!

In Summary• Children take their oral language skills and home

literacy exposures to school with them• Reading instruction begins in Kindergarten and starts

with a focus on the code which is the orthography of the language (i.e., how it is written down)– Instruction includes focus on sight words and phonics

for decoding, along with small and independent work for reading and text exposure

• There is potential for cross-linguistic instructional approaches when the two languages are similar, but not when they are completely different

• Strong degrees of influence from a variety of life domains

Language and Comprehension

Language• Recall your work with Liz regarding

language development• In 2-way programs, there are always

second language learners– English language learners– Spanish/Mandarin Language learners

• Language development is crucial for comprehension– Must be fostered from the earliest grades

2 examples of language and conceptual knowledge influencing reading comprehension

The MarlupThe marlup was poving his kump. Parmily a

narg horped some whev in his kump. “Why did

vump horp whev in mh frinkle kump?’ themarlup jufd the narg. “Er’m muvvily

trungy,”the narg grupped.

“Er heshed vump norpled whev in yourtranquil kump.” Do vump pove your

kump frinkle?

Comprehension Questions 1. Who was poving his kump?2. Who jufd the narg?3. How trungy was the narg?4. What kind of kump does the marlup

have?5. How would you feel if a narg

horped in your marlup’s kump? Why?

“Favorable conditions are necessary to do this activity. That is you have to have enough rouche. If there is too much rouche, the object might break. But if conditions are too calm, you will have problems because the rouche makes the object go up. If there are obstacles, a serious problem can result because you cannot control the rouche. Usually, the rouche is most favorable during the spring.”

• Take 1 minute, read the paragraph, and define rouche

Rouche

Background Knowledge Matters

• What strategies did you use to figure out the word’s meaning?

• What do you now know about the word?

• In a study, only 13 percent of participants without any background knowledge deduced a synonym for rouche

• When provided with background knowledge, 78 percent correctly.

Background knowledge is integral to vocabulary knowledge

“Think about the last time you flew a kite. Favorable conditions are necessary to do this activity. That is you have to have enough rouche. If there is too much rouche, the kite might break. But if conditions are too calm, you will have problems because the rouche makes the kite go up. If there are obstacles, a serious problem can result because you cannot control the rouche. Usually, the rouche is most favorable during the spring.”

Putting Them Together

Breakout GroupsTwo groups, two sessions

Session 1: 10:55 – 11:40– Group 1 with Patrick

• Focus on TWIN-CS formative and summative assessments

– Group 2 with Liz • Focus on performance assessments and one of

differentiating instruction and assessment by level of L2

Session 2: 11:45 – 12:30– Group 2 with Patrick– Group 1 with Liz

Formative & Summative Assessments

• Features of formative assessments

• Features of summative assessments

• Formative Assessments– Regularly administered– Targeted to explicit skills/aptitudes– Designed to inform instruction– “Real-time” assessments

• Summative Assessments– Assess how much learning has taken place– Not designed to inform instruction, but

rather to measure student learning and/or development

Formative & Summative Assessments

TWIN-CS Research/PracticeDesign

Summative approach“The Riverside Publishing Company, the assessment division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), is providing each school with a gratis Woodcock-Munoz Language Survey assessment in order to monitor student/program progress.  HMH looks forward to assisting all schools with providing high quality print and digital curriculum materials to culturally and linguistically diverse students”

TWIN-CS Research/PracticeDesign

Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey-RevisedSummative Measures, individually administered, Fall and Spring of each academic year:• Real word reading (decoding)• Expressive vocabulary (oral language -

vocabulary knowledge)• Verbal analogies (oral language verbal

reasoning)• Passage comprehension (reading

comprehension)

Student PerformanceStudent 1

Fall 2009 45 34 49 10 37 20Spring2010 53 41 44 15 41 19Fall 2010 Spring 2011

Student 2Fall 2009 52 33 42 11 36 20Spring2010 54 35 48 10 48 20Fall 2010 59 36 47 9 46 18Spring 2011 61 35 46 14 52 19

Student 3Fall 2009 34 34 40 10 30 16Spring2010 43 37 46 10 36 16Fall 2010 20 38 45 9 38 20Spring 2011 47 36 43 11 38 21

Student 4Fall 2009 35 28 10 3 20 10Spring2010 37 28 19 4 31 11Fall 2010 42 30 9 6 34 13Spring 2011 46 34 16 8 31 16

Student 5Fall 2009 41 32 33 8 28 15Spring2010 44 30 36 8 38 18Fall 2010 28 32 36 9 33 19Spring 2011 43 36 35 10 45 12

Classroom Performance Over Time

Fall 2nd Grade

Spring 2nd

Grade

Fall 3rd Grade

Spring 3rd

Grade

Fall 4th Grade

Spring 4th Grade

Fall 5th Grade

Spring 5th Grade

440

450

460

470

480

490

500

510

Sample

National Norms

Engl

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ompr

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Deve

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Train the Trainers Model• Year 1

– Fall assessment by TWIN-CS staff– Onsite staff training for administration– Collaborative Spring assessments with

TWIN-CS staff and school personnel• Year 2

– Continued assessment of 1st grade students

– Initial assessment of K students

Formative Approaches• Formative Assessments

– Regularly administered– Targeted to explicit skills/aptitudes– Designed to inform instruction– “Real-time” assessments

Curriculum Based Measurement

• Periodic assessments (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) administered by teachers designed to monitor literacy development– Kindergarten indicators = letter

naming, letter sounds, word reading, pseudoword reading, word reading in context

– Developmental; moving to read alouds and comprehension assessments as children age

Curriculum Based MeasurementSample Graph

Instructional Outcomes of CBM• Affect grouping configurations• Increase instructional time• Change a teaching technique or way of

presenting the material• Change a grouping arrangement (for

example, individual instruction instead of small-group instruction).

• Post-change assess weekly scores on the graph to determine effectiveness.

Set it up• Go to easycbm.com• Set up a username• Receive a password• Review process for a given grade

level (reading and math)

TWIN-CS Assessment and Evaluation Model: Case study model

School

September/October

School Year (October – April) May/June

SummativeLanguage and Reading

Regular CBM Monitoring at School LevelEarly literacy skills = letter names, letter

sounds, word recognition

Summative Language and Reading