Bringing Bridging to Life

Bringing Bridging to Life
MABE Conference
March 19, 2016
Jill Davan, Margaret Fawley, Susan Rosser, Elissa Washburn
Agenda
1. Overview
2. Biliteracy unit structure
3. Building Oracy: Grade 3 Language Experience Approach for Writing
4. Building Oracy for reading comprehension: Grade 2
5. Grade 5 Math Units to Foster Biliteracy
Our Students
~700 students
93% in dual-language program
7% in special education .4
Ethnic make-up
65.7% Hispanic
27.5% White
3.5% African American
Needs
33.7% ELL
59.7% low income
69.3% high needs
How did we get here?
• 
School Improvement Goal
• 
Academic Conversations (2011, Jeff Zwiers & Marie Crawford)
• 
Bringing Words to Life book study SY’14-’15
• 
Teaching for Biliteracy workshops with Cheryl Urow in summers ‘14 and ‘15
• 
Concerns: lack of metalinguistic awareness and difficulty in making connections across
languages within subject areas
Book Study Overview
Date
Chapters
Facilitator/Co-facilitator(s)
10/27/2015
Chapter 1: “Foundations in Teaching Biliteracy”
Margaret Fawley & Sara Hamerla (ELL coach)
11/17/2015
Chapter 2: “Students: A Multilingual Perspective &
Chapter 3: “Teachers: Capitalizing on Life Experiences”
Margaret Fawley & Sara Hamerla
12/15/2015
Chapter 4: “Planning the Strategic Use of Two Languages”
Margaret Fawley + two gr. 5 teachers
1/19/2015
Chapter 5: “Language Resources, Linguistic Creativity, and Cultural
Funds of Knowledge”
Sara Hamerla + SAGE teacher
Chapter 6: “Building Background Knowledge”
Margaret Fawley + gr. 1 teacher & K-1 Lit.
Coach/ELD teacher
Chapter 7: “Reading Comprehension”
Sara Hamerla + gr. 2 classroom and ELD
teachers
Chapters 8, “Writing: A Multilingual Perspective & 9, “Word Study and
Fluency: The Dictado and Other Authentic Strategies”
Margaret Fawley + gr. 4 teacher
5/31/2015
Chapter 10: “The Bridge: Strengthening Connections between
Languages”
Sara Hamerla + gr. 3 teacher & gr. K & 3 ELD
teacher
6/14/2015
Chapter 10: “The Bridge: Strengthening Connections between
Languages”
Margaret Fawley + gr. 1 classroom teacher
2/23/2015
3/22/2015
4/26/2015
Biliteracy Unit Framework
(Beeman & Urow, 2013, Ch. 4)
1.  Content Instruction in language of “heavy lifting”
2.  Pre-Bridge, the unit includes, to varying degrees, the following elements:
a. 
development of oracy and background knowledge
b. 
reading comprehension
c. 
writing
d. 
word study
e. 
summative assessment
3.  Bridge
Grade 3 ELD
Building Oracy for Writing Language Experience Approach (LEA)
STEP #1: A Shared Experience
The LEA process begins with something the class does together, such as a field trip, an experiment, or some other hands-on activity. If
this is not possible, a sequence of pictures (that tell a story) can be used, as can a student describing a sequence of events from real
life.
STEP #2: Creating the Text
Next, the teacher and students, as a group, verbally recreate the shared experience. Students take turns volunteering information, as in
a large-group discussion. The teacher transcribes the student’s words on the board in an organized way to create the text.
STEP #3: Read & Revise
The class reads the story aloud and discusses it. The teacher asks if the students want to make any corrections or additions to the
story. Then she marks the changes they suggest and makes further suggestions, if needed.
STEP #4: Read and Reread
The final story can be read in a choral or echo style, or both. Students can also read in small groups or pairs, and then individually.
STEP #5: Extension
This text can be used for a variety of literacy activities like illustrations or creating comprehension questions.
Building Oracy for Writing Language Experience Approach (LEA)
•  Launching and Personal Narrative Unit from Lucy Calkin’s Writer’s
Workshop, Grade 3
•  Launching: Walking trip around school - no previewing of vocabulary
•  Personal Narrative: Pre-taught playground vocabulary, walking field trip to
special playground
•  Created a powerpoint of experience with labeled pictures
•  Classroom teacher used her own story of experience as the class’s
mentor text
We left from the lobby.
warm, sunny day
clear blue sky
Grade 2 ELD
Building Oracy for Reading Comprehension:
Active reading strategies
•  Extra ELD support for small newcomer group
•  Actively involve students to take meaning from a text
•  Emphasis on comprehension as integral part of the reading process
•  Make explicit the active interaction between text, reader, and context
•  Formative assessment
Building Oracy for Reading Comprehension:
Active Reading Strategies
• 
Picture Walks
• 
Talk to Your Partner
• 
Read Alouds (Teachers model thinking or
asks them to share their thoughts with a
partner.)
• 
Sentence Prompts: I see…, I observe…,
We have _____ in common., We are
different because ________.
• 
Partner reading.
By using these strategies, teachers can:
●  assess vocabulary and background
knowledge
● 
determine vocabulary to be taught
● 
assess how frequently students are using
the prompts and vocabulary
Newcomer Group
●  Culturally-relevant picture book
●  Springboard for reading, academic
conversation, vocabulary development,
grammar work, and writing.
Picture Walk-Newcomer Group
Sentence stem: I see...
Picture Walk-Content Area
Sentence stem: I can learn about...
Summarize strategy-Newcomer group
Sentence stem: This page is about...
Written
response
Target
vocabulary:
●  judge
●  baker
●  coin
●  money
●  sound
●  smell
Grade 5 Math Instruction
Biliteracy Unit Framework
1. Unit Overview
2. Building Oracy and Background Knowledge
3. The Bridge
4. Extension
The Bridge
!  “time when students are taught to examine similarities and differences
between English and Spanish using contrastive analysis”
!  “opportunity for students to summarize their understanding of newly
learned content and to learn how to express this new understanding in the
other language”
!  “a strategy in a biliteracy unit for connecting content learned in one
language to the other language”
(Urow, 2013, pp. 50-51)
Application: Gr. 5 math, Unit Overview
Content area:
Theme/Big
idea
Standards:
Math, Place Value & Decimals Unit
● 
● 
The value of each place value location is a multiple of ten.
Each place value increases by ten times as much as you move to the left on the place value chart, thus each
place value decreases by one tenth as much as you move to the right on the place value chart.
5.NBT.3 - Read, write, and compare decimals to thousandths.
a. Read and write decimals to thousandths using base-ten numerals, number names, and expanded
form, e.g., 347.392 = 3 × 100 + 4 × 10 + 7 × 1 + 3 × (1/10) + 9 × (1/100) + 2 × (1/1000).
b. Compare two decimals to thousandths based on meanings of the digits in each place, using >, =, and <
symbols to record the results of comparisons.
5.NBT.4 - Use place value understanding to round decimals to any place.
5.NBT.7 - Add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals to hundredths, using concrete models or drawings and
strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition
and subtraction; relate the strategy to a written method and explain the reasoning used.
Application: Gr. 5 math, unit overview
Content targets:
Students will be able to…
●  Identify the names and values of each place value on the place value chart.
●  Name decimal fraction numbers in expanded, unit, and word forms.
Language
targets:
Spanish: Students will read and identify decimal numbers
English: Students will read and identify decimal numbers. Students will practice
pronouncing and spelling the decimal numbers.
Cross-linguistic: Spanish ending --esimas is equivalent to English ending --nths
Application: pre-Bridge Instruction
Language of instruction
Spanish
Building Background
Knowledge
Use of place value chart from concrete to pictorial to
abstract (chips, dots, numbers)
Literacy Development:
Application problems in each lesson were previewed with
attention to vocabulary
Answer word problems in complete sentences by
identifying the unit and using a sentence frame.
Summative Assessment
mid-module assessment, end-of-module assessment
Work from concrete to pictorial to abstract for decimal place value and computation
Application: The Bridge
Language of instruction
Metalinguistic Focus
English
●  decimal numbers
●  ending patterns in Spanish vs. English (e.g. --esimas vs. -nths)
Extension Activity(ies)
Oral practice with partner using Google slides
Worksheets for practice reading and writing decimals
Video Clip: Grade 5 Math Bridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFRcnxNBAp8
Video Clip of the Bridge?
The Bridge
Students practiced
reading decimal
numbers in the target
language.
Powerpoint to Practice Saying Terminology
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/
1hukxH131OXeAlMOcWFTV76UREtrhwkd7Hs9uNIHI7Hc/edit#slide=id.p
Reflection
How could you use the Biliteracy Unit Framework and Bridge in your classroom
setting?
Thank you!
Jill Davan, grade 2 ELD teacher, [email protected]
Margaret Fawley, literacy coach K-5, [email protected]
Susan Rosser, grade 5 classroom teacher, [email protected]
Elissa Washburn, grade 3 ELD teacher, [email protected]