Blog | Teaching For Biliteracy

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It’s like a secret handshake... a secret code. Bilingual teachers, and teachers who have worked with English language learners know it. In fact, our students know it too! We are able to read messages that might appear as gibberish to our monolingual counterparts. This was made clear to me when my 5 year old daughter, a dual language learner, sent this message to her monolingual grandma: "I lab may famali ivin Yesica tu but Tessa is crezi" Grandma responded similarly Read More...

07 Apr

Your language is you, it’s your culture.

By Deirdre Garcia

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I am not sure one can fully recognize the depth of culture that is transmitted through language until one raises a child in another, especially when it is the second language. I was very concerned about doing it right-that is, raising my child in a monolingual Spanish environment, but quickly realized what a challenge that was going to be for me. I had never considered that perhaps I was a different person, encumbered with my second language Read More...

01 Apr

Literacy Processing and Language Development

By Emily Zoeller

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Coach’s Corner

Lately I have been thinking about how principles of literacy processing and language development apply to the reader who is learning to read in a language she is also developing. Let me introduce a student Valeria. Valeria has the brightest smile of any child at our school. Valeria is a student at a two-way dual language immersion school with a 90:10 model. She received initial literacy instruction in Spanish, which happens to be her more “dominant” language. Now in Read More...

26 Mar

Parenting a Bilingual Child-D Garcia

By Deirdre Garcia

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Bilingual Parenting

In 2010, I was pregnant with my son and right around March, we were back and forth about what his name would be. I wrestled with needing a name that people here in the United States could say with confidence ( a name unlike my own), yet one that captured who my child was to become. My husband felt strongly that our child honor his brother Darío, who my husband adored through a difficult childhood, and continues to look to. While they Read More...

18 Mar

Un buen comienzo con las experiencias concretas: parte 3

By Susan Pryor

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Beginning with Biliteracy: A Kindergarten Story

Una experiencia concreta se puede realizar de muchas maneras para iniciar una unidad bilingüe. Es muy común en los salones monolingües usar una excursión al final de una unidad como una celebración o refuerzo de lo que han aprendido los estudiantes. A diferencia del contexto monolingüe, en los contextos multilingües una excursión sirve como la experiencia concreta que introduce conceptos académicos. Yo tengo la buena fortuna de trabajar en un contexto donde nos animan a llevar a los estudiantes en Read More...

04 Mar

Putting the “Literacy” in Biliteracy

By Emily Zoeller

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Coach’s Corner

What is reading? Today I asked this question to students in the cafeteria and here is what they said: “Leer es ver las letras” (Margot, first grade) “I look at the picture, say the words, turn the page, look at the picture, say the words, turn the page” (Ayla, first grade) “To read is to go like this: ssss---ooo----llll” (Celia, kindergarten) “Leemos para subir el nivel para leer libros con chapters.” (Betsy, third grade) “When you read you try your best. You do it to Read More...

25 Feb

Un buen comienzo con las experiencias concretas: parte 2

By Susan Pryor

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Beginning with Biliteracy: A Kindergarten Story

En la primera parte de este blog, describí el uso de las experiencias compartidas para iniciar una unidad de lectoescritura bilingüe. En este blog, continuaremos el tema de cómo iniciar las unidades bilingües con las experiencias concretas enfocándonos en el uso de los cuentos. Exploraremos la dramatización de los cuentos como una estrategia para asegurar un contexto comprensible para las lecciones subsiguientes que son basadas en tales cuentos. Los cuentos son un recurso poderoso para alcanzar las metas integradas que son Read More...

18 Feb

Un buen comienzo con las experiencias concretas: parte 1

By Susan Pryor

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Beginning with Biliteracy: A Kindergarten Story

La enseñanza en un aula bilingüe o en un programa dual se realiza de una manera óptima cuando empezamos con experiencias concretas que desarrollan la oralidad y el conocimiento previo de todos los estudiantes. En un contexto monolingüe, es muy común dejar la excursión u otra actividad concreta para el final de una unidad y usarla como una celebración o refuerzo de lo que los estudiantes han aprendido. Pero en un contexto bilingüe o multilingüe, las actividades concretas sirven Read More...

08 Jan

Getting Off to a Great Start… Beginning the Conversation about Bilingualism with Our Youngest Students

By Susan Pryor

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Beginning with Biliteracy: A Kindergarten Story

I begin the conversation about bilingualism with my students before the first day of school arrives. I meet most (if not all) of them when they come for a classroom visit about one week before school starts. During this visit, students become familiar with the classroom and choose/label their cubby. I explain that in this classroom I will speak a lot of Spanish and a little bit of English. This reflects the one-teacher, 80/20 program model I work in, Read More...

18 Nov

The Long Way Home…to Teaching for Biliteracy

By Susan Pryor

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Beginning with Biliteracy: A Kindergarten Story

Wisdom emerges as a result of reflection, imitation, and experience. [1] As I immerse myself in my fifth year as a teacher of emerging bilinguals in a dual language kindergarten, I recognize the various cycles of reflection, imitation, and experience that have led me to teaching for biliteracy. Imitation is the essence of becoming a good teacher...we read about educational theory in school, but we become good teachers by noticing what other teachers do, trying it out, and making Read More...