BUFs, or Biliteracy Unit Frameworks, provide the flexible unit framework for teaching for biliteracy.

The template below:

• briefly explains each element of the BUF
• refers to the chapter in Teaching for Biliteracy:  Strengthening Bridges between Languages where you can find more information

In addition, we have included a BLANK template for writing your own BUF.

Blank BUF Template (Spanish to English) ENG 2013

BUF Template Spanish (este documento contiene todos los elementos del BUF en español para escribir una unidad que se enseña en español con puente hacia el inglés)

BUF Template in English  (to use with BUFs taught in English with a Bridge to Spanish)

Updated BUF template 2018 – Spanish to English

Updated BUF template 2018 – English to Spanish

 

A BUF is only one element in developing biliteracy curriculum.  To maximize the effectiveness of your biliteracy units, follow the 10 steps below:

Biliteracy Curriculum Development in 10 Steps

 LANGUAGE AND CONTENT ALLOCATION PLAN: DETERMINING MINUTES FOR LITERACY AND CONTENT

I.  Review your program’s content allocation guide to determine the following:

• The amount of minutes of literacy that will be done in each language daily.   This is important because the language that does not teach math will have more time dedicated to literacy, and thus will address more standards, will include more literacy routines such as guided reading, writing, etc. than the language that does teach math.
• Add the minutes for math, and social studies and science (if they are not part of an integrated literacy-content block)

• Develop biliteracy schedules that reflect these minutes and include the literacy routines to both Spanish and English literacy time that match your district’s literacy program.

GRADE LEVEL BILITERACY MAPPING: USING STANDARDS

 

2. Beginning with the science and social studies content standards, place the standards throughout the year by grouping them together to form units that have a theme. *

NGSS and C3 Framework Bundling Rubrics:  NGSS and C 3 Standards Map Rubric

3. Add the literacy standards to the unit plan by identifying what literacy standards make sense to teach with each of the content areas. As you do this, ensure the following:

• A balance in focus: 50% of literary texts and 50% informative texts

• That each of the three writing ‘buckets’ (narrative, opinion, informative) has been allocated to each language, and that each bucket represents 1/3 of the writing focus for the year.

• When mapping these standards, it is important to consider the connection between reading and writing and think of the reading standards as ‘practice’ for writing. In other words, consider what reading standards could be focused on in order to help students be better writers. For example:

• If I want my students to write a narrative from the perspective or Point of View of a specific character, it would be ideal if students experienced this perspective/Point of View as a reader. Therefore, during the reading time, it would be good for students to learn how to identify a character’s motivations, his/her timeline, and how that differs for the other characters in the book.   This would prepare them for the writing focus.

 

4. Once the standards have been mapped, double check this sketch and finalize the grade level biliteracy mapping plans by following these steps:

• Name the units by theme. This should include the content area and literacy focus. For example, a unit can be named: Immigrants past and present/Character’s perspective, narrative.

• Sequence the units and make sure the order of the units is appropriate and that the placement of each unit has been carefully decided.
• Use tally marks for each of the writing buckets and reading standards (you want to make sure these occur in both languages, even if it is only through the extension) and check off all of the content area standards.
• Review to make sure the standards are vertically aligned to ensure there is an increase in rigor through the years so that the unit that is taught in one grade is not repeated in another grade. A resource to help ensure rigor is: http://achievethecore.org/ This resource has links to student samples that meet the writing standards for each grade level for each kind of writing. Many of the student samples are annotated, helping the reader identify what the expectation of the standard is and how it is exhibited in student work.

Biliteracy Mapping Tally and Audit Sheets:

Grade Level Literacy Tally Sheet CCSS

K-5 or Cross grade level literacy tally sheet CCSS

WRITING BIG IDEAS FOR EACH UNIT:

5. Using the mapped out content area standards, write the content big idea for each unit. Use the sentence starter: I want my students to understand that…

A good resource is – “How to Write Big Ideas”, article written by Cheryl Urow on the T4B website. http://www.teachingforbiliteracy.com/big-ideas/

Analyze the content big ideas across all grade levels (vertical alignment) to ensure there is an increase in rigor through the grades.

6. Using the mapped out reading and writing standards, write the literacy big idea for each unit. Use the frame:

• I want my students to understand that when reading (select either informational or literary texts) it is important to (identifies skills in reading standards 2-9) in order to write (identifies writing standard 1, 2, or 3) about ____.   For example:

• I want my students to understand that when reading literary texts, it is important to describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges in order to write a narrative text.
• I want my students to understand that when reading informational texts, it is important to know and use text features to locate key facts or information, and these features should be included when writing informational texts.

Analyze the literacy big ideas across all grade levels to ensure there is an increase in rigor through the grades.

BILITERACY UNIT FRAMEWORK (BUF) – UNIT WRITING

Using the content allocation plan to map out standards, check for alignment to ensure the BUF writing process will be an effective one.  Steps 1-10 are important before continuing, and doing them thoroughly will allow unit writing to flow smoothly and efficiently.

Writing a biliteracy unit (BUF) is a recursive process. This means that each BUF section will require revision as another BUF section is written. However, is important is to ensure that every section written aligns with the established big ideas that were previously written. Some units or lessons that have been taught in the past may need to be included in a new BUF or discarded if they do not align with the standards and big ideas.

Steps to writing biliteracy units (BUFs)

7. The BUF Triangle: the standards, the big ideas, and the summative assessment form the triangular foundation of the unit. Without these firmly articulated, the unit will not be successful or sustainable and so we start with this foundational piece.

Select a unit from the ‘Grade Level Biliteracy Mapping Plan’ to begin to develop. Re-read the identified standards and big ideas for the unit. Looking at these, develop the content and language learning targets.  These targets are directly related to the standards and explain what students will be able to do.  The summative assessment will be directly linked to these learning targets.   Some examples of learning targets are:

Speaking & Listening – Students will be able to:

• Engage in conversations about grade-appropriate topics and texts.
• Take part in structured conversations with other students, as part of a whole class, in small groups, and with a partner

Reading – Students will be able to:

• Recall evidence from text to demonstrate understanding and to answer directly stated questions.
• Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant details and examples.

Writing – Students will be able to:

• Explain the problem.
• Organize a plausible sequence of events.
• Draft an introduction that establishes the narrator and/or the characters and orients the reader to the situation or problem.

Language – Students will be able to:

• Differentiate between past, present, and future tenses.
• Identify helping/auxiliary verbs as part of verb phrases.
• Identify progressive verb tenses in text presented in a variety of formats.
• Identify/demonstrate the appropriate use of verb tenses.
• Identify/demonstrate correct placement of adjectives in sentences.

Social Studies – Students will be able to:

• Explain how communities honor past contributions of people and commemorate significant historical events
• Explain how existing groups of people experience change when new groups move into an area.

8. Develop the summative assessment.  Ensure that the summative assessment meets the grade level expectations for both the content area and literacy.  A 4^th grade example of a summative assessment that is aligned to the grade level standards and the learning targets could be:

• From the perspective of a character from one of the immigrant groups studied, write a first person narrative that establishes a situation that could have happened to the character during the specific time period.
• To be complete, this summative assessment would need a rubric that clearly identifies and explains the criteria by which the narrative will be judged. These criteria can be found in the learning targets for the unit.

In vertical teams, and with key stakeholders such as principals, directors, and coaches, it is important to assess the rigor of the units thus far. The foundational triangle (standards, big ideas and summative assessment) should be checked for each unit and for each grade level before proceeding. This will ensure that the units meet all the standards, are rigorous, are aligned, and are sustainable.

For a list of strategies for each element of the BUF, consult the Instructional Strategies Glossary on the Teaching for Biliteracy Website: http://teachingforbiliteracy.com/resources/

9. Develop each element of the Bilteracy unit (BUF):

• Building Oracy and Background Knowledge:
  • Identify strategies that build academic language and the background knowledge required to learn the big ideas of the unit.

• Writing: Identify the teaching points, strategies, activities and resources necessary for students to arrive at the desired summative assessment.
  • Use district resources such as the Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing to select possible teaching points. Make sure that the teaching points listed clearly align with the standards.
  • Identify possible formative assessments to ensure students are on the right track for writing.

• Reading: Identify the teaching points, strategies, activities and resources necessary for students to have experience with in order to make them successful writers.
  • Use district resources to help identify the teaching points, but ensure that the teaching points align to the standards.
  • Identify possible formative assessments to ensure students are on the right track for reading.

• Word Study and Fluency: Identify the focus for word study and fluency at the unit level. Refer to the Foundational Skills Standards. This area of focus will be developed more fully when lesson plans are written.
• Content Area Instruction: Identify the teaching points, inquiry, and experiences children will need in order to experience the content area.
  1. These experiences, paired with what they will learn in reading may be paired with the writing component. Therefore, it is essential that this area be as strong as the literacy area.
  2. Identify formative assessments to ensure students are on the right track for the content area.

• The Bridge: Plan for two areas:
  • A. How students will actively engage in creating the first part of the Bridge (a representation of their learning) in the language learned, and then the oracy needed in the other language to then add the equivalent of the other language to their Bridge.
  • Metalinguistic Focus: What linguistic and/or cultural patterns will be developed into metalinguistic charts (phonology, morphology, syntaxis and grammar and pragmatics).

• Extension: Identify how the literacy big idea will be extended in the other language. Use the content allocation plan and the ‘Grade Level Biliteracy Mapping Plan’ that was already constructed to do this. Remember, since a student is always experiencing two units consecutively being taught between the two languages at one time, it is important to look at the content of the subsequent unit in the other language in the Grade Level Biliteracy Mapping Plan. Opportunities for speaking, listening, reading, and writing should be provided to students, giving them the opportunity to practice the skills inherent in the literacy big idea in the other language.
  • For example, if the big idea states: I want my students to understand that when reading literary texts, it is important to describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges in order to write a narrative text. Then, in the other language, students need opportunities to practice reading and talking about how characters in a literary text respond to major events and challenges in the other language. In addition, these students need an opportunity to practice writing a narrative in the other language with content they are already familiar with in that language. Therefore, students first need to Bridge and extend the content into the new language, and then they should have opportunities to practice the literacy big idea. If this is a 50/50 program, then students can borrow the content of the other language and practice using the literacy focus with that content.

10.  Develop a lesson plan that details how this unit will unfold in the classroom.

For a downloadable version of the above information, download the document below:

Biliteracy Curriculum Development