Biliteracy Development and Instructional Plan

Bilteracy Development:         

This course has been an interesting opportunity to analyze Jorge’s biliteracy development.  While I have worked with Jorge all year, this assignment has a valuable exercise in focusing my attention on one student’s development in each of the language domains.  I support students in multiple classrooms and although I see Jorge each day, my observations are not the complete picture of his biliteracy development that his classroom teacher can construct.  Jorge’s situation this year is greatly affected by the fact that he is enrolled in a classroom that has English as the language of instruction. That being said, here are my observations on Jorge’s biliteracy development.

Jorge’s oral language was more developed and had a larger vocabulary when using Spanish than English.  As a sequential bilingual student, Jorge frequently code-switches and examples of transfer between the two languages can be seen.  This is common among sequential bilingual students (Karen Beeman).  When speaking in Spanish, the primary example of code-switching for Jorge was with numbers.  Since he is in an English-medium classroom, this may be due to the fact that he is learning and practicing the names of numbers and counting in English each day in class.  We are constantly emphasizing numbers, quantities, and one-to-one correspondence in multiple activities throughout any given class period.  Using the WIDA K-12 CAN DO Descriptors, Jorge’s Spanish oral language development appears to be between a level 3 and 4, depending on the task.  When comparing my same observations to the WIDA PreK-K grade level cluster CANDO Descriptors, his Spanish oral language development is much more solidly a level 4.  Us

Jorge’s English oral language development was at a significantly lower level.  Referencing the PreK-K CAN Dos, Jorge displayed skills of answering yes/no questions while struggling with asking one to two word questions placing him between a level 1 and 2.  Code-switching was much more prevalent in his English oral language and he sometimes would not return to English after switching into Spanish for a word or phrase that was not yet in his English vocabulary.  Jorge’s more developed Spanish oral language is reflective of his sequential learning of Spanish first in the home and then English exposure at school.  Jorge’s BICS or social vocabulary and language in English was generally much more developed than his CALP or academic language.

Assessing Jorge’s writing was unique from many other classmates in this course in that, as a student in four-year-old kindergarten, he is very much in the precommunicative stage of writing development in both Spanish and English.  His more highly developed Spanish oral language seemed to affect his writing.  I was very surprised to note his much quicker and stronger frustration with “writing” in English than in Spanish.  Even though his writing was a linear collection of letter-like shapes and forms with little resemblance to the Roman alphabet, he became discouraged and stopped writing in English much sooner than in Spanish.  In my opinion, this could be a reflection of the frustration he feels in class when he is unable to express fully express himself when speaking in English.

I primarily focused on Jorge’s awareness of Concepts About Print when observing his reading and did not notice much difference in these skills between the two languages.  We read in Kathy Escamilla’s article that there are many overlaps when observing Concepts About Print in Spanish and English, which was displayed by Jorge’s similar awareness of CAP in both languages.  However, as was evident when observing his oral language development, he code-switched occasionally into English when telling stories in Spanish that he had mainly heard in English and thus had acquired the vocabulary in English and did not have an equivalent in Spanish. 

In both his oral language and reading I saw evidence that much of the new and more academic vocabulary Jorge has been exposed to possibly for the first time this year at school has been in English.  As a result, Jorge uses these words in English, even when speaking in Spanish and even though his oral language development is clearly much stronger in Spanish.  My theory is that hearing academic vocabulary primarily in English is creating gaps of this same vocabulary in Spanish.  This being said, as I mentioned earlier, Jorge’s language skills for BICS was much stronger than his CALP in English.  In the article we read, Achieving Literacy Success with English Language Learners, the strong effect of oral language proficiency improving positively influencing and growing reading and writing proficiency seems to be evident in both Jorge’s reading and writing.  Jorge’s quicker frustration when writing in English than in Spanish and his reading/retelling reflecting his oral language vocabulary and development both strongly support his claim.

Instructional Plan:

Although my responsibilities with Jorge are in his four-year-old kindergarten class (and I only support students in 4K), I am creating his instructional plan as though he were about to begin kindergarten next year in a DLI classroom.  This instructional plan could be seen as a set of guidelines or recommendations for his teacher next year.  I believe Jorge will be positively affected by having a group of classmates more evenly split between native Spanish speakers and native English speakers.  Currently, Jorge is the only Spanish speaking student in the class and there are often times when he cannot fully express himself in English to his peers.  Additionally, I think it will be a valuable affirmation for him to hear Spanish be valued more and used as the primary language of instruction, which will be the case for 90% of his school day next year.  His exposure to English this year coupled with his primary language of Spanish may allow him to be a valuable semi-bilingual student to his peers and a real asset to the class.  This confidence boost could prove influential in positively affecting his attitude towards school and learning.

As Jorge is further developing his reading and writing next year and moving beyond the pre-literacy and precommunicative stages, respectively, I believe El Dictado can serve as useful exercise for Jorge in highlighting the relationship between the sounds of oral language and the spelling and structure of written words.  El Dictado’s metacognitive nature could be helpful in aiding Jorge’s understanding and awareness of the phonetic and phonological differences between the two languages and situations that might precipitate challenges in either language for him.

Both Tara Fortune’s article entitled Immersion teaching Strategies Observation Checklist and Joanna Click’s Learning Centers:Meaningful Contexts for Language Use in the Primary Immersion Classroom provide great suggestions for best practices in immersion classrooms.  Jorge is a social student who I believe will benefit from cooperative and small group inclusive activities, both in terms of his confidence and his biliteracy.  I particularly recommend Click’s center suggestions focusing on published work, listening, writing and role-playing.  Peer readings of each other’s writings in the published work center could effectively stimulate his interest in writing in both languages and add purpose.  Jorge became frustrated (especially in English) at his lack of skills as we wrote together a few weeks ago.  I think Jorge will feel encouraged when he sees his stage of development in writing is on par with his classmates and that his stronger language skills in Spanish are an asset (and less so that his challenges with English are a deficit).  Additionally, the cooperative nature of these activities will provide situations for Jorge to have meaningful conversations with peers in Spanish that not only further develop his social language, but also allow for additional and authentic practice with academic vocabulary in context.  The learning centers would also be beneficial during the 10% of his instructional day that will be delivered in English. 

Tara Fortune includes a very comprehensive and useful list of immersion classroom suggestions in her checklist.  Among these great practices are two that I believe will especially strongly benefit Jorge: meaningful thematic units and song and rhymes that reinforce content.  Thematic units create multiple opportunities to genuinely apply a set of skills to real life situations.  Units and lessons organized around a theme can work very naturally together with learning centers.  It is important that themes be chosen with a deliberate cultural purpose and/or content material in mind.  Centers can allow for students to access a set of skills associated within a theme from a variety of learning styles and multiple intelligences.  Tangential to this is the impact of songs and rhymes to reinforce content for Jorge.  These have been a powerful tool this year in 4K for Jorge to recall information in both Spanish and English (i.e. counting backwards, sounds of the Spanish vowels, etc.) and I strongly encourage this to be a part of his instructional plan as he begins kindergarten this fall.  A great resource for this is The Bilingual Book of Rhymes, Songs, Stories, and Fingerplays by Pam Schiller.  Every rhyme, song, story, etc has the English version parallel to the Spanish version.  This collection is so useful because the versions in each language are not mere translations, but also still carry a rhyme or rhythm or repeating chorus to along for them to be equally “catchy” and effective in either language.  A variety of academic skills and standards, from all contents and subjects, can be nicely supported through this book.  Judy Ballweg of MMSD also has a great collection of literacy and math supports that can easily be adapted for centers and independent student use to also reinforce targeted skills.

Jorge spent his first school year as the only Spanish speaking student in an English-medium classroom.  I am convinced that Jorge is a sequential bilingual learner.  This was supported in my observations of his oral language, writing, and reading during the past several weeks.  This being said, the level to which Jorge will apply his exposure to English from this year in 4K to his primary Spanish instruction this fall in kindergarten is unknown.  Will he code-switch frequently in Spanish or will this continue to only primarily affect his English?  Will it be a smooth transition for him to switch to Spanish as the primary language of instruction?

In this instructional plan for the start of kindergarten, I do strongly believe his biliteracy skills will improve dramatically from intensive targeted instruction in both Spanish and English and having peer language models for both languages in his class.  I suspect that his semantic and syntactical understanding of both languages will increase as Jorge becomes more familiar and confident with his vocabulary in each language.  I encourage Jorge’s kindergarten teacher to reference the WIDA rubrics, particularly the PreK-K grade level cluster, to help formulate expectations of Jorge through the CAN DO Descriptors.  Furthermore, these rubrics provide a useful method for documenting Jorge’s progress in each of the language domains. I am excited for the instructional style and opportunities in both Spanish and English that await Jorge in a DLI classroom this fall.