Building Bridges for Emergent Bilinguals, Part V: Writing Across the Content Areas

1. Building Bridges for Emergent Bilinguals, Part V: Writing Across the Content Areas Rebecca Curinga, PD Coordinator Ingrid Heidrick, PD Facilitator PD Session #5 April 4, 2014 The CUNY Graduate Center, Room C201

2. Agenda 8:45Review of concept maps and vocabulary 9:15Becoming a writer and a framework for writing using bilingual approaches 10:30 Break 10:45How the 7-week BridgesCurriculum cycle supports writing 12:00 Lunch 1:00Practicing writing activities across content areas using the Bridges Curriculum 2:30Wrap-Up, homework and evaluation

3. Activity 1: Review from last session

4. HW Assignment Review Create a Concept Map for a Tier 2 or Tier 3 word. Develop at least two word play activities for related Tier 1 and Tier 2 vocabulary. You have 5 minutes todiscuss and present.

6. What does it mean to know a word? • We know approximately 20, 000 word families. • We use about 10% of our vocabulary very frequently, but the majority of words we know are low-frequency and comprise a wide range of topics. • Our knowledge of all words is not the same: Knowledge of a word is incremental!

7. What does a monolingual’s vocabulary look like? collocations/ idioms: bear fruit, forbidden fruit, fruits of one’s labor frequency: 43 times per million words; easily accessible phonological: [fru:t], [fru:ts], [fru:te] rhymes with suit; sounds like fresh, friend, front fruit morphological: fruit-s, fruit-y semantic: an edible part of a plant, usually fleshy and containing seeds; banana, apple, orange; vegetables, dairy, meat pragmatic: general term; no specific context syntactic: (noun) a, the fruit; fruit

8. What does a bilingual’s vocabulary look like? collocations/idioms: bear fruit – darfruto forbidden fruit – frutaprohibida fruits of one’s labor – frutos de sutrabajo frequency: fruit: 43x pmw fruto: 18x pmw fruta: 24x pmw fruit, fruto/fruta morphological: fruit-s, fruit-y fruto-s, fruta-s semantic: an edible part of a plant, usually fleshy and containing seeds banana, apple, orange; vegetables, dairy, meat pragmatic: general term; no specific context syntactic: el fruto; la fruta phonological: [fru:t], [‘fru:to] [‘fru:ta] rhymes with suit;bruta; sounds like fruto/a, frente, frío, fresh, friend, front

9. How does this translate into what we read? (Nation, 1993)

10. Summary of vocabulary knowledge • Complex network of interrelated knowledge • Continues to change and grow throughout the lifespan • Takes years of wide-spread exposure to a language to acquire a “native-like” lexicon A bilingual is not the sum of two monolinguals! (Grosjean, 1989)

11. Today’s Goals To be able to: Learn the process of becoming a writer and understand a framework for writing development with a bilingual approach. Recognize how the 7-week cycle of the Bridges Curriculum supports writing. Practice developing writing activities across the content areas using the Bridges Curriculum.

12. Goal 1: What is the process of becoming a writer? How can we teach writing using a bilingual approach?

13. Four Language Abilities ORAL RECEPTIVE PRODUCTIVE LITERACY

14. Connecting Reading to Writing • Build on oral language • Expand students’ language abilities • Connect to the curriculum • Model using published books • Highlight text structures and vocabulary in class readings as examples for writing

15. Process of Becoming a Writer Approximately TWO DECADES of schooling to develop writing skills! Writing develops higher order thinking skills necessary to succeed academically. Writing requires a substantial amount of executive functioning. Academic writing requires the student to use his/her own ‘voice’ to distinguish his/her own thoughts and arguments from others. (Kellogg, 2006)

16. Stages of cognitive development in writing skills – monolinguals (Adapted from Kellogg, 2006)

17. Stages of cognitive development in writing skills – Bridges students

18. How do Bridges Students Become Writers? Need to see themselves as Authors not just people who know how to write Drawing as early writing Personal stories based on life experiences No one is a “native speaker of writing” (Cloud, Genesee & Hamayan, 2009)

19. What steps do you take in your writing process? Writing Cycle 6 + 1 Traits

20. Excerpts of writing from Bridges students • In groups, compare three writing samples according to the 6+1 traits • Group 1: Ideas / Content and Voice • Group 2: Organization • Group 3: Sentence Fluency and Word Choice • Group 4: Conventions and Presentation • Look for HL patterns • Look for areas of potential growth

21. Writing Sample 1 Writing Sample 2

22. Writing Sample 3

23. Bridges Pre/Post English Writing Level Results (2012-13) (n=33)

24. Post-Writing Sample 1

25. A bilingual approach to writing

26. Who are the Bridges students?(Years 1 & 2)

27. Translanguaging: What is it and why is it important for teaching Bridges students how to write? Definition: the act performed by bilinguals of accessing different linguistic features….in order to maximize communicative potential. It’s natural! It’s what bilinguals do. It makes sense! Why use only one resource to help them to learn to write when you can use two?

28. Assumption: Monolingualism is the rule, bilingualism is the exception. Multiple official languages Single official language, functionally multilingual No official language, functionally multilingual Unknown

29. Assumption: English is the only language of the United States

30. How can translanguaging help Bridges students learn how to write? Provides a way to make rigorous content instruction comprehensible. Reduces the burden on the executive functioning necessary for learning how to become a writer and uses students’ cognitive energy to focus on learning how to write in English. Develops academic skills that transfer to English. Also develops metalinguistic skills.

31. How can translanguaging help Bridges students learn how to write? By finding their voice as academic writers. By enabling language acquisition to take place in the classroom without having for the teacher to assume a direct role.

32. Concerns about using translanguaging in the classroom Using the HL in the classroom will delay or prevent ELLs’ acquisition of English. Using the HL in the classroom is confusing, for both the students and the teacher. How can a teacher use translanguaging when he or she doesn’t speak the student’s HL?

33. Common translanguaging strategies for writing Form a group by HL for interactive writing. Brainstorm ideas using HL. Write in both English and HL. Use alphabet chart in student’s HL for those who can’t write. Drawing/labeling Translating Create an oral product alongside the written.

34. Translanguaging Activity • Pre-writing: brainstorming, generating ideas and content, developing voice • Think about when you’ve moved from one place to another • Describe it with a drawing • Label drawing in any language • Share your ideas / experience

35. Goal 2: How does the 7-Week Bridges Curriculum cycle support writing?

36. Writing Outcomes in Bridges

37. 6+1 traits across Bridges Units

38. UNIT 3: JOURNEYSContent Area Search Activity Find and HIGHLIGHT the following methods in your content area in the Unit 3 Weekly Lesson Outline: • In which week(s) do they occur? • What are some interdisciplinary overlaps in concepts and vocabulary? • How might these methods scaffold writing? • Translation of the EQ • See Think Wonder • Build an LEA text • Concept Map

39. Writing Project • HIGHLIGHTthe WRITING project for each content area • What is the final writing project? • In which week does it occur? • What are the pre-writing activities outlined in the curriculum? In which week do they start?

40. Journeys

41. Translate the Essential Question (ELA, Unit 3, Week 1, Lesson 1) Why do people move? What are the positive and negative effects? • Content objective: Identify ways immigrants survive in a new country. • Language objective: Translate the EQ and respond in HL. • Why is it important to translate this EQ to HL? • How does it support the writing project? • Language awareness • Validation of HL skills and knowledge • Deeper understanding of unit context • Writing skills in HL transfer to English

42. See-Think-Wonder(ELA, Unit 3, Week 1, Lesson 2) Who were the first people in Central America? The Maya in the Past and the Present • Content objective: Observe images of the first people in Central America and make inferences about the culture. • Language objective: Observe using ‘I see_____’, infer using ‘I think’, and wonder using WH questions. • How does this activity support pre-writing for the immigration project? • Engage, build background to content • Develop oral language related to content • Sentence level writing begins

43. Language Experience Approach(ELA, Unit 3, Week 1, Lesson 3) What happened to the Maya? IndigenousAncient • Content objective: Identify changes from Mayan life long ago to Mayan life today. • Language objective: Describe using ‘Long ago ____. Then ___________ Now the Maya________.’ • How does this LEA support the writing project? • Language structures from this LEA can be used • Content can be used for the immigration story • Can be developed into more complex sentences, paragraph form as a model for good writing

44. Concept Map (ELA, Unit 3, Week 1, Lesson 4) POWER Changes in power in Mayan life • Content objective: Identify cause and effect of changes in power in Mayan life. • Language objective: Explain cause and effect using ‘because’ and ‘so.’ • How does this concept map support the writing project? • Language, vocabulary and sentence examples • Idea of power/powerful gives depth to their own immigration stories • Generate related ideas and content for pre-writing stage

45. Goal 3: How can we develop writing activities that support Bridges students to become writers?

46. What to expect in Bridges students’ writing • It is important to get to know your students’ HL grammatical structure and writing system • Invented spelling from HL (e.g. Spanish) • chaket for jacket from Spanish spelling • escul for school for the English pronunciation

47. Writing Systems of Bridges Students • Alphabetic • Latin script: Haitian Creole / Spanish / French / English • Arabic script: Arabic / Urdu • Bengali script: Bengali (Bangla) • Pinyin: Chinese • Cyrillic: Russian • Logographic • Chinese

48. Arabic Bengali Chinese characters/Pinyin

49. Application / Practice in Content Area Groups Participants develop activities to support a writing project using Unit 3 of the Bridges Curriculum. • Review the Bridges website to find supplemental materials to the writing project for your content area: http://bridges.ws.gc.cuny.edu/ • Develop three activities to support the writing project using the weekly lesson outline, or sample lessons from your content area. • Incorporate translanguaging strategies to enhance writing development. • Present your activities to the other groups.

50. Summary of Today’s PD Session • What has changed in your understanding of how Bridges students develop writing skills? • What is one thing you will do in your classroom this week to help build writing skills in your content area?