New York State
Bilingual Common
Core Initiative
Patricia Velasco, Ed.D.
Queens College, CUNY
November 25th and 26th,
Albany, New York
Race to the top…
 Why do we have to race?
What Top…?
The top, the tippy-top?
How will we know that this is the right top?
And then… Once and if we reach the top, what are we going to do?
In spite of everything:
 The BCCI is a unique opportunity to make a
contribution the programmatic initiatives being put
forth by NYSED.
 The BCCI is one of many initiatives that aim to
strengthen bilingual education at the state level.
 We all have a part to play in this new environment
and even though many of the elements that are part
of the BCCI are crazy, we decided to move ahead and
be part of something bigger than ourselves.
Understanding how the CCLS are organized
 The English Language Arts (ELA) CCLS are divided into:
 Reading for Information
 Reading Literature
 Writing
 Speaking and Listening
 Foundations of Reading
 Language Standards
All of these standards converge in one goal: developing oral and written
academic language in all students. Academic language, characterized by
complex syntax, academic vocabulary, and a sophisticated discourse
style does not exist in isolation. It is the language of academic content,
of subjects such as history, literature, and science. Academic language is
not only the language of school, it is also the language of bureaucracy
(Levine et al., 2013)
Academic language is developed by, through and around books; by listening and
participating in focused conversations that deepen understanding of a topic,
centered around texts and books; by reading and writing. Its purpose is to describe
with precision, to convince and to persuade
The Main Core of the CCLS: Academic
Language and background to the creation
of the BCCI
SECTION 1
VOCABULARY
DENSE AND PACKED SENTENCES THAT ARE
PRECISE
AUDIENCE AND STANCE
Getting a firmer grasp on what is academic
language
 Let’s pretend that you
are in a boat and it sinks.
 You swim to a very small
island… (your folder)
You are alone:
 But then someone else
arrives,
 And then someone else,
and then one more.
 You all have to share the
‘island’
 Remember: someone is
taking notes
Finally, you are rescued:
 You are home.
 First, you will write an e mail about this experience
to someone you know very well. It can be your
husband, a friend, your sister or brother..
 Then you will write about this experience pretending
that you work for the New York Times. One thing:
please integrate one word: fulcrum into the text
What is fulcrum?:
Let’s analyze the texts you have produced:
 The notes from the note takers
 The emails
 The article for the New York Times
 Analyze it in terms of vocabulary and sentence
length. Then, in terms of audience and authority.
How do these aspects impact the text? How is authority
reflected in the text? How does knowing or not knowing
the audience affect the texts you have produced? And the
context? Which version required more revisions?
 Finally, exchange your NY Times text with the person
sitting beside you. Analyze how does the writer present
the information: How is it different from yours?
Your reflections on the complexity of academic
language:
 I will write them down:
Key points in the Common Core Learning Standards
(HANDOUT 1)
 Academic language development is present throughout the CCLS
 Content area knowledge is acquired through reading and writing; speaking and
listening.
 Interpretation and evaluation of texts (Standards 6,7, 8, 9 in RI and 6,7,9 in RL).
 Specific knowledge about how to approach a content area (i.e. History/Social
Studies).
 Emphasis on the linguistic aspects of language (i.e. Standard 4 for RI and RL; and
the connections fostered by the Writing and Speaking and Listening Standards).
 AL or Language in Academic settings, is not only defined by vocabulary and
syntactic knowledge, but also by using language persuasively in
conversations and by discovering and analyzing how an author
succeeds (or doesn’t) in presenting an argument convincingly. This
entails presenting an argument with authority.
Category and number of standards (CCLS)
An important change: In Reading, standard 1
starts with inferencing. Why?
Text
The marlup was poving his kump.
Parmily narg horped some whev
in his kump. “Why did vump
horp whev in mh frinkle kump?’
the marlup jufd the narg. “Er’m
muvvily trungy,” the narg
grupped.
“Er heshed vump norpled whev in
your tranquil kump.” Do vump
pove your kump frinkle?
(From White, Claire. Nov.
15th,2013)
How many questions can
you answer?
1. Who was poving his
kump?
2. Who juffed the narg?
3. How trungy was the narg?
4. What kind of kump does
the marlup have?
5. How would you feel if a
narg horped in your
marlup’s kump? Why?
Inferencing
 Standard 1 starts with inferencing as a way of making
sure that students are understanding. This is
specially important in light of the reading
expectations that the CCLS hold. Students have to
read grade appropriate texts with and without
scaffolding.
Good elements in the CCLS for language learners
The CCLS:
What we currently find in
most classrooms:
 Emphasizes inferencing, word
 Fast-paced, low-level question
knowledge, text structure
 Emphasizes writing
 Emphasizes conversations and
debates
 Gamoran & Nystrand study
(1991) then replicated by
Applebee et al (2003) showed
that the amount of time
engaged in discussion was
the strongest predictor of
achievement scores in 16
middle and high schools
answer routines are the norm
in most classrooms serving
ELLs (Zhang, Anderson, &
Nguyen-Jahiel, 2009)
 Little writing (an average of 1.5
pages per week in high schools
in New Jersey; Applebee et al.
2012)
 No debates found in classrooms
with language learners
 Strengths of the CCLS in relation to bilingual
The CCLS:
Is not a
curriculum. It is
a tool created to
use and to set
an index (or
standard) for
different skills
and content
areas.
students:
 They don’t specify how to teach and what to
teach when.
 In turn, the creativity and decision making by
the teacher becomes a key element in fostering
best practices.
 The standards do emphasize the connection
across communicative skills.
 Weaknesses of the CCLS:
 The standards are created for a monolingual
population.
 They are based on outcomes and it appears that
there is more clarity at the high school level. We
have found inconsistencies in terms of
expectations described for the lower grades (Pre
K and K; 2nd grade reading, for example).
 None of the descriptors targets students’
background knowledge.
The Differences between the CCSS and the CCLS
 CCLS have Pre K standards
 There is a standard 11 for Reading Literature that targets
reading texts that reflect different cultures:

Respond to literature by employing knowledge of literary language,
textual features, and forms to read and comprehend, reflect upon,
and interpret literary texts from a variety of genres and a wide
spectrum of American and world cultures.
 There are slight changes in the categories: CCLS
(Reading for Literature) instead of Reading Literature
(CCSS)
Background to the BCCI: Performance of language learners in New York
State (Slentz, 2011)
 The performance of ELL students continues to lag behind
their English proficient peers.
 The gaps between ELLs and English Language Proficient
students (ELPs) are greatest in ELA, although gaps also
exist in math performance.
 In both ELA and math the gap tends to grow between
Grades 3 and 8.
 In 2010, for example, where 58% of English Language
Proficient Students (ELPs) scored at levels 3 or 4 on the
3rd Grade ELA exam, only 24% of ELLs scored levels 3 or
4. Similarly, where 54% of ELPs scored at levels 3
or 4 on the 8th Grade ELA exam, only 4% of ELLs
scored at levels 3 or 4.
The context of the BCCI:
 Public education in the United States has seen escalating
emphasis on standardized assessments of learning,
combined with adoption of the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS), which in New York State are known as
the Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS).
 During this same period, the population of learners in US
public schools has grown increasingly diverse in culture
and language.
 Many educators, policymakers, and families have raised
concerns about how the shifts in instructional and
assessment approaches will affect opportunities for
students who are language learners to be successful in
school.
The creation of the BCCI
Steering Committee
Members

Robert Aloise, Education Coordinator, NYS PTA. Terri
Brady-Mendez, Director, NYSED Long Island Regional
Bilingual Education Resource Network; Gladys Cruz,
Deputy Superintendent, Questar III BOCES; Cándido de
Jesús, Professor, Bank Street School of Education; Ofelia
García, Co-Principal Investigator, CUNY-NYSIEB;. Anaida
Gonzalez-Fortiche, Director of Bilingual Education,
Rochester City School District; Robin Finnan-Jones, NYS
TESOL Curriculum and Standards Assistant Chair;
Angélica Infante, Chief Executive Office, New York City
Department of Education Office of ELLs; Tatyana Kleyn,
Executive Board Member, New York State Association for
Bilingual Education and Associate Investigator, CUNY-New
York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals; Estee Lopez,
Professor, College of New Rochelle. Nellie B. Mulkay,
Director, NYSED Statewide Language Regional Bilingual
Education Resource Network. Melanie Pores, New York
State United Teachers. Stela Radovanovic, New York City
Department of Education Office of ELLs; Luis O. Reyes,
Research Associate, Center for Puerto Rican Studies/Centro
de Estudios Puertorriqueños; Nancy Villarreal de Adler,
Executive Director, NYSABE
National Advisory Group

Dianne August (American Institute of Research)
Sharen Bertrando, (WestEd's Center for
Prevention and Early Intervention); H. Gary Cook
(WIDA Consortium); Jim Cummins (University of
Toronto); Robert Davis (Chinese Language &
Culture Initiatives at the College Board); Yvonne
Freeman (Professor Emerita, The University of
Texas at Brownsville); Rebecca Field (Director of
the Language Education Division of Caslon
Publishing and Consulting); Lily Wong Fillmore
(Professor Emerita, University of California,
Berkeley); Danling Fu (University of Florida);
Eugene García, (Professor Emeritus, Arizona State
University and the University of California, Berkeley)
Kenji Hakuta (Stanford University); Angelica
Infante (Office of English Language Learners in the
Division of Students with Disabilities and ELLs),
Sue Pimentel (Common Core Standards writer
with David Coleman and Jason Zimba) , Catherine
Snow (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
Guadalupe Valdés (Stanford University)
The purpose of the BCCI is to help us do our best work as
bilingual teachers
The aims of this workshop in relation to the
BCCI:
 To understand how the CCLS are organized
 To understand the BCCI templates, their organization and the
four premises that are embedded into them




The five language levels
Translanguaging in the BCCI
The four communicative skills
Integrating content and language (linguistic demand section)
 To present how the BCCI compensates some elements that the
CCLS do not address
 To provide classroom strategies (for teachers and professional
development) that can help in the implementation of the BCCI
 The BCCI needs to be implemented and researched.
Introducing the BCCI
Templates
SECTION 2
The BCCI is based on templates:
 The templates embed the beliefs that permeate the
BCCI and that describe the language and content
scaffolds for students.
 We will be analyzing one in particular (in your
package) and examples from other standards.
The best way to understand the BCCI:
 Is to examine the templates that describe the content and language scaffolds.
 In the handout, you have two sets of templates addressing the same standard
RI 1.3 in New and Home Language.
 In the slides:
The blue one is for New Language and
 The orange one is for Home Language


The presentation will focus on the premises that are embedded in
the BCCI:
 Premise 1: Five stages to develop academic language
 Premise 2: Translanguaging as a key element in accessing the
standards
 Premise 3: The four communicative skills as points of entry
 Premise 4: Scaffolding for language and content within the
standards
New and Home Language Arts Progressions
 The New Language Arts Progressions are
(essentially) targeting students who are learning
English.
 The Home Language Arts Progressions target
students whose oral language is ahead of their
reading and writing skills. SIFE and heritage
language students would fall under this category.

The term New Language replaces second language; the term home language replaces
native language or first language.
 The BCCI begins with the Common Core Anchor

The BBCI:

What the
project offers
educators:




Standard
For each standard, BCCI specifies a Main
Academic Demand (MAD) and Grade Level
Academic Demand (GLAD)
Each standard is addressed twice: once in the
home language, and once in the new language.
Within each grade level or grade band, the BCCI
describes the progression of learning
performance from Entering to Emerging to
Transitioning to Expanding to Commanding.
For each CCLS, the BCCI guides teachers in the
creation of scaffolds for Receptive Skills –
Listening and Reading, and Productive Skills Speaking and Writing.
Each standard explains the Linguistic Demands
that the standard entails.
For each section of the CCLS, the BCCI provides
introductory documents that give educators
background knowledge about the Standards.
Understanding the overall structure of the
templates from 1st grade to 12 grade:
Overall structure: Linguistic demand section in
New Language
Linguistic demand section: Home Language
In PreK and K the layout is different
Linguistic Demand Section of PreK and K is the
same as for all others New Language
Home language PreK
Linguistic demand section: Home language
Theoretical Foundations of the BCCI: flexibility
and variability
 The theoretical foundations of the BCCI are embodied in
the New and Home Language Arts Progressions.
Underlying the progressions are a model of academic
language development that addresses the inherent
variability in the process for language learners, a
recognition of the complex relationship between
proficiency in new and home languages, and an
overarching construct of the dynamic nature of
bilingualism. An essential theme threaded throughout
the work is the importance of providing effective
scaffolding for language learners across different
ages and proficiency levels.
Premise 1: Targeting academic language
proficiency in language learners
With the creation of the BCCI, New York State decided
to move from four levels of language proficiency
(Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Proficient) to
five (Entering, Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding
and Commanding). The decision stems from research
describing the time and care that developing academic
language requires.
Development of academic language in language
learners
 Research by Saunders, Goldenberg and Marceletti (2013)
based on the five levels of language proficiency that California
previously employed: Beginner, Early Intermediate,
Intermediate, Early Advanced and Advanced, found that
language learners typically require four to six years to achieve
what would be early advanced. This also corresponds to
Cummins (1979; 2013) expectations for learning academic
language. The new element that Saunders et al. found
was that progress from beginning to middle levels of
proficiency is fairly rapid (from level 1 to 2 but
progress from middle to upper levels of proficiency
(level 3 to 5) slows considerably. In other words, there is
evidence of a plateau effect where many language learners
reach a middle level of English proficiency and make little
progress thereafter.
In New York State we find the same pattern: K to
6th grade:
For 7th to 12th grade:
The dynamic nature of language development
 These five levels shouldn’t be construed as fixed
levels, though. In fact, the five levels of language
proficiency within the BCCI context, are referred to
as ‘the progressions’ in order to convey the
dynamic nature of language development. A student
might be considered Transitioning in certain tasks
and areas in the new language but can be performing
at the Expanding or even Commanding stage in the
home language. The progressions address
language growth, and they are meant to
target academic language development.
An example:
The case of
Lucia
I met Lucia in 2011. She
was a newcomer from the
Dominican Republic. She
was 9 years old and was
placed in third grade
(transitional program)
What happened?
During a shared reading
Lucia asked what
‘grandfather’s shoes’
meant. The teacher
translated and after that
she started using this
structure.
In reading English she
also followed an
interesting trajectory.
Practical aspects of moving from four to five levels
 The decision to expand from four to five levels is
based on the latest work in language development
being done both nationally and internationally where
progressions have been divided into five (WIDA,
2012) or six levels (Council of Europe, 2001;
Interagency Language Roundtable, 2011). Those that
include six levels, however, have a “level zero” for a
student with absolutely no proficiency in a new
language, which research indicates is a very short
period of time when students are interacting with
others in the new language (Calderón, 2009).
Premise 2: Translanguaging in the New Language
 One of the first elements that you will notice in the
New Language templates is that students in the first
three stages of language proficiency can use their
home language in order to access the standard’s
demand.
 Translanguaging is different from code switching. In
code switching the two (or more) languages are seen
as separate constructs whereas in TL languages are
seen as being part of the same semiotic (or meaning)
construct that any bilingual has.
Premise 2: Translanguaging as comprehension (Baker, 2000)
 It may promote a deeper and fuller understanding of
the subject matter. It is possible in a monolingual
context, for students to answer questions or write an
essay without fully understanding the subject. Whole
sentences or paragraphs can be copied or adapted from
a textbook without rarely understanding them. This is
less easy in a bilingual situation. To read and discuss
a topic in one language, and then to write about
it in another, means that the subject matter has
to be properly ‘digested’ and reconstructed.
Translanguaging may also help students develop skills
in the weaker language (p. 104-105)
Translanguaging as self regulation (knowing
what you have to do to get to your goal)
 [...] I have written several papers in English, some of
which have been published in professional journals [....]
[A]lthough in the end those papers are written in
English, all the other matters related to the writing
process are conducted in my first language [...], Japanese
[...]. Through the entire research process I think in
Japanese, take notes in Japanese, and write the first
rough drafts in Japanese because I can’t think thoroughly
about any complicated matters in English. It is not until
the last stage of the research process, when I put
everything together into the form of a paper, that I start
to use English. This may not be the most efficient way of
writing an English paper [...], but this is the only way I
can write in English. (Sasaki, 2001, p. 111)
Pedagogical Considerations in
Translanguaging in Writing
Examples of
translanguaging
in writing
Writing is by nature a
recursive process in
which there are stages
(planning, drafting,
finalizing sections; then
re-planning sections; rewriting, finalizing)
Using TL in
the planning
process
 Sample 1
Sample 2a: Learning new words
 Transcription: Tube un
pero nombre blackie. La
ultima ves que yo tube un
pero era cuando yo tenia 6
ano pero haora nolotengo
porque un caro loaplasto y
podia verle las tripas.

guts
 [I had a dog named Blackie.
The last time I had a dog was
when I was 6, but now I don’t
have him because a car
squashed him and I could see
his guts.]

Sample 2b: Integrating the new word
 Transcription: The
last time I had a dog
was when a car scuech
him and I could see the
guts coming out of is
and blood aso. Coming
out of is bare
intrackshr.
Associating different features (description and internal/social dialogue) with
different languages
 Sample 3
 Los otros dias yo vi a tres
niño y a 3 niñas juando en la
nieve y los tres niños
empujaron a tres niña en la
nieve y las tres niñas se
calleron en la nieve donde
havia poca caca mucho susio.
 I said to my self is she going
to yell then I said it out loud
to my friend.
 [The other days I saw three
boys and 3 girls playing in
the snow and the three boys
pushed three girls in the snow
and the three girls fell on the
snow where there was poo
very dirty. ]
Sample 4: Using
rhetorical devices for
engaging the reader
Transcription: There
are 4 butterflies in our
class. How? Why
butterflies? Let me tell
you how. Let me
speak in English for
a second. First, it is an
egg. Then larva. Then a
caterpillar. Next it is a
pupa. Then a butterfly.
What happens when we don’t allow it?
 Alexandra is an English dominant 8 year old in a dual
language class. I am not sure when she joined the
program, but her peers considered her as someone who
couldn’t speak Spanish (‘ella no sabe’).
 The teacher believed in the strict separation of languages
and had provided a dictionary with basic words: the
colors in Spanish, common nouns (nuclear vocabulary in
Spanish). On the day that I observed her, she was only
able to write: Las flores son amarillas, verdes, rojas,
azules. These were the words that appeared in her
disctionary.
Alexandra: clearly bored
 I asked my student teacher
to please ask Alexandra,
what she wanted to say (in
English). The student
teacher translated, not
word by word, but the
whole idea that Alexandra
expressed.
 The ideas that Alexandra
was able to express became
more elaborate and rich.
Sample 5
Post It on the right
hand side: flowers
need to have watre and
if you don’t give them
water then they will die.
Post It on the left
hand side: Bees suck
the nucheins out the
floure (Bees suck the
nutrients out the
flowers)
What we
noticed in
Alexandra
She became instantly
‘famous’. All the
children around her
wanted to be her
teacher. She went from
being the student ‘who
couldn’t do anything’ /
the one who ‘didn’t
speak Spanish’, to
become a celebrity.
The other students
wanted to show off that
they could help
Alexandra.
 Alexandra became a celebrity!
Translanguaging
will not confuse
children
It allows them to use all
of their meaning
making resources to
communicate what they
want. In this way, it is
also a self regulatory
mechanism.
Perhaps we haven’t thought about it, but we already use a lot
of TL and translation in the classroom
 Preview (Home Language), View (New
Language) and Review (Home Language).
This is translanguaging in action!
 Use of cognates (isn’t this a translation
process?)
How to use TL when the teacher doesn’t speak
the same language that the student speaks?
I.S.P. Nation’s work
What he says:
 The teacher can provide
a short and friendly
definition of the word
(IN CONTEXT), and
then ask the student to
translate the word in
her/his own language.
 I.S.P. Nation also says
that translation is the
fastest way to
understand a word.
 We have to understand Tier 1, 2
Cognates and
the Tiers
Isabel Beck’s work and
Averyl Coxhead’s work
have many points in
common
and 3 words because that is
exactly what the CCSS talks
about. How do we can use them in
bilingual classrooms?

Tier 1 and 2 are multiple meaning
words.

Look at the Academic
Word List, what do you
notice?
Are these Tier 1,2 or 3
words? Are there
cognates?

Tier 1 words can have a nuclear meaning
(everyday meaning) but can have
multiple meanings as well (analyze face
in everyday language and in Math;
solution and the meaning it acquires in
everyday language, in Math and in
Science)
Tier 3 words are not multiple meaning
words (e.g. delta, pharaoh)
Extending the work of cognates in the classroom:

Some things we have to keep in mind when we work with
cognates:
• Not because it is a cognate a child will know the meaning in the
Home Language.
• The cognates do not work the same in both languages. In Spanish
the word pálido (pale) or triunfar (triumph) are integrated into
everyday language a lot more than in English, in which they acquire
a more sophisticated meaning.
• False cognates can be wonderful to analyze with students (e.g.
embarassed/embarazado)
• Morphology in the New Language is best learned when we use
cognates (e.g. lentamente/slowly will not be as effective as when we
teach the mente/ly adverb ending using cognates:
rápidamente/rapidly
• We seldom teach lexical homographs (once/once; pie/pie)
SOME FUN WORK WITH WORDS
 LEXICAL HOMOGRAPHS
 Once there was a dog that belonged to Ms. Morales.
His name was Sputnik. One day Sputnik was looking
downcast, sad and had no energy. Ms. Morales took
him to the vet. The vet recommended some pills to
give Sputnik energy. When Ms. Morales got the pills,
the recommendation for the dosage said: take once a
day. So, she gave him once pills in a day. How do you
think Sputnik felt?
Task 1: What are your thoughts on this?
 What professional development is needed to prepare
teachers to support academic language development
in all students, and especially language learners?
 How do you convince them, and most importantly,
site administrators that TL and the five levels of
language proficiency will make a difference in how
language learners fare academically? Why do
administrators need to be convinced?
 What do teachers need to know about
translanguaging about its use in academic settings?
How ready are they to do so?
Sputnik
Another lexical homograph
 In my neighborhood, there is bakery that sells pies.
The sign says: Pays CORONADO Pies.
 I wonder how a pie made of pies taste?
False cognates and discussions
 Can you rest when you are doing a resta?
 Can you think of any circumstance in which a
woman might feel embarrassed because she is
embarazada?
 I was desperate when he decided to despertarme at
4 o’clock in the morning? Can you understand why?
And Then……
 When cognates are used in English they gather a
more sophisticated connotation:






Ms. Gómez is always busy answering e mails.
Ms. Gómez siempre está ocupada contestando correos
electrónicos.
Ms. Gómez is always occupied answering e mails.
This procedure ensures a fast recovery.
Este procedimiento asegura una recuperación rápida.
This procedure ensures a rapid recovery
Morphology and cognates
 If you were to teach mente/ly (adverb formation),
what do you think works better:
 Quickly/quickly; rapid/rapidly
 The cognate works better when teaching word
endings.
Premise 3: Background to the four
communicative skills
 The four communicative skills in the BCCI are not
just communication channels. They also constitute
ways of scaffolding the standards’ demands.
 HOWEVER:


The first step is to understand some of the misconceptions
around scaffolding
We also need to come to terms that curriculum is watered
down. When we start simplifying the curriculum it is difficult
(if not impossible) to know when to stop.
Perhaps the misconception arises from how to scaffold: Bloom’s old (1956) and
new (2001) taxonomy (a theory of scaffolding or understanding thinking?)
Let’s analyze some of the traditional scaffolds that we have
provided
(http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/26751/)
Early Production
Points to pictures and acts out vocabulary. Can answer yes and no
questions
Speech Emergent
Ask questions that require a short answer and that are fairly literal. Introduce
easily introduced information (i.e. class surveys and food preferences)
Beginning Fluency
Make short presentations. Introduce nuances of language such as when to use
more formal English
Intermediate
Fluency
Ask students to identify vocabulary by symbols that show whether the student
‘knows it really well, kind of knows it, or doesn’t know it at all.” Help students
focus on strategies to get the meaning of words.
Advanced Fluency
Students at this stage are native like. Offer students challenging activities that
expand word knowledge (antonyms, synonyms) using a dictionary.
Jerome Bruner (1915)
 A student can
learn anything as
long as we provide
the right entry
point.
 If you work with
the BCCI, we have
to be Brunerians!
There are four entry points in the BCCI:
Listening is (usually) the first entry point. Listening is
part of Read Aloud and conversations. In the BCCI it is the
first stepping stone to introduce information. It can also be
used to increase background knowledge.
Reading allows for a deeper analysis and refining of
information.
Speaking allows to brainstorm and clarify ideas. This skill
also entails how to present (stand alone) information.
Writing can be incorporated while listening, reading and
speaking but the creation of a text can be done at the end of
this cycle.
Look at the standards in your package.
Some practice in using the 4 communicative
skills in addressing the standards:
Standard 7.2 reading for
Information says:
 Determine a theme or
central idea of a text
and analyze its
development over the
course of the text;
provide an objective
summary of the text.
How would you target this
standard using the four
communicative skills:
 In Listening:
 In Reading:
 In Speaking:
 In Writing:
Cycle presented in the BCCI
Listening (entry
point)
Writing (present
an argument,
create an
informational or
narrative)
Reading (analyze
details and
integrate details)
Speaking (refine
and clarify ideas
through
conversations and
presentations)
The BCCI is not the only one that uses Listening
as the starting point:
 Word Generation does it
too in the form of a news
cast:
 http://wg.serpmedia.org
/grade4/unit1/index.htm
l
Scaffolding Language in the New Language
(Handout 2: Reading for Information scaffolds)
 The scaffolds that are presented range from:





Entering: Pre-taught words and phrases (frontloading)
Emerging: Pre-identified words and phrases (students recognize the
words that have been previously introduced)
Transitioning: Using word banks (choices are among what they will
use)
Expanding: Using glossaries (multiple words, phrases, definitions
and examples) are incorporated into one source that the student uses
strategically
Commanding: Independent performance
 These language scaffolds are used strategically in
conjunction with graphic organizers.
The graphic organizers are the same for all
students, but..
 They are used differently, depending on the language stage for





New and Home Language students. For New Language
students:
Entering: Pre-taught words and phrases are to be organized in
the graphic organizer/sentence starter or cloze paragraph
Emerging: Pre-identified words have to be organized in the
graphic organizer/sentence starter or cloze paragraph
Transitioning: Word banks are used to complete graphic
organizers, and short essays
Expanding: Glossaries and previously created graphic
organizers are used to speak and write after teacher
modeling
Commanding: Information is used and organized
independently
Conversations and interactions are also scaffolded
 In your templates, find what students at the
Entering, Emerging, Transitioning, Expanding and
Commanding can do in both the Home and New
Language in terms of the conversations.
For Home Language Students
 The Home Language students’





oral language is ahead of their
literacy skills. They don’t start
with pre-taught words, but
instead:
Entering: Use pre-identified
words and sentences
Emerging: Use Word Banks and
teacher
Transitioning: Use glossaries and
previously created graphic
organizers with teacher
modeling
Expanding: Information is used
and organized independently but
with teacher prompting
Commanding: Organizes
information independently
Entering
Recognize pre-taught words and phrases
found in the text/context
Associate and organize words and phrases in a graphic
organizer and in sentence starters
Understand in partnership and or small group
Use cloze sentences for writing
in new and/or home language
Recognize pre-identified words and phrases found in the
text/context
Associate and organize phrases and sentences in a
graphic organizer and in sentence starters
Understand in partnership and or small group
Use cloze sentences/paragraphs for writing
Emerging
Recognize pre-identified words and phrases found
in the text/context
Associate and organize pre-identified phrases and
sentences in graphic organizers
Understand in partnership and or small group
Use cloze paragraphs for writing
in new and/or home language
Recognize phrases and sentences using word banks of
phrases and sentences
Associate and organize phrases and sentences in graphic
organizers
Understand and participate in partnership, small group
or whole class setting
Use cloze paragraphs for writing
Transitioning
Recognize information using word banks of phrases
and sentences
Associate and organize information with teacher
support using partially completed graphic
organizers
Understand and participate in partnership, small group
or whole class
Create a short essay using cloze paragraphs and word
banks in new and occasionally
in home language
Recognize information with the support of glossaries of
word definitions and explanations
Associate and organize information after teacher
modeling
Understand in partnership, small group and whole class
settings
Create a short essay following the teacher’s model
Expanding
Recognize information using glossaries of word
definitions and explanations
Associate and organize information after teacher
modeling
Understand in partnership, small group and whole class
settings
Create an essay after teacher modeling
in new language
Recognize information with the support of glossaries and
previously created graphic organizers
Associate information with teacher prompting
Understand in partnership, small group and whole class
settings
Create an essay with teacher prompting
Commanding
Recognize information independently
Associate and organize information independently
Understand in partnership, small group and whole class
setting
in new language
Recognize information independently
Associate and organize information independently
Understand in partnership, small group and whole class
setting
One very important element to keep in mind for
the Home Language Learners
 Language is never right
nor wrong.
 Language is not to be
evaluated.
Commanding students
 Commanding students
do not need language nor
content scaffolds.
 Commanding means that
both areas come
together. Commanding
students in New and
Home Language are
working independently.
Task 2: Working with an empty template
 In your packages, you have an empty template with
the CCLS, the MAD, the GLAD and the grade
standard. Try to fill it out with the scaffolds that we
have discussed.
Premise 4: Integrating content and language:
Linguistic demands section
 Over the years, teachers and researchers agree that
language learners need to integrate content and
language.
 The Linguistic Demand section of the progressions
aims at providing an example of such integration.
 The Linguistic Demand concentrates on linguistic
markers that reflect what the standard demands.
Examples of linguistic markers: language and
genre
 Yopp and Yopp (2000) have described some
elements that are commonly found in non-fiction
texts: timeless verbs (i.e. there are eighteen
species of penguins); generic nouns (i.e. penguins
are birds that don’t fly) and technical vocabulary
(i.e. penguins are aquatic birds). By contrast,
narratives are usually written in the past tense and
often offer dialogues presented in the present
tense form. They follow a specific structure
(Van Dijk and Kintsch, 1983), where a description of
a setting and the characters is followed by a conflict
and a subsequent resolution.
Further considerations for integrating content
and language in the linguistic demand section
 We have to consider written language as a cohesive
network (Halliday and Hasan, 1976).
 Cohesive devices in a text make it a ‘whole’. There
are consistent elements that make it so and that are
an intrinsic part of academic language:




Referencing (or using articles):pronouns
Ellipsis: (or leaving information out): Do you like swimming?
Yes, I do (not present in the sample)
Substitution: Mary and Maggie swim everyday. Those two
sisters are always together (not present in the sample)
Conjunctions: words that signal relationships in sentences
(i.e. but, because, so, if)
The linguistic demands are examples of how to
analyze the content and language of a text
 For Wong Fillmore and Fillmore (2013) this analysis
is the key to understanding the academic language
presented in books. It creates dispositions or habits
of mind that entail making students aware of how
the content and the language work together.
Developing your linguistic radar:
At one time the Fox and the Stork
were on visiting terms and
seemed very good friends. So the
Fox invited the Stork to dinner,
and for a joke put nothing before
her but some soup in a very
shallow dish. This the Fox could
easily lap up, but the Stork could
only wet the end of her long bill in
it, and left the meal hungry as
when she began. "I am sorry,"
said the Fox, "the soup is not to
your liking.”
 Daily, Don. (2003) The Classic
Treasury of Aesop's Fables. ,
p.34
 Who are the subjects in this
paragraph:
Find the nouns and the
pronouns to understand who
are the subjects
 What details in the text can
you find?
Focus on the adjectives
 How does the author connect
the ideas in the text?
Focus on the conjunctions
 Can you find a substitution?
 What words would you teach?
Some more practice:
 Common Core Grade 2
Standard (RI.2.3): Describe
the connection between a series
of historical events, scientific
ideas or concepts, or steps in
technical procedures in a text.
 Common Core Grade 3
Standard 4 (RI 3.4)
Determine the meaning of words
and phrases as they are used in
the text distinguishing literal
from non literal meaning
 Find words or phrases that signal
temporal sequence
 Find who are the subjects
 Long, long ago, before people
knew anything about
dinosaurs, giant bones were
found in China. So, wise men
who saw the bones tried to
guess what sort of enormous
animal they could have come
from. After they studied the
fossil bones, the ancient
Chinese decided that they came
from dragons. They thought
these dragons must have been
magic dragons to be so large.
And they believed that dragons
could still be alive.
Boy, were they wrong!
Video showing work with complex texts:
 http://vimeo.com/47315992
 Kindergarten class, working with complex texts by
Lily Wong Filmore
Any thoughts?
Section 3: The role of background
knowledge in accessing the
standards
BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE IN ACCESSING
GRADE APPROPRIATE TEXTS
Complementing the CCLS: The role of background
knowledge in accessing the standards
 For Coleman and and Pimentel, creators of the CCSS,
students need to use their analytical skills in order to
understand a text (Yatvin, 2012). For children who are
not language learners this is still a challenge, but for
emergent bilinguals this might be even more so because
they may lack cultural and historical referents.
Furthermore, it is very difficult (if not impossible) for a
student to differentiate if s/he is not understanding a text
because of lack of background knowledge or because of
the language of the text. In such cases, their linguistic
and content base knowledge needs to be enriched.
 This is specially important in light of the
demands of reading grade appropriate texts.
Background knowledge and reading grade appropriate texts
 Reading in the CCS
Standard 10 for Reading for Information and
Literature
 Read and comprehend complex literary and
informational texts independently and proficiently
(it changes, with or without scaffolding, according to
the grade level)
 Comprehension of texts will vary depending
on the background knowledge and
motivation that a student brings to the task.
Reading comprehension can be built up in
order to access grade appropriate books.
Lexiles and Text Complexity
 In the CCS, text complexity is
measured in lexiles.
 Lexiles take into consideration
vocabulary and sentence
structures.

The Old Man and the Sea receives two
significantly different classifications. One is
1370L and the other one is 940L. The first
level is associated with 12th grade and
beyond, whereas the second level
corresponds to a sixth grade reading level.
Surprisingly, both levels are right but they
take different factors into consideration. The
result for text complexity (940L), reflects the
short and simple sentences employed
throughout the book. The words are everyday
words. The 1370L classification takes into
consideration more than just text complexity.
It takes into account the maturity and
judgment needed to understand the book.
Background knowledge and instructional
conversations
 How does background knowledge work?



We can add information to what we already know
We can discard the information
We can modify what we know
 Conversations are about brainstorming, clarifying,
persuading and convincing.
 Simon Critchley, Prof. of Philosophy at the New School
said in writing about persuasion and Socrates (New York
Times on Nov. 18th): Socrates would have to say
the right thing, in the right way at the right time
to the person right in front of him.
Instructional Conversations with language
learners (Goldenberg, 1988; 2013)
 Go beyond the turn and talk
 Ideas are explored. These have relevance and
meaning to the students. The focus might shift but
the idea is traceable.
 Deal with misconceptions.
 These kind of conversations are important for all
children and are absent in most classrooms. They are
particularly important for language learners because
they allow them to play with language and to develop
conceptual and linguistic development.
Look at Handout 1 again
 The Speaking and Listening standards require to
have focused, EXTENDED conversations
 The standards require that the students present
(stand alone episode of language organization)
 The students are also asked to find evidence and
present according to task, purpose and audience
 The conversations are also a way of bridging
background knowledge: from what we know to what
we are trying to understand better
Questions to promote conversations
 Open ended, YES, but also precise:
 What is the difference between:

What did you today?
Where were you sitting when your teacher did the read aloud?
 By the same toke, debates allow students to engage and explore a topic
more deeply. Talking and engaging in these conversations has a
positive impact on reading comprehension (Snow, 2012).
 The reason is that it engages children in analyzing new ideas,
modifying their existing ones and discarding information they don’t
consider important.


http://wg.serpmedia.org/video_debate.html
Background knowledge and reading (Escamilla,
2013)
 TEXT BASED AND LANGUAGE BASED not just oral
based and content based. It has to be grounded in the
language that is used in writing.
 For Escamilla, independent reading should be less
emphasized (from modeled, to shared, to collaborative to
independent)
 “The use of direct instruction in language learners is
warranted” (Escamilla, 2013; p.41)
 This is similar to what Lily Wong Filmore does with her
juicy sentences.
 Watch the following video.
Background knowledge and writing
 Background knowledge does not refer exclusively to
the concepts that we learned long ago. Concepts and
ideas are always being reshaped in our minds.
 BK and oral language in the Home Language will
affect writing in the New Language, and vice versa.
 For Escamilla (2013), reading and writing in
language learners should progress from modeled, to
shared, to collaborative to independent. Escamilla
only recommends small group work when the
students need additional support to meet an
objective (e.g. guided reading)
Section 4: Some considerations
about teaching writing in
History/Social Studies and Science
WORKING WITH MISCONCEPTIONS IN
HISTORY/SOCIAL STUDIES
ANALYZING THE LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE
The Language of History and Social Studies
(Wineburg, 2012)
 Linguistic markers associated with cause and effect:
because, therefore, so, etc.
 Based heavily on problem and solutions
 Evidence based ( Teaching with Primary Sources)
What do you know about Pocahontas?
 For most sixth graders, the image they had of
Pocahontas was the one portrayed by Disney. Is it
yours?
Reading like a historian
 Entails looking at the sources and determine:
 Who wrote it?
 How close was that person to the events when they happened?
 The date when the text was written?

A historian does not start by reading the whole text from
beginning to end. First, a historian asks those questions,
decides if the sources are reliable or not and then proceeds.
Misconceptions in History
 Pocahontas was born in 1595
 The English arrived in the coasts of Virginia in April, 1607.
How old was Pocahontas when the English arrived?
 The reality is that Pocahontas was captured by the English
during Anglo-Indian hostilities in 1613. During her captivity,
she converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca.
When the opportunity arose for her to be released, she chose
to remain with the English. In April 1614, she married tobacco
planter John Rolfe, and in January 1615, bore him a son,
Thomas Rolfe. Pocahontas’ marriage to Rolfe was the first
recorded interracial marriage in American history. She then
went to England, where she became a celebrity.

One more fact:
 In his 1608 account, Smith described a large feast
followed by a long talk with Powhatan. He does not
mention Pocahontas in relation to his capture; in fact, in
this account, he does not meet Pocahontas for the first
time until a few months later. In 1616, however, Smith
wrote a letter to the Queen of England, Anne. The letter
described how he (John Smith) was captured and
threatened. He also says that Pocahontas saved his life.
This is the first account we have of this event.
 If you are reading like a historian, what would you do?
Pocahontas
Disney’s Pocahontas
The real Pocahontas
Pocahontas’ lesson
 Wineburg explains the ‘indignation’ that a group of
sixth graders felt when they found out that the
version portrayed by Disney and the one found in
primary sources did not correspond.
 Wineburg continues by describing how he asked the
students to simply ‘rewrite history’.
 A wonderful exercise that entailed listening, reading,
speaking, and writing. However, focus on the writing
standards and see what did Wineburg cover?
In science:
 The language of science is similar to History and
Social studies in that it focuses on cause and effect
and problem and solution concepts and language.
However:


Remember that in science vocabulary can have multiple
meanings
There is the language of establishing hypothesis (which is a
conditional sentence):

If middle school students study for Math quizzes, then scores will
rise
If a sunflower plant is fertilized weekly, then seed production will
increase
To summarize:
 The BCCI presents five levels of language development in the





new and home language
Bilingualism is seen as a continuum, and translanguaging is
the action that characterizes it and supports growth in both
languages
The supports for language and content are clearly defined
throughout the five stages
The four communicative skills are used strategically to
provide multiple points of entry and scaffold complex
standards
The linguistic demands exemplify language markers that
integrate content and language within a standard
Background knowledge is considered a key element in
developing content and language
The purpose of the BCCI




Is not perfect
Its implementation will require a lot of work
So far, many teachers have expressed that the BCCI is making
a difference in their practice. The teachers who worked in this
project expressed that scaffolding was the area where they
learned the most
Good results can only be accomplished if we work
together, as partners.
Why are the RBERNs important?
 You have access to teachers who trust you
 You know the schools, the children, the
ADMINISTRATORS
 You want to do this: we all want to do it
 We want to see good results for language learners
 We want to create a more equitable society
The purpose of the BCCI is to help us do our best work as
bilingual teachers: TOGETHER
My best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving