Simultaneous Biliteracy Instruction

The following unit and video outlines what effective simultaneous biliteracy instruction looks like as a path toward biliteracy. After attending a very powerful dual-language conference, La Cosecha in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my colleague and I put together this snapshot based around the ideas we were able to see while observing many of the dual language classrooms which used a simultaneous, 50-50 model approach to biliteracy instruction. Our school was in the process of investigating a dual language program that would best support our LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students as well as our native English speakers. This interdisciplinary snapshot that we created and then videotaped, showed teachers what a simultaneous literacy unit would look like in a Spanish Language Acquisition (SLA) classroom alongside an English Language Acquisition (ELA) classroom. I created the unit and then did the assimilation lessons with a group of ELLs in second grade. I provided the SLA instruction and my co-teacher carried out the lessons in the ELA classroom.