Seventh International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education

Strand I: Pedagogy & Assessment

Spanish/Mandarin

Elementary (K-5)

This paper presents the processes used to develop a classroom Observation Protocol to Capture Bi-Literacy Instructional Supports in the beginning of a three-year U.S. Department of Education funded project. The research project involves three schools with Dual Language Programs (DLP) (two in Spanish and one in Mandarin) in the same district in North Carolina. Two of these schools have DLP embedded in their regular school, and the third school is fully bilingual. The instrument development included an extensive literature review to understand “Bridging” (i.e., bi-literacy instructional suppports used by teachers in the classroom to promote achievement), cognizanat of the DLP model adoped by the school district, the Guiding Principles for Dual Language Education (Center for Applied Linguistics, 2017), and suggestions from the grant team (DL teachers, coaches, principals, district staff, and university reserachers). Two rounds of pilot testing occurred to refine the instrument and improve the reliability. This presentation will share the final instrument and preliminary findings.