Sixth International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education: Connecting Research and Practice Across Contexts

Paper/Best Practice Session (1 hour)

Presenters in Spanish/English programs, but concept can also be applied to any language/Not Language Specific

Two-Way Bilingual Immersion
One-Way Developmental Bilingual Education

Elementary (K-5)

This presentation describes the development of bilingual units using Beeman & Urow's Biliteracy Unit Framework (BUF). The BUF intentionally plans for oracy, literacy, and the development of metalinguistic awareness through the Bridge. Participants will learn how oracy both supports and enhances literacy development in two languages throughout a biliteracy unit.

The Biliteracy Unit Framework (BUF) is a tool for planning integrated units that address development of content, literacy, and language. Oracy is an essential component of a BUF and is always developed first. Presenters will discuss the primacy of oracy development and how it supports not only language development, but enhances development of meaning-based skills that are essential for literacy (i.e., the broad skills, such as background knowledge and rich vocabulary knowledge, that are continually being developed). Participants will learn strategies that promote oracy development at the beginning, as well as throughout, a biliteracy unit. This will inlcude adaptations to address application of these strategies across different program models and grade levels. Presenters will share an example of a BUF that demonstrates how the strategies presented are operationalized in a real unit that integrates oracy along the oracy to literacy continuum.