Training teachers to evaluate emerging bilingual students’ biliterate writing

Abstract

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to explore and identify issues related to training teachers to use a bilingual writing rubric designed to examine the biliterate writing of emerging bilingual students who are participating in a biliteracy model. Findings indicate the need to provide clarifications on the rubric rating criteria and the need to pay attention to the differences between Spanish and English rhetoric, as teachers had lower levels of consensus when they rated Spanish content. This finding also indicates a need to revise the rubric itself. High levels of consensus were reached when teachers rated spelling and structural elements in both languages. When conducting an analysis of students' Spanish and English writing, teachers noted students' ability to transfer writing abilities across languages. This study is significant to the advancement of this biliteracy model and to the education of emerging bilingual students. It is also important to develop a shared vision of what it means to be bilingual and to understand how biliteracy develops using a holistic lens. IntroductionTeachers working in bilingual educational contexts in the US must be given the opportunity to learn how to recognize and celebrate what their emerging bilingual students can do in both languages. While bilingual programs in the US use two languages (generally Spanish and English) to instruct students, the goal is often to use the students' home language as a means to attain English language proficiency, instead of developing bilingualism and biliteracy. As a result, teachers in such contexts focus on each language separately rather than looking at what bilingual students can do across languages and how the languages interact with one another. Furthermore, teachers are prevented from understanding how to develop and nurture emerging bilingual students' biliteracy because monolingual English pedagogies are used to guide Spanish literacy instruction and assessment practices are based upon monolingual English norms.With the increasing number of simultaneous bilingual students, or students exposed to two languages before the age of five (Baker 2001), entering US schools, it is imperative that we begin to capitalize on their bilingualism and foster their biliteracy, as their languages should be seen as resources (Ruiz 1984). In order to help teachers support emerging bilingual students' biliterate development, we must provide teachers with a holistic framework so * Escamilla and Hopewell 2010). The purpose of this study was to explore and identify issues related to training 1 teachers to use a bilingual writing rubric designed to examine emerging bilingual students' Spanish and English writing. This paper discusses the importance of educating teachers to use an assessment tool to expand their understanding of bilingual students' biliterate writing abilities, as it challenges established notions of biliterate writing development based on monolingual norms. As teachers were trained to use the rubric, we noted issues that arose from th...

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