Clara
Clara explained: -los adjetivos aquí van cuando terminan las oraciones...
pero en inglés, van primero-.
Teacher Mia posed the question: How can a simultaneous bilingual in 2nd grade in an ESL model program develop biliteracy in Spanish and English? To describe her focal student for her action research, Mia wrote: “The student I have chosen is named ‘Clara’ (pseudonym). She was born and raised in Madrid, Spain and is in her second year of being in an ESL-program school. This year she is in 2nd grade. Clara has grown up speaking Spanish and English in the home, schooled in Spanish and English and now seeming to be stronger in English than Spanish. She is a student on my caseload at my current school. She also happens to be my daughter.”
To better understand Clara’s writing abilities, Mia collected a writing sample in Spanish and a writing sample in English; she used the Transliteracy observation framework for writing to note down strengths in both languages. Afterwards, Mia reflected: “I noticed that her writing was slightly stronger in English than Spanish. One thing specifically which I noticed is her use of adjective placements in Spanish. She transfers her adjective placement from English into Spanish. For example, she will say ‘mi favorita cosa’ instead of ‘mi cosa favorita’. This realization that I made helped me know what I could work on with her on our lesson together.”
Mia developed a Transliteracy lesson to teach about writing with detail using adjectives in both languages. Here is Mia’s Transliteracy prompting model. Mia described: “In the lesson, I was able to go over what adjectives are, both in English and Spanish. When I asked her, she responded in English that adjectives “tell us more about things.” We then transferred this response to the question in Spanish “que son los adjetivos?” To which she was able to say “palabras que usamos para describir cosas.” The Transliteracy lesson set the stage for subsequent sessions about adjective placement in Spanish and English:
Generate adjectives
In a follow-up session, the two worked together on generating adjectives. Mia wrote “casa” and she wrote different adjectives to describe “la casa” in both Spanish and English.
Practice forming phrases
Mia invited Clara to ask her new topics she’d like to describe. They brainstormed new adjectives. Then they practiced correct noun-adjective placement in both Spanish and English.
Apply in writing
Once Clara understood this, they applied through writing a Madlibs in Spanish. Mia reported: “She loved this activity because it not only asked her questions about different adjectives, but the result was a very silly story.”
Mia reflected on cultural/linguistic identity, sharing “Clara mentioned to me that when she is in Spain, Spanish feels easier, and now that she is in Wisconsin, Spanish feels a bit harder. I think this is part of her simultaneous bilingual identity. Her confidence in each of the languages seems to fluctuate depending on which country or people she is around.” Tranlisteracy teaching validated Clara’s dynamic bilingual identity as a speaker, flexibly moving between cultures and languages.
The lesson led in shifts for both student Clara and teacher Mia. In a video clip (linked below), Clara describes what she learned about writing with details in English and Spanish, explaining -Los adjectivos aquí van cuando terminan las oraciones…pero en inglés, van primero-. Mia also reflected on a shift in her teaching: “It was extremely satisfactory to do this lesson with Clara. Seeing her open her eyes when it clicked for her that in Spanish and English the noun-adjectives are inversed, was really neat to see. It was a teachable moment. This really motivates me to work on more areas of linguistic strengthening with Clara. I’d like to see her feeling more confident in Spanish, just how she feels when she finds herself in a Spanish-speaking country.”
Pause and ponder
Mia reflected on Clara: “Her confidence in each of the languages seems to fluctuate depending on which country or people she is around.” How do your students use language across contexts?
Take action
Mia’s lesson was delivered individually, but could apply to whole-classroom. Choose a writing convention. Use the Transliteracy prompting model to design a lesson about applying this writing convention across languages.
Learn more
Zoeller, E. & Briceño, A. (2023). Linguistic justice: Lessons learned from teaching Black multilinguals. Language Arts Journal.