Merging a Theoretically Sound Online Writing Space With Classroom Instruction and Curriculum for Emergent Bilinguals

• In Event: Extending and Evaluating a Theoretically Based, Online Intervention to Improve Latino Middle-Schoolers’ Writing

Abstract

The purpose of this poster is to present the curricular modules developed for the STEPS interface and the instructional sessions prepared for emergent bilinguals to test the system.
In Years One and Two, the STEPS to Literacy research team worked closely with teachers and administrators from partnering schools to develop two curricular modules for the system interface: the Civil Rights movement in the US and the Nazi Holocaust, topics that correspond to New York State’s Social Studies curriculum. We worked with our teacher collaborators and drew on the New York State guidelines for writing and assessment to construct writing activities. The instructional sessions were designed to integrate the STEPS+G framework and anchored instruction in a multimodal environment that supports the developing language abilities of Latino emergent bilinguals.
Building on anchored instruction principles (CTGV, 1997), the modules begin with a culturally meaningful and engaging video resource in the first instructional session. The anchor for the Civil Rights module is a hip-hop video about Latino immigrant rights; the anchor for the Holocaust module is an animation from a graphic novel version of Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl. The video anchor helps the instructor introduce the STEPS+G heuristic and provides a shared knowledge source for students’ future learning.
In the subsequent six sessions, typically lasting 1-1.5 hours each, students explore curricular content through multimodal resources and essay writing prompts. The writing prompts require students to examine and analyze the significance of historical events through the STEPS+G lenses. For example, students might discuss the social consequences of the Brown v. Board of Education decision for segregated communities, or describe how the political and geographic expansion of Nazi Germany impacted Jews living across Europe.
In drafting their answers to the prompts, students first discuss and take notes on a variety of multimodal resources. Example resources from the Civil Rights module are video and audio versions of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech and historical images and documents about segregated schools. Example Holocaust module resources include historical photographs and survivor testimonials. Finally, students use their notes as a bridge to writing lengthier, more detailed essays, which they can share and edit with their teachers and fellow classmates through the site’s messaging function.
The STEPS intervention adapts to the varying English abilities of the student-users. All multimodal resources and prompts are provided in English and Spanish, and students are encouraged to interact with the site in the language they feel most comfortable using. Students and instructors translanguage throughout the sessions; they use English and Spanish in class discussions and written work. Translanguaging (Garcia & Author, 2010) is an important bilingual instructional strategy that recognizes the developing bilingualism of students and facilitates their access to content materials.

The poster will provide detailed bilingual/multimodal curricular content and instructional session topics and sequence. Clips of the two video anchors and an excerpt of an instructional session will be displayed on a laptop, allowing conference attendees to see the STEPS to Literacy intervention in action.

Authors

• Briana Ronan, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Kristin Gorski, Teachers College, Columbia University