Sandra Butvilofsky

Examining the Longitudinal Biliterate Trajectory of Emerging Bilingual Learners in a Paired Literacy Instructional Model

This longitudinal study examines the biliteracy results of Spanish-English emerging bilingual students who participated in a K–5 paired literacy model in a large school district in Oregon. Spanish and English reading and writing data show longitudinal gains in students’ biliterate development, demonstrating the potential of the model in developing students’ biliterate trajectories. In addition, participating students outperformed their peers on the state-mandated assessment. Findings have implications for instruction and support the research that providing students with paired literacy instruction allows students to develop on a biliterate trajectory without hindering their literacy development in either language.

Training teachers to evaluate emerging bilingual students’ biliterate writing

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.

Promoting Reflective Teaching through Simulation in a Study in Mexico Program.

Preparing teachers to meet the educational needs of bilingual Latino students in U.S. schools has been termed a demographic imperative. This study explored 57 U.S. teachers’ reactions and reflections to participation in a simulation experience held during a teaching/learning experience in México as part of their master’s program in bilingual/ESL education. Findings illustrate great promise in such experiences for teachers, as they encourage critical reflection about the challenges of learning and teaching a second language.

The early Spanish and English writing development of simultaneous bilingual preschoolers

This qualitative study investigated the progression in the biliterate levels of conceptualization about writing in Spanish and English of 28 simultaneous bilingual preschoolers. Using a constructivist framework, a holistic bilingual and translanguaging perspective, this qualitative study examined the children’s understanding of the nature of writing in Spanish and English as demonstrated in their written productions and interpretation of their own texts as well as how such understanding develops over time. The findings indicate that while similar conceptualization levels to those found in previous studies with monolingual children were identified in the simultaneous bilingual children in our sample, some unique patterns were observed that shed light on the nature of early bilingual writing development. More importantly, the findings reveal that, from the start, most children’s progression in their levels of conceptualization about writing in the two languages was similar, even when they did not receive formal literacy instruction in English.

Effects of a Paired Literacy Program on Emerging Bilingual Children's Biliteracy Outcomes in Third Grade.

This longitudinal study examined whether the implementation of a Spanish-English paired literacy approach provides an academic advantage to emerging bilingual students over a sequential literacy approach. The study employed a quasi-experimental design. It compared the biliteracy outcomes of third-grade emerging bilingual learners participating in paired literacy instruction from Grades K-3 (n = 167) to those of students from the same schools who received sequential literacy instruction in K-2 and started to participate in the paired literacy model in third grade (n = 191). Students’ writing and reading were assessed in both languages using informal measures; third-grade reading scores on a high-stakes state assessment were also examined. Independent-samples t tests were conducted to compare means on the four measures (Spanish and English writing and reading), and Cohen’s d was calculated to generate effect sizes for each assessment in each language. Frequencies were run to determine the percentage of students who met or exceeded the state test performance standards. Findings indicate that the paired literacy group scored considerably higher than students in the comparison group on all measures. Furthermore, differences between groups were statistically significant for each outcome measure in each language with moderate to large effect sizes (0.42 to 0.90). Also, a larger percentage of students in the paired literacy group met or exceeded the state test performance standards. These findings suggest that paired literacy instruction leads to stronger literacy outcomes in both languages than sequential literacy. Implications for practice and future research are provided.

Complementing the Common Core with Holistic Biliteracy.

In this article the authors propose that biliteracy is a more challenging and rigorous form of literacy than the English-only orientation of the Common Core State Standards (NGACBP & CCSSO, 2010). Because learning to read and write in two languages differs from learning to read and write in one, we argue that biliteracy requires its own pedagogies, methodologies, and assessment systems. Data derived from the reported study support a trajectory toward bilingualism informed by a framework that capitalizes on theories of integrated and holistic biliteracy in order to re-conceptualize the ways educators can interpret biliteracy assessments of emerging bilingual learners in Spanish and English.

Shifting Deficit Paradigms of Latino Emerging Bilingual Students’ Literacy Achievement: Documenting Biliterate Trajectories

ABSTRACT The purpose of this single-subject longitudinal study was to examine the Spanish and English biliterate development of U.S. Latino Spanish/English speaking students, who we call emerging bilingual students, as they participated in an innovative biliteracy instructional program titled Literacy Squared®. Findings indicate that across the three years of the study, participating students made gains in Spanish and English reading and writing. This study provides support for Literacy Squared as an innovative biliterate program. Further, the study provides evidence for the need to consider alternative methods to document Latino Spanish/English students’ biliteracy development such as through the use of biliterate trajectories.

Privileging bilingualism: Using biliterate writing outcomes to understand emerging bilingual learners’ literacy achievement

ABSTRACT Language planning and policy with regard to bilingual education are greatly influenced by the ideologies outlined by Richard Ruiz. In this article, we demonstrate that Ruiz’s language-as-resource orientation requires that we use two-language assessments to study how program models are both developing and conserving the languages that students bring to school. We demonstrate through a study of students’ writing how scholars might use such assessments to privilege bilingualism and present a more complete understanding of students’ biliteracy development that counters the use of bilingualism in service to the hegemony of English, even when the same study includes a comparison of English outcomes of students in paired literacy as compared to students in English-only models. Findings reveal that students in paired literacy are becoming comparably literate in the domain of writing in Spanish and English as measured by a Biliteracy Writing Rubric. Furthermore, when their English language outcomes are compared to those of their peers in English-only contexts, the differences are found to be statistically insignificant.

What Gets Lost When English-Only Writing Assessment Is Used to Assess Writing Proficiency in Spanish-English Emerging Bilingual Learners?

ABSTRACT Recent analyses of wide-scale writing assessment outcomes indicate that English writing achievement for fourth- and fifth-grade emerging bilingual learners continues to be an area of great concern. Utilizing the theory of holistic bilingualism and a mixed methods design, this study examines the writing skills of 44 emerging bilingual fourth and fifth graders. The purpose of this study was to compare and correlate various writing outcomes as measured by the state’s high-stakes writing assessment, English language proficiency writing assessment, and an informal biliterate writing rubric. Results indicate that the majority of students are not acquiring proficiency in English writing as measured by English-only assessments. When students’ Spanish and English outcomes are considered holistically, students’ outcomes in Spanish surpassed English for the majority. Findings indicate the potential for a writing assessment protocol that is intentionally biliterate and that displays Spanish and English together as a part of the assessment process.

Lotta Lara: A Promising Biliterate Reading Strategy

ABSTRACT This quasi-experimental study tested the efficacy of a research based biliterate reading strategy, Lotta Lara, that is part of a larger paired literacy instructional program. Its purpose was to investigate whether the biliterate reading strategy, which focuses on reading fluency, comprehension, and oracy through whole group instruction, impacted first grade emerging bilingual learners’ biliterate reading development. We utilized an Ordinary Least Squares regression model to compare students’ biliterate reading outcomes in the treatment group (n = 23) to those of the control group (n = 21). Despite the small sample size, positive and statistically significant effects were found on students’ Spanish reading outcomes. While students made growth in their English reading, significant effects were not detected on English reading outcomes. Our findings support the need to provide emerging bilingual learners with explicit and interactive biliterate reading instruction to promote biliterate reading development.