Bridge to Biliteracy (formerly known as NP Transference Curriculum) is an accelerative phonics curriculum developed for ELLs with basic Spanish literacy. It was designed with a focus on contrastive analysis and transfer between the skills necessary to read in Spanish and English.
By making use of students’ prior literacy in Spanish, this curriculum condenses two years of phonics of instruction (i.e., SIPPS Beginning & Extension with core concepts from Challenge) into one school year.
FOUR KEY INSTRUCTIONAL PRINCIPLES
Based on the most up-to-date research on the science of reading in multilingual contexts, Bridge to Biliteracy was developed with four key instructional principles in mind:
There are many foundational building blocks that easily transfer between Spanish and English; these skills should be quickly reviewed.
There are many foundational building blocks that do not transfer between Spanish and English; these skills are most effectively taught through explicit contrastive analysis.
Sight word instruction for ELLs should focus on:
i.) orthographic mapping;
ii.) articulation/mouth formation of phonemes in the word; and
iii.) embedding the word in a sentence in order to clarify meaning and grammatical use, especially when teaching function words.
Spanish readers must be taught to increase their visual field when reading in English.
INSTRUCTIONAL CONTEXTS
Bridge to Biliteracy is especially relevant for:
dual-language schools with sequential literacy programs where students enter second grade with Spanish literacy prior to beginning English literacy instruction and/or
Spanish-literate newcomer students in elementary and secondary programs.
EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Vanessa Nguyen has been teaching since 2012 and serving OUSD as an Elementary Newcomer Teacher Leader, TSA since 2020. She is currently teaching at International Community School. She graduated from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Hispanic Languages & Bilingual Issues and a minor in Education and earned her Multiple-Subjects Teaching Credential + BCLAD from Mills College. Vanessa is a proud momma of two beautifully multilingual boys.
Jessie Papalia has been teaching since 2013 and serving OUSD as an ENTL since 2021. She is currently teaching at Bridges Academy. She earned her M.A. in Literacy and Reading Education with a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from George Washington University. Jessie holds a Multiple-Subjects Teaching Credential with a Bilingual Authorization and a Reading & Literacy Leadership Credential.
Vanessa & Jessie have presented their work at:
