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.
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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.
OPEN-SOURCE CURRICULAR MATERIALS
OPEN-SOURCE CURRICULAR MATERIALS
EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS
Bridge to Biliteracy (formerly known as NP Transference) was first piloted in the 2024-2025 school year with 3rd-5th grade newcomer students. This chart compares the foundational skills progress of students in the Bridge to Biliteracy pilot program with that of the approximately 2,000 non-newcomer elementary ELLs within OUSD in the SIPPS phonics program in the same academic year.
Who participated in pilot year 1?
30 newcomer students in grades 3-5 at two 50-50 dual-language schools in East Oakland (Bridges Academy at Melrose and International Community School) during the 2024-2025 school year
30/30 students were ELLs
0/30 students had an IEP
16/30 students were 1st year newcomer students, (1/16 was in her first semester)
14/30 were 2nd year newcomer students
17/30 students' home language is Spanish
11/30 students' home language is Mam
2/30 students' home language is Q'anjob'al
The program was taught between 3-5 days per week, 30 minutes per day by Elementary Newcomer Teacher Leaders Vanessa Nguyen and Jessie Papalia at their respective schools
Bridge to Biliteracy (formerly known as NP Transference) was next piloted in the 2025-2026 school year as the English phonics program for a 2nd grade dual-language classroom. This chart compares the foundational skills progress of the 2nd graders in the Bridge to Biliteracy pilot program with that of the approximately 800 second graders within OUSD in the SIPPS phonics program in the 2024-2025 school year.
Who participated in pilot year 2?
14 second graders at a 50-50, simultaneous dual-language school in East Oakland (Bridges Academy at Melrose) during the 2025-2026 school year
14/14 students were ELLs
4/14 students had an IEP for speech
1/14 student had an IEP for autism
4/14 students were 3rd year newcomers
1/14 students was a 4th year newcomer
11/14 students’ home language was Spanish
3/14 students’ home language was Mam
The program was taught 5 days per week, 30 minutes per day by 2nd grade classroom teacher Samantha Lamont
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 Elementary Newcomer Teacher Leade 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:
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