The BCAIP Framework

The bcaip stance

Helping all learners make sense of and engage in disciplinary (e.g., English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies) ideas and practices is at the heart of secondary teaching. But we must recognize that sense-making and communication almost always occur with or through texts, which is what we mean by literacy. Texts are not only words printed or written on a page. Texts can be graphical, visual, multimodal, etc.

Texts are also specific to a discipline. Disciplines interpret and produce texts with different (albeit many overlapping) structures and purposes. Think of the difference between producing a lab report that analyzes data from a scientific investigation versus producing a critical analysis of a novel. While “analysis” is an essential activity for both disciplines, it looks and functions differently for each. Putting these ideas together, we see that literacy is intimately intertwined with, and not separate from, teaching and learning disciplinary ideas and practices.

"...literacy is intimately intertwined with, and not separate from, teaching and learning disciplinary ideas and practices."

We must also recognize that each student navigates our classrooms with a unique linguistic repertoire - a set of linguistic features (words, syntax, discourses) from different languages, dialects, and language contexts (or registers). Think about a singer’s repertoire. The singer has an array of songs and perhaps even different styles or genres in which to sing. When we speak about students who grew up exclusively speaking and using English at home, in the community, and in schools, their repertoire is likely to include almost exclusively features of the English language, as well as features (e.g., words, phrases) of languages, dialects, and registers encountered in their lived experiences. For instance, one ethnographic study by Brown and Kloser (2009) showed how youth baseball players talk to each other about velocity, movement, and spin related to throwing a curveball. They are able to effectively communicate with each other and demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the physics of curveballs, even though the language used differs greatly from the words and definitions often expected in a physics class. All learners in our schools - and Multilingual Learners in particular - have a diverse, dynamic linguistic repertoire.

"All learners in our schools - and Multilingual Learners in particular - have a diverse, dynamic linguistic repertoire."

For example, a student who grew up speaking and using Spanish at home while being supported to learn English in school will have a linguistic repertoire that includes features of English and Spanish. When given free rein, that student could draw on any of these linguistic features (English, Spanish, or a combination of) at any time. This is also an example of what it means to translanguage.

When multilingual learners’ ability to use two or more languages to engage with texts for disciplinary sense-making and communication (translanguaging) is recognized, celebrated, and supported during instruction, it is easier for them to develop their biliteracy. When a teacher goes beyond recognition and takes steps to leverage multilingual learners' full linguistic repertoire to support disciplinary sense-making and engagement, they are engaging in translanguaging pedagogy and taking a translanguaging stance.

"When a teacher...takes steps to leverage multilingual learners' full linguistic repertoire to support disciplinary sense-making and engagement, they are engaging in translanguaging pedagogy and taking a translanguaging stance."

We now push even further to disrupt patterns of social inequities. Multilingual learners ’ linguistic repertoire is not just a resource for learning. It is a multilingual learner's right for their linguistic repertoire to be cultivated and expanded across content areas. Just imagine the possibilities when emergent bilinguals become biliterate in the discipline. When they can argue with evidence, evaluate information, read a range of texts, and represent and explain mathematical concepts in two or more languages. This linguistic flexibility allows them to be more flexible thinkers and doers in math, science, English Language Arts, and all content areas.

"It is a multilingual learner's right for their linguistic repertoire to be cultivated and expanded across content areas."

We are not saying this will all happen within one year--or that this should take away from the content-specific goals. Instead, our purpose is to use translanguaging pedagogy to synergistically integrate biliteracy and content area instruction.

THE BCAIP PRACTICES

The BCAIP practices are five core teaching practices that integrate evidence-based best practices for secondary instruction in the content areas with evidence-based best practices from the field of Language and Literacy Development, with a focus on biliteracy and translanguaging. All BCAIP practices include an Opportunity and a Supports sub-practice. The Opportunity sub-practice focuses on what students will be able to do; the Support sub-practice focuses on how you will scaffold students' participation in the Opportunity.

BCAIP 1: Frame Instruction around Students, Communities, and Central Disciplinary Ideas

Opportunity: The teacher creates opportunities for multilingual learners to recognize the interconnectedness and relevance of discipline-specific ideas being learned. Learning goals and expectations are transparent, actively discussed, and built upon prior learning experiences. High expectations are maintained by focusing on ideas, practices, and discourses truly central to the discipline rather than isolated facts, skills, and procedures.

Support: Multilingual learners’ lived experiences, home/family funds of knowledge, and community context direct how teachers frame instruction and connect explicitly to central disciplinary ideas. Teachers gather this rich information from multilingual learners, families, and communities rather than relying on assumptions and stereotypes.

Why does this practice matter for teaching secondary English, Mathematics, Science, or Social Studies?

By highlighting the relationships among disciplinary ideas and making the Big Ideas explicit, BCAIP 1 positions ALL students as disciplinary sense-makers--more than just knowers of facts or followers of procedures. By contextualizing Big Ideas through real-world phenomena or problems, BCAIP 1 makes content more meaningful and relevant to students' lives. By connecting those big ideas and phenomena to students' out-of-school lived experiences, BCAIP 1 values and elevates the lived experiences that students bring into the classroom as a source for co-constructing knowledge.

how to: BCaip 1

Provide the Opportunity

The lesson or activity's focal idea is clearly tied to a more central disciplinary idea spanning multiple lessons or an entire unit
Students are made explicitly aware of the focal idea of the lesson/activity
Learning goals and performance expectations and criteria are visible to all students
A phenomenon, real-world problem/issue, or theme is used to anchor multiple lessons (or a whole unit)
Students are asked to explore, notice, apply, or reflect on the phenomenon, real-world problem/issue, or theme

Provide the Support

The teacher plans a learning activity using a context/application that is relevant to students based on information known about students and their lives outside of school (as opposed to assumed, biased, stereotyped contexts)
The teacher selects a phenomenon, real-world problem/issue, or theme to anchor multiple lessons (or a whole unit) based upon its relevance to multilingual learners in the class
The teacher uses translanguaging moves to clarify connections between disciplinary ideas

Strategic Translanguaging Moves

Bilingual/multilingual interviews: To know emergent bilinguals and the languages and lived experiences they bring (focal move)
The teacher chooses a particular project or text because of students’ personal interests or relevance to the community, as the basis for learning and applying disciplinary ideas.
Community members talk about related issues/applications using their own language practices, which students then explore

BCAIP 2: Elicit and Leverage Student Ideas and Lived Experiences

Opportunity: The teacher creates opportunities for students to share disciplinary ideas and thinking through purposeful questioning and talk moves. The language does not have to be just oral, but the goal is for students to be able to exchange ideas (with the teacher and/or other students). Teachers should go beyond asking for known answers and instead ask more open-ended (or sequenced to lead to more open-ended) that engage students in critical and creative thinking.

Support: The teacher provides a caring and supportive space for students to contribute experiences, interests, issues, knowledge from their lives outside of the classroom. The teacher can use strategic translanguaging moves to leverage (i.e., capitalize or build upon) these lived experiences to advance learning.

Why does this practice matter for teaching secondary English, Mathematics, Science, or Social Studies?

Providing opportunities for students to interact with others while grappling with interesting and important disciplinary ideas creates fertile ground for both content learning and biliteracy development. Student interactions support collaborative language development (e.g., exchanging ideas, negotiating with and persuading others in communicative exchanges) across all content areas. Student talk also opens a window into student thinking, allowing us to see how our students process complex concepts in real time. Ultimately, leveraging (or drawing on and raising the prestige of) student ideas and lived experience increases relevance and supports students in sense-making and biliteracy, ensuring our instruction validates and builds upon the assets every student brings to the classroom.

How to: BCaip 2

Provide the Opportunity

● Teacher poses open-ended questions/follow-ups

● Questions are planned ahead of time and tie into central disciplinary ideas

● Questions may be sequenced in a way that advances learning (e.g., increasing complexity, depth of knowledge)

● Teacher uses talk moves to promote elaboration of ideas (see list below)

● Students are also encouraged to pose questions to each other and/or use talk moves

● Students have time and support to engage in elaborated disciplinary crosstalk (w/o the need for the teacher to always be facilitating).

Provide the Support

● As part of an activity or discussion, the teacher asks students about their experiences,

interests, issues, or knowledge from their lives outside of the classroom

● Teacher acknowledges and values students’ lived experiences and their relationship to the disciplinary topic (does NOT dismiss or think of it as a distraction)

Strategic Translanguaging Moves

● Encourage Bilingual/multilingual Discussion (focal move): When working with others (peers, family, community members), teacher encourages students to interact in languages other than English (in addition to English) where possible

● Leveled inquiry questions (focal move): teacher poses increasingly deeper questions that require critical thinking, inference, interpretation, and application. Questions may be asked in English and languages other than English, and students may respond in any language

● Cognates (focal move): When listening and speaking, teacher encourages students to look for or consider words that look similar in English and language(s) other than English. Teacher is mindful of false cognates and encourages students point them out

● Encourage Multilingual Questions and Responses: Teacher encourages students to ask questions or respond in any language or language variety (including non-technical, “everyday language,”), dialects, language

● Encourage Multimodal Talk: Teacher encourages students to talk using multiple modes/modalities, or models/representations).

● Multilingual Question and Response: Teacher elicits in one language (e.g., English) and asks students to share in another (e.g., Spanish).

● Multilingual Expansions: Teacher prompts students to share in one language (e.g., English) and clarify in another (e.g., Spanish).

Talk Moves Examples

○ Pair Share: Teacher asks student to turn to a neighbor or elbow partner and each share an idea

○ Probing: Teacher prompts student(s) to elaborate, e.g., “Tell me more about your reaction to the quotation”

○ Wait time or time to write: Teacher provides time for individual student thought before having students answer a question, e.g., “Before we discuss your reasoning, write down your ideas on paper first”

○ Revoicing: Teacher restates what they heard a student say, e.g., “So what I hear you saying is... did I get that right? What about...”

○ Cross-talk: Teacher encourages students to exchange ideas directly, e.g., “Who can add to this idea?”

bcaip 3: Facilitate Collaborative Inquiry through Disciplinary Language and Practices

Opportunity: The teacher creates opportunities for students to use their full linguistic repertoire to generate new ideas/solutions/interpretations collaboratively. Collaboration is key in this practice, both to (1) engage in disciplinary practices that are beyond comprehension, replicating procedures, or factual recall and (2) to practice using language while collaborating.

Supports: Teacher uses strategic translanguaging moves that can leverage and possibly expand how emergent through experienced bilinguals collaborate with others. A key here is to help students access, develop, and use the discipline-specific vocabulary, symbols, syntax, and discourse (i.e., language demands) that will help them collaborate with others.

Why does this practice matter for teaching secondary English, Mathematics, Science, or Social Studies?

Secondary disciplinary collaborations are inherently language-rich opportunities that drive deep learning. Rather than "watering down" the curriculum for EBs, BCAIP 3 focuses on providing multiple access points for emergent bilinguals to learn through collaboration, creativity, and choice. Ultimately, this approach promotes the development of collaborative language, equipping students with the critical communication and reasoning skills they need to succeed both inside and outside the classroom. This approach helps ensure access to rigorous, authentic content-area instruction and honor students' diverse strengths while opening up pathways for all learners to thrive.

how to: bcaip 3

Provide the Opportunity

● Students expected to collaborate (i.e., actually exchange ideas with each other to co-construct knowledge - not just “sitting together”)

● Students have creativity and choice in how they generate new ideas/solutions/interpretations

● New ideas/solutions/interpretations shared and discussed with others (i.e., another group through presentation, jigsaw, use of technology)

● Students encouraged to use their full linguistic repertoire (i.e., any language, multiple modes/modalities, or models/representations during collaboration)

Provide the Support

● Preplanned grouping structure

● Norms/expectations for collaboration (e.g., group roles, example talk moves)

● Modeling or resources to carry out the task

● Teacher monitoring and feedback to encourage and help students leverage support to collaborate with others.

Strategic Translanguaging Moves

● Leveled inquiry questions (posing increasingly deeper questions that require critical thinking, inference, interpretation, and application). Questions can be asked in both languages, and students respond in any language (Y1 focal move)

● Collaborative presentation roles are appropriately differentiated according to oracy and literacy.

● Provide students with multilingual resources to use when conducting research for projects.

● Groups give each other feedback (in any language) on collaboration.

● Cognates: When collaborating, encourage students to listen for/consider words

bcaip 4: Facilitate Student Interaction with Text

Opportunity: The teacher provides opportunities for students to interpret and produce discipline-specific texts using their full linguistic repertoire. Similar to collaborative inquiry, the importance here is for students to go beyond just decoding a text or just writing texts to answer surface level facts or procedures.

Supports: Teacher uses strategic translanguaging moves that can leverage and possibly expand how emergent through experienced bilinguals interpret or produce discipline-specific texts. A key here is to help students access, develop, and use the discipline-specific vocabulary, symbols, syntax, and discourse (i.e., language demands) as they relate to producing authentic texts.

Why does this practice matter for teaching secondary English, Mathematics, Science, or Social Studies?

Making sense of written language (i.e., interpretive language) and communicating ideas through written language (i.e., productive language) are core components of both disciplinary learning AND language and literacy development across subjects. Disciplinary texts provide a rich - and ideally relevant (or contextualized) - source of content knowledge that grounds students in authentic disciplinary thinking. Furthermore, offering students disciplinary texts in their home language, or encouraging students to write in more than one language, provides an opportunity for MLs to leverage and possibly expand their biliteracy, honoring and building upon the rich linguistic assets MLs bring to every classroom and subject area.

how to: bcaip 4

Provide the Opportunity

Students are reading, using, or producing a text (i.e., a written/symbolic material that conveys a message (e.g., article, poem, word problem, lab instructions, quick write, showing work on a math problem, Venn diagram, graph, chart, scientific model that’s more than a picture)
- Students then have an opportunity to interpret (i.e., make meaning/infer/apply ideas beyond what can be answered directly in the text)
Students have an opportunity to produce a text for a specific disciplinary purpose that goes beyond factual information/ computations (e.g., to explain, justify, entertain)
- Students then share those texts with others using their full linguistic repertoire (i.e., any language, multiple modes/modalities, or models/representations).

Provide the Support

Preplanned grouping structure to support interpreting or producing a text
Norms/expectations for interpreting or producing a text (e.g., annotation guide, criteria/rubric/checklist)
Modeling or resources target how students can interpret or produce a text
Use of technology to support interpreting or producing a text
Teacher monitoring and feedback that encourages and helps students leverage supports to interpret or produce a text

Strategic Translanguaging Moves

Side-by-side Written Texts: Provide written texts in both English and student languages other than English. Use Google Translate if necessary.
Leveled inquiry questions (focal move): pose increasingly deeper questions that require critical thinking, inference, interpretation, and application. Provide questions in the language(s) of the classroom; encourage students to respond in any language
Multilingual Annotations (Focal Move): As students read texts (in whatever language provided), encourage them to annotate both in English and language(s) other than English.
Cognates (focal move: When reading, encourage students to look for (circle & highlight) words that look similar in English and language(s) other than English. Be mindful of false cognates–-have the students tell you about them if you don’t speak their language other than English
Use texts that are relevant to students’ home or community.
Students get feedback from teacher or peers on producing texts in their home language.
Student-produced texts (in home language) are shared with family or the community.
Make linguistic choice (when to use what language) part of expectations/rubric.

BCAIP 5: Press for Evidence and Reasoning to Support Disciplinary Ideas

Opportunity: The teacher provides opportunities for students to share reasoning and use of evidence with a full linguistic repertoire (i.e., any language, multiple modes or modalities). The focus should be on producing and sharing “texts” that reflect a complete/unified analysis, explanation, or argument - thus “pressing” students to go beyond ideas that are unsupported/justified.

Supports: The teacher provides support that helps students access, develop, and use vocabulary, symbols, syntax, and discourse (i.e., language demands) related to discipline-specific evidence and reasoning. The Teacher also uses strategic translanguaging moves that can leverage and possibly expand how emergent through experienced bilinguals reason and use evidence.

Why does this practice matter for teaching secondary English, Mathematics, Science, or Social Studies?

Use of disciplinary evidence and reasoning are key discourses across content areas--though what counts as evidence and the reasoning norms and structures differ across disciplines. Because providing evidence and reasoning are language-intensive practices, we must design instruction that makes these expectations explicit and accessible in our California classrooms. Crucially, emergent and experienced bilinguals benefit when their reasoning is visible through multiple modes (e.g., oral, written, drawing, gestures), modalities (e.g., video, text, images), or models/representations, allowing all students to demonstrate their conceptual understanding and engage in rigorous disciplinary thinking regardless of their current level of English proficiency.

How To: bcaip 5

Provide the Opportunity

Teacher poses questions such as “Why do you think that? Please provide a reason", "What evidence do we have for that claim?”)
Teacher tasks students to produce a complete or unified analysis, explanation, or argument (i.e., explained/justified/analyzed through evidence and/or disciplinary ideas)
Students may use technology to share reasoning and evidence with others
Students can use any language

Provide the Support

Teacher provides resources, visuals, and/or handouts that help students structure and organize their explanation, justification, and/or analysis
Teacher models how to use the resources/visuals/handouts
Teacher models how to explain, justify, and/or analyze using metatalk (e.g., "this is how I would think through this problem...")
Teacher gives students explicit encouragement, reminders, and/or feedback on how to use the resources/visuals/handouts
Technology
Teacher provides students with explicit expectations or norms for using discipline-specific vocabulary, symbols, syntax, or discourse
Teacher monitoring and feedback encourages and helps students leverage these supports to interpret or produce a text

Strategic Translanguaging Moves

Teacher differentiates how they task students to reason or use evidence based on students’ oracy or literacy.
Teacher or peers provide feedback on reasoning or using evidence in the students' home language.
Student-produced texts (in home language) are shared with family or the community.
Make linguistic choices (when to use what language) part of expectations/rubric.
Cognates (focal move): When identifying or sharing evidence and reasoning, encourage students to look for/consider words that look similar in English and language(s) other than English. Be mindful of false cognates– have the students tell you about them if you don’t speak their language other than English.

To learn more about how to use the BCAIP practices in your classroom, see our Resources page.

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