One of the strategies I rely heavily on in my classroom is modeling (Developing and Using Models). I use modeling at different times throughout a unit and to serve different purposes. For instance, during the beginning of a unit, I will have students construct an initial model in order to activate prior knowledge. I normally will introduce a unit with an anchoring phenomena to have students think. In a unit on the neuron, I will demo a phenomenon where one student controls my arm by moving their arm.

I then ask students to explain what they think is happening through the use of modeling. Though before students create their models, we have a whole group discussion on creating a modeling language.  We talk about what things we need to incorporate into our model and how we are going to represent them. The point is to agree on modeling conventions so that we can all understand each other from our models. For example, with neurons most students already know that there is electricity involved. Often students will say electricity, and say we will model it by showing a yellow arrow, since it has directionality. We will fill out a graphic organizer with our modeling conventions and then create our models. In order to modify this through a translanguaging lens, we can modify the graphic organizer to also represent the languages of our students. 

The benefits of this pedagogy is that students can draw on their entire lingusiutic repetoire to make sense of the anchoring phenomena. Students are encouraged to use drawings, arrows,color, text, and etc. to explain their thinking. By modifying the graphic organizer students are encouraged to used LOTE to explain their thinking, or in this specific instance, their prior knowledge of the topic. In this initial modeling stage every idea and thought is valued to our shared understanding of the phenomena. Below is an example, in English, of the combination of text and symbols that can be used to explain thinking. Again, this pedagogy allows for students to use all their ways of knowing and thinking.