Glossary of Terms and Scaffolds for Teachers

Your cheat sheet, planning partner, and classroom bestie 

If you’ve ever stopped mid-lesson thinking, “Wait, how do I explain ‘main idea’ in Spanish… and what do I pair it with so my students actually get it?” — you're not alone, amiga.

This page is for you.

When we’re designing text sets for biliteracy, we’re not just dealing with content we’re juggling language acquisition, academic vocabulary, cultural relevance, and cognitive scaffolds. Whew. That’s a lot. But breathe easy, because this glossary isn’t just definitions it’s a toolbox.

It includes the terms your students need to engage deeply with texts in both English and Spanish — and a matching scaffold or strategy you can drop into your lesson tomorrow (or even in 10 minutes, we don’t judge here).

How to Use This Glossary:

Think of it as your bilingual planning sidekick not just a list, but a set of moves you can make.

• Each entry gives you:
  The term (EN)
  Its Spanish equivalent
  A go-to scaffold or strategy that supports that concept

• Print it. Bookmark it. Post it on your classroom wall. Let it grow with you.
  
  

Sample Terms You’ll Actually Use:

• Main Idea / Idea principal
  ➤ Use a main idea + 3 details graphic organizer. Color-code details in both languages.

• Compare / Comparar
  ➤ Create a bilingual Venn diagram. Let students label each side and the middle with sticky notes or images.

• Sequence / Secuencia
  ➤ Use a timeline with labeled sentence stems like: “First… / Luego… / Then…”

• Inference / Inferencia
  ➤ Give students the stem:
  “I can tell ___ because it says ___.”
  or
  “Puedo decir que ___ porque dice ___.”

• Theme / Tema
  ➤ Use quote sorting: give students several bilingual quotes from the text and have them sort into themes.

• Opinion / Opinión
  ➤ Try Flip or Think-Pair-Share with stems like: “I think ___ because ___ / Yo pienso que ___ porque ___.”

Teacher Tips to Make It Stick

• Visual = Vital
  Use emojis, icons, and color coding to help students recognize patterns across languages.

• Sentence Stems Are Gold
  Don’t assume students know how to form academic sentences. Give them a runway.

• Build a Living Glossary
  Make space on the wall or in your digital deck for a student-built glossary — they’ll take more ownership when they help create it.

• Revisit Terms Often
  Introduce a word on Monday, reuse it in your Tuesday questions, show it again in Thursday’s rubric. Repetition builds confidence.
  
  

When we give students the language and the support to use it, magic happens. Words like inference, sequence, or theme stop being scary and start becoming tools. This glossary isn’t just a list — it’s a reminder that bilingual learners already bring brilliance. We’re just building the bridge.