Activity

1. Activities to foster multilingualism
in the classroom
Designing Units around Multilingual
Culminatying Products
Didàctica de l’anglès – Paula Lázaro, Juan Dauden y
Vicente Agut – Curs 2012-2013

2. What is it?

Designing a unit of study so it culminates in some sort of
a multilingual product gives bilingual students an
authentic purpose and motivation for learning.

Without an end goal, both teaching and learning can feel:



o
Aimless
Disorganized
Lacking in authenticity
There are two important benefits:


Development of academic content, language, and
literacy
Help teachers more accurately asses EBLs’ knowledge
and understanding

3. Translanguaging How-To
1.
Plan using Backwards Design
o
2.
Think first of the final product you’d like students to create
Plan a culminating product that requires students to utilize their
multiple languages authentically.
o
This product must be:
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
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3.
Authentic
Encourage translanguaging
Include non-written forms of assessment
Introduce the cuminating product early in the unit
o
Help students to create the product at the end of a unit

4. Idea for Implementation Across Grade Levels

Elementary Grades
o
Create one product in English, and a different –but related- product in
the home language.

o
Students wrote one review in English, and another review in their home
language to target different audiences who go to these restaurants.
Translate a product from the home language to English, or vice versa

Students translate a memoir they had written to share moments from
their lives with both school and home.