Implementing the 50/50 approach of One-Way and Two-Way Developmental Bilingual Education programs is critical to ensure a balanced curriculum in both languages of instruction. Both languages are equally important in developing linguistic and grade level academic proficiency for student performance. This strategy can be applied in many ways during the learning process to achieve the 50/50 approach in One-Way and Two-Way Developmental Bilingual Education Programs.
The approach has three main and important components:
· Preview
· View
· Review
The Preview Component allows our minds to get a flavor of what is to come before the actual event occurs during a lesson. In other words, preview the material before we study it (or listen/take notes in the case of a lecture). During the process of the Preview Component, our mind will automatically activate related knowledge it has stored on the subject. For example, if we were going to read a chapter on kidney function, the Preview Component would activate related knowledge and make it more likely that we would remember things during the View Component (for example, the actual reading of a chapter).
The View Component refers to the opening of a lesson. It can be a new concept, a lecture, book chapter, lab handout, or any topic to be studied for the first time.
So, what actually is the Preview Component? Well, it can be many different things. Let’s say we are about to read the chapter on kidney function. One technique (for a Preview) would be to skim the chapter reading bold text, looking at figures and tables, and reading questions/summary statements at the end of the chapter. This process would give us a flavor of things to come during the full reading of the chapter. Cognitive psychologists would call the Preview an advanced organizer. It is well known that if you preview something, you are more likely to remember it after the study session. In other words you are more likely to store it in memory by attaching it to items previously learned. One other example: If you are going to lecture on kidney function, a good Preview would be to discuss kidney function with a fellow student before getting to class. Between the two of you, many related topics would have been brought up and discussed before the lecture started. In this manner, your mind would have opened the file entitled “kidneys,” and you would be prepared to put more items into the file during the lecture.
The Review Component refers to a process of refreshing your mind of what has been encountered during the View Component of the approach. The Review Component is exactly how it sounds, to review. Much has been written on reviewing and I suggest you search the cognitive psychology literature for this information. Briefly, there is an art to reviewing. First, material should be reviewed more than a total of one time. Some would suggest that the first Review take place shortly after the View Component has occurred (within one hour). Then, the second Review should take place one day after the View Component. The third Review should then occur one week after the original View Component. Now depending upon the material, subsequent reviews would take place on a weekly to monthly basis. Any given Review should be short, say 5-10 minutes. The objective is to scan the material, activating memories as you go along. This supports the research based practice of constantly checking for understanding during the teaching/ learning process for culturally and linguistically diverse students with ongoing scaffolding to ensure comprehensible instruction in both languages.
The art of achieving the 50/50 Approach for both languages of instruction may be done by assigning one of the languages to each component. The table below provides an implementation sample:
FIRST WEEK FORMAT:
SECOND WEEK FORMAT COULD BE:
NOTE: The teacher conducts progress monitoring to assure that 50 percent of the instruction is in English and 50 percent is in Spanish. Careful attention must be given to enforcing student rules for language separation during the instructional process. Teachers and students must not use both languages simultaneously. Educators must have a process in place to ensure that literacy development in the native language is not interrupted. This is detrimental for the academic success of the students. The focus is achieving the 50/50 approach successfully.