Leveraging the Students’ Linguistic Repertoire Through "la trenza de la biliteracidad"
This session demonstrates an approach to biliteracy instruction that leverages the student's full linguistic repertoire by strategically planning for content, language, and literacy across both program languages through the Preview-View-Review strategy.
Sandra Mercuri
Dr. Mercuri is a nationally and internationally recognized educational consultant in the area of second language acquisition, dual language education and curriculum integration for biliteracy development. She has over 28 years of experience in teaching in K-12 schools and at the university level in Argentina and the United States. After retiring from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley she continued to work on research on the development of academic language across the content areas, the use of translanguaging practices for language transfer and the effect of long-term professional development on bilingual and ESL teachers’ instructional practices. Dr. Mercuri provides professional development for teachers and administrators as well as for parents. She presents at national and international conferences on issues of second language acquisition and bilingualism, dual language education, translanguaging pedagogy and ESL strategies.
Vivian Pratts
Mrs. Vivian Pratts is an experienced Bilingual Teacher, Elementary Principal and Bilingual/ESL PK-12 director. She has over 30 years of educational experience. For the 2015-2016 school year, Ms. Pratts was Spring Branch ISD’s Elementary Principal of the Year. She is currently an Educational Consultant also working on her doctoral dissertation. Her research interests include translanguaging with emergent and experienced bilinguals, as well as how teachers extend and support student’s linguistic repertoire. Ms. Pratts provides professional development for parents, teachers and administrators as well as principals’ coaching in the areas of leadership and second language acquisition. Additionally, she presents at the local, state and national level. Ms. Pratts co-authored the article Designing and Implementing Effective Professional Development and Coaching for Dual Language Programs with Dr. Sandra Mercuri published by DualLanguagSchool.org as well as Biliteracy para todos published by Okapi Publishing Company (2021).