Bilingual Bicultural Curriculum

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Bilingual Bicultural Curriculum

• Julie Ruelas
• LA Mission College

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Introduction

• All human beings should participate in the
  pleasure of coming to know their universe better.
  
• Science, math and technology will be at the
  center of the changes that will occur in the
  circumstances of human existence during the next
  life span.

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Focus Question

• What conditions can enhance the achievements of
  language minority students in math and science
  classrooms?

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Achievement

• Between the 1980s and the 1990s SAT scores for
  most ethnic groups have been rising
• However, the average SAT math scores of most
  minority groups still tend to fall behind those
  of European-American students

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General Consensus

• Language minority students are not being offered
  opportunities to achieve at the same level in
  math and science as English proficient majority
  students
• The reasons involve complex and interrelated
  sociopolitical, socioeconomic, cultural,
  linguistic instructional factors

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Current Standards--there has been a call for a
reform in math and science education
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Professional Organizations have proposed
curricula that are

• inquiry-based
• holistic
• hands-on
• lifelike
• interdisciplinary
• equitable

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Opportunity to learn

• Teachers must understand the functions of math
  science historically in contemporary society
• Teachers must make the math science curricula
  responsive to the local cultures languages
• Teachers must be enthusiastic curious about the
  mystery, complexity simplicity of math
  science concepts and processes

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Language in Math Science Classrooms

• Use of L1 for Math and Science Instruction
• Content ESL
• Linguistically Cognitively Rich Environments