Spend at least one hour interviewing your mentor about research-based practices supporting language, literacy, and content area achievement of ELLs in bilingual settings. In your interview, discuss the following questions:
1. Which major concepts, theories, and research related to the nature and acquisition of language drive your instruction and inform the learning environment you created for supporting ELLs?
2. Which ones particularly speak to bilingual settings?
3. What classroom strategies have you implemented to support bilingual students' language and literacy development and content area achievement?
4. What potential metalinguistic advantages do bilingual students have and how do you promote metalinguistic awareness to support their language and literacy development?
5. How do you approach the use of translation, including concurrent and code-switching in your classroom?
6. How do you utilize the transfer of skills and a student's funds of knowledge in the L1 to foster growth in language, literacy, and content area knowledge and skills in English?
7. Regardless of the bilingual program model, how do you ensure a bilingual student is adequately progressing in language and literacy skills in both L1 and English? How do you assess this?
8. What are the benefits of developing biliteracy and some examples you have seen in working with bilingual learners? What are some challenges and how do you address them?
