This course provides BILA candidates with knowledge of the historical, philosophical, theoretical, legal, and legislative foundations of bilingual education and their effects on program design and educational achievement. In addition, the course will explore the migratory and demographic patterns of Spanish-speaking Latina/o/xs in the United States and how historical, institutional, social, economic, cultural and educational factors in both the countries of origin and in the United States have influenced the socialization, acculturation, and scholastic outcomes of this group in the western United States. This course will be taught bilingually in Spanish and English.

This course prepares BILA candidates for teaching in the Spanish-English bilingual classroom. Program models for bilingual instruction will be explored alongside methods and strategies for supporting student bilingualism and biliteracy across the content areas, assessment of student content-area and linguistic benchmarks, and the development of healthy bicultural identities for emergent bilinguals. Candidates will also develop skills for engaging Spanish-speaking parents through observation and leading of ELAC and parent meetings. This course will be taught bilingually in Spanish and English.

Within this clinical practice course, candidates will apply a broad array of theoretical and methodological understanding of bilingual education approaches across the curriculum. Focus areas to include: methods for supporting bilingualism and biliteracy; intercultural communication; culturally responsive instruction; school-home-community collaboration; language and literacy instruction and assessment; and content-area instruction. This course includes observations, participation, planning and practice teaching in a K-6 bilingual public school classroom. Minimum 20 hours of fieldwork experience in the classroom is required. Students are also required to be actively engaged in the learning experience by completing assigned homework and through various small and large group discussions and activities. This course will be taught bilingually in Spanish and English.