The ELA/ELD year-long curriculum consists of three thematic units that reflect ELA core content with foundational language and literacy support in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Materials are designed to meet the needs of multilingual students, and integrate social-emotional learning and culturally-responsive content. The curriculum is aligned to ELA CCSS, WIDA, and ELP standards with English Language Development (ELD) scaffolds.
The Bridges-CUNY Newcomer Program is a nationally available pilot that holistically addresses the needs of SLIFE and newcomers through targeted assessment tools, culturally responsive curricula, and training in implementation and school-wide systems of collaboration for teachers and administrators.
Program Components
The Foundational Math Unit of Study is designed to accelerate numeracy development for SLIFE who come to the U.S. with gaps in their math education. It is composed of 30 lessons, a pre- and post-assessment and a performance task, aligned to Math NGLS and CCLS standards. It supports students in building community, to acclimate them to U.S. classrooms, and reflects Math core content with foundational academic language and numeracy support in reading, writing, representing numbers, and operations.
The Bridges Math Fractions unit is designed for SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) and newcomer students who are at or below a 6th-grade math skill level. It is primarily designed for secondary students who need additional interventions in order to access grade-level content. However, the materials can also be used to support elementary students in targeting grade-level content in select skills associated with fourth and fifth grade standards. The materials cater to a variety of language development levels and address learning gaps for students with inconsistent schooling or those needing accelerated foundational math skills. The unit integrates a pre-assessment for both math and language skills, and aligns content and language learning objectives with WIDA standards. It differentiates according to language ability and uses real-life examples to build conceptual understanding.
The ELA/ELD Teacher Professional Learning consists of 4 modules during the school year for a large cohort of teachers across districts. Office hours are aligned to each module to provide additional support. Leadership consultations with school and district leaders further support successful programming.
To read more about each session, visit here.
Our research team assesses the program impact by measuring improvements in writing scores for newcomer ELs, oral language skills, numeracy and basic operations skills for students in the math classroom, confidence of students in the classroom, development of transferable skills in other academic classes, and social-emotional skills, specifically in collaboration and independence.
Bridges-CUNY Impact Stories
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