Collaborative Approach to Learning Bridging Language and Science Teaching (CAL: BLAST)

The CAL: BLAST project is a 3-year collaboration between Oakland Unified School District, the Lawrence Hall of Science, and UC Berkeley. In the CAL: BLAST project there are approximately 40 teachers from fifteen Oakland schools and 1280 African American, Latino and Asian students will benefit from this project. Seventy-five percent of the students receive free or reduced-price lunch and 70% are English Language Learners. To meet the need to increase ELL students’ access to science content and related academic language in the upper elementary levels in OUSD, the CAL: BLAST program will work to achieve teachers’ interest in science, science content knowledge related to the 3rd-5th grade science standards, knowledge and implementation of using ELD strategies in science instruction and addressing ELA and ELD standards during science instruction.

During each summer institute, the teachers will have direct field research experience at one of the University of California field stations. Each of these stations is the site of current research and offers the opportunity to focus on natural systems in differing biodiversity ecosystems. Teachers will be accompanied by a team of faculty, staff, and graduate students associated with the University of California, Berkeley Natural History Museums and Department of Integrative Biology, as well as project team members from Bay Area Science Project (BASP) and Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP). Throughout the three years of the program, teachers will receive professional development on content area language strategies and instruction designed to develop both academic language and content understanding for all students, with a particular focus on ELLs. BASP staff will work closely with teachers incorporating content and academic language strategies in the existing district-adopted FOSS curriculum. 

For more information, contact Joanna Totino: jtotino@berkeley.edu