4 Proven Seal of Biliteracy Prep Strategies

Are you new to the Seal of Biliteracy? Curious what to use for Seal of Biliteracy Prep for your students? This post will give you my go-to list of things I use for my students when doing Seal of Biliteracy Prep! Take the guess-work out and send your students on a path to PASS!

Start Seal of Biliteracy Prep Early

What do I mean by early? I mean, it’s never too early in the language learning process to incorporate certain skills. And if you’re already teaching the year when your students will take the Seal of Biliteracy test, it’s never too early to start practicing! Start incorporating the following routines into all of your classes to give your students the best shot at building their proficiency.

Strategy 1

Most of us use some kind of bell-ringer or Do Now activity, right? To be honest, I have gone back and forth with this routine. But a few years ago, our principal gave a directive that we all HAD to do a Do Now. This is the perfect place to not only normalize speaking in class, but to build in a daily practice for the Seal of Biliteracy. For our non-native speakers, the most difficult part is often the speaking portion.

I use what I call “chat cards” for my Do Now activity. I create sets. They can be on theme with our unit, with the current season, with culture, whatever you want! I project one using my SmartBoard, and ask my students to do a turn and talk. I set up this routine from Day 1in my class so students know who their turn and talk partner is.

The chat cards are open-ended. Sometimes I provide a vocab list that I laminate and keep at each desk. This is helpful when the topic is not related to their unit. For example, here is a Fall-themed chat card. The vocab list has words on it that students might want to use, like apples, pumpkins, leaves, etc.

If the chat cards are related to the theme of our unit, I let students use our vocab list. The important thing is that students have a very limited amount of time to say what they want to say, and over time, their ability to think and speak quickly and spontaneously improves quite a bit!

Bonus: these chat cards can also be used for writing prompts and graded speaking or writing assesments!

Take a look at all of mine HERE for ideas or to save time if you want them all done for you!

Seal of Biliteracy Prep Strategy 2

Another strategy I incorporate into every unit is what I call Listen and Respond activities. I create many prompts that I record and students listen to. They record their response. This activity is how speaking/listening is done on the AAPPL test, which is one of the most popular Seal of Biliteracy tests.

While the real AAPPL test does not give students any idea as to what the prompts will be about, we do know that there is a pattern. The prompts are grouped in 3’s of the same topic. Usually, there are 2 prompts where the student provides information and the 3rd prompt requests that students ask the speaker questions. It’s very challenging because students don’t know the topics ahead of time.

To build skill and confidence, I create similar activities, but on theme with our unit. That scaffold allows students to know what the theme of all the prompts will be. It gives them that leg up to feel more confident in being able to respond!

HERE is a freebie if you would like to download it. And HERE is where all of my themed prompts can be found if you need ideas or want them all done for you!

Strategy 3

Another strategy I use with my students for Seal of Biliteracy prep is an activity I call “guided conversations”. This activity involves 2 students as partners and they hold a conversation live, face to face! (This kind of activity does not exist on the Seal of Biliteracy tests, but it still helps!)

The students are assigned to be Person A or Person B. They read a scenario and follow the guide in order to keep the conversation going a little easier. The guide tells them generic ways to keep the conversations going- like, ask a follow-up question, or answer affirmatively.

These conversations are also themed to our unit, so students have the vocabulary they need and the confidence to participate. It forces them to really listen to their partner and to create with language on the spot. Those skills translate to the Seal of Biliteracy tests as well as sections of the AP Spanish test!

HERE is a freebie of a guided conversation if you want to try it out. And if you need more ideas or want them done for you, click here to see all the ones I’ve created!

Seal of Biliteracy Prep Strategy 4

I could probably talk a lot more about different Seal of Biliteracy Prep strategies I use, but I think I will only include the ones that give the highest leverage in this post.

Though we all hate to admit it, there is some value in teaching to the test. What I mean in this case is that students should have the chance to do a practice test before taking the real Seal of Biliteracy test. Test familiarity boosts scores. We see this with SATs, with driving tests and more!

I created this set of 3 activities that I give to my students every year before they take the Seal of Biliteracy test. It includes a reading section. Students match text to pictures or headlines, like on the AAPPL test. It includes a writing section: each prompt gets more complex. And it includes a lengthy listen and respond section that is not themed- just like on AAPPL.

My students report that doing this practice ahead of taking the test is a great Seal of Biliteracy prep for them!

You can check that out HERE if you want to see some pictures of what it looks like, or just download it already done!

Final Thoughts

It’s taken me several years to find the right formulas and activities to help my students truly grow their proficiency in meaningful ways. Please let me know if you would like to know about other strategies I use beyond the 4 mentioned here.

It’s very rewarding to get the notification that your students have passed one or more sections of the Seal of Biliteracy test! It’s a great honor for students to earn and it reflects so well on you and your department! Let’s all work to make learning another language important and special in the eyes of our communities and especially in the eyes of our students!