Welcome to my collection of resources, experiences, and advice for launching and growing a quality two-way immersion bilingual program. I am deeply committed to bilingualism and biliteracy for every child and firmly believe that this approach is key for preparing traditionally underserved English Language Learners for short and long term academic, cognitive, and sociocultural success. My personal mission as an educator is to do everything I can to close the achievement gap and to provide every student with an excellent college prep education--particularly ELLs. If you're looking to launch something similar, or simply want ideas and resources for your bilingual classroom, I want to help in any way I can!

Monday, December 21, 2009

December Staff Satisfaction



A synthesis of a mid-December staff satisfaction survey I conducted via Survey Monkey. Not necessarily directly related to dual language, but given what a challenge the launch year is, no aspect of staff satisfaction can be taken out of the context of two-way immersion and the work it requires to implement well.

Media Spotlight

I think I forgot to mention that back near the beginning of the school year, our little local Mission newspaper, The Progress Times, featured our school's dual language launch on their front page; click here to read the article. The local district, Mission CISD, has apparently developed a definite distaste for this new little spirited charter school that is IDEA Academy Mission (inevitable when a new kid moves in down the block), and a few people here and there have dubbed our featured program a "producto inflado" (inflated product), meaning that it looks and sounds better than it is. Well...come judge for yourselves y'all. It's very hard NOT to be impressed with what my teachers have done with our two-way immersion launch. And this is just the beginning!

Mid-Year Reflection

Our first semester of two-way immersion is almost over. Since my last post we've had two more visits from Dr. Mercuri. She spent a half day with each grade level. Some big "illuminations" resulting from the meeting with each grade level:

1st grade: We really began to think long and hard about language objectives and how to craft them. We came to realize that it doesn't necessarily have to be a separate "self-contained" language objective for every daily class period. Instead, we learned that language objectives within a given content area can be longer-term (ie: weekly), but from this objective we should "unpack" daily, scaffolded, "bite-sized" daily objectives. For example, in a science unit on rocks, we might craft the sequence of language objectives something like this:


  • Monday: Students will identify rocks with specific characteristics (ex: individual or groups of students have a few rocks and hold up rock(s) as teacher calls out characteristics, such as "smooth," "rough," "black," "shiny," etc) This is a LISTENING language objective--students don't yet have to produce language but they are listening and comprehending.
  • Tuesday: Students will orally describe a rock. (ex: student has a particular rock and must orally describe it, perhaps using a sentence frame to support language use at the sentence level; "My rock is _______.") Students are producing language orally--this is a SPEAKING language objective. For beginning language learners we might only expect the use of one particular adjective.
  • Wednesday: Students will write a sentence describing a rock. (ex: student does what he/she did yesterday, but this time in writing) This is a WRITING language objective--we might even use a more complex sentence frame today to encourage children to use more than one adjective in describing their rock: "My rock is _____ and _____.")
  • Thursday: Students will compare 2 rocks. (ex: students work in bilingual pairs and orally complete the following sentence frames: Our rocks are similar because they both _________. Our rocks are different because one is ______ but the other is ________. Perhaps they could use a Venn Diagram to prepare for this more complex level of thinking and language production.)

So on and so forth...

I had a huge light go on for me--I realized that language objectives were tightly connected to different modes of thinking and different ways of visually organizing information. I began seeing how the same graphic organizers and sentence frames could be used across all content areas to promote high level thinking and explanations of such thinking. I immediately went to the Thinking Maps website (www.thinkingmaps.com), pulled out release TAKS tests from grades 3 - 6, etc. and began drafting a set of graphic organizers/thinking maps, accompanied by general sentence frames, that we could use to much more systematically and powerfully build comprehension, high-level thinking, and academic language production. For example, a simple Venn Diagram for comparing and contrasting has 2 sentence frames connected to it:
______ and _____ are similar because __________. ______ and ______ are different because ____________. This could be used in reading, writing, math, science, social studies, anywhere!

Here are some quick examples...





We now just need to translate into Spanish.


Kinder: The Kinder team had been experimenting with Preview-View-Review quite a bit and decided that instead of adding Preview-View-Review in their regular lesson plans, they'd create a document that just contained their P-V-R plans. It was obvious they were a little further along in this area than the other grade levels. Some great things kinder is doing to make P-V-R more powerful:

  • posting same vocabulary words (in different languages) with the same visual in both the Spanish and English classrooms
  • when content areas transfer to the partner teacher (every three weeks), teachers exchange anchor charts (ex: a reading workshop chart outlining what readers do and don't do during independent reading) so that the partner teachers can recreate them with the same visuals in the other language.
  • every classroom has the same unit anchor chart (for example, during a unit on the 5 senses, each teacher posted the outline of a child on the inside of their classroom door with the title: How did I use my 5 senses today? or ¿Cómo usé mis 5 sentidos hoy? Teachers would give students a chance to review their learning each day (from either English or Spanish classes) and record its connection to the 5 senses using this ongoing anchor chart)
  • Whole grade level team planning of P-V-R for the upcoming week
I'm going to stop and explain a little bit about the evolution of structured collaboration on our campus (as I think I've neglected to explain it here)--we've understood more and more clearly the importance of team planning in our model. Every grade level has 60 min of common conference time per day (in addition to about 110 min of personal planning time scattered throughout the week). The common conference times have some very specific objectives:
  • Monday: Grade Level Team Meetings (facilitated by the grade level leader--agenda items can cover anything and everything. It's often about logistical things--field lessons, homework, upcoming events, etc--though 2 grade levels have often started spending about 15 min each week discussing a book they're all reading). Once every three weeks team leaders are expected to dedicate 15 - 20 min of this meeting to discussing students teachers are considering referring to the SAC (Student Assistance Committee--part of RTI). This is called Pre-SAC.
  • Tuesday: Personal Planning (we try to leave Tuesday open as this is when we schedule SAC meetings, LPAC meetings for ELLs, etc. Lesson plans are always due Tuesday nights, so this, hopefully, gives teachers the chance to sometimes work on them during Tuesday conference.
  • Wednesday: Same Language Partner Planning -- every grade level has 2 English teachers and 2 Spanish teachers. They divide the planning together. Let's say that for a given 3 week period Spanish teachers are teaching Reading Workshop and Math (instead of Writing Workshop & Our World--taught in English for those same 3 weeks). Every teacher also teaches Language and Word Study every day, so that children get this in both languages every day. Spanish Teacher A would create the lesson plans for Reading Workshop & Math while Spanish Teacher B would create the plans for Language and Word Study and Centers. During Wednesday's conference period, they review all plans together so that both teachers are on the same page and fully understand the lesson plans created by the other, have the resources they need, etc.
  • Thursday: Bilingual Team Planning -- After both English teachers and both Spanish teachers get on the same page within their respective languages of instruction on Wednesdays, they are ready to come together to collaborate across languages on Thursdays. My teachers have tried several different things for this meeting--first it was just in pairs (the Spanish teacher and English teacher that teach the same 2 homerooms), then it was as an entire grade level (both English teachers and both Spanish teachers), but both my Kinder and 1st grade teams have decided upon a balance of the two. For the first 30 minutes of this meeting, they meet as an entire grade level and identify key areas they need the partner language teachers to preview or review for. This helps every teacher of the team better understand how their instruction contributes to the overarching unit of inquiry and also how their teaching helps reinforce instruction in the other lanuage. It also helps them identify how everyone can help children make critical connections across languages and transfer knowledge and skills from one to the other. The 2nd 30 minutes of the meeting is spent in separate bilingual pairs (just 2 teachers)--here they discuss individual students they teach together, share data, agree on key procedures or approaches that need to be kept consistent across both classrooms, etc. Last week (week of Dec 14 - 18) I observed both Kinder and 1st conduct this bilingual team/pair meeting and saw we've come a loooong way compared to the beginning of the year!)
  • Friday: Problem of Practice (or) Personal Planning -- I reserve Fridays for grade level "problem of practice" meetings. Or, if this doesn't happen, teachers have additional personal planning time. Problem of Practice meetings can be really powerful. This is where I can address common needs across the grade level--as I observe and debrief with all first grade teachers, I might find that there are certain areas of instruction in which all of first grade could benefit from support in. So, I facilitate "problem of practice" meetings where I'll help develop grade levels around a particular aspect of instruction. We might watch video, observe in other classrooms, hold discussions, etc. Some example of "problem of practice" meetings are: Writing strong objectives, Posting and communicating objectives to students, Increasing student engagement to 100%, etc.. Often a by-product of these meetings are observation templates that teachers use to conduct peer observations...10 min "peeks" into a colleague's classroom, focused on our current problem of practice. It makes sure teachers step outside of their own isolated classrooms every once in a while. I expect each teacher to conduct a minimum of one 10-min peer observation every 2 weeks. My assistant tracks completion of this expectation.
That sums up how we've structured collaborative planning. Teams are learning to be better about assigning a time-keeper and note-taker each meeting. They're also reporting that without these meetings (Wednesday and Thursday meetings in particular) their following week of instruction can sometimes really suffer. As a school lead team, we're working to make sure we never interfere with Wed and Thurs meetings if at all possible. We're working to really safeguard this time and treat it as something of very high-priority.

I also dedicated an entire Faculty Wednesday afternoon professional development session (students have early release so we can hold PD on Wednesdays) to "fine-tuning" collaboration. I gave grade level teams substantial time to discuss and plan together. They had to identify clear objectives for each collaboration session, articulate standing agenda items (and time allocation for each), and identify common obstacles to meeting efficiency & efficacy and brainstorm solutions. They had to discuss meeting facilitation and roles/responsibilities of each team member. They reviewed team norms and re-committed themselves to this. Each grade level turned in a written synopsis of their decisions to me (I, in turn, reviewed these with Dr. Mercuri for feedback--she was highly complimentary of the strides teachers were making in this area).

I also talked to her about another challenge that teachers keep bringing up--the tri-weekly transfer of content areas (all except Language and Word Study). Teachers have expressed that they feel "out of it" when it comes back around to them to teach each content area every 3 weeks. They feel unsure about what objectives have been taught and how individual students are progressing toward mastery of these objectives. I discussed several solutions with Dr. Mercuri:
  • Changing subjects bi-weekly or weekly: This would shorten the time during which teachers don't teach a particular content area, leaving them less "in the dark" about what's being taught. Dr. Mercuri recommended we consider this--either piloting this year or considering for next year. Melissa (grade 1 team leader) posed the idea to her team but they preferred to keep it tri-weekly.
  • Improving communication between bilingual partner teachers: If we don't change the timeframe of content area transfers, then we need to improve flow of information between the teachers sharing students. I proposed one idea to teachers and they seemed to like it--I suggested that once every 3 weeks that their co-teacher cover class for the morning or afternoon, giving them the chance to spend a whole AM or PM session in their team teacher's classroom--watching carefully how and what is being taught in each content area to facilitate a more seamless transfer of subjects from one language to the other. I was very honest about my only worry--that it would taken them from their own instruction too often, but my teachers' feedback was that, at least in these beginning stages, the longterm benefits would outweigh that drawback. They felt this would really help transfer of subjects.
  • Finally, I need to figure out how to better use Faculty Wednesday (periodically) to facilitate transfer of student achievement data across team teachers. We've done a couple of exercises, but nothing that really has become an ingrained and regular practice for us. One data analysis activity we did do a month (or so) ago seemed to be very powerful in getting bilingual teaching pairs to look at data together. I printed out the most current student achievment data in reading levels, high frequency word mastery, math objective mastery, etc. Teachers worked together to "color-code" results according to the following categories (I gave them clear quantitative guidelines around this too): CRITICAL (far below expected standard--red); BORDERLINE (below expected standard--yellow); MASTERY (meeting expected standard--green); EXCEEDING (well above expected standard--blue). Using this color-coded spreadsheets, teaching pairs then created student priority lists for each homeroom, with the highest-need students at the top. We divided the list into English-dominant and Spanish-dominant students, so we could prioritize within language dominance. I also added a column for "behavior-priority" children. Sometimes a child might not be struggling academically, but might be a top-priority child (for interventions and support) due to behavior. I'm trying to use these priority lists to help me better focus my observations and debriefs of teachers. That particular activity is one I plan to replicate periodically as we get more data.

VACATION PRIORITIES

During this Christmas vacation, I want to take some time to do the following:
  1. Think through a pilot of changing our tri-weekly subject transfers to weekly or bi-weekly. Perhaps Kinder would be willing to pilot this? I'll consider presenting the idea to them but will not force anything at this point. They are already trying so many new things--any other changes/tweaks will require 100% investment on their part in order to be succesful.
  2. Analyze progress monitoring reading data for our 1st grade Spanish dominant students reading at a critically low level. Figure out some short-term and long-term solutions.
  3. Start planning what kind of curriculum work must be done in preparation for the 2010 - 11 school year and when/how it will be done. What materials need to be purchased? What professional development needs to take place?
  4. Other reflections on the past semester... Dr. Mercuri and I had a conference call just over a week ago. She was very kind and complimentary as she praised the work that has gone on at our campus thus far. She encouraged me to record as much as I could concerning the process we've gone through. She mentioned that she's considering writing/editing a book about curriculum planning for dual immersion programs, and asked me to write down as much as possible in preparation for potentially contributing our school's experience to this collection of articles/essays. What an opportunity that would be. For that reason I'm trying to get as much as possible down in this blog. I know some things make sense only to me, but hopefully it will be reminder enough for me to come back to and really get down on paper so that other schools can benefit from our successes and victories.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Quarterly Info Sessions

We decided to hold quarterly dual language information sessions for primary parents. This time our presentation for English-dominant parents was even more different than that for Spanish-dominant parents. We focused much more on questions and concerns that we've heard from both sets of parents. They are related but definitely unique.

Spanish-dominant parents need to understand the critical role their child's home language plays in the development of a 2nd language and the importance of learning to read that home language as the literacy skills will easily transfer once their oral vocabulary in English is large enough to read and comprehend in that second language. Several Spanish-speaking parents have said things such as: "But we speak 100% Spanish at home. My child doesn't need to get Spanish here at school. We moved to this country so that they could speak English." This is when I explain the research that shows how children that receive elementary school instruction that includes significant and sustained instructional time in the home language actually end up with higher achievement in English down the road. I also explain the third generation phenemenon--that because Spanish is a minority language here in the U.S and because it wields much less social power (unfortunately), we have to work even harder to maintain it in. To parents that say "but my child will never lose their Spanish--it's all we speak at home," I quickly respond that it's almost a guarantee, however, that their child's children will most likely speak very little Spanish if the value of Spanish is not explicitly taught to every generation. Then they'll be left struggling to communicate with their own grandchildren. I share how we have many third generation children in our very own classrooms--whose parents have personally shared with me that they cannot talk much with their own grandparents because of the language barrier. I've now had several parents excitedly share how our dual language program is giving their child the language skills to communicate much more meaningfully with their Spanish-speaking grandparents. Language is not just about language. It's about culture and family and heritage.

English-dominant have fears too. Some of them don't see the need for a second language. However, most of the parents I've spoken with here do understand the value of speaking both languages but they're a bit afraid that spending several hours a day in Spanish will put their children behind academically. To respond to this concern I discuss research that highlights the many benefits a second language offers cognitively, emotionally, and socially. I also reassure them that research on two-way immersion shows that English speakers in the program, on average, do just as well (and often better) than English speakers not in a bilingual program. In other words, it's win-win!

We advertised last week's meeting (Tuesday October 27th @ 6 PM) for several weeks in the Family Connection, our weekly parent newsletter. We had a total of about 10 parents, not a strong showing, but a good small "sample" size for trying out our new presentations. Both the English session (I facilitated) and the Spanish session (Luzdivina, my assistant principal, facilitated) went well according to the feedback forms. We'll definitely improve our advertising for next time!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Who am I? Where am I?

Whoa. I knew this whole thing was gonna rock my world but I didn't quite know just how much. Yes, I come in with experience as a former dual language teacher. Yes, I've read everything I can get my grubby li'l hands on about the research and practice of two-way immersion. Yes, I'm insanely passionate about the dual language approach. Yes, I've visited multiple dual language schools and spoken with dozens of administrators leading dual language schools across the country. Yes, my school is filled with teachers who, for the most part, are 100% bought in to our program. Yes, I've hired a consultant to help guide me through the instructional planning part of putting dual language on the ground. So why do I feel only slightly conscious--like I was hit on the head with a brick on, say, August 24th (AKA the day the children arrived) and am only now (barely) beginning to come to my senses?

The first few weeks and all the additional transitions that are a regular part of a day when team teaching (moving back and forth between the English and Spanish teachers' classrooms) had me wondering if this was the right way to make the model work. However, this past week or two the children seem so much more settled and comfortable with the transitions. I'm also beginning to see the power of dividing language by teacher--there are children who would otherwise refuse to speak in Spanish that are busting out full sentences simply because they know their Spanish teacher will only ever speak just Spanish to them. Consciously or subconsciously, their brain knows that "when I'm in Sra. Herrera's classroom, I've just gotta speak Spanish." We see the same in our English classrooms too. The model is beginning to bear fruit.

We are now also starting to encounter anxious parents who want immediate results in their child's second language process. One already withdrew and another is threatening to withdraw; I have a meeting with this parent on Monday to (hopefully!) convince her to keep her daughter in the program. This family is Spanish-dominant and the mother is concerned that, 6 weeks into kindergarten, she is not yet reading in English. She says that the family moved to the U.S.A. so that the children could get a good English education so she's concerned that by her daughter receiving 50% of instruction in Spanish her growth in English will be slowed. I'm going to have to break it to her that we wouldn't typically expect her child to be reading at all this early in kinder--even in her dominant language! I also need to help her understand the (looooong) language learning process and the role childrens' native language plays in the learning of the 2nd language. Finally, I'll whip out the trusty Thomas and Collier graph and show, in no uncertain terms, that the long term results of bilingual instruction are staggering. It helps English achievement tremendously! I'm looking forward to this parent meeting.

These anxieties are normal right now--parents don't realize how long this process takes! That's why we ask them to commit to our program for 5 - 7 years. It really does take that long for young children (still developing ther first language) to acquire a second language at high academic levels. I've also decided that I need to hold a (minimum) quarterly information meeting for parents who haven't yet attended one or parents who still have questions and concerns. We held several last year and include an overview of dual language in our recruitment information session, but--other than that--haven't held any info sessions this year. Definitely an oversight I won't repeat next year.

Teachers are really starting to get into the groove of things. Tomorrow will mark the end of each grade level's first unit of inquiry. They're starting to better see how their units can truly become transdisciplinary and how they can weave their unit concepts and topics throughout every content area for a much richer and contextualized dual language experience. I also had Melissa and Ilse, an English/Spanish team in first grade, share excitedly that they had worked together for Mel to preview dictionaries and their format in English in preparation for a science activity in which students created huge dictionary posters with vocab from their current Fabrics unit. They're beginning to find opportunities to apply preview-view-review strategies across the languages. Bravo!

Dr. Mercuri had her first observation/debrief consulting day with us on Thurs 9/24. We saw every teacher in action and met with grade levels for team meetings. She provided some feedback and also listened to their questions and concerns. Some of my big takeaways from that day--

**all roads must lead to meaning--in a dual language school we can never teach anything that doesn't incorporate comprehension and meaning.

**we need to increase and improve oral language experiences. I learned that oral language experiences should encourage students not just to listen to their second language but to
produce it. Therefore we need a lot more singing, chants, etc. We also need to consistently employ the daily news oral language structure and use it to reinforce elements of language such as vocabulary, syntax, conventions, etc.

**we must be more purposeful in our sheltered instruction. We must alway have second language learners in might and plan ahead to provide them with the supportive scaffolding they'll need to also be successful in mastering lesson objectives, even though they aren't delivered in their dominant language.

**we haven't really started capitalizing on the preview-view-review strategy. Dr. Mercuri suggested we structure more formal planning at three different levels to better facilitate this: (1) grade level planning (ex: entire 1st grade team) (2) language partner planning (ex: all Spanish teachers in 1st grade) and (3) team teacher planning (English/Spanish teacher pair sharing the same 2 classes of children. As a result I set up a schedule to provide more structure to the use of each grade level's common conference time each day--

Mon: Grade Level Planning
Tues: Personal Planning (lesson plans due each Tues evening for the following week)
Wed: Language Partner Planning
Thurs: Team Teacher Planning
Fri: "Problem of Practice" (instructional development) with principal


We began following this this past week--I need to monitor this more closely and provide additional support around how to do use these different types of planning more effectively (specifically in helping teachers understand how each serves a somewhat different purpose and looks at instructional planning from a slightly different perspective). Overall, however, I'm pleased with how this is strengthening instruction. I also rearranged enrichment & PE schedules so that teachers have some additional personal planning time at different points in the week. I'm hoping that will help them (everyone was feeling a bit frantic and as if there was no time to do much planning/prep on campus. They weren't incredibly far from the truth! :) I do think we found a good plan, however. I'm crossing my fingers that teacher morale goes up. It's been pretty low lately, particularly with my new (brand new as well as just new to IDEA) teachers. I think the reality of what they signed up for is really hitting them. Some are embracing it and working through it, while a couple are having a much rougher time.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Week of 8/24/09

I'm also posting weekly reflections on a google group I set up, so sometimes I'll just cut and paste from that:

From my perspective, it seemed like the half day schedule (7:30 AM - 12 PM) made getting to know students really difficult in a team-teaching setup. Might want to consider eliminating having half-days for the first week next year? Next year, we need to be more strategic in getting ready to get to know a lot of children & fast....and to have them feeling completely at home in both of their classrooms. I knew this would be difficult but didn't proactively plan ahead well enough. Teachers are reporting that dividing language by teacher and never having to change languages is much easier than last year's language of the day approach. So glad we took the time to have our 3-day TWI institute as it really provided critical background knowledge for conversations this week.
Teachers are reporting lots of parent confusion with TWI. I need to schedule additional info sessions ASAP (interesting since every parent that registered has attending our introductory intro session--lots of time given to dual language. Must not have been clear messaging in the info sessions).

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Getting Personal

While I've known it for years, it becomes more and more apparent to me that language is a deeply personal issue and that our opinions on language and how it should be taught are rooted primarily in personal experience and mindsets. We met as a group of principals yesterday--the task was to bring drafts of our plans for a bilingual model for each school and to use a protocol to provide feedback to one another as we worked to make sure everyone's plans met the requirements of state education code. Every one of us is in a different place with respect to our bilingual models--as we should be....

First, because each of our schools has a unique combination of English and Spanish speakers. While we are all located in the Rio Grande Valley, it's fascinating to see the differences in numbers. For example, our North McAllen campus is only 15% ELL while our Brownsville campus is over 60% ELL. The rest of us are somewhere in between (my campus is 50% ELL). This DOES make a difference--for example, a two-way immersion bilingual program is simply not feasible as a school-wide model for IDEA Quest in McAllen, though the principal, Sharon, would have loved to launch one. They simply don't have enough ELLs to serve as Spanish language models.

Second, we each come to the table with vastly different personal experiences, opinions, and knowledge of bilingual ed and second language acquisition. Some really great questions came up--Dolores asked me to send her some of the questions that surfaced during our breakout session, so I thought I'd include them (and my two cents) :) here. The answers, obviously, represent some of my thinking around possible responses.

1) What if I don't speak Spanish? How can I coach Spanish teachers? How do I (or other non-bilingual teachers) participate in the language of the day?

First of all, Language of the day is just one small element of a bilingual approach. It definitely helps by 1) adding value to the minority language and 2) providing additional opportunities for kids to build more everyday basic vocabulary in both languages; however, it's not a deal breaker. In other words, you can have a bilingual program without it.

However, given that it does help a lot, if a school decides to include "language of the day" as part of their model, non-bilingual staff (just like monolingual students) can use the language of the day to the best of their abilities (this might just be a single Spanish word in an English sentence, phrases, or full conversations, depending on language proficiency) Modeling the learning of a second language can go a long way! :)

As far as coaching teachers instructing in Spanish, there are a few things to think about. First of all, if the lesson isn't comprehensible to you, chances are there students also not understanding. Excellent language teaching should always focus on "comprehensible input"--delivering instruction that uses the various modes of learning so powerfully that the concepts are clear in spite of a language barrier. If you have Spanish-speakers on your lead team--other admins or coaches--you can engage them in joint observations of Spanish instruction. They can help fill in any gaps--things you didn't quite understand.

2) I have only about 12 non-spanish speaking PK students....all the rest are Spanish-dominant. If we teach PK in L1, they're going to have to be in a bilingual classroom--how do I work that?

The 12 English dominant children would be in a classroom with 12 Spanish dominant students (they might be 12 of your ELLs that already come with high levels of proficiency in both languages or children with "off the charts" scores in Spanish). You'd have to really utilize a strong bilingual co-teacher (aide) here, so that a significant portion of the day is spent in small groups, so that ELLs spend substantive time learning the key content in Spanish, even though whole group activities may need to be English. In this sort of setup, you'd need to find as many ways to "sneak in" additional Spanish as possible--maybe the morning meeting could be in Spanish one day, English the next, etc.

3) I'm going to start with about 20 - 30 min Spanish daily and increase up the grades, introducing Spanish reading in 2nd grade for all students....what's wrong with that?

First of all, hats off for at least considering Spanish important enough to include in core instruction! To clarify what this approach really is....this is a "Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language" approach that allows monolingual English speakers to learn to read first in their home language (allowing their brains to fully practice all aspects of reading, including high-level comprehension) but doesn't allow Spanish speakers to do the same. Unless parents are teaching them to read at home the same way we teach them at school, many of them will only go through the "motions" of reading--connecting letters and sounds without having the vocabulary required to really access the text's meaning. They may go for several years without their brains having sustained "practice" at reading for meaning, not just decoding and sounding out words that may or may not have meaning.

A "super quick" read on some of the basic theories/research that support the importance of initial literacy instruction in Spanish can be found in: http://www.ldonline.org/article/Effective_Reading_Instruction_for_Struggling_Spanish-Speaking_Readers:_A_Combination_of_Two_Literatures and other articles like this one.

4) Another program I worked in (where Spanish support existed but the focus was on English) was successful.

First of all, what do we mean when we say "it worked." We have to be careful (I do it too!) that we don't generalize without data to back up our conclusions. We need to be critical professionals who make decisions based not only on our own qualitative experiences but on approaches (our own & others'--especially in aggregate) that have shown sustained quantitative success. The "numbers" don't tell the whole story, but they do tell an important part of it. The research that we do have points overwhelmingly to increasingly higher student achievement in English when students have a strong and sustained foundation in their first language.

5) Many local districts have been unsuccessful with dual language.

The name of any model means very little if it's not being implemented properly. Some common errors made in local dual language (or any bilingual model) implementation might include:

  • uninvested/uninformed principals
  • uninvested/uninformed teachers
  • uninvested/uninformed parents
  • uninvested/uninformed central office
  • lack of patience--"pulling out" in fear that the long-term language learning process won't take place
  • succumbing to testing pressures and putting the 2nd language "on hold" while preparing for TAKS, etc (for ELLs, this can result in "too much Spanish")
  • poor program integrity (usually to transition them to English more quickly than the model calls for)
  • bilingual teachers that are "bilingually certified" in word, but not necessarily expert in teaching language learners
  • generally mediocre/poor teaching
Also remember that research shows that the FULL benefits of dual language (in terms of achievement in English) aren't fully evident until high school

6) I've taught too many middle school students who came out of bilingual programs with very low English proficiency.

Yep, the research is clear that not all bilingual programs are created equal--FAR from it! The bilingual programs that show the highest sustained achievement in English are those that include large amounts of instruction (at least half the day) in the home language while learning the second language--all the way to fifth grade. As noted in the answer above, if districts "cave" to testing pressure and don't do a go job with intial teaching, they are forced to spent large amounts of extra time in the language of assessment--this decision can hurt ELLs by spending too MUCH time in Spanish and not enough in English. There must be a careful balance and strict program integrity!


7) How will assessment work? Will HQ (central office) understand that language learning takes time?

By allowing Spanish dominant children to show proficiency in their strongest language on state assessments, it should actually BOOST achievement. Children can show their "true colors" sooner. At IDEA Mission, we do, however, assess in both languages in the classroom (depending on the language of instruction) as we must frequently monitor progress both language acquisition and mastery of content objectives. The goal should be on-grade-level achievement in the student's first language EVERY year, and on-grade-level achievement in the student's 2nd language in 3 - 5 years. The goal should be for every student to perform on grade level in every content area in English by 5th grade. This is where LPAC meetings take on a whole new significance--we've got to use those meetings to really monitor ELLs' progress and to use data to determine in which language is the student most likely to be successful for high-stakes state assessements.

8) I am firmly against separating bilingual students into their own separate classes--I believe that this is today's segregation.

(I personally believe the same!) :) One option is to choose a two-way model for your whole school (or offer a two-way "strand" for Spanish speakers and interested English speakers). You might also choose an approach that keeps homerooms heterogeneous but utilizes lots of small group instruction to ensure substantive L1 instruction. Remember though, the the #1 predictor for ELLs' success in English is their level of proficiency in their first language, so regardless of the "nuts and bolts" of any model, substantive and sustained L1 instruction in both literacy and content is a MUST.

I think also that this makes the late-transition model more attractive (if a school decides not to go with two-way)--it would allow upper elementary ELLs to spend much/most of their day in heterogeneously mixed classes as the amount of Spanish decreases (but is still there). I think Rosy & Sharon brought this up as a valid point. The sustained 50/50 one way model is ideal in terms of amount of Spanish used through 5th grade, but is it appropriate to keep students divided by language every year, especially in grades 3 - 5 when social relationships and peer acceptance becomes more and more important? Something to think about...

Friday, July 31, 2009

Institute Over

Our 3-day Institute finished today--It was excellent, but I think everyone was a bit brain-fried by the end of it. I also reflected a little more on the dynamics created by throwing everyone together in a group (it was the first time many of them have worked together) without prior team-building or norm setting experiences. Even though we didn't have time to do this extensively (that's what I'm dedicating the week of Aug 10th to), I should have done it at least briefly. By the end of today it was clear that we need to agree upon and adhere to common meeting norms and that we have a LOT of close collaboration ahead (which means inevitable moments of tension and friction)--we've got to have some really positive experiences together as a school team and then as grade-level teams and team-teaching partners from the beginning. I'm learning. :)

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Two-Way Immersion Institute

The first two days of our kick-off Two-Way Immersion Institute were big hits. I facilitated the first one--I wanted to send a strong message that as a school leader I'm 100% invested in making dual language work and that, in many ways, I know what I'm talking about. That may sound slightly strange, but I do think teachers deserve the security and confidence that comes from knowing that it's not a "blind leading the blind" situation--that they have an invested, capable, & knowledgeable leader. They also need to know that I'm also learning as I go, but I have resources I can draw upon to find answers when I don't have them myself.

The detailed outline for this first day was as follows:

TWO WAY IMMERSION INSTITUTE
DAY ONE

8:30 – 8:45 Welcome/Team-Building/Getting to Know You Activity

1) Name & position (offer prize at breaks, lunch & end for anyone who can successfully ID everyone’s names) (5 min)

2) Artful Closer (15 min—8 for drawing; 7 for share out)

This activity begins with reflection, proceeds through nonverbal communication, and ends in a discussion. You can use ARTFUL CLOSER to debrief participants after an experiential activity. You may also use it as the final activity at the end of a workshop. You may even use it as an opening ice-breaker by asking participants to think about common personal experiences. For example, I began a recent session on presentation skills by asking participants to process their experiences with the most inspiring speech they had ever heard.

Purpose
To reflect on a common experience and share insights with each other.

Participants
Any number. Best for 8 to 30 participants.

Time
20 to 45 minutes

Supplies
* Large sheets of drawing paper
* Crayons of different colors
* Timer
* Whistle

Flow
Form teams. Divide participants into equal-sized teams of 4 to 6 members each. Seat team members around a table.

Review the experience. Specify a common experience: LEARNING YOUR SECOND LANGUAGE. Ask participants to silently think back on what happened during that experience. Invite them to close their eyes and visualize the highlights of the event. After a suitable pause, ask participants to silently focus on one or more lessons they learned from the experience.

Distribute supplies. Place sheets of drawing paper and boxes of crayons in the middle of each table. Ask each participant to take a sheet of paper and to share the crayons.

Time to draw. Invite participants to draw an abstract picture that captures the essence of major insights from the experience. Discourage them from focusing on artistic quality and encourage them to flow with their intuitive thoughts and feelings. Announce a 10-minute time limit for this artistic activity.

Time to stop. At the end of 10 minutes, blow the whistle and ask participant-artists to stop their activity. Reassure them that it does not matter if their artwork is not yet complete.

Interpret other people’s pictures. At each table, ask participants to take turns holding up the picture. While doing this, ask each person to perform the difficult task of keeping her mouth shut. Invite other participants around the table to treat the picture as a Rorschach inkblot and report what they see in it. It is not necessary that participants take turns in presenting their interpretation. Anyone may call out her insights whenever she feels inspired.

Interpret your own picture. After all pictures have been interpreted, ask the table teams to repeat the process. This time, however, each person should hold up the picture and describe what insights she meant to convey.
Debriefing

After the sharing of insights, encourage a discussion at each table. Use questions similar to these to structure this discussion:

* What insights were the most frequently mentioned?
* What insights were unexpected and unique?
* What was the most powerful insight that affected you?
* How do you expect this insight to change your future behavior?


(should have allowed at least 10 more minutes for this intro activity)

8:45 – 9:30 Concepts related to Bilingualism, Biliteracy, Biculturalism

BIG IDEAS
• It is beneficial for us to have a common language to discuss bilingualism and biliteracy.
• Language, literacy, culture, and learning are interdependently connected.

OBJECTIVES
• Participants will classify terminology related to bilingualism, biliteracy and dual language education.
• Participants will state the relationships among these terms.

SESSION ACTIVITIES: DUAL U: 01-01

1) Pairs write vocab on individual sticky notes; open sort (10 min)
2) Ask a few pairs with varied responses to share their categories & why; clarify meaning and model correct usage of words (5 min)
3) Model connect-2 or connect-3 statements; have each pair come up with 2 statements (5 min) write sentence frame (and visual of key vocab) to model this strategy
4) Ask several pairs to share their statements (5 min)
5) Have teachers rearrange terms into 3 categories (closed sort): Terms I Know and Can Use; Terms I Think I Know But Would Probably Not Use Yet; Words that Are Still Confusing (they post on chart paper) (10 min)
6) Lingering questions? (10 min)


9:30 – 10:45 Critical Features of IDEA Mission’s Dual Immersion Model

BIG IDEAS
• We have developed a Dual Immersion model at IDEA Mission that is tailored to our students’ demographics, strengths, & needs, as well as our school’s long-term academic goals.

OBJECTIVES
• Participants will summarize key features of IDEA Academy Mission’s dual immersion model.

SESSION ACTIVITIES
Part 1
o KWL chart about dual immersion at IDEA Academy Mission (Know (write even if wrong), Want to Know, Learned); make sure I number questions
o Participants read our school language philosophy. Code text: underline answers to questions on KWL and write number next to it; put a question mark next to something that makes you think of a new question.
o Return to KWL to revise K (if necessary) and add Learnings; add new questions

Part 2
o Peanut butter/jelly: pair activity (one reads the other connects then switch): vocab related to our schedule
o Give each pair a navy week schedule. Review what each color means; go through & explain day. (Leave room for notes on handout)
o Tell them that during gold week students follow the same schedule but the languages they receive each content area in switches. Have them build and glue the gold block schedule (did not do this last gluing activity--went over time going through the schedule, but it was worth it. All but a couple of teachers rated their understanding of the schedule at a level 4 or 5 (out of 5); the remaining teachers at a level 3)
o Answer questions

Part 3
o Inside/outside circle
o Put questions on powerpoint; 1 person answers, the other one rates (according to answer criteria)

Name at least 4 subject areas students will study each day.
What language will students do guided reading in?
Explain what navy & gold blocks are.
During what part of the day will students focus very specifically on science & social studies content objectives?
What language will students receive Rise instruction in?
What language will students study math in?
What subject will students study in both languages every day? Why?
What is a “homebase?”
How does “circle time” work?

(should have allowed at least 15 - 20 more minutes for this session)

10:45 – 11:00 Break

11:00 – 12:00 Language Allocation Considerations

BIG IDEAS
• A language allocation plan is developed according to the goals of the program, the needs of the learners and available resources and staff.

OBJECTIVES
• Participants will compare and contrast various language allocation plans and support a plan for our school context.

SESSION ACTIVITIES: DUAL U: 02-03
• Introduce different ways of dividing language (time, person, place, or content)
• Scenarios of language use
• Use white boards to ID type of language use in scenarios (lots of "aha" moments as a result of this role play; didn't use white boards but should have) :)


12:00 – 12:15 Instructional strategy “step-back” (did not do this--had to skip to make up time)

12:15 – 1:30 Lunch (on your own)

1:30 – 2:15 Promoting the Non-English Language

BIG IDEAS
• Language use is language learning.
• Over-reliance on English in the early grades creates a dependency on it that becomes difficult to overcome: falling back on English in the early grades makes learning easier now, but more difficult later.
• Mastery of advanced academic material and cognitive skills in higher grades requires advanced levels of language competence; foundations of this competence must be laid in early grades to prepare students for learning through the non-English language.

OBJECTIVES
• Participants will identify and list strategies that help promote the non-English language in the dual language classroom.
• Participants will share and discuss whether the two languages in a dual language classroom deserve equal status.
• Participants identify and discuss the long-term difficulties that may arise from use of too much English in the dual language classroom.

SESSION ACTIVITIES: DUAL U: 03-01

1) Facilitator poses question: “Are there strategies that effectively reduce students’ use of English in the Spanish classroom?”
2) Teachers complete an agree/disagree chart
3) Compare thoughts with a partner using hand up-pair up
4) Partners then skim through the article “Help they’re using too much English!”
5) Partners brainstorm additional strategies using worksheet
6) Share with group on chart paper
7) Closing questions for discussion:
• Should the two languages in a classroom enjoy equal status or not?
• What difficulties may arise if too much English is allowed in the lower grades or as the amount of English increases in the upper grades? (The most powerful part of this session came as a result of teachers sharing their own unique experiences learning a second language--many had very negative experiences and felt "ashamed" of their ability to speak Spanish. Sharing their personal stories and connecting them to the broader history of language/culture divisions in the Rio Grande Valley makes the work of promoting the non-English language all the more important)


2:15 – 2:45 Initial Literacy Instruction

BIG IDEAS
• Expectations and concerns for initial literacy development should be considered separately for language minority and language majority students.
• In order to determine the initial language for reading/writing instruction, one must consider the status of the students’ language in the larger society.
• Informing all stakeholders in a dual language program of the specifics of the program can increase buy-in and decrease confusion about the rationale for delivering initial literacy instruction in one language vs. the other.

OBJECTIVES
• Participants will identify the problem(s) in a given scenario and list possible solutions and outcomes.
• Participants will decide on the appropriate language for initial literacy instruction for a particular student.
• Participants will discuss the need to inform all stakeholders of the rationale behind their initial literacy instruction policy.

SESSION ACTIVITIES: DUAL U: 03-04 (and 03-03)
1) Participants read the student scenario (partner read—one sentence each)
2) In groups of 4, fill out problem/solution template (assign each part a number so that every group member participates; those not writing are giving ideas and helping with spelling if asked)
3) Whole group discussion of various parts of template
4) Model follow-up parent/teacher discussion about this issue (if time)

(I actually skipped this session altogether, due to time. I was actually OK doing it since it was written to be such a short introduction (only 30 min) anyway. Much of it had already come up in prior discussions and it's something we'll come back to over and over again throughout the year.)


2:45 – 3:00 Break

3:00 – 3:50 Bilingual Partnerships in the Classroom

BIG IDEAS
• All students serve as language models for their peers.
• Children need explicit instruction and practice in how to work effectively in cooperative groupings.

OBJECTIVES
• Participants will understand why bilingual pairs are critical in a two-way immersion classroom.
• Participants will explain how they will set up bilingual pairings in their own classrooms.
• Participants will practice several cooperative structures that bilingual pairs can use in the classroom.

SESSION ACTIVITIES
1) Explanation of bilingual pairs & example
2) Quick practice with 8 real kids and their LAS scores
3) Activity: build a free-standing structure with straws (as a cooperative group)
a. Captain: (makes sure all are on task & participating; only one allowed to go to other groups or to teacher)
b. Scribe: writes data (if applicable)
c. Reporter: (shares out results verbally)
d. Materials Manager: (obtains and puts away materials)
4) Reflection on cooperative structures used throughout the day (numbered heads—1, 2, 3, 4 numbered in groups, I ask question, group confers, I call number and they answer)
a. What did you like?
b. What questions do you have?
c. What’s difficult about using cooperative structures?
d. Why are cooperatives structures useful in the classroom?

(Had I been more organized in getting this activity off the ground it would have been even more powerful--I didn't have all the materials completely ready nor were my directions crystal-clear so it fell a little flat...my own fault)


3:50 – 4:00 Wrap Up/Exit Slips/Prizes

I collected evaluation/feedback forms and every participant agreed/strongly agreed that they are highly invested in our Two-Way program and believe it will increase student achievement. They commented on the many things they learned--I got great feedback from Dolores that I could do a better job of checking for understanding (not just relying on teachers self-reporting that they understand)...gotta figure out how I can do a better job of that.

As far as Dr. Mercuri's sessions today, it was a lot for my staff to take in. Luckily she slowed it down and gave them plenty of work time to apply what she taught to their own unit planning. I told her I had no problems slowing it down--depth vs. breadth. She helped us understand the importance of interdisciplinary units of inquiry led by a big guiding question and helped us see the heirarchy of ideas and the relationships and connections between different parts of each of our units. Teachers were definitely feeling the "brain-stretch" but I think that's a good thing, as it means they're being pushed to think in new ways and approach planning and teaching units in a very different way. We have one more day with Dr. Mercuri, though she'll be back several times throughout the year and, hopefully, next year.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

New Student Registration: Day 1

Our first day of new student registration went incredibly well! We included a dual language station where every parent was again reminded of the key elements of our program, they signed an authorization form acknowledging that they will support their child in the program for 5 - 7 years, and handed out more copies of the parent information packet. Not a single negative comment from any of the (approximately) 125 elementary school families that attended today. The words of one mother of an English-dominant student: "I cannot WAIT for the Spanish program to begin!" Ahhh...music to my ears. I'm beginning to trust that all the work we've put into the information sessions for both new and returning students might just be paying off. I know all too well to think that concerns won't arise once classes start, but I'm hoping our efforts to educate and invest parents over the past several months will pay high dividends and minimize the concerns down the road. Day 2 ahead!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Two-Way Immersion: Not for the faint of heart

At the suggestion of my colleague, Irma Munoz, I've decided to start a blog about my school's journey toward implementing a school-wide two-way immersion bilingual model. In just two weeks all of my teachers will be attending the official kick-off training for our two-way model, a three day summer Two-Way Immersion Institute. And in only a month, almost 300 PK, K, and 1st grade students will begin receiving core instruction in 2 languages. But getting to this point has been in the making for a very long time....

2001
I return from my LDS mission in NYC--I'm now bilingual in English and Spanish and with a new career path in mind--education. I'm particularly committed to learning more about bilingual education, immigration, inner-city education, etc. I begin considering related topics for my Honors Thesis at BYU. I discover Teach For America and become very interested.

2003
I complete and defend my thesis. (1 page thesis summary: DOWNLOAD FILE) I decided to study Dominican-American transnationalism through themes and symbols in Julia Alvarez's How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. I walk away from the whole thesis-writing experience very passionate about making sure bilingual children have a voice both in their home language as well as their new language. I graduate from BYU with a double major in American Studies and Spanish, minor in music. I buy a car and make the long drive down to the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexico border. I join Teach For America (TFA) and prepare to teach billingual 3rd grade at Taylor Elementary in Mercedes (about 98% economically disadvantaged, 50% ELL). I learn that the entire Mercedes school district (at that time) follows a dual language immersion bilingual model. I research this approach and find it completely in line with what I believe about equity and excellence in bilingual education.   I'm very excited to begin.

2003 - 2004
I teach in a 50/50 bilingual classroom. Approximately half of the students are Spanish-dominant. The other half are English dominant. I teach the Spanish portion of the day: Spanish Language Arts, Science & Social Studies. My team teacher and mentor, Erica Munoz, teaches the English portion of the day: English Language Arts and Math. We switch homerooms at mid-day. I'm horrified by the principal's mandate that after Christmas dual language, writing, science, and social studies are "suspended," but am not completely surprised given the benchmark test scores. For several months, students only receive instruction in reading and math (and only in the language they will be assessed in). While the students in my and Erica's classes do relatively well on their 3rd Grade Reading and Math TAKS tests (math passing rates for our children are in the high 80%'s, and after the second administration in the low 90's for English Reading & 100% for Spanish Reading). As an entire grade level (8 homerooms, if I remember correctly) 83% of students met standard in Reading, 74% in Math.

2004-2005
I'm still teaching at Taylor and consider remaining at the school beyond my 2 year commitment through Teach For America. I am asked by the principal to teach a self-contained (vs. last year's team teaching placement) 90/10 dual language class. This is a class of students that received 90% Spanish 10% English in Kinder & 1st, 80/20 in 2nd grade, and were now moving into a 70/30 Spanish/English combination with me for third grade. I have only 15 students; all but 2 are highly Spanish dominant and the other 2 are English dominant children identified as gifted and talented. Their parents elected to place them in a full Spanish-immersion setting. I begin to see for myself that the students who are progressing most quickly in English are those who have the strongest oral language and literacy foundations in Spanish (exactly what the research says). I serve as our school's representative on the district dual language steering committee and for the first time I read Thomas and Collier's study comparing the effectiveness of all major bilingual education models. This is the first time I have ever seen data that appears to prove that a dual language enrichment approach to language may close and even invert the achievement gap for low-income English Language Learners. I'm hooked.

I enjoy my second year in the classroom and again am pleased when I find out that 100% of my students met standard on the Spanish Reading TAKS, with over half answering 80%+ of questions correctly. I'm excited to find that every student has progressed the equivalent of 1 grade level in reading and all but 1 have progressed over 2 grade levels. However, their math scores are not high. A little less than 70% of my students meet standard on the math TAKS--I am very disappointed in myself and set a personal goal to figure out how to better teach elementary math so I would never again shortchange my students that way (I'm happy to report that the following year 92% of my second graders met standard on their end of year math assessment). I am rocked to the core when I find out that only 68% of the school's fourth graders (our students in third grade the year before) pass Reading and only 63% pass Math. Again, however, I am not taken completely by surprise. When a school simply stops teaching certain areas of the curriculum, suspends their bilingual model, or allows their panic over scores to push ditto sheets, reading passages, and test prep questions all day for several months a year, it is no surprise to expect that within only a year or two those students will begin to fail miserably. I watch our school administration essentially self-destruct as they tell us, and I quote, "we just need to get this test out of the way and then we'll go back to teaching kids to read." It is during the last months of the 2004-05 school year that the school and district cave and decide to disband the dual language model and return to an early transition bilingual model, thinking that this will improve test results and fast. I am livid. I know very well that the only reason this model isn't working is because it isn't being implemented properly at all. I talk with our principal until I'm blue in the face but she is obsessed with improving short-term results and refuses to admit that her choices are hurting children long-term. I write to the superintendent and other key central office personnel and receive no response. I feverishly try to win over colleagues and urge them to speak up in defense of dual language but they are, understandably, tired and somewhat demoralized by this year's overall school results. I know that Taylor has some excellent teachers achieving stellar results, but I also know that--like great teachers in many other schools--they are islands of excellence in a sea of mediocrity. I realize that closing the achievement gap between rich and poor, between monolingual English speakers & English Language Learners, between white and minority students is the work of a school, not a single teacher. Are teachers the front lines? Absolutely. But the large gains students may achieve with one phenomenal teacher simply cannot and will not be sustained long term if their teacher the next year, and the next, and the next aren't also phenomenal teachers. Dual language, in spite of it's impressive track record in the research, will fail without long-term and school-wide investment in and integrity to the model. I am frustrated and, though it is a difficult decision, I decide to leave Mercedes ISD.

2005-2007
I am offered a second grade teaching position at IDEA Academy in Donna. It is a public charter school with a very clear mission--getting low-income kids to college. I am inspired by their goals and intrigued by their K - 12 campus model; it aligns to my belief it takes a school full of great teachers to close the achievement gap and really achieve deep reform.   IDEA's primary program is very young, so while there is no bilingual model yet I'm excited to help launch a new grade level and create things from scratch. I decide to suspend my obsession with bilingual education and just see what I learned at IDEA. After my final few months in Mercedes I am honestly not sure what to think about bilingual education any more, so I come to IDEA with an open mind and a willingness to suspend my judgement for a time. To be honest, my first two years of teaching have me wondering if it is even possible to implement a two-way immersion program to the degree required to really make it work. Is true program integrity realistically possible? I loop with my second graders to third grade in 2006 and become further convinced of the power of approaching instruction vertically (thinking long-term and across the grades instead of focusing only on the here and now). However, my opinions on bilingual ed are "suspended" no longer--by the end of my second year at IDEA I better understand the injustice created by a full English immersion approach to teaching young primary English Language Learners--both educationally and culturally. I initiate a few more late night online searches for the research and practice behind two-way immersion. I'm back in the game.

2007
In spring of 2007 I apply to become an IDEA school leader--to launch and lead a new expansion primary school as principal. I receive an offer and excitedly accept. I already know, however, that I cannot lead a school that doesn't fully embrace both Spanish and English and set bilingualism as a goal for all children.

2007 - 08
It is "year zero," my planning and preparing year for school launch. I am busy working on my masters degree at Sam Houston State, writing my school design plan, hiring teachers, recruiting students, writing curriculum plans, and the list goes on. I engage in several discussions with IDEA's senior leadership. Not only can I tell that I would not be permitted to launch a dual language program, but I am also honest with myself in recognizing that I'm not ready to take that kind of leap as a new school leader.   However, I still refuse to open a school that does not embrace Spanish and treat it as an asset, so I hire a Spanish teacher and create a schedule in which every student in every class receives 80 minutes of Spanish Language Arts daily. The remainder of the day will be spent in English instruction.

2008 - 09
While we agree as a school staff that our campus' model for supporting Spanish is certainly better than nothing, it is quickly evident to me that I must offer something much better to my students. I am led back to confirm what I've known for years. I see our current approach more and more as a "foot in the door" as far as organization senior leadership are concerned. My school opens with Kindergarten only--81% economically disadvantaged, 50% English Language Learners. Most come with some prior experience with Spanish, even if it isn't their dominant language. It really couldn't be a more perfect setup for two-way immersion. My staff and I begin to discuss options. I organize a book study and invite people across the district, particularly members of senior leadership. Tracy, our Chief Academic Officer, hosts one of the meetings and shares comments that evidence her growing support for dual language. While different people attended different sessions, we consistently have 5 - 8 attendees at each dinner meeting. It is a beginning.

One of my teachers sets up two local school visits. While 6 or 7 were invited, three of us go--me, my teacher, and another administrator who is a dual language supporter from IDEA's Donna campus (where I taught 2nd and 3rd grade). We visit two dual language schools in the neighboring PSJA school district and have long conversations with their principals. We get many ideas for what our model and our own classrooms can look like next year.

I speak several times with my manager and share increasingly determined plans to expand our 80 minutes of Spanish daily to a full 50/50 two-way immersion model where all children receive half of their daily instruction in English and the other half in Spanish. He is very nervous about the idea, but his concerns are normal and are the concerns typically encountered when anyone moves to launch a dual language program. Assessing in Spanish, the time spent in Spanish, staffing, budget, etc. My manager is clear on what it will take to convince him--evidence that two-way immersion will improve student achievement and, therefore, move our organization closer to our goals, one of which is to become an "exemplary" district. I ask to give a 1 hour presentation to all of IDEA's senior leadership--all the chiefs and other key stakeholders at HQ. Remarkably, I am able to schedule this. I work incredibly hard on my presentation, collaborating with Irma, Dolores (both at HQ) as well as a number of my teachers. Every single chief attends. It goes perfectly, and I get the green light to launch. (Presentation: DOWNLOAD FILE; Handout: DOWNLOAD FILE)

One of the challenges I ask the organization to take on is determining what our district's bilingual model would be. We are grossly out of compliance with state education code (TAC 89: DOWNLOAD FILE) in most of our elementary classrooms, as Texas requires a bilingual program be offered to any English Language Learner PK - 5 once the district has 20 students with the same home language in a grade level, which, of course, we do. However, several of our schools continue to offer only English immersion to English Language Learners. I also mention the recent landmark court decision in LULAC v TX in which the court ruled that the state of Texas was underserving its English Language Learners and ordered that big changes be made beginning with the 2009-10 school year (Judgment: DOWNLOAD FILE; Opinion: DOWNLOAD FILE) Luckily, the district can see in our upper elementary test results that our ELLs' passing rates are, in many exams, abyssmal, so they're open to my challenge. My manager commits to choosing a bilingual model, but it is now July 19 and while there have been many heated discussions, no real decisions have been made. Much of the trouble in gaining support internally is due to lack of understanding of the importance of early instruction in childrens' home language; here's a brief presentation (DOWNLOAD FILE) I created to try and address this. Our organization, though we support over 3,000 students here in the RGV, has no bilingual coordinator at the central office level, so I am not surprised that the effort to choose a bilingual model has not moved forward. I offer all the support I can but also decide that I have to focus on my own school and worry a little less about the entire organization for now. Eventually we'll get there.

I spend several evening hours a week drafting plans and a master schedule that capture how we want to implement two-way immersion at IDEA Mission. Children will spend half a day with their English teacher and the other half with their Spanish teacher. The will study half of their subjects in Spanish (the other half, obviously, in English) for three weeks. They will then switch the language in which they receive their classes every three weeks (we call them navy & gold blocks) (PK - 1 schedule: DOWNLOAD FILE) I look up dozens of dual language schools on the internet and email/call their principals or bilingual coordinators for information. I meet with Patty Rendon at the Region One service center; she managed a grant that helped several dual language schools become IB authorized (one of our goals), so I pick her brain for ideas to merge the two school-wide models. I go to the NABE conference in Austin and attend every session I can about two-way immersion and considerations for starting a program. I meet bilingual educators from across the country and gain valuable insights and ideas by networking with them. I also meet Dr. Sandra Mercuri, a professor at UT Brownsville and dual language expert. I am thoroughly impressed with her focus on instruction in a dual language classroom and within a few weeks following NABE, she and I agree on a consulting contract for next year.

In early May I conduct 4 parent information sessions that provide an overview of the changes we are making to next year's program (Eng Presentation: DOWNLOAD FILE; Span Presentation: DOWNLOAD FILE). Parents are even more excited than I anticipated. I collect feedback forms and find that almost all are highly invested in our plans and excited that their children will either maintain or regain the language of their heritage. A few parents of English-dominant children are nervous about possible academic lag in their students' first language, a very common concern. I am increasingly convinced that with Dr. Mercuri's help with teaching academic language and sheltered instruction to make input comprehensible to second language learners in a two-way classroom that my teachers will be well equipped in this critical and often-overlooked area.

Over half of our students' parents attend one of the two-way immersion meetings, but almost half do not. I send home letters outlining changes for next year's program (Spanish: DOWNLOAD FILE; English: DOWNLOAD FILE) and plan to hold more information sessions in the fall. An overview of our dual language philosophy and model is a key part of the information session every new student must attend to enroll at IDEA Academy Mission, so I hope that our frontloading of information and multiple attempts to invest parents in this big change will result in little to no student attrition come August.

Summer 2009
The actual launch of dual language at IDEA Academy Mission is just a few weeks away, and I must admit that I have recently had some moments of deep nervousness. To be expected. Flashbacks of Mercedes battle against the research I've read and the conversations I had with leaders of successful dual language schools. I constantly remind myself that what we are doing is difficult but must be done--very few schools in the country implement a whole-school dual language program (the majority are programs or strands within a school), let alone with the kinds of ambitious goals we have for our students given our mission to close the achievement gap and get kids to college. I firmly believe that if any school system in the country has an opinion about bilingual education, it should be IDEA Public Schools. We are dedicated to preparing children from the Rio Grande Valley for college--and over 80% of the families in the Valley reported on the last census that at home they speak a language other than English. Therefore, we can't afford to NOT find out everything we can about bilingual education and then take a definitive stand. It may still be a while before IDEA Public Schools finds a strong position on this issue, but IDEA Mission has no problem taking the first major steps in getting there.

All instructional staff will be attending our three-day two way immersion institute at the end of July. I will facilitate the first day's activities (I'll be presenting several modules from Dual U, a phenomenal resource for Dual Language professional development that I purchased online). Dr. Mercuri will facilitate the second 2 days of the institute. Many teachers volunteered time this past week to study our core resources and plot out unit and daily lesson objectives--a major feat.

While the nervousness never goes away completely, I am counting down the days until I finally launch two-way on my campus. I'm hoping that careful journaling and reflection on the process will help both us as well as other school leaders out there hoping to do something similar. We must figure out how to make two-way immersion scalable--the research is clear that this model offers tremendous hope for our children learning English and is nothing but a benefit to those who are English dominant. Our children deserve nothing less.

Here are a few more resources we've used or created during the past few months:

Thomas & Collier (full 1997 study report): DOWNLOAD FILE
Guiding Principles for a Dual Language Model: DOWNLOAD FILE (from http://www.cal.org/)
Lindholm-Leary's research review: DOWNLOAD FILE
Our school's language philosophy: DOWNLOAD FILE
(Fairly) final draft of master schedule for 2009-10: DOWNLOAD FILE