Music & Language Development

Music is an incredibly important part of first and second language development, especially for children.  Let's face it--whether an early elementary teacher is "musical" or not, his or her children adore listening to, singing, and moving to songs.  This means we need to get over any inhibitions we might have about weaving music and movement throughout our teaching and just do it!  Music engages children mentally and physically, attunes their ears not only to music itself but also to the musicality of lyrics, builds their oral vocabularies, helps boost their memory, and simply brings joy into the classroom!  Singing is especially important for young children still building oral language and early literacy skills in their first language as well as those learning a second language.  Here are some favorite songs/albums/artists that I and/or my colleagues have used in the classroom with great success (and fun!).  You can also find most of the following music for song and album download on Amazon and iTunes:



SPANISH

• Mi Guitarrí: 30 original and traditional children's songs in Spanish performed by Joel Valle, many written for specific classroom procedures, transitions, and common content themes in grades K-2.
• Jose-Luis Orozco: One of my all time favorite children's artists, Jose-Luis has created at least 15 albums devoted to Spanish language children's songs and traditions
• Whistlefritz: Music by Jorge Anaya: Check out the CDs (¡A bailar! and Cha, cha, cha) as well as a number of DVDs
• Dr. Jean en español: Olé, Olé, Olé for daily routines, oral language, and math
• Muévete: Learn Spanish through Songs & Movement
• Grupo Chiquitos: Lots of early childhood songs in Spanish on several albums
• 50 canciones infantiles
• Colores, formas, y números
• Mis animalitos
• Susy Dorn created the Let's Play in Spanish immersion program and has created several music CDs as part of it
•  Cri Cri:  You can listen to lots of Cri-Cri songs here or purchase CDs here
• Songs in Spanish for Children by Elena Paz Travesi
• Charlotte Diamond
• Soy Una Pizza (includes Each of us is a Flower/Somos como las flores)
• Todo el Mundo Come Banana
• YouTube videos:  You can find all sorts of great Spanish children's songs here, such as:
• Sol, solecito
• Pin Pon
• En la granja de mi tio
• El trencito y la hormiga
• Ganas de aplaudir
• Sandy el heladero
• La ballena
• Juguemos en el bosque
• Pecos Bill
• Arroz con leche
• A la rueda rueda
• Los pollitos
• Some simple searches can help you find lots of others
• Canciones infantiles de GuiaInfantil.com
• Songs for Teaching (check out the Spanish section)
• Plaza Sésamo songs and clips are great; a number of episodes are available for download on iTunes and several DVDs are available at Amazon.  Also, you can access lots of songs on YouTube by searching for Plaza Sésamo or Barrio Sésamo.  You can also access other clips in Spanish at the Sesame Workshop site.
• Check out these books with more songs and poems in Spanish (could also be great for shared reading texts)
• Canciones infantiles (byAntonio Salgado)
• Cancioncero infantil mexicano (by Antonio Avitia Hernández)
• Arroz con leche (by Jose-Luis Orozco)
• De Colores and Other Latin American Folksongs for Children (by Jose-Luis Orozco)
• Diez Deditos and Other Play Rhymes and Action Songs from Latin America (by Jose-Luis Orozco)
• Fiestas: A Year of Latin American Songs of Celebration (by Jose-Luis Orozco)
• Rin, Rin, Rin, Do, Re, Mi (by Jose-Luis Orozco)
• Keep searching anywhere & everywhere for canciones infantiles en español, and if you find other great  songs or artists we could post, leave a comment!

ENGLISH
English songs for children are much easier to find and, for most teachers who grew up in the U.S, are much more well-known.  For that reason, my list won't be as extensive as that for Spanish, but I'll still share some favorites!

• Raffi
• Sesame Street 
• Fiesta (songs are mainly in English but promote Spanish and bilingualism)
• Favorite Songs
• The Wiggles
• Songs For Teaching: Using Music to Promote Learning
• Twin Sisters Productions: The Leader in Educational Music
• Kindergarten Songs (by Kidzup Production Inc): 15 songs for download on iTunes
• More Kindergarten Songs (by Twin Sisters Productions): 20 songs for download on iTunes
• 30 Preschool Songs (by Countdown Kids): 30 songs for download on iTunes
• Charlotte Diamond
• They Might Be Giants (older children (and adults!) love TMBG music)
• Here Come the ABCs
• Here Come the 123s
• Here Comes the Science
• Schoolhouse Rock (also great for older children)
• The Teacher's Guide: Children's Songs: Lyrics and MIDIs for over 200 favorite children's nursery rhymes and songs in English
• MathJam CDs by David & Judy

Writing with Dr. Mercuri

Sandra Mercuri has invited me to collaborate with her on some writing about our experiences last year.  We've chosen to focus first on instructional planning and delivery in a dual language school, so I'm trying to gather my thoughts and draft an outline for what that article could entail.  I don't have anything on paper but have lots of thoughts running through my head.  I'm really excited about this opportunity!

In Their Own Words: What DL Teachers are Saying

I found this article about the backgrounds, beliefs, practices, and perspectives of two-way immersion teachers:

In Their Own Words_DL Teachers Talk

Response to Education Week Article

Several months ago Education Week published an article entitled, Bilingual Ed, Immersion Found to Work Equally Well.  It was referenced in a conversation as evidence that a dual language model wasn't really necessary (or any more effective than English immersion), so I sent the following to a number of people involved in the conversation as follow up to the reference that had been made.


I know bilingual education can be a pretty emotionally charged topic and that different approaches to serving ELLs are critical since we serve student populations with different demographics, needs, challenges, etc,  but I wanted to pass along the Education Week article (and related study) that we referenced during yesterday’s meeting.  I think it’s fantastic to have tough conversations and even intense debates over this issue, especially given our shared mission and the language background of so many of our students.  If anyone in the country should have an opinion or expertise about the best ways to get low-income ELLs ready for college, it should definitely be our organization!

The article summarizing the Johns Hopkins study was published in Education Week a couple of months ago.  The comments posted below the online article are really interesting—I encourage you to read at least a few.  Several help point out some things that aren’t made super obvious in the Ed Week article.  When you go to the article link you can also download the actual study itself.  The abstract makes clear that it’s a comparison of English Immersion and Transitional Bilingual Ed programs both using the same reading program (not—contrary to what the Ed Week article implies—a comparison of English immersion to ALL bilingual ed models). 

The findings in this study are actually 100% consistent with what other studies have been showing for some time now--that the specific bilingual model we choose does matter (not all bilingual models are created equal!) and that early transitional bilingual ed models tend to lead to short & long-term results very similar to English immersion--neither close the achievement gap between monolingual English speakers and ELLs.  Additive (vs. transitional or "subtractive") approaches have shown the greatest promise for closing the achievement gap between ELLs and monolingual English speakers.  It’s also important to remember that most research shows that the lasting effects of elementary immersion or a particular bilingual model on English reading achievement aren’t typically super evident until middle or high school.

I’m also attaching (for anyone interested) a pretty extensive overview of Thomas & Collier’s approach to studying ELLs’ achievement as well as their famous study in HISD—both provide some interesting ideas & findings that could also become a part of our bilingual ed/ELL discussions.  Thomas & Collier help point out that second language acquisition in the primary grades is never just about language...it’s also about cognitive development, sociocultural identity, content-specific academic achievement, etc.  “Dual language” as a rigid program is definitely not, in and of itself, the silver bullet that makes all the difference in closing the ELL achievement gap, but it highlights some fundamental understandings about language & ELL achievement that, arguably, are.  I encourage you to look through some of these documents as well as we each decide how to best serve the ELLs on our respective campuses.   Hope something here is useful!

Here's a quick comparison of the different major bilingual ed models and the resulting student achievment outcomes for each, based on Thomas & Collier's work:

Dual Language Classroom Video

A few video clips I found about dual language.  Makes me want to get into some local exemplary two-way classrooms and get some footage!

Dual Language Newsletters: NM & IL Share the Wealth!

 Dual Language Education of New Mexico has a quarterly dual language newsletter called Soleado that they post on their website--there are some fantastic articles, ideas, and resources to be found in each edition.  You can download some directly here or visit the site yourself.  Enjoy!

Soleado Fall 2008         
Soleado Winter 2008
Soleado Spring 2009
Soleado Summer 2009
Soleado Fall 2009
Soleado Winter 2009
Soleado Spring 2010
Soleado Summer 2010

The Illinois Resource Center (same organization that created Dual U) also publishes a dual language newsletter called Dual Language on Demand.  You can click here to download past newsletters and subscribe to receive future publications.

Bilingual Pledges and National Anthem

On Spanish days we recite the US and TX pledges of allegiance in Spanish and (during certain assemblies) sing the National Anthem in Spanish.  Nuestro Himno is performed by a variety of artists and there are actually several slightly different versions--here's one:



Verso 1
Amanece, lo veis? a la luz de la aurora?
lo que tanto aclamamos la noche al caer?
sus estrellas sus franjas
flotaban ayer
en el fiero combate
en señal de victoria,
fulgor de lucha, al paso de la libertad.
Por la noche decían:
"Se va defendiendo!"

Coro
Oh decid! Despliega aún
Su hermosura estrellada
sobre tierra de libres,
la bandera sagrada?

Verso 2
Sus estrellas, sus franjas,
la libertad, somos iguales.
Somos hermanos. Es nuestro himno.
En el fiero combate en señal de victoria,
Fulgor de lucha
(Mi gente sigue luchando)
al paso de la libertad
(Ya es tiempo de romper las cadenas.)
Por la noche decían: "!Se va defendiendo!"
Oh decid! Despliega aún su hermosura estrellada
sobre tierra de libres,
la bandera sagrada?


English translation:

Verse 1
It's sunrise. Do you see by the light of the dawn
What we proudly hailed last nightfall?
Its stars, its stripes
yesterday streamed
above fierce combat
a symbol of victory
the glory of battle, the march toward liberty.
Throughout the night, they proclaimed: "We will defend it!"

Chorus
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?

Verse 2
Its stars, its stripes,
Liberty, we are the same.
We are brothers in our anthem.
In fierce combat, a symbol of victory
the glory of battle,
(My people fight on)
the march toward liberty.
(The time has come to break the chains.)
Throughout the night they proclaimed: "We will defend it!"
Tell me! Does its starry beauty still wave
above the land of the free,
the sacred flag?


Here are some images of the US and TX pledges in both English and Spanish.  You can purchase them from Guerra Publishing.

 

Determining Students' Dominant Language

There's a lot of terminology flying around when talking about second language learning...native language, primary language, home language, mother tongue, L1, etc.  We decided that we would call a child's strongest and (usually) native language their dominant language.   This can be different from what's in our student information system as the home language or primary language, since those terms refer to what parents designate on the state required home language survey completed during initial registration.  Since some Spanish-speaking parents come in with negative perceptions of bilingual education, a few occasionally mark English as the home language even though their child is more proficient in Spanish.  We also have English-dominant parents who have marked Spanish as the home language (often because some Spanish is spoken in the home even though it's not spoken as often as English) because this can sometimes help qualify children for PK programs--while, in fact, it sometimes turns out that the child is stronger in English.  So, as you can see, if we went simply with the parent-reported home language, then we'd be doing some children a disservice and providing them with initial guided reading instruction in the wrong language.

So, at IDEA Mission we have a more thorough way of identifying childrens' dominant language.  When the child first enrolls, we administer the Pre-LAS (Kinder) or LAS Links (Grades 1 up) in both English and Spanish.  This is a standardized language assessment that gives both a raw (varies) and scale (1 - 5) score in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and overall proficiency (the Pre-LAS assesses listening and speaking only).  Some other districts use different state-approved language assessments such as the Woodcock-Muñoz.  Here's a list of all TEA approved tests.

We also ask each parent to complete a more extensive Family & Language Background Survey (English or Spanish).  If a child has transferred from another district, we also have information included in their previous records to help us make a decision.

During each student's initial LPAC (Language Proficiency Assessment Committee) meeting, we review their LAS scores in both languages, the parent responses on the Family & Language Background Survey, previous school records (if applicable), and any additional teacher observations.  About 90% of the time, this data alone makes it very clear which language is the child's dominant language.  We then assign their dominant language accordingly.  This helps us balance classrooms to have an equal (or as close as possible) number of English and Spanish dominant students, to provide initial small group guided reading instruction in their dominant language (Kinder & 1st Grades), to know which language they will take their district and state required K/1 benchmark literacy assessments in, etc.  If, after reviewing this data, it's unclear which language is the student's strongest, we'll gather more data--we'll call parents on the phone to ask additional questions, look at more student work, compare reading levels and other student achievement data in both languages.  We want to make sure we make the right dominant language assignment for every child, so we leave no stone unturned and we make no guesses.  It definitely takes some time initially, but it is well worth making the correct identification.  This does mean that we occasionally have a non-LEP student whose dominant language is actually Spanish and LEP students whose dominant language is actually English--not often, but it has happened in our unique bilingual community.

Now, the LPAC process is required by the state for every English Language Learner (LEP--Limited English Proficient student), but at IDEA Mission we go through the LPAC process for every single child since every student on our campus is a second language learner--either in English or in Spanish.  Every parent must sign a program acknowledgement form, verifying that they are aware that their child is in a two-way immersion bilingual program.  This also serves as the permission form required by the state for bilingual program placement, but notice that there is no parent denial option.  Every student who chooses to come to IDEA Mission chooses to be a part of our two-way program.

Just a side note...we sometimes hear people refer to a child's dominant language as his/her "language of instruction."  The language of instruction is actually whatever language they're being instructed in at a given time.  For example, one week the math language of instruction might be in English while the next week it could be in Spanish.  The language of instruction changes.  A child's dominant language does not, though the goal is for every student to eventually be fully proficient in both his/her dominant language as well as in their second language--this is true bilingualism and biliteracy!

Classroom Environment in a TWI Program

Classroom environment is incredibly important in a dual language classroom.  There needs to incredibly high levels of organization and consistency of environment as well as the procedures that children are expected to follow to access that environment--this is to make sure that as much energy as possible is devoted to the learning of language and content rather than remembering where things are, how to get them, what the teacher expects this time.  Consistency and predictability is critical for children in any classroom...just that much MORE important when children are learning in two languages.

Because every child spends at least half the day learning content in a language he or she is NOT completely proficient in, they need to know where they can look or go for support and tools that will help instruction become more comprehensible.  This consistency is incredibly important when children transition from one classroom to another in the middle of the day.  Again, remember--you want childrens' environment to be so organized and so predictable, that they never unnecessarily waste time and energy on finding materials, inefficient systems, or ever-changing procedures that could and should otherwise be spent on learning language and content.  The classroom environment can and should be a powerful learning tool--but will only become such with really careful planning.

Over last spring vacation I read a fantastic book, English Language Learners Day by Day, K-6  by Christina M. Celic, that provides an excellent (and super practical!) overview of creating a language learning classroom.

There's a great chapter on classroom environment and organization.  I highly recommend the entire book to anyone with second language learners in their classroom (regardless of the bilingual model you may be implementing).  As I read it the first time, I felt like I was reading a summary of everything we'd been learning to do with Dr. Mercuri during year 1!  (I wasn't surprised to discover that the author had done extensive work with David and Yvonne Freeman, dual language experts that often work very closely with our consultant, Dr. Mercuri).  Reading it was incredibly affirming while also providing models of how we can take what we've implemented to the next level.  It's a great read!  Click here to purchase from Heinemann Publishing

After reading it, I wanted to synthesize the key points in one page.  Here's an overview of the book:

ELLs Day by Day Overview

Often dual language models have some key signage to draw attention to certain aspects of the classroom environment.  Here are some we've used, along with some I've found via other schools/districts.

Dual Language Labels: Classroom (Bilingual)
Dual Language Labels: School (Bilingual)
Dual Language Classroom Labels (Bilingual)
Centers Labels (Bilingual)
Language of Instruction Signs: Inside Classroom English
Language of Instruction Signs: Inside Classroom Spanish
Language of Instruction Signs: Outside Classroom Bilingual
Language of the Day Signs: School
Subject Headers & Objective Tags (Bilingual)
Sentence Frames & Thinking Maps (English--no Spanish translation yet...sorry!)
Word Wall ABC Labels (English)
Word Wall ABC Labels (Spanish)
Word Wall Headings (Bilingual)
Calendar Headings: Days & Months (Bilingual)

Here is some signage we developed at IDEA Mission to ensure our big goals, core values, and other important representations of our school culture were 100% bilingual.

Core Values 2009: RISE (Bilingual)
Phoenix Rising 2009 (English)
Phoenix Rising 2009 (Spanish)
Core Values 2010: Ready to Try Again (Bilingual)
Core Values 2010: Inner Compass (Bilingual)
Core Values 2010: Seek Knowledge (Bilingual)
Core Values 2010: Every Student, Every Day (Bilingual)
Core Values 2010: Joy (Bilingual)
Core Values 2010: Smaller Signs (Bilingual)
IDEA 55 (English)
IDEA 55 (Spanish)
Gigantic Goals: Student Trackers (Bilingual)

Advocacy & Recruitment

One of the most difficult (yet important!) parts of scaling and sustaining a great program is investing staff, students, families, district-level leadership, and the community at large.  While will still have a long way to go in this area, we have started laying a good foundation.  I wanted to share some documents we've created and presentations we've delivered to share our program, seek approval, and build support.  You'll notice that each presentation contains a lot of similar information, but framed a little differently each time.  It's critical to know what the end goals and core concerns of a particular constituency are and address those head on.

Texas Charter School Conference
TCSC Conference Presentation:  Two-Way Immersion

Presentation to IDEA Chiefs (District Senior Leadership)
Chiefs Presentation
Chiefs Presentation Handouts

Principals Presentation
Principals Presentation
Principals Presentation (Brief)
Principals Presentation Handout: What is bilingual immersion? 

Parent Information Sessions
Info Session for Parents of English-dominant students
Info Session for Parents of Spanish-dominant students
Session Feedback Form English (not sure where the Spanish translation is?)
Parent FAQ English
Parent FAQ Spanish
Two-Way Immersion Basics English
Two-Way Immersion Basics Spanish

Calendar Math

At IDEA Mission we include a K-2 calendar math portion in our daily morning meeting.  It's taught in the Language of the Day (meaning one day English, the next day Spanish;  you might ask how we do that in team teaching situations where the English teacher is in one classroom and the Spanish teacher is in another--at the suggestion of Dr. Mercuri, what we did last year was gather both homerooms in the same classroom.  For example, on Spanish day, both homerooms taught by a Spanish/English teaching team go into the Spanish teacher's classroom and gather on the rug for the morning meeting in Spanish, whereas on English days they all gather in the English teacher's classroom.  Another side benefit of this setup is that each teacher gets an additional 20 min personal prep time every other day!)

Here are some bilingual resources for calendar math that I found on PSJA's website:

Calendar Math Questions English
Calendar Math Questions Spanish

Spanish Intervention Resources

Here are some more Spanish and bilingual resources for additional support, reteach, and intervention.  Most are from PSJA's website--good stuff!

Download handbook for Struggling Spanish Readers
Download PowerPoint about differences between Spanish & English literacy (by Kathy Escamilla)
Download presentation about Teaching Spanish Literacy in the U.S. (from the Illinois Resource Center)
Download Article: Selecting Materials to Teach Spanish to Spanish Speakers

LEER MAS I: ACTIVIDADES
Grupo A Apéndice
Grupo A Lenguaje Oral
Grupo B Apéndice
Grupo B Conocimiento Fonológico
Grupo C Apéndice
Grupo C Conocimiento de la letra impresa
Grupo D Apéndice 1
Grupo D Apéndice 2
Grupo D Apéndice 3
Grupo D Relación entre las letras y sonidos
Grupo E Apéndice
Grupo E Fluidez
Grupo F Apéndice
Grupo F Comprensión
Grupo G Apéndice
Grupo G Expresión escrita

SCIENCE IN SPANISH
TAKS 1 Review Science Spanish 
TAKS 2 Review Science Spanish 
TAKS 3 Review Science Spanish  
TAKS 4 Review Science Spanish  

ABC BOOKS (Great for PK & K Teachers)
ABC Book English (Block)
ABC Book English (D'Nealian)
ABC Book Spanish (Block)
ABC Book Spanish (D'Nealian)
ABC Game Spanish 

Literacy Curriculum Work

For the next week or so, I'm working on some Spanish curriculum for the district--exciting that there will be Spanish materials developed at the district level!  I'm posting the K - 1 HFW lists--organized into levels that children will progress through, some by the end of 1st grade, others by mid-2nd grade.

HFW English Level 1
HFW English Level 2
HFW English Level 3
HFW English Level 4
HFW English Level 5
HFW English Level 6
HFW English Level 7
HFW English Level 8
HFW English Level 9
HFW English Level 10

HFW Spanish Level 1 
HFW Spanish Level 2
HFW Spanish Level 3
HFW Spanish Level 4
HFW Spanish Level 5
HFW Spanish Level 6
HFW Spanish Level 7
HFW Spanish Level 8
HFW Spanish Level 9
HFW Spanish Level 10

We found that our new text adoption's phonics scope and sequence in Kinder could do with some "accelerating" and needed a few additional skills/objectives, so I developed these simple revisions:
Kinder Phonics Accelerated (English & Spanish)

I also found these Bloom's Taxonomy resources in both Spanish & English--super helpful for unit and lesson planning!
Bloom's Taxonomy English
Bloom's Taxonomy Spanish

Consultant, Year Two

Working with a consultant has been expensive but very worth it.  Because another school in the district, IDEA Donna, is launching DL in Kinder this year, the principal wanted to partner with us on professional development, allowing us to spend more on Dr. Mercuri's consulting.  Here's the MOU we drafted and agreed upon with our consultant Dr. Mercuri.   Click here to download the Consulting MOU for 2010-11

Finalized Master Schedule for 2010 - 11

Even though I'm no longer the principal of IDEA Mission (decided this summer to leave the school in the capable hands of my former assistant principal), I'm still plan to keep adding to this blog as I continue my work in another position (more on this later!).  Here's the update schedule for this coming school year:

Revised Master Schedule 2010-11  (with 2nd grade change:  to prepare for the 3rd - 5th grade model, this year's 2nd graders will receive Math in English and Our World in Spanish--this may or may not be the case for the following year's 2nd graders.  Part of me thinks our new K/1 model should extend into 2nd grade the following year, including Teaching Fellows and the weekly language switch for all content areas, Math/Our World included.  This year needed to be different, however, as this year's 2nd graders have been our "guinea pigs" and haven't had full DL since Kindergarten the way the class below them has had)


Thoughts I've had for 3rd - 5th grade:  This would be intense on the budget, but a "wishlist" setup for 3rd - 5th grade would be 5 teacher teams.  The responsibilities would be as follows:

English Team Teacher (2 per grade level--teaches 2 homerooms)

   * ELA

   * Science

Spanish Team Teacher (2 per grade level--teaches 2 homerooms)

   * SLA

   * Social Studies

Math Teacher (1 per grade level--teaches 90 min math blocks to all 4 homerooms)

   * Math (in English)

I know it doesn't maintain a perfect 50/50 language division but it's critical, for testing purposes, that the students have math and science instruction in English in the upper grades.  Now, if this wouldn't work budgetarily (and, unfortunately, it likely won't) then we'd have to get really really creative and think about how we can get the above content areas with their assigned language of instruction into a two-teacher only teaming situation.  More thinking...nothing has proved impossible yet!

Spanish & Dual Language Resources Galore

One of the most challenging aspects of launching a dual language program is finding and purchasing resources.  Here's a document with lots of places you can go for bilingual resources--many are free.  Hope you find this helpful! Click for List of Dual Language and Spanish Resources

(P.S. If you know of other sites or resources that should be on this list, please leave a comment and I'll be sure to add it.  Thanks for sharing!)