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!
When it comes to literacy education, I consider Irene Fountas, Gay Su Pinnell, and Lucy Calkins as close to gods as it comes. I've devoured everything I can get my hands on by them and just wish I had the money to get it all!
I am a strong believer that guided reading and, for some readers who struggle significantly--small group and one on one reading interventions, are KEY to reading achievement in any elementary classroom. While most of F&P's resources are in English and are geared to English literacy, much can be applied to Spanish literacy in many areas (Spanish is especially unique when it comes to phonological awareness, phonics & the alphabetic principle, etc). You can imagine my excitement when a few minutes ago I stumbled on a few Spanish F&P resources that are or soon will be available. The first is a prompting guide for literacy instruction--a flip chart that can be used throughout the literacy block, providing teachers will precise language to use that will help enhance reading and writing instruction. You can order it here.
I also saw on F&P's blog that they are developing a Spanish version of the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System 1. Unfortunately they don't yet know if they'll actually develop LLI (Leveled Literacy Intervention) in Spanish--I'm crossing my fingers they eventually do as it is a powerful English reading intervention. Good news for teachers in grades 3 - 8....they are developing LLI for the upper grades (in English). For those schools with a lot of money to invest in the ultimate one on one reading intervention, Reading Recovery (English) and Descubriendo la Lectura (Spanish) are as good as it gets.
One of the most challenging and pressing issues we face as bilingual educators committed to helping every ELL be as successful as they possible can is that of how to best serve English Language Learners with learning disabilities. Whenever I reflect on this topic I think about my sweet third grade student Miguel (name changed) who was learning English as a second language, was a year older than his peers and yet grade levels behind, was placed in Special Ed due to a severe learning disability that evidenced itself most fully in reading and writing, and came from an incredibly impoverished single parent home. This little boy faced a number of challenges, and though I worked very hard to understand his learning disability and to understand how his language needs, learning needs, and social-emotional needs were alike, different, etc, I still reflect on my two years teaching Miguel and feel like there was so much more I could have done.
I also think of Kaylee, Jose, and several other students I've taught who were English Language Learners and learning disabled. Some I taught while in a 50/50 or 90/10 dual immersion setting, others in an English immersion environment. All struggled tremendously--mostly because I wasn't very well equipped to meet their unique needs. As committed bilingual educators, the more we can learn about serving our special needs ELLs, the higher the chances they'll be able to reach their full academic potential.
Check out this video webcast with Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan who discusses effective assessment and instructional strategies for English Language Learners with disabilities. Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan developed the Esperanza Spanish reading and writing program and runs a bilingual speech pathology center down here in Brownsville.
The resources about ELLs and Special Ed are few and far between. I have reached out to Francisco Najera with a question or two before--he is the faculty director of the Bank Street College of Education's program in Dual Language/Bilingual Special Education. George Washington University's website reports that there are only eight graduate programs in the country "that prepare educators to meet the cultural, language, social and learning needs of a growing number of culturally and linguistically diverse, and/or exceptional students."
Have you considered offering second language courses for parents? We've found that most (not all, but most) non-English speaking parents are very supportive of their child receiving homework in their second language. We've also found that English-dominant parents typically get frustrated a little more often, expressing that they feel that their child shouldn't receive Spanish homework. Sometimes it's because they themselves don't know how to help their child do it, and sometimes it's because they don't feel it's important for them to do.
I just stumbled upon a program called Soleado, a Spanish as a Second Language course for adults. The website has lots of free resources and samples, and the prices themselves don't look too steep. Could be a great place to start for a school wanting to offer Spanish courses for their English speaking parents. This would help parents feel more comfortable supporting their child's second language and would hopefully build the value of the minority language not only in the minds of students but also their families.
Two years ago the Utah state legislature approved funding for dual immersion programs in Spanish, French & Chinese across the state, and they have now become the first state to develop standardized immersion curriculum. Pretty exciting stuff--and several other states are watching closely! Read more about it here.
I agreed to serve as this year's literacy seminar leader for Teach For America's new corps members here in the RGV--I'm really excited to get back to helping in this way. I love staying closely to connected to TFA and to CMs here in the Valley.
While these seminars are not specific to dual language or bilingual classrooms, they are equally applicable to every elementary classroom. I want to post the resources I find/create for each of these sessions in case they're helpful to anyone else!
The Teachers Reading and Writing Project of Columbia University has compiled and shared a fantastic list of books that can be used to supplement reading and writing workshop units of study. Their list includes several substantial Spanish book lists as well--check them out! TCRWP Book Lists
Here's a list I compiled of lots of children's books in Spanish (many are translations of books originally written in English) along with their Fountas & Pinnell Guided Reading Level. This could help you in a number of ways:
Leveling books in your classroom library or guided reading library
Helping parents buy Spanish books at a particular reading level
Buying additional books at certain levels for your classroom library
Now that I feel like I've finally caught up on posting everything I'd been behind on, I'll be taking a few weeks away from the computer and just enjoy being unplugged for a little while. Will return to posting after my brief hiatus!
Something I obsessed over as a principal (and should have obsessed over even more than I did as a teacher!) is helping 100% of a classroom's children master a lesson (or unit...or course) objective. While some might argue that not all children are ready or that 100% is an unreasonable goal, I would counter with our school's long-term goals: 100% of students attend the 4 year college or university of their choice & 100% of students are fully bilingual and biliterate within 3 - 5 years of dual language participation. Lofty goals for sure! However, the whole premise of IDEA Public Schools is that every child who chooses to enroll will have the benefit of being in a classroom, school, district that believes he or she can and will go to college. Will every child in our community go to college? No, not likely. However, it should never be a school deciding who should or shouldn't attend college. That's for a student and her parents to decide. Every child should be encouraged to shoot for the stars and given an education that can equip them to actually reach them.
So, if a school's long term goal is 100%, then the only way to get there is by obsessing over short-term 100%s--at the semester, quarterly, weekly, and daily levels. And it then follows that the only way to help 100% of a classroom's students master a lesson objective is to engage 100% of them in meaningful practice of that objective and in high-level questioning about their new learning.
Now, think about a typical classroom's whole group instruction. A teacher asks a question and an excited student or two raise their hands to answer it. If your class size is 24, then you just engaged a mere 8% in answering your question. You then have a brief practice activity that you call 4 or 5 students to come up and participate in while the others watch. You just engaged 21% of your class in meaningful practice of the lesson objective while the remaining 79% remained, essentially, mentally and physically disengaged. You are especially careful to shelter your second language learners--you don't ask them questions or engage them in whole group practice as it might be difficult for them to handle making a language mistake in front of their peers. More than likely your ELLs (or SLLs) know they'll never be asked to do things during whole group (or at least to do difficult things!) so a good 100% of them have no need to really try and understand your instruction. You then send the children to their desks to do some independent work, hoping that 100% will master the objective. However, only roughly half are able to do so (remember, only a small handful actually engaged in meaningful practice during your whole group instruction!) and you might chalk it up to the fact that the other half simply wasn't ready to master that yet, or any other number of reasons why such a small number mastered the lesson objective. I know...I've occasionally thought those same things!
Instead, every student deserves to be taught by a teacher who literally obsesses over 100%--cien por ciento. Whole group instruction should include multiple opportunities for 100% of students to engaged in meaningful practice of the lesson objective. Here's an article that points out a few ways to accomplish this and the positive outcomes that they produce: Click here Will every child be ready to show mastery immediately? Nope. Prior knowledge/skill, developmental readiness, etc do have an impact on a child's readiness to master a skill, but the job of excellent teachers is to accelerate the journey from where children are to where they need to be. We need to plan additional supports to help the children we already know will likely struggle (alternative approaches, scaffolding, modifications, sheltered instruction for language learners, etc). How children get there might look a little different based on individual need, but 100% means somehow every child ends up getting there. We have mountains of evidence that tells us great teachers are able to help all children get there, even when others around them felt that a particular child or group of children wasn't ready or capable. It's all about the teacher and all about a total commitment to 100%.
Here are some easy ways to engage 100% of children in simultaneous practice of a lesson objective. These can also be quick and easy checks for understanding to help you informally assess student knowledge and skills throughout and at the end of a lesson.
Whiteboards for children to write answer and show simultaneously
Hand signals & body kinesthetics (thumbs up/down, sign language to show letter choices, "touch your head if it's living, touch your feet if it's non-living," etc)
Signal cards (colored cards, letters on popsicle sticks, different pictures, etc)
Human sorts (ex: "I'm going to show you pictures of different natural resources. I've put up three signs on three different walls of the classroom. If you think a resource is renewable go to that wall. If it's non-renewable go to this wall. If it's inexaustible, then go to the far wall." etc)
Here are some non-questioning techniques from Teach For America that are great for practice/checking for understanding
Teach Like a Champion, by Doug Lemov also has lots of techniques you can use (and a DVD full of video clips with teachers modeling them) to increase rigor and ensure all students are on the path to mastery
If you've got some other great 100% ideas, leave a comment!
At IDEA Academy Mission we began the tradition of holding annual end of year events called "Commitment to College Celebrations." Essentially, it's a night planned by each grade level to celebrate the children and their progress toward college. We very consciously decided not to hold the traditional Kinder graduation, but, instead, chose to have this event. We felt strongly that in a community where only about 50% of people have a high school diploma and only 13% have a bachelor's degree, that we needed to find ways to raise our sights to, ultimately, college graduation. We felt it was a travesty that every year so many children "graduate" from kinder only to one day end up with the above abysmally low statistics. A few parents here and there have a tough time accepting that their child won't walk across the stage in a cap and gown at the end of kindergarten, but we assure parents that the Commitment to College Night is a really big deal. Teacher put countless hours into preparations and children and families dress up and enjoy a nice evening together. For the really adamant parents we suggest they have "graduation" pictures taken at a local department store. Most parents, however, understand why we've made this choice and appreciate the added focus on college.
One of my teachers suggested that a collection of photos or video footage could be helpful for the new teachers who come to our school each year and help plan the event but didn't attend one in previous years. I've put together a few things in the video above--definitely doesn't show a whole lot, but hopefully enough to give an idea of what it's looked like in the past. One thing I think that's important to remember is that it needs to feel different to be memorable. If it feels like every other awards night or end of year family event then this won't stand out as something different to parents. To make college stand out in their minds then this night needs to stand out as something extra special and unique! The traditions need to really feel like important traditions and the unique teacher/grade level touches need to speak to how special this event should be. It should be an annual build-up to the students' College Signing Day their senior year.
The goal is for this evening to be completely college-focused and for it to be a big celebration! Certain traditions are a part of the evening each year (Commitment to College certificates from the principal, "Hopes and Dreams" letters written by parents for us to save and give to children on their College Signing Day their senior year, student songs & readings, slide show, etc) but grade levels are also encouraged to add some unique touches to the event. We want students and families to leave completely re-committed to doing whatever it takes to get these children to college. No giving up! The event, as with all our family events, is 100% bilingual. We try to ensure that approximately half of the presentation is in Spanish, half in English.
We also give out our end of year awards, which are the following:
ACADEMIC HONORS 1 student per classroom with the highest average in the following subject areas:
Reading in L1
Reading in L2
Writing in L1
Writing in L2
Math
Our World
Physical Education
PHOENIX AWARDS 1 boy and 1 girl per classroom:
Flying Phoenix (equivalent of Student of the Year)
Rising Phoenix (equivalent of Most Improved)
Global Phoenix (equivalent of Good Citizenship)
ATTENDANCE AWARDS
Perfect Attendance (with less than 3 tardies)
Perfect Attendance (with more than 3 tardies)
In addition to the video above, I'm attaching some other planning resources that could be helpful for anyone else trying to plan a Commitment to College night. These are a mix of our 2009 and 2010 planning resources.
* As a new and growing school without a cafeteria or gym yet, we've had to get creative in finding space for events such as these. In 2009 we rented a nearby hall and provided dinner. Every child could bring 2 family members free & then pay for additional family members--unfortunately we had to limit numbers as we were very limited by space. In 2010 we were faced with much less money and we also didn't want to have to limit the number of family members who came (one of the biggest reasons we hold this annual event is to remind children AND their families of the importance of our long-term college goal and help make it a part of our school and community culture), so I approached the principal of a more established IDEA campus that did have a gym and she graciously allowed us to reserve their facility for the Kinder and 1st Grade nights. We used the local Chamber of Commerce building for the PK event. This coming year IDEA Mission will have their own "cafetorium," so finding a space will be much easier!
**We hold quarterly awards ceremonies by grade level during the year. At each of these the expectation is that every student receive an award. At the end of year awards, every child receives a Commitment to College certificate, but not every child receives an additional award (though they could if they earned the attendance award!). We decided that this approach balanced the need to have all children recognized most of the time but then to also have situations in which children (ahem...parents) learned that it's OK if they don't get something and that they should congratulate those who do with grace and sincerity. Children are usually better at this than their parents are. :)
Some people have asked how we make college a part of our ongoing school culture--not just at the end of the year. The most important aspect of having a truly college prep school is rigorous high quality instruction that leads every student to meet very high expectations every year, but it's also important to make college and specific college-related vocabulary an everyday part of the school culture. A few things IDEA Mission does in this area:
College Mascots
Every homeroom has their own college mascot that teachers use to build unity and class identity. Students identify themselves with the university, its mascot, and its colors.
College Flags
Each homeroom's college flag hangs outside the classroom. The hallway is, therefore, a colorful display of colleges.
Chants and Signs
Each homeroom creates a brief chant and "sign" that represents their mascot. They use this during school assembly roll call to show that they are present.
School Chants & Song
During assembly, we teach children a number of college focused chants in both English and Spanish. These chants are about college, reaching goals, reading, knowledge is power, etc. We also have a school song--I rewrote the words to BYU's Cougar Fight Song and turned it into IDEA Mission's Phoenix School Song. The kids love it!
Here's the BYU Fight Song--just sing the final "Go Phoenix" EXTRA loud (over "Go Cougars!" at the end). Otherwise, it's ready for IDEA Mission teachers to use with their students!
College T-Shirts
While students must wear the standard school uniform on Mondays - Thursdays, on Fridays they can wear jeans with a school spirit t-shirt or a college t-shirt.
College Home Projects
This is actually done in conjunction with our Commitment to College Celebrations, but our tradition to have every student do a home project focused on the college they want to attend. These projects are then worn or displayed on the night of the CTC Celebration. For example, PK created college posters, Kinder made college sashes (both seen in the video above) and 1st graders created a college medallion. This gets parents and students discussing children's strengths and talents, their career aspirations, and the types of universities that would be a good fit for the child and family. It also helps us know which families aren't yet fully committed to our college goal or who are committed but not aware of the options. This is great information to help us know which families need additional support and info from us!
College Visits
Each year every grade level visits a college. In sixth grade the students will begin to go on IDEA's multi-day college field lessons around the state and country, but until then we make sure that students (and any family members that want to attend) set foot on a local 4-year college campus at least once a year.
What are some things that you and/or your school does to make college a key part of your student and family culture?
I have a lot to say on this issue but I'll return to this post at a later date to share more specific thoughts. Meanwhile, didn't want to miss out posting a link to an interesting NY Times article that brought up lots of good thoughts both for and against national standards.
Also, one of my all time favorite books gave me a lot to think about in terms of national standards and was the beginning of my belief that, if done well, national standards have a lot of promise: The Teaching Gap.
I will say that having reviewed the first draft of several documents in the common core standards, I haven't seen any language proficiency standards for ELL students. I'm interested to see if that becomes a part of these standards--I surely hope so.
Storytelling is a powerful way to help immerse students in their first or second language. It's also a great way to assess their progress in language proficiency. Last year many of our teachers experimented with an approach that used the 5 point narrative retelling rubric from the Pre-LAS/LAS-Links exams throughout the year. Several times a year the teachers chose a well known story (one they'd previously read several times in their classroom) and color copied several pictures that represent key plot events. They then asked the students to use the pictures to tell them the book's story. They then transcribed the story (as you do in the official test administration) and assigned them a rubric score based on their retelling.
This also reminded teachers that oral storytelling was something children needed lots of opportunities to engage in and receive support and feedback around throughout the year. One great idea from a Spanish immersion preschool I visited a year or so ago: the teacher had a large train posted on the wall with 4 or 5 carriages. This "story train" had a picture posted in each carriage from a favorite story they'd read together the week before. Children had multiple opportunities to retell the story using these pictures as a guide (again, color copies of key plot points). This provided opportunities for instruction and informal assessment around each student's use of a number of language structures, such as: verb tense & agreement (especially in the preterite), using adverbs & adjectives to describe and elaborate, using sequential "markers" (first, next, later, then, finally, etc), vocabulary depth & complexity--particularly with verbs & nouns, sense of story beginning, middle, end...etc.
By creating some sort of checklist or rubric, you can very easily track small degrees of progress in your students' oral language proficiency. You could also use it when they tell oral stories from their own life--basically any time they're retelling anything! You can, of course, use other language interactions beyond storytelling; this just seemed like good place to at least begin and experiment with the idea. I recommend you use the oral retelling rubric from your end of year language proficiency exam (like the LAS, Woodcock-Muñoz, etck) as a place to start and then break language objectives down from there.
Here are a few resources I found online that could give you some things to think about as you engage students in lots of storytelling for language acquisition. Be aware, however, that most storytelling/retelling rubrics focus only on the content, delivery, and story structure; they don't typically focus on the actual language structures second language learners should be using to tell the stories. That's why I liked using our LAS rubric so much--it centers on using retelling as a way to develop and assess second language acquisition and really helps focus on specific language structures. Regardless, here are some resources that might help you identify key language objectives to teach and assess in the context of storytelling:
A few of our 1st graders, some Spanish dominant and others English dominant, all becoming bilingual and biliterate...hear a little bit about their pride in knowing two languages:
Over the past month, I've been working on a few Spanish Language Arts projects for IDEA from home. The majority of my time has been spent working on the following leveled Spanish phonics "continuum" that provides a sequence in which to introduce letters, sounds, and spelling patterns during Word Study in Spanish. Each level includes a number of phonics principles and combinations that would each be taught according to the order found in the district's textbook adoption (Tesoros de lectura), but this leveling system can help track pretty specifically what students have and haven't mastered and can help students track their own progress from level to level. I also created level-specific teaching and practice activities--it's a very basic beginning that can help novice Spanish Language Arts teachers get their phonics instruction up and moving. The following phonics skills are typically taught and mastered by native Spanish speakers learning to read in L1 during Kinder, 1st Grade, and the first half of 2nd Grade. It can certainly be used to the meet the needs of older children who need intervention or who are learning Spanish as a second language in later grades. Once these levels are mastered, children should be expected to dive into deeper structural analysis and morphology of words. (Please excuse any errors--after submitting them to the central office point person they were then to be reviewed and proofread, so I apologize for any and all errors you might find!)
Straight from Lucy Calkins herself...getting into each other's classrooms and truly collaborating as professionals could very well be the single most powerful way we all move our instruction forward and better serve every student. This is extra important when undertaking a task as ambitious as helping all children reach grade level proficiency in two languages!
