Utah & Dual Immersion

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.

Bilingües y Orgullosos * Bilingual and Proud

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:

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.

Dual Language Revision Committee

I knew I needed to engage teachers in every step of the "revision" process as we made changes for the 2010 - 11 school year. I also knew that different teachers want to be involved to varying degrees. So, I decided to set up a Dual Language Revision Committee that would meet at least 3 times after school and have as much input as they wanted on changes I would be proposing for the coming school year. Anyone could join--I had two takers: Blanca (1st grade) and Christine (Kinder). My assistant principal, Luzdivina, also wanted to be involved but hasn't been able to attend either meeting so far due to after school duties/incidents.  Hopefully she'll be able to attend this final meeting.

So far we've discussed revisions to our model and daily schedule. Our district has mandated some big changes by eliminating our weekly early release day (for staff development) and requiring that school instructional hours are neither more nor less than 7:45 AM - 3:45 PM. This was incredibly hard for me to swallow at first as it meant shortening our regular full day schedule (already packed to the max due to the extra time demands inherent in a dual language schedule) AS WELL AS eliminating our weekly 2-hr block of staff development...another critical element of dual language launch, particularly those first couple of years. I'll admit that I freaked out at first, then got angry and went into protest mode, and finally have come to accept that it is what it is and I'd better find a way to make it work. (Ah...the grieving process in miniature). Interestingly, I'm actually really pleased with the results and believe we've really found some great ways to make it work.  Should I admit that I might even like our new ideas better than what we're currently doing this year?  Humble pie.  Eating lots of it.

So I went to work trying to figure out how to maximize a shorter school day and how to fit in substantive professional development without having to spend thousands of dollars for substitutes to provide release planning/PD time. Some things had to go, unfortunately. Right now we have a daily assembly or class meeting time. Next year we'll only be able to have school assembly once a week and an extended (20 min) class meeting once a week. I also had to eliminate our 30 min daily intervention block and, instead, add 20 minutes to centers time to allow for pull-out/push-in interventions for struggling students during that time. Saves 10 minutes without having to do away with it altogether. I created a special planning time schedule (STEPP Days...stands for Staff Time for Evaluating a Problem of Practice) :) where one grade level a week will have a 2 hour period without students (kids will be in an extended enrichment rotation in PE, Art, etc...) during which we'll engage in intensive PD activities. Got that idea from Sharon at Quest. However, it will only be tri-weekly for each team (1 team per week) instead of the current weekly PD time. Better than nothing. Also, it won't be the entire school together--it will only be by grade level. Again, better than nothing.  Download Proposed Master Schedule

Blanca & Christine provided valuable input during meeting 1 and then came back with additional thoughts from other teachers during meeting 2. That's when I shared with them a very new idea I'd hatched for Kinder and 1st grade--a Teaching Fellows program. I'll give further details in a post dedicated just to this idea.

Here's my plan for meeting 3 (this is the email I sent yesterday):

Hi Ladies,

For some reason I’d calendared Tuesday 3/23 as the final dual language revision committee meeting date. Instead it will be the following Tuesday (3/30) at 4:15 PM. I’d like your feedback on the following two things:

1) Unit Planning Template
I’m attaching a unit planning template for next year that I’d like feedback on.  Download Proposed Unit Planning Template  I’m also attaching an “overview” help sheet that includes questions to think about at each stage of the planning process. The template I’ve created is based primarily on the Understanding by Design (UbD) backwards planning model (something I’ll be developing you all on at the beginning of the school year and throughout) and will allow us to “beef up” the tremendous work that’s already been done in planning our units. I anticipate this document going onto Google Docs so that all grade level team members could access them simultaneously and collaboratively and use the template to together create a detailed plan for each unit of inquiry. While you’ll see that it’s primarily UbD, I’ve also tweaked/revised it to ensure it includes critical aspects of our dual language planning expectations as well as some key pieces of IB’s PYP unit planning process (particularly the stage 4 post-unit reflection...this isn’t a part of the UbD framework). If you want to find out more about UbD’s planning framework to help you better understand the template’s organization, you can learn more (as well as see sample unit plans for different grade levels) at: UbD on Google Books.  It’s actually a pretty fascinating read. :) After participating in a book study of this text, I used UbD as my primary unit planning approach as a teacher and found that it really pushed me to think very critically about how I planned, taught, and assessed units of study.

2) Website: Teaching & Learning Central
I’d also like you to take a look at a (VERY rough) draft of a website I’ve been working on to better organize & streamline all the information we need to access as well as our collaborative planning documents. I’ve invited you each to view: https://sites.google.com/site/ideaprimary/. The invitation was sent to the gmail accounts you use to access Google Docs. Some of the links on the website are “live” and accessible, many are not, so just play around for a few minutes and see what you think. I’d love questions, ideas, & critical feedback.

Ultimately, this final meeting will be the time to provide final feedback on any of our committee discussions:

• Next year’s proposed model
• Next year’s proposed schedules
• Teaching Fellows proposal
• Unit Planning approach
• Improving our use of Google Apps (website)
• Any other aspects of dual language planning you want me to take into consideration

I’ll then integrate your feedback and ideas and synthesize everything into proposals to be shared with the faculty as a whole. Please let any of your colleagues know that even if they haven’t attended a meeting yet, they’re still more than welcome to come to this final meeting. Just have them let me know they’re coming and that they need access to the website to review beforehand.

Thanks!

Bethany