SpanglishBaby » dual immersion school

Is Bilingual Kindergarten Right for Us?

Elsie — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 08:01:29 +0000

I am lucky enough to be in a public school district with a 90/10 bilingual immersion program from K-5, and growing. The district currently offers a Mandarin and Spanish program, and is about to expand the Spanish program to a second elementary school. Because my daughter will be eligible for Kindergarten in Fall 2013, this Fall has been spent touring our public, charter, and private options. It’s been exhausting and eye-opening.

With preschool we were lucky enough to find the “perfect” place which met all our priorities — diverse, play-based, holistic, small, affordable, and in a natural setting. They even include Spanish throughout the day, although it is not a “bilingual” program per se. It’s run by teachers and a director who truly love the children they care for and clearly enjoy every day with them. It is really a place that our entire family loves.

For kindergarten, we have come to realize that we will have to pick which of our priorities we are willing to sacrifice and pick the “good enough” school rather than focus on finding the “perfect school.”

There is no private Spanish bilingual elementary school in our area, so even if we could afford a private school, we would have to sacrifice a bilingual education and for the most part, racial diversity. These schools have been the most progressive in terms of philosophy — they understand that children learn through play and while there are desks in these schools, student have ample time to move around, play, and spend time outdoors. These schools have lovely music, art and science programs. They tend to be on pretty campuses and include many enriching field trips.

There is no Spanish biliingual charter school in our area either. While there are two excellent, and fairly progressive charters nearby, again, bilingualism is not a part of their curriculum. We are entering these lotteries, knowing they are a long shot, but hoping that we might have one of these as an option.

There is, as I mentioned, a promising public Spanish biligingual immersion elementary in my district, San Rafael Elementary. I toured the school yesterday and left with mixed feelings. The school has some great things to offer:

A 90/10 bilingual immersion program starting in Kindergarten and moving to 50/50, with a 10% shift each year
A student body which includes many Latino families
An active and passionate PTA
A safe campus

However, as I spoke with parents and principal, I realized the limitations of this school. Unlike some other public schools in the district, which consistently offer a school library, art, music and gifted and talented programs, San Rafael is dependent on the PTA and individual parents to fund or volunteer art and music opportunities for the students. While some of the things they do, like bringing in a local art center to work with the children six weeks a year and a yoga teacher to work with some grades, these opportunities are dependent on having specific parents in the community who create these opportunities.

While walking to the local library is a fine alternative to the school library, as an English teacher, I would love for my kids to have their own librarian. I also noticed that while there were many Latino and Anglo students, there were very few Asian or African-American students, unlike at other public schools.

I realized that if we choose San Rafael, we will need to be sure to supplement what the school offers with extracurricular art, music and enrichment activities. This is not a big deal, but knowing that those things are offered at other schools is probably the reason why there is not a huge waiting list at San Rafael.

What was absolutely equivalent between San Rafael and other schools in the district was the philosophy and method of teaching — traditional, seated at desks and using workbooks, starting in kindergarten. The traditional approach is one that I survived as a child, so obviously it can be fine. The children there seemed happy enough, but it’s not what I envision for the next 13 years of Marisol’s education.

Despite my concerns about what San Rafael lacked there is something I keep coming back to: in each class, children of all races where communicating in Spanish, Spanglish, and a little English. Clearly, these children are successfully learning how to think and communicate en español. This is a skill which will serve them their entire lives.

While we try to speak Spanish at home, and our girls understand most spoken Spanish, they are not bilingual. If we want them to be bilingual, I think San Rafael is our only option.

So what matters most — things like pedagogy, art, music, a library, and the other things I did not love at San Rafael or a bilingual program?

I don’t know. Our family is talking and thinking and talking some more. I’m sure many of you can relate to trying to pick the best of non-ideal options for your child and the anxiety about making the wrong choice. How is your kindergarten or school search going?

{photo by bloomsberries}

Why It Takes a Leap of Faith to Enroll Your Child in a Dual Language Immersion Program

Ana Flores — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:25:10 +0000

I thought I knew *a lot* about dual immersion schools because I’ve been researching them for both the blog and our book for almost four years now, but now that my daughter has been in one for almost four months I have a whole new understanding of them. I know the topic of bilingual education as a whole is so confusing for parents because there are so many different programs (ELL, ESL, full immersion, partial immersion, etc) and because, depending on where you live, there is so much controversy and misunderstanding as to how it really works.

The fact is that dual immersion programs are proving to be the most effective method to successfully teach children in two languages. The “problem” with the program right now is that it’s still relatively new and it’s sort of an outcast in most public education systems. What I mean by that is that as much as they have been proven to work in the sense that schools with language immersion programs ultimately outperform academically, they are still having to adapt and conform to a public education system that’s not meant for them.

My girl received her first report card ever…in Kindergarten! At age 5, these kids are already being tested on the California Standards. The problem is that kindergarteners in a dual language immersion program are focusing mostly on learning the language and not on the long list of standards set in place for English-only schools. This means that the teachers and principal have to make sure that all parents understand that even though our kids may be performing below the state average at this point, it’s perfectly normal and it won’t be this way once they’ve reached the 4th grade and have already transferred over to English all the concepts they learned in Spanish. The standard tests are just not created for our early language-learning kids.

As I sat there with my husband during our first parent/teacher conference listening to the fantastic teacher my daughter has, it became clear to me that we’re way ahead of the curve, if you may, and it does take a huge leap of faith from parents and administration to believe in the program and know that there’s more to learning than tests.

It’s important to know that the current system is not intended for the gift of bilingualism we’ve all here committed to give our kids. You will search and research schools in your area that offer dual immersion programs and you’ll see the majority of them have a lower than average rating or are considered underperforming schools. But then you take a closer look and read the comments from parents and you’ll see they don’t match the rating. You’ll read success stories and praise for dual immersion classrooms, and that’s where you need to focus. That’s where your leap of faith will be catapulted by other parents that can attest for the growth both academically and socially of their kids.

Yes, our children must pass the tests and teachers must still teach for the tests under our current system. However, if your child is in a dual immersion program, tests will be conducted in Spanish and the teachers will select which standards to test and at what pace. Trust them and trust the model. Talk to other parents. Talk to us. Meet the kids in upper grades. Visit or talk to principals in other schools that have already reached and surpassed their academic goals because they’ve been in this for a longer time. Be inspired and trust that your child will learn and in two languages. How beautiful is that?

Share with us: Is your child in a dual immersion program? What has been the most difficult and rewarding aspect for you? Do you agree it takes a leap of faith?

Why Raising a Bilingual Child is Always a Work In Progress

Ana Flores — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:20:14 +0000

My daughter has been attending her dual immersion school in Spanish for almost three months now and I can honestly say she’s made a lot of progress. I think the most noticeable improvement has been in her increased self-esteem and the value she’s now given to speaking Spanish. She tries much harder to complete sentences in Spanish and doesn’t get frustrated when I nudge her to speak it.

My husband keeps insisting that she’s speaking way too much English and he’s not sure she’ll be speaking fluent Spanish with us anymore. I always disagree and ask him to perceive the small details that have changed. Things like her asking us to put the Spanish option on when she watches Phineas and Ferb or Doc McStuffins on Disney Junior, something that was seriously not happening months, even days, before school started. She also asks us which of her books are in Spanish so that we can read those for her at night. Not only that, I notice many new words that were not part of her vocabulary that she’s now throwing in the mix of her mostly-Spanglish phrases.

And that’s what her “language” really is right now at this stage – a mix of Spanish and English – but not the kind to shudder at. What I mean is that the words she uses are said correctly in each language, she’s just mixing words from both languages into one sentence.

Read: My Daughter is Not as Bilingual as I Thought

I was noticing this a lot more this weekend after her friend came to play. It always seems like it takes her a while to switch back from English-only mode when she’s with friends, to trying-to-speak-Spanish mode with her mom and dad. At that moment it dawned on me that every time I’d make her repeat in Spanish whatever she was so excited to tell me about (and she’s notorious for non-stop chatter!), she had to make an effort to “grab” the words she needed.

What I realized is that even though she’s making tremendous progress at school, and her love for Spanish and the fact she’s bilingual is at an all-time high, we still need to make a lot more effort at making sure Spanish is front and center in her life and her brain. Her receptive Spanish-language skills are perfect, yet she’s lacking in her expressive skills.

Read: 5 Ways to Motivate Your Child to Speak Spanish When he Refuses to

My conclusion of this is that we definitely need to immerse her a lot more in situations where she will need to express herself in Spanish. She needs to use the words much more without having to think about them. I know they are all there because they eventually come out, but it needs to become a fluid process.

I’m not worried about it happening, but it did make me realize that raising a bilingual child is definitely a work-in-progress that requires many tools in the toolbox. Not the same tools will work for all since every family is different and unique, but we do all need an arsenal of tricks until we find what works best for our kids.

Share with me in the comments below what you do that works the best. What bilingualism stage is your child at?