At Barbieri Elementary School, where our dual immersion program is housed, we were excited for our next meeting of the “Bridging Book Study.” Chapter 2:  Students:  A Multilingual Perspective and Chapter 3:  Teachers:  Capitalizing on Life Experiences and Diversity were combined into one book study meeting and led to a fruitful discussion. We always begin our meetings by reviewing the objectives. For this meeting the objectives were:

• Consider learning profiles of different students.
• Brainstorm ways to learn more about students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
• Determine how to use this information to guide instruction.
• Reflect on our own experiences and professional development.
• Self-assess professional strengths and needs.
• Share a concept attainment slideshow about landforms.

Our agenda was aligned with the objectives:

1. Student profiles pp 25-29 (20 min.)
   1. Who reminds you of a student in your class?
   2. How do you learn more about your students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds? (sample form)
   3. How does this info guide your instruction?
   4. Those of us who have worked at Barbieri over a longer period of time…Have you noticed shifts in population?
2. Survey page 45 (20 min.)
   1. complete
   2. turn and talk – What are the areas where you feel most confident? What are areas you’d like to develop?
3. Landforms concept attainment (10 min.)
4. Looking ahead- topics for next meetings. (5 min.)

During the discussion of student profiles, we were able to share deep knowledge about our students. In our school, which houses the Two-way Immersion program and a sub-separate special education strand, there are 678 students enrolled. Of the total population, 258 are designated English learners. Most of our students were born in the United States (including Puerto Rico). Only about 10% of the English learners were born in other countries: El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Venezuela, and Spain. However, the vast majority are “first generation U.S./second generation immigrants”- the children of immigrants from these countries.

Students at Work

The student profiles on pages 25 to 29 were familiar to us. We have newly arrived immigrants, heritage Spanish speakers, first-generation U.S. students with oral proficiency in two languages, and students from English-only homes. In our school, we have been learning about the importance of academic language development. We know that while many of our students have great oral strengths, we need to introduce them to the “language of school.” For us, academic language means not only direct instruction in vocabulary, but also supporting linguistic complexity at the sentence and discourse levels. We have the double challenge of increasing academic language in both Spanish and English.
In addition to the populations described in Teaching for Biliteracy, our school has several other very distinct populations. We discussed the small, but growing, Ecuadorian population. These families arrive from the Cañar region, which is very rural. Their home language is Quichua/Kichwa (similar to Quechua). These families speak Spanish as a second language and English as a third language. They are trilingual! We knew that the level of educational attainment by the mothers tends to be low. While we have several Ecuadorian teachers at our school, they are from the capital. So we decided we needed to learn more about this population.

Another different population in our school are the simultaneous bilingual children of staff members and other educators. There are thirteen staff members whose children attend our school (about two per grade level). These children (and those of similar profiles) are raised with two languages from birth. Often they are addressed by one parent in Spanish, and the other parent in English. Most attended bilingual daycare and pre-school. Their out-of-school experiences include travel to visit relatives in Spanish-speaking countries, participation in bilingual summer camps, and developing academic language in both Spanish and English at home. They have literacy materials at home in both languages. We did not spend a lot of time addressing the needs of this population- because we know them too well!
In terms of shifts in population, we have seen a growing number of Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) students in the district. Although our program has not received any of these students yet, we are aware that we may be incorporating them into school in the future. We have definitely seen a growing number of students with a history of trauma and we understand that this also affects their learning processes. Students with significant trauma benefit from stable routines with minimized transitions. They also need support from school-based counselors.

As we shifted into chapter 3:  Teachers: Capitalizing on Life Experiences and Diversity, we passed out copies of the “Sample Teacher Self-Reflection Survey” on page 45. Eleven teachers took the survey. After silent self-evaluation, teachers were asked to talk with a partner. “What are the areas where you feel most confident? Which areas would you like to develop?” In the topic of professional development, we all felt we agree or strongly agree that we understand about how oral language development influences literacy development. We also felt a strength was our knowledge of how to differentiate instruction. We would like to understand even more about how children develop biliteracy and how the two languages interact.

In the area of linguistic and cultural background, many of us feel that our Spanish academic language is somewhat strong or strong. We felt we could use even more resources to develop academic language. We decided to share more tier 2 vocabulary words and phrases in bilingual anchor charts. During this discussion, we also renewed our interest in encouraging academic conversations throughout all subject areas.

In the last category of the self-reflection, “awareness of student background”, we were very strong. We all “understand and respect my students’ oral language use, even when they may differ from my own or from ‘conventional’ Spanish.” We know the country of origin of each of our students and parents. Some of us are responsible for teaching only in Spanish or English so we have not always assessed in both languages. This could be an area of growth.
Our book study concluded with a sharing of a concept attainment slideshow, “Landforms”. This slideshow was developed for the fourth grade “Maps and Globes” unit. The students were actively engaged in defining the features of different landforms. The slideshow was saved in our shared folder. Although concept attainment activities are described in a later chapter, we wanted to show this example so teachers could begin implementing activities for current units of study. Click here to view a PDF of the slideshow Landforms The PDF does not include the transitions- so contact me if you would like a copy in the original format.

Finally, we reminded participants of upcoming sessions and inspired participants to share their knowledge of biliteracy with their colleagues. It was an engaging and interactive meeting! Please share your comments with us. Join us next month for chapter 4: Planning the Strategic Use of Two Languages.

Don’t forget to sign up for Cheryl Urow’s summer institute with MassMABE!