Conclusion 5t6l6g

Conclusion As I began my research I had lofty dreams of students working together as peer-to-peer mentors. I had hoped to see my students engaging in conversations about their work thoughtfully, while offering suggestions to improve their partner’s work. I teach Kindergarten in a Dual Immersion Language program where the goal is to help students become bilingual, biliterate and bicultural. The program I teach in is a 90:10 model (90% Spanish and 10% English) where the amount of English instruction increases by 10% each year until fourth through sixth grade in which the instruction is equally divided between English and Spanish. The main goal of my action research was to foster friendships and communication between the native Spanish speakers (NSS) and the native English speakers (NES) in my class. Since the target language for Kindergarten is Spanish my students would be having these conversations in Spanish, aided by their compañero, or language partner, who would help them with any unknown words or phrases. Things didn’t go entirely according to my plans. Working with four and five year olds proved to be challenging enough, without adding in the extra pressure of getting them to give each other and work together on projects. But, I’m nothing if not flexible, so I reworked my plan and decided it would be more appropriate to focus on the following questions: How do NSS and NES interact and communicate in my class, and how will this change as we grow together as a classroom community? Limitations

This was both my first year teaching Kindergarten and the first time I taught in a Dual Language Immersion program. My inexperience with this age group led me to feel like I was taking two steps forward and three steps back, at least during the first few months of school. However, I reached out to many teachers throughout this process for guidance and suggestions.

Their help

proved to be invaluable! My focus quickly shifted from peer-to-peer mentoring to creating a classroom community where students felt valued and ed by their classmates.

I implemented several structures to foster friendships and

participation amongst my students. Some of the activities and structures worked right away and others required refining over time. One of the themes that surfaced immediately for me was equity. My focus from the beginning was to find a way to help all of my students succeed after many years of watching the English learners in my class struggle academically. In those first few weeks of Kindergarten it was crystal clear to me that the inequities I struggled with as a fourth grade teacher were there long before my students started school.

The NSS and NES came from distinct cultural

backgrounds and many from different economic situations. At the beginning of the year, I conducted a survey to get at how students felt about working with a partner. I struggled with data collection from the start. Getting Kindergarteners to understand the questions was challenging, especially since many of them had not acquired enough Spanish to make sense of what I was after. I ended up interviewing them individually and got the information, but I regretfully didn’t keep track of which student gave the information. I compiled the data into a class graph based on how they answered the questions.

As I look back, it would have been helpful to show how NSS responses differed from NES. Throughout my action research I grew as an educator and gained insight into the challenges that teaching in a Dual Language Immersion program presents. The following are the key findings that had the most impact on me personally. Equity and balance are essential in a dual immersion classroom One of my big concerns at the beginning of the school year was that of being understood by the NES in my class. I only speak Spanish in front of my students and the majority of the NES started school with very limited exposure to Spanish. Much to my dismay, I ended up overcompensating to make myself comprehensible to the NES. I used dramatic hand gestures, spoke slowly, and asked NSS to translate what I was trying to communicate into English. After reading the research on successful DLI programs and philosophies on language acquisition, I realized that I was going about this the wrong way.

I was

inadvertently placing my NSS in the role of translators and simplifying my language, while focusing most of my attention on how my NES students were adapting to being in a full immersion class. I was frustrated, since one of my goals was to create equity in my classroom between these two diverse groups of students. In her article, “Help! They’re Using Too Much English!” Cindy LaVan, a fourth grade dual immersion teacher, discusses the importance of establishing clear language expectations within the first weeks of school. She went from teaching first grade to teaching fourth grade and noticed a dramatic decrease in students speaking Spanish. LaVan “found that some students may influence the

language use of their peers, as in the case of one student who consistently used the L2 (Spanish), thus provoking his peers into using it more as well” (2001, p.2). By having my NSS translate, I was inadvertently allowing more English into the classroom, which in turn increased the amount of English I heard students using throughout the day. Best practices in a DLI class require a teacher to strive for a balance between offering for non-native speakers and keeping the academic level of the Spanish high. Kathryn Lindholm-Leary, a leading researcher in bilingual education, points out that “optimal input has four characteristics: it is adjusted to the comprehension level of the learner, it is interesting and relevant, there is sufficient quantity, and it is challenging” (2001, p. 16). During those first few months it was difficult to provide optimal input to all students in my class. My goal was equity, but during the beginning stages of language acquisition it is not always possible. It was a challenge to modify what I was saying while still staying true to the full immersion model. What I now realize is that NES parents sought this program out. While I of course want all children to feel successful in my classroom, it is not reasonable to have the same expectations for all of my students, at least during the first half of the year. NES parents were well informed of the details of the program and what to expect during the first year. It is an academically rigorous program for both groups of students, but especially so for NES, at least initially. If I were able to go back in time, and really I get the chance to start again this August, I would not show preference to the NES. The majority of my NES began speaking in short phrases quite quickly and their receptive language developed much quicker than I had imagined. All that’s to say, that if I hadn’t

modified my instruction for them specifically, would they be any worse off? I don’t believe so. I think that translating played a part in allowing precedence to set; English became the language that students began conversing in informally. It was difficult to undo. Dual Language Immersion Educators must strive to increase the value of Spanish Something that came up consistently during my research into equity in DLI programs was the decrease of Spanish use by students as they reached the upper grades. Many educators have voiced their concerns about the importance of equalizing the status of Spanish in DLI. This task is especially difficult at schools like mine, which offer a traditional monolingual program in addition to DLI. The result is that there is less Spanish spoken than at a site that has adopted DLI school wide. This is problematic for many reasons. Since more than half of the staff is not bilingual, the common language amongst the staff is English. The majority of the announcements are given in English, all of our specialty teachers speak only English, and the full time special education staff, are also all monolingual. We do have a bilingual school psychologist and speech therapist that we share with three other sites. In addition, the social and economic status of the NES and NSS families at my school differs greatly. The majority of the NES students come from higher income families and the majority of the NSS students come from lower income families.

Delgado-Larocco conducted a study of a two-way immersion

kindergarten in California and found a similar pattern. She noticed a distinct separation amongst the native English-speaking parents and native Spanishspeaking parents, and noted “Because of Spanish-speaking parents' cultural

status, they are placed in a subordinate role relative to English-speaking parents” (1998, p. 318). She observed that English-speaking parents were more assertive and vocal about voicing their concerns. They also made up a larger percentage of school committees that were involved in decision-making. Delgado-Larocco also noticed that teachers often “tailored their instruction to meet the needs of their English-speaking students”(1998, p. 318). DLI teachers must be aware of the tendency to favor the needs of the NES. It easy to fall into this practice, but it sends a subtle message to all students that English is the favored language and that English speaking families have more influence in the school. My recommendation to DLI teachers is to be keenly aware of this tendency when delivering instruction. We must keep the level of Spanish academically challenging and not allow translations. Schools must also make more of an effort to ensure school committees are representative of the demographics of the school. Giving all voices value would be a great place to start. I wish I knew of an easy way to increase participation in classroom activities amongst Spanish-speaking parents.

When I have asked

parents about this in the past, they have told me they’d love participate more but their work schedule doesn’t allow it. One way to get around this is to schedule evening and weekend events that bring both groups together. Ideally, our school would exclusively offer DLI classes. However, since this is not within my power, it’s important for schools with two distinct programs to make every effort to equalize the value of Spanish. This can be done by consistently offering all materials bilingually, providing services in Spanish, and reaching in out in a more meaningful way to NSS parents. Kindergarteners must be explicitly taught how to work together in a positive way

Many of my failed attempts at having students work together made me realize students at this age, and I’m sure older, need very clear concise instructions on how to work together. Also, even after offering specific steps of what to do, things will go wrong and it’s okay. There were a lot of teachable moments for us to reflect on as a class. A big one was sharing materials. Many students were not used to sharing and even if they were it wasn’t something most of them did innately and willingly. What I realized was that they needed specific modeling of how to ask for something and how to respond. Also, we spent a lot of time reflecting on how things went after an activity. What went well? How can we improve? Skipping this reflection was not an option. If I tried to rush through things it backfired consistently. It was difficult to hear kids arguing over a pencil when there was a box filled with pencils between them, but the conversations that came afterwards almost always resulted in both students seeing an easier way to solve the problem. DLI Programs Can Help Promote Positive Attitudes Toward Biliteracy The reality is that the percentage of people who speak Spanish in the United States has been rapidly increasing over the last twenty years. Helping these two populations both experience success in school – and to see each other as a part of that success – is vital given the evolving demographics of our country. For many years the goal of bilingual education was to help non-native English speakers transition as quickly as possible into an all-English curriculum. Spanish instruction was seen as a bridge to English, where the skills learned in Spanish were used to transfer over to skills learned in English. Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs, like mine, represent an important ideological shift.

The goal of DLI is to educate students that are bilingual and bicultural. In doing this we have an opportunity to change the mindset of a generation. Previously, a common thought was that children should learn English and there was no emphasis on maintaining their first language. I agree that anyone living in the United States should learn English, however not at the expense of their first language. Also, it has been my experience that many of the people pushing for students to be mainstreamed into English without preserving their native language are monolingual. One of the most important benefits of both NSS and NES learning each others’ native language is that it brings these two diverse groups together as a community, rather than keeping them segregated. When I first started teaching, their weren’t any DLI programs in the schools I taught at. Now we have two in my current district and new DLI schools are starting every year. I am happy to see an increase in the popularity of DLI programs that value biliteracy. To become fully biliterate by the end of sixth grade our students will be able to read, write and speak in both languages. However, it’s important that we educate parents and the society at large about the positive impact of being bilingual. The implications of educating students to value each other’s language and cultures can be profound. My hope is that by being mindful and reflective as DLI teachers we can help English-speaking and Spanish-speaking students, and families, see their success as interdependent! I recall reading an article by Linda Gerena (2010), “Student Attitudes Toward Biliteracy in a Dual Immersion Program.”

She referred to current

educational practice as hegemonic, in that it leads English learners to believe that only literacy in English is valuable. Some of these messages are subtle and others

are explicitly delivered by mainstream media and popular opinion. Many NSS parents with children in our DLI program are preoccupied with their child’s progress in English. Some end up pulling their children out of the program because they fear they are not acquiring English quickly enough. Educating parents about the benefits of biliteracy is essential. It’s also important to share with them that Latinos are one of the fastest growing populations in the country. This means we have more of a reason than ever to make sure that we can communicate with the people in our community. There has been a lot of emphasis lately in politics on the growing Latino population. Candidates are trying to find ways to reach out to them and get their vote. It seems to me that if we make an effort to ensure our children are bilingual and bicultural, this would not be such an important issue. I think that if implemented properly, DLI programs can play an important role in not only equalizing the status of English and Spanish, but also serving as a way to equalize access to economic and social opportunities for second language learners. It is our responsibilities as educators to offer an equal educational experience for our students. What a gift if in the process we can help shift the socio-economic divide as well.