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Class
molding bilingual kindergartners
Berkeley program teaches pupils English, Spanish
Oakland Tribune
Sunday, September 12, 2004
By Kristin Bender, STAFF WRITER
This is the first in an occasional series of stories between now and June 2005 about Mary Shogren's kindergarten dual immersion class.
BERKELEY — It's the first day of kindergarten at LeConte Elementary School in Berkeley, and there are a lot of blank, wide-eyed, what-the-heck-are-we-doing-here stares coming from the kids. Kindergarten can be a scary place when you are 5 years old. The kids' faces are unfamiliar, the teacher is a complete stranger, and the classroom is foreign.
In this case, the classroom is really foreign. Much of what's on the walls is written in Spanish. There's a calendar, but no "Monday" or "Tuesday," only strange-looking days called "Lunes" and "Martes." What's going on here?
There's a sign showing standard shapes and the primary colors, but the green circle is a "circulo" and the big red square is called a "cuadrado."
Even the ABCs look a little funny. What is that "LL" doing in the middle of the alphabet? Who put that little squiggly line over the "N"?
Why are some of the kids calling teacher Mary Shogren "maestra?" And why is she speaking only Spanish?
Shogren's class and more than 300 other elementary school children and some middle schoolers in the Berkeley Unified School District are spending their days learning Spanish and some English in the classroom.
It's called "dual immersion," and it directs teachers to give lessons 90 percent in Spanish and 10 percent in English. In Berkeley, the program is taught at three elementary schools and one middle school.
Education experts say it's OK to immerse English speakers in the two-way immersion programs without risk of losing the English language. English is spoken at home, in the community and in other parts of the school campus. Spanish speakers will learn how to read and write in their native language and also pick up English simultaneously. Each year an increasing amount of English is taught.
"Research has shown that you start with the minority language because they are getting less access to it," says Lynda Arnold, a Berkeley teacher who oversees the immersion program. "We give them a strong start in Spanish so they are thinking in Spanish, and then we start to add the second language."
Shogren has been teaching Spanish to kids for years, and she is systematic in her approach.
"Bienvenidos a Salon 110" (Welcome to Room 110)," says Shogren, an American who learned Spanish in Barcelona more than a decade ago and is starting her sixth year of teaching kindergarten dual immersion in the Berkeley schools.
In Shogren's class, there are 20 students. Ten are native English speakers and 10 are native Spanish speakers. There are American-born children and children whose parents emigrated here from Mexico and El Salvador. There is an Asian girl.
"Sientate en un circulo," she says, gesturing for them to sit in a circle on the carpet. Getting them to understand what she wants them to do is sometimes difficult. Some stare blankly at her. Others sit on the edges of the less-than-perfect circle. Some walk away, hoping to hide in the bathroom.
The 10 students in the class who have been raised speaking Spanish immediately stand out in the group as the leaders. They follow the directions and are the first to get in line and sit at the table for snack time. Slowly, the Spanish speakers help the other children figure out what's going on.
In the first days of kindergarten, the students are taught basic things: the alphabet, days of the week, months, numbers, weather and basic commands, such as sit down, please do not touch the puzzles, please get ready for recess, please put the books away. There are a lot of "por favors" in the instruction.
By the end of the second week, Shogren is teaching them about modes of transportation, asking each student how he or she gets to school each morning.
"I do lots of songs in the beginning because songs are easier to (pick up). I always start with the most familiar songs," she says. She sings "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" in Spanish.
All the kids gesture along, using their fingers to form a make-believe spider and racing to touch their "cabezas, hombros, rodillas y dedos de los pies" as quickly as possible.
Gesturing is an important part of the teaching process, as is voice intonations. She says she feels a bit like a mime, but with the addition of words. Even if you don't know what she's saying, it's not that difficult to figure out at least some of it. Shogren has a way of making the students understand what she wants them to do -- or not do.
Organized chaos
Still, there is always a healthy amount of confusion in the classroom. Organized chaos, really.
It seems all 20 kids have to go to the bathroom at the same second. And they all need a drink of water. Some need their mommies. Others desperately need a long nap. Shogren does not waver from using Spanish. Only a few times a day does she whisper -- in English -- in a child's ear.
"In the beginning, you have to realize that they don't know what I expect," she says.
If a child seems overly confused or extremely upset, she'll do the whisper trick. "Generally, I don't want other kids to hear me speak English," she says. "It's best for them not to hear English from me so they associate me with Spanish."
There is a small amount of instruction in English each day.
By the end of kindergarten they will know how to respond to simple Spanish questions: How are you? What do you like to wear? What do you like to eat? They'll know all their colors and numbers to 30. Their comprehension will be higher than their actual ability to speak the language. They will easily respond to questions by doing the appropriate things. If Shogren tells them to sit at the table and read a book, they'll do it.
By the end of first grade, they will know how to write sentences in Spanish, and by the fourth or fifth grades they will be able to complete half their subjects in English and half in Spanish.
A bilingual head start
Dual immersion is becoming increasingly popular in such states as California, where the Mexican immigrant population continues to balloon and bilingual skills are becoming more and more important in jobs such as teaching, health care, law enforcement and social services.
Although there are few major studies on the success of two-way immersion programs, the Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence last year released the results of a national study on the effectiveness of such programs.
"Two-way bilingual immersion and one-way developmental bilingual education programs are the only programs found to date that assist students to fully reach the 50th percentile (scoring above 50 percent of other test takers) in both their native language and English in all subject areas, and to maintain that level of high achievement, or reach even higher levels through the end of their school," the findings say.
"Overall, the general evidence seems to be that students in two-way immersion do as well or better than students who are in English-only programs, and they are also learning a second language," says Julie Sugarman, a research assistant with the Center for Applied Linguistics, a Washington, D.C., think tank.
In California, there are 58 school districts and 102 schools with bilingual immersion programs, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics. California has more students in the program than any other state in the union, studies show.
Parents must sign yearly waivers to allow their children to be in the programs. In Berkeley, there is usually a lot of interest from both native Spanish speakers and native English speakers.
"The waiting list varies from year to year," Arnold says.
There are many reasons parents enroll their students in the program. "For me, it's two fold," says Cary Sanders, whose daughter Julia Lippman is in Shogren's class. "I think everybody should have the opportunity to learn another language other than English. It can really enrich your life. And with Spanish, there are so many opportunities to use the language and practice the language."
Kristin Bender covers Berkeley.
