A Day in the Life of a Dual Language Student
The San Antonio Independent School District launched its Dual Language program with two schools, Mark Twain, and Washington Irving elementary schools in 2016. Both campuses offered a full Dual Language format of learning in all classes.
Since then, the popularity of the Dual Language format has continued to increase and so have the number of schools within SAISD that offer it. Currently, Dual Language programs are offered at every grade level and across the district in 55 schools – 41 elementaries and academies, seven middle schools and seven high schools.
The popularity of these programs can be linked to the academic success of the students, said Esmeralda Alday, executive director for Dual Language, ESL and Migrant Populations at SAISD. “Students in SAISD’s Dual Language Program test higher than their monolingual peers,” said Alday.
The benefits of Dual Language are cognitive, cultural/social, and economic, said Alday. Among the cognitive benefits, she included increased creativity and problem-solving abilities, improved school performance, and higher scores on standardized tests.
Cultural/social benefits include a deeper understanding of other cultures, respect for people, and increased self-esteem. And economic benefits included a competitive advantage in the workforce, and increased career choices.
SAISD’s Bilingual Department achieves these results through the Dual Language 80/20 Model. This model begins at the Pre-K level with 80 percent of student work in Spanish and 20 in English. These percentages gradually adjust each year as they move closer to a 50/50 split. By second grade, students are receiving 70 percent of instruction in Spanish and 30 in English. Students reach 50 percent of their day in Spanish and English in fourth and fifth grades, and they continue to receive at least two courses in Spanish throughout their secondary education.
For Ogden second graders, school days start with breakfast and community circles. Following this community time, Ms. Gonzalez’s students transition to their homeroom - a bright, colorful, energizing environment where the shelves, fixtures and decorations are all turned into words, even the numbers of the clock and number line. Because Ms. Gonzalez’s class is Dual Language, the words are posted in red to indicate the Spanish language and other words in blue to represent the English language.
Creating a language-rich environment is important at all grade levels and in all classrooms, but it’s crucial to a program where the goal for all the students is not only to learn the academic content but to also learn how to express knowledge and thought in two languages.
Everywhere they look, student eyes fall on words - word walls, numbers lines with the numbers spelled out, inspirational posters, calendars, and labels on everything, with English and Spanish words always printed in different colors.
““Visuals are important for students,” said Gonzalez. “It’s more than decoration. It’s a useful resource for the students.” While the colors sometimes vary, English words usually appear in blues and Spanish in red. “It’s important to use the colors,” she said. “It has to do with their (the students’) processing of the language.”
Once settled in their classroom, students follow a tight schedule, packed with rigor that to the casual observer, looks a lot like the kids are having fun – listening, reading, writing, and talking with classmates and their teacher about things that interest them and pique their curiosity. All of this is done confidently and without a pause, in Spanish.
On this day in mid-May, class started with a video about Jackie Robinson that included information about the baseball player’s life, the culture in the United States during his time and the history of baseball. The movie was followed by exploratory questions about the player and designed to grow vocabulary and understanding of language.
Students were asked to write five words they know that could be used to describe Robinson. At this request, the students immediately launched into discussions with their neighbors over which words to include on their lists. They suggested and debated until they completed their lists and was prepared to present it to the class.
Words listed and discussed around the classroom included atleta (athlete), fuerte (strong), and valor (courage).
Alday and Gonzalez explained that collaboration and speaking between students is crucial to the Dual Language model. “Being in pairs is another important learning strategy,” said Gonzalez. “People feel more comfortable talking with someone they know and feel on the same level with.” In these learning pairs students “gain the confidence to share with the whole class,” she said.
At this point in the class, it would be easy to think that all the students are native Spanish speakers who primarily speak Spanish at home. And then the class heads to physical education, recess, and lunch.
Physical education started with all students sitting on the gym floor for a lesson delivered in English, covering the time-sensitive topic of water safety. While the second graders may have been a little distracted by the possibility of a summer filled with water play, all understood the lesson. They were engaged and interacting in English.
Ogden Coach Raul Hernandez remembers these same students when they first entered Ogden Elementary as preschoolers. Hernandez said, “I remember when they were little, some of them would have a little trouble with English, but not anymore, not for a while now.” He even credits the Dual Language students for improvements in his ability to speak Spanish.
Recess and lunch were an opportunity for Dual Language students to engage and socialize with those in typical classes. While the Dual Language students occasionally slipped from Spanish to English and back again without hesitation, the majority of the interactions were in giggles, laughter, shouts, and English.
“Play is a language all kids understand,” said Coach Hernandez.
With kids heading back to their class for math and small group work their energy was just as high as it was when they were leaving. Back in class, Gonzalez confirmed that while the majority of her students started the Dual Language program as primarily Spanish speakers, some primarily speak English.
For the students themselves, there is little recognition of who came speaking which language or that their class is difference from any other. For them, all of this is just school and it’s more about what they are learning than how they are learning it.
Two girls in the Ogden second grade class looked with bewilderment when asked about the Spanish and English in the class then both agreed that their favorite part of the class was math. “I like to find the answers,” said one of them.
Saul, another student in the class, couldn’t settle on just one thing. He said, he liked his class “because they learn so many new things.”
If you are interested in enrolling your student in a dual-language classroom at Ogden or another one of our SAISD schools, click here.