Today's post is a look at how things begin at Corey Academy. This post includes several videos to conceptualize what the beginning of the year looks like in Kindergarten at Corey Academy. The dual language program at Corey is best defined as a 50/50 Dual Language Immersion Model program. If you are a parent, you are already aware of what the school day looks for your child. If you are a prospective parent, this video will help to show you what to expect during the first weeks of Kindergarten.
At Corey, Kindergarten students will receive 100% of their language arts and social studies instruction in English. At Corey we follow the Arlington ISD framework for literacy instruction. Instruction is delivered in both whole groups and small group settings. This video shows a Kindergarten teacher working with a table of students while others practice independently, and this video shows how students are often practicing their reading during class. Again, the instruction in these classes is in English and is focused on the foundational literacy components of phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.
In the math and science classes, professional staff will speak 100% in Spanish. The idea is that students believe that these teachers do not speak English so therefore they must learn to communicate in Spanish, however, all math and science teachers in the Dual Language grades levels are certified bilingual teachers with Texas Education Agency. These videos are taken only a few weeks into the school year. This video is an example of an observation lesson based from science. This video shows students working on an exercise, again during the first few weeks of school. In this video, you will observe more direct instruction with a strong focus on repetition.
In Kindergarten and 1st grade, students are learning the foundations of the Texas educational curriculum through the target languages of English and Spanish. Once students reach second grade they will begin to learn Mandarin Chinese as well. In this video, we can see students at the beginning of school learning numbers and days of the week in Mandarin.
We work to align expectations and classroom models between partner teachers so that students learn classroom systems more effectively and efficiently. We also believe in reaching different learning modalities so that we can reach all students. We believe that students can vary the task often but continue to work on the foundational skills of reading, math, writing, and science, but that they can have a blast doing it. By week 4, students have learned to connect the months of the year in Spanish with the months of the year in English and have learned to associate the number of the month with the name of the month. Watch the video of kindergarten singing the months of the year.
The Fine Arts part of the curriculum involves 90 minutes per day of fine arts and movement. All Kindergarteners attend three 30 minutes sessions per day. They have two different days which rotate. Corey has PE, Music class, and Art which are more traditional but we have also added Theatre Arts, Dance, and Piano for every child. Students receive a dedicated 245 minutes of fine arts per week. Check out the video links to see what instruction in these classes looks like in the first few weeks of school.
Corey has received some very positive attention to start of our inaugural year of implementation. We are thankful to a fabulous community for their support and to a truly dedicated staff for blazing this trail in Arlington ISD. Read the Arlington Citizen-Journal article here. View the CBS local news story here.
