Update: Kindergarten Dual Language progression

We made it to 100 days of school!  We had a great 100th day parade and the kids displayed their collections of 100 on their t-shirts.  Thanks to moms and dads for helping this be the cutest parade ever!  Teachers even used an aging app to show kids what they might look like when they are 100.  Check out that video here. 

This blog update will take a look at how the Kindergarteners are progressing in their dual language development.  Remember, that our students have 100% of their Language Arts and Social Studies in English and 100% of their math and science in Spanish.  We are very proud of their skill development and their language development.

In this video, you can see a student using manipulative letters to spell sight words.  When students are working independently in stations, the focus is on skill development.  Clearly, working on sightwords is an isolated skill, but nonetheless an important one.

In Language Arts, we are promoting independence and fostering responsibility for students' own learning.  In this video you can see students working on a foldable about hummingbirds.  These types of activities are allowing the kids to apply their skills in real-world applications and increasing authenticity in their writing.

The same focus on skill development is present in both classrooms.  The language development focuses on four primary domains of language acquisition:  Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.  This short clip shows one way teachers are helping to promote reading in Spanish.  While is is a bit difficult to see, students use RAZ kids in Spanish to listen and read along with the story.

Again working on independent skills in the math classroom, in this video, one of our teaching assistants, Ms. Cruz, works with kids on number recognition and ten frames in a station.

In this math video, Ms. Ramirez teaches addition and subtraction with fact families using fish.  Notice that the students enjoy the lesson and participate in the language development as well as the content development.

In this video, Ms. Guido works with students to be able to express their reasoning in Spanish.  Teachers develop the reasoning skills as well as the language development.

In this video a student identifies the number of objects from 10 frames.  Notice the speed at which she does this.  This is called subitizing.  The goal is to recognize quickly without counting.  After identifying several values, Ms. Sanchez asks her “Why?” she knows how many there are.  She replies in Spanish, “twenty minus eight equals twelve.”  She is forming sentences and using her reasoning in her second language.

We are proud of how much our students are accomplishing.  Stay tuned to see how they progress.  One thing is for certain, students are moving forward in their language acquisition and their academic knowledge.  We are blessed to have wonderful teachers who are working very diligently to meet students' needs.  Corey Academy is a great place to be.