Wake me up, when September ends…

You know how you spend the late summer months getting ready for the new school year, shopping for pencil boxes and notebooks, getting excited about setting up your classroom and then the first day arrives and your little learners prance through your classroom door, or hang onto the door frame with the strength of an adult, refusing to enter, and you are suddenly reminded that the first month or so of Kinder is…how can I say it…well, my Kinder colleagues would say…

WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS…

…and then you listen to the Green Day song on repeat while driving to and from school because it somehow gives you some comfort that September will in fact end. In my 25+ years in dual language education, I have taught Kinder - 4th grade. Kinder was by far the most challenging grade I've taught. Every day, for those first few weeks, I would drive home questioning my decision to return to the classroom and convincing myself that these little people were not going to get the best of me. Each day I returned to my classroom. Each day felt a little better until September ended y los Super 8 del Salón 8 were off and running.

By the time I stepped into my first Kinder classroom, I had taught ages 6 - 60. What most surprised me about teaching Kinder, other than the fact that I could hardly manage 30 five year olds in those beginning weeks, was what I learned from my students. In other words, while I was teaching my students, my students were teaching me, confirming theories I had taught in my university classrooms but hadn’t fully experienced because for the first time I was teaching students que no hablaban ni papa de español. This was the first time I was teaching students a new language in their new language without using English to make the content comprehensible. I had to reach into my years of experience and extensive knowledge regarding second language acquisition to teach my students their new language and the Kinder content they needed to learn to be ready for first grade. Since Kinder DLI teachers have been on my mind since the beginning of the school year, I began reflecting on my experience as a DLI Kinder teacher and what my littles learners taught me.

Teaching DLI Kinder taught me that it’s ok for my students to know that I am bilingual.

I went from teaching in a transitional bilingual classroom to dual immersion classroom in 1999. The school I joined had been had two classes in each grade level K-3, one 4th and one 5th grade classroom (Today they are a whole school program with four Kinder classes.) The students K-3 had a Spanish teacher and an English teacher. The Spanish teacher never spoke English to the students, in fact the students believed that their Spanish teacher didn’t know English at all. Years later when I was a Kinder teacher, I followed what I had learned from my first DI school and what was common practice among 90/10 programs. My students asked me almost daily if I spoke English. I would answer, no. One of my students, Elina, insisted every day that I must speak English until she wore me out and I replied, “Sí, yo conozco 5 palabras en inglés.” Her face lit up with an “I knew it” look as she skipped along to recess feeling her suspicion was correct. Some time later, while doing an activity with pumpkins, I pretended not to know the word pumpkin in English. I was teaching my students the word calabaza and they were teaching me pumpkin. We were all having a good laugh because I would pronounce it incorrectly which sent my students howling with laughter and then I would try again. In those few moments of silliness, Elina stood up, faced the class, all sitting with legs crossed on the rug, and announced “Guys, she only knows 5 words in English.” Although this was one of those memorable, funny, tender moments with my students, it didn’t feel right to pretend I didn’t speak English. I wanted my students to be bilingual like me so I decided that when they asked me if I spoke English, I would answer, “Sí, yo soy bilingüe.” From that moment on, that was my answer to the question “Do you speak English”? They were beginning their trajectory towards bilingualism and biliteracy, and I wanted them to know that their Spanish teacher was bilingual, just like they were or would be one day. I continued to speak Spanish only during our Spanish instructional time and was keenly aware of the importance of comprehensible input when teaching beginning language learners.

Teaching DLI Kinder taught me about the importance of comprehensible input.

I learned about the importance of comprehensible input in my credentialing courses through the work of Stephen Krashen. His research has been a pillar in second language acquisition to this day. Even though I learned years ago about the importance of making content comprehensible for beginning language learners, I had never really experienced teaching students who didn’t understand what I was saying. In every other grade I taught, all my students had some degree of proficiency in both of the instructional languages. Although I planned lessons using strategies that were engaging, I knew my students understood me when speaking Spanish and/or English. It wasn’t until I became a DLI Kinder teacher that I truly experienced what it means to teach via comprehensible input because I needed to do that every day in order for my students to understand anything. I knew that using pictures and gestures helped students understand the words I was saying. I knew speaking at a moderate pace and giving students wait time, helped students process and learn new words. I used many other strategies for comprehensible input and was able to confirm what I already knew, receptive language develops quickly and productive language takes more time especially when you have a majority of Spanish learners and the teacher is the only fluent language model.

Teaching Kinder confirmed the importance of maintaining a low affective filter

As I planned lessons using all the tools in my strategy toolbox so that my students could comprehend what they were learning, I also created a safe space for students to engage in their new language. I’m a big fan of dialogue circles. Each morning, my students and I would sit in a circle and greet each other. At the beginning of the year, we would go around the circle and simply say “Hola” to each other. Some students greeted the class in Spanish, and others in English. One student would let us know each morning that he wasn’t ready to speak in Spanish yet so he greeted us in English for the first few weeks. Another student wasn’t ready in either language. The morning dialogue circle established trust that students could produce language when they were ready. The trust continued beyond our dialogue circle time. I think about my little Zuma, small in size but full of feistiness. Every single day, she would walk into our classroom and announce "I don’t speak Spanish." And every day I would smile and give her a thumbs up. Months later in January or so, the students were lining up for lunch and Zuma noticed that a classmate had forgotten their lunch card. She grabbed it and yelled across the room, "Isabel, you forgot your tarjeta." We looked at each other wide eyed and I said, "¡Zuma, hablastes en españo!" We shared this moment of joy, her face full of pride. I knew it was important to create a space where my students would embrace language learning and celebrate all attempts at producing their new language without pressure. That moment came together when Zuma, my student who announced that she did not speak Spanish, said a word in Spanish, naturally, without a second thought and then smiled when she realized she did in fact speak Spanish now, even if it was one word. When we create an environment where students are encouraged to use the new words they are learning, but at the same time given the time and space to make attempts with their new language, the language will come, in time.

Teaching Kinder taught me the importance of having a balanced classroom of language learners

In theory we know it’s best to have a balance of Spanish speakers and English speakers in our DLI classrooms, but the reality is that most schools I’ve worked at or visited do not have 50% Spanish speakers and 50% English speakers enrolled. It’s usually skewed one way or the other. For TK/K teachers in DLI with a majority of Spanish language learners, the first month or two are more challenging because essentially no one understands what you’re saying. The need for Spanish speakers was never more evident in my Kinder classroom than the moment I realized I had forgotten it was our first library day, two weeks into the school year. My TK colleague who shared library time with me, walked by and quickly reminded me that it was time to go to the library. I found myself needing to get my students quickly into a line, out the door and down the hallway without any comprehensible input. I announced, “Vamos a la biblioteca.” I motioned with my hands to stand up and led a few students to the door, the class followed as students called out, "Where are we going?" "Is it recess time?" “Why are we lining up?” In the midst of the bit of chaos that ensued Denise’s soft voice emerged saying, "I think she said we're going to the library." I turned and replied, "Síiiii, la biblioteca. Vamos a la biblioteca." That moment alone taught me the importance of comprehensible input. The following year, I made sure to share a picture of our actual library with the students, and taught them the word biblioteca the day before our first library visit. To say that it went much smoother is an understatement. It’s not that it’s impossible to learn language without language models, it’s that having a balance of Spanish speakers and English speakers creates a community of language learners that is a reciprocal experience for all language learners and their teacher.

Teaching Kinder showed me my students’ language growth would be incredible.

On our last day of Kinder, our class engaged in our last dialogue circle. As we went around the circle, everyone greeted their classmates in Spanish. Everyone asked a partner, ¿Cómo te sientes hoy? Everyone shared how they were feeling in Spanish. It took several months and many repetitions. Not everyone got there at the same time, but everyone left my classroom on their way to becoming bilingual and biliterate. Did my students leave Kinder fluently speaking Spanish? Of course not. Elementary DLI programs can span TK/K - 6 grade. In each grade, our students continue on their trajectory towards bilingualism and biliteracy. They’re not supposed to be balanced bilinguals until the end or near the end of the program. It’s important to remember, although students can show tremendous growth in a school year, language acquisition takes time to reach advanced levels of fluency. Our students can get there, pasito a pasito, one grade level at a time.

Por último

At the end of the school year, after continuous requests to speak in English, I told my students that I would address their parents in English at their Kinder promotion. On that last day of school, after passing out each certificate, my students sat on the rug, their eyes glued to me with anticipation. As promised, I looked out to their parents standing along the walls of my classroom and I began saying in English “Thank you for your support.” but when I looked back at my class, their eyes in utter shock, I suddenly couldn’t continue. I realized I had said five words and explained “Esas son las 5 palabras que voy a decir.” In that moment I decided I didn’t want to speak English with my students. I wanted them to see me as their Spanish teacher. I wanted my students to know that within the walls of Salón 8, their Spanish teacher held Spanish to such a high regard that it wasn’t necessary to speak in English. El inglés ya domina por todo, pero aquí en Salón 8, con mis estudiantes de español, Dra. Grimalt esta orgullosa de hablar español y así será. That moment ended with everyone clapping and cheering for Super 8! El orgullo era nuestro.

Hang in there TK/K DLI teachers. El final de septiembre ya viene.