Description of the practice

Teachers of Bilingual Education may choose from several models of L1, L2 language use. These models include the option of separating language use by subject area, by the person speaking each language, or by time and place considerations. The operating principle common to all three options is that the languages are kept separate so that students learn to function effectively in each language. This does not preclude creating bridges between the two languages, to be used in a systematic way. It does preclude mixing the languages randomly. The Pre-K teacher uses the home language and English as the language of instruction on alternate days. In this way, she gives students an opportunity to hear, speak and function in a single language without relying on the other for a translation. In order to support this choice, she uses a variety of learning strategies, derived from research:

• Monitoring comprehension by questioning for clarification
• Elaborating of prior knowledge (i.e., grounding new learning in what's already known)
• Using material resources and concrete references (i.e., symbolic representations of real objects

Elements of the practice

The theme of the week under observation is Getting to Know Our Community Workers. Ms. T., as she is called by her pre-k students, calls her students to the story rug. She is armed with a Big Book and lots of figures depicting various community workers. The students get excited by the presence of so many beautiful and colorful toys. Its takes a few moments to settle them down. Ms.T. gets them ultimately to focus as she goes over the name and function of some of the figures. She asks many open-ended questions and passes the figures around to each child. She complete this process for four community workers. She dismisses the group to play in several centers designed to extend their learning: i.e. an art activity, a housekeeping activity and a talking center where students talked about what they wanted to be. All the community workers created by the children were displayed outside the classroom. Thus their effort is rewarded.

Evidence that the Practice Works

Informal assessment is the hallmark of pre-k education. Students at the pre-K level are preparing to become readers and nascent writers, and to do so need to be exposed to many print items as well as encouraged to develop a varied and rich vocabulary. They need many opportunities to ask questions, and comment at length on their world. Ms. T. provides this in at least two ways: she structures both formal and naturalistic opportunities to speak, listen and use language. She does this over and over in two languages on an alternate basis. She also does this by consciously packing in language opportunities, realizing that some children my not have ample opportunity in their homes to develop the skills necessary to realize their potential in school settings. The effectiveness of her practices will be fully measured when the ECLAS is applied.

Learner and School Contexts

PS 29 has a large and varied Hispanic population. Some are born abroad and come to the US to be raised here; others are native-born children of immigrant parents; most are children born in the US of native parents who in many cases attended PS 29 as children themselves. There is a BE classroom for every grade level; thus there are six classrooms which make up the program. The school has recently adopted a transitional BE model, beginning in pre-K all the way up to the fifth grade. Classrooms are self-contained, but the district-mandated Literacy Block cuts across grade level classrooms in order to better serve all students. For example, all the third, fourth and fifth grade BE students go to classrooms for reading according to tested levels, not classroom assignments. In addition, BE teachers have a weekly common prep and are working to better articulate curriculum and instruction across the grades. Ms.T. is an experienced pre-k teacher who has recently begun working with Special Education students. She is a co-facilitator of an inclusion pre-k classroom. She co-teaches with a Special Education teacher and two teaching assistants.