Face to face

I was sitting in the bleachers watching the JV baseball game. Just a couple of rows below me a family of 4 was enjoying watching their older son at bat, but with them in the bleachers were 2 darling children. They were around 5-6 years old, and so well behaved. The little girl had brought her scooter and her bicycle to keep her occupied during the game. She spent the morning zooming down the sidewalk and then checking back in with Mom & Dad to make sure they were watching. When she grew tired of biking, she came back again to her parents, and cuddled close to her mom, under the blankets. (You know how this year's Spring has been!)

What happened next was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing extraordinary, but it gave me pause to re-evaluate how I could be a better teacher. I witnessed the Mother holding her daughter's face between her loving hands, and talking, teasing, and laughing with her daughter. What struck a chord with me was how articulate the 5 year old was. She was having a delightful conversation with her mom: complete sentences, mostly correct grammar, a sense of humor, with a total understanding of everything being said to her! Like I said, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing extraordinary. But I know my 1st graders at the end of their first grade year in Spanish Immersion cannot carry on that kind of spontaneous conversation in Spanish.

Because I teach and converse only in Spanish with my students, I often forget how articulate they can be in their first language. It would be fun to hear all of that, but my job is to bring them to this point in their 2nd language. What could I do to help them grow closer to this level of language proficiency? There is no way that I would have time to hold each child close & have such personalized and intimate conversations with each of my 27 students. But maybe, just maybe I could do a better job of utilizing those 27 students to give each other some of that personalized, intimate time.

I'm thinking of those strategies such as "Pair share", "Turn & talk", etc. I use those frequently, but what if I amped that up? What if every time I call on a student to share something, I invite the entire class to respond to that child by repeating, "It's your turn, Suzy". Or if after Suzy speaks, I immediately invite the rest of the class to repeat to their partner just what Suzy said. What if I give Suzy a prompt such as, "I think.......(and she tells what she thinks), but I'd like to hear what Johnny thinks."?  And then Johnny continues the pattern. What if my students always have a partner for whole class time, and every time I give instructions, I break it up into bite-sized pieces, then have one of each of the partners tell the other partner what I just said?  And then we practice asking questions when they don't understand the instructions.

I can imagine this would slow down my morning meeting time a bit, but I'm wondering if after a couple of months I might not have more verbal students, a closer knit group of students, and students who are more independent earlier in the year as a result. I'm wondering if I might be listening to whole stories from my students in the target language by Christmas!  What if I continue this practice, adding in more depth as the year goes on, so that by this time next year, we might be able to experience some of those unincumbered, personalized, intimate conversations just like this little girl at the ballpark? How cool would that be??!!! 

Those are my thoughts today. What do you think? Where are your students in their language development? Where do you want them to be this time next year?

Wishing us all more face to face time,

Sheryl René

Cheerleaders

April 25th marked 6 years since my mother died. I miss her. She was an outstanding listener & could empathize with almost anyone in any situation. She had a very quick wit, and she & I would often play off each other with our witty remarks. She worked outside the home, and was our only parent from Monday to Friday, as our dad was a traveling salesman. The hours that she was home she was "ours".

One of her qualities that I appreciate most was her ability to cheer us on in all our endeavors. She made it possible for me to attend sewing classes the summer after my 5th grade year (though she knew very little about sewing). She made sure I got to take piano lessons, though her specialty was the flute. She was proud of everything we ever did. I remember telling friends in the past few years that there are probably things I'm actually crappy at, but I believe I'm good at simply because my mom thought I was great! Ha!ha!

You who are parents of an Immersion student, I want to encourage you to (continue to) be your child's most enthusiastic cheerleader. I know you're torn sometimes between wanting to help & tutor your child in their 2nd language, but often feel grossly inadequate if you don't know the language they are studying or never had to deal with being immersed in a 2nd language. Heck, I'm torn sometimes as the teacher! Should I ask you to tutor your child at home, trying to send home some guidelines for the non-Spanish speaker? Should I not send home extra work, trying to eliminate that frustration for you at home? Should I encourage you to help your child with pronunciation even if I know you're "doing it all wrong"? Should I just let my concerns go to the wind, believing that your enthusiasm will overcome the errors? Should I stop being so "picky"?

Here's what I usually say to our parents, at Open House night & throughout the year. The best way to help your child (especially if you do not speak the language they are studying) is to be their most enthusiastic cheerleader! Because really, isn't it amazing that our Kindergartners & 1st graders have no fear to speak whatever they can, with all the natural errors of associating one language with another, and yet are able to communicate their ideas???? Every child from the struggler to the stereotypical bell curve kid, to the overachiever loves to hear praise from you, their most beloved person in the world.

So let's go parents! Finish out the year re-energized to help your child be the best he or she can be. I leave you with one of my mom's favorite cheers (she was actually a cheerleader in High School):

"RAH, RAH, REE. KICK 'EM IN THE KNEE!

RAH, RAH, RAS. KICK 'EM IN THE OTHER KNEE!" 

Happy cheering, parents!

Sheryl René

Theodore Roosevelt

IT was colder than normal for D.C. in April, and after riding up & down the Potomac River staring at bare branched cherry trees, my daughter, Ashley, decided to take me to the Theodore Roosevelt Island. It's just a small island in the middle of the Potomac River, that was dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt in memory of his conservationist actions. As we crossed the footbridge, and climbed the slope to the memorial, the looming statue of our former president stood squarely between many other monuments that were inscribed with some of President Roosevelt's famous quotes. As we read the many quotes on conservationism, statesmanship, liberty, etc. I was struck by one quote in particular:

"A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy."

I immediately reworded the quote in to read in my world,

"A great Immersion program has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to  be great or Immersion."

Whoa! What a thought! While most of us work in Districts that offer many opportunities for professional development, it is the rarer District that understands how important it is for the immersion teachers to continue to look for more training, trading of ideas, observations, conferences and grad classes specifically dedicated to immersion classrooms. I LOVE the immersion classroom! I LOVE the teachers I work with! We are all working hard to make the immersion experience the best educational experience our students will ever have. But love alone is not enough. We need to be always striving to be on the cutting edge of immersion education.

While every school is in different stages of their growth, we all need to be looking toward the next step to make our immersion programs even more successful. What are your current challenges? What lessons are you getting bored with? How are you addressing the grammatical errors that are occurring? How are you deciding if the program is not right for some students? Where are you finding your new teachers? What are the most important qualities in an Immersion administrator? When are we going to start seeing bilingual educators in the Resource Room, Speech Path, Social Worker, Psychologist & Reading Specialist positions? How are our local colleges responding to the needs of the Immersion education programs?

"A great Immersion program has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or Immersion."

Keep asking the questions. Keep pushing the envelope. Keep on rethinking how we "do" Immersion!

Your Immersion colleague,

Sheryl René

El puente

So, we were on the rug; we had just finished calendar time, and I said, "I have a great little story for you today."  The title of the book was "Yo creo que puedo" (I think I can). No, it was not The Little Train that Could!  It's actually much less dramatic than The Little Train that Could, but very appropriate for the day. That day, Wednesday, January 9, 2013, our first graders were preparing to walk across a small footbridge in our gym, declaring their commitment to use only Spanish from now on! Until this day we SI teachers have always spoken Spanish with the students, helped them learn new vocabulary in Spanish, but allowed them to speak English to their friends. Now the bar was being raised. They're nervous. Some students think they'll never speak at school again because they don't know enough Spanish to communicate! I know, because I've been doing this for a long time.

But to get back to the book, I read aloud each scenario of when a child declared, "I think I can ......" (ride a bike, make a basehit, play a new song on the piano, etc.). At the end of the book the students were invited to add something that they think they can do this year. I heard a lot of good answers, but one little girl thrilled me to no end when she said, "I think I can speak Spanish!"  I let out a big shrill, "¡YUUUUUPPPIIIIIIIII!"  The kids looked at me in shock, then started laughing and saying "Sra. Dalman, you're funny!"  I know I am pretty funny, but I was so excited that I didn't have to plant this idea on the class. At least one of my students was moved to declare, "I think I can speak Spanish!" And I wholeheartedly concur, or else I wouldn't be teaching in a Spanish Immersion school!

That afternoon the students walked proudly across that bridge, receiving their "Yo hablo español" t-shirt as they arrived on the other side, much as they will receive their diploma when they graduate from High School. As the students & parents wandered off to enjoy the cookies & juice reception, I spoke with the mother of the student who made her "I think I can speak Spanish" declaration. She was surprised, because she said that lately her daughter had been doubting her academic abilities. What a wonderful turnaround!  What a great motto to have hanging in our classrooms, or our homes! "I think I can... "

Parents and Teachers, maybe we all need to put up our own "I think I can" poster as well. Mine might read something like, "I think I can. . . laugh more with my students", or "I think I can . . . give more words of encouragement to my colleagues", "I think I can do more to help the newer Immersion schools in West Michigan." What might your's be?

Go ahead, step across "el puente!"

~Sheryl René

What more?

     When I was interviewed for my current teaching position, one of the questions the Interview Team asked me was, "What will you do to continue to improve your Spanish language skills?" (Can I be honest with you??) I was a little taken aback by the question. After having lived overseas for 16 years, and raised 3 children through the Venezuelan schools, I felt like I had pretty much "arrived". My response at the time was to hopefully travel more to Spanish speaking countries to keep my Spanish up to date. However, that's a pretty big price tag, especially when compared to taking more classes locally for the majority of teacher professional development!

     In the ensuing years I've realized how important, and yet how difficult it is, to continue to grow in your 2nd language while living in the United States! Some of the issues I've encountered are:

 1) getting caught in a kind of "time warp" of language. Some of the vocabulary & idioms I learned 10-20 years ago have now been taken over by new phrases. I now sound really dated if I use them!

2) blending my Venezuelan accent with that of my new friends from Perú, México, Ecuador, Spain, Colombia, Guatemala, etc. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these accents, it's just that I'm now less identified as having lived in Venezuela than I was.

3) getting stuck in your grade level. I'm pretty terrific at 1st grade Spanish, but constantly need to look for opportunities to engage in higher level conversations.

     I'm sure I could think of other hurdles if I just spent more time dwelling on it, but the point is, what can I do to combat the diminishing of my language abilities? I'll give you a few of my favorites, and I invite you to share how you keep up with your 2nd language, and actually grow with it!

1) I get involved with native Spanish speakers outside my school. My husband, who is also bilingual, pastors a Hispanic church in Grand Rapids, so I love being able to talk with our friends at church about all kinds of subjects that have absolutely nothing to do with school! I've learned new vocabulary from other Spanish speaking countries, and I've learned to "adjust" some of my Venezuelan terms that are perfectly acceptable in that country, but have entirely different meanings in other countries.

2) I have taken advantage of the opportunity afforded through the Detroit Tigers organization. In Grand Rapids, where I live, the Tigers have located one of their minor league teams. It just happens that many baseball players these days are from Venezuela, Puerto Rico & The Dominican Republic. We have totally enjoyed getting to know & interact with these players as host families!

3) Thanks to friends & family, I have been introduced to a couple of online programs that help me "keep up" I will share these websites with you so you can enjoy them too.

Erika "Tipo 11". This is a monologue from Erika de la Vega, in Caracas, Venezuela. Very entertaining and elightening!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCNZlbSuQz4&feature=related

Les Luthiers--A terrific musical comedy group from Argentina. Great musicians, entertaining, and another way to keep current on vocabulary as it develops.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2eXZXgD6f0&list=PL73EE2B291EC8E996&index=2&feature=plpp_video

As always,

Sheryl René

Congratulations!

     Congratulations to CARLA, the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition! They have successfully put together their 4th Immersion Educator's conference in St. Paul, Minnesota! The title this year was: Immersion 2012: Bridging Contyexts for a Multilingual World. For those of you who don't know about CARLA, it "is one of the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI National Language Resource Centers, whose role is to improve the nation's capacity to teach and learn foreign languages." I'm sitting in my hotel room just now (watching the Cardinals vs Giants baseball), thinking back over all the lessons I've learned in the past 2 days, and anticipating what else I'll learn tomorrow, the final day!    :)
    
     Even as I got into the Supershuttle at the airport Wednesday night, I looked around and asked if anyone else was headed to the Immersion conference; and 3 of the other 5 passengers were! We immediately started talking about where we were from, what kind of Immersion school we were part of, and what we expected to learn at this conference. These ladies were from Utah, a state that is rapidly expanding their Immersion school offerings. But that wasn't the District that came from the farthest away; I later discovered there were attendees from California, North Carolina, Louisiana, Oregon, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado,Washington,Nebraska, Idaho, Arizona, Maryland Texas, Hawaii, Canada, Finland, Brazil, Argentina, The Netherlands, Philippines, Spain, Germany, Japan, etc, etc, etc.! I don't know what the numbers are yet, but there are several hundred educators here; each of them coming with their own story to share, questions to ask, and the desire to become better Immersion educators!

     One of my favorite workshops was: Relating Teacher Practices to Better Student Written Production. The presenters were Nicole Boudreaux and Michelle Haj-Broussard, both from Luisiana, working in and with French Immersion schools. They presented the work of 2 teachers from their District who, through very different teaching styles, have both helped their students make tremendous progress in Writing in their 2nd language. One of the teachers has a very loosely structured classroom, but with very defined goals for her students, allowing them to arrive at those goals in their own way, at their own time. She  has 9-10 students in the classroom. The other teacher was more structured in her approach, in a classroom of about 22 students. We saw videos of both teachers at work, laying the groundwork & fundamentals for their students to write, and watched as those same students proudly read aloud their published stories. Ok, back to my classroom drawing board to bust some of my own myths about what 1st grade students can do in their first trimester of Spanish Immersion! One of the key lessons I learned was that I need to give my students more specific referentials & train them how to use the referentials in their writing process. I can't wait!!!

     As I publish this post, I'm asking that other attendees add their favorite session to the blog. What did you learn? How will you apply it as you return to your schools? Let's share the wealth of information we've acquired this week!

Always learning,

~Sheryl René

Need a new perspective?

     I spent 5 hours today volunteering at a one-day-only set-up of the Mexican Embassy in West Michigan. The Embassy employees come here once a year to help Mexican citizens update their papers, without having to make the trip to Detroit. Having lived overseas for many years, I've definitely had my share of visits to government offices to get papers in order. It is not always the most pleasant experience. It can be so intimidating to approach those government workers behind desks, in little rooms crowded with people, and await their response to your requests. My husband, Dale, deserves all the credit for making this experience as positive as possible for our family. He always checked ahead of time to find out what papers, stamps, letters, money, etc. would be needed. He would even make preliminary visits, if that was acceptable, to start the process. But inevitably we would all need to show up one day to complete the process. That's when the "fun" would begin. Again, I credit Dale with the ability to face these challenging visits with such patience. I remember one day when Dale had to ask me to wait outside while he finished up the process, as I had become so frustrated that I offended the government official-----and that's not what you want to do when you're depending on them for your papers!

     However, today for the first time, I was standing behind the government workers, able to see the facial expressions and body language of each citizen who approached with their requests. (My job was to make photocopies of paperwork that the people needed to complete the process.) Over the 5 hours, I learned the officials' names, and had opportunity for a little conversation. They were nice people. They treated each applicant with great respect. They got tired & thirsty, but my observation was that they patiently listened to peoples' stories, questions and requests, and did their best to fulfill the citizens's requests.

     I had a change of perspective today. I got just a small taste of what it is like to be behind the government desk, facing hundreds of peoples requests. Instead of seeing the backs of applicants while I waited in line, I saw their faces as each one approached the tables of officials. Some were shy, some were nervous, some were very happy to have been saved a long drive to Detroit and the time off work that that would entail. Everybody had their own unique story, yet everyone came for the same reason---to get their papers updated.

     I've had opportunity to change my perspective in the classroom this year as well. I'm privileged once again to mentor a student teacher this semester, and that necessarily involves many hours of modeling, teaching, releasing my teaching time to the student teacher, and then observing her as she assumes the leading role of Teacher. I love passing on my passion for Immersion education, the Spanish language, and the building of my relationships with impressionable first graders and their families. What changes my perspective? As I watch my student teacher work so hard to follow my suggestions, it's almost like watching a video taping of myself! I love seeing her be successful with proven techniques, but I also get the chance to see where I need to improve or clarify my teaching strategies. I also enjoy seeing these young teachers add their own personality and ideas to the classroom. I am inspired by what they bring to the classroom as well. I get to see myself from their perspective!

     My perspective also changes as I'm able to walk around the room, observing students up close. I get to see the classroom from their vantage point, and that helps me plan better for class activities. I get to hear more of their casual conversation, and it helps me understand their struggles, humor, and friendships. And I get to see how hard or easy it is to sit still for the instructional time. If I'm having trouble staying seated & still, they will definitely need more "wiggle time"!  I get to see 1st grade from my students' perspective!

     Perspective...what a difference it can make! Do you need a new perspective? What can you do to get that new perspective? Take the risk! It's a valuable experience.

     Just as a little P.S., enjoy this link to Erika de la Vega, a comedian/talk show host from Venezuela. She speaks here about visiting the government offices.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erp6sIqxJ_0

~Sheryl René