Published by the Beloit Daily News Connection, November 8, 2014
In addition to learning English, Laursen said one of the challenges for many Latino students and their families who are new to the district is knowing formal academic Spanish. Many of the Latinos who come to Beloit are from Mexico, some native to rural areas where there may not have been adequate educational opportunities. Most know conversational Spanish, but never learned about grammar or language construction.
To address the need for Spanish speakers to learn formal academic Spanish and to offer an opportunity for students who are native English speakers, the district started the Dual Language Immersion program in the 2012-2013 school year for 72 students in kindergarten classes at Hackett and Robinson elementary schools. Half of the students’ day is spent in Spanish instruction and half in English.
After the first year of the program, the kindergarten students moved into first grade where the program has continued and a new batch of kindergarten students entered Dual Language Immersion in the 2013-2014 school year which expanded to include Todd Elementary School. Students will continue on with the bilingual programming up through middle school, and then take some additional classes in high school.
Laursen said there are three decades of research supporting the program, noting it’s much easier for younger students to learn a second language. By fifth and sixth grades, students who know two languages typically outperform their one-language counterparts.
Laursen said the program has been a win-win for both English and Spanish speakers.
“Latinos learn to read and write in their native language they’ve been listening to and also get science and social studies in Spanish so they are understanding more of what is going on,” Laursen said.
In other efforts to help native Spanish speakers learn correct Spanish and English, in the last few years the district added Spanish for Spanish Speakers, a new class at the high school and middle schools for those who don’t know how to read or write it correctly. Prior to the class, Laursen said many Spanish speaking students would sign up for the traditional Spanish class and many times fail.
Laursen explained how many Latino students in the district are from families who came from rural parts of Mexico which may have not had educational opportunities much past the fourth or fifth grades. It’s resulted in the Latino students and their parents who arrive in Beloit sometimes not being able to read or write Spanish in a standard grammatically correct way.
“With our older students, because they didn’t have formal Spanish instruction, they don’t understand Spanish grammar and vocabulary. And a lot of times their Spanish language influences their English,” Laursen said.
Laursen went on to say the Spanish for Spanish speakers course can help Spanish speaking students understand grammar and language structure in both Spanish and English.
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