Volume 2

Winter 2013

Las Noticias
A periodic newsletter of the Spanish Immersion Program at Ventana Vista

Spanish Immersion Advisory Board Parent Representatives Kindergarten Steve Przymus (Mars Dad) steveprzymus@gmail.com

Dear Immersion Parents, Welcome to the second edition of our newsletter just for Spanish Immersion families at Ventana Vista! Our advisory board met for the second time this school year, on January 14, 2013. We debriefed our first Parent Education Evening, and made some plans for steps that may be taken by parents to support Spanish language learning outside of school. Please read the meeting minutes in this newsletter, including information on who to contact for some outside-ofschool immersion networking! Thank you for your continuing support! Sincerely, Kim Boling Principal

First Grade Christie Iacomini (Zoes Momand Annas, gr. 3) iacomini@dakotacom.net

Second Grade Mark Rowley (R.D.s Dad) rowley@mexis.com

Third Grade Jennifer Schowengerdt (Joaquins Momand Diegos, Kdg.) jschowen@yahoo.com

Our Spanish Immersion Webpage

https://sites.google.com/a/cfsd16.org/sp anish-immersion/

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Kindergarten students enjoy hearing Spanishspeaking 5th graders read aloud to them!

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Minutes from 1/14/13 Advisory Board Meeting

Thanks to Christie Iacomini for taking notes!
Attendees: Kim Boling, Amy Acua, Steve Przymus, Maria Baca, Brittany DeFazio, Christie Iacomini, Maribel Miranda, Jill Paulos, Mark Rowley, DeDe Plante, Holly Knutson, Jennifer Schowengerdt, Sheryl Castro

Reintroductions & Celebrations

The board introduced themselves again and shared celebrations in their journey in the Spanish Immersion program Amy Acua, Gr. K Teacher (Spanish). Kids are using words from the Spanish books in other contexts! Maria Baca, Gr. 1 Teacher (Spanish). The new schedule (a full day with each teacher) seems to help with writing. It is nice to have extra time with the students and it is paying off. Britney DeFazio, Gr. 1 Teacher (English). She sees the students using Spanish in her class! Maribel Miranda, Gr. 2 Teacher (Spanish). She sees the kids understanding what she is saying more and if they know what to say in Spanish, they say it. Jill Paulos, Gr. 2 Teacher (English). Cross-curricular aspect is working as she observes kids building background knowledge in both languages. DeDe Plante, Gr. 3 Teacher (Spanish). She doesnt have to keep reminding kids to stay in Spanish. Holly Knutson, Gr. 3 Teacher (English). The kids fluency is continuing to increase. Sheryl Castro, k-12 World Language Coordinator. As VVE has demonstrated the immersion program can work, Sunrise is going to have a k-5 Mandarin immersion program. Kim Boling, Principal. Interest in Kindergarten and Spanish immersion info nights are usually split but at this point VVE has had FAR more interest in the Spanish immersion program.

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1/14/13 Minutes, continued

Steve Przymus, Kdg. Parent Rep. Christie Iacomini, Gr. 1 Parent Rep. Mark Rowley, Gr. 2 Parent Rep. Jennifer Schowengerdt, Gr. 3 Parent Rep.
Third graders performed a readers theatre to promote students oral reading fluency in Spanish

Parent Education Evening on 12/6/2012 Debrief

Over 50 parents attended this evening! A huge thank you to Steve Przymus for the presentation on the Bilingual Brain. A copy can be found on the Spanish immersion web page for those who missed it: https://sites.google.com/a/cfsd16.org/spanish-immersion/useful-links Thanks also to Sheryl Castro who discussed ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012. More information can be found on the Spanish Immersion web page, including a link to a you-tube video that describes the different proficiency levels: https://sites.google.com/a/cfsd16.org/spanish-immersion/useful-links Pinterest This is a great resource for parents that can be found on the Spanish Immersion web page. Thanks to the immersion teachers for putting it together and taking the time to explain how to find it and how to use it. http://pinterest.com/ventanavista/ventana-vista-spanish-immersion/ Parents were given forms to provide feedback on the event. In general all very positive! Specifically, the board noted:
A request to organize the event periodically. A suggestion to offer it per grade. Many parents learned that code-switching is a good thing and OK to do! (See Steve Przymus presentation.) One parent noted that it would be helpful to get an evaluation of their child with respect to the achievement levels (the chart of levels of which Sheryl Castro explained was used to evaluate progress amongst the grades). Pinterest and the tutorial by the teachers were extremely helpful. Resources provided to parents still seem as though they are located in too many places. Recommendations per grade level would be helpful. Parents were encouraged to do more at home!

Should we have another parent night? The board discussed and decided, not now. We got great feedback and now we need to act on it. The events planned will be our opportunity to continue to reach out to the parents and give them access to other parents and teachers.

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1/14/13 Minutes, Continued

Upcoming Events
Parents signed up for suggested events at the Parent Education Evening. The board discussed how these events might be organized and led by Parent Representatives. Book club, parent education: Christie Iacomini
Read and discuss books and / or studies about bilingual education, how the bilingual brain works, how parents can help their children in a bilingual program, etc. INTERESTED IN JOINING? CONTACT CHRISTIE!

Book club, summer reading for kids: Jennifer Schowengerdt with help from Steve Przymus
Identify Spanish chapter books for students to read over the summer and then meet to discuss. What if higher-level students read to the younger ones? Dont need as many parents and gives older kids a sense of power with the language. INTERESTED IN JOINING? CONTACT JENNIFER OR STEVE!

Dinner Club: Mark Rowley

Could order in Spanish. Might be more of a social, networking event. Mark Rowley knows of a Japanese restaurant where all the wait staff speaks Spanish. Hell set up the first dinner as a buffet! INTERESTED IN JOINING? CONTACT MARK!

Playgroup, board games: maybe another parent would like to host this?
Cooking night, make your grocery list in Spanish. Puppet night. Everyone can bring a puppet! Doesnt have to be your house, could be at the park. Go to food city and do shopping (it is in Spanish). If run per grade, the group may be smaller. But if allow grades to mix, the older kids can help the younger kids. A great way to engage the older ones and give them ownership of the language. Good for the younger ones because they look up to the older ones. INTERESTED IN ORGANIZING THIS? CONTACT KIM BOLING!

Attention 3rd Grade Immersion Parents!

Coming soon (before Spring Break; date TBD) A school event for you, our pioneering families, in Immersion! What does depth of thinking/understanding look like in immersion? Whats next, in 4th grade and beyond! 4

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1/14/13 Minutes, Continued

Discussion Topic
How do we not undermine students confidence as they struggle to use the language, especially with parents and a home environment that are NOT bilingual? o Steve Przymus points out programs like these tend to get more attention, more resources. He specifically cited a 2000 Thomas and Cowell study that shows a history of success. o Did these do well because of the parents and type of kid or is it really the program? Steve points out more resources are provided to these programs again. Sheryl Castro points out a study that has shown kids of a neighborhood where students were of parents not as engaged and the kids still did well. She also reminds the group of Steves presentation about how the brain continuously uses two systems (e.g. English and Spanish) for day-to-day functions, whether the brain consciously acknowledges it or not. o (Note: Our CFSD Immersion Program receives the same financial resources as our regular education program)

Looking Forward
VVE is planning for Spanish Immersion in Gr. 4 and IDS (Interdisciplinary studies part of CFSD Gifted Services - 4th-science and 5th-social studies are the emphasis.)
Staff is currently brainstorming what the scheduling may look like. The gifted specialists are only here 50% of the time so scheduling is a challenge to be addressed (but not considered a problem). o These classes are in English. We dont know what the schedule is going to look like and only for a small number of kids. Boling will have an update in April.

Middle School Programming for Immersion Students

Some schools offer a core area class in middle school. Easy at larger schools. o Looking at mingling kids in the Heritage Learner (HL) classes. o Brainstorming course work that meets the needs of the Spanish immersion students. o Sheryl Castro gave a short summary of the brainstorming sessions and ideas that they are considering which include all-Spanish semester classes that focus on a given topic (poetry, short stories, art rather than focusing on just the language). They are considering the type of teacher to hire and how that teacher fits into the overall curriculum (a dedicated Spanish teacher or a Spanish-speaking teacher that needs to support other English coursework).

Summer Programming for Immersion Students

o o o Community schools provides a one-week program at the High school. Boling will look further into summer immersion camp opportunities and what (if anything further) CFSD can provide. She started a conversation with Community Schools over a year ago. UPDATE Community Schools WILL offer an more extended Spanish Immersion summer program! Watch for details in their summer catalogue (due out March 1).

Questions specific to Immersion to be part of annual VVE Family Survey.