Dual Language at West Liberty

Yesterday we visited a fascinating school in West Liberty. It was their public elementary school and what is unique about it is its distinctive dual language program. Dual Language is an approach to teaching that incorporates both Spanish and English languages into the classroom in order to infuse both languages for the use of the students. The school has a 50/50 student population of native Spanish speakers and native English speakers. We were able to discuss the school and its program with the principal Dr. Nancy Gardner.
Not only is the program interesting, but also the history of how the dual language became such an important asset to the school and community. It started with one teacher’s spark of interest from a conference she attended in Des Moines. While at the conference she was shown a model of the program and found it was the preferred method for non-native speakers because, unlike some of the other programs for ELL’s, it helped students hold on to their own language as well as learn English. On top of that English speakers were also able to learn Spanish which would greatly benefit their futures as well as building a community.
The teacher, a title one teacher at the time, believed that the West Liberty School would greatly benefit from this way of learning because of the growth in Spanish speaking residents of the town. Knowing that this would require a bit of funding, she applied for and received a five-year $1.7 million dollar federal Title VII grant from the U.S. Department of Education. From that point they had support from the administration and teachers, but they were lacking the community component. The community was not fully aware of what this new title entailed and a few of the parents took it as “All students must learn Spanish.” They were also unaware of the grant and felt that the money would be taken from the district, hence also taken from their own well earned tax dollars.
Unfortunately at the same time the parents were just learning about the change, Iowa Cities press found out about the program and began to write about it in a way the school was not happy with. Then the school decided it was time to fully educate the community about the dual language component and rid the parents of the misleading rumors. They began to hold meetings for the parents and teach them about the benefits of the program and how it would specifically help their children. As a way to show the community how the program would be used in school they brought in one of their own kindergarten teachers to teach a lesson in Spanish over Little Red Riding Hood . The parents found that they enjoyed the new approach and found that the lesson was fun and engaging, and even learned a bit of Spanish themselves.
In the Fall of 1998 the first class of this new dual language program began at West Liberty. They started with two sections of Pre-k and two sections of Kindergarten. From then on the program began to grow up the grades as these first two classes began to move up the grade levels. The grant stopped after five years when the first group of students was in fifth grade. Because of the community interest and the students liking of the learning, the school continued the program as well as extended the number of years they originally planned to implement the program. They currently teach using the dual language program until the students are juniors.
The classrooms are typically split into half native Spanish speakers and half English speakers. They school also tries to balance the boy to girl ratio the same. The school also tries to keep a low number of students in the classroom for the most attention for each student. Their current maximum capacity is twenty two students. They also speak Spanish for half of the day, and then English for the other half. For each grade there is one teacher that instructs in only Spanish, while the other only in English. The students are aware that they only use the language the teacher uses while in their classroom. For student who need help translating they are paired up with a classroom buddy. The teachers are very supportive of this system and don’t typically break from the language they are supposed to be speaking. This is one way to model a real life scenario when meeting other individuals who only speak the one language. The program also alternates weeks where in the morning sessions they will use on language, then in the afternoon the students switch. The second week it would be opposite so that the students would speak the other language in the morning and then the opposite in the afternoon.

The dual language program has been utilized at West Liberty for 12 years now. The teachers at the school must have a certain proficiency of Spanish and English in order to teach at the classrooms. Every teacher has also spent a significant amount of time in a native Spanish speaking country. This provides a very authentic feel to the school and helps promote students to be more culturally aware. West Liberty is the smallest district to use the dual language program which makes it even more unique to the community. The school is receiving a larger demand of students and has turned to a lottery system in order to admit students. Students with a sibling in the school have first preference and then they are selected through a lottery system. There are four groups from which they pick from in order to ensure the 50/50 balance of languages used and sex ratio among the students. These four are: dominant Spanish-speaker male, dominant Spanish-speaker female, dominant English speaker male and dominant English speaker female.
Dr. Nancy Gardner also addressed some of the difficulties with the program. She stated that it was difficult to find bilingual teachers. She also has a smaller pool to choose from as far as good quality teachers as well. Another pressing issue deals with finding materials for the classrooms. While other schools need only text books and work books written in English, the dual program needs them in both languages.
After discussing the program with West Liberty’s principal we were able to visit three different classrooms. Our large group was spit into teams of two and we were directed to see varying grades. The first classroom I saw was first grade. They were working on reading out of a text book. Using my own limited Spanish skills I was able to comprehend that they were learning about planes and wedges. In this classroom the teacher spoke only Spanish, but was very animated with her and gestures. I found that these gestures were beneficial for my own comprehension and must have been for the students as well. It was awesome to see the students engaged in the reading as well as the conversation. When the teacher asked a question about what was happening in the story students immediately raised their hands to share their answers. The classroom environment also seemed very inviting. There were colorful posters and lots of books. The walls were filled with words and for each word there was a picture as well as the word written out in Spanish and English.
While the students were answering the teacher’s questions I was able to witness their language buddy system. One student, an English speaker, was unable to find the words to answer the question. She knew that she couldn’t say it in English, so instead in the middle of instruction she got up and asked her buddy next to her and in turn gave the correct answer in Spanish. I thought it was great that the students were able to feel comfortable in asking a friend for help and not get into trouble for it.
It was interesting seeing an upper level as well compared to the lower level. The students were reading a fictional story about (what I think was) three sisters who were different types of vegetation. Even though I wasn’t able to comprehend everything they were reading, the students were laughing along while the teacher read. Then after the story was complete they talked about the questions as a class. It seemed that this teacher often used both Spanish and English when summarizing the story and asking questions about it. It seemed that they might have had a student who was new to the program and this was a way to accommodate for her. The second upper level room we saw had a teacher who was from Spain. I found it interesting to hear how his accent differed from the other teachers. This classroom was filled with maps and cultural media about different Spanish speaking places around the world. The lesson they were learning was also in Spanish and about the Statue of Liberty. While I was in the room the specialist was doing most of the instruction while the teacher was drawing pictures on the board. This was a great way to reach out to the different types of learners who need that visual cue.
This was such a great opportunity to learn about a different way of teaching and how the dual language works in a small school setting. We were also able to see great teaching in action. After our class came back together we realized we all had one thing in common and that was we wish we would have taken more Spanish classes during our high school and college careers.