Immersion
Principal Valerio has written a summary of her recent presentation to the Board - you can get it here: BSD Immersion Program Presentation February 19, 2008. Immersion Parent Diane Russell wrote another summary that includes some of the comments from the Board: February 2008 Immersion Persentation Summary by Parents
The next meeting for Immersion Parents is tentatively scheduled for March 31st at 7:00 p.m. in the Library at McKinley. Principal Valerio will be announcing the new teacher hire for the 2008-2009 Immersion program!
For questions please contact McKinley Principal Paula Valerio at (650) 259-3870.
Kindergarten Spanish Immersion Program
Last year the Burlingame School District recognized the importance of expanding language offerings to elementary students, given the increasingly global nature of our economy and society, as well as the critical window for language learning, which occurs in early childhood.
McKinley Elementary School was selected as the site for the start of the Spanish Immersion Program, and in August we opened our doors to the first Spanish Immersion Kindergarten class of twenty-seven students. The hallways are filled with little voices echoing phrases and counting in Spanish as well as greeting everyone with a cheerful, Hola!
Language Immersion is a well-established and intensive educational model, in which the majority of the curriculum is taught in a non-English (target) language. Our program is the 90:10 model where the students will receive instruction 90% of the time in Spanish and 10% in English. As the immersion students move up through the grade levels the amount of Spanish instruction changes yearly. In first grade, they receive Spanish instruction 80% of the day and instruction in English 20 % of the day. In grade two, students receive Spanish instruction 70% of the day and instruction in English 30% of the day. Each following grade level the amount of Spanish decreases and the amount of instruction in English increases.
The goal of the Spanish Immersion Program is to make students fully bilingual by fifth grade receiving Spanish instruction 50% of the time and English instruction 50% of the time. The content of the standards based curriculum is the same as our English-only kindergarteners. Our teachers continuously collaborate in the development of McKinley's Kindergarten Curriculum thus bridging the two programs into one.
Our Spanish Immersion teacher is Mrs. Elaine Cruz-Tarango who joins our staff with eight years in bilingual education in Redwood City. Melissa Mendoza is the full time bilingual classroom aide who has contributed greatly to the program's success.
Again this year Burlingame School District is pleased to provide all parents in the district with the opportunity to learn Spanish. Mr. Eduardo Akins, Spanish teacher at B.I.S. will teach Monday evenings from 6:00 to 7:00 in McKinley's Media Center.
Some additional information on the original goals of the program may be found on the Burlingame School District web site here.
Last update: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 9:43:55 PM
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