A Diary of a Bilingual School
SHARON ADELMAN REYES
&
JAMES CRAWFORD
Clelia Peña
SMU
March 2012
Introduction
A YEAR IN THE LIFE
What happens when the instruction is bilingual and
the curriculum is constructivist?
 Inter-American Magnet School in Chicago, Illinois
 A year in the life of a 2nd grade classroom
 Classroom and family narratives taken from an
ethnographic study conducted during the 1995-96
school year.
 This book focuses on this school’s progressive
educational philosophy, curriculum and
methodology.
Chapter 1
MAKING SENSE OF THE WORDSAND THE WORLD
A school began…
 Janet Nolan and Adela Coronado-Greeley (parents &
educators)
 Immersion programs introduced in Quebec, Canada
in the mid 1960s
 Initially, 50-50 model, focus on English development
 Finalized 80-20 ratio of Spanish to English from PK4th, combined with ESL and SSL (Spanish as a
second language) as needed. In grades 5-8 the ratio
shifts to 50-50.
Inter-American Magnet School
 Dual language model in which both language are
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used for meaningful purposes
The constructivist values- questioning, reasoning,
analysis, reflection, problem solving, cooperation
and creativity
Children from Spanish and English backgrounds are
brought together to create a bilingual and bicultural
environment
Parental involvement a high priority
By the 1990s, Inter-American enrolled more than
600 students from Pk-8th grade
Chapter 2
PRINCIPLES & PRACTICES
Successful Dual language models
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Additive bilingualism and biliteracy
Mix of language groups
Cross-cultural emphasis
Stress on sheltering
Language separation
Linguistic balance
Classroom resources
Long-term approach
Instructional consistency
Assessment
Personnel quality
Professional collaboration
Home-school relations
Constructivist Strategies
Goals
 Cognitive Development
 Disequilibrium
 Inquiry
 Scaffolding
 Social Interaction
 Motivation
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Vision of Inter-American
“A caring, cooperative and accepting school climate… to promote the social,
affective, and cognitive development of the whole child, in which the parents are
active partners in the formal schooling of their children.”
Chapter 3
WELCOME TO ROOM 307
Ms. Sontag and 18 bilingual collaborators
Who were the children?
Half came from low income families, the rest were middle
class
 Majority had Latino roots, many came from bicultural
roots
 Ethnicities: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Guatemalan,
Colombian, Ecuadorian, Belizean, Panamanian, Filipino,
Jewish, African American and white Anglo-Saxon
Protestant.
 Language backgrounds ranged from English monolingual
to Spanish dominant to everything in between.
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It all started
with a bug…
“And Ms. Sontag,
always ready to
experiment with
curriculum, wondered
what she might do with
the sudden explosion of
interest that had just
occurred in her
classroom” (Adelman
Reyes & Crawford,
2012, p.33)
Chapter 4
THE WORMS HAVE ARRIVED!
Building on prior knowledge
 ¿ Alguna vez has visto un insecto?
Students’ investigation of gusanos de harina
 Vocabulario de insectos
 Variety of books (English and Spanish)
 Calendar and data collection sheet
 Building “casas” for their gusanos
 Feeding and caring for their gusanos
 Recording observations in diary
A Lullaby for Worms
Nuestros gusanos
Son bonitos,
Son bonitos,
Son bonitos.
Nuestros gusanos
Son chiquitos,
Son chiquitos,
Son chiquitos.
Nuestros gusanos
Son rojo café,
Son rojo café,
Son rojo café.
Nuestros gusanos
Duermen mucho,
Duermen mucho,
Duermen mucho.
Verónica- Puerto Rican father, English dominant parents
But what
about the
tests?
“At Inter-American tests are just
one type of information used to
improve curriculum and
instruction” (Adelman Reyes &
Crawford, 2012, p. 53).
“Unless kept in perspective,
standardized testing can
restrict- and even shapecurriculum and instruction”
(Adelman Reyes & Crawford,
2012, p. 54).
Chapter 5
“NINCAS AND NINFAS”
Integrating Language, Content and Process
 In this case, subject matter (content) is insect study,
the language is Spanish and the process is discovery
learning.
“Answers are NOT given, children are instead encouraged to discover them on their
own” (Adelman Reyes & Crawford, 2012, p. 63).
Developing Vocabulary in Spanish
 As students learn through their scientific inquiry,
they will engage in formal discussions of the life cycle
of insects. And to do, they will need the appropriate
words.
 “When tied to inquiry & and interesting context,
vocabulary development can be fun” (Adelman Reyes
& Crawford, 2012, p. 65)
A new birth!
“According to
constructivist theory,
when we make sense of
our world, we are in a
state of equilibrium.
When this balance is
upset, when things
turned out differently
from what we expect we
experience the opposite
sensation. This state of
disequilibrium,
prompting us to
reconcile what we know
(or think we know) with
what we are now
experiencing, creates
ideal conditions for
learning” (Adelman
Reyes & Crawford, 2012,
p.76).
Chapter 6
BEETLES AND BUTTERFLIES
El ciclo de vida
de la mariposa
Huevo
Oruga ( o larva)
Crisálida
Mariposa
New life- New
learning
“The Daily Bug Garden”
“Today in class 307 they got new butterflies some have not come out of there
cocoons and they are white. Everybody is excited. Leticia a second grader felt
that at first the butterflies were caterpillars then they were cocoons then they
were butterflies but one died. Wendell and Damion said, “They first came out of
the cocoon and one died. They put out garbage. It looked like blood. Leticia also
said that the butterflies’ color was red, orange, black and white. Liset said that
the color of the butterflies came in May. Camilo said that they came to the class
on Friday, May 27, 1996.”
Naomi
(Adelman Reyes & Crawford, 2012, p. 91)
Cultivating
Biliteracy
Literacy is developed in
the course of
meaningful and
functional activities.
As Stephen Krashen
explains, “Once you can
read, you can read” (As
cited in Adelman Reyes
& Crawford, 2012,
p.90).
Chapter 7
GOODBYE, MRS. BEE
Alicia’s secret
Students as Teachers
In constructivist classrooms,
“Teachers learn alongside their students, and students
become teachers or sometimes facilitators of the
learning environment” (Adelman Reyes & Crawford,
2012, p.97).
Chapter 8
SCHOOLING FOR LIFE
Where are Ms. Sontag’s students now?
 Students are now in their twenties!
 Some are starting careers, while others are traveling,
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finishing college, or continuing other forms of education.
All of them remain speakers of Spanish as well as
English.
Several are using Spanish on the job in the United States
as translators, community advocates, business people or
bilingual teachers.
A few have acquired additional languages.
Those who were native Spanish speakers retained their
language, unlike many of their relatives.
What do they say about their experience?
“Beyond bilingualism and biculturalism, InterAmerican offered a curriculum that stimulated
children’s appetite for learning. As they look
back, graduates use words like creativity,
independence, confidence, free-thinking and
problem solving to describe what they remember
the most about their experience. These qualities
have had an obvious impact on their educational
and career choices”
(Adelman Reyes & Crawford, 2012,p. 111).
What did I
learn?
So MANY things! (for
instance that so much teaching can
stem out from Science!)
This book
INSPIRED me,
empowered me
to DREAM, and
gave me HOPE.
Este LIBRO me ha
impulsado a definir una
visión.
I feel like this book has summarized what I’ve been
learning in all of my master classes.
Correlation to class
 My article- science & literacy
 Strategies book
 Discovery Learning (videos)
 Academic Language as it relates to all content areas
 Sheltered Instruction
 Tech High -project approach
 Meaningful learning through high student
motivation
Critique
 The book’s format was great! The first section gave the reader
the background knowledge on bilingual programs,
constructivism and educational terms. Then, the narratives
provided ample examples that showed practical ways of how a
successful dual language program looks like. The last section
concluded with the outcomes of the study. Additionally, after
each narrative there was an explanation of how the teacher
was applying constructivist educational practices through her
teaching.
 The narratives were written in chronological order, which
enabled the reader to connect with the students as they grew
in their second grade classroom.
 Since I am a visual learner, I would have liked to see pictures
of the students working!
Do I recommend this book?
References
Adelman Reyes, S., & Crawford, J. (2012). A diary of a
bilingual school: How a constructivist curriculum, a
multicultural perspective, and a commitment to
dual immersion education combined to foster fluent
bilingualism in Spanish- and English- speaking
children. Portland, OR: DiversityLearningK12.