A group of kindergarteners at Greece Central School District are learning in two languages — Spanish and English — in a revitalized bilingual education program that’s expected to expand in the coming years.
The district had a similar bilingual program for nearly a decade from 2008 to 2017. The program’s revival began in 2021 with a proposal. This is the first school year that the dual-language kindergarten program has been in effect.
The idea is to grow the program grade-by-grade, said Shawnna Sweet, director of multilingual education. So, next year there will be kindergarten and first grade dual language classes. The following year second grade would be added, and so forth.
“We're not just expecting kids to absorb this. We are directly teaching them, showing them how to do it in English and in Spanish?” school board member Mark Buonaugurio asked during a meeting this month. “And I'm speaking particularly of the literate parts, the writing and the reading.”
Sweet said yes to all of that.
“They're actually engaging in the same text in both languages and in according to the phonics,” Sweet said, adding that the curriculum aligns with how the languages are learned naturally. “So in Spanish, for example, you start with the vowels. Where in English, you start with the consonants. And all of that is very well mapped out, and they've even identified where there's some overlap.”
A typical day for kindergarteners in a dual-language program starts with a morning meeting that alternates daily between the two languages. If the morning meeting is in Spanish, then the afternoon meeting will be in English, and vice versa, according to a presentation to the school board.
The Department of Multilingual Education worked closely with the American Reading Company to establish that schedule, Sweet said. For subjects like math, both languages are used depending on what the student needs, she added.
“Initially we were going to have a very clear definition of languages for math, but what we ended up doing is what works best for the teachers and the students,” she said. “This group of students who really needs this type of foundational math, maybe they're primarily Spanish speakers at home, so they'll get some targeted interventions with the bilingual Spanish teacher.”
The state education department requires schools to provide bilingual education where 20 or more students speak a language other than English. Sweet said the district is just under that threshold, so bilingual kindergarten classes are a proactive measure.
Across the district, six grade levels have 15 or more students whose home language is primarily Spanish.