DLI Teaches Students the Importance of Being Bilingual

Fitz Intermediate is a Dual Language Immersion School—but what exactly is DLI and how does it differ from a non-DLI school? At Fitz Intermediate, the DLI students from Monroe and Russell are maintaining their Spanish-speaking cultures by taking at least half of their classes in Spanish. 

The DLI students start school at 7:29 am for their 0-period class, while the non-DLI students begin their day at 8:20 am. All the students in 7th grade from Monroe or Russell have two periods of Spanish, either with Prof. Chin or Ms. Morales, who also teaches one period of 8th-grade Spanish. DLI students are expected to take one more class than non-DLI students. 

The DLI program here at Fitz has two Spanish teachers, Prof. Chin and Ms. Morales. Profesora Chin has been teaching for over a decade. She states, “I have been teaching Spanish for over 12 years now,” which is about the same age as most of our Fitz students! She shared that her  favorite part of teaching is “Joking in Spanish with my students and seeing how they progress and develop awareness of different cultures.” Before teaching Spanish, Prof. Chin taught ELD, seventh-grade English, 7ER, and Heritage Spanish. Presently, she mostly teaches Spanish, which she loves! Prof. Chin stated, “I saw it as an opportunity to help students be aware of the diversity around the world.”  Prof. Chin has been speaking Spanish since she was born, since it was her first language. 

Ms. Morales has been teaching Spanish for about three years now. She also loves to see her students communicate with their family members. She states, “My favorite part about teaching Spanish is seeing my students communicate with their families in Spanish because I know this would likely not be possible if they did not practice the language at school.” She chose to teach Spanish because it makes her happy to help students to strengthen their language so it lives on and does not get forgotten. Ms. Morales has been speaking Spanish for a long time, and she states, “I have been speaking Spanish my entire life. Both of my parents spoke Spanish to us at home. It is my first language.” Don't we have some amazing DLI Spanish teachers!

Most DLI students have been learning Spanish for 7 to 10 years—and they love it! Johany Suazo, a seventh grader at Fitz, loves to learn Spanish at school so he can use it at home with his family. He states, “My favorite part about speaking Spanish is being able to talk with my family members.” Another 7th grader, Quinn Hopper, believes that being bilingual gives her an advantage over those who are not. She said, “The advantages of being bilingual is it can help you later in life or get you accepted to a proper college.” Katelinh Vuong-Monroy agrees with Quinn, but she believes that learning a second language can be difficult: “I think my least favorite part is remembering things such as the words and spelling, when I already know how to do that with my first language. I feel like it's hard to do [in] two languages.” Most of our DLI students love speaking Spanish and have for years, Katelinh states, “I have been speaking Spanish since I was in kindergarten. So around nine years now.” Most students with a 0 period wake up pretty early every single day, just like Kaiana Urgateche. She states, “Normally, I wake up at 6:00 and leave at 7:00.” Most DLI students benefit a lot from speaking Spanish because it will provide more opportunities in the future. Kaiana states, “You get more opportunities for jobs and get to communicate with more people.” Speaking two languages definitely has some great benefits.

Fitz Intermediate offers a DLI program that not many schools offer. Many students find it useful, but it can be difficult to speak another language. Overall, it's a great program with great teachers!