Dos Caminos is our district-wide dual language immersion program which supports emergent bilingual students in grades K-11 in Mamaroneck and Larchmont. Our program is dedicated and anchored to the three pillars of Dual Language Education. The Dos Caminos Program empowers students by providing an enriching experience that promotes bilingualism/biliteracy, grade-level academic achievement in both program languages, and sociocultural competence (equity, social justice & dismantling systems of oppression). Through celebrating and exploring culture and diversity, our children will move forward as globally aware, participatory citizens, ready to meet the academic and social demands of the larger community and take the power of multilingualism.

K-2 Model

Based on long standing dual language research our kindergarten and first grade DC classes will be following an 80/20 language allocation model. Meaning that 80% of all students' daily instruction is in Spanish with 20% being in Eng.

Benefits:

- Original TWI/dual language model
- Native language support and development for students from the minority language
- Immersion in a second language for majority language students
- Students have one teacher in early elementary grades
- Strong positive sociolinguistic message about the partner language and culture

Spanish-specific benefits of this approach*

Research findings: In 80/20 programs, both English- and Spanish dominant students have higher Spanish proficiency outcomes at the end of the program than 50/50 students with no detriment to English development in the long run.
Learning to decode text is easier in Spanish because of transparent or shallow orthography (a consistent correspondence between pronunciation and spelling)

*Lindholm-Leary, K. J., & Howard, E. R. (2008). Language development and academic achievement in two-way immersion programs. In T. W. Fortune & D. J. Tedick (Eds.), Pathways to Multilingualism: Evolving Perspectives on Immersion Education (pp. 177-200). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.

Elementary School Model 3-5

Our 2nd - 5th-grade dual language students have two teachers (Spanish/English). Students alternate between the two language classrooms every week. We look at the year-long calendar to ensure that we have an even number of Spanish and English weeks. This allows for a 50/50 language allocation across the year.

2 Teachers/2 Classrooms

Mixed Language groups

Middle School Model 6-8

Our dual-language program has expanded into middle school and is currently in 8th grade. The district's goal is to eventually provide our emergent bilingual students with an enriching multilingual education K-12.

In the middle school (6-8), we offer our emergent bilingual students the following

Bilingual Social Studies
Dual Language Arts (Spa/Eng language arts)
Spanish for Spanish Speakers

Students in the dual-language program are scheduled into these classes as a cohort. Students are mixed in with peers from across the district for the remaining content areas.

Sample High School Model (Currently 9-11)

Bilingual Education Research/Investigaciones sobre la educación bilingüe

Frequently Asked Questions / Preguntas frecuentes

Parent Resources / Recursos para padres