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Dual Language & Assessments
GHC and the office of Head Start require all of its Head Start Programs to administer a Home Language Survey (HLS) to every parent/legal guardian of all newly enrolled students for the purpose of identifying students who have a language background other than English. The HLS asks parents/guardians to answer two questions:
● Is a language other than English spoken in your home?
● Does the student speak a language other than English?
Teachers and Dual Language
Within GHC's Dual Language Program, teachers, administrators, and other staff should promote a positive, multilingual learning experience in which staff and students interact freely in a student-centered environment. Teachers will use a variety of effective instructional and developmentally appropriate practices for the students to acquire academic skills and learn both languages effectively. For the success of students, it is essential that these best practices are implemented in all GHC classrooms. Some instructional practices used by the teachers are:
● Positive teacher-student and student-student interactions
● Culturally and linguistically responsive instruction and assessment
● Plentiful cooperative learning and social interaction
● Strategies instruction to promote comprehension, such as visuals, TPR, realia, music, etc.
● Implementation of a variety of bridging activities
● Communication and modeling of high expectations
● Understanding and support of students and families by being knowledgeable of language, race, gender, and other cultural differences
Instructional Requirements Dual Language Programing
GHC Children Services Programs serve early learning settings, serve children growing up with more than one language in the home and at school (known as emergent bilinguals or dual language learners). Gads Hill Center implements researched based and effective practices for supporting emergent bilinguals in early childhood classrooms. Gads Hill Center has chosen Spanish and English as the primary languages for dual immersion in all of its classrooms. Spanish and English were chosen based on the current demographic of children served, commonly identified home language (Home Language Survey), and current Demographic of early childhood Staff enrolled in the GHC Head start Programing.
Expectations In order to ensure the expected academic achievement and success, it is necessary to adhere to the following essential features of the program:
Daily instruction must reflect the time and content allocation for each language ( greetings, experiences, environments, and lesson planning)
Strategic separation of languages on the part of the instructor—define what English is and what are Spanish
Programmatic, curricular, and instructional decisions based on research on language acquisition.
Teachers should develop units of study that integrate dual language during instruction.
Instructional Supports
Instructional Supports
Instructional Supports are processes and scaffolds to help all students meet age- or grade-level expectations. Key instructional support explored are Interactive and Dialogic Reading, which promotes literacy skills for DLLs by building oral language, including listening, comprehension, and vocabulary. Instructional strategies include:
Anchoring text by giving a clear, intentional message as to what you are trying to teach
Reinforcing vocabulary through songs and chants
Using gestures and other visual clues to indicate the meaning of a word
Other strategies include pre-reading in a home language (parent volunteers are helpful here), and interactively reading a book or other literary selection multiple times with students. Each reading can have a different focus, fostering vocabulary and concept development. Students are also encouraged to speak and tell stories. Even when the teacher may communicate entirely in English, all of the children's language attempts in any language are encouraged and praised.
Strategies To Reinforce the Value of Bilingualism Across the Program
Support families as they learn to view their home language as a gift to pass down to their child.
Encourage families to honor the strength of their home language and use it to support their relationships.
Make it clear to families that their child benefits most from words, stories, songs, and conversations provided in the language they are most comfortable speaking. This helps their child learn in both their home language and in English.
Use hand gestures, body movements, or other visual aids to demonstrate ideas when working with a family who speaks a language you don’t understand. Show video clips of responsive practices and bring key messages translated for the family.
Build families' confidence as they use their home language as the best way to communicate and nurture their child to strengthen parent-child relationships.
Provide some socialization activities in the family's home language and some in English to achieve a level of balance that supports strong bilingual skills.
Share ways families can help their children learn English to prepare them for school. Assure them that their child will learn English during socialization activities and interactions in the community. For children birth to age 3, there should be a focus on home language development with exposure to English; for children ages 4 and 5, the guide includes English acquisition and home language.
Work with families to understand what English and home language support their child might receive in their local school district as they prepare their child to start school. If the family is interested in helping with English language learning at home, they may want to introduce some stories and songs in English, but this can be just a small part of each day or week.
Dual Language and environments
Add labels to enhance the print
Demonstrates respect for signs and posters) in the children’s environment of the classroom, children’s and families’ home languages, as well as in but make sure they do not languages English, as appropriate. overwhelm it.
If the children speak several languages, carefully use environmental print in home languages. For example, use a different color for each language. Place phonetic spellings (hints about pronouncing the language) next to labels so teachers can pronounce the words correctly.
Translate such words as “welcome” into all languages, but be selective about how many languages you use for each label.
Help children make connections between English and their home languages
Help children and families understand what is happening in the classrooms with photographs, pictures, graphics, and other visuals to support English labels and signs.
Include visuals with labels alongside words. For example, place a picture of crayons next to the label “crayons.”
Post classroom schedules, routines, and signs around the room and include on them visual representations of the activities. For example, add a graphic of an open book to the place on the classroom schedule that lists “read-aloud time.”
Allow children and families to make use of the labels and signs, even if they do not speak or read the language
Provide visual support to understanding the print
Bring materials from the children’s home cultures into the classroom.
Ask families for suggestions of toys and objects that babies or toddlers enjoy.
Ask families to help you gather familiar magazines, photos, menus, props, music, plants, clean and empty boxes of food, and other objects to include in the classroom. Integrate these materials into your centers and dramatic play areas. Use these materials during classroom activities, including playing music, looking at pictures as visual examples of new words, dressing up, using them as conversation starters, etc.
Demonstrate respect for children’s and families’ cultures and traditions
Helps children who are dual language learners to feel more included in the classroom
Supports language and literacy learning by building on children’s background knowledge
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