Thanks to all of you who listened to our first addalingua podcast exploring some of the key features that make up a gold standard dual language immersion education program. You christen a baby with water, and a new ship with a bottle of champagne. But how do you launch an addalingua podcast? We’re still figuring that out. But thanks all the same to those who’ve listened and offered their feedback.
As Stacey Vanden Bosch and I (Chris) discussed on the podcast, addalingua works with our partner schools to pursue quality at the program and classroom level across four areas:
- culture
- immersion language development
- biliteracy and counter-balanced instruction
- progress monitoring
In advance of our webinar on Wednesday, October 21 (7 PM EDT), we want to give our blog readers a first look into several addalingua partner school classrooms. In the following videos, you’ll witness program and classroom features, each tied to leading research in the field and noted on our Vimeo page, that we’d expect to find in dual language immersion programs pursuing the highest levels of quality. addalingua co-founder, Lilah Ambrosi, will be using these vignettes as the launching point for discussion during her webinar.
If you have questions about dual language immersion education, or if you’d like to discuss launching a new program or getting support for an existing program, be in touch.
program culture
One of the key features of quality dual language immersion education is an intentional effort, at the program level, to raise the status of the immersion language. Step inside an addalingua partner school to see one way in which mainstream students and school administrators are helping to affirm the acquisition and use of the immersion language.
classroom culture
As Stacey mentioned in the podcast, we want to hear students “talking, talking, talking” (about their learning) while staying in the immersion language. In this addalingua partner school classroom, the instructor guides learning by promoting a dialogic culture in which students consistently navigate new concepts interpersonally with their teacher and with one another. (Swain, 1988; Lindholm-Leary & Genesee, 2014).
immersion language development
corrective feedback: Quality dual language immersion programs maintain the contextual and linguistic integrity of the immersion language by implementing immersion language (or instructional language) only policies and timelines (Lindholm-Leary, 2005) while also holding students accountable through effective corrective feedback strategies (Lyster, 2007; Lyster & Mori, 2008, Lyster & Saito, 2010).
remaining in immersion language: A key feature of a quality dual language immersion program is the commitment by both instructors and students to remain in the immersion language by adhering to a strong immersion language policy in the classroom (Lindholm-Leary & Molina, 2000; Panel of Experts, Lindholm-Leary, 2005).
balanced biliteracy and counterbalanced instruction: add.a.lingua grade level frameworks
Quality dual language immersion education programs value biliteracy and demonstrate a commitment to balancing meaning-driven content instruction by explicitly planning lessons that allow students to notice, become aware of and practice linguistic features unique to the immersion language (Lyster, 2007).
progress monitoring
Programs that value the immersion language support implementation of classroom level strategies and assessments that allow teachers to monitor student growth academically and linguistically across modes of communication. This addalingua teacher is evaluating students’ language skills as aligned to the Common Core State Standards (speaking and listening) during an add.a.lingua adapted Integrated Performance Assessment (aalpa).
October 22, 2015
