I've heard different ideas about what dual immersion really is, so I thought I'd quickly share what it looks like in my school.
There are different models, but my school uses the 90/10 model. I teach in a charter school in Southern California. We are a school of choice with parents lining up the sidewalk the actual day before registration. I know . . . it's crazy! Last year I think we had to hire a police officer to take care of our parent campers.
However, because we are so popular we hold a lottery. Therefore, our population is majority low income with a high percentage of free/reduced lunch. About 50/50 native Spanish and English speakers. Majority Latinos both born here and abroad.
In kinder students are exposed to 90% instruction in Spanish and 10% in English, which comes out to about 30 minutes of ELD each day, all of which is oral language development. Each year it increases.
1st: 80% Spanish, 20% English
2nd: 70% Spanish, 60% English
3rd: 60% spanish, 40% English
4th-8th: 50% Spanish, 50% English
The first thing people think is how can we not teach students how to really read and write in English until about the 2nd grade??? Well, we don't and from what I have seen it works. As most of us know, if a student has a strong language base in ANY language, it will transfer much more easily into English, and our test scores prove this is true. More importantly, our students are bilingual and biliterate in both languages by the time they move off to high school.
Ok, enough gloating about our program :) Time to sleep. If you have any questions about our program feel free to ask.
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