what brought me here

7/28/2019 What Brought Me Here

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Findings

What Brought Me Here

Throughout my teaching career, I have been concerned with the inequities

that exist between native English speaking students (NES) and native Spanish

speaking students (NSS). As I pondered different topics for my Action Research,

the common theme remained, what could I do to help all students succeed? I

kept coming back to the great divide between NES and NSS academic

achievement. I hoped to find a way to encourage students in my class to build

friendships and collaborate on projects to increase academic achievement.

As I researched the socioeconomic gap that exists between NES and NSS, I

continued to reflect upon my time teaching fourth grade in an Alternative

Bilingual Program at the Vista Academy of the Visual and Performing Arts

(VAVPA), a K – 8th magnet school. Schools must offer an Alternative Bilingual

Program when waivers are approved for 20 or more students of the same

language group and in the same grade. The program is offered exclusively to

English language learners. Students still receive English language development,

however literacy and content area instruction is provided in both languages.

Much like DLI programs, there are 90:10 models and 50:50 models of instruction.

At VAVPA they had a 90:10 model, where the amount of English

instruction increased by 10% until fourth grade when instruction was 50:50. The

goal of the Alternative Bilingual Program was to develop biliteracy and

transition students to an all English program by sixth grade. There were teams at

each grade level made up of a bilingual teacher and an English only teacher. We

shared a group of 60 students, 30 NSS and 30 NES. My homeroom class was

made up of 15 NES and 15 NSS. The homeroom group of students stayed



together for Math instruction in English and all specialty classes (Physical

Education, Computer, Library, Dance, Instrumental Music, Vocal Music and

Art). For all other subjects, I had my core group, which was made up of 30 NSS.

I remembered feeling that having an even mix of both native and non-

native English speakers in the class felt more equitable, although the test scores

said otherwise. The majority of my students scored above grade level on the

SABE or Spanish Assessment for Basic Education. This test was a state

standardized assessment for all students participating in an Alternative Bilingual

Program, it was administered from 1999 through 2005. However, NES

consistently outperformed NSS on the STAR test. This was not surprising since

NSS had been receiving the majority of their instruction in Spanish since

Kindergarten. Typically NSS in the program reached a proficient level on the

STAR test by 7th or 8th grade. At VAVPA, I enjoyed the diversity and the chance

for students to learn more about their fellow students’ culture and language.

Reflecting on my time there prompted me to return to my bilingual education

roots.

At the end of last school year, I decided to make a big change and take a

Kindergarten position at Capri Elementary in the Dual Language Immersion

program. I knew this was probably not the best time to make such a big change,

since I was about to begin my Action Research, however I felt a bilingual

program would be a great setting to work through the inequities amongst NES

and NSS.

Beginning of Kindergarten Wonderings

Before the school year started I sat down with my current teaching

partner, Meghan, to talk to about my research plan and to find out what concerns



and challenges she’s noticed over the years. She has been teaching DLI

Kindergarten for the past 10 years and was instrumental in bringing the program

to Capri. I started off by telling her that one my biggest concerns starting the

year was that many of the NES would be confused and even upset at not being

able to understand. In DLI Kindergarten we adhere to a strict Spanish only

model. This means I only speak Spanish in front of my students, I cannot

translate into English at any time. Meghan let me know that the NES students’

receptive language progresses quickly. Receptive language is listening to and

understanding what is said or comprehending what the speaker is

communicating.

Meghan shared with me that during the first few weeks of class she asks

NSS to translate when necessary for the NES. This allows NES access to what is

being taught, with the hope that they will begin to understand more Spanish as

time goes on. I found that since I repeated the same commands and followed a

daily routine consistently, some NES began to show an understanding of these

commands as early as the first week of school. After two or three weeks,

students were able to answer simple questions such as “How are you?” and

“What day of the week is it?” with one word answers, such as “Fine” and

“Monday.” Initially students provided whole group responses. Later, I modeled

direct questions to NSS and then after they answered I would ask the same

question to a NES. I found that by repeating what another student said, the

students began to internalize vocabulary and language structures.

My partner and I also talked about the socioeconomic gap and she said

that it has been her experience that even as early as Kindergarten, NES start to

dominate class discussions and surpass their NSS classmates academically. I



knew I would need to keep a close eye on signs of this happening in my own

classroom. Within the first trimester of school I found this to be true. After

administering an assessment on beginning letter sounds, I found that the

majority of my NES (10 out of 12) knew an average of 70% of the letter sounds,

while only five NSS students scored 70%. This was concerning to me, since I had

previously thought that the gap took longer to widen.

Since all students received the same instruction in class, I considered a

reason for this discrepancy might be that NES parents were working with their

children more frequently at home. Although it is hard to gauge what goes on at

home, the NES did turn in homework more often. In addition, out of twelve

NSS, ten of them attended the afterschool childcare program, which ends at

6:30pm. This ends up being a long ten-hour day for these kids. The afterschool

program is taught in English, although the staff does provide time for students to

work on homework in Spanish. After speaking with many of their parents, they

shared with me that it is difficult to find time to work with their children at

home.

Equity in Dual Immersion

In her article, Dual-Language Immersion Programs: A Cautionary Note

Concerning the Education of Language Minority Students , Guadalupe Valdés

discussed issues of language and power that teachers in DLI programs should be

aware of. She writes, “For minority children, the acquisition of English is

expected. For mainstream children, the acquisition of a non-English language is

enthusiastically applauded. Children are aware of these differences” (1997, p.

405). Now that I have spent some time in the DLI program, I can see that this is

an issue at our school. I know that the goal of the program is biliteracy for both



groups of students, but since in the early years the focus is on acquiring Spanish,

it’s important to applaud the efforts of all students and not just the students who

are learning Spanish.

Valdés also emphasizes the importance of ensuring a high level of

Spanish with as little translation as possible. Modifying the language to make it

more comprehensible to the non-native speakers, even slightly, influences the

language development of the native speakers. Can NSS in a DLI program

acquire academic Spanish at a level comparable to that in an Alternative

Bilingual Program? Previously, when I taught in an Alternative Bilingual-fourth

grade class, all of my students were native Spanish speakers, so I didn’t feel the

need to alter my language. Until now, I hadn’t considered the implications of

slowing down and simplifying my language so that NES would not be left

behind. Now I wonder if NES are indeed dominating class discussions and out

performing their NSS classmates, what part does altering the language play in

this? If I were to eliminate translating and make a conscience effort to deliver

instruction in unaltered Spanish, would there be less of a gap?

Another challenge Meghan and I discussed is the socioeconomic gap

between the NES and the NSS families. In general, most of the NES parents have

university degrees and work in professional careers. The majority of my parent

volunteers come from this group. In Kindergarten, we typically have three

parent volunteers daily to work with students in small groups. After meeting

with parents during parent teacher conferences, I found that the majority of NES

moms work part-time or less and therefore are able to help out in class, go on

field trips, attend special activities and drop off and pick up from school. On the

other hand, many of the NSS parents have not attended college and nine out of



the twelve families are considered low income and receive free lunch. In the

majority of the NSS families both parents work full time, necessitating before and

after school care and not allowing time to volunteer in their child’s classroom.

“In the DLI program the native English speaking students often benefit at

the expense of the native Spanish speaking students.” I have heard some form of

this quote from several colleagues that teach in DLI programs. This has also

been a concern of mine, considering that overall at Capri NES outperform their

NSS classmates on both English and Spanish assessments. In the article, Dual

Language Programs on the Rise, Ron Unz, the California software developer who

spearheaded the ballot initiatives against bilingual education in California and

Massachusetts states, “The Spanish-speaking kids are roped in as tutors for the

English-speaking kids…The whole debate on dual language is dominated by

English-speaking parents who want their children to learn Spanish. I question

whether the Spanish-speaking students are [really] learning English.” (2011, p.2)

While I don’t agree with his quote completely, I also question how effective our

program is at ensuring NSS acquire a proficient level of academic English. The

ultimate goal of the program is biliteracy; however in 2012 only 33% of English

language learners in grades second through sixth scored at the proficient level on

the CST (California Standards Test).

On the other hand, according to a review of research findings by the

Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) minority

students in two-way immersion programs benefit in the following ways:

“ELL students in 90:10 programs attain the same levels of proficiency in

English and the same or higher standards of achievement in reading and

language arts and math (measured in English) as ELL students in 50:50



programs. Thus, more exposure to instructional time in English does not

lead to an improvement in English language proficiency or achievement

in reading/language arts and math as measured in English. There are

significant correlations between achievement in English and Spanish for

both reading/language arts and mathematics. Thus, the ELL students who

score the highest in reading, language and math achievement on

achievement tests as measured in English also score the highest on

achievement tests measured in Spanish. ELL students who participate in

high quality two-way immersion programs achieve at levels that are

comparable or superior to their ELL peers in the district and state. By

fifth or sixth grade, almost all ELL students who had attended a two-way

immersion program since kindergarten or first grade were rated as

proficient in both languages.” (2007, May)

This quote explains beautifully what I hope to help my students achieve in

our program. It seems to me that patience is essential in any DLI program.

Parents and teachers need to have realistic expectations based on reliable

research. Having read research on high-quality DLI programs, I realize the same

things that make a traditional elementary program successful also apply to DLI:

consistency across grade levels and teacher fidelity. I am encouraged by the

conversations we’ve had at our DLI staff meetings around collaborating on grade

level goals, but I still feel we are at the beginning of a long journey.

First Day of School Jitters

Since this was my first time teaching Kindergarten many challenges arose

as I embarked on my research. I struggled with how to modify my survey

questions, my methods of collection and which strategies I had considered for



fourth graders would work for 4 and 5 year olds. Another concern was how to

make my questions comprehensible to the whole class.

With all of these challenges in mind, I tried to keep a clear focus on what I

wanted to observe: How do the two groups of students in my class interact and

communicate and how will this change as we grow together as a classroom

community?

I’m always a little nervous the first day of school, but since this was also

my students’ first day of school in their elementary school experience, I was

more nervous than usual! My biggest concern were the criers I had heard so

much about from my friends that teach Kindergarten. School starts at 8:00am,

but loads of kids arrived at 7:30am to check out their new classrooms. It was an

exciting time and most of the kids were happy to be starting Kindergarten. I did

see several students hugging their parents’ legs and fighting back tears, so I

swiftly brought them inside and we started our day. As we gathered on the rug,

I saw a sea of curious faces staring up at me. We started the day singing a song

about “Juanito” who loves to dance. The kids loved it! At first, I felt a little

goofy (not a lot of singing and dancing in the upper grades), but their energy

was contagious and the smiles and giggles started to appear. We must have

sung that song 20 times the first week! Anytime I noticed they were getting a

little squirmy, tired or homesick, we put on “Juanito” and danced!

My concerns about all students understanding me were validated within

the first few minutes of school, but luckily I had several students who were able

to translate. It was important to me that all students understood certain key

phrases quickly: ¿Puedo usar el baño, por favor? (Can I use the bathroom, please?),

¡Me lastime! (I’m hurt.), ¿Puedo tomar agua por favor? (Can I drink water, please?),



and Levante la mano, antes de hablar. (Raise your hand before speaking.) I made

vocabulary cards with visual cues for these key phrases and I would point to

them as I asked students to repeat the phrase.

Hoping to scaffold and introduce a Cooperative Learning strategy called

“Face-to-face Promotive Interaction” where students explain concepts learned to

a partner, I had students create hand gestures to help remember key phrases.

Students volunteered to show the class a gesture that went along with a phrase

and we all repeated both the phrase and the gesture whole group. For example,

Michael came up with holding an imaginary cup and drinking it for the phrase,

“¿Puedo tomar agua por favor?” I then asked students to turn to the person sitting

next to them and sit eye-to-eye and knee-to-knee to practice the gesture and

phrase. This seemed like a perfectly simple idea, however the results were less

than perfect! I got a lot of blank stares and the few NSS that did turn towards a

friend were met with the back of the other child’s head.

After asking them to turn and practice, I had Michael (who’s bilingual)

repeat the directions in English. I really wish I had filmed this, but I had no idea

it would prove to be so funny. So, Michael stands up and with exaggerated hand

gestures and a very mature tone, says, “Ok, guys, what the teacher wants you to

do is to turn and sit with your knees on a friend and look at their eyes and say:

“¿Puedo tomar agua por favor?” Most of the students didn’t know where to turn

and they ended up fidgeting around, with a few making the gesture and saying

the phrase, but most clearly confused. Take two! I then asked my trusty friend

Michael to model with me what I wanted them to do. As I looked at my

students’ faces I noticed a little less confusion and even some nodding heads! I

quickly stepped carefully through the rows of Kindergarteners and physically



turned them towards their partner, since in my excitement I hadn’t told them

who to turn and practice with! We practiced and I’m happy to say…it went

okay. By that time we need another song and dance.

As I reflected on this first experience with “Face-to-face Promotive

Interaction”, I realized I would need to give more detailed instructions and really

break things down in order for my students to understand.

Baseline Survey: How comfortable do my students feel working with their classmates?

Going from fourth grade to Kindergarten was a huge transition. I, of

course, knew I would need to adjust my expectations and certainly my plans to

implement my research, but the adjustments were bigger than I anticipated. My

initial plan was to ask the students a series of baseline questions about how they

felt about working with a partner in class, since my research would focus on how

students worked together. (Appendix A) I tried to think through how to give the

survey, since my Kindergarteners were not able to sit down independently and

fill out a survey. I asked a parent, a high school Spanish teacher, to help me out.

I gave each child a copy of the survey, a clipboard and a pencil and projected the

survey on the screen, so students could follow along as I went over each question

explicitly.

The first thing that really threw them into a fit of laughter was the

document camera. As soon as my hand appeared to point out the first question

and the smiley and frowning faces to circle, they exploded into laughs and

“oohs” and “ahs”! It never dawned on me that they’d never seen anything like it

before. Each time I used my finger to point, they cracked up. So, I decided to

just continue without the visual. As I read each question in Spanish, my parent



helper read the question in English. Here are some of the questions we asked the

students:

1. ¿Cuando estas aprendiendo algo nuevo, como te gusta trabajar?When you are learning something new, how do you like to work? (alone,with a friend or with the whole class)

2. ¿En la escuela, como prefieras leer?At school, how do you prefer to read? (alone, with a friend or with thewhole class)

3. ¿Te parece que un compañero de la clase te puede ayudar a leer mejor?Do you think a friend in class can help you learn to read better? (yes, noor sometimes)

4. ¿Aprendas de sus compañeros de la clase?Do you learn from your classmates? (yes, no or sometimes)

5. ¿Te parece que escuchas con atención?Do you think you are a good listener? (yes, no or sometimes)

6. ¿Haces preguntas cuando no estas seguro de algo?Do you ask questions when you are wondering something? (yes, no orsometimes)

7. ¿Te gusta hablar con un compañero de la clase?Do you like talking with a friend in class? (yes, no or sometimes)

8. ¿Te gusta compartir libros con tus compañeros?Do you like sharing books with friends in class? (yes, no or sometimes)

We both explained several times that they were to circle one of the three

choices. However, most of them ended up circling all three on each and every

question. This was definitely a learning experience for me and an indicator that I

would need to modify my data collection even further.

After looking over the surveys we did whole group I realized that I would

not be able to use the results, since they clearly did not understand what to do. I

decided to ask students the survey questions in pairs, with their compañero. As

part of my research, I paired students up with a partner or compañero. The pairs

consisted of a native English speaker and a native Spanish speaker. I

thoughtfully paired them up with someone they had shown interest in forming a

friendship with in class, based on whether or not they chose to play together

during free choice or recess. I also made sure I didn’t pair up two children who



were reluctant to talk. Another important consideration was if the Spanish-

speaking student was also bilingual. The levels of bilingualism vary, but most of

the Spanish speakers in my class attended at least a year of preschool in English,

so they are able to communicate at some level in English. So, after the not so

great results of my first survey, I decided to give it again.

Figure 1. Reading Survey Results

The results were not too surprising to me, since I’d already noticed that

my students were very social and were interested in getting to know each other.

However, at the beginning of the year most students still felt more comfortable

having the teacher read to them, rather than reading with a friend. I was pleased

to see that students preferred to learn something new with a friend, since I had a

lot of partner work planned for the year.

I also asked students whether or not they read at home, 100% said they

did and 90% of students said they liked reading or being read to. When I asked

students whether or not they thought a friend could help them read better, I got

a lot of confused looks. I rephrased the question and asked if they thought a

friend could help them with some of the words they didn’t know or explain what

was happening in the story. After this explanation, most students seemed to

understand, but the majority of students, 75%, answered no. I was a little

disappointed, because I had hoped that they would see each other as resources. I

suspect that at this age most children look to adults for help. Many of my

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Whenyouarelearningsomething

new,howdoyouliketowork?

Atschool,howdoyoupreferto

read?WholeClass

WithaFriend

Alone



students were transitioning from parallel play, where children play next to each

other but interact very little, to engaging in interactive play, where they

participate in group games or play together. I noticed during those first few

months many students would exclusively come to me for help. Thankfully, this

changed as the school year progressed.

Through the questions in my baseline survey, I hoped to get at whether or

not my students felt comfortable asking for help from their classmates and if they

thought this was useful. When I asked the questions with their partner I had to

do quite a bit of explaining and give examples to help them understand what I

was getting at. Also, relying on a five year old to translate clearly was difficult

and a lot to expect, but most of them rose to the occasion and were able to make

themselves understood to their partner. I felt conflicted having students

translate, since this is an immersion model and translation should be very

limited, if at all. However, I’m not really sure I would have gotten the data any

other way.

Figure 2. Baseline Survey Results

02468101214161820

Doyoulearnfromyour

classmates?

Doyouthinkyouarea

good

listener?

Doyouaskquestions

whenyouare

wondering

something?

Doyouliketalkingwitha

friendin

class?

Doyoulikesharing

bookswith

friendsin

class?

Yes

No

Sometimes



Initial Observations: How can I encourage students to see each other as resources?

During my informal observations throughout the first month of school, I

noticed the children in my class were not so interested in working together. As I

watched them work at table groups on activities, like drawing what they liked to

do with their friends, they interacted very little. I saw one student crawl across

the table to reach the crayon basket. I realized quickly they needed to learn the

basic language skills to ask for help. It wasn’t just the phrase or the words, but

explaining to them and modeling how they could use each other as resources to

get their work done.

I also observed during our first few class meetings that they were not too

excited about discussing what we were doing in class. This was a big surprise to

me; I thought they’d be excited to share ideas and questions. It was important

for me to include student voice in my research. For example, I asked the class,

“¿Qué es lo que te gusta más cuando trabajas con tu compañero? What do you like

best about working with your partner?” Mostly, I got a lot of blank stares. I

relied on my bilingual students to translate, but usually the translation didn’t get

at what I was asking. I also suspect that by the time a student finished the

translation the kids were tuned out. The children in my class that speak Spanish

as their first language were tuned in most of the time and ready to share with

their compañero, but their native English speaking (NES) partner was usually

confused and not sure what to do. At the time, I was frustrated at my inability

to get more input from my students about how they were experiencing the first

few weeks of school. Now I realize that my expectations were not reasonable for

where they were at developmentally with respect to language acquisition and

simply being a Kindergartener.



Another thing that I noticed was the classroom behavior of the Spanish

dominant students compared to that of the English dominant students. The

English dominant students, in general, were able to sit, listen to directions, do

their work quietly, and basically follow the class rules. Many of the Spanish

dominant students had a more difficult time attending, sitting for more than a

few minutes at a time and following the class rules. This was surprising to me.

In my 13 years working with a very similar population there hadn’t been such a

discrepancy. Each group of students came from different socioeconomic

backgrounds and attended different preschools. The majority of the NSS

attended the local Head Start preschool. I wondered if the different expectations

and structures of the preschools my students attended had something to do with

their behavior. I also wondered whether the NES were quieter and better

behaved during those first few months, because they were unable to understand

most of what was said.

As I considered my NES overall behavior and reluctance to share during

class meetings, I recalled my undergraduate linguistic studies on language

acquisition. Nearly all of the research I had done up until now had been on

students learning English as a second language. However in the DLI program,

my NES students were also second language learners. According to Stephen

Krashen (1982), most English language learners (ELLs) will go through a “silent

period”, when they are unable or unwilling to communicate orally in the new

language. The silent period may last for a few days or longer depending on the

learner. The “silent period” occurs before ELLs are ready to produce oral

language and is generally referred to as the “Pre-production” stage of language

learning. Krashen cautions that ELLs should not be forced to speak before they



are ready. They need time to listen to others talk, to try to comprehend what they

hear, to develop receptive vocabulary, and to observe their classmates’

interactions and reactions to language. When students do speak, we want the

speech to be real and purposeful instead of contrived. When the students are in

the “silent period”, it does not mean they are not learning. They may

understand what is being said, but they are not yet ready to talk about it.

Although much of Krashen’s work is around ELLs, the idea of a “silent period”

pertains to any second language acquisition. Revisiting this research helped me

make sense of why my NES students were seemingly better behaved and not as

responsive. Now this seems glaringly obvious, but at the time when I was

concerned I wouldn’t be able to get my students to give me their input on

working together, it wasn’t as clear.

As the months passed, I noticed a shift in NES input during our class

discussions. Once they had acquired more phrases and vocabulary in Spanish

they began to share more and ask more questions. Sometimes they would speak

completely in English. Other times they would use the Spanish they knew and

add words from English to fill in. For example, “Ayer I had a sleepover con mi

amigo. (Yesterday I had a sleepover with my friend.)” The overall behavior of

the class shifted as well. NES seemed to feel more comfortable in class and

began to talk out of turn and misbehave more frequently. I still noticed that the

NSS misbehaved more frequently, but my NES students had clearly found their

voice!

Parents and Students: How can I balance parent expectations and reality?

During this time, educating the parents about what to expect at this age

and in this program, was a challenge. The first few months of school were filled



with parent concerns about the behavior of a few students in my class. I had a

difficult time dealing with parents and helping my students adjust to

Kindergarten.

There were five students who were behavior problems almost

immediately. All five were NSS, three girls and two boys. Lola, who was also

one of my focus students, was a twin and one of six children in her family. She

was defiant and acted out constantly within the first week of school. Vera was

the youngest of three girls. She lived with her biological Mom and Dad and two

older half sisters (same Mom different Dad). Sadly she had a history of sexual

abuse and didn’t speak until she was four. She was immature for her age and

would not follow the basic rules of the class; often she would crawl around and

meow to get attention. Yolanda was the youngest of four girls and had severe

separation anxiety. Without exaggeration, she cried every day, nearly all day

long for two months, often causing herself to vomit. Ricardo, also one of my

focus students, was the youngest of five boys and Evan was the oldest of three

children all under the age of five. They were both extremely active and had

difficulty following directions.

The biggest challenge in dealing with their difficult behaviors was the

constant presence of parent volunteers. During morning literacy rotations, I had

two parent volunteers to work with small groups and help with prep work, from

8:00am to 10:15 am. In the afternoon, one parent volunteer came in from 1:00pm

to 2:15pm to help out with Math centers. Although their help was valuable and

necessary for some of the involved activities we were doing, I couldn’t escape

their scrutiny of the behavior of my students. This was a delicate time as I was

working on establishing norms and procedures with the class and trying to get to



know them amongst the five students who were presenting daily behavior

problems, all under the watchful eye of parent volunteers.

Several of the parent volunteers spoke to other parents in the class about

their concerns with the students’ behavior. They also contacted the principal and

myself. Ironically, classroom management and difficult student behavior has

been a strength of mine. It was hard to have my authority and my ability to deal

with the problems questioned. However, I worked hard not take it personally

and to realize that all parents have their child’s best interest at heart.

Thankfully, most of the behavior problems I mentioned got progressively

better as the year went on. This didn’t happen magically. Improving student

behavior became my main focus. I wanted to help all of my students adjust to

Kindergarten and create friendships. In order to do this I implemented the

following strategies and structures to help improve classroom behavior and

create a more united community.

Implementing Cooperative Learning Strategies: Five Essential Components

Class Meetings: Creating Positive Interdependence

As I researched Best Practices for strong DLI programs a common theme

emerged, the use of Cooperative Learning Strategies. The second week of school

we began having Class Meetings to help support Positive Interdependence or

feeling a connection and responsibility to the group.

The first activity was to brainstorm a list of things a good friend does. I

asked the class, “Qué hacen los buenos amigos? What does a good friend do?” José

translated for the class, “What does your good friend do?” Ricardo immediately

raised his hand and shouted out, “¡Juegan bien! They play nice!” This struck me,

because he had been having difficulty getting along with the other boys in the



class. He was very physical and had a habit of taking things out of other

students’ hands without asking. I was encouraged that he saw this as an

important trait. The next comment came from José, “Si no tienes el almuerzo,

comparten contigo. If you don’t have lunch they share with you.”

As students shared their ideas, I wrote them down on chart paper and

drew a sketch to describe what they shared. If the student answered in English, I

would repeat what was said back to them in Spanish and then write the phrase

in Spanish on the chart. This is standard practice for teachers in the DLI

program; whenever English is spoken we repeat the phrase back in Spanish and

encourage the student to echo the phrase. Several students volunteered to

translate what was said into English.

Initially, there were two standout translators. Michael, who’s dominant

language was actually English, but had a Spanish speaking nanny since birth and

José, who was excited to translate, but his English was often difficult to

understand. I used a thumb up or thumbs down signal to check for

understanding after a student would translate. Often it took a few versions of

what they thought I was trying to say before I got a thumb up from the majority

of the class. Both boys appeared confident and happy to be able to help out their

classmates. I struggled with allowing translations, but I also found it difficult to

create a sense of community and help form friendships, without the input of all

students. I’m still conflicted about translating, since within a few months, my

NES were contributing regularly. I wonder if I hadn’t allowed translating,

would they be contributing as often.



Figure 3. Class Meeting Chart: “What do good friends do?”(The original chart was in Spanish only.)

I was pleased that both NES and NSS gave their input during our class

meetings. It was important to me to have students share explicitly what they

thought good friends do, especially since several of my students were having

behavior problems. I was hopeful that if they heard their classmates describe

what they thought a good friend should do, they might begin to try out more

positive behaviors.

Developing Norms and Celebrating Good Behavior: Building our Social Skills

My initial intention was to have students start working with their partners

right away and begin using the protocols I had researched. Reality set in

quickly! I first had to establish expectations and formulate class norms that were

clear to all students. Just sitting on the rug next to each other without

somersaulting was a challenge for some students! I was surprised at how

quickly students picked up key phrases in Spanish, especially one that I repeated

throughout the day constantly during the first few weeks of school: No tocamos a

Quéhacenlosbuenosamigos?

Whatdoesagoodfrienddo?

¡Jueganbien! Playnice!-Ricardo(NSS)

Sinotieneselalmuerzo,compartencontigo. Ifyoudon’thaveyour

lunch,theysharewithyou.

–José(NSS)

Undía,Veranoteniabocadillo yyocompartícon ella.Oneday,Veradidn’thavehersnackandIsharedwithher.–Gianna(NES)

Leenlibrosjuntos.Theyreadbookstogether.–Steven

(NES)

Compartenjuguetes.Theysharetoys.–Evan(NSS)

Teayudencuandotelastimes.Theyhelpyouwhenyou’rehurt.

–James(NES)

Teempujenenloscolumpios.Theypushyouontheswings.

–Shane(NES)



los amigos. (We don’t touch our friends.) My dream of having students work

together as peer to peer mentors couldn’t possibly take place if they couldn’t sit

next to one another without poking, hugging, pinching, and even kissing each

other.

I quickly realized that clear boundaries needed to be established before

any collaboration could occur. I worked on role-playing with students, different

scenarios I had noticed come up throughout the day. Some students had

difficulty asking a friend to pass them a pencil; instead they would just climb

across the table and get it themselves, truly not a very collaborative move. I had

also noticed a lot of grabbing and hoarding of materials. Although students said

that sharing was important to them, many were not putting it to practice.

We clearly needed to set some guidelines for what was acceptable

behavior in our class. After several days of class meetings we came up with a list

of class norms:

• Escucho con atencion. ~ I listen carefully.• Levanto la mano antes de hablar. ~ I raise my hand before speaking.• Hago mi trabajo calladito. ~ I do my work quietly.• Termino mi trabajo. ~ I finish my work.• Soy un buen amigo. ~ I am a good friend.• Camino calladito. ~ I walk quietly.



Figure 4. Class Norms and Behavior Clip Chart

In order for students to internalize our class norms, we repeated them two

to three times a day for the first few weeks. I went over the norms first thing in

the morning and asked students to give examples of what it looked like to followcertain norms. We revisited the norms after our morning literacy rotations, to

check in and see if as a whole class there were any norms we needed to work on.

This turned out to be a great opportunity for my NES to expand their vocabulary

in Spanish. Since we were repeating the norms throughout the day, I began to

hear students using the same phrases in our class discussions.

Another important system I implemented was a behavior chart. I have

mixed feelings about behavior charts and treasure boxes for good behavior. I

think they can condition kids to expect something for behaving, instead of

teaching them that being kind is its own reward. However, the behavior of a few



students was negatively impacting our class and making it hard to get through

the day, so I gave in. I’m glad that I decided to use the behavior chart, because it

was effective at improving the behavior of most of the class.

Another classroom management tool that I used was simple yet

surprisingly effective. The class earned caritas felices or smiley faces for awesome

behavior. I kept track of the smiley faces on the whiteboard and when we

reached a certain number the class earned a reward. One of their favorite

rewards was a Soul Train style dance party. Students would line up on either

side of the carpet, creating an aisle for the dancer. They loved it! Lucky for me

the dance fever didn’t wear off as the year went on. As simple as it was I think

the smiley face chart helped bring my class together as a community. They

encouraged each other to follow the rules and worked together to clean up. I

would over hear them talking about getting enough caritas felices to have a dance

party!

Figure 5. Dance Party!



Friendship Building Activities: Fostering Group Processing through Positive Feedback

In order to promote a strong bond between my students and help them

form friendships where they would seek each other out in both play and

academics, I chose several friendship building activities. Faulkner and Miell

(1993) discovered that children who had well-established friendships upon

entering school had better social and communication skills. They concluded that

the ability to make friends influenced children’s performance in a range of

learning activities, particularly those involving collaboration and cooperation.

I reached out to the other Kindergarten teachers on my team for ideas to

help build friendships and positive behavior in my class. There was one activity

that they all found useful for promoting kindness and friendship, filling buckets.

The activity is based on Carol McCloud’s book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?: A

Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids. The book encourages children to fill friends

metaphorical bucket with kind words and kind deeds. It also discusses the

importance of not being a “bucket dipper” or someone who uses unkind words

or does unkind things. After reading the book we discussed things we could do

and say to fill our classmates buckets.

I made a bucket for each student and put them all in a pocket chart

hanging on the wall. I made slips of paper with images of kids helping one

another for them to write down ways that their friend had filled their bucket.

The first time we did this activity was amazing! After generating a list of phrases

they could write on their bucket filler cards, I put stack on each table group and

gave them a chance to write messages and fill buckets. As I walked around the

classroom, I heard students telling each other, “I’m writing one for you, porque

juegas bien con migo. (You play nicely with me.)” It was hard to get them to stop!



After they had written for about ten minutes we reconvened on the rug and I

read some of the slips from the students buckets. I asked the class how it felt to

have their buckets filled, “ Me hace sentir feliz. (It makes me feel happy.)”, Julia

said. We discussed the importance of using kind words throughout their day. I

let them know that I would leave the bucket filler cards out for them to fill their

friends buckets whenever they liked.

Figure 6. Students filling up buckets.

I had anticipated that students would be rushing over to fill out bucket

filler slips throughout the day, but this didn’t happen. I realized that unless I

mentioned it during our morning meetings as an activity to do when they were

finished with their work, it didn’t get done. They needed constant reminders,

just like with the class norms. However, when I pointed it out as an option they

almost always chose to fill someone’s bucket. It also became clear that it was

important to them to have time to sit and read their notes and for me to highlight

a few students’ notes at the end of each day.



Although students were writing the bucket fillers in Spanish, almost all of

the conversations around bucket filling were in English. I heard a lot of code

switching and borrowing of Spanish or English during their discussions. Code

switching is the use of more than one language in a single conversation or

sentence. Borrowing is used when someone is not yet fully bilingual and they

insert a word or phrase from either language into the sentence when they don’t

know the correct word. For example my student James said to me, “Ayer I

played futbol with mi papa.” He is using all the language he knows in Spanish,

but borrows the words he doesn’t know from his native language, English. On

the other hand, speakers practice code switching when they are mostly fluent in

both languages. The majority of the conversations I heard were exclusively in

English, with the exception of the phrases they were writing in Spanish. Hearing

that much English being spoken was concerning to me.

As I considered the amount of English I was hearing in my classroom I

began researching issues of language and power in bilingual programs. Dual

Immersion programs strive to bring equity to both languages and bring diverse

groups of students together with a common objective of becoming biliterate.

However, I wondered if the societal inequities can be overcome by curriculum

and teaching practices. Students know that English is the language of power and

wealth. It’s transparent in the cars their parents drive, the houses they live in

and the clothes they wear.

Observing Student Interactions: Unstructured Play

I decided to videotape groups of students during unstructured playtime

to see what language they chose to speak. I have a pocket chart on the

whiteboard with six choices of activities: house, cars, coloring, beading, Legos,



and puzzles. Student names are written on popsicle sticks and I take turns

asking each student, “Qué quieres jugar? What do you want to play?” I noticed

that several students wanted to wait until their friend chose an activity, before

they chose. James (NES) said, “Esperar mi amigo Emilio. Wait for my friend

Emilio” Emilo is a native Spanish speaker. I was pleased to hear James continue

to take risks in Spanish; he was progressing in Spanish quickly. I allowed

students to wait and make a choice after their friend.

As I walked around the room with my iPad videoing their interactions,

several things struck me. The group of students who were beading (4 NES girls,

1 NSS boy, and 2 NSS girls) spoke exclusively in English. They would lean in

and whisper to each other when I walked over. The native Spanish speakers in

this group were silent.

The group playing in the house area was a mix of students from my class

and the other DLI Kindergarten class. It was a pretty even mix of NES and NSS,

but mostly girls. Again, English was exclusively being spoken.

There was a group of boys putting together a train track (3 NSS and 1

NES, James). I was really interested in hearing whether or not they chose to

speak in Spanish, since James is one of the NES who has picked up Spanish very

quickly. They actually didn’t speak either language! They made car and train

noises, but didn’t speak at all while I observed them. This same thing happened

when I observed Juan (NSS) and Fiona (NES). Fiona joined our class the third

week of school and had a difficult time making the transition to the DLI

program. She was vocal about not understanding Spanish and loudly said,

“Qué? What?” throughout the day or “What’s she (meaning me) saying?” Often

times I think she understood what I’m saying, but chose to feign



misunderstanding. Anyway, she and Juan were playing cars. They had built a

very long track and had it completely covered with cars. Fiona explained to me,

“We made a traffic jam.” While I observed them, they didn’t speak very often.

They took turns laying down pieces of the track, then filled the track with cars. I

asked Juan if he enjoyed playing with Fiona and he said, “¡Si!” Juan translated

my question to Fiona and she smiled and said, “He’s fun to play with!”

After my observations, I determined that the dominate language during

playtime was English. My observations during the first few months of school

were that during academic activities more Spanish was spoken. However, most

of the NES were still in the “silent stage” so most of the talking was being done

by NSS. Most students tried to speak Spanish to me and to each other while

working in small groups during Language Arts rotations. Ultimately, the

language during academic activities shifted to mostly English as the year

progressed. Students still spoke Spanish directly to me and with their peers

during Reading groups with me. However, when students were working on an

activity in a small group either alone or with an English-speaking parent

volunteer, they spoke mostly English.

I struggled with the amount of English I heard during our morning

literacy rotations and during playtime in the afternoon. I spoke to my teaching

partner Meghan and she said she was noticing the same thing. She decided to

start giving out incentives when she heard students independently using

Spanish. At our school students can earn cougar dollars (our school mascot) for

good behavior. So, we decided to pass them out for speaking Spanish. I told my

class explicitly that I was hoping to hear more Spanish being spoken. I didn’t

specifically tell them that would earn cougar dollars, but they picked up on it



pretty quickly. When I heard a student, either a NES or NSS, say a phrase or

sentence in Spanish I praised them by saying, “¡Que bien que estas hablando

espanol! It’s so great that you’re speaking Spanish!” Then I would give them a

cougar dollar. The effect of the cougar dollar snowballed. I would hear students

purposely looking up to see if I was listening and begin speaking Spanish. It was

a little artificial, but I was happy that students who hadn’t taken risks before in

Spanish were beginning to make more of an effort. I was careful to balance the

rewards amongst both NSS and NES.

Activities to Promote Face-to-Face Interaction

In small groups, I began working with compañeros on sharing materials,

in an effort to get them talking with one another and in the hope that they would

begin to see the value in working with a friend. This was an ongoing effort. I

wondered if it was developmental; maybe they are so concerned with themselves

at this age that they don’t look outside themselves or to the teacher for possible

solutions.

During small group rotations (students were split into groups of eight,

two groups worked with parent volunteers and I took the third group), I

modeled practicing sight word flash cards. First, we practiced whole group: I

held up the card and they chorally repeated back the word. Then, I modeled

working with a partner with one of the students and explained that it’s

important to allow time to read the word, then offer help if their partner needs it.

I assigned specific spots in the room and they practiced. I observed one pair

closely:

“He doesn’t know any of the words,” Fiona announced loudly. Juan

looked deflated and disappointed. I reminded Fiona, “Una de nuestras



reglas es: Soy un buen amigo. Hay que ayudar tu compañero. One of our rules

is: I am a god friend. You need to help your friend.” Fiona looked up at

me and said, “Huh, what did you say?” Her partner Juan replied,

“Maestra said be nice.” Fiona shrugged and we walked back to the table

to meet with the rest of the group.

For most of the pairs, this first attempt went better than expected! I

noticed students focused on the cards and offering help. As I reflected on this, I

realized I should ask students to share out what worked well and what we can

still work on next time they work in pairs on sight words. Also, I noticed there

were several students that did not know their sight words and their partners

struggled with how to offer help. During a class meeting we generated a class

list of how a good friend offers help. It was important for them to have some

guidelines and for me to have an anchor chart I could refer back to after students

read with a friend, worked on flashcards.

Figure 6. “How do good friends offer help?” Class chart

Quehacenlosbuenosamigos?

Whatdoesagoodfrienddo?

Teescuchen.Theylistentoyou.–Juan(NSS)

Sinointiendesalgotedicen. Ifyoudon’tunderstandsomething

theytellyou.–José(NSS)

Compartencontigo.Theysharewithyou.–Fiona(NES)

Tedicen,“¡Buentrabojo!”Theytellyou,“Goodjob!”–Anna

(NES)

Ponenellibroen elmedio. They put the book in themiddle to

share.–Evan(NSS)



After building a foundation of what it looks and sounds like to work

positively with a friend, I decided to have students begin giving each other

feedback during Interactive Writing time. My hope was that this activity would

serve as a starting point for helping students move towards working together on

projects that required more collaboration. During Interactive Writing time,

students came in from recess and picked up a mini whiteboard, a marker and a

sock and sat on the rug. Students sat next to their compañero on the rug and I

sat on a low stool in front of the group. I wrote a sight word on the board and

students followed along on their boards. They held it up to show me first. Then

I asked students to turn and sit knee-to-knee and eye-to-eye with their

compañero. They hold up their boards and tell each other, “¡ Muy bien amigo!

Good job friend.” Getting them to really look at their friends’ work was a

challenge, but they from the smiles on their faces I could tell they were super

excited to get the feedback from their partner.

Initially, students parroted back the compliments that I modeled,

“¡Excelente trabajo! Excellent work!” Then we transitioned to giving a specific

compliment. I asked students to pick out one letter that they noticed was written

especially well. I noticed many students focusing on their own work more than

their partner’s work and this specific direction forced them to take a closer look.

At first, this did not go so smoothly. Lola, one of my focus students who was

also defiant and difficult to deal with, often didn’t do the writing I had modeled.

Her compañera Elena was just the opposite, always on task. “She’s not doing it

right!” Elena informed the class. Lola had been working on an elaborate

drawing of her family on the whiteboard and hadn’t written any of the words we

were practicing. “¡Él no lo hizo tampoco! He didn’t do it either!” Lola complained



as she pointed at James, who was drawing a smiley face on the carpet! I

practiced a lot of patience during those first few weeks and took many deep

breaths. The practice and patience paid off and after awhile students were able

to turn knee-to-knee and eye-to-eye and give each other feedback. In order for

all students to have their work seen, even if their partner was off task, I had them

show their board to the person sitting in front of them and in back of them. This

seemed to solve the problem of fairness, when a partner wasn’t finished with

their work or was drawing, they could choose another friend. I wondered if the

skills they had learned in giving each other feedback during interactive writing

would transfer over to other activities throughout the day.

Figure 7. Interactive Writing

Student Tally Chart: Encouraging Individual Accountability

In order to encourage students to take an active role in creating

friendships with their compañero, I designed an input chart to track which ways

students were helping each other. I knew that they all loved being recognized

for making good choices. Throughout the first few weeks of school I heaped on

the praise for students that were following our class norms. For example, if

many of the students were calling out answers, I would focus on the students



that were following our class norm: Levanto la mano antes de hablar. I raise my

hand before speaking. I repeated this comment many times, “Me encanta como

nuestro amigo Juan levantó su mano antes de hablar. ¡Que bien que esta siguiendo

nuestras reglas! I love how our friend Jorge raised his hand before speaking. It’s

great that he is following our class norms!” The reaction from Juan and other

students was immediate, big smiles, raised hands with out yelling out.

Of course this was not a magic bullet! They needed constant reminding.

The days that I tried to plow through activities and curriculum without taking

the time to praise behavior individually and specifically always backfired. My

students reverted to calling out, grabbing materials, and running in the

classroom (yes, often with scissors!). I realized that taking the time to point out

and encourage positive behaviors was essential to holding them accountable and

to preserve my mental health!

In the book Responsive School Discipline (2011) , the authors detail the

importance of using direct positive language with students to encourage positive

behaviors. By affirming the exact action, students know what is expected. If

teachers are too general in their comments, such as, “It’s important to be

friendly” students will not always know what specific behaviors are expected. I

modeled giving specific compliments, “ Me gusta como compartiste los crayones con

tu amigo. I like how you shared your crayons with your friend.”

I decided to use a tally chart to record when students were helping each

other and in what way. I included the headings: “ Mi compañero me ayudo a decir

algo.” (My friend helped me say something.), “ Mi compañero me ayudo con mi

trabajo.” (My friend helped me with my work.) and “ Mi compañero jugo bien con

migo.” (My friend played nicely with me.) Initially, I thought I would explain the



chart during our community meeting and model adding smiley faces to the chart

for the different categories. I planned on letting students come up during the

day and add smiley faces when a friend helped them. However, once we began

discussing the chart, I realized that I had found a very valuable way to collect

data! I was thrilled when students began sharing very detailed descriptions of

the way their friend had helped them to read a word or finish a project.

I realized that the discussion that came out of that first meeting was really

great and I needed to document what was being said. So, I audiotaped our next

community meeting. We had just finished our morning rotations, where

students rotate through four different activities in groups of six students (with

their compañero). I began by asking students if anyone had helped them say

anything or helped them with the meaning of a word. I was pleased when one of

my focus students, Fiona, who has been reluctant to use Spanish said, “Ayude a

Lila. I helped Lila” I praised her for helping out her friend and also for speaking

in Spanish and I put a smiley face next to her name. The next comment came

from James, “Ayudar, ayudar…I helped Emilio draw a spider.” There were

several more comments about helping with coloring. Students had noticed what

someone had drawn and wanted help to do the same thing. At the end of our

meeting, Naomi said, “Yo puedo ser la amiga de James porque Gretta no esta aquí y

Juan tan poco.” (I can be James friend today, because Gretta and Juan are both

absent.) I was so pleased that she had made that connection after we’d been

talking about helping out friends.



Figure 8. Student Tally Chart

End of Trimester Survey

After working with my students on Cooperative Learning strategies and

community building activities for six months I gave my baseline survey a second

time. I was pleased with the results and feel that they reflect how my students

had grown as communicators and collaborators. In the first survey half of my

students didn’t feel like they could learn something from their classmates and by

the end of my research only four students felt they couldn’t learn something

from a friend. I am hopeful that all of our partner work and class meetings to

discuss working with a friend influenced their decision. I’m sure that part of the

reason they felt they could learn something from a friend is that they felt more

comfortable in our classroom community to express themselves and share ideas.

Another dramatic shift was whether or not students enjoyed reading a

book with a friend. At the beginning of the school year they were split 50/50,

however by February all but four students stated they enjoyed reading with a



friend, at least sometimes. This was something that I enjoyed seeing blossom

over the year. Initially, pairs of students would sit next to each other to read, but

interact very little, much like in parallel play. As time passed, I noticed students

trying to read chorally and pointing out pictures they liked in the text. These

were all things we had practiced in our Reading groups and it was great to see

them put it to practice!

Students questioning skills definitely improved over time as well. There

are many factors that influenced this. For NES transitioning from the “silent

stage” to producing and understanding more Spanish had a lot to do with how

often they asked questions or expressed their wonderings. I continued to push

students to use more Spanish. NES rose to the occasion and the majority would

try out questions, knowing that I would support them with the language. As for

the NSS, they continued to ask questions and contribute to our class meetings.

One dilemma that I am still struggling with is the amount of background

knowledge and outside experiences that each group of students comes with.

Typically, it the NES would have more connections and comments to make about

new topics of study. For example, when we were studying about weather, many

of my NES would tell stories about far off places they had visited that had

different weather, whereas the majority of the NSS did not share similar

experiences.

I was pleasantly surprised that all of my students felt like they were good

listeners for the final survey. I am certain that my daily mantra of, “Escucho con

atencion. I listen attentively” had everything to do with this. Seriously, our daily

conversations about working with friends in a positive way, being kind and

helpful surely helped them listen more attentively. What I enjoyed most was



having a student come up to me unprovoked and tell me that someone had filled

their bucket by helping them out or saying a kind word.

Figure 9. Final Survey Results

0

5

10

15

20

25

Doyoulearn

fromyour

classmates?

Doyouthink

youareagood

listener?

Doyouask

questions

whenyouare

wondering

something?

Doyoulike

talkingwitha

friendinclass?

Doyoulike

sharingbooks

withfriendsin

class?

Yes

No

Sometimes

what brought me here

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