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English Instruction Has Arrived

The 2018-2019 school year marks an important year in the building of our Spanish Immersion program here at LCS because it is the first year that we have 3rd graders in the program. 3rd grade is the first year when direct instruction in English and English-specific skills is introduced.

The English instruction for our 3rd graders consists of about 1 hour of English instruction each day, and it is the only time that English is spoken by both students and the teacher in the classroom. This hour is divided up into 3 different subjects:

  • English grammar

  • English spelling

  • Science

English Grammar

The grammar lessons and curriculum are taught mainly through Daily Oral Language (DOL) activities. Students complete editing of a few sentences each day and answer questions related to English phonics, spelling, and grammar rules. Topics covered include English-only specific skills like creating verb tenses, plurals, and possessives, correcting misspelled words, and using punctuation properly. The 3rd graders are also currently working on writing their Young Author's Festival books in English. This project will give the students an authentic opportunity to use the rules they are learning to write, edit, and publish a piece of writing.

English Spelling

We are using the Words Their Way curriculum to tackle English spelling, a skill that I know many of the parents of our Spanish Immersion students are eager to see tackled. Spelling in Spanish is quite easy once students understands letter sounds and syllables, but English with its many vowel sounds, blends, digraphs, and "exceptions" to the rules is much more difficult.

What I love about this curriculum is that it is differentiated and can be customized. On any given day there are 3-4 different spelling lists and groups (in a class of only 7!) based on what students already know and they have yet to learn. The students receive a new list of words each Monday and some small-group or one-on-one instruction in the spelling pattern being highlighted on their list. Students spend time sorting the words by common features to learn general spelling rules and identify "oddballs," or words that don't follow the typical pattern. Students practice these words in class and at home each week to prepare for their tests on Friday. Students are given an assessment at the beginning, middle, and end of the year to determine their levels and measure their progress through the 5 different stages of spelling development.

Science

For science, our 3rd graders are working through the same book and curriculum plan as our English track 3rd graders. They are covering topics on Earth Science, Space, and Technology. It's been a great opportunity for them to interact more with the English track class and engage with non-fiction, 3rd grade level informational text.

As these students move into 4th grade next year, we anticipate continuing to cover more English grammar and spelling as well as another subject (or two) in English, adding another 20-30 minutes a day to their English instructional time.

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