All right.
Good evening.
We're going to go ahead and get started.
Thanks to everyone who's here in person
and everyone who is livestreaming.
We appreciate that.
all that are here.
The restroom,
which is right
outside the door and to the right.
And it is an adult bathroom.
That's for you.
And for those of you who don't know me,
my name is Molly
May and I'm the assistant superintendent
in the curriculum office.
And this evening
I have with me Ofelia Valente,
who is our multilingual coordinator.
Heather Meek,
who is our director for curriculum in humanities.
And somewhere in the building,
probably helping
with letting people in, Chad Burnett
who is our director of curriculum in STEM.
The purpose of our meeting
this evening is to discuss our Spanish
Immersion
K-5th program, the current program,
and to look ahead
to the 24-25 school year for the first
through fifth graders.
So one thing we are not going to be doing
this meeting tonight
is discussing our incoming kinders.
There'll be in kindergarten
meeting that happens in February
when you can get all of the incoming
kinder parents who are interested
at that.
We will also livestream
that meeting for parents also,
if they can’t come in person
the agenda this evening.
So I'm going to provide
some program updates, Ofelia's
going to talk about
the instructional alignment work
that we're doing
and then there will be an opportunity
for questions and answers.
Obviously,
we have a microphone here
for those of you
who want to ask questions in person
and for those of you who are online,
if you will, enter your questions
into the Q&A function in chat,
then they will be able to
We just turned it up, right?
Okay. Thank you.
So for those of you, I’ll
repeat this, for those of you
that are online in school
and for any questions
you have in a Q&A function of chat,
then we'll be giving those questions
and we'll be able to answer
some of those interspersed
with the questions
that our audience
are asking this evening.
Do we do ask you to please wait to ask
any questions
till the very end of the presentation,
until both of the presentations.
We feel like I'm going to answer
a lot of the questions
that you already have,
and we won't stop the presentation
to answer any questions
that during the presentation.
I'm
going to
begin a little bit
with a program overview.
One of the things that
I just wanted to
explain, there's
been a little bit of confusion around
this is the difference
between Immersion programs
and bilingual programs.
So what Eanes ISD offers
is an immersion program,
and this is an enrichment
program designed
for students
who primarily speak English
to learn another language.
Immersion programs are not required
and we don't receive in additional state
or federal funding for these programs.
That doesn't mean that
these programs don't have immense value.
Part of the reason
we wanted to bring them into Eanes ISD,
but there does sometimes is confusion.
And this is going to play into a question
and that I'm going to answer
a little bit later.
Bilingual programs, this per
the Texas Education Agency.
There's two different types of either
dual language program,
dual language immersion program
called DLI.
But if
you notice in those
no more than
40% of the students in that class
can be native English speakers,
they are allowed to earn a language
other than English credit
LOTEO credit after fifth grade
and then the other program
English as a second language.
These programs do
have established criteria
for when a district must offer those
and when you receive additional state
funding.
We have English as a second language.
We do have those programs
in the district.
We don't have dual language
immersion programs
as our district doesn't meet the criteria
to have those dual language immersion
programs.
A lot of you've been involved
with the Spanish immersion program
for a lot of years,
and I know there's been a lot of ups
and downs with the program,
and I know there's been frustration,
but I've said this many times and
this group that sitting here in front of
you took over this program two years ago
after other people exited the district.
We weren't involved
in the initial implementation
of the program.
And whatever we're doing to the program
and however you feel about
what's happening.
I do want you to know that we are 100%
committed to the program
and the models
that we are going to be presenting
this evening to you.
We have
spent a lot of
time researching, a lot of time
looking for resources.
We invested in and hired
who we think
is probably the best
multilingual coordinator around.
We wouldn't have done that
if we didn't think
that this program
needed to be supported
and needed to be improved.
And so
we want to continue those commitment
to you all.
And we are here to make this program
as great as it can be.
So our district commitments to you
and to the SI program continue.
The program is sustainable
and consistent manner.
What that means to different people,
you know, that's where some of the
some of
I think our friction
has happened in the past,
that what we see is
sustainable or consistent,
you know, not everyone agrees with,
but we really feel like
the path we have forward
will allow us to meet that commitment,
provide instructional support,
coaching and professional learning.
And Ophelia
is going to speak to you this evening
about a lot of what she's
poured into this program
in a short amount of time.
She's been here
to really be able
to enhance the program
and provide the teachers
the support
that they have been asking for.
We are committed to seeking
highly qualified teachers.
We are looking for teachers
that not only have the certification,
the experience for proficiency.
And I would tell you it is a challenge
and there's been a lot of talk about,
you know, it's easy to get,
you know, teachers,
they want to come to Eanes, you know,
but we want to make sure
we're also bringing in the best teachers.
We want to make sure
that the teachers come in,
that they are
that their proficiency in Spanish,
you know,
it is a very high level
of their proficiency
in English is at a very high level
to be able communicate
And so we are committed to making sure
that we're looking for those hired.
We're not just hiring anyone.
We're hiring the best people
to teach your children.
And then we have an investment.
We will invest in
instructional materials.
You'll hear about that
later this evening.
Also,
the different instructional materials
that we are using
to make sure
that the students
in Spanish immersion program
have high quality
research based instructional materials
when they're learning
their second language.
A little bit about the
program structure
and some of the changes
that are going to be occurring.
So we will continue with the 50/50 model
school year and beyond.
So that we will continue
with that 50/50 model.
Again, we'll hear later from Ophelia,
which is working on In that model,
we are going to eliminate the testing
for credit in fifth grade
starting in 23-24.
I'll talk about that a little bit later.
We're going to add back math, fifth grade
math in Spanish in the 24-25 school year.
But note that
if you have students in math
5/6 that will be taught in
English and I’ll discuss this
a little later, too,
we will offer Spanish 2A at Hill Country
and West Ridge in 2024-25.
I know that there was some discussion
or some concern
that because there was only one
feeder school
going into West Ridge,
that we wouldn’t
have Spanish 2A at west ridge,
but we will have it in both schools
and the students can continue
in their four year pattern.
And then although we're not really
speaking about this tonight,
a lot of people
who've been following this know
that we will begin
our 90/10 model in kindergarten
in the 24-25 school year.
So over the last
two years, maybe
especially the last several months,
I've gotten lots of different questions.
Our goal tonight was to provide
you guys with as much information
as we could.
And so I figured
that I would try to answer
some of the most
commonly asked questions,
hoping that
those would answer the questions
you have today.
And then when that
maybe they have to
ask them later on this evening.
So one of the questions we receive is
if you feel that the 90/10
is a better model,
why not use that for next year,
especially with the
current kindergartners?
And we understand that question,
as I mentioned
before, you’ll hear from Ofelia
about what we're doing
with the 50/50 model,
we decided
we decided to start with kindergarten
because we want to build
a strong foundation for that new program
that we build upon.
And we want to slowly
and systematically enhance
that program and roll that program up.
As those of you
who've been in the program
for many years know,
there's been lots of changes.
Every year there were changes.
We had pie charts, those different
the pie chart
and then little
this way one year,
this previous, this year,
that could change as we change.
I want to stop with all the changes,
it's difficult for our teachers, it's
difficult for our students, it's
difficult for you as families to understand.
And so we need to just start.
And we decided that
we're starting next year
with the kindergarten
and we're not moving into the 90/10
more with rates that are currently
in the 50/50 model.
The other reason for not doing that is
focus is on our teachers.
So if we were to move to a 90/10 model in
first grade next year,
we would be displacing
some of our teachers.
And I've heard from parents
that it's only three teachers
that you're displacing,
and there's always attrition.
And it's,
you know,
those teachers commute
and they won't loose their job.
And for those of you
who've been involved in the program
for a long time,
you know that we already did this.
We already displaced teachers once
because this
Spanish Immersion initiative.
And I was hard for those teachers
and it did develop some animosity
within the program.
And we don't want to do that.
And it's not just teachers either,
because it would be
three teachers every year.
And so we have to
think about the teachers that are here
that are committed to being on a team.
And I asked them to move
and ask them to move me for one year
and then say, Oh, what connection?
You could expand.
It's a lot to ask the teachers
to move off a team,
to move to a different grade level,
and then they're looking
at recruitment of the teachers
we now we don't want to send them back
to where they feel like
they're not going to be successful
in their placement that they’re in.
we also have hiring if
we hired
in the reason that we hired
three teachers
is because
we didn't know the average point
this year was one of the number
of students.
And so if you move
those up to first grade,
you wouldn't have to hire
an additional bilingual teacher.
But it is hard to
you're still hiding something.
You really
it is hard to find qualified candidates
in the program.
And those teachers
and even as those teachers
every single year
to move up with those students
every year,
have to learn the curriculum
for a new grade level.
Asking a teacher to teach first grade,
second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade.
In that amount of time is a Herculean task
that we've been asked to see.
So next year,
we will continue with a 50/50 model
for all of our students
who are in Spanish immersion currently
And we'll hear from Ofelia about
the 50/50 model
and how we are reintroducing math.
Why are you eliminating the Spanish 1 credit
at the end of 5th grade?
So this is where this goes back
to the very first slide I showed you
where we talked about immersion
programs versus bilingual programs.
Again, And I'm going back historically,
and some of you may not know about the history
or it may not be as meaningful,
but it does have context here
when we started the program,
we adopted a program from Utah. And Utah
The way they function
and the way they work in a state
where education is very different
and they call what we were writing
a bilingual program.
And so when
people initially
brought this into Eanes
and why
I think all that clarification, people
were calling this a bilingual program.
It's not a bilingual program,
it's an immersion program.
In a bilingual program,
students that finish
a bilingual program
at the end,
of 5th grade, if they have gone K through 5
in bilingual programs like your program,
they her can earn back credit.
We are not running a bilingual program
we are running an immersion program,
so our students aren't
eligible to meet the criteria.
They don't meet the criteria
to get that Spanish 1 credit.
However, our students are still eligible
to have
up to 2 high school credits
by the time they finish seventh grade,
which isn't any different
than if they had a Spanish
one credit in fifth grade
because they
wouldn’t receive their Spanish 2 credit
until they were done with 7th grade anyway.
And so
our students are still on track
to be able to
earn a Spanish one
and Spanish two credit at the end of seventh grade,
take Spanish three as an eighth grader,
which is not offered right now
that they read this is current
group of 6th graders will be the first class
that is eligible to do that
and be able to start A.P.
Spanish 4 as a freshman
should they choose to do that.
So they are definitely on
a good accelerated path.
Why do parents have to choose
between math 5 in Spanish
and math 5/6 in English?
The reason for that is Spanish
Immersion is an enrichment program
and math 5/6 is an acceleration program.
Asking students to accelerate
and be enriched
in is
and in second language
at the same time
is too much really to ask
for those students that either enrichment
or they're going a little slower
in Spanish than in the math 5 class,
or they're being accelerated
in the 5/6 class.
And that's going to be a choice
for parents whose students
test into the 5/6.
We understand that.
And we know that might be
a difficult decision for some parents.
But that's that's how we want to do that.
We do want to continue
to offer Spanish in math,
which we didn't do this year,
and that was another
one of those changes.
And so we will have
that opportunity
should the students
choose to be in math five,
that they can do that in Spanish
as part of the Spanish immersion program.
Will our current 5th graders be ready for
Spanish 2A in middle school?
think writers be ready
for Spanish to a middle school.
Yes, they will.
And here's
the reason why we took Spanish 2A
and 2B, which
when you finish
that is basically
a Spanish 2 class.
And we've put that over two years.
And the reason that we did that is
because we know
that these students coming from immersion
are they just look different.
They come in
with an incredible vocabulary
and they come in being able to day
one walk in class
and have their teacher
teach the whole class.
In sixth grade,
day one in Spanish and regular Spanish.
day 1 students couldn’t do that
of course, they wouldn’t walk into someone
teaching in Spanish.
However, these students, because of
the immersion program,
haven't been exposed
as much to the grammar
and all of the conjugation
and things like that.
So in some ways
they look a little bit
like a Spanish 1 student.
So we developed Spanish 2A specifically
for the students in Eanes ISD
in our immersion program.
And they have two years
in which they can take those skills
when they're advanced
and they can move fast
and they can move forward
and they can really be enriched
and they can take those skills
when they struggle
and they can be remediated.
And by the time they finish 2B in
seventh grade,
they are ready to jump in to Spanish 3
at that high level.
So even
if a student
doesn't go into Spanish 5,
I mean math 5 in Spanish,
and they elect to do Math 5/6,
we can still work
work on that,
make sure that students are successful
on 2A and 2B
And so we don't have any concern.
Have our teachers in this year at hill
country has been phenomenal
working with that students
and really making sure
that like I said, they’re accelerated
move fast on the skills
they can and remediated on the skills that need it.
and then lastly,
and this is mainly for a lot of
our fifth grade
parents tonight
you know, in the audience tonight
or that are watching.
And we have got
new question
Can students
wait until seventh grade to take 2A?
a lot of
that has to do with
parent or students
maybe wanting to take the wheel
and the music
and we are not letting that happen.
We don't want students
taking a year off the Spanish
and then coming in 2A as
as a seventh grader.
And so that, again, is another choice
that parents
have to make for their students
if they want to continue
in the Spanish program,
that they will just go ahead.
And in sixth grade
they would enter into Spanish 2A.
So it may not be all your questions.
I this
I saw some in the back of your mind.
There are a lot of questions that we run
and I wanted to make sure
that I try to address those as early as possible
and I'm going to turn it over to Ofelia
and she's going to talk to you
about a lot of
the instructional alignment
activities that we've been doing
Good Evening, parents.
I'm so excited to be here
and I just want to share
all the great work
that we've been working
on, the teachers and I
and of course, with the curriculum
administration team
and I.
Before I begin,
I just want to share
a little bit about myself
Buenas Noches, padres [In English: Good evening parents!]
Estoy super super entusiasmada [I am super super excited]
de estar aquí y pues de compartir todo el [to be here and to share all the]
trabajo que hemos estado haciendo [work we've been doing]
este con las maestras, con el equipo y pues [with the teachers, with the team and well,]
este antes de entrar a [before I get into]
lo que voy a estar explicando, [what I'm going to be explaining,]
me gustaría compartir un poco sobre mi. [I would like to share a little about myself.]
So I am originally from Laredo, Texas
from a border town
Of course I was
born
speaking Spanish
and then living in the border.
Of course you get English right away.
So I was born
and raised in a bilingual household.
I moved to Austin, Texas nine years ago.
I had two daughters
who are now both in college
just recently.
My daughter is going to finish her
first semester at UT
so I’m super excited about that.
And I have been a bilingual educator
for over 22 years.
This is my 23rd
year teaching, well not teaching
as an educator
primarily in an elementary school
setting, teaching both primary
and the upper grades.
In my most recent roles,
I provide
instructional leadership
support for Lake Travis ISD as a
bilingual ESL coordinator,
bilingual reading specialist,
and assistant principal.
As as my education background, I have re
I received my bachelor's degree
and master's degree in Spanish
from Texas A&M International University,
and I completed
my educational leadership program
at Lamar University.
So that's a little bit my background.
So now we're going to go into
now we're going to go, okay,
now we're going to go in to
the program alignment.
So I just want to kind of
go into the process that we followed
and, you know, kind of the planning
and how we went about the,
you know, the starting.
So I'm going to go just break it down.
So today's objective will be to explain
our process
of building alignment,
to strengthen our
our current program 50/50 program.
And I want I'm going to go over
how we completed
a plus/delta
reflection on the SI program
with the teachers,
how we define our program,
vision and values,
and the process of establishing
our core
instructional priorities, practices
and what we are doing to enhance
our professional learning communities
and support for teachers.
Okay, So
I'm going to go into the plus/delta reflection.
Okay.
So this protocol
okay, sorry, this protocol was used
as a reflective
and feedback tool for teachers.
It is used to derive improvement
that puts intentional
evidence based approaches
behind the practice of getting better.
This activity
empowered our
SI team to be
the owners of their own outcomes
and engage them in conversations
that validated their feedback and ideas.
So when we look at the data,
the pluses are going to represent
what we're doing well
and what is working,
what the teachers expressed
and the deltas
will represent areas
that we can improve on.
Okay.
So for the pluses our teachers, these are
this is everything,
you know, kind of all gather together
strong and continual
parental support involvement.
The teachers expressed that
that was a plus for all of them
and everyone was like, oh my God,
we have all this support
that parents want to help our students.
So they were.
That's one of the pluses
administration and grade level,
the team support.
They also expressed that their campus
and their grade level team
members are super supportive
SI PLC monthly meetings.
They express that.
That's something that has been given.
But, you know, when we met
for the first time,
I mean, I tried to connect and
and there were just so,
you know, grateful
that they were able to give this input,
you know, back
and about and reflect on on the program
STEMscopes
was one of the other things that they were
very grateful
for, the science
and the math curriculum in Spanish,
they also expressed that
now they felt like,
okay, well,
my team members
that are teaching in English,
you know, we have the same content,
We share lesson plans.
And and they were
they felt very empowered
because they were able to okay,
we have the same resources.
The only thing that's changing
is the language of instruction.
Students are eager and excited to learn
Spanish
students have strong
language and high vocabulary skills,
and they'll continue with the next one.
Okay, so they also express
that technology resources
and manipulatives
are available for instruction
SI teachers support each other
to support students
and teachers are familiar
with, I can do statements from ACTFL
the American Council
of the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
So they are very familiar
about the language targets
that are expected for our students.
And they they they know how to address
and what
what is expected of the students.
Okay.
So now I will go into the deltas.
So some of the things,
the deltas that they expressed
was lack of program
guidelines and purpose
lack of vision and direction,
misalignment and unclear expectations
need for more planning time.
Students need more practice
in target language.
No Spanish language arts block
And they also talked
about many programmatic changes
in the past six years.
As Molly talked about earlier,
the teachers have gone
through a lot of changes.
And, you know,
that was some of the frustration
that they expressed that,
you know, they were more
we don't have direction.
We don't know what's expected.
So, you know,
that's just some of the things
that they mentioned.
And of course, under the previous
instructional model,
teachers
struggled to embed language
domains in the Spanish
and Spanish to the content areas.
And they also lack the guidance
to implement
instructional practices to do so.
So this
plus/Delta
Protocol was used
as a guidance for our next steps,
which I will talk about right now.
So now we're going to
go into the SI vision and values.
Okay.
So
so when these are just pictures
of some of the things, you know, the
the first one of our first
probably the second meeting that we had.
And so in our PLC, we gathered SI,
teacher input from all grade levels
and all teachers,
and we synthesized ideas
to create vision and values.
Together.
We defined our
shared purpose, our vision,
the why we exist in our culture,
how we work together
to achieve that purpose
and the values, habits
and behaviors that our expected
vision is about the direction
that we want to go
as an aspirational statement
that captures
the ideal future state for students
and teachers in the program.
The culture includes the values
which represent the ways
in which we will work together
to achieve our vision and our purpose.
So
I will show you.
So the
process that we followed for our vision,
everybody kind of created each teacher
created a vision statement,
and then with the help with technology,
we were able to narrow it down to five.
And then the teachers were able to
to kind of, you know, pick the one and,
you know,
the one that was resonated
with the program.
So empower students
to excel
academically,
embrace cultural diversity and become confident,
bilingual, bi literate
and bicultural citizens
through Spanish immersion education.
This is our Believe
as an SI team and the vision
for our students
participating in the SI program.
So now I'm going to go into the values
and again, this also follow
the same process.
You know, teachers provided the values
and then we we synthesize and this is
our top five.
So community,
we believe that
a strong sense of community enhances
the language learning experience
and creates collaborative,
supportive and inclusive
environment
for all
perseverance,
learning a new language
can be challenging,
but with determination,
our students can overcome
obstacles and achieve fluency creativity.
We believe that creative approaches
to teaching and learning
helps students
better grasp
and enjoy the Spanish language
commitment.
This commitment ensures that students
receive the best education possible
and that teachers, administration
and parents
are dedicated to their growth. Leadership.
Whether it's leading group activities
or taking on roles in the classroom.
We believe that leadership fosters growth
and confidence in language learners.
So now I'm going to go into the core
instructional practices.
And again, this
this was
similar to the other process,
but we mainly went into different well,
let me just go to the next slide
so I can explain.
Okay.
So after our a team
establish our vision and values,
we explored
several slides and several activities
where we explore
core practices and routines
that we needed to implement
that align and reinforce
our long term vision.
We explore
various sources of information that align
with the American Council
on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
ACTFL
So as you can see in the background
for practices and routines
that were designed
on research, best practices
to support language development
Eanes ISD
core instructional practices
align with teacher input
and aim to enhance
our Spanish immersion program.
Additionally,
they support the goals
of fostering language proficiency,
cultural understanding
and effective
communication in the target language.
So I'm going to this is going to sound
a little bit
it's a little bit long,
but I'm going to try my best.
So you can I can explain, you know,
right in detail what each of these means.
So number one is promote
consistency across campuses.
As we know, there has been no consistency
and this is what we aim for.
And having these core
instructional practices,
this ensures a uniform curriculum
and teaching approach across
all campuses to provide
a standardized Spanish
immersion experience
2. maintain target language immersion
90% plus upholding 90% target environment
to immersing students in Spanish,
facilitating fluency and comprehension.
Teachers
frequently encourage and empower students
to use the target language
during content learning.
Teachers and
students again
during instruction creates.
This is to create a language
rich classroom.
A lot of the things that I know that
when Ana Ségolene went to the region, 13
came over.
She that was one of the things
that she said
that we really need
to foster the target language,
you know, And, you know, that's
one of the biggest things
that right now
as as a team, we're going to start
really focusing on
number three,
comprehensive language integration,
foster language
integration, by encouraging students
and teachers to speak,
listen, read, write, review and create
in Spanish,
emphasizing comprehensible
input and meaningful
and meaningful context.
Okay, Number
four implement
sheltered instruction at effective
by literacy instructional strategies
to make content accessible in Spanish.
So some of the things that incorporate
dictation dictation
exercises to improve listening
and writing skills in Spanish
teach cognates is to help students
recognize and understand
Spanish vocabulary
through their similarities to English.
Words
incorporate total physical response
TPR to connect language
learning and physical actions,
enhancing comprehension and retention,
enhanced learning with visual supports
and hands on learning to strengthen
comprehension
and communication in the target language.
Empower with sentence stems
to support students
in constructing sentences
and expressing themselves in Spanish.
Focus on vocabulary,
emphasize vocabulary, acquisition,
and expansion
with the context of
meaningful communication.
Emphasize proficiency oriented learning,
prioritize language proficiency
by focusing focusing on students ability
to use the language effectively
in real life situations.
Okay.
So I'll go to number seven,
cultivate Spanish literacy,
promote literacy
by integrating reading
and writing in Spanish
to the content areas.
And when I talk about content areas,
we're just not talking about language
arts, we're talking about math, science
and of course, social studies
encourage.
But in this case
it would be math and science
because that's
where our students are learning
in Spanish.
Encourage reading, allow
reading out loud conduct,
read aloud sessions
with teacher students
and student pairs
in Spanish
to enhance
listening and comprehension skills.
Eight embrace collaboration techniques,
implement
a variety of collaborative activities
that encourage students
to work together
in Spanish,
fostering communication and cooperation
teachers design and carry out
interpersonal communication
tasks for pairs,
small groups and whole class instruction.
Implementing pair share strategies
to encourage students
to think, discuss with peers,
and then share their thoughts
with their partner
to develop target language.
Encourage bilingual partnerships.
Peer students for peer language
support and practice.
Incorporate educational games
to make language learning,
engaging and interactive to reinforce
language skills.
Okay.
And number nine is to
create a language
rich classroom environment
developing a robust
content through a print rich classroom.
And this is utilizing word
walls with key
vocabulary terms to support
language acquisition and reinforcement.
Utilize anchor charts
to visually represent language concepts
and provide a reference for students.
Focus on high frequency phrases and words
commonly used in everyday conversation
to enhance students
practical language skills.
Define clear content language objectives
for each lesson
to guide student learning
and language development.
And number ten,
Which brings us to teacher
planning employees
through collaborative practices
and participation
in professional learning communities.
Spanish immersion
teachers will create
student centered lessons
that provide
clear content and language objectives
and use effective
instructional strategies
to ensure student learning.
Facilitate collaborative
planning amongst teachers to develop
effective Spanish immersion
lesson plans and teaching strategies.
Foster professional
learning communities to facilitate
ongoing teacher development
and the sharing of best practices
in Spanish immersion education.
Okay, so
thank you.
So the
Eanes ISD
core instructional practices
and priorities brings clear expectations
and guidance for our teachers
and ensures
a guaranteed and viable curriculum
across the district
for all of our SI students.
So now I'm just going to go briefly
into the professional
learning communities and
the following
are changes and initiatives
to ensure we reach our purpose.
So these are some of the things
that we're doing.
In addition
to creating the instructional purposes
and you'll understand
a little bit more to enhance.
As a monthly PLCs,
teachers are given
the opportunity
to collaborate and engage
in meaningful
learning on implementing
research based SI core
instructional practices.
And we are also
I'm also doing a lot of visiting
SI classrooms to ensure
we are providing support to teachers
for all students learning visits
also ensure
PLCs are meaningful
and tailored to students
needs in the SI classrooms.
Learning walk opportunities for teachers
to observe other
SI teachers,
especially when they're new
into the district
additional grade level
planning time
for teams
that request
the need for additional time.
And I've had
several of the teachers of the teams,
almost all of them
that they have asked me for days,
and we've provided
that extra additional planning and for
for them to work on
the additional things,
you know,
like the visuals
and planning for
collaborative activities,
a classroom checklist.
This is one of the most important things
that, in
my opinion, is
a classroom checklist
that is aligned
with SI core instructional practices
that we will be using
when visiting classrooms.
This checklist will serve as a guide
to identify
the areas of instructional
needs to provide explicit
and intentional support for teachers.
It is
It will also provide principals
and EPs a list of look fors to be able
to support their teachers
at their campus.
Teachers
also have continual opportunities
to provide feedback
and input after each of our meetings,
which is valuable for effective PLCs.
Okay.
And I just
I would like to close
with these two last slides,
and I just have to share that with you
that I have enjoyed
and appreciated the teachers
participation and hard work and eagerness
to collaborate
to ensure
we continue growing our SI program
and students in our on October PLC
one of our main objectives
was target language
that as I mentioned before,
target language
comprehensibility students and teachers
speaking, listening, reading, writing,
viewing and creating the target
language 90% or more.
During class time,
teachers read an article
and the ACTFL called
Going for 90 plus
How to see in target language
and presented to each other
in this article
to understand the importance
of seeing in target language
and of
course strategies and how to get there.
Some of the key takeaways were staying on
target language challenges
and motivate students to learn.
Teachers and students alike
need to use the target language.
More than 90% teachers can use strategies
to empower students
to speak the target
language,
and lessons should focus on listening,
speaking, writing,
reading goals
to make content comprehensible.
So that means during your math
and your science,
it doesn't mean that you cannot
have a reading,
writing,
a listening and speaking activity
that is incorporated
with every lesson that you have.
On our November PLC,
one of our main
objectives was to design
communicative activities,
which goes back to
designing those lessons
where teachers
assign and carry out
interpersonal communication
tasks for pairs,
small groups and whole across
class instruction.
Teachers also learned
about student
engagement and collaborative practices
such as QSSA, which
is shown on the screen,
and instructions to
promote language acquisition
and learned about language objectives
which are tied to the four
domains of language
speaking, reading, listening and writing.
Some of the key takeaways
was collaborative strategies
develop language through the content
areas of math and science.
Language objectives are how the students
will show what they are
learning,
incorporating all language
domains of listening,
speaking, reading
and writing through the content areas
to develop target language proficiency.
And I would just like to close
with this quote.
Students need to be engaged in continuous
and strategic
strategic practice of listening,
speaking,
reading and writing in all courses,
not just language charts.
Even though we don't have
a 90/10% program
with our current 50/50
model,
I am confident that we will continue
to build language proficiency
through the content areas
by implementing our
instructional practices that support
and strengthen language development.
Thank you so much for listening
and thank you for your patience.
I Appreciate your time.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
We will now open the floor
for any questions.
And we will also be monitoring,
monitoring the chat
for any questions that come in.
And so we're just going to kind of
whoever take the questions.
So if you want to come
up to the microphone,
if you have a question,
one of us will answer for you
probably like emails
with a list of questions earlier today.
Did you get that?
I saw that you emailed me a list
that is very close to
when the meeting started.
So if you want to look at it, maybe.
Well, are there questions
that we didn't answer that are on there?
Was that informative and all on the how
and the what to your employer?
Oh yeah, sure. I think
if you want to pull it
up or I can pull it up
because it came
from a lot of different parents,
not just us.
Okay.
On.
Hello?
Yes, Look.
Okay, let's start.
Okay.
What is our the technical curriculum name
that y'all are using called.
So the standards are the TEKS
and we are using STEM scopes
for math and science
Okay.
And next year,
moving forward,
like more kindergarten,
we didn't really get goals or benchmarks
or at the end of the year,
this is what your kids should know
in Spanish moving forward.
Could we get those?
So we kind of have an idea of
are they meeting what they should?
Are they knowing,
learning what they should,
the proficiency targets for language?
Well, we'll follow
whatever the ACTFL has the lote, but
when I mean, we're not going to talk
too much about the kinder.
But when kindergartners start,
it'll be a different I mean, now
my kids I'm kinder now.
So like, okay for, next.
Okay. Yes, Yes.
Starting this year,
we didn't get those As parents.
Will we be able to get those?
Yes, we will.
I mean, I know that
we're looking at the proficiency targets.
If we look at that, it's from novice low.
And I mean,
and it'll be something we could do
another presentation
about that, you know,
but that's mainly,
you know,
they're using words
if they're using phrases,
if they're using,
you know, complete sentences,
that would be probably
like a novice high.
But we're going to do like
at the end of the year,
we're planning to do the apple.
But since we don't have a
we only have third through fifth
that's gone to the computer,
we can also
maybe come up with like an assessment
all your child is set at novice low.
We're just using words,
you know, we can do something like that.
But it's it'll be something very basic.
Yeah, I think that would be helpful
because like when we had our parent
teacher conference, absolutely.
We go through
how many English sight words they should know.
But could we?
I think that would be helpful.
Yeah,
because they're meeting
that proficient implement
that on the Spanish side,
it's reinforcing that
vocabulary at home, materials
being sent home
so that we can reinforce
what they're learning in Spanish at home.
Yeah.
Is a big
that came up with a lot of parents.
I think that there are some teachers
that do do that,
that they do send materials in Spanish,
but not everyone.
I would recommend that
I know that they have the
there is a program that they use.
And again, the computer reading program.
Oh, my goodness.
I can
my brain is like...
It is a reading, right reading A-Z.
They have that available.
And I know that some of the classrooms
use that.
So you might want to inquire
with your teacher.
And they have books available in English
and in Spanish both.
And that's from Kinder
all the way through fifth. Okay.
So if you want to inquire, we going.
But maybe for parents new like
you guys
telling teachers to send this out
could be really helpful.
So you don't have so many parents
kind of frustrated.
Well, I think that
in thinking about homework,
I think that's individualized by campus.
And they have that,
I guess the authority to do that or not.
You know,
and thinking about children and the age,
you know,
that's also a some consideration.
And I know that's
all always also restrictions
on even policy board
that of the amount of homework
that we send home.
But I'm almost sure that if
you ask teachers,
I'm almost sure
that they would really like
give all that out. Yes.
More after school of enrichment.
Would you mind? I can.
Just because there's a little group
like maybe coming back
to some of your questions
just to give other this isn't just mine.
This came from like 20 different parents,
so I understand that.
But these parents are here
standing in line.
So I just want to make sure
they get a chance to answer quick,
ask questions to.
Hi.
My question is,
a lot of the things
that she was just asking for,
we were given and provided and told me
be provided.
When we first signed up,
I was a second grader
and we were given the
like novice,
junior novice, senior novice.
We were given those lists.
There was a whole presentation
we had to sit through
and sign a contract.
So I'm really encouraged
that you're here
Ofelia to see
that the values,
two of the values
were perseverance and commitment
we as parents committed
and we've persevered.
Our children have committed
and persevered.
The teachers on the campus
level have committed and persevered.
I'm so glad to see that.
But you guys as a district have not.
We feel completely
our teachers feel unsupported.
As parents, we feel unsupported
like we should be having lists
of where our kids fall.
We should be knowing that
because this is Eanes
this is not Utah,
this is not anything else.
This is Eanes we have got to do better.
And to be honest,
I was really pushing
for the idea of a magnet school,
but I don't have faith
that the district will be committed
and persevere at this program
for something like that.
So my question is,
things are going to get hard.
People are going to drop
out of the program.
You're going to have schools
and campuses where the numbers dwindle.
What are y'all going to do
to prove to us and to our students
and to the teachers
that y'all are committed to the longevity
and the benefit of this program?
Because there are a
lot of people in here.
Maybe I'm speaking just for myself.
We don't feel that at all.
I'm sorry y'all don't feel that way.
I feel like this this evening,
what we were doing,
what we were showing you,
the work that Ophelia's doing is
we can only show you what we're doing
and tell you what we're doing.
And you say the
teachers feel unsupported.
I don't think that that's.
That's not what they're telling her.
They're feeling very supported
now that we hired
a position
dedicated to supporting them
and supporting this program.
So I can stand up here tonight
and tell you every
I can use a whole bunch of words.
You need to see it.
You need to,
you know,
ask your teachers about the work
that they're doing in the PLC.
You know, we are committed.
We are we are trying to, we saw
what the teacher said about the program,
what wasn't working about the program.
This isn't new to us.
We are trying really hard
to make the program
a great program
and pour into it everything that we can.
And so that that is our commitment.
And, you know, we
there was a lot of things
that Ophelia spoke to this evening
that is intentional
to make this program better.
Is this stuff
beginning this coming school year?
It is in process right now.
The PLC work that they're doing,
That was the October PLC,
the November PLC,
that is these teachers,
us pulling them off of campus, them
working together,
them telling her this is
this is what's not been working.
How are you going to help us fix that?
And then then working together as a team
to do that.
And so we are
we are committed to making this program
a great program.
But and I can say that
but you're just going to have to see
the work
that's being done in the program,
because it has been
it hasn't been as organized
and structured
as we'd all wanted it to be.
What do you think is the reason for that?
We went too fast
in that too many campuses too
soon with a model
that was not from the state of Texas,
and we never we had started.
It was supposed to start at one school
and then it went to two schools
and then it went to four schools
and then it just took off.
And we had COVID
and we never got a chance
to get grasp
at this program
before it just exploded and took off
in every campus,
as Ophelia said we were doing,
we weren't even doing
four different things.
We were probably doing
20 different things.
And we didn't have a chance
to kind of get this program back,
which is what
we're trying to do right now.
Okay.
Well, I'm trusting you with my kids.
I believe you.
And I'm I'm handing them to you.
So please,
please, please
stay as committed and persevere
as you've expected us to do.
I thank you. We will. Thank you.
So my question is the
same that I had last night.
Do we have a long term plan
of what is going to happen
with the program
or do we are
we just kind of going into next year?
Because I think the one classroom model
at each campus
is not going to be valid and
or even like anything that anyone
that's going to want to sign up for.
And so is there like
are we going to go towards a
magnet school?
Are we going to go towards
keeping it at every campus?
So right now
the plan is
and there is not a discussion
of a magnet school at this point. Okay.
How many of you are probably aware
there's long range planning facilities?
Planning is going on.
Some of you are on
or all of you are on campuses.
You might be involved in some of that
if that's something that comes up,
then that's something that comes up,
you know, through that process.
Right now,
we're not looking at a magnet school.
So the long range plan
or the long term plan
is that we will have it at
the five elementary schools
with the one section at the
four current schools
and then adding two sections
at Valley View starting in kindergarten.
Do we feel like the one section
of each elementary school
and kindergarten is going to be like
it's going to be able to like last?
I do based on the interest
that I've heard from parents that,
I mean, I'm I'm getting emails
pretty much daily.
We have a SI@eanesisd.net email account.
I'm getting interest like,
when can I sign up?
When can I fill out an application?
So I have a lot of
we have a lot of interest.
I've had a couple parents email me
and this isn't for incoming
or but I've had parents email me
whose kids are in other schools
interested in transferring into like
first and fifth next year.
So I think there's still interest
in the program.
And I to our point to the point earlier,
if we can develop a great program
and people feel confident
and parents
aren't frustrated
that things keep changing,
I think that we will have
we will have the students
we need to have the program
be successful.
And if again,
if we can be very intentional
with the instruction,
if people know
what's going on, parents
know what they're signing up for,
hopefully we will see less attrition
than we're seeing now
because that is our goal too.
We are not happy when we see
kids drop out of the program.
We understand that
when you make a decision,
when your child is five or four, right,
your child may change
and it may not be the right program
for them.
And we will always respect that decision.
But hopefully,
if we can have a really robust
system, have parents understand
what they're entering into,
that they'll be competent
and stay in the program.
So my last question is a big in the very
beginning of all of this, a big
part of the problem was
families on the traditional side
were not happy
with the attrition situation
and how small
or the non
or the Spanish immersion
classes were becoming.
And I just see this becoming
kind of an issue,
if that is what it's going to be,
because also people don't want their kids
in the same classroom with the same kids
for the next six years.
And I say that because
some kids don't get along,
you know, and it's very difficult.
And, you know, there's
so many different things,
so many different, you know, like,
I don't know, there's
a lot of different factors
that go into going to school
and seeing all your friends
meeting other classes with their kids,
like switching up and be with certain
kids like one year and a different kid.
And next year, you know, like
kids notice all of it.
So if there's like
a way to departmentalize
at a younger age,
I think that's a great idea.
I think that not knowing like the unknown
of all of the future
of what
this program is going to look like
and what it's going to be is
what's really scary to
people that are coming into this program.
Newly.
And I understand that.
And I mean, we're
in we'll talk more about that
in February.
Right now,
we're really trying to talk
to the parents of the students
that are currently in the program
to give them the understanding
and the confidence
to stay in the program
and what we're trying
to do in the future.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
Hi.
I have a few questions.
Just to start.
I wanted to ask where the board is,
where the board is,
the superintendent, the board members.
I thought that.
Oh, okay.
Well, and also,
I do want to say
that the decisions
that we have made
about the Spanish immersion program,
these are the decisions
that are being implemented.
And so the board
and the superintendent
usually come to like CAFE series
or they tell us not to ask questions
or where.
They say
that we have to hold our questions
until this meeting that one
in so so they
don't normally
if the band parents have a meeting
or the dyslexia parents have a meeting,
this is an instructional meeting tonight.
It wasn't a meeting for us
to we're not debating the model.
We were explaining
how the model's going to be.
And I don't want to debate the model.
What?
I don't know if you were assuming
that I wanted to be.
No, no, no. I'm just saying.
But I don't want to do that.
I'm just saying where the board is,
because this is a pretty
but this is an Instagram,
I think the Spanish immersion program.
I'm very proud
that my first grader
is participating in it.
I think he's really enjoying it
and I would love to see that
he succeeds in it
and we're able to go through
Hopefully his younger brother can also
do it.
But but I'm
you know, I go to the meetings
and learn
what I can
about the success of the program,
how it's measured,
the changes
that you're constantly making,
why it didn't start off
so well, what it's supposed to do
in the future.
Like, you know,
I try to keep up with all of that,
but I have noticed
a pattern with the board.
They don't seem to talk
about the success of the program
at any of the board meetings
or where the decisions are made
or where they're reported back,
that they're made
administrative decisions
somehow that parents weren't involved
in or made aware of in advance.
And so I'm just wondering,
when they tell us at the Cafes series,
you know, we'll we'll we'll address that
at the Spanish immersion parent meeting
that's coming up
at this time that a lot of people
unfortunately couldn't make
or that
a lot of people aren't getting questions
answered in the Q&A section.
And we haven't gotten there yet
because we're letting y'all talk things.
So we we have questions
we need to get to.
I'm just I just want to, you know,
raise that
because I think that's
an elephant in the room
that we miss our superintendent
and the board,
and we'd love for them
to hear from parents
when we actually have the opportunity
to give feedback and to ask questions.
They need to hear the questions.
So I hope that you can pass
that along to the board
and say thank you for this meeting,
but also we appreciate their attendance
and participation.
Okay. Okay.
So the other question I have,
I just wanted to make sure
I think it was the first
parent who came up and she asked about
how do parents know
how the
success of the program
and then how their student
is doing in the program.
And then you said TEKS
and something else, right?
Well, they asked about the curriculum
and so all so not just us.
We use stem scopes in math and science,
in math and science
for all of our students.
It also comes it's available in Spanish,
which is one of the reasons we did that.
So when our teachers are collaborating
not just to Spanish immersion teachers,
but they can also collaborate, then
with the teachers on the traditional side
because they're teaching right
the same content
because they're using
the same curricular resource.
And in my parent teacher conference,
I get one and one per semester, right?
And I hear from the teacher
of my this semester
or this year,
my student
is not with the Spanish teacher,
so I did not get an opportunity
to learn about how
he's doing right.
And then
when I asked that day
to the English teacher,
Can I have information
about how he's doing in Spanish,
How does it compare to his peers?
What are the strengths and weaknesses?
Whatever you're measuring,
I'm not telling you what to measure,
but I just want to know
what you're measuring
and I want to know what to do
with that information. Right.
Because I want to cooperate and help.
I want him to succeed in your program.
Whatever you changes, you make to it.
Right. Okay.
So then I requested
after that in writing,
can I hear from that teacher?
And I saw her that day in the hall
and I also asked
and I haven't gotten any information,
but it sounded like from the answer,
you guys don't give
that information to parents anyway
like you do.
You do you upload
the information on your portal
or do you send us something that says,
here's how they're meeting
the learning objectives?
I saw
that learning objectives
are in your slide,
but I didn't really understand
what the learning
objectives were by grade.
I'm almost, Oh, you're fine.
Well, the
the content objectives
are like the TEKS,
like the science and,
and language objectives is that's
the targets are different, right?
It's like how the child is doing
in Spanish, right.
Is he using words to communicate
I would love to know those things.
And I think for third through fifth
there is the Apple test
does give him a report
and that's something that we send home
and that's only through to K through two.
And that's what we were talking about
right now
that we're in the process
of creating something
maybe based on your PLCs,
what you agreed on in those meetings.
Yeah, well, no, no,
this is like proficiency targets.
It's like, this is like,
for example,
year one, you know, like novice low.
What would you expect for a novice
low, if you do some research on that.
And I and I was telling Molly
I have this presentation
that I saw that explains it so well.
You know, it's kind of like
when you're learning a language, right?
If you're learning French
or you know it, you,
you at the beginning,
you know, your just listening,
listening, right?
Because you're like, I'm
not going to get to the speaking part
because I'm not going to kindergarten.
I mean, you have to be reasonable.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, so for example,
and there's some kids that
fly with it, right?
Like they'll be using phrases
or sentences before you know it.
So, you know,
so you can ask your teacher,
is he using words to communicate?
Is he using phrases?
But I don't know what those benchmarks
are or the learning objectives or like I
if I don't know that,
how do I know what to ask?
And I don't even have access
to those numbers.
So that's
this is
public information,
the ACTFL proficiency targets.
It's public information
that's like
it'll give you like year one,
you know, novice low.
So are you saying that I needed
like look up the ACTFL and ask the
Spanish teacher
can I have this information
like please grade my student
Well we'll provide that
I think that there
were in the website before
but we'll upload them
in the Spanish immersion
so you know what's expected from a year
one student right.
You know it would be a novice low
and then then it's
and then I just request
a private meeting
with the Spanish teacher.
I mean if I mean, I don't want to
that feels like a burden
but like,
I'm not sure
why in a parent conference, you
if your student has two teachers,
I'm not sure why that happened.
I can't speak to that.
So I would I would request.
Yes. That you should go back and ask.
But just so you know,
that's not just like my own.
You know, it's right in in our area.
A lot of other parents. Yeah.
And our principal,
we'll I'm happy to address
that with the principals
that if a student has two teachers,
I would expect that they would hear
from both of the teachers.
And if they didn't
because of some conflict
scheduling conflicts
that requesting a meeting.
Absolutely should happen.
You should never not be able
to speak to one of your teachers
and we will do you.
I am hearing very loud and clear
we need to do a better job communicating
where where student should be,
making sure our teachers
are communicating that with you guys.
Also hear Definitely hear that.
Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah.
I'm going to try to go to
maybe one or two online questions.
Yeah,
this one's just kind of a logistical will
you post a presentation online
after the meeting?
The is Yes, we will post this.
This is about math.
So I'm going to have Chad answer.
If a child doesn't take five
six math in fifth grade,
will they be able to test
into advanced math
and take it in sixth grade?
Yes.
And seventh and eighth.
There are three opportunities after that.
Multiple opportunities.
Okay.
This is another one
about testing for the apple.
If you're able to test,
are you able or a student able to test
beyond the language target
so you can get a sense of a child's
actual Spanish level and track
if they're
actually gaining year over year progress.
So I think the question is, can you test,
you know, in year one,
can you test test beyond year
one to see if a child is further along?
Yeah, I would say yes.
You test every
I mean, you would test every year.
And I know for third through fifth
we did a computer,
but we're in the process,
as I was explaining,
of creating an assessment
before the end of the year.
And, and,
you know,
just kind of like letting you know
where they're going to be
or how they are.
And I'm sure teachers could
quickly tell you, well, he's
using words to communicate.
He's not using words, he's receptive.
Language is good.
You know,
as far as listening and speaking,
I mean, they would be able
to tell you where they are.
And we are in the process
of working on an assessment,
you know, and just,
you know,
something brief that would tell you,
oh, he's at a novice low
level, you know,
and they just kind of letting you know
by the end of the year.
But you also have to consider that
by the end of the year, they go summer,
you know, they don't practice,
and then they'll come back and then,
of course,
it'll refresh again everything.
So you can expect some loss of that.
And that's what any language learning.
Um, okay.
This one
I lost
in until I was about home connection
that I wanted
to make sure we talked about.
What initiatives
are you instituting to increase language
proficiency at home?
For example, book bags
with Spanish books.
Currently
we receive
book bags in English, but not in Spanish.
So I would say with the 90/10 model
coming to kindergarten, definitely
that SLAR language
block will be present.
And so you're going to see
more of the guided
reading during the Spanish time,
that 90/10 block.
That will be a major part of that block.
One of the issues with the program,
as we've already stated, is
we haven't had consistent PLCs
where we talk about
agenda items and
build on that throughout the year
with the teachers.
The home connection has been something
that even as we implemented
this program in 2017
when I was a principal here
that we have struggled with
because we haven't had it
be standardized, we've had teachers,
you know,
from different campuses
sending out different materials
based on their experience
with the program.
And so it's wonderful
that we have Ofelia,
because that is a connection
that we want to make
as a standing
agenda item during these PLC meetings
for that parent connection.
Because I know you guys
are really motivated
and want to help
and need those materials.
Also, some of the curriculum
that we're looking at for it to support
the SLAR
have those parent home connections
that we will be sure to send out.
Do we
want to go to
someone here to ask the next question?
Hi, Molly.
I want to
I know this is mostly about like first
the fourth grade,
but I don't think that you're
going to give us
the opportunity
to talk about the SI program as a whole.
And you talk about
having to lose teachers
along the way to be able
to grow this program
to two classes per grade.
And I know it's sad to lose teachers,
but we need to look at
Eanes in the long run.
You know,
we need to look
at expanding this program.
And when you come into saying that,
you're going to make it a one
kindergarten class for
across the schools that have it,
you're making the parent
have to make a decision to,
you know, lose out
the emotional social learning
that their kid will have
by integrating with their peers
for six years.
That is an extremely tough decision.
It's something you guys don't
want to talk about and don't bring up.
And every time someone talks about it,
you wipe it under the rug.
Right now we have a kindergarten class in
the 50/50 model
that is going to be segregated
for the next six years.
So I'm hoping you're going to get
that figured out
as soon as possible
and they'll be in the 90/10 model.
At least that's the only incentive.
But in the long run,
to save the Spanish program
and to make it thrive,
keeping these kids in one class
is not going to be the solution.
We need to have two teachers,
two classes per grade,
slowly bringing that in
and then not trying to solve valley view issues
with implementing two Spanish classes there
so I appreciate your comments.
The model
that I presented is the model
that we are going to be implementing.
And so it will be the one classroom.
And I do understand
and I do acknowledge
that having those students
together in the core classes
over several years, you don't understand
because you're not in the classes.
I'm a homeroom parent,
I'm in the classes, I see the classes,
I see how these kids integrate.
You don't see it.
You see it from an administration point.
We see it from a parent point.
And that's a huge difference.
And we're the ones that
make the decisions.
If our kids stay or go from the program
or if we stay and go from the district.
Thank you.
And that is absolutely
every parent's decision to make based on
what they think is best
for their best for their child.
So we do we do understand that.
Thank you.
Hi.
I have two
I'm short also
I have two questions if I can ask both.
The first is about the.
Thank you.
5/6 math in fifth grade.
If there are enough students
that are in the SI program
and they’re thriving
and both SI
and are eligible for advanced math,
would you consider with parents
who opted in, would you consider having
a Spanish 5/6 math class?
So we have this situation
already at Eanes Elementary,
where we have 22 kids that are in Spanish
immersion
and are eligible for 5/6 math
if the parents opt in.
Would you consider making a Spanish
speaking advanced
math class in fifth grade?
We wouldn’t at this time. No.
So are you saying that
the parents might not understand
the abilities of their children
as well as the administration?
I'm just saying that that's the model
that we're going to be implementing
and that, again, we do think that
enriching and advancing at the same
time is very difficult.
I understand, you know,
that you may think that that's,
you know, easy for that child
or that the child can handle that.
But we also have to look at the teacher's
perspective of that
and asking that teacher then to have both
of those sections and teaching that
in teaching an advanced
math class also in Spanish.
And then that's also putting
that onus on that teacher.
And it is just going to
have to be a choice
that that parents
are going to have to make.
And my
second question
is what measures
and or checks and balances
do you have to ensure
that the things that you presented here
will actually happen in practice?
There have been many different
examples of
cases where 50/50 isn't even happening,
where homework isn't being sent
in the language that it's being taught.
I can go on and on.
I'm sure you've heard
all of these examples,
but what concrete checks and balances
will you put in place to ensure that
this curriculum is followed?
So a lot of the work
that we're doing around
the PLCs is specifically to that point.
Look for is for our administration,
our administration,
our sitting in in those places
at the elementary school,
making sure that they're going
into the classrooms,
they're seeing
they're seeing anchor charts.
They they should be seeing
that the student
that the teachers are
in the target language
for 90% of the time in a classroom.
So making sure we have not had
clear expectations
for administrators, for our teachers.
And now that we do,
we can know
what we're supposed to be looking for
when we go into those classrooms.
And that's what we're holding our
our educational partners
accountable for, our teachers accountable
for, our administrators,
us as curriculum department,
Ophelia's in classrooms all the time,
making sure that we're holding those
those teachers accountable
to what those all of those things
that they agreed to.
And I think that that's a key,
is that those teachers met together
and they agreed to these things,
which we have not done
before in the program.
We have put everything
on top of these teachers
and they haven't owned it,
and now they have that ownership.
And so we just have to make sure
that we're supporting them
because we have great teachers
who are very committed
and that we are then monitoring
what we've asked them to do.
So I'll let other people speak.
But my last comment on that
is that
what you presented today is conceptual,
but it isn't concrete, so it isn't there.
Unless I missed it,
there was nothing there
that said that the homework
will be in Spanish,
that you know,
this many hours, this much time,
this many resources,
things that are quantifiable,
things that are actually measurable.
I didn't see that
in the in the presentation.
I just
I do want
to add that Ofelia did talk about
some of the things that you mentioned
are being developed in the PLC.
The checklists in walk through forms
based on this information
are being developed
and just as a as a building principal,
I couldn't even tell you
all of those things
that you're asking
for on the traditional side,
across the whole campus,
across the whole district.
So some of this is
is the teacher owning it and Ofelia
working with them to get those concrete
checklists and walk through forms
that we can use
when we inspect
what we expect with our teachers.
Hi, I'm back again
to follow up too, on that.
Like it's
things just move slowly in education
and I actually have been somewhat
impressed at how quickly this has moved
to tell you.
However,
I thought of one question
and one suggestion.
So the suggestion I have is for Ofelia,
maybe going forward.
This I think, is a great idea.
I mean,
maybe parents would agree or not, but
I think that this means
that maybe halfway through the year
there's a grade level checkpoint.
Maybe it's a parent night
at the at the school on campus
that you are
where the teachers say here
from a Spanish literary
perspective, here's
where your child should ideally be here.
And maybe
that's when you get your printout
of where your child is actually showing
so that we can see, okay, maybe I need to
help my child rise
to that occasion, or
hey, maybe Spanish
one is not a bad idea for my incomings.
And you know,
when they start in seventh grade
and keep them down that traditional line,
because that may not be
every parent's goal,
but then we can kind of have an idea
of where we where a child falls.
I think
like a parent night
halfway through the year
would be really helpful.
And then the teachers
can also provide resources
according to the classes
and the classroom needs.
That would be great.
And then
I did have a question specifically
about going into sixth grade
with Spanish 2A
So as a former LOTE
teacher, I'm very,
very happy to see 2A in existence
because that was my concern
is I mean, I taught Spanish
to English speaking English
speakers and native Spanish speakers.
And with my native Spanish
speakers, I'd say like,
where's the carpet?
And most of them would point to the floor
when I was talking about a folder.
And that all full mirror
is the rug instead of the carpet.
Anyways, that's just like an example.
So I think I love to see
that you are splitting it out into 2A
and 2B.
But one of the things that you said it,
I felt it didn't really add up for me
was that because we're immersion program
and not a bilingual program,
which is how it was
always presented to us
in the first place, was
there was even a slide
in the original presentation
that said immersion versus bilingual.
We were told that we would get a
we would get that Spanish one credit.
But now as of
I see tonight
that they won't have
a Spanish one credit,
but then
how can they go into Spanish 2A
if they don't have a Spanish one credit.
So one of the
the things
that kind of the benefits on the backside
of that in the state of Texas,
if a student has had prior instruction
in a language
they can be placed in a higher than level
one course.
Once they complete that
higher level course,
the district
then has the authority to back
ward credit for the previous.
Okay, So I'll give you a perfect example.
When a student comes from Mexico, right,
They're probably I'm assuming,
but transcripts would say
or something would say
all of instruction was in Spanish.
Why would we put them in Spanish
one exactly at any point in time
so we can then test and say they're at
probably a Spanish three.
They can start Spanish three.
Once they complete Spanish three,
we as a district
can go back
TEA’s regulation,
allows us to go back and say,
if you're going to please Spanish three,
you know, two and one,
we can a back board those credits.
So our kids,
if they finish the five years,
have had prior instruction
so we can place them
at a higher level grade
once they complete the 2B
we can then award and say
you obviously can do 2B
you can do two one.
You get both those credits back.
Okay, great.
So does a student, technically,
according to the state of Texas,
have the opportunity to test
into whatever level of Spanish
they'd like to
or ideally try to test into.
So could my fifth grader
who won't be doing this.
I would like to
probably put my sixth grader
in Spanish 2A but what if
they were a native speaker
and they wanted to see if they could test
into Spanish three?
Would they have that opportunity or do
they have to wait until high school
like everybody else
has prior instruction? Okay.
And here are our district policies.
You can't
take a class
that is not offered
to the other students.
So if you're going into sixth grade,
maybe you have fluency
to be in Spanish 4
It is not offered to all sixth
graders Spanish 4
have to wait to wait
till that is offered
to all sixth graders.
The 2A is the special program too.
So these kids
these SI kids have access to that
because that's the continuation
of that program.
And they cannot take that
in seventh grade.
They cannot take a year off.
You know, our 2A teacher
was very adamant about no way.
I mean, there's
there's significant gaps there.
And with a year of loss of learning
that she didn't feel like
it would be adequate
to have them back in
with those kids
that are continuously through that.
And I mean,
and you being a former LOTE teacher,
you know,
2A is significantly harder than one.
Yeah.
And that's it's a big jump
even with a year off. Okay. Thank you.
Hi.
Okay.
So in terms of longevity,
one of the first slide you talked about
was sustainability. Right?
And you said we all have
different definitions of it.
So I would like to know
what is the admins
definition of sustainability
so that we know going forward
we have to meet this, this
and this to make it sustainable.
So that we know
it's going to be around in the future.
I, I would say
as long as we have interest
in the program
and teachers
that we can hire to teach
within our current model,
that we would move forward.
So that would be like
sustainable is just interest and teachers.
Well, those are the two main ones.
If you don't have kids,
you don't have teachers.
They're they really hard to plan beyond that.
Then my other question
is probably more directed towards you
with the 50/50 model
I have a current kinder kid,
and I guess we're sticking
with that to my big dismay.
But with the 50/50 model,
what is the goal
when he reaches fifth grade?
So he graduates fifth grade.
What are you saying is the goal for him?
Is it that he can do
stem scopes in both Spanish and English
is that he's meeting all the TEKS
criteria in both Spanish and English?
So he is fully bi literate,
he is fully bilingual,
or is it that he can speak
a few sentences in Spanish to me?
He can communicate with a Spanish
speaking person.
He can name is colors and numbers.
We we would go
with the proficiency targets
that we talked about, the ACTFL.
And if I would say that
if we he's a kindergartner right now
he would we want proficiency.
When we talk about proficiency,
those proficiency targets
that I talked about,
I wish I had them
and I thought
about having them on the slide
and I was like,
but if we talk about it,
we would shoot for that target.
And then if he I would say
he would be higher than that.
But he would probably
because we're going to start implementing
listening, reading and writing
and through the content
areas in the 50/50 model, they'll stop
just doing only math and science
and we'll actually start reading books
or writing well,
when I say
reading and writing,
is there reading science
like a math problem is considered
reading math?
Probably not actually reading
like a full book in Spanish. No.
So we're talking. Okay. Yeah.
And then being able to hey, with
my puedo like,
you know, just real life scenarios and,
and really being intentional
about the target language.
I have to share like one of the teachers
that just very quickly,
one of the upper grade teachers came back
and after we had our meeting
and she's like, oh,
you know, she's like, we
you know, we have this game now.
Our kids are so motivated,
you know, using target language.
She came back and,
you know,
talked to the kids and we're going
to, you know, 100% and and,
you know,
even like
I also had a teacher
that talked to talk to her
parents during parent conferences.
You need to empower your kid to use Spanish
And so it's it's a
it's a commitment from everybody.
So the more they use the language,
even if it's just in the classroom, it's
the more they're going to gain.
You know,
you don't learn language
by doing it on paper. Oh, yeah.
I mean, that's where we're going.
The 90/10 model has to be,
you know, being able
to experience world situations
or real life scenarios
and they can defend themselves. Okay?
Because in the vision
it said bi literate, bilingual,
all of those things
and I realize that's a vision.
But then what is the realistic goal?
And I think we're going to start
maybe getting that every year or two,
but it's just kind of like
at fifth grade.
Are we expecting them
only to be able to enter Spanish 2
or should we expect them to enter Spanish 4
if they could, you know, they can't.
Yeah. No. Yeah.
Well we, you know I
the goal is for them to be able
to read
and defend themselves and,
and to be able to write
Spanish is a very transparent language,
you know.
So it's, it's possible to do that.
But again
you know it has to be happening
in the classroom.
The kids have to be empowered
and the teachers are aware of that,
you know,
to kind of incentive
them to use the language.
That's the main thing.
You know, they can
they can use
and make those connections, you know,
with the
with the content,
you know, with the math and the science
and real life scenarios.
And science
and math is not
just have to be numbers or,
you know, just
it can be connected to to you.
Okay.
And then in terms
of like next year with it
just being one class, are you all
what's the plan to add support
for that one teacher
since it's just going to be one now,
like with the PLCs,
because that's just a monthly thing.
What's the plan in terms of making sure
that they don't feel isolated,
says it's just going to be them?
Yeah, like our kinder teacher right now
that that's doing the 50/50 by herself,
I mean, she's great.
I mean she's collaborating
with the team as as well.
I mean I
and then she has her team
that she collaborates
with the English part,
you know, and a weekly basis.
So I mean they're
they're feeling pretty good.
And then next year
for the incoming
90/10 model,
is there going to be
a separate orientation for those kinder
parents, like explaining what it is
so they totally get it
so that we don't have a lot of people
falling out just from like
not knowing what it is?
Yes, we will have that
meeting in February
and that's like an orientation,
like you are committed to this program.
You well,
it'll be an informational meeting
for parents
so that they can make the decision
for what they want to do.
So because enrollment opens,
I want to say like March,
beginning of March for like March 4th.
And so if parents
want to sign their kindergartners
up for Spanish immersion,
they need to know
what they're signing up for.
And then once they're in it,
are you all going to
have a separate thing
just to speak to those parents
so they understand
how the 90/10 model works?
Well, we're doing that
at the informational,
but once they're committed
and already in the program,
you can choose to be in the program,
but you might not get it
since there's only 22 kids now.
So then once those 22 are selected,
are you going to have
a separate orientation
for those 22 kids and their parents
so that they know
what is going to
be asked of them going forward
and what it looks like
instead of just in February?
I mean, we.
Yeah, we can. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Okay. Yeah, Yeah.
But I'm also hoping that in February
everyone has a very clear
understanding too.
Like I want to be really,
really clear in February
and I want someone
to sign up for the program,
take a slot,
and then in March or April,
when we have a meeting, say,
Oh, I'm not interested anymore.
So we're going to try to be really,
really clear in February. That's my goal.
Okay.
We will let you both talk for sure.
We have about
five more minutes
and I know we've got some questions.
Go ahead.
Okay.
So I'm always amazed
at these presentations,
at the lack of quantitative
data on the program.
That is shared with parents.
I appreciate the plus delta
and the qualitative type things,
what's working, what's not.
But in addition to the Apple novice
low my daughter in third grade,
she's been in the program
now for four years.
I literally got a slip of paper
that said Novice Low. Right.
And I can obviously read
what that description is,
but how is my campus doing?
How is our district doing right?
Those are the data
that needs to be shared with the parents.
And as one of the other questions asked,
we need to get numbers on our kids
before they're in third grade.
And so
that is a continued ask from parents
is for you to be very transparent
about the metrics,
just like
we have
for MAP and other things,
or we can see what the norms are
for the district
as you're making these changes,
as someone who works in data, right?
Those are really important things
that I'm sure you're collecting, right?
And so those need to be communicated
to the parents so that we can see those.
Thank you.
I yes,
I am hearing that very clearly
and then I appreciate that very much.
My other question is, I really appreciate
the STEM scopes being available
in Spanish and in English.
But our children are getting homework
in English or not getting homework
because homework is not provided
as part of that curriculum.
According to the
teachers of my parents, of my students.
So I think there's still some gaps.
I appreciate that.
It's consistent across the grade.
Right.
So, you know,
same worksheet comes home
in English and Spanish,
you know,
depending on that's how it was last year.
But this year,
there's a big gap
in terms of the homework
and the reinforcement
with the current curriculum that's been
selected by the district.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Also, we continuous improvement.
I'm not standing here tonight telling you
that we've got everything together.
So we're we're taking notes
and continuing to make some changes.
Go ahead.
Thank you.
And we appreciate and understand that.
I want to say
I really appreciate the last person's
questions and comments about data,
because it's not been clear in my short
experience, just having a first grader
in the district
kind of what's going on
and what's behind the scenes,
what's driving
these all of the decisions
that you and the board
and the administration
and the schools have been making.
So that information would be great.
But I also think
that you need to use it to better recruit
so that you are encouraging
prospective participants
in the SI program.
I would love to see the program thrive,
so I would love to see the board present
at things encouraging the program,
lifting it up,
elevating the program,
because I think it could be
something outstanding for the district.
It should be
that's that should be part of the goal.
That's the other thing
I wanted to ask about
was I appreciate you sharing those EISD
Spanish immersion
core instructional practices
and I wanted to know
if those are for all.
Are they for like they're applying now
and is it for all grades?
Yes. Okay.
And so you're going to be
it's going to be a process, right?
Some teachers are already using
some of those
like the anchor chart and thing,
but not everybody.
So, you know, as we move forward,
I mean, for
like I mentioned, target language
for me is probably one of the main ones.
If we walk into classrooms,
the expectation is that teachers are
and when I started,
you know, again,
I've been in the district
for three months,
but when I started,
I'm so glad you're here.
When I started
visiting, it
was the teachers are using
a lot of the language in Spanish,
but the students
also need to start doing that.
So that's kind of like what
we're going to be working on.
And really, to be honest with you,
the Look-fors
are going to be mainly target
language and through
The target language is like, what?
What else are you doing
to facilitate that comprehension? Right?
You need to do all these other things
to make sure you're
using target language.
But the students
also need to be using it.
It's not just a teacher.
Yes, because it's not just
a teacher talking.
And but,
you know, all those stems, stem
sentences and,
you know, the teachers
providing those scaffold leads
for the students
to be able to use that language.
If not, then it's like, well, well.
And that is really where
parents can come in and be supportive.
So we need to know,
you know, how they're doing.
So absolutely.
And and at the end of the year,
one of my goals is to kind of like
prepare teachers
for next year for the environment,
like word walls, color
coded and things like that.
So that's one of my goals,
you know, as we work through.
I mean, for me right now,
my focus is the target language
and instructional strategies, which
are the communicative
strategies in the classroom.
Because if we don't get the kids
to talk, then,
you know,
that's the engagement piece for me.
Okay. Thank you.
I'm real quick.
Okay. Last last question.
So I have a question.
I just have a couple of comments.
I think there's very low hanging fruit
that we're a little bit of organization
from your your side.
We can start having like
quick implementation
things like a book of the month
that you can suggest
per grade per
the whole district or a book of the week
or a vocabulary
that your students
should be mastering in these months
or even for this summer, like,
Hey, don't fall behind, behind
in Spanish, lets
organize some play dates,
or make sure your student knows
these 300 words by the end of the summer.
Or like,
you know, like there's so much
very manageable,
very close
that clearly
you have a whole community
really wanting to
help you guys and help our children.
So I feel like
with a little bit of the push,
we can start having
a lot of these plans in execution.
So thank you
for everything you all doing.
Thank you.
Thank you all very much for coming.
I thank you for your dedication
and commitment to the program.
Thank you for holding us
as a district accountable.
Like I said tonight,
and we've acknowledged
that we still have work to do.
I hope that we can show you
through our actions
and the success of your children
that our commitment is real and true,
that that would be
my ultimate goal for you all.
We do acknowledge
that there are
some questions
that came in tonight on the Q&A.
We tried to answer as many as we can,
just like we've done in the past.
We will take some of those questions
that we haven't already answered.
We'll get some facts out to you all.
Obviously,
you may have some other questions.
So we'll keep trying to be as transparent
as we can,
answer your questions,
make sure you guys feel as comfortable
as you can
so, you know, ask us those questions.
We will post the presentation.
We will also post some answers
to those questions.
Depending on how many there are.
It might take us a while.
But again,
thank you so much
for coming this evening.
Thank you to everyone who livestreamed us
at home
and we will continue together
to make this a great program.
Thank you so much