Exito Bilingue: Promoting Spanish literacy in a dual language immersion program

Bilingual Research Journal, Spring 1998 by Smith, Patrick H, Arnot-Hopffer, Elizabeth

Abstract

In this article, the authors describe how teachers in a Spanish/ English dual language elementary school in Tucson, Arizona promote Spanish literacy using a school-designed program, Exito Bilingiie. Based on ongoing work and participant observation with dual language students and teachers, the authors show how dual language schooling has evolved at the school, and how the model currently in use compares to case studies in the literature in terms of program goals, type, and distribution of languages of instruction. The components of Exito Bilingiie, a school wide, multi-age, nonscripted Spanish literacy program, and its implementation are described and preliminary results are discussed. The authors find support for the transfer of reading skills from Spanish to English and for the inclusion of exceptional education students in dual language schooling. They argue that, contrary to the promises of commercially prepared, scripted reading curricula, dual language readers are best served by teachers working together to design literacy instruction to meet local conditions and learner needs.

The dual language (DL) model is widely cited as an exemplary means of educating language minority children while promoting second language acquisition among children of all backgrounds (Christian, 1994; Collier, 1995; Wink, 2000). DL programs are sites for examining possible tensions between the need for all students to develop high levels of literacy in English and the fact that language minority students have historically been underserved in U.S. schools (Valdes, 1997). There is considerable evidence that learning through the native language has many advantages for language minority students. It facilitates the development of both basic and advanced literacy in Spanish and English; it allows Spanish dominant students to gain important content knowledge that will make the English they encounter more comprehensible; and it enhances overall cognitive and social development. Many schools, even those with bilingual education programs, often treat the native language of minority students as a problem to be overcome, adopting a remedial attitude, with its attendant negative connotations.

Research on literacy development and the connections between minority language communities and dual language schooling are particularly important in the "quasi-border" community of Tucson, Arizona (Jaramillo, 1995). The historic role of local educators in the development of the modern bilingual education movement (National Education Association, 1966), and current efforts to restrict or ban outright bilingual education in Arizona are central issues to present research. This paper describes how language minority and language majority students at Davis Bilingual Magnet School in Tucson are becoming biliterate via a school designed Spanish literacy program, Exito Bilingue. We trace the development of Exito Bilingiie as it has evolved in response to the unique needs of students and to the strengths and concerns of Davis educators.

Describing Davis Bilingual Magnet School

Located only a few blocks from downtown Tucson, Davis Bilingual Magnet School sits on a narrow piece of land between the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad and Interstate-10 in one of the city's first Hispanic neighborhoods, Barrio Anita. Davis is one of the oldest schools in Tucson (founded in 1901 ), and for most of its history the school has served the families and children of Barrio Anita and nearby Hispanic barrios. Following a desegregation order by a federal court in 1978 and faced with dwindling enrollment, the district planned to close the school, but parents and residents of Barrio Anita convinced the district to rebuild it instead (Perez, 1998). As a result, Davis became the district's bilingual magnet school in 1981.

Students from Barrio Anita continue to attend Davis, as do magnet students from other parts of the city. Barrio students, who make up about 35% of the student population, are mostly from Spanish-dominant homes, although almost all begin school with considerable knowledge of English and Spanish. Magnet students constitute approximately 65% of the student population, and most begin school as monolingual or dominant speakers of English. About 70% of Davis students are of Latino heritage, approximately 20% are EuropeanAmerican, 6% are African-American, and 4% are of Native American heritage. The largest single group of students at Davis is third and fourth generation Mexican-Americans whose families have chosen the school's dual language program hoping their children will (re) gain Spanish and revitalize their Latino heritage. Besides differences in ethnic background and linguistic dominance, there are also social class differences between the barrio and magnet populations. About half of Davis students qualify for free or reduced school lunch programs, most of them from barrio families.

The Davis faculty consists of 12 classroom teachers (two per grade level), plus three subject area specialists for art, music, and physical education. There are full-time instructional aides in each classroom, as well as a full-time exceptional education teacher, librarian, curriculum specialist, and counselor on staff. All faculty, staff, and administration are bilingual. Like most magnet schools, the student body and faculty are quite stable. In fact, there is a school joke that teachers leave Davis only on their way to the mortuary.