A TALE OF TEACHING TWO LANGUAGES ENGLISH-SPANISH IMMERSION PROGRAM COULD SPAWN ARMENIAN VERSION.Byline: Alex Dobuzinskis Staff Writer GLENDALE - As she teaches Edison Elementary School Edison Elementary School is the name of many primary schools, with most of them named after Thomas Edison. They include:
She describes corn dogs corn dog n. A frankfurter that is encased in corn bread batter before being baked or fried, usually served on a stick. as something you can taste, when a kindergartner kin·der·gart·ner also kin·der·gar·ten·er n. 1. A child who attends kindergarten. 2. A teacher in a kindergarten. blurts out in English that he doesn't want a corn dog. Another one says in English, ``Corn dogs have hair on them.'' As always, Arevalo sticks with Spanish in her response, assuring the kids corn dogs aren't hairy 1. hairy - Annoyingly complicated. "DWIM is incredibly hairy." 2. hairy - Incomprehensible. "DWIM is incredibly hairy." 3. hairy - Of people, high-powered, authoritative, rare, expert, and/or incomprehensible. . The students aren't supposed to know she speaks English. Otherwise, the English-speakers would expect her to translate lessons into their language, and they wouldn't learn Spanish. The educational approach is part of a 3-year-old program at Edison called dual immersion. It has 60 students in kindergarten kindergarten [Ger.,=garden of children], system of preschool education. Friedrich Froebel designed (1837) the kindergarten to provide an educational situation less formal than that of the elementary school but one in which children's creative play instincts would be through second grade, and as the older students progress, administrators want to continue it at least to sixth grade. ``It's open to anyone who says, `I want my child to have mastery in more than just English. I want my child to be fluent in Spanish and English,''' said Alice Petrossian, assistant superintendent Assistant Superintendent, or Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), was a rank used by police forces in the British Empire. It was usually the lowest rank that could be held by a European officer, most of whom joined the police at this rank. of elementary education elementary education or primary education Traditionally, the first stage of formal education, beginning at age 5–7 and ending at age 11–13. at the Glendale Unified School District The Glendale Unified School District is a school district based in Glendale, California, United States. The school district serves the city of Glendale, portions of the city of La Cañada and the unincorporated communities of Montrose and La Crescenta. . The dual immersion program mixes English and Spanish-speaking students so they learn language skills both on the playground and from the teacher. It is popular enough that officials want to start a similar program in Armenian and English at Jefferson Elementary in September. Students in the program get at least 80 percent of their instruction in Spanish. But the Armenian-language program would be more geared toward English because, unlike for Spanish, there are not enough Armenian textbooks that meet the California curriculum requirements, Petrossian said. Jefferson Elementary's Armenian ``magnet academy'' would start with a kindergarten class. ``I just have this wonderful feeling that we're going to fill all that up and get a waiting list,'' Petrossian said. Officials believe the Armenian program will make students more aware of world cultures. And with enrollment down districtwide, they see it as a way to bring in more students by capitalizing on demand in the Armenian community. Petrossian recently saw a school board presentation featuring several of the dual immersion students, including a couple kids who spoke Russian or Tagalog, on top of English and Spanish. ``These children were so bright, and this knowledge that they have gained is so valuable,'' she said. The success of the district's dual immersion class comes eight years after California voters approved Proposition 227, the English Language English language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world, English is the official language of about 45 nations. in Public Schools Initiative. The GUSD GUSD Glendale Unified School District (California) once had bilingual programs at nine schools. Unlike dual immersion, which the district only has at Edison, the bilingual programs overwhelmingly served Spanish-speaking students instead of a mix from different backgrounds. There are only a small fraction of dual immersion programs across the state, compared to how many bilingual programs existed before Proposition 227, said Ron Unz Ron K. Unz, born 1961, is a former businessman and political activist, best known for an unsuccessful run for the governorship of California, and for sponsoring propositions promoting structured English immersion education. , one of the leaders of the ballot measure. ``My guess is there's probably general distaste for those programs in the general population, but it's certainly not as strong as in the case of the massive bilingual programs,'' Unz said. But parents with children in Edison's totally voluntary dual immersion program said they like it. ``Right now, I don't think (my daughter) is learning a lot of English,'' parent Isabel Perez, 41, said in Spanish. ``But what I want is for her to learn the two languages at the same level.'' Alex Dobuzinskis, (818) 546-3304 alex.dobuzinskis(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1) Susana Arevalo teaches kindergarten in Spanish at Edison Elementary School in Glendale on Tuesday as part of an immersion program. (2) Susana Arevalo sits with her kindergarten students Tuesday at Edison Elementary School in Glendale. David Sprague/Staff Photographer |
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