What Will Happen to “Blue”?
When my four-year-old child started Spanish PreK at the language immersion school I founded, I was struck by an early question he asked his teacher – “what will happen to “blue” if I say “azul”?” Once his teacher reassured him (in Spanish) that both words could exist and represent the same color, he was completely satisfied with the answer and quickly learned who in his world understood “azul” and who understood “blue.”
As an educator who has spent most of my career in language immersion environments and, more recently, in a special education environment with students with language-based learning disabilities, I am constantly finding parallels between the two worlds.
In both environments, helping students learn to communicate is a foundational goal. Students with receptive or expressive language challenges, students who speak one language at home and are learning in another language at school, both struggle with being able to communicate the ideas and emotions they have. And in both settings, a crucial component to their success is the ability for teachers to provide a language rich classroom, to provide narration to the happenings of the day, and to provide explicit language/tangible steps to help the student move forward.
At GBS, we speak about how individualized and intentional the program is. Teachers use consistent language across the school, providing models for students on how to manage challenging situations. If a student seems to be struggling when they get off the bus in the morning, all team members are prepared to check in with the student and see what might be going on for them.
Staff member: “It seems like you are feeling ____. I wonder if there is a problem.”
Then, the magic waiting moment – one, two, three, four, five – giving students who may need more time to process language or produce language time to do that.
Student: “Yes. I am sad because the bus matron is different and I really liked the old one.”
Staff member: “Wow, that is hard. Maybe you can make a plan with your teacher to write a note to your old bus matron and tell her how much you miss her.”
Student: “Yes, I want to do that.”
And with that, the student is able to emotionally reset and is ready to enter the classroom.
At ISB, when students who were not native speakers of the language of instruction entered the classroom, they would most often communicate in English. Rather than forbidding English or shaming them for using it, the teachers would simply repeat what the student said but in the target language:
Student : “Where are the red blocks?”
Teacher: “Dónde están los bloques rojos? Ellos están en el rincón del bloque.”
They might also use visuals to support the language learner, showing the picture used in the classroom to represent the block corner. Similarly at GBS, visuals are an important part in helping our students communicate their ideas and emotions. Developmentally appropriate schedules are clearly visible in the classroom – with pictures for our earliest learners, with pictures + words for our emerging readers, and with words for students who are readers. This allows the students to have an easy reference point for what is happening throughout their day, to feel aware of and able to prepare for transitions to different activities, to see when their preferred activity will happen next, etc. Social-emotional visual tools help students identify and express where they are emotionally throughout the day – “I’m in the yellow zone; I’m feeling frustrated. Maybe I need to take a break.” “I’m in the green zone; my body is ready to work.”
The goal is communication (and self-advocacy and independence), not sharing lots of information. Communication with the student and enabling the student to build their communication skills with others are core skills they will need for life. And we know, from research and lived experiences, that modeling language and scaffolding language through narration, repetition, giving time, or using visuals are all key to reaching this goal. In reality, these are best practices for all children, not just those second language learners or those with language-based disabilities.
In essence, all teachers and therapists are language acquisition specialists! When educators are able to view themselves in this light, and able to understand that this approach takes time and consistency, the payoff is enormous; we see students developing skills and competencies that might have once felt impossible. I know that for my child, the validation and scaffolded support he received from his first language immersion teacher laid the foundation for a life-long path as a curious and multilingual learner.
Together, we see and pursue the possibilities.