Grades

Our current grade configuration for Spanish Immersion Instruction consists of one classroom in Kindergarten and one classroom in first grade.  The district expects to add one second grade classroom for the 2009-10 school year.  Additional classrooms in grades three through five are planned for subsequent years.   

Location

Lakeshore Elementary School is currently hosting the Spanish Immersion program.    

Additional Information 

If you would like more about the program, please call 786-1400 or contact Dr. Randy Busscher at: busscherr@westottawa.net.

Spanish Immersion at West Ottawa

Our Spanish Immersion program is designed to enrich the education of native-English-speaking students by teaching some academic subjects in a second language. The goal is for students to become proficient in the second language and develop increased cultural awareness while reaching a high level of academic achievement. Students develop proficiency in the second language by hearing and using it to learn their school subjects rather than by studying the language itself.

In our immersion program, partial Immersion, the regular school curriculum is taught in the immersion language for at least half of the school day. Immersion teachers use a wide repertoire of instructional strategies as they cover the school district's curriculum.

A Typical Day in First Grade

Most of the morning focuses on English Language Arts taught in English using the Houghton Mifflin series:

• Students work on phonetic reading strategies using Guided Reading groups, backpack books, and centers.
• Lucy Calkins writing strategies are utilized.
• Running Records and DIBELS are used to assess  reading progress.

During the morning students also have their specials in art, music, Spanish, physical wellness, and  computers/ technology.

Math, science, and social studies, and the daily calendar activity are taught in Spanish:

• For math we use the Spanish version of Houghton Mifflin, Math Expressions that is taught throughout the rest of the district is using.
• The Battle Creek Science program is used for science as there is not a text and it is a hands-on program which includes many experiments.
• Social Studies would incorporate literature associated with the Houghton Mifflin ELA series and portions of our Social Studies Alive series.

During the Spanish portion of the day, their teachers use songs, phrases, charts, poems, rhymes, and carefully structure the day with familiar routines. A token system is utilized to encourage students to do more talking in Spanish during the day. An emphasis would be on vocalizing the Spanish language.

The room is labeled in both Spanish and English. An emphasis is placed on students using site words in a sentence. Students learn about the Spanish culture during the entire day.

Weekly newsletters to parents are written in English. However, much student work sent home would be in Spanish.

Why choose immersion for your child?  

1. Research shows that truly learning a language at an early age and not just parroting memorized colors and numbers will:
2. Positively effect intellectual growth
3. Enhance a child's mental development
4. Give the student more flexibility in thinking, greater sensitivity to language, and a better ear for language
5. Improve a child's understanding of his or her native language
6. Increase job opportunities

Other benefits:

1. The ability to speak more than one language is increasingly important in today's interdependent world.
2. Studies show that students do at least as well and usually better than comparable non-immersion students.
3. When a foreign language is learned at an early age, children have native-like pronunciation and grammar control.
4. Americans fluent in other languages can benefit society, increasing global competitiveness, and communication.
5. The immersion experience helps children better understand other cultures.