Beginning the New School Year with Learners from Many Cultures

Honoring individual differences creates an inclusive community
in this multicultural classroom. by Carol Bellamy

Summer is almost over. It is time for me to begin planning for the new school year. I am the head teacher in the Corduroy Classroom in the Higher Horizons Head Start. The program draws from a very diverse population, including recent immigrants and refugees from around the world. In my 13 years in Head Start, I have enjoyed meeting families who represent more than 20 language groups. Every year, I look forward to working with the English language learners in my classroom.

Learning about the Children and Families

Seventeen children are enrolled in my class this year. As I make the required home visits before the program begins, I have an opportunity to learn about what each child enjoys
and to think about how to prepare a welcoming classroom environment. I begin to establish a relationship with my families and learn about their different cultures and celebrations. I ask how many family members speak the home language only or English as well. I ask if the Head Start child has an older sibling in school who has exposed the younger child to English. That may mean the preschooler recognizes some spoken words but may not speak English yet.

This year’s children speak English, Spanish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Amharic, or Somali with their families. Although most of the children are new to my classroom, it will be their second year in Head Start. I expect that there will be a wide range of English language learning in my classroom.

It is important that I support the parents’ goals for family literacy. I make sure parents know that Head Start works with The Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, an organization which provides many resources to adult English language learners. This year, our Head Start program is hosting English language classes in the evening. Our family literacy committee helps us plan literacy events for families, staff, and community members. For example, they plan “Breakfast and Books,” an October event geared to increase the number of stories read to our children.

Creating the Classroom Environment

I want this to be perfectly clear to all classroom teachers: We cannot keep those old lesson plans and just change the date and names on the forms. Throw them in the recycle bin and start fresh. Each year, your classroom should go through a process of renewal. Even the children who are returning to the same classroom have changed, and the teaching team needs to plan according to their new interests, developmental levels, and language needs.

Higher Horizons Head Start uses the High Scope curriculum. It provides a structure to the day and an organization for the environment that helps all the children, and certainly the English language learners, feel comfortable and safe in the classroom. The room is divided into areas, such as art, science, and blocks. I will ask a bilingual child who likes to write to help me label each area in both English and Spanish.

I love to collect items from different countries for the classroom: scarves and clothes for dress-up; cooking spoons, chopsticks, a wok, and a tortilla pan for the housekeeping area. I have story tapes in Spanish that can be used in the classroom or sent home for families to use together. Of course, the books on the library shelves and around the room show children who resemble those in my classrooms.

I also have a world map at the children’s eye level which stimulates conversation about their countries of origin. One child described how he took an airplane to Peru to see his abuela (grandmother). Looking at the map, he showed me how many countries the plane “flew” across. Class discussions that center on the map provide many opportunities for support of home languages and cultures and also for learning English.

Teaching Strategies for Language Learning

The first few weeks of the program are a time to observe the children and get to know them. I note that there is a range of English language learning. Four children speak only Spanish in the classroom. Other children who speak other languages at home are in the non-verbal period (they have temporarily abandoned efforts to communicate with people who do not understand their home language); others are repeating what is said to them in English; some children are speaking a combination of both their home language and English. Every day, the teaching team documents all children’s activities and language usage in English (and their home language).

I am primarily a monolingual English speaker, as is one of the teaching assistants, although we both know a bit of Spanish. The other assistant is bilingual in English and Urdu. When people learn that we work with children who speak little or no English, they always ask, “How do you communicate?” I respond that all children understand love and that they know when you genuinely care for them. But, I intentionally use certain techniques or strategies too.

For example, the daily schedule chart consists of pictures accompanied by words. We go over the schedule at group time. I also have the same picture symbols on cards that I wear on a string around my neck; this way, I can approach an individual child or a small group and explain and demonstrate what is expected next. I might say, “Time for the school bus to go home” while I show the picture. If it is cleanup time, I will say the words and also show the picture of a child putting away toys.

I have discovered that this basic technique prompts new language learning. Four-year-old Carlos can read some words and enjoys asking questions about what he reads. One day, he read each word on our chart, including school bus. He told me, “You forgot to add the children who are picked up in the car. You need a picture (and words) for that.”

I also make a point of learning key phrases in different languages. When a Spanish-speaking child asked me, “Escuela es mañana?,” I was thrilled to respond in my rudimentary Spanish. “No escuela mañana, mañana es sabado. No escuela en sabado y domingo. Escuela en lunes.” The child got so excited, she blurted out, “Ms. Carol!! Espanol!” Last year, a Farsi-speaking girl was so eager to get from one activity to another that she would run from the classroom to the bathroom to the playground. Asking her to slow down in English did not seem to help, and I was worried she would fall. I asked her mother, “How do you say walk in Farsi?” The next day, the word “Roborro” effectively communicated my message to her daughter!

Building the Curriculum

In the early fall, we found a butterfly outdoors and brought it into our classroom. The children have been watching and talking about it. Their vocabulary is expanding as they learn new words in English like “caterpillar,” and everyone has learned the word “mariposa” from the Spanish speakers.

We have added butterfly-related books, pictures, word cards to the writing area, scarves for wing dancing, and butterfly-shaped play dough cutters. We set up a painting activity, too. Eventually, we released the butterfly outside. But I went ahead and ordered seven caterpillars to hatch in the class. The children ask daily, “When will the caterpillars get here?”

To support family literacy and the children’s learning, I will begin sending home books for families to read. Of course, one of the first books will be The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. The home reading bag will include ways to extend the reading with stencils and art materials. I am lucky to collect many books in more than one language for families.

When the caterpillars arrive, there will be many opportunities for discovery and language development. We will make a butterfly storybook with illustrations for our class library. One child, a native Spanish speaker, has proposed that the book’s title be The Corduroy Caterpillar, Chrysalis, and Butterfly Book. What vocabulary and conceptual development are evident in his title! I am pleased to be able to support language-rich activities for all language learners.

Research (Tabors 1997) indicates that preschoolers may acquire 6-10 new words a day while also expanding their understanding of the words they already know.

Excerpt from Phillip C. Gonzales, Becoming Bilingual: First and Second Language Acquisition (http://www.headstartinfo.org/English_lang_learners_tkit.htm)

Carol Bellamy is a Head Start Mentor at Higher Horizons Head Start, Falls Church, VA. T: 703-820-2457; E: Carol.Bellamy@fairfaxcounty.gov