Heritage Language Programs - Spanish
Spanish, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Download this profile as a pdf file
Contact Information:
Jennifer Pearsall (Second Language Specialist) Jennifer.pearsall@cms.K12.nc.us
Kelly Price (Title I Director) k.price@cms.k12.nc.us
Nhora Gomez-Saxon (Spanish for Native speakers consultant) South Mecklenburg
High School nhora.gomez-saxon@cms.k12.nc.us
Fran Hoch (Section Chief) (919) 807-3864 fhoch@dpi.state.nc.us
Helga Fasciano (Second Language Consultant) (919) 807-3865 hfascian@dpi.nc.us
- Contacts
Department of Public Instruction / Second Language Studies Section
Fran Hoch (Section Chief) (919) 807-3864 fhoch@dpi.state.nc.us
Elga Fasciano (Second Language Consultant) (919) 807-3865 hfascian@dpi.nc.us
Nhora Gomez-Saxon (Consultant) gomezsaxon@yahoo.com, nhora_Gomez-saxon@cms.k12.nc.us - Transfer of literacy skills: Students need to develop not only their oral skills, but also their literacy skills in Spanish. Students who are literate in their first language learn English more quickly and easily; enhance their English literacy development, thus helping with academic achievement in English and other disciplines. Promote bilingualism and biliteracy
Grades taught
• 9-12
Languages/dialects taught: Spanish
Program name / Institution: Spanish for Native Speakers (SNS) / Public Schools of North Carolina / Department of Public Instruction State Board of Education
North Johnston High School
Lexington Senior High School
South Mecklenburg High School
Fike High School
Independence High School
East Henderson High School
Clyde Erwin High School
Program address
North Carolina Department of Public Education
6353 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-6353
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/secondlanguages/scos/2004/
Program description
Spanish for Native Speakers is designed specifically for native/heritage speakers of Spanish who already have some oral language proficiency. The purpose of this course is to enable students whose heritage language is Spanish to develop, maintain, and enhance proficiency in Spanish by providing them the opportunity to listen, speak, read, and write in a variety of contexts and for a variety of audiences including the family, school, and the community. SNS will allow students to explore the cultures of the Hispanic world including their own, and it will enable students to gain a better understanding of the nature of their own language as well as other languages to be acquired.
Language maintenance: By establishing or re-establishing some connections to the language and culture of the home, schools can develop in students a sense of worth and validation.
Cultural awareness: students compare their languages to increase understanding of their own culture with those of other students to make connections to all Hispanic cultures.
Respect students’ language varieties: Teachers accept and validate the diversity of the students’ language varieties and do not denigrate the languages spoken by the students or impose their own Spanish as the "correct" one.
Reduction of dropout rates: Participants in the program will promote students’ academic success in other parts of the program.
Graduation requirements: Levels I and II of Spanish for native speakers (SNS) meets the North Carolina (NC) high school graduation requirements for students and allow students to follow the college/university prep course of study, as well as meet the minimum course requirements for admission to the University of North Carolina (UNC) system.
- Teachers and supervisors convened in Raleigh in June 2002 for a one-week
extensive institute and developed the Spanish for Native Speakers Curriculum,
levels I and II. They piloted the draft document during the 2002-2003
school year and during that year additional amendments to the draft
were made based on teachers’ recommendations.
Instruction
How often students receive instruction
Block schedule. Every other day. 90 minutes per class.Levels in which the students are grouped
Type of program:
• Immersion
• Foreign language program
• Content-based
Program mission statement
The mission of the program is to preserve the home language
and culture in the classroom based on the following principles:
• Respect students as members of diverse family and community
systems bringing multiple gifts of language, culture and wisdom.
• Validate and use students’ language capabilities, both
in the native language and the second language.
• Encourage and accept students’ attempts to communicate
since errors are a normal part of language learning. Provide multiple
opportunities for communication.
• Plan authentic, integrated activities that allow students to
value and appreciate their identities.
• Organize the physical environment to reflect the diversity of
cultures in the classroom.
• Build networks among linguistically and culturally diverse families
and educators.
• Initiate dialogues about students’ languages and cultures.
• Design the curriculum around students’ interests.
• Introduce a diversity of cultural information based on the students’
heritage
The Spanish for Native Speakers curriculum establishes competency goals and objectives directing the teaching and learning of Spanish as a heritage language in North Carolina. SNS offer Hispanic students who are already able to converse and understand Spanish an opportunity to maintain, develop, and refine their language. Very often students have acquired an informal language necessary for communicating with families and friends, but the have not developed the "standard" or "prestige variety" Spanish necessary for academic success. In addition, their language has a limited range of vocabulary, contexts, and registers; therefore, students need to expand and refine their spoken fluency beyond the confine of their families and friends. They need to learn what language to use to convey respect or friendliness, what language to use when speaking with adults they do not know, and what language to use for academic and technical purposes. Furthermore, many students enrolled in SNS classes lack literacy skills in Spanish. They need to acquire and refine literacy skills in Spanish to become successful. To accomplish this, students must gain some experience reading effortlessly from sources ranging from newspapers and books, to authentic texts found on the Internet. In addiction, they need the opportunity to write often for a variety of purposes and audiences. The native language serves as the foundation for English language acquisition. When students develop their oral and literacy skills in Spanish, they enhance their literacy development in English. The incorporation of processes such as the reading and writing process are equally effective in Spanish and can help students as they approach a reading or writing assignment in Spanish or in English.
Date when the program was founded
• Initiated in 2000 by the schools.
• NCDPI (North Carolina Development Program Institute) Curriculum
Development Institute (Summer 2002):
• Curriculum Pilot (2002-03 in six LEAs
• Training Institutes (on-going)
• Publication and dissemination (2002-2004)
• Integration in 2005 NCSCOS
How the program was founded
Public Schools of North Carolina responding to
• Having three cities with the highest growth of Hispanics in
U.S between 1998-2000.
• 5.9% of school-age children are Hispanics
• In 2002 only 1.1% enrolled in NC colleges and universities were
Hispanic.
Parents’ and staff expectations for the program
• Spanish for native speakers courses were created because
he traditional language courses were neither developmentally appropriate
nor academically challenging for the Hispanic population.
• The Spanish for native speakers courses are not designed to
replace English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction. Students who
have been identify as limited-English proficient (LEP) will still need
to receive assistance in learning English and in mastering content of
other disciplines delivered in English.
• A positive understanding of the students' own culture, awareness
of their cultural heritage and improving of the speaking, reading, writing
and listening skills.
Staff’s expectations for the program
Students develop a sense of pride in their heritage by studying
their language and culture and receive the opportunity to become bilingual,
biliterate, and bicultural.
Students
The students in the program
First generation immigrants 91%
Second-generation immigrants 5%
Third generation immigrants 1%
Children of interethnic marriages 3%
Country of origin: from several countries: Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua,
Honduras, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru. NC schools serve students
who are able to communicate orally in Spanish but who have limited knowledge
of English.
Total student enrollment 450
How the program identifies who is a heritage speaker
The program identifies heritage speakers according to Guadalupe
Valdés’ (2000) definition: Heritage language learners are
raised in a home where a language other than English is spoken, understand
and/or speak the heritage language and are to some degree bilingual
in English and in the heritage language.[Valdés,G. (2000). Introduction.
In Spanish for native speakers. Volume 1 (pp. 1-20) New York: Harcourt
College.
Placement Test recommended:
• Prueba de ubicación para hispanohablantes (Prueba
articulada and Prueba Global) by Ricardo Otheguy and Ofelia
García.
• Leamos Spanish Developmental Reading Program By Paul
S. Amidon and Associates
• Riverside Performance Assessment Series, Riverside Publishing
Co., Chicago, IL
• IDEA Language Proficiency Tests – Spanish, Ballard &
Tighe Publishers, Brea, CA.
Tools used by the program to determine the language background
and language proficiency of students
Oral interview Students register to the class and have an oral
interview with the teacher during the first 10 days of school
Other Program recommendations for assessment:
• Assess the students’ level of language to determine who
is a heritage speaker and whether the student will be better served
in a traditional foreign language class or in Spanish for Native Speakers
class.
• Use instruments recommended by North Carolina Public Schools
(Assessment, Articulation and Accountability)
• Assessment should be based on the objectives outlined in the
curriculum.
Possible reasons for students’ withdrawal from the program
They move out of State or country. Drop out
Students’ attitudes toward the language varieties they
speak
Heritage speakers are sensitive at being corrected. A focus
on error alienates the students and reinforces the notion that their
Spanish is not good enough. Consequently, it is best to validate what
the students already know and then help them expand their linguistic
repertoire, learn to use more formal varieties.
Teachers / Administrators / Staff
Number of staff in the program: 14 teachers
One teacher in each school:
North Johnston High School / Diana Beddow
Lexington Senior High School / Rose D. Cline
South Mecklenburg High School / Nhora Gomez-Saxon
Fike High School / Tom Haitea
Independence High School / Liliana Mahecha
East Henderson High School / Pam Schlueter
Clyde Erwin High School / Lillian Tudela
Languages in which staff members are proficient
English and Spanish. Teachers are native speakers (required)
Extent in which staff members are proficient
Teachers are native Spanish speakers (100% proficient) or have
advanced or superior proficiency. They must also have knowledge about
first and second language acquisition, and have been trained to teach
high school students.
Teacher’s credentials
• Teacher certification Spanish / Language Arts
• Teaching certificate North Carolina Teacher Certification.
• Other: Comfortable with diversity. Facilitator of student centered
learning. Motivate counsel and advocate for students.
Professional development opportunities teachers have
• Training Institutes (on-going):
• Special Training for Spanish for Native speakers
Comments
Courses for heritage Spanish speakers were developed as a part of a
federal Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant The grant called
for the participation of 20 foreign language teachers throughout the
state who would be willing to:
1. Receive training on appropriate methodology for teaching heritage
speakers,
2. Develop a Spanish for native speakers curriculum for high school
levels I and II
3. Pilot the curriculum during the following school year.
Language Skills
Skills developed by the program:
English:
• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing
The research states that food learns have a wide repertoire of strategies to which they can resort. The SNS' teachers can introduce strategies to help students make sense of the text or to help them organize their ideas prior to a presentation. Those strategies can be transfer to the English class where students are expected to engage in similar activities. The incorporation of processes such as the reading and writing process are equally effective in Spanish and can help students as they approach a reading or writing assignments in Spanish or in English.
Other:
• National Foreign Language Standards
• NC Standard Course of Study for Second Languages
• English Language Arts.
• Social Studies (Latino Studies).
• Informational Skills.
Heritage Skills:
• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing
Competencies:
• Interpersonal Communication
• Interpretive Communication
• Presentational Communication (expressive, informational, argumentative,
critical)
• Cultures (describing socio-cultural and major political issues,
assessing the economic impact of Latino American immigrants and citizens
on the US and NC)
• Comparisons (identifying important historical events, showing
a clear, logical connection among events, developing appropriate strategies
to illustrate points)
• Connections (writing and reading processes, using effective strategies
to match the task, developing and using graphic organizers)
• Communities (broaden linguistic and cultural knowledge and understanding
that reaches beyond the school and local community via media sources such
as newspapers, magazines, radio and television)
Skills and levels of language proficiency that students reach
by the end of the program
Students reach the adequate level of competency to take SFL Level
4 or AP Spanish equivalent to advanced proficiency
Culture
Cultural aspects taught
• The program prepares students to identify key cultural
perspectives, products, practices, and concepts and to select, synthesize,
and interpret them in ways that result in sensitive and meaningful interactions.
• Incorporates learning experiences that reflect the richness of
the Spanish cultures, particularly from their local communities.
Other culture-related topics or activities:
• History
• Festivals
• Customs
• Traditions/beliefs
• Religion
• Folktales
• Arts and crafts
• Dances
• Songs
• Rhymes
• Social and cultural norms
• Literature
Kind of student identity the program fosters
• Bilingual, bicultural, and successful.
Methodologies / Materials
Methodologies and instructional strategies used in the program
• Syllabus based on Curriculum for Native Speakers published
by North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
• Content relevant and of high interest with curricular support
(i.e. English and Social Studies)
• Student centered language study is not limited to the study of
words and rules but includes gestures and other nonverbal communication
as well as sociolinguistics elements.
• Communication strategies such as circumlocution, guessing, asking
for and giving clarification are part of the teaching.
• Learning strategies like self-monitoring, mnemonic techniques,
how to organize information, graphic organizers, and applying reading
and writing processes are taught.
• Students are given opportunities to apply content from other subjects
and disciplines such as immigration, stereotyping, and bias.
• Students learn simple thinking skills (memorization and recall)
and more complex skills (summarizing, problem solving, organizing, inferring,
analyzing, and synthesizing)
Materials used for instruction
• The program uses textbooks with a Language Arts focus
like:
Glencoe McGraw Hill. El Espanol Para Nosotros Niveles 1-2
Holt, Reinhart and Winston. Nuevas Vistas Curso uno and curso dos
McDougal Little. Houghton Mifflin. Tu Mundo / Nuestro mundo.
Prentice Hall. Sendas Literarias. Levels I-II.
• Novels and anthologies:
Cajas de Cartón and Senderos Fronterizos. Francisco Jiménez.
Cuentos, Mitos y leyendas para niños de América Latina.
Coediciónlatinoamericana.
• Local Spanish newspapers
• We have a Study guide for "Paula", a novel by Isabel
Allende. And also for Francisco Jimenez books.
Learn NC / K-12 Teaching and Learning / University of North Carolina: site with links to materials. http://www.learnnc.org/search?guided=0.0&phrase=Heritage+Spanish+Speakers
List of materials provided by the Spanish for Native Speaker Curriculum / North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
Professional materials for teachers
AATSP Professional Development Series Handbook for Teachers,
Volume 1.
Spanish for Native Speakers (2000). Philadelphia: Harcourt College Publishers.
Webb, J.B. & Miller, B.L.(2000). Teaching Heritage Language Learners: Voices from the Classroom. New York: ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series.
Center for Applied Linguistics
www.cal.org
Teacher’s Guide to using songs in the classroom
http://www.musicalspanish.com/TeachersGuide.htm
Hispanic Business
http://HispanicBusiness.com
Hispanic Online
http://www.hispaniconline.com
Hispanic Outreach Initiative and Online Spanish-Language resources
http://www.pta.org/parentinvolvement/spanish/index.asp
Mexico Department of Education
http://www.sep.gob.mx/wb2
NC Second Language Web Site
http://www.learnnc.org/
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
http://www.ncpublicschools.org
NC Society of Hispanic Professionals
http://www.thencshp.org
Spanish Embassy in the US
http://www.spainemb.org
Spanish Ministry of Education
http://www.sgci.mec.es/usa/publicaciones.shtml
U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
http://www.ushcc.com
The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans
http://www.nclb.gov
http://www.YesICan.gov
http://www.YoSiPuedo.gov
Lesson Plans
http://edsitement.neh.gov
Latin American Studies
http://www.clas.ku.edu/~latamst
Resources for teaching Spanish to Native Speakers
http://tigger.uic.edu/~kimpotow/snsresources.html
Spanish Textbooks and materials
http://epsilon3.georgetown.edu/~pmw2/sns_materials.html
Heritage Language Journal
http://www.heritagelanguages.org/
The National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators
http://www.najit.org
Listservs
Spanish for Native Speakers Listserv
http://www.uic.edu/~kimpotow/snslistserv.html
North Carolina Spanish for Native Speakers Listserv
join-sns@lists.dpl.nc.us
Technology used in the program
Internet is used as a teaching tool. Technology is used to expose
students to a variety of authentic materials reflecting different dialects,
accents viewpoint and cultures. Students can access and use technology
ranging from the Internet and CD-Rom technology to multi-media applications
such as PowerPoint, HyperStudio, television, films, tapes and radio. Students
can construct web pages, and participate in audio/video conferences with
others in or out of state, and in other countries.
Recommended web sites to use with the curriculum
Cancionero- cancionesdora.
http://www.cancionero.com.ar/canciones
Latino Rock
http://www.boomonline.com
Famous Hispanics in the World and History
http://colloquio.com/famosos.html
Hispanic Heritage Month
http://www.factmonster.com/spot/hhm1.html
News/Media in Spanish
BBC Online
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages
El Universal
http://www.el-universal.com.mx/editoriales
Radio and TV
Spanish.com
http://www.spanish.com
Telemundo 47
http://www.telemundo47.com/
Telenovelas: telenovelas Mexicanas
http://www.esmas.com/espectaculos/telenovelas
Online course offered:
AP Spanish Literature
This course is a survey of literature in Spanish from the Middle Ages
to the present, with works from all parts of the Spanish-speaking world.
2005–2006 Section 1
Sandy Williamson
http://www.learnnc.org/students/9-12/courses/
Assessment
Kinds of assessments are used to evaluate students’ progress
• Weekly quizzes
• Chapter tests
• Mid-term tests
• Program exit test
• Final exams
Other: maintain interactive Journals, write personal responses to readings,
debates on topics of interest, Interact with guest speakers, make mini-presentations
to the class.
Articulation
Program connections with other institutions
• Local schools
• Foreign schools
• Colleges: NCDPI Curriculum Development Institute
• Universities University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Other heritage language programs
Development of home-school connections and parent involvement
• The program organizes what it is called the speakers’ bureau
inviting speakers to the program.
• Parents are invited as speakers in the class.
Opportunities for students using the language and developing
cultural knowledge outside the program
• In school, at home, in our community.
System for graduating students and granting credit for study
in the program
SNS gives the students of North Carolina the opportunity to meet the two-years
foreign language admission requirement for all students graduating in
2004. Upon completion of levels I and II, students can proceed to the
Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish where they will be joined by fourth-and/or-fifth-year
students who are studying Spanish as a foreign language.
What the program has in place
Types of financial support the program receives
Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant (SEA / Curriculum
Development)
Local: (Teacher Allotment / Textbooks)
Title II: (Teacher Training)
Title III (Additional Materials and supplies)
Comments
It is a great program, requires a native speaker teacher and helps the
school system in general.
Back to the list of program profiles.
