Spanish Immersion
Our Spanish Immersion Program offers children ages three and four a full day in Spanish, led by native Spanish speaking Montessori trained guides and assistants. The five year old children do the first half of the day in Spanish, and then go to the Kindergarten work cycle and specials in the afternoons in English. In the future, we will have one bilingual Lower Elementary classroom participating in their morning work cycle in Spanish, and their afternoon work cycle in English. Upper Elementary will continue to be fully in English.
Potential Benefits of Bilingualism:
- Bilingual people can be more creative and better at solving complex problems
- Stronger working memory – the ability to learn and retain information
- Better executive functioning skills – ability to consciously direct one’s activities
- Full bilingualism may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms
- Stronger ability in meta-language skills, such as understanding grammar rules
- Achieve higher scores in standardized tests than monolingual people
- Easily meet high school language requirements
- College admissions look favorably on bilingual students
- Job opportunities
Why Language Immersion as Part of Montessori?
Clear, Intentional Language
Our highly-trained Montessori guides are careful speakers, every day, all the time. In our Spanish Immersion community, every teacher is fluent in Spanish, giving the children the opportunity to hear authentic, quality dialogue between adults. It’s amazing how quickly children absorb language simply by observing and repeating phrases they hear their teachers use. They naturally want to repeat after their guide when she speaks in Spanish, fostering stronger language skills.
Real Life Interactive Instruction
We provide opportunities to experience language in a real-life context, rather than out of textbook pages. In the Montessori environment, teachers are responsive to children’s activities and will speak to them in Spanish throughout the day. As time progresses, children learn to follow basic instructions in Spanish, sing songs in Spanish, and even respond to the teachers in Spanish. This is Spanish the way it should be learned: through interactive experience.
Cultural Competency
Language is inevitably tied to culture. Practical life activities can incorporate Spanish customs, from foods we prepare together, to the type of fabrics we use in our materials. Songs and stories from Spanish-speaking areas of the world bring Spanish culture to life in the classroom. Naturally, the strong Montessori geography curriculum enables our students to locate the cultural regions where Spanish is spoken on the world map!
Extensive Vocabulary Building
Montessori environments are filled with vocabulary of objects and ideas — from animal figurines, to real tools, Grace and Courtesy lessons, and math concepts — all words they don’t have to memorize from a textbook, but rather get to use and hear everyday in the classroom! This unique time in a child’s life allows them to leverage their sensitive period for language known as the “Absorbent Mind.”
Spanish Immersion Over the Years
In ECE 3 and 4, we use a 90/10 model, where 90% of the day is spoken in Spanish. We leave the 10% buffer to account for translations that the teachers make on the spot to help children assimilate to their new language environment, specifically when safety is involved. An example of this would be, “No corras en la calle, por favor!” “Please don’t run into the street!” Naturally as the school year progresses, children will need less and less of this translation, and will be fully immersed in Spanish all day.
In IK, the children participate in the morning work cycle in their Spanish Immersion classroom, and transition to IK in English for the afternoons. We call this a 65/35 model, because 65% of their day is still in Spanish, while the other 35% is in English. During the afternoon work cycle, the focus will be English language and grammar, in keeping with State Standards, as well as translating math concepts to the English language.
The model in Lower Elementary begins to have an equal focus in English and Spanish, making it a 50/50 Dual-Language model. The morning work cycle is held fully in Spanish, while the afternoon work cycle is held fully in English. We start to create this shift so that the children gain a full grasp of both English and Spanish, preparing them for the transition to non-immersion in the Upper Elementary years.
By Upper Elementary, the children who have come up through our immersion program and the children who have participated in our English-only program all combine, into a fully English speaking classroom.
