B. Ok so my name is Brenda Aparicio
E. And I’m E first grade bilingual teacher
B. First grade awesome. How many bilingual students do you
usually have?
E. Usually is… the maximum that I have is 20 usually 16, 17
students
B. Oh so it’s like...so mainly it’s like only Spanish students
or…
E. The bilingual program in this district runs like we teach
in Spanish
B. oh ok
E. It’s all Spanish for k and first
B. Oh ok
E. After they master the reading in Spanish then they start
the transfer into the new the language.
B. oh ok umm. How do they interact in the classroom like
with you mainly?
E. The kids?
B. Yeah. Do they get comfortable right away?
E. um the first mainly the first time that they see me they
don’t want talk but I try to do like one of those activities to give them to
use
B. To get use to you. Yeah cause I have a little cousin like
um el solo habla espanol (he only speaks Spanish) so but he won’t speak to the
teacher and it is his first year but like um the teacher doesn’t really try to
interact with him
E. oh
B. So it is difficult for him so they are trying to put him
in speech pathology wait no speech therapy something like that porque el no
habla para nada ( because he doesn’t speak at all)
E. ohhhh
B. Yeah. Um do you receive like a teacher aid or help? With
the students because you have more than 20
E. No. no not at all, we don’t have any assistance only for
kindergarten.
B. Only for kindergarten?
E. Yes
B. oh ok but. (Paused 1:35)
B. ok um how do you plan your daily teaching with them or is
it like you plan it in one day or you have previous plans
E. We made lesson plans for one week, for one week but it
depends sometimes um there are situations that comes within that day and you
have to like deviate it a little bit to… for any situation like maybe a child
comes crying because um they are moving or something so I have to like a little
my lesson and they get to them and then do like a mini lesson about going to
another place that they are going to be fine and things like that but usually
we plan ahead of time a week ahead (2:20) and we try to follow it because there
is a pacing guide that we need to follow so everybody have to because the
mobility here in Elizabeth people move constantly they want the kids if they
move from this school to the other school we are almost in the same page so the
child doesn’t get you know ?
B. OH. Yeah.
E. They don’t get any gaps in between
B. They get lost or anything
E. Right. Yes.
E. Ok um (2:50) in the morning I greet them, they eat
breakfast in the classroom um during breakfast some of them eat breakfast and
other one no we have um different um boxes with books so everyone one person on
the table come and get a basket and then they can read silently is a variety of
genres and you know different kind of books levels so this is just to expose
the kids to the text so they can get use to the words and you know (3:20) it
helps visually with the reading um then after that we unpack I check their
homework they wrote the um homework in
the agenda I we take a book every night home so we switch books one table get
one set of books they give it to the other one
B. Oh so they trade?
E. Yes they trade and then they complete a worksheet that
comes with the book you know if we are talking about characters then is
something about the character they need to write (3:50) and need to draw.
B. oh they also like draw a picture of what they…
E. It depends of what the paper says sometimes they have to
color or sometimes they have to cut it and paste it in the order sequence um
after that we go into the… routine I do language art in the morning languages
arts and then um we start reviewing what we learn what remember from the day
before what are we studying all the “amazing “words all the concepts(4:20) if
were talking about um sequence um how do you how do you relate this to the
story about last week and things like that and then I introduce the new day the
new day whatever is going to be on that day.
B. So it’s like you recap and later you start off something
new.
E. Right. Yes. Then we break into groups we break into
centers so I go to the guided reading center which is done four days in a week
so I see the kids (4:50) and I see the lowest group every single day there is
no way I skip them um the one have different um different activities in their
centers like a writing center, technology center, and um um it may be listening
center or might be responding to whatever story they they listened to.
B. So it’s usually 4 centers?
E. 4 centers. There is 4 centers but in the rotation I
listed 3 groups but there is 1 group I cannot see due to the
B. Yeah the timing. E. Time. B. Yeah I understand.
B. Um are you like very involved with the parents?
E. Yes I have good communication, we communicate through the
(5:30) planner the kids have planners so anytime that they want to send me
something since I check every morning for the planner the parents sign it at
night so if they want to say I need a meeting with you or if I need to see them
I say call me or your child is doing this I would like to…you know like if
there is… they feel comfortable because I speak Spanish.
B. Oh no that is awesome
E. Yes that is a good that is important that I never have to
struggle with parents because I can communicate with them in the same language
B. But you haven’t had any trouble with a parent like
communication wise?
E. No not at all
B. Not at all ok um what do you think parents can do to like
be more involved like with the child’s education besides just the agenda and
E. What did you say it again?
B. Like um how to (6:26 paused asked another question)
E. All their homework is in Spanish, math homework is
Spanish, English um lectura(lecture) is in Spanish so they have no problem now
I have a group that is transferring and are doing little things like we are
introducing high frequency words in English and little sentences.
B. So little by little you guys inject the English part
E. Right yes. So I don’t have that much trouble because of
the time we do (6:50) Spanish until we reach a point when they are transferring
but it is easy homework that they can understand and usually I use the smart
board and I say this is going to be your homework this is what you need to do
B. Oh you give them like an example
E. Right yes
B. ok you prepare them before they go home
E. Yes
B. oh ok that’s perfect
E. I use but I don’t have it right here like um a projector
so I take the same worksheet that they are using I put it in there and I say ok
here it says this. This is what I want you to do so I go (7:20)
B. Step by step
E. Step by step and I demonstrate how to do it and most of
the time they got their homework right
B. Um the kindergarten doesn’t teach the first grade um k
and first are still in Spanish when the child reaches a DRA level which is an
assessment for reading fluency comprehension they have to be in the level 4
team or up they also have to take a dictation the dictation have to have a 95
percent accuracy which is only one mistake and then oral test oral proficiency
test when the child meets those three points (8:01) then he can transfer he can
start transferring to Spanish so the ESL teacher will with them phonics and I
teach with them reading at their level 1 like the cat has a bowl you know like
repetion all this like the cat the cat all the pages have the cat so they are
learning the other words so that’s how transfer starts. Second grade is the
same thing the teacher starts with the group that is leaving here with the work
she continues during centers doing with them English and the whole group
Spanish and then in third we are thinking that they are ready exiting the
program going into mainstream.
B. And since when has this started because back then I don’t
remember there wasn’t any of that (8:53)
E. No this is something new we have been doing this for 2
years already
B. For two years?
E. Yes this is going to be the third year
B. Oh this the third year?
E. This is going to be let me see k then second 2 years
September is going to be the 3rd year and that is what they are
looking for that group that started with everything in Spanish moving so they
are going to see if the kids ingrate they going to land in the mainstream
B. And in your opinion do you think this is better? (9:18)
E. Yes is better yeah
because before it was a half way Spanish and half way English they don’t master
either or the other languages and listen here they can read you can see their
writing the reading they are fluent in Spanish because that is the language
that they speak at home they are stronger in this language
B. Yeah yeah um because of the language barrier sometimes
does it affect the students behavior or no do like misbehave or do the isolate themselves?
(9:50)
E. Since now we are teaching in Spanish we don’t see that
before when we use to do like that like the beginning of the year Spanish and
then we switched to English that is when we encountered kids that come from
their country they don’t want to talk because they don’t feel secure they are
like
B. Uncomfortable
E. Leftover or left out for a little while we have many, many
problems before now we encounter that they almost none (10:20) because everyone
is included everyone feels like they belong
B. Nobody feels isolated
E. Right
B. Yeah cause beak then like during our time like we would
see like certain students they didn’t even want to talk or they would have
their own group that the ESL students and later it would be just us
E. We can still see distance in the um middle in the um
upper grades fourth, fifth, sixth because they don’t have self-contained
bilinguals
B. Oh they don’t have that yet?
E. They don’t have that they have the bilingual in class
support (10:50) the teacher comes in the class and help them with but only with
language arts and math but they are left out by themselves in science the child
doesn’t speak much English so he’ll fell like don’t want to talk or always
wants to complain then misbehave because they are bored they don’t know what is
going on in the classroom
B. but with this like somewhat with what’s going on here
would they work with them do you think that they have to have a different
program
E. They do support them but not in all contents like they
don’t have the support in science so the science teacher has to have a lot of complaints
they don’t behave or they do whatever they want they keep talking because of
course they don’t understand what the teacher is saying and they don’t have
anyone that is helping them
B. Because also science is like in demand no hay tanta gente
que like va para (there’s not many people that go into) science so yeah I
totally understand. Um have many years have you been teaching like with English
language learners
E. eleven years
B. So you basically seen everything
