District 41 to Host Parent Meeting for Dual Language Program

Glen Ellyn School District 41 on Thursday will hold an informational meeting on the Dual Language Kindergarten program that will be offered starting in the fall at Churchill Elementary School.

District 41 provided the following information about the new foreign language immersion program:

• The class will be half children who have grown up speaking English, and half children who have grown up speaking Spanish.
• Children will spend half their time learning in English, half their time each day learning in Spanish.
• Children will be learning the regular curriculum and will be very well prepared to succeed on all the typical measures of student progress.
• Children will benefit especially in their language development in both English and Spanish.
• Parents are strongly encouraged to commit to Dual Language for their child's whole elementary experience.

By the time students are ready for Hadley Junior High, they will be "well on the way" to being able to speak, read, write and understand two languages, District 41 ELL and Bilingual Director Katie McCluskey wrote in an email.

"Research shows that Dual Language is more effective than traditional foreign language instructional approaches," she wrote.

For more information, read the Dual Language FAQs.

The parent information session will be 6 p.m. Thursday, April 4 at the Churchill School Library Media Center.