District 41 to Offer Dual Language Program at Churchill Elementary

Churchill Elementary School will host two information sessions on a new foreign language immersion program starting in the 2013-14 school year, Katie McCluskey, District 41 ELL and bilingual director announced Thursday.

Dual Language is a type of foreign language immersion program that is "highly successful in helping children become truly fluent in a foreign language," McCluskey wrote.

This program will start in the 2013-2014 school year in kindergarten (in addition to regular kindergarten), and will "roll up" with these students as they progress through school. The program is only offered at Churchill and is different than the regular foreign language instruction. Here's what happens in a Dual Language kindergarten, according to McCluskey:

• 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 they are ready for Hadley, these children will be well on the way to being able to speak, read, write and understand two languages.
• Research shows that Dual Language is more effective than traditional foreign language instructional approaches.

For more information, read the Dual Language FAQs.

The parent information sessions will be 1 p.m. Thursday, March 21 at the Central Services Office, 793 N. Main, and 6 p.m. Thursday, April 5 at the Churchill School Library Media Center.