Two teacher-parents, looking for a progressive, bilingual education opportunity for children, started a grassroots movement that resulted in the opening of the Inter-American Magnet School in Chicago. Adelman Reyes was one of those teacher-parents. She discovered the school―a setting that instilled intellectual curiosity and a love of learning in children―after her daughter experienced a rigid curriculum devoid of creativity, thoughtful planning, or representation of Latino cultures in a transitional bilingual education first-grade classroom. The results of her year-long ethnographic study in Ms. Sontag’s second-grade classroom are documented in five narrative chapters, which are preceded by an introduction to fundamental concepts in the inception and implementation of a dual-immersion program based on a constructivist philosophy. Two additional chapters follow, the first one describing the current activities of the teacher and her former pupils (now in their twenties), the second providing suggestions for further reading.

INTRODUCTION

The authors felt that a diary approach to their book was necessary because, even though the bilingual/bicultural side of Inter-American has been widely researched, its individual constructivist underpinnings had not. In adopting a diary genre for their book, Adelman-Reyes and Crawford felt they could present the program’s constructivist roots and the school’s teaching/learning processes in a more holistic manner, providing overviews of its educational philosophy, curriculum, and pedagogy.

PART I – FUNDAMENTALS

The authors note that teaching situations are too context-bound for findings in any particular setting to be replicable, despite the current top-down push for scientific justifications for effective program models, curricula, and teaching methodologies.

Chapter 1, “Making sense of the words-and the world,” provides inception details of the Inter-American school. The authors note that parents are becoming aware of the value of bilingualism and are consequently seeking ways for their offspring to become bilingual in formal school settings. They explore the relationship between the origins of the school and its Canadian French immersion antecedent, as well as existing differences between the two models.

Chapter 2, “Principles and practices,” identifies the key features of dual-immersion programs (i.e., additive bilingualism and biliteracy, cross-cultural emphasis, professional development, and home-school connections). These features, encompassing constructivist strategies (i.e., critical thinking, active engagement, and motivation) and an innovative, child-centered curriculum, create a space for discovery learning and spark children’s critical thinking skills.

PART II – NARRATIVES

The titles of the narrative chapters―“Welcome to room 307”; “The worms have arrived!”; “Nincas and ninfas”; “Beetles and butterflies”; and “Goodbye, Mrs. Bee”―indicate that insects were the thematic focus throughout the year.

“Welcome to Room 307,” for example, presents an episode in which an English-dominant student chooses the Spanish version of two identical picture books for silent reading. Access to several forms of comprehensible input (Krashen, 1985) put in place by her teacher, among them the English version of the same book and access to a Spanish-dominant peer who can explain new Spanish vocabulary in paraphrases during bilingual partner-reading, allowed her to make sense of a text slightly above her comfort zone in her second language.

Various factors helped students acquire a deep knowledge of insects throughout the year, namely a continued focus on the topic, ownership of the knowledge presented experientially through project- and discovery-based learning, and theme-based reading, writing, listening, and speaking for a purpose. This approach to teaching/learning contributed to the transformation of students into bilingual/biliterate learners with a love for scientific discovery learning. In the process they also gained critical thinking skills, became autonomous learners, and constructed positive identities. As an additional perk, they learned specialized Spanish vocabulary on topics such as how to care for insects at different stages of their life cycle.

PART III – OUTCOMES

The authors caught up with 15 of the original students in 2011, 15 years after the students’ second-grade experience, in order to document their current activities. Interestingly, all of the children went on to gain meaningful employment or continue their studies, and approximately one third of them were still involved in Spanish in their academic pursuits, professions, or aspirations. According to the authors, this finding provided evidence of Inter-American’s successful educational program in a way that numbers could not reveal. Interview data from the students, now adults, serve as testimonials of a bilingual/bicultural program’s benefits for its students.

COMMENTS

The illustrations of exemplary L2 teaching practices and classroom-based research make this book ideal for pre- or in-service teachers and for psychology students interested in constructivism. In addition, the linkage between theory and practice included in the “Info Boxes” included in the narrative chapters exposes readers to refreshing and edifying information on topics ranging from “Building on prior knowledge” (p. 52) to “Habits of mind” (pp. 92-93). Furthermore, the authors provide additional sources after the narratives for those interested in delving deeper into certain topics. Overall, the book meets the authors’ goal of being appropriate for laypeople.

Although the research was conducted in 1995-1996, it is still highly pertinent. The narratives will draw researchers interested in Egan’s (2011) work on the deep knowledge resulting from students’ engagement in a theme-based, project/discovery approach to at-school learning, and the subsequent conversations occurring at home. Researchers focusing on the development of student engagement through authentic learning situations, purposeful learning, and learner autonomy―along the lines of Little’s (2010) work―will also find the narratives noteworthy. Finally, the way the program structure developed student self-esteem and positive identity construction relates to Cummins and Early’s (2011) recent work on identity texts. Overall, the narratives lend themselves to a variety of researchers—including ones working in other models of bilingual education and constructivism.

Taylor (in press) also outlined how additive bilingualism and biliteracy are key goals of French immersion, just as they are in dual immersion. Moreover, Larsen-Freeman and Anderson (2011) provided sample portraits of how communicative classrooms could look compared with audiolingual or grammar-translation classrooms in terms of teacher-student roles, teaching methodologies, and principles of second language learning; however, no similar portraits exist of French immersion classrooms (Merrill Swain, personal communication, June 5, 2012). In this regard, Adelman-Reyes and Crawford’s portraits of how to integrate a second language focus into teaching academic content (i.e., factoring vocabulary development and student engagement into teaching, structuring activities in which students read for a purpose, orchestrating action-oriented teaching, designing authentic learning situations, and co-constructing student identities) are well suited to inform teacher candidates and practitioners in various models of bilingual education.

The short section outlining “where fifteen of the former students are now” lends strong qualitative support to the success of the program, although no information is provided in regards to who tracked the pupils into their adult pursuits. More information on the process would have been useful as would have a “that was then and this is now” section fast-forwarding to how and why the teaching/learning process had or had not changed at Inter-American since the study was done. In other words, the book does not answer two questions: “What is dual immersion like now?” and “Will children enrolled in dual immersion now do as well as the children profiled in the book?” Such sections would help settle parents’ qualms and better prepare policymakers favorable to dual-immersion programs for the obstacles that lie ahead. As the maxim goes, forewarned is forearmed.

While the book presents only a snapshot of a year in the development of students attending a second-grade dual-immersion classroom, and it is fair to assume that their lives and learning trajectories diverged in countless ways since then, Ms. Sontag’s former students seem to have developed into successful young adults whose Spanish-English bilingualism remain a part of their lives. At a time when the dominance of English and linguistic imperialism shows no sign of abating, touting the benefits of bilingualism often seems like a counterdiscourse in and of itself (Cummins, 2007). For parents, teachers, and policymakers seeking support for the bilingual goals and aspirations they hold for children, Adelman-Reyes and Crawford’s book may be the text they need to strengthen their resolve, buttress their position, and make alternative voices heard.

REFERENCES

Cummins, J. (2007). Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual classrooms. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 10(2), 221-240.

Cummins, J., & Early, M. (Eds.). (2011). Identity texts: The collaborative creation of power in multilingual schools. Stoke-on-Trent, England: Trentham Books.

Egan, K. (2011). Learning in depth: A simple innovation that can transform school. London, Canada: The Althouse Press.

Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and implications. London, England: Longman.

Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Little, D. (2010). Issues in learner autonomy [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.tesolacademic.org

Taylor, S. K. (in press). Immersion. In J. Ainsworth (Ed.), Sociology of education: An A-to-Z guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Shelley Taylor is associate professor at Western University, specializing in minority language children enrolled in various models of multilingual education. She has conducted research on French immersion in Canada, a bilingual/bicultural program in Denmark, and multilingual language education in Nepal. She was BEIS chair in 2009-2010 and edited Bilingual Basics from 2004 to 2007.