Five student representatives from the Eisenhower Elementary Kindergarten Dual Language Immersion Program gave a demonstration to the Warsaw Community School Board of Trustees meeting Monday night.
Parents of incoming kindergartners have a choice to enroll their children in the traditional kindergarten classes or they may opt to enroll in the new Spanish dual language immersion program. Eisenhower offers both programs and what the students have picked up in the short time they have been in school already is quite impressive.
Instruction in the program is divided between two high quality, creative classrooms: one English, one Spanish and students enjoy the advantage of two qualified teachers.
The English-speaking teacher, Sherry Zehr, uses half of the instruction day to teach English language arts (reading, writing, and spelling) as well as other subjects of the curriculum (science, social studies, math, etc.)
The Spanish-speaking teacher, Maria Burns, uses the other half of the day to teach Spanish Literacy, mathematics, and portions of social studies, science, and health topics from the Warsaw Community Schools Curriculum.
Burns speaks only in Spanish and communicates using a range of engaging strategies including pictures, songs, games, expressions and more.
The demonstrating kindergartners practiced their shapes, colors, numbers, the calendar, classmate greetings and more for the board members with Senora Burns.
Eisenhower principal Chris Gensinger beamed as he introduced the kindergartners and briefly spoke about the program and thanked the board for their support.
According to Gensinger, by the time the students are in 3rd or 4th grade their Spanish speaking skills will be proficient enough to hold a job, such as a cashier or waiter. More importantly, the students are grasping skills to help better prepare them for the global community and job markets where a second language is an asset.
Several of students’ parents also attended the school board meeting and commended Eisenhower’s communication about how their children are doing in the program and what goes on in the classroom.
One parent even shared a story about how her daughter was able to help translate and carry on a conversation with their Spanish speaking neighbor with whom they previously could not communicate with.
