Election Section

In Mary Shogren’s kindergarten class at LeConte Elementary School, some students can’t understand a single word she says. Sitting on the floor with wide-eyed gazes, they stare at her as she reads a children’s book aloud. Some seem to understand everything, while others look puzzled. 

It’s what she calls the “deer-in-the-headlights” effect. They won’t look like that much longer, Shogren says.  

Most pupils in the Berkeley Unified School District prepared for their first day of school by getting pencils, backpacks and binders. Students in Shogren’s class, however, needed a lot more than a few supplies. They needed another language. 

Shogren teaches lessons almost entirely in Spanish as part of the district’s dual-immersion program, designed to make children proficient in Spanish and English by fifth grade and fluent by eighth. 

Her class includes 10 pupils whose first language is Spanish and 10 who were raised speaking English. Even though only half of the students in her class understand what she says in the beginning of the year, they all begin to comprehend basic Spanish a few months into the program, Shogren said.  

The program also allows native Spanish-speaking students to make a gradual transition to speaking English, says Carla Basom, the district’s director of state and federal projects. 

“The dual-immersion program reverses the traditional roles for the Spanish-speaking students. While the rest of their world is surrounded by a language and culture new to them, they can develop self-confidence and self-esteem in a classroom where they can help the English-speaking students learning Spanish,” Basom says.  

To keep students interested in learning, Shogren uses an animated teaching style. She makes lessons repetitive, relying heavily on pantomime and Spanish-language stories and songs students already know in English, including one of her favorites, the nursery rhyme “Eensy Weensy Spider.” 

On the first day of class this year, one of her students tried desperately (although unsuccessfully) to sing along with the teacher in Spanish, mouthing the words only a few seconds after she uttered them. Instead, he found a chance to participate more vocally when, among a barrage of Spanish words, Shogren says the name of a popular book series.  

“I have books of Clifford. I have a whole bunch of them,” he says. Shogren replies in Spanish.  

Kindergarteners receive 90 percent of instruction in Spanish and 10 percent in English. The ratio becomes more balanced as they progress through elementary school, until half of all lessons are taught in each language by the fifth grade. 

Learning a new language may be daunting for some students, half of whom have no prior knowledge of Spanish. But this year, LeConte’s administrators have appointed an on-site coordinator to improve educational services offered to dual-immersion students and their families.  

Lynda Arnold, the dual-immersion coordinator at LeConte, oversees students learning English as a second language. Her duties include meeting with students individually and in small groups, training teachers, and providing educational materials to parents—additional efforts she hopes will improve students’ reading and writing skills.  

Dual-immersion in the Berkeley school district, envisioned as a kindergarten through eighth grade program, began eight years ago. LeConte’s program, started six years ago, added a fifth class this year. About a quarter of the 320 students at LeConte participate in the program. 

Dual-immersion is also offered at Cragmont and Rosa Parks elementary schools. It has expanded to higher grades each year and is now also offered at Longfellow Middle School. The program prepares students for advanced placement Spanish courses in high school, says school district spokesman Mark Copland.  

This is the eighth in a series profiling the Berkeley elementary schools. The reports are written by students of the UC Berkeley Journalism School. 

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