Summary
4/20/2000 meeting at Lincoln High School 8:30-11:30 AM

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John Stanford International School at Latona Elementary
Mission:  To Educate and prepare all students to achieve today 
and tomorrow in a global community and economy.
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Sandra and Michele met with JSIS teachers --
Dolly - 1st grade Spanish immersion (for next fall),
Margretta - K teacher, Lucy - 1st grade teacher --
to talk about the current K-1 Math & Science Curriculum
and identify issues for Spanish language immersion next year.

SUMMARY:

General approach we are taking:
  (1) Examine current K-1 Math & Science Curriculum at Latona.
  (2) Make sure District Math standards are aligned (and covered).
  (3) Determine what Spanish language is needed to support the content.
  (4) Identify additional Spanish language to be introduced.

Today's meeting was intended to help us with step 1.

MATH CURRICULUM

Calendar with Days of the Week - done daily in K-1
- can be done in Spanish.  Lucy uses straws for counting the days
and teaching children place value (for example, if there are 7 straws,
and they hold 3 in front, how many are behind their back?). She
asks children to explain how to figure this out in a variety of ways.
[see question 1]

The District has provided 15 CBAs (Classroom-Based Assessments)
to be used throughout the year (3 for each of the 5 Math Strands).
Teachers are expected to do at least 5 of them.  [see question 2]

*Ideas* for Math Homework
- provide insructions (letters) in both Spanish & English (so parents
can understand them)
- provide parents with a language glossary at the beginning of the
unit or quarter (i.e. with critical terms that will show up on the
Math homework assignments in Spanish)

Math Books & Materials being used:
(These are teacher resources; the students don't have a textbook.)

Kindergarten:
- "Math Excursions K"
- "Box It or Bag It Mathematics"

First grade:
- TERC - "Math Thinking at Grade 1" (with blackline masters in Spanish)
- "Math Excursions 1"
- "Math By All Means Grades 1-2" by Marilyn Burns for place value
- also some from "Box It or Bag It"

Sample Curriculum for Kindergarten Math
* Calendar (from "Box It...") - good to do every day in English & Spanish
* Buttons (from "Math Excursions K")
* Hansel & Gretel (from "Math Excursions K")
* Are You Sure It's Twenty (from "Math Excursions K")??
* Numerals (from "Box It..." chapter 14)
* Patterns (from "Box It..." chapter 13)

Sample Curriculum for 1st grade Math
* Calendar (from "Box It...") - kids do it in 1st grade with extensions (like
   straw game)
* Building Number Sense - Wild Things (from TERC)

The Latona Curriculum Map (or Time Line) outlines month-by-month
the Math topics to be covered, and indicates which Math Standards
they align with.

SCIENCE CURRICULUM

Science uses the NSF Science Kits, which include an extensive
teachers' guide (good source for needed vocabulary, concepts, and
sentence structures).  The kits are the only formal curriculum
materials.  They also use little books on specific science topics
that might be useful to have in Spanish (we were looking at one
on Clouds, for example).

Each kit includes about 16 lessons.  The teachers say they
use almost all of them.

Kindergarten kits (both are new):
* Fabrics
* Animals 2x2

1st grade kits:
* Weather
* Organisms
* Tidepools (done in conjuction with study of Australia)
* Butterflies (a Latona-developed unit, not science kit)

*Idea*  Translate and record some of the supporting books and
materials so kids could listen and read them at home.

QUESTIONS/CONCERNS:
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1.  Lucy and Margretta are concerned that the current Math curriculum
focuses a lot on asking kids to talk and write about the strategies 
they use to figure out problems.  They need lots of practice to learn
how to do this.  How will they be able to do this in Spanish?  

This brought up a philosophical question:  

a.  Will the children be allowed to answer in English (if they don't know 
how to say it in Spanish)?

b.  Can we accept that children in the Immersion Program may not
be able to communicate their problem solving strategies as early
as children would in a regular English language class?  (Will 
parents accept that their kids aren't meeting the District Standard
benchmarks in K-1 Math?)

2.  Will the District CBAs (Classroom Based Assessments) be done
in English or Spanish?  Could students choose to answer them in
English or Spanish?  (Would this be a good quality check that they're
also understanding the Math concepts in English?)

3.  What can realistically be done in Spanish with the CBAs?
What are the general District expectations?  (Is it enough to do 5?)

4.  Is it philosophically appropriate to allow English & Spanish language
in supporting materials for Science (or Math) displayed around the 
classroom?  These could include pictures or graphics, plus the Spanish
word (and the English word?).  

NEXT STEPS:

1.  Send the Questions/Concerns to Regla (and others?) for comment.

2.  Lucy and Margretta have invited Michele and Sandra to observe
their Math and Science classes to see how they teach (and use
the materials).

3.  Michele and Sandra have obtained copies of the books to review.

4.  Sandra and Michele will begin meeting with Dolly to look more 
closely at the Math curriculum for 1st grade and identify the language
components needed to support it.  

5.  Karen is checking with the District to see if there is any copyright
infringement if materials are translated into Spanish (i.e. are these
considered "derivative works").

6.  Michele is reviewing all the various curriculum planner formats
we now have gathered to see how we can create something 
compatible with the needs of JSIS Spanish immersion teachers
to include both content and language goals. 

7.  We need to reexamine the Math Standards alignment by
K-1 Math topics because the District is using a different
numbering system for the Standards now.